Think of how M. Night Shyamalan redefined the ghost story (The Sixth Sense), the superhero creation myth (Unbreakable), and the alien-invasion epic (Signs)--and you may get a sense of the genius behind this fascinating new horror film.

If the film's love triangle feels a little silly and the arch-villains a little over the top, it's all secondary to del Toro's passionate immersion in Hellboy.

Suffocatingly boring.

Feels more practical than whimsical, more politically correct than sweep-you-off-your-feet romantic.

Short on story, character, and attempts to win viewers' emotional investment, the film only seems to take a breath when The Rock is making the baddies lose theirs.

Beautiful, lyrical, but not in the least bit wimpy. [May 2004, p. 18]

Absence of motive makes the movie provocative; the explanation renders it irrelevant and defuses any interesting debate the film might have inspired.

Jersey Girl may have come from his soul, but it contradicts the charm of a Kevin Smith movie.

It really is a masterpiece--von Trier's first, as it happens.

I wonder if there was a point in the making of this film at which Hickenlooper might have realized he picked the wrong subject. [May 2004, p. 18]

A wildly imaginative, hugely entertaining tour de force that asks big questions about life and love and fate while never ceasing to fully engage the viewer.

Sexy, stylish, and legitimately suspenseful.

An amply entertaining tale of survival terror, fully realizing the epicness of Romero's vision by infecting every wide-angled overhead shot with as many computer-generated cadavers as possible, and bridging tense moments with a laugh-aloud, plucky wit.

It’s tempting to summarize this Irish picture as a working-class version of "Love Actually," and indeed, the hardscrabble lives of most of its amorously unfulfilled characters go a long way in making it a whole lot less emetic than Richard Curtis’s hugfest.

While the canine is a scene stealer, the movie is a dog.

Secret Window's premise is certainly new, even if King appears to be plagiarizing themes from himself.

Bergman wants the viewer to empathize more with the characters’ perseverance than their pain, and he pulls it off, thanks to his sharp eye, compassion, and humor, and of course to the performances. [March 2004, p. 26]

Vince Vaughn is terrific as the baddie.

Mortensen proves once again that he’s an able, even intuitive performer, more compelling speaking Lakota Sioux than many others in plain English.

The Broken Lizard guys don't so much send up a genre as inhabit it, and subvert it from the inside.

Laughably clichéd, abominably written, astonishingly dreadful attempt at a psycho-sexual thriller.

Reveals more about the German people through sentimental comedy than such overtly political films as "The Nasty Girl" or "The Marriage of Maria Braun."

As a meditation of American life, Greendale is anything but coherent, but it is fluidly free-associative and shows bizarre wit, as when Young himself shows up to play Wayne Newton. [March 2004, p. 27]

From my perspective, the film's anti-Semitism is implicit rather than programmatic, and, in the film's current form, a little sneaky.

In the end, it's not the answer to the kitchen mystery that matters but the revelation that there's ultimately no difference between this bachelor scientist and his bachelor subject.

The premise of the film is serviceable, but the execution is flawed and entirely underwhelming.

Offers a charming distraction from the current campaign season by sidestepping real issues and making light of the process.

The film feels like a natural successor to "The Wedding Singer's" strange blend of humor and humanity, a gently silly comedy that's actually romantic without making anyone sick in the process. And that just might be a first.