The Syrian Bride manages to entertain even as it both moves and amuses.

The film possesses a quiet but powerful tension.

Johnny Depp makes a riveting antihero in a dark and bawdy period drama.

This is a performance without the histrionics and emotional outbursts that accompany most portrayals of addiction. This feels closer to the truth.

The docu is not visually innovative, but the content more than makes up for what it lacks in style.

The Matador gets a 151-proof tequila shot of sharp comedy from the droll byplay between Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear.

Switching into a dramatic gear, Woody Allen surprises but often struggles in this dark morality tale.

Hopkins' performance flat-out works.

Beautifully acted and filmed, with the Internet imagery rendered in Pixelvision.

With her debut, Xiao Jiang has created the Chinese equivalent of "Cinema Paradiso." The Beijing Film Academy graduate's confident first feature is a lovely, elegant paean to the joy and liberty that films offer as a symbol.

The director has staged the elaborate production in his usual stately but impressive manner, and the production values boast the usual Merchant/Ivory stamp of quality.

This is resolutely a film of the imagination. As with all films in Malick's slim body of work, its imagery, haunting sounds and pastoral mood trump narrative.

Eli Roth turns to modern-day Asian fright filmmakers as inspiration for his latest blood-soaked effort while demonstrating an intriguing, original voice of his own.

Stirring tale of a team whose big win speeds the integration of intercollegiate sports.

Arlyck's artful use of "then and now" images illustrates the relentlessness with which time moves forward. Youth is, indeed, elusive. His seductive film is a retrieval mission and, as such, it is ineffably sad.

Prolific Hong Kong lenser Johnnie To delivers another solid action picture with this latest effort, a cops and robbers yarn with social commentary mixed in along the way.

Long deemed unfilmable, the 18th century novel finds the perfect interpreters in director Michael Winterbottom and actor Steve Coogan.

A keenly observed urban romantic comedy.

Margret and H.A. Rey's mischievous monkey makes his long-threatened leap to the big screen in Curious George, with much of the books' charm respectfully intact.

The film is well worth seeing for its views of the parched wilderness of far-flung Brazil and its talkative depiction of an unlikely friendship.

The film is an atmospheric and complex thriller that, while not quite living up to its thematic ambitions, more than sustains interest along the way.

Although much of the plot defies credulity, Richard Donner directs the odd-couple action drama with a nimble facility that draws viewers in.

A bright and breezy tween fantasy romantic comedy that coasts along on its charming performances and the light comedic touch of first-time feature director Elizabeth Allen.

Our Brand Is Crisis well demonstrates the international efficacy of the methods used to twice elect Bill Clinton. Unlike in "The War Room," the charismatic Carville makes but fleeting appearances in this docu, and it suffers as a result.

A worthy addition to the ever-growing canon of Holocaust-related films.

This remake of the 1977 Wes Craven cult classic is brutally horrific. And that's a compliment.

A fast-moving Walt Disney Co. comedy that manages to sail past many of the cliches usually found in this genre while throwing together a wild story line more apt for a new millennium.

The film is faithful to the book's tone of dark ache and much of its detail and for the most part terrifically cast. But Towne can't overcome an essential challenge of the material: Arturo and Camilla are constructs and ciphers as much as they are vivid characters -- difficult roles, to be sure. Neither the screenplay nor the actors manage to get far under their skin.

Although Evil eventually suffers from its heavy-handed treatment of its subject, it is a well-made and engrossing melodrama.

All the acting is solid including a knock-'em-dead single scene by Annabella Sciorra as Jackie's ex-wife.

The movie is amusing and clever but only skin deep. It lacks the acidity and rage of a satire such as "Network."

Don't Come Knocking expresses itself with deadpan humor, striking imagery, Western iconography and outbursts of strong emotions.

Under Buscemi's overall smart direction, the acting is terrific.

A highly informative if rather hagiographic portrait of the notable playwright and performer, The Lady in Question Is Charles Busch should prove quite enticing for the legions of fans who have followed him throughout his career.

Raucously fun, fluid follow-up with ecological message.

