Whatever its flaws, this is one of very few American films to deal with fundamentalist beliefs about predestination, faith, and sin with empathy and intellectual acuity.

If his ambitious first feature isn't entirely successful, it nevertheless poses genuinely provocative questions and opens a window into the way the 9/11 disaster looks from outside the U.S.

Despite a predictable plot and an abundance of stereotypes--the product of a surprisingly clunky script by Barry Levinson and Valerie Curtin--this is a well-meaning film with strong performances all around.

The one film to see on this most crucial subject.

OCTOPUSSY features the usual array of fine stunt work and special effects, and Adams' appearance marks the first time that a Bond woman was allowed an encore performance, but little is added that departs from the Bond formula.

Looks and sounds great, and is at its best when it isn't trying too hard to have fun.

Begun over seven years ago and described by the filmmaker as a work-in-progress, the documentary still feels a bit incomplete.

This southern-fried mess of poetic crime-movie cliches is redeemed by standout performances.

Stunning production design, smart pacing, and a well-handled romantic angle make for a seamless, if undemanding, entertainment.

A stylishly shot thriller with several hair-raising moments.

Powerful and disturbing on both a physical and mental level, The Brood is the first Cronenberg film to use name actors, and marked a significant progression in the director's exploration of biological horror.

A thrilling pseudo-expose on the corrupt inner workings of covert organizations.

Otto Preminger defied the Code with this pioneering look at drug addiction, featuring a stylish rendering of the post-war hipster milieu, a crisp jazz soundtrack, and a remarkable Sinatra.

In the end it all comes down to Mitchell. She turns in a truly harrowing performance that will leave you shaking.

Overall, the film feels a little stiff, perhaps because screenwriter Steven Peros adapted his own stage play. But the performances are a delight, especially Dunst's effervescent turn as Marion Davies.

The film's dispassionate examination of the shifts in Susan and Daniel's relationship as they drift from irritation to barely suppressed panic is at least as nerve wracking.

Eye-opening documentary by New Zealand filmmaker Alison Maclean.

An extremely funny, ultimately heartbreaking look at life in contemporary China.

Buck is a very audience-friendly film, provided that the audience is willing to let itself be taken along for a fairly manipulative ride.

This is the ultimate student film.... The film is a creative, ultra-low-budget effort with a good sense of place and character. Scorsese presents a detailed look at the lives of these confused boys struggling to become men in an oppressive environment.

Allen Loeb's first produced screenplay is an unvarnished treatment of death and its aftermath that's unusual for a Hollywood film.

It's lighter, funnier and violent, and it's not entirely without hope, making this tale of survival under horrendous conditions far more suitable for younger, more impressionable audiences.

The film's standout moments include a photographer's (Vittorio Congia) death in front of a moving train; a car chase the streets of Rome; a sequence involving poisoned milk (a clear tip of the black leather gloves to Alfred Hitchcock's 1941 Suspician); and a final rooftop battle between Giordani and the elusive killer. Morricone's music fits tightly into this sophomore suspenser by Italian giallo specialist Dario Argento.

Underneath the numerous entertaining cameos, not much is going on, and it shows. The film's terrific first half-hour can't sustain itself. Depp is nice to look at, but too diminutive to bring much force to his sexy biker. Locane is well, okay, but she's eclipsed at every turn by the marvelously vulgar Lords, who embraces the genre with the energy and anarchy of the much-missed Divine.

The loose, rambling conversations that substitute for action might be more interesting if any of the characters were capable of real introspection. But they're so shallow and distracted they can't even manage sustained navel-gazing, which makes their so-called relationships profoundly uninteresting.

This scrappy, ultra-low budget comedy, made in 19 days for $70,000 by North Carolina School of the Arts graduates Jody Hill, Danny McBride and Ben Best, comes with its own Cinderella tale: It debuted at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival but failed to find distribution until comedian Will Ferrell and his business partner, Adam McKay, championed it.

Set in Paris in 1975, this sensitive, low-key film is another exquisitely crafted volume in French director Benoit Jacquot's collection of films about young Frenchwomen at pivotal points in their lives.

