The Simpsons is interested in being a family film, although this is one of those rare animated occasions when adults are the primary audience. I, for one, couldn't be happier.

The story is engaging and McCary provokes an emotional response with his careful and nuanced handling of the main character’s mindset and situation.

By turns sad, frightening, and inspirational, the movie is impeded only by the difficulty of bridging the 25-year span between segments and accepting the older lead (Dev Patel) as a replacement for his younger self (Sunny Pawar).

It's almost unfair to make the comparison because there are so many fundamental differences, but the closest recent movie to Romance and Cigarettes is "Moulin Rouge." The key likeness is easy to spot: the characters spontaneously break into familiar pop songs.

Sweet and light. It's a celebration of cultural diversity and an affirmation that, despite differences in race, religion, and societal norms, people are essentially the same.

Fair Play is a tidy, engaging thriller. It asks questions about the male ego and some of the difficulties faced by women ascending the ladder of power in a traditionally male-dominated field. But, although the movie has a message, it isn’t about the message. Instead, this is a tragic love story that devolves into something darker and, although it doesn’t qualify as a white-knuckle sort of movie, it exerts a magnetism that’s difficult to turn away from.

Anything Else may not be the second coming of "Annie Hall," but it has more wit and substance than almost every post-college romance that sees the inside of a projection booth.

Miracle is inspirational and uplifting -- qualities we are as much in need of today as we were during the winter of 1980.

This is a great two-hour motion picture. Unfortunately, it runs 20 minutes longer than that.

As a means to bring a classic novel to the attention of a modern audience, McGrath's Nicholas Nickleby is a success.

What Dreams May Come has the sensibilities of an art film placed into a big-budget feature with an A-list cast.

With its appealing blend of animated comedy, romance, and adventure, Shrek 2 follows the formula of its predecessor while maintaining enough originality not to come across as a direct copy.

An incomplete memoir with spotty character development, but, in part because of the way it was filmed and in part because of the strength of the cast, it's still an effective entertainment.

The Devil's Advocate is a highly-enjoyable motion picture that's part character study, part supernatural thriller, and part morality play.

Although there are times when the story loses its focus (mostly during the scattershot and occasionally confusing second half), the overall impression is one of satisfaction and the animation is better than anything to emerge from Japan since Miyazaki “retired.”

Philip Seymour Hoffman is in fine form as a man teetering on the edge.

It offers genuine scares and chills without the self-aware, packaged feel of many horror/thriller films.

It's better than most dramas showing in multiplexes.

Ransom isn't a bad thriller, it's just not a great one. There's a little too much pointless running around, a subplot that leads nowhere, and a certain creeping predictability that argues for a shorter running length.

One possible misstep along the way is Willem Dafoe’s narration – it’s too wordy for the material and doesn’t quite work. Still, that’s a minor quibble about an otherwise dead-on portrait of a lost soul who may never quite find herself but who makes an uneasy peace with what the world has made of her.

Top Gun: Maverick is one of those rare breeds: a sequel that’s better than the original.

While the sluggish beginning and ending mar this Star Trek outing somewhat, there's still enough here to please fans of the series, and, to a lesser extent, movie-goers in general.

Winter's Bone is a welcome reminder that thrillers don't have to be loud and boisterous to grab the attention and keep it captive.

Although at times fictionalized to make for a more cinematic retelling, the movie is largely accurate and rigorously avoids exploitation.

Although narrative aspects of A Good Person occasionally veer into areas that are either cliched or artificial, many individual scenes are effective (at times powerful).

May be the best family movie of the 2002 summer film-going season. There's a simple reason for this - the picture seems to have been put together with the recognition that some members of the audience may be above the age of ten.

I don’t for a moment believe the film has widespread, mainstream appeal (hence the decision of Disney-owned Searchlight Pictures to bypass theatrical distribution in favor of a Hulu premiere) but for those who enjoy stews that mix warped comedy with twisted horror, it hits the spot.

Sex Drive's first 30 minutes may lead one to suspect there's nothing new to be seen here, but it undergoes a transformation once the preliminaries have been dispensed with. John Hughes would be pleased - and so also might Judd Apatow.