It's smart, instructive political cinema that tackles complex issues of the globalization with practical examples and vivid images and presents its effects in immediate human terms.

The music is truly the thing in Songcatcher and it's awesome, haunting stuff.

Since the expensive new movie version of the popular video game, Tomb Raider, is very true to its origins, it's a colossal bore.

Plays in spots something like a stage play smartly brought to screen.

The style is dated, and its neorealism seems forced and ineffective, but it's still delectable, and mostly for the things Pontecorvo hated about it: its delirious '50s color, and its stars, particularly Montand at the peak of virility.

A slick, cynical, nasty piece of heist-film plotting that hides its more obvious logical gaps in techno-babble and distracting spectacles of wanton violence and big explosions.

There are a handful of funny moments, and the top end of the cast comes off rather well. Duchovny has some of that same easygoing likability that made Glenn Ford one of the biggest stars of the '50s.

Grand and imaginatively designed epic that forgets that the spectacle -- and this is nothing if not spectacular -- is just the flourish.

A rather dull movie.

It simply isn't that funny or clever. For a comedy, that's about the worst that could happen

Seeks to shock and to outrage, and so far it's done both quite nicely.

Writer and first-time director Thomas Bezucha certainly knows how to create warmth, ambience and situation.

Not quite a masterpiece perhaps, but a visually stunning mountain drama, and an absorbing look at a dying culture.

Shines with the kind of honesty that's very scarce in today's ultra-manipulative cinema.

The cast is engaging, the overall visual effects are tremendous and I found myself fairly swept away for most of the fast-moving, three-hour running time.

It's a strange and strangely unaffecting little drama -- but played very flat, with no particular emotional impact sought or achieved.

Director Jean Stewart isn't merely clumsy with character; she hasn't the chops to show us the joy and exhilaration Christine feels in the freedom of solo runs.

The three stars communicate the fears and dreams and frustrations of teenage girls with subtlety, sensitivity and dignity.

Overly familiar, poorly cast and often annoyingly crude New York comedy that never finds its groove.

Has all the telltale signs of desperate re-editing: mismatched shots, clumsy transitions and a devastating car wreck that occurred either on a dry sunlit day or in the midst of a nighttime downpour, depending on the flashback.

While Shrek may trek into that dark territory and has some questionable values simmering beneath the surface, its characters are delightful enough and the film is just sweet-natured and visually sophiscated enough to avoid sinking into the swamp.

It doesn't, as they say, really work -- but it's enjoyable enough in spots to leave one feeling passably entertained.

Always absorbing.

Upbeat but generic songs (one performed by Little Richard) and jazz lines add a little energy but the film feels less like a feature than an expensive ad for the upcoming video.

It's a passionate film powered by the righteous anger of injustice.

Isn't very pretty despite its extraordinary look. In fact, the film is downright queasy and unsettling.

The film's one saving grace is Ledger (Mel Gibson's son in "The Patriot").

Surprisingly sweet and infectious.