A complete bust, but the ways in which it fails are interesting.

The spectacular scenery and compelling message counterbalance the somewhat plodding pace and wooden performances.

Garlin's directing has little pacing, and many of the borderline gags could have been salvaged with some sharper editing. And there's a shocking amount of jokes and situations that just don't work.

Almost everything about the movie lands with an emphatic, preordained thud.

The producers have stated that they're going after an American market that supports Spanish-language TV networks, radio stations and newspapers. This niche audience may well respond to not being required to read subtitles, for once, in a movie geared to them.

Filmgoers looking for copious amounts of mindless violence won't be disappointed.

Creative and bizarre, maybe too bizarre, but since most action films adhere to a cookie-cutter formula, its quirkiness is most welcome.

Though the script and storytelling could have used more polish, Lapica's honesty provides the lasting impression.

The real trouble is that it's supposed to be an outrageous comedy, but in fact it's fairly tame and not all that funny.

In the end, all the bitterness seems like window-dressing to disguise a trite story.

One of this year's better studies of the human soul.

Never gets the mixture right, lurching between bullet-happy shootouts and overwrought domestic content.

Only intermittently funny.

There's something painful about watching Scarlett Johansson, who looks as if she never had an indecisive moment in her life, struggle to seem ineffectual.

It's the complexity of Lurie's moral universe that makes it linger in the mind.

Grows more and more incredible leading up to a twist ending worthy of an O. Henry short story that is as appropriate as it is ridiculous.

If you want to see Li and Statham in an underwhelming martial arts film, rent "The One" instead. Li talks considerably more in that movie, but at least he punches a lot of people out.

Would have worked better if it had stuck more closely to real estate as the source and target of satire.

Hawke has created a standard-issue, Sundance-friendly indie film that's full of the predictable angst suffered by Manhattan artistic types, but unfortunately the lead characters are both so callow that you finally don't care much about them.

Though it has merit and is recommended for the curious and adventurous, Joe Swanberg's film wears out its welcome about halfway through its 83 minutes. I'd say it doesn't go anywhere, but that's the point of these movies.

For pure laughs, for the experience of just sitting in a chair and breaking up every minute or so, Superbad is 2007's most successful comedy.

The humor manages to be simultaneously sophisticated, supremely silly and very dark.

There's some serious food for thought here.

Connects on a gut level in two ways, political and existential.

As impressive as it is geeky. Most of the principal characters look like they haven't seen daylight since "Pac-Man Fever" was on the charts.

Wonderfully giddy meditation on the nature of fame.

Better than its promotional description: "A stir-fried journey of self-discovery" - but not by much.

Perhaps the most promising thing in 2 Days in Paris is that Delpy shows that she can direct herself.

Rocket Science has the makings of either a tragedy or a crowd-pleasing underdog story, but writer-director Jeffrey Blitz instead takes the movie on a different, and ultimately more rewarding, direction.

It works primarily because of the chemistry between Chan and Tucker, which is at its combustible best this time out.

Unlike "Pirates," Stardust is anything but a wretched mess. It's a charming and smartly plotted fantasy.

Too predictable, but kids should like it.

A thoughtful, satisfying action thriller.

Fundamentalists might take umbrage, but The Ten is not so much blasphemous as it is very silly, and it lives up to the one unbendable commandment of comedy: It's funny.

Its weaknesses are clumsy plotting and a less-than-satisfying ending.

While often cliche ridden and preposterous, it's too busy and loud to put anyone to sleep.

Just funny enough.

The film doesn't make a case for Lavoe as an important artist.

The most coolheaded of the Iraq war documentaries, the most methodical and the least polemical. Yet it's the one that will leave audiences the most shattered, angry and astounded.

A whimsical but flat-footed attempt to account for several lost months in the life of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known to the world as Molière.

It takes a winning recipe and adds some distinctly Hollywood flavors...The result is a botched job.

No one will be bored with the feature film... but everyone who knows the show well will have a nagging feeling that something is missing.

The script and direction are virtually flawless.

Makes an unpersuasive case that humans are to blame for the shrinking ice caps.

An exceptionally powerful film driven by contradictory forces.

An oddly structured tale about Francisco Goya and the Spain that he lived and worked in.

Movie magic.

Despite the fact that the movie covers some new cinematic territory, much of the humor feels recycled, mostly from the "Seinfeld" episodes "The Boyfriend" (the one where Jerry has a man crush on Keith Hernandez) and "The Outing."

Directed by Danny Boyle, it lacks even a single moment of charm or interest.

There is an affecting story within first-time filmmaker Fay Ann Lee's Falling for Grace, but it is merely a subplot, one among too many that decorate this thin, unsatisfying romantic comedy-drama.

A modest chamber piece enriched by its affecting human harmonies and overtones.

