Plays like an Alfred Hitchcock thriller but is nevertheless a movie of ideas. It bristles with intriguing thoughts about the realm of fiction, how one loves, issues of identity and questions concerning how one transfers a real-life incident into big-screen fiction. This is a film that can crawl inside your skin.

From its pitch-perfect title through just about every detail, this sendup of sports-triumph movies maintains the right parodic pitch, if not always the highest mph on the laugh speedometer.

Based on the novel by Ruth Rendell, the film could do well with audiences who have a taste for creepy films about murder in the suburbs.

While My Country, My Country is hardly an exhaustive depiction of its subject, it provides much in the way of material and perspectives previously unexposed.

Life-affirming without being saccharine and enormously entertaining, film could be one of those rare specialty pictures that crossover to a mainstream audience.

A thoughtful and nicely observed dramedy about a group of AARP-sters grappling with life, loss, love and -- gasp -- sex in a South Florida "active adult community."

An essentially two-character drama that would have been far more effective onstage, Brett C. Leonard's Jailbait is ultimately as claustrophobic as its setting.

Shock to the System demonstrates that merely subverting genre conventions doesn't quite make for compelling entertainment.

A darker, grittier creature that, while benefiting considerably from Dion Beebe's HD cinematography, is a frustratingly inert affair -- a long and talky excursion that fails to engage the viewer from the outset.

A light-hearted if ghostly murder mystery that for all the contemporary English locations feels like a 1930s studio film including a plot that bears little scrutiny. Along with the delectable Johansson, the film offers fun roles for Allen, Hugh Jackman and Ian McShane.

Lame and unconvincing teen comedy.

Feels anonymously generic and charmlessly mechanical.

Not for the faint-hearted.

Unfortunately, while the film has some fascinating and compelling arguments, it quickly assumes the tone of an angry diatribe rather than a well-reasoned political discussion.

In his director's statement, filmmaker Todd Stephens proclaims that he wants his latest effort to be "the gayest movie ever made." Damn if he doesn't succeed.

A work of terrific imagination, visceral punch and gothic beauty.

A rare, hilarious and ultimately touching look at the kind of American iconoclast that barely exists anymore.

A brainy blend of farce and heart, this is one of those movies that veteran moviegoers complain they don't make anymore.

A richly uplifting if somewhat rambling portrait of indomitableness in the face of old age and infirmity, Been Rich All My Life will be inspirational to young and old alike.

In this lukewarm climate of pointless remakes and uninspired sequels there's always welcome room for a film that wants to push the envelope, Shadowboxer merely crams it with a lot of nonsense.

It has enough laughs, character arcs, politically incorrect rants and a satisfying emotional ending to more than justify this whim on Smith's part.

Shyamalan does project genuine menace and suspense into this mundane location, especially in nighttime scenes. But the magic that would transport you from reality into fantasy is missing.

Sour, joyless affair.

Unfortunately, the film itself -- though it contains some superbly staged and highly lavish action sequences -- lacks the tautness of its heroine.

Once the initial round of breast-feeding and rectal thermometer bits is fired off, the picture starts to give off the funky whiff of unattended Pampers.

The comedy is obvious and flat while the drama is stale. They did do one thing right, however: They attracted a stellar cast.

A thoughtful and reflective love story about the impact of time on true love.

Boasts an uncommon stylization and some first-rate comic performances. But its provocative setup is undercut by its lengthy depiction of an all-too-familiar game of cat and mouse between the culprits and a dogged detective.

Like the lead characters, who struggle to get "almost there" and fail, the movie provides a good time but isn't wholly satisfying in the end.

A short and succinct film but it lingers long in the memory.

For hard-core David Mamet fans only...Edmond serves to remind you how artificial the dialogue and dramaturgy truly was in early Mamet.

Gabrielle inspires mixed feelings; it is dialogue heavy but a treat for the eye.

Edward Burns' best riff yet on guys trying to sort out their feelings about women.

For more than half the film's running time, it's an engaging one. Centering on the boys' hardscrabble formative years, first-time director Breno Silveira delivers an assured first hour before losing grasp of his material.

Depp is the comic gel that holds the whole enterprise together. The performance is a total delight that somehow combines Bugs Bunny, Peter Pan and Charlie Chaplin.

Audiences will have to seek out their own peculiar diversions in order to last the whole course of this demi-dud.

