A rare example of a grown-up story compellingly told from the perspective of children, The Playroom is a modest gem.

This is a looser, grittier film than their work of late, and while it’s more successful in the sequences of bold theatricality than in the faux-cinéma vérité of the surrounding scenes, the mix is nonetheless an interesting one.

A visually lavish epic fantasy that happily marries the latest advances in CGI and action techniques with ancient Chinese fable and a Buddhist atmosphere.

With such an in-house cast of extended Coppola family sparklers, one would think things couldn’t go too wrong in the comedy department, but they have little chance to oil the wheels of a creaky script written around Sheen.

Upstream Colors certainly is something to see if you’re into brilliant technique, expressive editing, oblique storytelling, obscuritanist speculative fiction or discovering a significant new actress.

Park's unsettling visuals and his handling of the cast make the occasional holes in Wentworth Miller's script practically irrelevant.

A bizarre and baroque meditation on death, memory and the passage of time that ranks among the director’s more cryptic works (of which there are several in his whopping 100+ feature filmography), though it does offer up a few pleasurable moments.

The film falls into an interesting intersection between documentary and feature, between reality and fiction.

In trying to merge this alarmist theme with an old-fashioned murder mystery, the filmmakers throw at least one plot-twist sucker-punch too many, leaving the viewer with an “Oh, come on” reaction to the entire film.

Actually offers some decent scares before descending into typical horror film bombast.

Despite knowingly blank performances and a heavily ironic tone, the story ultimately accumulates emotional gravity, ending with a sardonic refection on the seasonal cycle of life that is worthy of a Kurt Vonnegut or Joseph Heller novel. Tragedy is comedy. Comedy is tragedy. So it goes.

An all-access pass to an artist embarking on a new path, this is entertaining stuff – funny, disarming, even poignant. It's also jammed with terrific music.

For all the impressive ease with which the filmmaker handles her tyke star, Nana never quite manages to achieve the thematic resonance to which it aspires.

While the original version's four hours might have made for wearisome viewing for Western audiences, Herzog's 94-minute cut feels just right, fully immersing us in this rarified world without lapsing into tedium.

The extra weight that the actor has packed on gives him an air of vulnerability that makes his character's ultimate emergence from his seemingly impenetrable emotional shell all the more moving.

Aims to be a cutting-edge portrait of cutthroat political machinations. But it's a mostly toothless affair that, like so many of our current political figures, proves alienating.

The low gore quotient and emphasis on young love might disappoint genre purists, but for those open to the idea of a gently goofy mash-up, the film is strong on atmosphere and offers likably low-key, if somewhat bland, charms.

Despite the dizzying array of talent involved both in front of and behind the camera, this godawful exercise is so painfully unfunny, so screamingly bad that it immediately qualifies as one of the worst films of all time.

The film is smart enough not to wear out its welcome. But that's the only sign of true intelligence in this juvenile caper.

The picture is far from great, but it's a serviceable B-movie with some A-list talent on a slumming expedition.

Dave Grohl has more than clout in his corner in his terrifically entertaining documentary Sound City. He brings elements that can't be faked -- passion and heart -- to this lovingly assembled insider account of what it feels like to make real handcrafted rock music.

A history lesson that holds some pleasures even for those who know its material by heart.

This universal story could easily serve as a dramatically gripping primer on topical immigration issues to schoolchildren across the globe, from Arizona to Afghanistan. 　

The film constantly toys with the expectations of both its characters and the audience, transforming a classic three-way tale of mistaken identities into something much more mysterious and troubling.

Like the amped up comeback tour of two rockers who had their heyday sometime in the mid-'80s, Sylvester Stallone and director Walter Hill (48 HRS., The Warriors) join forces for a hard-hitting exercise in beefy, brainless fun with the New Orleans-set actioner Bullet to the Head.

The effective documentary makes her attitudes and techniques look unarguably commonsensical, for the most part; while many distributors will shy away from such graphic material, the film may thrive in niche bookings and will benefit from enthusiastic word-of-mouth on video.

The film's failure to raise the temperature gradually leaves viewers less involved than we should be.

Would have made for a fine film noir 60 years ago but feels rather contrived and unbelievable in the setting of contemporary New York.

What Vishal Bhardwaj's Indian comedy brings in star power, it lacks in humor.

The documentary Stolen Seas is not just a high-energy chronicle of a ship's hijacking; Thymaya Payne's bold debut feature steps back for a view of Somali piracy that's both broader and more incisive than most mainstream news coverage.

Mama represents a throwback and a modest delight for people who like a good scare but prefer not to be terrorized or grossed out.

Patience-taxingly boilerplate.

The birds are not only gorgeous but, as they poke for food and rustle around, entertaining.

Even if some of them are playing hackneyed gangster-film types, the strength of the actors makes it almost possible to forgive the formulaic plotting and artificially movie-ish developments. Candis and Justin Wilson's screenplay stretches credibility thinner and thinner as the story advances.

