Only occasionally does the film fall into the trap of making the prisoners cute, but it never falters in important ways.

Poetry, lesbian sex and murder might be a killer combination if a deadly pace weren't included in the mix.

The new Planet of the Apes is not a remake, and it's not a sequel. It is an amazing display of imagination.

A movie about serendipity and spontaneity.

Uses loneliness and alienation as the primary emotional colors on a surprisingly expressive canvas.

Harmless enough, and its team of actors so frisky and enthusiastic that it manages to deliver a modicum of laughs despite itself.

It's more psychological than a genre movie, and that is the source of both its greatest interest and its biggest problem.

The filmmakers throw in an extended flatulence routine and enough graphic references to female anatomy to make "The Vagina Monologues" blush.

A wonderful, cockeyed sex comedy.

This is the downside of Roberts' giant success and her dazzling ability to charm: Every time she goes plain, as she did in the little-seen "Mary Reilly" and "Michael Collins," our princess simply fizzles.

Beat Takeshi fans wouldn't think of missing this one. Moviegoers who hate violence wouldn't be caught dead at it.

Falters in its final 15 minutes, when the funny lines peter out and the flashbacks get fuzzy.

Bests most other teen comedies right off the bat. If you got a kick out of "Crumb," this film will crack you up.

This is a monster movie -- 92 minutes, lots of action, lots of green legs stomping, get in, get out.

Some of the dialogue in Made was improvised, and the comic invention at work here -- Vaughn's and Favreau's -- make Made into a rough gem.

Benefits enormously from smart casting across the board.

The important thing is that Clark has found a new way to be creepy, which isn't easy. In the process he has created something irresistibly watchable, the kind of original piece that might mean less but reveal more than its creator intended.

This is a solid suspense thriller that's fun. These stars have put it together in a spirit of playfulness -- as in playacting.

Tends to be lugubrious.

The result is a sprightly, entertaining film, but one in which the satire is neutralized for laughs.

It is not merely a thriller but a shocker. It will separate hard-core Jet Li followers from the fair-weather fans.

Plays like a holy, erotic mood piece, steeped in so much subdued jungle fever that it practically runs on photosynthesis.

Pool captures the crazed urgency of first love -- the feeling of a passion so fierce that even a disapproving society can't crush it.

The story is fluff, but it's mostly appealing.

It is never less than interesting. But who wants interesting from a movie called Cats & Dogs? It needs to grab the audience by the scruff of the neck and shake it.

A pure Frankenstein flick -- ugly, profane, terror-inducing, clumsy, nasty, desperate, stupid, contemptible, horny and brought to life by schlocky, shoddy science and an electric wish to prove that its makers still matter.

Neither a "gay" movie nor a straight one; it is simply a funny one.

Does not end well. But there's a lot of pleasure in getting there.