Mostly meets expectations.

This is the heart-rending true story of a man with a seemingly benign preoccupation that turned into something close to madness and brought him to a terrible end.

Only partly successful.

It's an apocalyptic ghost story with some eerie images and a surprising turn toward the end, but it bogs down considerably between the good scenes.

An inventive, black comedy.

An unflinching look at the ravages of substance abuse, and it's also a sobering redemptive tale.

Although the documentary is ostensibly about these girls and their friendship, training and school life, a healthy chunk of it is a portrait of the two families.

In stiff competition for the lamest thing ever put on celluloid.

A study of middle-class, middle-aged disappointment in its varying forms, a sober look at different life choices.

A rare, sumptuous movie treat.

Has more in common with a horror movie than with a genuine political work.

A superior adventure film with a poetic heart.

If there's any justice at all at next year's Academy Awards, we have our first can't-miss nominee for best supporting actress: Amy Adams.

At times quite powerful.

Cusack should have been half the picture, but the screenplay keeps shoving him offstage for no good reason, and it's a mistake. One of many.

The film is so harmless, and the young actors try so hard, that it's difficult not to have some fun.

It's astonishing what little impact even the most imaginatively choreographed and well-filmed aerial escapades can have when they're presented as neither an expression of a character's personality, nor in the context of a compelling mission.

A one-joke documentary stretched, with surprising success, to full length.

A visual poem.

Sweet, funny, sad and profound -- the sort of film that becomes more remarkable when you realize it's based on someone's real life.

One of the best Hong Kong films of 2002.

A tough internal struggle must take place before one can come forward and admit enjoying The Devil's Rejects, a movie so fundamentally horrible that even its creator has to admit he's basically made a 101-minute snuff film.

So much love went into Hustle & Flow that it almost glows with it.

The movie is more about how many things Michael Bay can smash up -- lots. That might not be a talent most people respect, but it gets through to people anyway, and here Bay does it exceptionally well.

In a blind taste test, I couldn't possibly have identified this as a Linklater movie, and he's a filmmaker I generally like. If anything, Bad News Bears shows that Linklater can get in and out of a movie like a cat burglar, without leaving his fingerprints anywhere. OK, he's proven it. He need never do that again.

This disappointing new film from director Michael Winterbottom ("24 Hour Party People") suffers from a similar malaise: It's poetic and pretty, strives for profundity without attaining it, and finally ends up saying nothing.

It could have been something substantial.

In trouble from its first minutes.

Brower's legacy, however, is beyond question. Historian Starr calls him "an American hero," and though Brower was a prickly sort and a zealot, that judgment sounds right.

Lacks the finesse of other puzzle films.

If all the laughs come from Depp, who gives Willy the mannerisms of a classic Hollywood diva, the film's heart comes from Highmore, a gifted young performer who had a leading role in "Finding Neverland." His performance is sincere, deep and unforced in a way that's rare in a child actor.

Unfortunately, the inspired concept is coupled with weak screenwriting, and the movie turns out to be much more fun to think about than it is to watch.

Extremely pleasurable and well worth seeing.

It's a compelling minimalist drama about spiritual evolution, with strong performances and exotic locations.

A fairly well-made film, reasonably directed by Eran, and it is a plea for women's rights as the Middle East gradually transitions from a tradition-bound society to a modern one.

A beautifully shot and edited film that treats its subjects fairly.

If you're the type who doesn't go to art-house films , Murderball should be your exception. It's hard to imagine anyone could walk away from this movie disappointed.

If only the explanation and resolution of the action were more compelling, Dark Water might have been a thriller of the first order.

They take on special powers that the filmmakers are incapable of making interesting, partly because the characters are ciphers, and partly because the story is listless and uninventive.

Bergman has not gone soft, not emotionally, philosophically and certainly not artistically. This is as tough a film as he has ever made.

Cronicas has a cracking good plot, a central moral issue and John Leguizamo speaking Spanish. What more does a film need?

Won the Golden Spire Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival a few years back, and now, finally, the documentary is being released into theaters. It's a film with distinct virtues: It tells a fascinating story.

An entirely unconventional, hypnotic, meandering film.

Even without surprises, or drama, or clever dialogue, or even a single scene of any merit, Rebound goes along pleasantly.

A good French film that was inspired by an American classic.

At best a little boring and at worst stomach-churningly offensive.

A heartbreaking, beautiful movie that gains strength from its deep characterizations.

