A notable, worthwhile picture.

A lively experience.

If Public Enemies lacks anything, it's something audiences can't legitimately expect to find: a certain EXTRA something.

Will satisfy its young fan base and is bound to make a ton of money. At this point, though, the series is no longer an artistic pursuit; it's a business deal.

This one enters the pantheon of great American war films.

Has a gutsy premise, but no guts.

A remarkable documentary.

Now that she's past 50, can we all stop holding Michelle Pfeiffer's looks against her and just admit that she's a great actress?

The sum is difficult to watch. But this isn't a film against Islam or religion in general: A clear distinction is made between Allah's more vicious followers and the mercy of Allah himself.

The most enjoyable way to watch Surveillance - "enjoyable," in the relative sense - is to take its awfulness for granted and pay attention to everything Bill Pullman does.

A well-oiled, loudly revving summer action vehicle that does all that's required, and then some, within the confines of PG-13: It cracks genitalia jokes, messes around with toys and blows stuff up.

The result is Allen's weakest film in years.

The premise of The Proposal is one big cliche.

Year One has one joke, but it's a good one, played for many variations over the course of an often very funny comedy.

It's an entertaining, depressing and ultimately hopeful movie about the times we live in.

We may not get to argue both sides of the debate, but Under Our Skin stirs the deepest emotions and reveals the most unsettling truth: We're all vulnerable to a tick bite, sure, but it's the health care system that really gets us in the end.

Moon is boring. Agonizingly, deadeningly, coma-inducingly, they-could-bury-you-alive-accidentally boring.

A mind-boggling, heart-rending, stomach-churning expose on the food industry.

Has all the usual virtues of a good action suspense drama, but it lacks that extra something - that context, that vital interchange - that made the original "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" such a memorable experience in 1974.

The plot turns distasteful and shrill before its tidy resolution at the close.

Superb new documentary.

A beautiful film.

The movie is alive from beginning to end, and it's a pleasure to see at least one big-name director get out of the prison of his own reputation.

The funniest movie so far this year.

It's a movie about a scrubwoman who paints - so don't expect lots of sex scenes or car chases. Just expect a great performance by Moreau, who will convince you that she painted every one of those paintings - and lived them all before she painted them.

One can almost feel the movie Away We Go might have been, if only we could believe that Verona loves Burt - or understand why Burt loves Verona.

The result is eight times as strange and exponentially more potty-mouthed than the original series.

A cliché movie about love, orneriness and several maddening tourists.

Ill conceived and unworthy (and dull and ridiculous).

The director's most painfully slow movie yet.

This easygoing movie fully captures the couple's charm and offers a unique look at the '60s and '70s New York art scene.

A compelling documentary.

Has some great movie moments but also boring stretches.

If you can stomach the projectile-sputum gags and stapled-eyelid attack scene, it's hilarious.

The film is far from perfect but has enough going on to compensate for its excessive length and some sentimentality.

Succeeds by placing us in an interesting world with characters who are impossible not to root for.

The smartest thing director Steven Soderbergh did in the making of The Girlfriend Experience was to cast Sasha Grey.

The strangeness, humor and melancholy of aging are deftly explored in this film.

Gets better as it goes along.

Some of the results are delightfully loopy. Some are cornball.

It's surprising how dated some of the humor is.

The result is an excellent film - entertaining and informative and sometimes stunning in its display of the personal demons shared by these two geniuses.

When Christian Bale allowed himself to play Bruce Wayne in "Batman Begins," he was slumming - and to good effect. But with Terminator Salvation, this ostensibly serious actor takes up residence in the action ghetto, and it's not a good fit.

The most compelling footage was taken during the uprising of August and September 2007, which put a bad scare into the government because a large number of Buddhist monks played a prominent role.

Audiences watch Summer Hours and then, a week later, remember it as though they've lived it.

Emotionally, The Brothers Bloom hasn't a trace of detachment or cynicism. Even if you don't quite comprehend the ending (there seem to be 12 of them), you'll still feel the wallop of its consequences.

Preposterous.

But the film written, directed and starring stand-up comic Hitoshi Matsumoto has, like most superheroes, a tragic flaw: It isn't funny.

This is a movie made by and for adults, and adults should consider seeing it.

Painless and predictable, with an amusing if overwrought featured performance by Woody Harrelson.

Adoration, despite a family resemblance to some of his finest work ("The Sweet Hereafter," "Ararat"), is Egoyan at his worst. The movie is slow and airless, with a script so weak one wonders why Egoyan bothered to film it.

Goes to all the places a sensitive character study might have gone, but more dramatically, convincingly and vividly.

Director Paul Morrison ("Wondrous Oblivion") nicely re-creates the period, but puts too much weight on the sexual relationship as determining the men's artistic courses.

