As preposterous wannabe Hitchcockian thrillers go, this one is adequate.

Cast against type is Amy Adams. Normally tabbed for sweet and innocent roles, Adams here dons the persona of a confrontational bitch.

As a melding of new techniques and technology with old-fashioned methods of storytelling, it's an opportunity for the Magic Kingdom to remind audiences that, when it comes to putting fairy tales on screen, they remain on a higher level.

A small group of viewers will find in Burlesque a gem to treasure for years to come. It's a bad movie lover's wet dream. For the average multiplex stalker, however, it exists somewhere between inconsequential and a waste of time, so that's where I'll peg it.

Ultimately, the plot (irrespective of how faithful it is to real life) isn't the problem - it's the unevenness with which co-directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (both making their directorial debuts) approach it that limits the film's success and mutes the experience of sitting through it.

Despite providing an opportunity to spend 147 minutes in the company of people we have grown to know and love over the years and advancing the narrative toward its final cataclysmic confrontation, The Deathly Hallows Part One underachieves. At a time when Harry Potter should be soaring to new heights, it remains curiously grounded.

A dull, meandering storyline and visuals all-but destroyed by a second-rate 3-D conversion make this movie inferior to its predecessors.

The film, although deeply flawed, is at times compelling, even if it seems as if a reel is missing.

The look and feel of Black Swan, which captures the essence of a major New York ballet production, is one of Aronofsky's great successes.

Offers enough suspense to make it worth the price of admission.

Just plain bad. Boring. Unwatchable.

At times Client 9 feels frustratingly incomplete. Gibney hints at a conspiracy among Spitzer's enemies but is unable to fully substantiate this thesis.

The film is at its best when it is at its most goofy, at times coming close to the laugh-aloud outrageousness of Will Ferrell's "Anchorman."

This is a fascinating story of determination and survival that deserves to be told. It is ultimately uplifting but it's tough going to get to that point.

An entertaining thriller. That said, it's the weakest of the films, falling a length or two behind "The Girl Who Played with Fire," and considerably more than that with respect to "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."

Monsters works not because of its representation of alien creatures or its somewhat derivative back story but because of the atypical manner in which it approaches the character-based narrative.

The clumsy and obvious byproduct of the financial success of its predecessor last Halloween, this movie has no reason for existing except to provide Paramount Pictures with a few extra shekels.

Hereafter is a fascinating, absorbing motion picture, but will work only for those willing to surrender to the story as it unspools at its own deliberate rate.

The strongest, most consistent performance is provided by Sam Rockwell, who displays a wide and convincing range of emotions.

The craftsmanship is impeccable as is the acting, but the storytelling is where the movie falls down.

It's a lot of fun and, because of the high quality of the cast, there's no need to feel guilty about praising such an inherently silly motion picture.

The story as a whole seems stale and overly familiar.

Cloying and at times annoying, Life as We Know It is egregiously manipulative, whoring itself out for a few unearned tears.

Whether this is an accurate depiction of how things are in real life, I cannot say, but it's almost always how they are in the movies.

One aspect of Let Me In that makes this motion picture unique is the sense of pathos underlying the various relationships.

Eisenberg, one of those young actors who has existed just below the radar for several years now (he was the lead in both "Zombieland" and "Adventureland," not to be confused with one another), deserves an Oscar for this dead-on portrayal of a temperamental genius.

Taken as a whole, Freakonomics feels almost like an extended episode of 60 Minutes with a lot of childish animation and some awkward connecting sequences.

The movie works not because of twists and switchbacks in the narrative, but because of the skill with which Cortés has conceived this singularly disturbing nightmare.