While it certainly looks swell thanks to director John Moore's striking visuals, the wings of this rebuilt "Phoenix" have been clipped by generic scripting and a short supply of dramatic tension.

Will richly award locals with sly in-jokes and a wonderful comic performance by Bruhl. Non-Germans will certainly get the essence of the humor but may find the movie long and repetitive.

What could have served as a colorful episode in a more expansive film about the famed singer has instead become the premise of a mildly entertaining but overextended road movie that doesn't succeed on either dramatic or comedic terms.

Standard-issue superhero movie -- except that writer-director Guillermo del Toro, taking his cue from "Hellboy" comic book creator Mike Mignola, brings a wicked sense of humor to this particular monster mash.

This amiable, Western-themed animated effort from the Walt Disney Co. is a clear attempt to return to the more lighthearted cartoon style that was so prevalent before its onslaught of stately musical epics.

Should attract Duff's core audience but not much more than that.

Benji is back, which is good news for youngsters and pet-loving families. Film lovers perhaps should steer clear, however, as hokey melodrama and sloppy comedy fill the gaps between neat dog tricks.

A downbeat story line layered with philosophical discourses will restrict the audience to fans of the animated genre.

The film does get claustrophobic. It never quite achieves the balance between a two-character study and a larger world, as did "The Man on the Train." The film also could do with a bit more humor, most of which is supplied by the sagacious shrink.

It's a frantic piece of filmmaking that invests nothing in the characters and moves much too fast for its own good. But things do pick up a bit for the final third, when a story line finally arrives.

Thanks to Martin and Hunt, who both have a seemingly casual flair for mining laughs from even the most generic lines of dialogue, Cheaper by the Dozen works better than it might have in less capable hands, but even they're challenged by some of the picture's forced mood swings.

Determined to be faithful to the strong, often shocking language and in-your-face drama in Marber's mannered writing, Nichols and his actors find no way to lift Closer into a realm that enlightens.

An awkward blend of live action and animation.

The film works best as a kind of mindless, action-packed B-movie. But on the A-level at which recent science fiction/fantasy films operate -- meaning the "Spider-Man," "Harry Potter" and "Terminator" series -- this movie falls woefully short.

The film suffers from uneven acting, an over-reliance on production values and an uncertainty over how dangerous the children's adventures should be.

A protracted and uninvolving affair in which men battle over issues that audiences may struggle to find compelling, and no central figure emerges to take command of the film.

A one-note, lightweight, condescending comedy about the rubes of Idaho.

Feels jammed into a sitcom-shaped bid for laughs.

The film never ventures, even once, into a situation that does not reek of comfy familiarity.

Laziness permeates the film from the inexplicable escapes to the neglected romance.

Never achieves the propulsive traction and outrageous/endearing balance that made "The Hangover" such a smash this time last year.

Good-looking but not very effective adaptation of the seedy classic by "Grifters" author Jim Thompson.

Reveals a definite been-there, done-that feeling.

What could have been a biting black comedy taking product placement to the logical extreme instead is so obviously predictable that even a savvy cast led by David Duchovny and Demi Moore can't sell it.

The film never is boring, but it's never engaging, either, because its heroes hit every target in sight, while the villains, despite holstering much greater weaponry, never hit anybody. So forget about suspense.

A scattershot exercise whose points of interest are surrounded by too much that is trivial. Still, the film earns points for its examination of politics and the political process.

A worthy title for cable nets scheduling hard-hitting documentary fare

First conceived as a documentary, this debut feature from Geoffrey Enthoven betrays its origins via its naturalistic, raw style and occasionally suffers from aimlessness and poor pacing.

With Made-Up, the sisters Adams and Shalhoub (who is married to Brooke) have taken a playfully irreverent approach to middle-age rites of passage that comes with many opportunities for the performers to self-consciously "act."

Oddly bereft of scares or tension, the film is mainly notable for its sustained atmosphere of weirdness.