This movie could really use an Avon Barksdale, but even actor Wood Harris, who played drug kingpin Barksdale in "The Wire," seems a bit lost.

A powerful new documentary that addresses the issue of "hypocritical" male politicians.

At its best, the effect is like seeing life panoramically, past and future, simultaneous and magnificent.

The result is that rare movie specimen, a completely intentional, expertly guided work of art that fails almost completely.

An extraordinary film, mythic in feeling.

Credit the director for one thing. He could have stretched it to three hours, but he gets in and out of this mess in less than two.

The plot is an obvious parable for modern dilemmas, yet in the hands of the film's creators, and with their graceful use of 3-D, viewers feel as if they're watching how the future might actually unfold, glimpsing a conflict that's destined to take place 300 years from now.

Has some laughs - more than a few thanks to Michael Douglas as a dead swinger (the movie's Jacob Marley) - and some moments of tenderness, too.

A movie that doesn't quite have enough romance, thriller or revenge-fantasy elements to qualify for any of those genres. More than anything, it's a celebration of uncomfortable silences. The awkward moments in this movie far outweigh the joyful or tragic ones.

While recognizably Ceylan's work, is more of a genre piece - a noirish suspense film - and less successful.

Has an air of detachment and sadness, enhanced by the movie's being set a full quarter century ago.

In a genre where too many films are all brawn and no brain, Fighting is a contender.

We see the tormented, limited and potentially dangerous man underneath.

For all its sensitivity to the horrors of mental illness, The Soloist ends up as a fairly canned piece of work.

Part road trip, part music lesson, follows virtuoso musician Béla Fleck on a trip through Africa to reclaim the banjo's roots. It's an entertaining journey, and director Sascha Paladino injects humor and pathos into the musical sequences.

Toback has found a documentary subject as tragic and ridiculous, as bizarre and driven, as the heroes of his other films.

For adults, Earth misses the mark of riveting storytelling. Earth crams in the dramatic adventures of several species (including penguins) - with the result that it comes up short on telling one really good story.

A minimalist masterpiece.

For about 115 minutes, State of Play tells an alarming, tightly constructed story, with serious things to say about journalism and the state of the country. The movie appears to be all but over - and likely to stand as one of the best films of 2009. And then the filmmakers add one last embellishment, and they blow it.

Often silly but it's an honest, unselfconscious exploration of the conflict between a man's physical and psychological age.

An ideal movie for an ideal time in America.

The film is as much about the creation of the original show back in 1975 and the genius of the late Michael Bennett, who masterminded it, as it is about the newer version.

Requires us to repress any thoughts about stale material and keep Caine's heartfelt performance front and center.

The story, based on a real incident, may be simplistic, but that's the nature of fables.

Anvil lives somewhere in that thoroughly entertaining gray area between self-parody and the triumph of human spirit.

If you're no longer old enough to carry a Hannah Montana lunch box, this movie will feel like punishment.

Earnest but unconvincing film.

Funnier than the silliest comedy because it's surprisingly real.

A charming if unoriginal coming-of-age story.

This film makes you wonder why aren't there more young love movies?

A gripping look at the immigrant experience, with small moments as important - and visually arresting - as any on the baseball diamond.

Retro escapist fun.

The movie is ridiculous.

Inert, incompetent and emotionally fraudulent.

A little like spending the holidays with strangers. The spirits are high, the relationships are warm, the personal stories have a shared history, and even though you're on the outside of things, you appreciate the people in a remote and perhaps admiring sort of way. Still, when it's time to leave, you're not sorry.

Sparrows is a kind of cinematic fable. At times funny, sad, poignant and suspenseful, Sparrows is a showcase for Majidi's masterful storytelling - and Naji's superb acting.

It must be fun to make a film about a con artist when the con artist is a full and willing participant, literally going to the ends of the Earth to prove she is the real deal.

A tender, unforgettable comedy about a vanishing way of life.

Almost frighteningly alive.

The movie is reasonably entertaining, though it helps to be 6 years old.

Contains so many insults to the audience's intelligence.

As soon as Guest of Cindy Sherman ended, I wanted to see it again for its high entertainment value and to determine better what I had just witnessed.

An engaging romantic comedy that's deeper, smarter and more pessimistic than it appears at first glance, a film with shrewd insight into the mysteries of human attraction.

If you see only one bad movie this year, definitely make it Knowing. The first major disappointment from director Alex Proyas is a disaster movie, a horror picture, a "Da Vinci Code"-style thriller and an end-of-days religious film all at once.

There are some brief minutes when the tension drops and the story starts to sag, but Fukunaga almost always fills the frame with something worth seeing, and the story has a built-in suspense.