I can’t imagine why anyone would plunge ahead with this project -- an adaptation of a classic no one reads, about characters no one could care about, directed by a filmmaker of little talent and less success.

In the end, the performances and the basic strength of the premise make Shadow of the Vampire a relatively diverting ninety minutes. But there is the inescapable feeling that it is a shadow of the great film it might have been.

It’s Del Toro who really gets to strut his stuff with a subtle, ambiguous, and riveting performance. In a field of top-notch actors, he’s the one whom you remember days later.

Greenwood gives a nuanced performance that may be the film's best work, but at times his surface dissimilarities to JFK are jarring.

Zemeckis is more interested here in getting us thinking (and feeling) than in telling us what to think.

In terms of cleverly hidden exposition, this ain't "The Sixth Sense."

Shallow characters the audience cares little about, an unbelievable situation rather than a potent plot, and, for those who don’t find men-in-pantyhose or poodle-poop jokes hilarious, not many funny lines.

In the real audience with which I watched it, the only laughs were from kids under eight or nine, mostly at hilarious "hooter" jokes.

Pretty hysterical.

Middlebrow art has its built-in pitfalls, not the least of them sentimentality and intellectual flabbiness -- both of which are in abundant supply in Bagger Vance.

Every so often, a movie comes along that is so bad, so unfunny, so incredibly awful that it redefines how you think about film. Stardom is just such a movie.

There are lots of elements that make no sense whatever.

Better to wait for movies like Bedazzled on video and watch Fraser in the theatre when he goes back to playing with Gods and Monsters instead of the Devil.

May well stand as his (Chan) final word on true martial arts cinema.

Belongs somewhere in the low middle of Altman's output -- not up to "Cookie's Fortune," but way better than, say, "Beyond Therapy," which remains his worst film by some margin.

It's the triumph of the human spirit in its never-ending quest to be an original no matter what the establishment says.

Kay doesn't seem to know the meaning of moderation.

If you give it half a chance, it will entertain you.

By the end, we simply have no idea what he (Lee) feels or what the film is really about. And we are too worn out to care.

Never before have two such skilled actors been so monstrously squandered in a movie so replete with failed gags and pathetic gaffs.

Chilling and technically proficient and, also, fairly hollow.

Confirms its place as one of the best first films in recent memory, and one of this year's very best films.

Perfectly effective when judged on its own merits, but is that really enough anymore?

Generally engaging.

I found myself roaring at the grotesque way some of the characters talk to their pets, pausing only briefly when I realized that I do precisely the same thing.

Scrappy, sappy, and appealing.

This is as close to a total wipeout as can be imagined.

Lacks just about everything on every level.

It more or less makes sense and it's not dull -- more than can be said for many similar attempts.

The journey -- long, dark, pungent, and twisted as it is -- is well worth the taking.

A must-see.

Worth watching.

What distinguishes The Watcher from all the films it consciously or unconsciously emulates is the intermittently witty, offbeat writing of debuting screenwriter David Elliot.

Its film school aesthetics and sophomoric storytelling are sense-deadening.

Endgame has become a nincompoop's travelogue, drenched in stage blood, fake beards, and crappy special effects.

Compellingly watchable.

A James Bond crib, minus the exotic locales, hot chicks, and finesse.

Jokes, cheerleading and a love story...not a bad way to spend a lazy afternoon.

Solidly entertaining if not remarkably innovative.

Although Steal This Movie isn't worth the price of admission, it is worth sneaking in to see D'Onofrio and Garofalo's splendid performances.

A must-see movie, simply for its awe-inspiring production values, but you'll feel nothing but punished by Tarsem's ghoulish parade of images.

About as much pure fun as you'll have in a movie theater this summer.

Pop junk, an airport paperback, literally, turned into a mid-budget devil thriller.

Not to be missed, one of the year's best, a whole lotta laughs, and 4-stars all rolled into one.

Mind-achingly mediocre in every regard.

A brilliant, haunting film.

Better in the end to skip it, and make Mother go it alone.

An enormously satisfying corndog of a movie.

Miss Piper single-handedly destroys what could have been a competent little movie about chicks being naughty and getting ahead.

The film becomes so much urgent nonsense, its killing spree neither cheaply thrilling nor even more cheaply cathartic. It's only gory.

Murphy still knows how to please a crowd.

Simply, one of the year's best films.

Confusing to anyone who's familiar with the word "plot."

Loser sucks.

