flat and disappointing.

Reaches truly terrifying heights as it becomes clear how possible the worst outcome can be. Like "Pan's Labyrinth," this is a movie about children made very much for adults.

It's first-rank filmmaking, through and through, even if it struggles to find closure.

Freeman and Nicholson mostly stand in front of special-effects green screens and have the locales projected, like they're in a "Road" picture.

If I had to pick one word to describe The Great Debaters, it would be "nutritious."

You can learn about the grand shifts of history from Persepolis, but you learn about a handful of lives as well.

You don't often hear critics gripe that a movie isn't long or explicit enough, but Sorkin and Nichols could have gone the extra lap or so to show that Wilson's saga is more than just a story of a good ol' boy accidentally pulling off a remarkable coup; it's a sobering account of the geopolitical hijinks that gave shape to our current world.

On a week when many people just want a good reason to put down their packages and smile for a couple of hours, P.S. I Love You arrives -- signed, sealed and delivered just on time.

They've made a movie-movie of Sweeney Todd, and if you've got the stomach and ear for it, you'll be grateful.

It should be noted that Walk Hard is aimed at a fairly specific sort of movie subgenre -- it's practically an extended "SNL" sketch -- and it doesn't produce belly laughs so much as steady smiles of recognition over how accurately it's nailing its target. But it really nails that target.

A surprisingly fatalistic, way-above-average ski documentary that lays out a 35-year history of the "extreme" end of the sport.

I Am Legend has one undeniably cool thing about it, namely the vision of Manhattan as a semi-feral wasteland.

In the main, this is powerful and comely filmmaking, and the decision to shoot it with virtually unknown actors and a variety of unfamiliar tongues is commendable.

Tt is a comeback, and if it leads the director to better work, it can be forgiven as a warm-up.

This moronic yuletide time-waster might work as a way to grab a few winks at the mall during last-minute shopping, but it's not going to end up as a highlight on the resume of anyone involved.

All this star power goes for naught in Traeger's film, which tries to blend bucolic sweetness with juvenile let's-make-a-porno jokes.

A handsome film, an earnest film, a film with taste in music and photography and a real sense of intelligence. But too often it feels like an exercise. And even when you're impressed by it, you know you're being played.

While it's hard to dismiss his intention or effort, Harrelson's one-note performance sinks the film.

Although it contains crime and absurdity, it's not thrilling or funny and the title doesn't refer to a gun.

A funny and sincere indie about what happens when an acerbic teen finds herself "in a fat suit I can't take off."

Mathieu Amalric, best known as an arms dealer in "Munich." In a role that strips him entirely of vanity and denies him virtually every expressive tool, Amalric makes a genuinely touching impression.

The film has a dreary, worn quality; much of it is set in winter in Buffalo, N.Y., after all. You know before long that the best you can hope for is that these folks won't kill each other or themselves.

Fact is, Starting Out is pretty dry stuff as a movie, even as it's enlivened by vivid acting.

The dialogue is dippy. And there's no real suspense: The filmmakers are so deadly earnest about the power of music and love and all that stuff, you just twiddle your thumbs waiting for the inevitable.

Seeing Hitman isn't like playing a video game or even like watching someone else play a video game. It's like watching someone stupid play a bad video game.

This film insists on being taken on its own terms -- the sort of demand, in other words, that defines the best art.

In the parlance of the kids today, the movie totally goes there.

For the record, it's truly puzzling that this film has been rated PG-13; it's much stronger than that. The monsters of "Beowulf" have haunted human imagination for more than a millennium; the ones in this film will easily provoke a few nightmares.