Once the film gets bogged down in the outback, however, it comes to a virtual stop. Wenders seems to be saying something pretty banal about the emotional emptiness of the recorded image as opposed to the "real thing." If that's the point, why make a film at all?

Sectioned neatly into chapters with titles like "Mon petit frere" and "Ma mere," the film is perhaps a little too rigid, even by the conventions of road movies.

It's nothing less than an examination of the very meaning of family.

This warm, ultimately poignant film hoes its own row, and proves once again the diversity and vitality of contemporary Argentine film.

Smith's beautifully observed story of two young women learning how cruel and calculating the world -- and they -- can be is beautifully realized, and Garai stands out among a fine ensemble cast.

Its idiomatic wordplay and social satire is vintage Wilder, and the opening sequence where Dino performs in a nightclub is one of the funniest things that Wilder has ever done.

The overall effect of Demme's film is a little like experiencing Nazi prison camps through reruns of Hogan's Heroes, right down to the few bona fide laughs.

Miike's goofy, gallant, action-packed fantasy deserves to become a classic family film.

Romero paints a bleak picture of a bureaucracy that has nothing but contempt for the lives of private citizens, zealously harbors secrets, and gives unbelievable power to a basically incompetent military.

As contrived and pretentious as its title.

Ultimately, the film works best when viewed as a tone poem that examines the present through the prism of the past.

It's hard to tell whether Hyams' subjects are exceptionally nice guys or whether there's an excess of decency on the PBR circuit, but if even one were more conspicuously flawed, the film might be more compelling.

Complex, atypical Bogie performance is keynote for strong drama from Pulitzer-winning novel and Broadway show.

It's fun, fast-paced, educational entertainment that's fit for the whole family -- American boys included.

There are no laughs to be had here, though, unless you count nervous titters and frat-boy sniggers at the very thought of, you know.

Fast paced and engagingly acted.

More subtlety or quiet introspection might have lent greater credibility to the role, though Grant and Robinson unquestionably have made their point.

More mystery than comedy dominates this sometimes draggy production, whose script is less inspired than in previous THIN MAN efforts. The atmosphere and sets, along with stellar performances by the principals, can't offset a weak story.

Full of the lush, confusing images one comes to expect in a Nicolas Roeg film.

On the surface, True Lies is an affectionate homage to James Bond movies, ratcheted up to meet the action/adventure expectations of today's audiences.

A long, dark night o' slacker despair, courtesy of Richard Linklater and self-important blowhard Eric Bogosian.

It has a creepy power all its own.

The brothers' dark, all-star farce about sex, lies and surveillance is pretty damned funny.

The film's depiction of life among the salt of the earth is blandly cartoonish; and the "Super Sounds of the '70s" soundtrack meticulously matches songs to action, as though the filmmakers didn't trust viewers to figure out what these one-note characters were feeling.

The best parts of the film come when he (Doillon) just lets the camera roll and lets the kids be kids.

It's a documentary, but the filmmakers couldn't have scripted a more revealing microcosm of profiteering and exploitation.

First-time filmmaker Ben Younger makes not a single false move when delineating the merciless, high-testosterone world of boiler-room brokerages.

Spare, elegant and tailor-made for intense discussions over dark coffee, Boe's film is a slily bold and delightfully inventive variation on an age-old theme.

William Rose, with a stilted screenplay, and Stanley Kramer, make this dinner hour stand still--a really safe, lame melodrama.

Ron Howard's direction is carefully balanced, and he treats his characters with humanity and respect. Winkler turns in the best performance of his career, and Keaton is wonderful.

Lundgren, an inexpressive actor, is perfect as a graphic cipher: his face was made to be drawn in ink and filled in with broad washes of color. Carefully tended facial stubble trimmed to give him a skull-like appearance, Lundgren is truly impressive as a character defined by emotional emptiness.

The famed Medfield campus is the site for another romp courtesy of Walt Disney and producer Bill Anderson. The film, which pokes fun at the hype put out by cereal companies, has some of the students discovering a formula to give humans super strength.