Unfortunately, the back story behind FireDancer is ultimately more interesting than the finished product, a thematically ambitious but rough-hewn combination of love story and examination of cultural dislocation.

Despite the melodramatic plot twists, there's little emotional resonance to the proceedings, and the film's attempts to link them in metaphysical fashion prove overly ambitious and pretentious.

Ultimately, the sex scenes seem of far more interest to the filmmakers than the narrative or characterizations, which are rendered in frustratingly vague and often deliberately confusing fashion.

Another effective civics lesson that, unfortunately, will probably never be seen by the people whose minds it seeks to change.

Mildly engaging but never entirely convincing.

Wavers between would-be satire and romantic drama, inhabiting neither mode convincingly.

Things are too predictable. Perhaps the viewpoint is to blame.

Repetitive and ultimately a victim of its own hysteria, the U.K. indie is nonetheless an impressive exercise in high-tech gothic style, with a convincingly deranged Lee Evans.

Ultimately lacks the textural depth and emotional precision that marks the work of obvious influences here like Robert Altman, but it does offer a pungent slice of contemporary Israeli life that should prove resonant for audiences interested in the social complexities of the region.

While the film sometimes plays like an hour TV medical drama padded to reach feature length, Sawant achieves touching, naturalistic performances from a fine ensemble cast.

The characters are so over-the-top with emotional pain -- that they are hardly credible as characters.

Director-screenwriter Kuryla displays some talent and an audaciously daring sensibility but ultimately fails to display the assured cinematic style that would make the unsavory proceedings more palatable.

An elongated, rather aimless portrait that doesn't fully convey the essence of its titular subject.

Only one of the three episodes of the anthology film Eros delivers on the title's promise.

Unfortunately, this feature, originally made for Italian television, doesn't quite do justice to its stirring subject.

Although not without a certain cheeky, outrageous charm, Chris Kennedy's film isn't nearly as much fun as it seems to think it is.

A promotional video masquerading as a documentary.

Its observations seem more suited to the op-ed pages of a magazine than the big screen.

The film doesn't quite manage to sustain interest for the duration of its 86-minute running time. But it does exert a certain voyeuristic fascination, thanks in no small part to the eccentricities of its central figure.

While it does render scientific and philosophical principles in a highly accessible format, the film is nonetheless a real chore to sit through.

While the experience may have been highly rewarding for its participants, viewers may be less than enthralled.

Feels padded in some places, truncated in others. It also feels too respectful, especially when its subject is such a deep thinker and questioner of authority.

Visual artist and filmmaker Matthew Barney's follow-up to his acclaimed "Cremaster" film series continues this provocateur's penchant for outrageous imagery and numbing non-narratives.

Aspires to the poetic but falls short because of a lack of dynamism.

Soulful performance by non-pro Pape Sidy Niang as the bicycle-riding police officer Z, gives the film a poetic tone, but cumulative impact is diffused rather than enhanced by the fractured form.

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.

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.

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.

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.

While the film is made in English by a mostly Greek crew, Buzz"seems geared to foreign audiences. The film's "historians" spend too much time explaining things about Hollywood that are common knowledge to many Americans.

While Highway Courtesans has many relevant points to make about the subjugation of women in impoverished societies, it lacks the focus and narrative momentum to sustain its admittedly brief running time.

A meticulously observed story about fathers and sons within the Argentine Jewish community...What the film desperately lacks, however, is any meaningful conflict. Thus, there is little story here.

The film doesn't really manage to sustain attention through its brief running time. But it is heartening to see that the filmmaker, now in his mid-80s, is as passionately engaged as ever.

The result isn't an unpalatable pudding but rather a fair-to-middling children's film that is half CG-animation and half live-action.

The filmmaker clearly has a gift for incisive characterizations and dialogue, but the overall impact of the vignettes is muted by an overall artificiality.