Despite the fact that both protagonists are equally appalling, the screenplay seems to have a soft spot for the woman. However, this doesn't take away from the fun of watching the two characters tear each other to pieces.

Along the way, My Best Friend offers insights into the emotional and psychological components of both friendliness and friendship. They're not synonymous, though both have value.

A potentially great movie winds up buried inside a just OK one.

Taken as a motion picture, the new "Harry" comes up short. But taken as a visual aid to the experience of reading a book, the new "Harry" does its job.

So what's wrong with Joshua? Two things: The audience is ahead of the movie, and the movie never catches up.

Among the many strengths of the sweetly touching Introducing the Dwights, a small gem from Australia unearthed at the Sundance Film Festival, is that Jean never becomes Godzilla.

An old-fashioned prisoner-of-war movie that becomes much more because of writer-director Werner Herzog's admiration for the remarkable true story of its protagonist, Dieter Dengler.

Even more ridiculous than it sounds.

There's bad, there's awful and there's horrible, and then somewhere beyond that, in its own Kingdom of Lousy -- where all the milk curdles and the jokes aren't funny -- is License to Wed, the latest ghastly exercise starring Robin Williams.

Ratatouille is a classic.

Sicko will scare people, and it probably should.

The constant shifting between today and years ago is, in and of itself, powerful.

Vitus is likable enough and definitely suitable entertainment for young people willing to read subtitles.

Either Live Free or Die Hard will go down as the summer's best action blockbuster, or it's going to be one exceptional summer.

This is the old stuff, the good stuff, the tried-and-true stuff of shrewdly accomplished audience manipulation.

A limp, slow-moving and desperately unfunny comedy.

Heart-wrenching film.

Never very frightening, but it's clever and fun, with a memorable amount of humor and gore.

Broken English doesn't break any code or offer original insights on the subject. But there's a spark whenever Posey and Poupaud are together.

As the title character in Lady Chatterley, Marina Hands does the most persuasive job of feigning sexual pleasure since Jane Fonda in "Coming Home."

You Kill Me is pretty light, but it's well made, and within the built-in limitations of its story -- a hit man goes to Alcoholics Anonymous -- it's fairly pleasing.

A good bio of any historical character has to have a compelling story, whether evil or good. Klimt appears to have had that story. I sure would have liked to know what it was.

Leaves its audience with many troubling questions. Among them: Should a film console us with its own brilliance when it aims to discomfit us with its content?

One of the most enjoyable pictures of the season.

The mystery of Nancy Drew' is how a movie can get so many things right -- particularly the inspired casting of Emma Roberts as the spunky teenage sleuth -- yet ultimately disappoint.

Sounds great and if nothing else should help diminish the stereotype, blasted by the film's subjects, of Gypsies as little more than pickpockets whom travelers need to be wary of.

Visually, the film is a stunner, dotted with psychedelic colors and many shades of red -- one battle is fought with red laser-gun sights -- some looking realistically like blood. When gangsters open fire, their falls are choreographed like a ballet. The problem comes when the cast opens its mouth and Elizabethan dialogue tumbles out.

A satisfying story of a grand-scale swindle, but it also retains the impishness and charm of "Ocean's Twelve." Even better, it solves the Roberts problem in the most thorough and economical way possible: She's not in the movie.

Basically torture porn.

The entertaining new film from Sony Pictures Animation is a nice surprise, and the rare mainstream American kid film.

A feverish, unremitting and grimly joyless film.

It's a movie that seems simple, yet its subtle and brilliant complexity is not to be denied.

Knocked Up has some rough edges, but it's a noteworthy film by a significant and blossoming talent.

Sporadic on-field violence is only a tiny reason that Gracie disappoints, but it's indicative of the film's greater problem. Producers Elisabeth and Andrew Shue seem so intent on creating a hero out of the main character and villains out of almost everyone else, that they've completely distorted reality.

The appeal of Mr. Brooks is as obvious as it is hard to resist: Kevin Costner as a serial killer.

It leaves one feeling queasy about human nature.

While the sequel to "Night Watch" is an imperfect film, it's always interesting.

Offers another way into these complex indigenous people, through storytelling as haunting as their artwork.

A peculiar little film -- grim and disturbing yet perversely riveting.

A triumph for Judd and the director.

Has no narrative throughline, no emotional spine. It's a mess.

The overall experience of the movie is of something fresh.

It's not a film for children, and it's not even something children would like. It's challenging and disturbing and uncanny in the ways it captures the nature of dreams -- their odd logic, mutability and capacity to hint at deepest terrors.

Steel City makes a valiant attempt to add some new tweaks to the genre best described as life-sucks-growing-up-in-a-mill-town.

It's a modest and mildly funny effort, with good scenes and touches of incisive satire, but it's not quite funny enough, and it's undermined by its camera technique.

Gets back the mood, the pleasure and even some of the freshness of its first installment.

An entertaining film that's true to its world.