Michael Jackson's This Is It looks beyond the reconstructed face and spindly body of the late King of Pop and basks in his meteoric light.

There are tiny glints of humor and intelligence at work, and the action and animation rockets along slickly and stylishly. But unlike the protagonists of almost any and all of the Pixar titles, Astro Boy's namesake lacks even an iota of soul.

Swank is no mere impersonator. Her Amelia, like Maggie in "Million Dollar Baby," is unwavering in her gaze, ambition, and drive... In Nair's evocatively art-directed (and sensationally costumed) film, Earhart comes alive.

The film veers between cutting parody and cliche, threatening to become interesting at any moment, but never quite doing so.

I'm ripping up my Lars Von Trier fan club card.

A must-see for genre fans. Jaa in action is poetry - even in a disappointing film. Let's just hope he regains his senses for Ong Bak 3.

A satisfyingly moody, melancholy, madcap live-action romp.

That the film, directed in swift strokes by F. Gary Gray from a screenplay credited to Kurt Wimmer, doesn't really work - unrelentingly grim, unintentionally funny - is almost beside the point. It's a wild concept.

All in all, a resonant theme, poorly played.

Silva expertly maintains the tension, asking the audience to interpret Raquel's bizarro behavior. His diagnosis is a pleasant surprise.

The film is an omnibus ride through Brighton Beach, Central Park, the West Village, and Tribeca.

The story and the humor get progressively skimpier than an Ipanema bikini.

Disarming and unexpectedly poignant, An Education contrasts the knowledge learned in school with that learned from life.

The tone is surreal, at once visceral and clinical, making Bronson an unsettling experience: savage, disturbing, and yet somehow fascinating.

A pitch-perfect portrait of a man full of inspiration and ambition - and full of himself.

Although its tone is generally genial and jovial, Good Hair touches on some tricky issues, at times complicitly.

Shulman photographed buildings as if they were movie stars: He found their best angles and immortalized them.

It also boasts one of the funniest, loopiest Woody Harrelson turns in years.

Invention - a mash-up of two Jim Carrey comedies, "Liar Liar" and "Bruce Almighty" - flirts with being a one-gag pony. Shocking sincerity loses its comic impact after a while.

Whip It (which takes its name from a play in which skaters hold hands and form a human whip to propel the last skater forward) is heaven on wheels.

This unsettling, shaggy, surrealistic pillow of a movie - a mixed bag more funny-strange than ha-ha.

So little time is devoted to developing characters that it's hard to share their hopes and fears.

Maybe it's just the subtitles, but it would seem that Fontaine has a keener eye for the elements that made Chanel's style than she has an ear for dialogue. But she gets a splendid performance from Tautou.

Surrogates, which borrows tone and content freely from "I, Robot," is all windup and no pitch.

Relationships - between men and women, fathers and sons - are more complicated in real life, and The Boys Are Back deftly acknowledges that fact.

What this arid and arty exercise offers is the opportunity for a bunch of actors, many of them tethered to TV series, to deliver theatrical monologues pulsing with misogyny and narcissism. It's like second-rate Neil Labute.

An impressive, not entirely successful exercise in minimalist filmmaking.

With mixed results, Moore singles out those who profit from the misery of American workers.