Gunnarsson's film ultimately lacks the grandeur and wit necessary to make the legend fully come alive. Still, the film does offer certain kicks to those who like their action films infused with fantastical elements and benefits greatly from its highly effective lead performances.

This tale of the team that for a brief period in the 1970s promised to popularize soccer in the U.S. has it all: heroes, villains, sex and, oh yes, some sports as well.

Cantet keeps a lid on a story that he could have easily exploited, but he makes his points about beauty, fulfillment, self-indulgence and delusion with a measured hand.

Ultimately adds up to less than the sum of its parts. But it possesses a visual power, as well as a lingering resonance, that gives it a certain distinction.

Takes place in the world of haute couture. And that pretty much sums up the movie. Otherwise, it would be just another Queen of Mean, boss from hell movie. But, oh, what delicious fun Meryl Streep and her conspirators have with that world.

While the film loses focus along the way, it has enough moving and powerful moments to make it a worthy entry in an increasingly crowded genre.

This Bollywood epic crunches together romance, comedy, extra-terrestrials, martial arts, dancing and action to tell an entertaining story about a reluctant Indian superhero.

Director Bryan Singer positions this new film as a sequel to Donner's film, and his Superman -- played with winning fortitude by newcomer Brandon Routh -- is less a Man of Steel than a Man of Heart.

Indie coming-of-age dramas are not exactly an endangered species, but Michael Kang's debut drama is an admirably intelligent and modest example of the genre.

Offers more laughs than most comedies of recent vintage. But what was subversive on the tube feels muted at feature length.

A potent hybrid of passion and politics fuel this energetic and highly compelling documentary.

Both in terms of the activities and characters depicted, Rank doesn't truly manage to sustain interest for the course of its feature-length running time.

Ultimately more laughable than illuminating, at times approaching a level of camp commensurate with John Waters.

The movie is gag-filled, as you would expect of a Sandler movie, but the filmmakers realize they have hit upon an idea that is both clever and good, so they edge their comedy into some darker areas of human behavior.

Director Vondie Curtis Hall gives this virtually nonstop crime actioner, set against the mean streets of Los Angeles, pleasing noirish touches along with larger-than-life-size characters.

An acutely misguided, purported satire dealing with the prickly subject of child molestation.

A tough, compelling, must-see movie.

An affectionate and intimate celebration of the acclaimed troubadour in stirring music and words.

It's not much of a movie, but a hell of a ride. So what if the movie dumbs down Japanese culture to a bad yakuza movie and features Japanese characters who can barely speak Japanese? The cars are the stars here. Everything else is lost in translation.

This lifeless, talky, family-oriented feature never manages to rise to the occasion of its witty title.

A slow-moving, never-igniting tale of calendar-crossed lovers that grows less convincing as it proceeds.

An amiably clunky, unapologetically silly summer confection that nevertheless lands sufficient lethal slams to the funny bone.

About as subtle as its all too obvious title would suggest.

Good performances and a keen eye for period detail can't disguise the fact that not much is happening here story-wise.

From its actual and figurative scenes of cockfighting to its copious use of throbbing Brazilian music, there's little here that rises above the level of formula. But director Machado displays a sure touch in his ability to convey the sultry atmosphere of his exotic setting, and he has elicited admirably naturalistic performances from his highly attractive, youthful performers.

Attempts to achieve a Pedro Almodovar-level of humor without much success... Degenerating into witless slapstick.

While puzzles are not most peoples' lives, they are truly an essential part. Wordplay goes up/down and across on the varied reasons why more than 50 million Americans do a crossword puzzle every week.

The film reveals the influence of director/co-writer Werthman's profession because it adopts a highly clinical and thoughtful rather than exploitative turn. Although at times one wishes for a little more heat, of both the dramatic and erotic variety, there is an admirable intelligence and restraint on display.

First-time filmmaker Josh Gilbert, whose skills behind the camera are rudimentary, might be a bit too close to his subject to do disinterested viewers justice; he clearly is a fan and is making no effort to show both sides of the story he reports.

It might not be way up there in "The Incredibles"/"Finding Nemo"/"Toy Story" stratosphere, but the charming Cars is nevertheless a thoroughly pleasant way to mark Pixar Animation Studios' 20th anniversary.

Not since Woody Allen's "Radio Days" has anyone created such a cinematic Valentine to the wonderfully imaginative medium of radio as A Prairie Home Companion.

This musical documentary likely will find its major audience in Germany, where the immigrant-minority Turk citizenry will take to its array of sounds, smears and social commentary as cultural nourishment.