As a whole, The Eyes of Tammy Faye funnily and lively serves to show that sometimes the best movie characters are real ones and sometimes the best Christians are ones who look like crack-whores.

It's some scary fun to watch.

A teen screamer with enough implants for the boys and enough bitchiness for the girls.

One of this year's most dazzling entertainments, not to mention one of the best comic-book movies ever made.

An utterly competent, systematically entertaining summer movie.

Reddin's script lacks the sophistication that might make the film's message about guns more than a 90-minute public service announcement with a good cast.

Offers, on a drop-by-drop basis, more semen than a Ron Jeremy flick.

The perfect example, of how the newest visual effects movies have the capacity to overwhelm everything--from actors to plotlines--except in the end, maybe, their audiences.

Rocky & Bullwinkle is the new millennium's "Howard the Duck."

Only so much (pop)cornball tubthumping, a sweeping, occasionally stirring, always gorgeous bit of action-figure history.

For me, the Farrelly Brothers never rise beyond the late-night tittering of kids at summer camp.

A movie that kids may want to see again and again, and adults will be happy to oblige.

Redeems itself with a bold and grungy action-adventure flavor.

Singleton's lack of influence makes Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" look far funkier in comparison.

Does boast, as a major plot point, a dog's bowel movement. And things do go 'boom!' quite spectacularly and frequently enough to distract from the truth that there is virtually nothing going on in this whole movie that Nintendo hasn't done better.

A frenetic, aggressively unfunny one-joke merging of "Beverly Hills Cop" and "Tootsie."

Inert, unfunny, and not even interesting as a dirty movie, 8 1/2 Women could well rank as one of the worst films of the year.

It is ultimately the film's reliance on this thumping action assault that keeps it from true summer-movie greatness.

Does exactly what it should: Take the wee ones on a vicarious trip through an adventure both visually terrifying and emotionally thrilling at the same time.

It's a comedic caper with a slap-your-head-in-kookiness that ends up making Allen, at this age, seem like an old man desperately still trying to ham it up at the dinner table.

A cinematic lowpoint, even within its decidedly lowbrow genre, the teen gross-out sex romp.

While movie reviewers like to throw around the line, "This is the worst movie I've ever seen," this movie may be the worst movie I've ever seen.

The only danger in seeing this film is in busting a gut at its unintentional hilarity.

A fabulous movie if you are a woman over 40 who likes to use the word "empowered" a lot.

What elevates Gladiator to the near-greatness it occasionally achieves is the performance of Russell Crowe as Maximus.

The Big Kahuna -- for its superb performances -- wants to be too much, but is about too little, working better as a series of fine monologues than as a cohesive story, the film's makers trapped somewhere between potential and reality, deal unclosed.

Succeeds at getting the viewer to buy into its premise, thanks to solid, often moving characterizations and the gripping way the plot is spun.

A bumpy synthesis of special and visual effects done far too over the top ultimately means Viva Rock Vegas is nothing more than eye candy, and not a very tasty piece at that.

Worthwhile performances (including cameos from Joan Cusack and Sally Field) and one-liners, but don't leave your home looking for Heart.

A disposable flick.

A thoroughly good war picture that is well worth seeing on the big screen in a cinema equipped with a first-rate sound system for the full sonic effect.

One major inappropriate casting decision (Kirsten Dunst, who's made a solid leap to young adulthood in "Dick" and "Drop Dead Gorgeous" is cast as 14-year-old Lux?) and an underdeveloped motive for the girls' self-demise left me unaffected.

What more can we ask from a romantic comedy?

A provocative success; wiping away the gore, Harron and Bale have found a mirror that forces us to look at ourselves and ask tough, disturbing questions -- which is ultimately what the best satire always does.

The saddest part about 28 Days is it's more fun when it's drunk.

The electrifying jolt that they gave to a moribund music scene, and British society in particular, is still riveting to watch.

Formulaic and pretty darn plodding.

The two leads are what sell it.

The B-movie is back, folks, but who knows how long the fun will last.

When worlds collide - people yawn.

Has neither the charm, plot nor visual splendor of its predecessors.

This skull is brainless.

High Fidelity’s hip structure and offbeat characters provide consistent laughs and a good time.

Gordon directs with a graceful precision and shorthand that makes the story seem simple, though it's anything but. Indeed, it's fascinatingly complex, juggling time periods and political, mystical, and psychological themes without ever losing touch with the core message: Love conquers all.