Not the worst but is very far from the best film the star has made in his career.

Too often settles for raunchiness instead of wit.

Trying to be amusing and respectfully serious at the same time, Austrian director Wolfgang Murnberger's film remains in limbo, saddled with an over-worked story, characters and setting.

Its account of the week beginning January 25 feels like a solid, layman-friendly addition to the West's understanding of this chunk of history.

Essentially "Alien" set in a self-storage facility, the British low-budget horror flick Storage 24 doesn't manage to rise above the limitations of its bare-bones concept.

A barrage of unbelievable stereotypes try to kill each other in Barry Battles's dispiriting exploitation flick.

A supernatural action comedy that can never live up to its exciting opening scenes, Don Coscarelli's John Dies at the End mixes horror-tinged mayhem with smart-alec laughs but loses momentum early and gets bogged down in exposition.

Ultimately A Bottle in the Gaza Sea adds little insight into a conflict that has already inspired several powerful dramas, such as the recent "The Other Son," and is sadly likely to be the subject of many more.

Made up of synthetics rather than whole cloth, this lurid concoction superficially gets by thanks to a strong cast and jazzy period detail, but its cartoonish contrivances fail to convince and lack any of the depth, feeling or atmosphere of genre stand-bearers like "L.A. Confidential."

Interweaving clumsily staged action sequences with endless pontificating about evil mega-corporations privatizing public resources, the mediocre environmental-themed thriller A Dark Truth wears its good intentions on its sleeve.

As is often the case with directors who adapt their own life-histories, there's the sense that a little too close to his material.

Unlike the restrained 1974 film which cleverly relied mainly on suggestion, this version piles on the graphic, often CGI-enhanced gore.

Self-contained enough for theatrical audiences new to the series, it will play best with those who've come to care for these Brits over time.

Unfortunately, Allegiance is less sure-footed in the filmmaking department, rendering its potentially suspenseful storyline stilted and uncompelling.

Billy Crystal and Bette Midler hustle to peddle the threadbare material that makes Andy Fickman's comedy a perfectly tolerable, if uninspired, moviegoing experience.

This is one hot, provocative, revelatory and astonishing documentary, one sure to provoke enthralled interest and controversy wherever it is shown worldwide.

The world's most famous acrobatic troupe delivers a feast of surreal beauty and moments of breath-catching wonder in the skilfully staged 3D film Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away.

Magnificent in its simplicity and its relentless honesty about old age, illness and dying, Michael Haneke's Amour is a deliberately torturous watch.

A creakily old-fashioned comedy that forgot to pack the laughs along with the nudging and kvetching.

A slow-burning Cold War drama that will reward patient viewers with its ultimate emotional payoff.

Another charmingly eccentric exercise in meta-fiction from Portugal's offbeat new directing star Miguel Gomes, Tabu chooses to explore its characters without following narrative rules, or rather, by reshuffling hackneyed tropes from film and novels to turn them into strange, modern entertainment.

Becker is now completely paralyzed, unable even to speak. But Vile keeps him almost entirely offscreen until the last thirty minutes, preferring to introduce him as he once was: Uncommonly positive and single-minded in his obsession with the electric guitar.

Making her feature directorial debut at the tender age of 70, veteran actress Connie Stevens delivers an obviously heartfelt but sadly unfocused melodrama in the form of Saving Grace B. Jones.

Though certainly not for everyone (and not for kids of any age), the regret-tinged film displays a distinctive voice and will be embraced by devotees of offbeat animation.

Feel-good documentary gathers great interviews but isn't sure what they add up to.

This meta-theatrical attempt at creating a comically subversive film is far too self-indulgent to provide insight into its important themes.

Fortunately this necessary infotainment pill boasts a highly effective sugar-coating thanks to the narration and on-camera presence of moonlighting co-producer Jeremy Irons.

Only Tarantino could come up with such a wild cross-cultural mash, a smorgasbord of ingredients stemming from spaghetti Westerns, German legend, historical slavery, modern rap music, proto-Ku Klux Klan fashion, an assembly of '60s and '70s character actors and a leading couple meant to be the distant forebears of blaxploitation hero John Shaft and make it not only digestible but actually pretty delicious.

Yelling to the Sky drips with a strange but sometimes moving nostalgia for environs its characters clearly want to escape.

Tom Cruise is in fine form as mysterious tough guy Jack Reacher finally reaches the big screen.

The winning performances by its two leads elevate this contrived Israeli import.

This bloody exercise in camp quickly wears out is welcome, although its copious doses of nudity and gore, as well as its undeniably catchy title, should help it stand out on video shelves.

Patrick McGrady's documentary strains to reconcile its conflicting moods, but Fry's gushing enthusiasm for the subject is ultimately if sometimes queasily infectious.

Eventually, though, Waiting For Lightning suffers greatly from the absence of Way himself.