In her brave first feature, Bosnian writer-director Jasmila Zbanic tackles the theme of war's aftermath.

A performance film, but sadly the majority of the performers are not the acts that have played at the long-running pop festival over 35 years, but the exhibitionists who make up the crowd.

A frequently charming, if ultimately slight, coming-of-age tale.

Hartley's kooky cosmopolitan caper can never be accused of slumming, but the shift from dry, offbeat wit to politically charged drama is a little jarring, to say the least; it's a bit like taking in Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" and having it morph mid-way through into "Shadows and Fog."

Unfortunately, the music is as irresistible as the tired story of a musician succumbing to substance abuse is resistible.

A hyperactive, wishful-thinking special effects fantasy suitable for family outings.

The script by first-time director Li Yu and producer Fang Li introduces some degree of subtlety in the responses of the four principals, but the plot doesn't really hold up.

Too undernourished dramatically to make much of a splash. While it should earn some respectful reviews, audiences won't come away satisfied.

The plot development of Flash Point is purely utilitarian, like a shuttle bus that transports stock characters from one action set to another.

Alda actually is kind of interesting as the mentally unstable uncle, but Broderick appears to be sleepwalking. Madsen has little to do, and everyone else plays things far too broadly.

There's definitely a workable, reality TV-based angle at the core of Last Stop -- something along the lines of "No Reservations" but with scattered human remains instead of Anthony Bourdain.

Reveals itself to be far too stagebound to function effectively onscreen.

Martial-arts lovers may find it too arty, and art-film lovers, Wong's international fan base, may find it too generic and too violent.

This mildly engaging comedy drama has enough quirky charms to compensate for its rough spots.

How About You is not without its moments of insight, but its emotional arc is a straight line from A to B, a path made all the more obvious by the heart-tugging score.

Feels surprisingly tame, coming off more like an extended advertisement for Grecco's coffee table book of the same name.

So muted and internal in its focus that its entire running time feels like a preamble to a drama that never quite begins.

Part concert film, part narrative, it isn't fully successful on either level, coming across more like an overlong DVD extra than a fully stand-alone work.

The film may attract older moviegoers curious to see their generation represented onscreen doing what comes naturally for once. It's doubtful that the general audience will be so inclined.

As a spoof of against-all-odds sports movies, "Power" has its moments. But for most of its running time, it buys into the feel-good formula, aiming to blend silliness and social issues into an inspirational tale

Despite this promising subject matter, the film runs out of steam two-thirds of the way through and becomes a sort of Palestinian "Porky's," ending with a fast-forward 30 years into the future that is confusing and abrupt.

An odd little comedy drama set in Ireland that boasts more onscreen talent than it deserves.

In a way, the film ultimately gets snagged in its own contraption.

A low-key mystery that's initially engaging but ultimately lacks sufficient intrigue to sustain interest.

The story is riddled with salutes to executive producer David Lynch and the film seems pointed hopefully in the direction of Lynch's audiences.

Ricky is a bold, ambitious hybrid that only intermittently reaches the heights toward which it audaciously aims.

An Argentine comedy that, despite some interestingly offbeat moments, is unlikely to reach much commercial traction on these shores.

Family dysfunction has proved a rich resource for documentary filmmakers in recent years, but "October" lacks the narrative drive and emotional resonance of such examples of the genre as "Tarnation" and "Capturing the Friedmans."

Suffers from an awkward, plodding structure that robs it of much of its dramatic effect.

Fortunately, Lisa Crafts' colorful animation intermittently brings welcome charm and life to this otherwise dreary tale.

This academic, albeit beautifully shot, exercise will appeal mainly to those who like their Greek tragedy served with no frills or explanations and a bare minimum of dialogue.

A dramatic story, to be sure, but not exactly grippingly told by its first-time filmmaker.

The movie so deftly mixes sentimentality, romance and bathos in just the right measures that her fans and maybe new ones will enjoy the new Miley.