It is, simply, the alienation-invasion movie to beat all alien-invasion movies: meticulously detailed and expertly paced and photographed, with sights so spectacular and terrible that viewers will have to consciously remind themselves to close their mouths when their jaws drop open.

An entirely unconventional, hypnotic, meandering film.

It's funny, easily the funniest and least self-conscious movie that director Nora Ephron has made.

The master is back, and there's no shortage of exploding brain matter -- or fun -- to be had in the theaters this weekend.

Riveting.

Mostly unbearable.

Doueiri sprinkles Lila Says with moments of humor and violence -- a mix that keeps the film fresh and unpredictable.

An astonishing documentary.

It's a kids' movie from a better time, with a few small concessions to modern audiences.

Intends to inspire outrage, and to an extent it succeeds.

A bigger mess than the gas crisis.

Solid if unspectacular.

There's just the matter of facing it: that The Perfect Man is just something slapped together -- by people who don't care, for an audience they figure will care even less.

Perversely fascinating.

Totally original yet filled with familiar human frailties, "Everyone" leaps off the screen to become one of those rare movie-going experiences.

Instantly captivating.

Occasionally funny and touching, but often embarrassing and cringe-inducing.

Desperately wants to deal dramatically with the legitimate issues of homosexuality, tolerance, homelessness and drug use. But to do so, the movie, like Ethan, would first need to grow up.

It's all pleasant but fairly unimportant, and then -- POW -- comes the great scene, almost out of nowhere.

Best of all, there's just the pleasure of seeing something that's both fantastic to the eye and emotionally dimensional. This is how to make action movies.

Mesmerizing documentary.

The film is glossy, but awful. Frenetic, but awful. Expensive, but awful. ... And awful.

The Honeymooners isn't the worst of the endless spate of TV rehashes, but it still feels perfunctory.

For all this, there is one unalloyed good thing to be said for High Tension. When all is said and done, it really does live up to its title. In every other way it's trash, but that truth-in-advertising aspect is a major weight to throw into the mix.

Sharkboy relies almost entirely on 3-D for its kicks. The novelty, however, quickly wears thin with the thinnest of stories to project.

A wise and wonderful parable.

The film is bleak, not particularly compelling, and the characters are frustrating, the enemies of their own happiness.

A stirring and sometimes funny film.

Rough around the edges, it's still a formidable movie.

An unflinching and historically rich rendering of an amazing story. He has made what is easily the best American film so far this year.

Peralta uses the creative liberties of fiction to focus on the one thing he couldn't convey in his historical record -- the sense of tribalism among skateboarders, who live by a code that most law-abiding citizens misunderstand for hooliganism.

Occasionally thoughtful and very entertaining.

The humor is all over the place, veering from light to dark and from broad to subtle -- as if an "I Love Lucy" episode had been retooled by Woody Allen.

The documentary isn't particularly thrilling, or even very informative, but it's almost certain to lower your blood pressure for 83 minutes.

Memorable enough.

A charming and wise film.

An argument could be made that too many bad things happen to the good members of this sisterhood. The movie does occasionally teeter on the brink of soap opera, but then, so does life.

Suffers from long takes, no music score, naturalistic acting and an agenda so stifling it doesn't allow its characters to breathe.

Might be said to have pleasant echoes of "Garden State" and "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" -- except that they aren't echoes; this 1999 indie film was made long before those other two hits, and frankly, is just about as good.

No classic, but neither was the original starring Burt Reynolds. Instead, it's an odd mix of amusing nonsense and nastiness that chugs along, hit and miss, until the last section, which is the best part of the movie and its real reason for being: the game.

Madagascar isn't deep and would have no business being deep. But that it keeps one foot in reality is enough to keep us guessing.

An affable comedy (with some serious notes).

The real joy here is the gorgeous nature cinematography.

Devoid of thrills, and with nothing even vaguely frightening to distract moviegoers, it becomes clear that the story wasn't worth telling in the first place.

Ratanaruang brings us close to Tum's personality, and his rigorous filming style carefully layers the plot while allowing us to contemplate the nature of greed and the cost of simply existing.

The movie drags.

Mindhunters is as effective as a movie can be and yet still be 100 percent forgettable.

Not only not funny, it's unfunny. It kills humor. Sit in a room by yourself, look at a blank screen for 90 minutes, and you'll have more of a chance of laughing at your own thoughts than you will at this movie.

A generational spectacle that's fun to witness.

When Danny takes off his collar for the last time, Besson's plan becomes clear: You may have paid for an hour and a half of escapist entertainment, but he just provided something much better.

Beguiling.