Promised Land presents its environmental concerns in a clear, upfront manner but hits some narrative and character bumps in the second half that weaken the impact of this fundamentally gentle, sympathetic work.

Though this gorgeously animated affair showcases the artist's freewheeling style and colorful arabesque imagery, its rambling episodic structure is not quite the cat's meow, even if it remains a thoroughly enjoyable take on Judaism in early 20th century North Africa.

This tale of a dysfunctional family whose members experience enough personal crises to fuel a dozen films is a virtual compendium of clichés, but the star's sheer likeability makes it go down as easily as a cup of eggnog.

As the enduring success of this property has shown, there are large, emotionally susceptible segments of the population ready to swallow this sort of thing, but that doesn't mean it's good.

Sincere performances and well-intentioned scripting should help it with vets eager to see their stories told on-screen, but the film's dreary, secondhand feel is hard to overcome.

Few would fail to be touched by these stories, or by the sight of these men having generations of kids and grandkids gather to celebrate their accomplishment.

A sustained balancing act between dry upper-crust cynicism and pent-up passions, Donald Rice's Cheerful Weather for the Wedding maintains its uneasy stasis long enough to frustrate some romance-hungry viewers while tantalizing those for whom withheld pleasure is the whole point.

Stewart, selected for Marylou five years ago on the basis of her striking debut in "Into the Wild," is perfect in the role, takes off her clothes more than once and nearly always seems to be breaking a sweat, which kicks the sexiness quotient up high.

The film may be too meandering for mainstream acceptance, but its focus will make the Paramount Vantage release connect directly with many baby boomers. It's also a warm, funny, poignant scrapbook that evokes a spirit of youth still relatable in later eras.

Stand Up Guys never wobbles into maudlin or cheap-n-easy sentimentality. It is an entertaining yet sobering portrayal of not-so-wise guys who do not go gently into a no-good night.

Depictions of custody battles have become a cinematic staple, but few register with the heartfelt emotion of Any Day Now.

Short on both romance and humor.

A purist's delight, something the millions of die-hard fans of his Lord of the Rings trilogy will gorge upon. In pure movie terms, however, it's also a bit of a slog, with an inordinate amount of exposition and lack of strong forward movement...There are elements in this new film that are as spectacular as much of the Rings trilogy was, but there is much that is flat-footed and tedious as well, especially in the early going.

A quietly marvelous travelogue condensing months' worth of observation into a single sleepless night, Bill and Turner Ross's Tchoupitoulas follows their widely praised "45365."

Out-of-date animation throws up a roadblock for this Indian animated 3D family film.

A rare film dealing with Christian evangelism in a realistic way that neither mocks nor proselytizes, New Jerusalem quietly observes as a man tries to comfort his troubled best friend by bringing him to Jesus.

Heartfelt but clumsy.

Mixing soap-opera melodramatics with pithy one-liners, the film never achieves a coherent tone, with the uneven performances by the ensemble adding to the problem.

Even with all its ups and downs, there are more than enough bawdy laughs and truthful emotional moments to put this over as a mainstream audience pleaser during a holiday season short on good comedies.

A cast of young actors is uniformly strong, as is Lance Gewer's photography.

Some thrillers are described as taut. Talaash isn't taut, but loose and messy, the better to allow life's jagged edges to disturb the muscular, controlled world that its protagonist, Surjan "Suri" Shekhawat, has created for himself. When those inevitable cracks appear in Suri's world, the film grabs on tight and doesn't let go.

The comedy just isn't that funny and the enterprise never finds an exact tone.

Remakes of '80s-era cult-favorite horror flicks seem to be all the rage these days. But they have to be better than this formulaic effort to replace the already not-so-great originals.

It's problematic, however, that we learn very little here that wasn't more stirringly conveyed in the earlier film. In its mesmerizing, propulsive drive, "Tarnation" was a heartfelt scramble to make sense of messy lives. Walk Away Renee is an occasionally illuminating patchwork.

There is surprisingly little emotional resonance with the well-drawn and acted characters, making it a tiring two and a half hour trek for filmgoers who don't have a stake in the history it recounts.

A small but scrappy road-tripper whose solid sense of place and sure-handed blend of poignancy and unsentimental humor should earn it fans on the arthouse circuit.

Say what you will about the confused narrative, blatant borrowings and wildly over-the-top gory violence of Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning -- at least you can see what the hell is going on.

While the idea of a German romantic comedy may seem like an oxymoron, What a Man proves an amiable diversion that at least has the distinction of not starring Katherine Heigl or Kate Hudson.

Tonally, Deadfall seems to be aiming somewhere between Sam Raimi's "A Simple Plan" and the brilliant Pine Barrens episode of "The Sopranos," with a classic Western showdown at its climax. But the pedestrian writing holds it back.

The romantic dilemmas suffered by these twentysomethings may be universal, but their naive attempts to address them are hard to buy.