Gunn maintains the ideal glib pitch for most of the picture, flirting with camp but never hanging around it long enough to water down the squirm-inducing stuff.

Stalwart Iranian actor Ali Nasirian plays Nemat with a thoughtful hubris, uniting the various plot strands by force of character.

The film is stylish as hell with sharp dialogue, a tongue-in-cheek plot and visual and editing razzle-dazzle.

Narrated by Troy Garity, whose mother, Jane Fonda, candidly discusses her involvement in the movement that seems to have faded from the collective conscience in the intervening years, the film does a commendable job in providing enlightenment.

The project is not without insights into Hancock's career and musical philosophy and holds moments of inspiration with these stars. Yet the result does feel a bit promotional as the focus is on a particular CD and not on the sum and substance of this keyboard legend's extraordinary career.

Effectively anchoring the picture is Keke Palmer's lovely lead performance as Akeelah Anderson.

In his feature debut, "Lost" creator J.J. Abrams, who got the job on the basis of "Alias," takes the driver's seat with both feet on the accelerator.

Mixes comedy and melodrama to a typically baroque degree. Like his "Oldboy" and "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance," the film displays an audacious visual and narrative style, often sacrificing credibility and coherence along the way. But there is no denying its originality.

Solomon crafts a quality horror piece from strong performances and effects. The chief disappointment of An American Haunting is that it doesn't exploit more opportunities for the sublime subtlety of performances by Sissy Spacek and, especially, Donald Sutherland.

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.

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

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

Another highly entertaining portrait of attractive young Europeans looking for personal and professional fulfillment amidst gorgeous locations.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

It's a fully formed film which transcends polemic by an intelligent use of the imagination.

This is a coolly efficient, tongue-in-cheek horror-comedy.

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."

Matt Dillon is pitch-perfect as Bukowski's alter ego Hank Chinaski.

A neatly packaged Walt Disney Co. picture with bone-crunching football action; a nice sense of the blue-collar, male-dominated milieu that nourishes football fanaticism; and a few too many tugs at the heartstrings.

The 2006 summer movie season went out with a reasonable bang courtesy of Crank, a jacked-up, unapologetically mindless bit of ADD-prescribed escapism that more or less delivers on a nifty premise.

Dick's strongest points are that these raters receive no training and are given no standards by which to judge movies. Experts in child psychology or media or social studies are not consulted. Nor are they allowed on the board. The days of counting F-words or pelvic thrusts need to end, and in the film's quieter moments, Dick makes this case compellingly.

Although the film occasionally become repetitive, one can't help but be moved by the way in which these two groups of people -- who couldn't be more different in terms of background and orientation -- have found a common emotional ground.

Idiocracy, is often stingingly funny -- and an undeserving resident of the summer's-end movie dumping ground.

The drama's moments of cinematic power more than compensate for the slow-moving stretches that don't connect, and its characters will stay with viewers long after the lights go up.

Well-told and charming, debuting writer-helmer Georgia Lee's comedy-drama Red Doors is big on heart but never sappy. Without overdoing the quirk factor or the melodrama, Lee shows a sure feel for family dynamics, and her light touch brings out the best in the ensemble's lovely, understated performances.

Filmmaker Trapero, a proponent of the New Argentine Cinema, employs a minimalist naturalism to tell what is obviously a very personal story that, at the same time, is certain to elicit widespread sighs of familiarity.

The second half feels heavy and unfulfilled, potential greatness reduced to a good movie plagued with problems.

Proving that with solid direction, tight writing and strong performances an American remake can actually be as good as the foreign-language original, The Last Kiss, an unusually perceptive dramedy about contemporary relationships also manages to stand quite capably on its own two feet.

The thing that shines through most clearly, though, is Lennon himself. His widow allowed unprecedented access to the family archives, which along with ample newsreel footage bring us his presence once again.

Amusing dark English comedy produces its share of chuckles.

Witty choreography juices the pedestrian plot of Fearless, an earnest and technically accomplished biopic in which action star Jet Li flexes his limited dramatic muscles to portray kung fu master Huo Yuanjia.