Making his feature-length debut after forging a career making socially conscious short films, director Ward Serrill never takes his eye off the ball, maintaining a sharp storytelling focus distilled from those seven years worth of footage.

Bottom line: A soft-hearted gross-out pic. If you're not a male between 17 and 23 and don't find the chance to see R-rated rejects from "America's Funniest Home Videos" a good thing, The Long Weekend will be a long and pointless haul.

Although reasonably compelling to watch and featuring fine performances from its charismatic and attractive lead performers, it ultimately displays little reason for being other than to serve as a transatlantic cinematic calling card.

The release date is the most original thing about it.

Audiences expecting a good time will instead be rewarded with wildly unsympathetic lead characters and uncomfortably long stretches without a laugh in sight.

By most standards, District B13 is a fairly routine summer action movie, albeit one in French. But what makes it unique are the truly amazing and kinetic action scenes featuring Parkour pioneer Belle and co-star Cyril Raffaelli.

The latest in a series of big-screen documentaries dealing with the conflict, and it does so in a particularly involving, fly-on-the-wall manner.

While a huge hit in its native country, is neither arty nor truly thrilling enough to greatly impress American audiences.

Augmenting Baer's interviews with various figures embroiled in the Middle East struggle, including members of Hamas and the Hezbollah, is chilling footage of actual attacks, much of it emanating from the terrorists themselves.

A daring and emotional documentary.

Strong performances by Scott Mechlowicz as Millman and Nick Nolte as the mysterious mechanic who changes his life ground the film in effective drama.

Lacks the subtle power of the previous two efforts, although boasting effective performances from its terrific cast.

Though the picture is not without its wow-inducing, SFX-driven moments, that potent X-factor is considerably diminished in Singer's absence.

This less than subtly titled documentary by Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck will undoubtedly find few viewers.

The documentary is an act of political activism. Guggenheim and his politically conscious producers, Laurie David, Lawrence Bender and Scott Z. Burns, have no interest in either challenging Gore's viewpoint or giving opposing opinions equal time. The film is simply a conduit for Gore's message.

The big shave is the starting point for a clever, if somewhat too clever, film from French critic, novelist and documentarian Emmanuel Carrere. La Moustache could be clipped down to Franz Kafka-meets-Jerry Seinfeld, where a whole slew of absurd petite calamities befall our everyday hero, triggered by his trim.

Da Vinci never rises to the level of a guilty pleasure. Too much guilt. Not enough pleasure.

A backyard ecological comedy outfitted with some fine, silly slapstick and clever animal characters.

Beautifully shot and well acted, the film might well cause controversy among fundamentalist believers as a provocative allegory challenging the power of faith.

Lemming does possess a mordant humor as it watches characters spin out of control. But the payoff is slight.

A grim little drama about a young woman's experiences with a left-wing cult, Alison Murray's debut feature suffers from disjointed storytelling and myriad other problems, including a bizarre reliance on modern dance sequences to interrupt the action.

Lacks the powerful focus of the filmmaker's debut effort and often flounders under the weight of its melodrama and contrivances. But it also boasts many well-observed moments and features stellar performances by its youthful cast.

Among the willing cast, only Jacinda Barrett and topliners Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell and Richard Dreyfuss manage, just barely, to suggest a third dimension to the script's cursory character sketches. But that won't matter to audiences craving a disaster thrill ride.

Has the feel of a contemporary screwball romance, if not the crackling one-liners of classic screwball. But Lindsay Lohan and Chris Pine make a charming star-crossed couple, and tweens and teens will find enough plot reversals to keep them hooked.

The film is filled with deeply unpleasant and stupid people whose vapid speech is largely incomprehensible due to thick regional accents.

While Giuliani Time offers a wealth of important information that many might have long forgotten, its impact is diluted by its heavily biased nature and lack of balance.

What could have made for particularly potent satire in the hands of an Albert Brooks or a Christopher Guest arrives in the form of a politely benign family comedy by first-time director Scott Marshall.

Solid family fare. Like its source material, the Missouri-shot Saving Shiloh is down-home country without condescending to hicks from the sticks.

Veteran actor Richard E. Grant makes his writing and directing debut with Wah-Wah, a startling portrait of his own startling and unusual childhood, growing up in Swaziland in the waning days of the British Empire in Africa.

You learn as much as you need to know to understand Gehry's architectural process and to appreciate his enormous contribution to modern art and architecture. Which is not a bad thing. Just sketchy.