Slick superlobbyist Jack Abramoff is the colorful subject of Casino Jack a similarly slick and undeniably entertaining true-life D.C. crime story, boasting a robust Kevin Spacey performance.

A clever DIY comedy that could be this year's "Humpday" for art house audiences in search of characters they recognize from their own lives.

Hatchet II earns bragging rights with buckets of giddily over-the-top blood 'n' guts in sequences that are as gratuitous as they are amusingly ridiculous.

Not hurting matters for foreign and Indian film devotees, the film features two icons of Indian cinema, Madhur Jaffrey and Naseeruddin Shah.

The final act hits like a gut-punch. Worst fears are confirmed, and the protagonist faces a moral dilemma no father should have to confront. Kormakur and his writers give their protagonist no easy way out.

The most illuminating nuggets come from playwrights, authors and journalists, including Tony Kushner, Terrence McNally, Larry Kramer, Michael Cunningham, Paul Rudnick, Dan Savageand the late Dominick Dunne, who helped get the movie version made.

Despite some choppy transitions and a few melodramatic moments that don't work, the film casts an effective, deepening chill.

Although its sendup of L.A.'s shallow, self-absorbed show business culture is not exactly revelatory, the film does deliver solid laughs, many of them thanks to Philips' wittily provocative, surprisingly hostile confessional ditties.

It generally succeeds, too, thanks to a visually energetic approach by director Jon Chu that keeps all the obligatory backstage/onstage bits moving fluidly.

Director Jaume Collet-Serra provides a steady flow of suspense and a very Polanski-esque feeling of paranoia.

Not a particularly deep portrait of its iconoclastic subject, this loving documentary should be of interest to aging baby boomers with long memories.

Played for laughs drawn from characters rather than funny lines, the Norwegian film is a charmer with Stellan Skarsgard for once in a role worthy of his attention.

Fast-paced and episodic, the film at times provides such a torrent of information that it becomes more wearisome than enlightening.

The outcome is a flamingly sexy soap opera whose satire on high society is sometimes as savage as Claude Chabrol's "La ceremonie."

There's a hint of 'Twin Peaks' and a large helping of the Coen Bros. in this offbeat, cleverly crafted French thriller.

As an allegory on power, corruption and rough justice, it has flashes of intelligence and political acumen.

Compared to his stellar hit "Ip Man" - a biopic on the Wing Chun master who tutored Bruce Lee - Wilson Yip's more lavishly produced sequel Ip Man 2 is a fistful of hits and misses.

The predicable, overlong romantic farce has enough sass and sex appeal to appease fans of stars Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston.

The movie has a cheerful good nature and a solid cast of youngsters - including Aimee Teegarden and Thomas McDonell - but any resemblance between this and real high school is, of course, purely coincidental.

Hop delivers plenty of wit, verve and surreal mayhem to entice even the post-adolescent crowd into this jolly (and strangely Christmas-like) Easter egg hunt.

Successful to a point (though seemingly unaware of the chuckles it produces in between shrieks), the movie has strong prospects with genre audiences but won't spawn a phenomenon resembling the filmmakers' previous franchise.

Voice work across the board is top-notch, with the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am and Jamie Foxx adding sass to their smooth-talking bird buddies, and comic George Lopez solid as a party-loving toucan named Rafael.

The script makes no attempt to assert its plausibility or realism; it is, instead, refreshingly frank about what it is, a simple, workable framework for the melees and mayhem.

The co-screenwriter of "Kissing Jessica Stein" goes solo as writer and director with a romantic comedy that takes time to find its groove but steadily accumulates heart and humor.

Captain Jack Sparrow is back in excellent form for his fourth adventure in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which is more serious in the hands of a new director, Rob Marshall, and thanks to Penelope Cruz it's also a good deal sexier.

It's not exactly "The Hangover," but the dialogue and situations often get distinctly gamey.

The Eagle is an engaging, if straightforward and one-dimensional.

Although scattershot in its approach and relying a bit too heavily on cutesy animation, Orgasm Inc. is an eye-opening exposé.