Can a film so expertly capture the odious and bitter that it becomes deliciously, disgustingly beautiful? Yes, if that film is 1957's Sweet Smell of Success.

Teems with pot smoke, body parts and profane outbursts -- you ride a giggly wave throughout, jokes and turn-ons and shocking sights alternating in buoyant fashion.

Its breeziness keeps it from ever being completely bland or flat.

While there are some glittery bits in it, the film is frustrating, cluttered, inelegant and garish.

The film's soldiers are more the mom-and-apple-pie, God-fearing lads of World War II movies than the cynical grunts of "Platoon" (1986) and "Full Metal Jacket" (1987).

Though exploring, among other things, fallibility, homosexuality, injustice and loss, the picture seems afraid to really make any kind of strong statement, whether political or psychological.

Strictly for boys -- grown-up boys -- the more boyish and less grown-up the better.

It's frustrating and still oddly likable.

A by-the-numbers recipe that ought to have shot off at least a few sparks, is as drab as the inmates' prison blues.

Nothing near a modern vampire classic. Still, "Queen" is a great dose of vamp camp

Gives just enough to forgive any of its initial flaws and eventually grows on you.

A nitwit script, full of pedestrian dialogue and building to a laughable climax, dooms the picture.

Among the film's highlights are an interview with Grand Wizard Theodore, who is generally uncontested in his claim to have invented the idea of scratching vinyl.

Washington can't save a picture that spends so much time worrying about a heart that it loses its head.

Until it goes off the rails in its final 10 or 15 minutes, Wendigo, Larry Fessenden's spooky new thriller, is a refreshingly smart and newfangled variation on several themes derived from far less sophisticated and knowing horror films.

Has two other notable things going for it: the brilliant Christopher Walken and a soundtrack packed with songs by the drippy power ballad band Bad Company.

A movie of such rank stupidity and appalling taste.

A disappointing venture. If only it had been more clever, perhaps darker.

Utterly thrilling and enthralling, a commercial film that paces itself wonderfully, never allowing the action or romance to outweigh its story and characters. For mainstream adventure fare, that's quite an accomplishment.

Despite moments of atmospheric tension and a core of compelling mystery, the film feels remote, cold and, oddly, obvious.

It's a yawn for the most part, depending on dull characters and uninvolving twists.

Scott superbly re-creates the sense of individuals facing astounding odds, with barely a few minutes' respite over a 12-hour battle.

An old-fashioned romantic adventure film strongly acted, ably directed and written with stolid sobriety, the film feels, save for a few moments of verbal or physical intensity, as if it could have been made 60 years ago with Ingrid Bergman in the lead.

This isn't an ordinary film built on a remarkable performance; it's a poor one with a gem at its core. Penn can elevate it to mediocrity, but he cannot make it fly.

It's a film in which complex issues are boiled down to human essences, not so much simplified as dramatized in the very best way.

For all Smith's dedication and Mann's abilities, Ali remains a figure too big for even the big screen to contain.

Stays engaging, chiefly, through the textured, ambiguous performances of Spacey, Moore and Dench.

America's favorite romantic comedian is miscast in Kate & Leopold -- a disappointment with the warm and charming Jackman around.