A fine directorial debut from George Miller.

Made on a tight budget, the special effects are never very convincing, but the performances are all good. If you're willing to suspend disbelief, this is a neat thriller that's enjoyable from start to finish.

Universal Studios' elaborate and expensive remake of their classic 1925 silent horror film The Phantom of the Opera boasts fabulous sets, gorgeous costumes, and stunning Technicolor photography--but fails in the horror department, because of an excess of music and low comedy.

A genuine oddity, the film is exceedingly well shot by cinematographer Alfred Taylor and has a creepy PSYCHO-like feel about it as well as some nightmarish surrealism.

One of the better films concerning the tensions in Northern Ireland, THE OUTSIDER stars Craig Wasson as a young Irish-American inspired by his grandfather's patriotic tales of fighting the British years ago.

An interesting variation of the Frankenstein theme presented with fine production values.

Ultimately, Bubble is less important as a film than as an experiment in simultaneous cross-platform film distribution.

The story is familiar, but terrific performances and a vivid sense of place elevate it above the average teen-oriented picture.

Part horror, part comedy, THE LOST BOYS is a vampire thriller that brings some interesting twists to the genre, but is nearly defeated by director Joel Schumacher's heavy-handed efforts to bring an MTV-like sensibility to the traditionally gothic material. Despite its flaws, however, the film is an interesting addition to vampire cinema.

The standard British murder mystery is raised to a higher plateau by Hitchcock in STAGE FRIGHT, but still falters in comparison to the best of the master's works.

Although notorious in South Africa, Stander is little known elsewhere and Canadian director Bronwen Hughes' unsatisfying account of his life and crimes is unlikely to earn him a spot on the outlaw celebrity A-list.

Luckily, Towne has assembled a marvelous cast who somehow manage to keep the film moving, despite their obvious confusion over just what it is they're supposed to be feeling.

It's both very funny and very scary, and never descends to the level of spoof.

The performances are uneven and the loosely structured story never actually goes anywhere.

A wonderful premise that delivers solid laughs and has a heart as big as the state in which this farce unfolds.

Brutally gorgeous and seething with incendiary images.

The obvious product of a corporate search for the next great fantasy franchise, this adaptation of the first in a series of popular children's books by the writer-illustrator team of Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi is a lump of leaden whimsy.

Poignant documentary.

If Caspian has a fault, it's that viewers familiar with neither the books nor the first film may have trouble picking up the strands of the story in the early scenes… but in all honesty, how many Lewis neophytes will choose Caspian as their point of entry?

This western almost makes the grade as high-quality moviemaking, but just never quite gets there.

Old-fashioned fun that goes down as smoothly as a vintage cocktail.

Lewis is only slightly awful, and he and Depp have a nice rapport; Dunaway gives a particularly juicy performance; and Taylor is simply amazing, seemingly able to transform herself physically for every role she plays.

The plot is more of the same old running and screaming, but Weaver is worth the price of admission all by herself, which is just as well in light of the less-than-fleshed out characters by whom she's surrounded.

The title refers to the giant promotional sign for the Hollywoodland real-estate development that once loomed on the side of Mt. Cahuenga. Shorn of its last four letters 10 years before Reeves' death, it survives as the iconic Hollywood sign.

Competently directed by respected film editor Stuart Baird, it's a glossy production with plenty of Things That Go Boom, courtesy of producer/demolition expert Joel Silver.

Say what you will about (Smith's) sense of humor, genuine faith is rare enough in popular culture to make any sighting worthy of note.

The film's fish-out-of-water story line is a film comedy standard; what makes the picture work so well is Hogan's cheerful, weatherbeaten appeal.

The characters are two-dimensional types -- the good girl, the tough lesbian, the saintly mother -- but the cast gives its all. Just try not to get too distracted by the echoes of other movies, like DEAD END BOYZ N THE HOOD.

Does so many things right that it's a shame to see it sink into horror-movie cliches.

The giddy, "anything could happen" sense that made "Pulp Fiction" and "Reservoir Dogs" so viscerally exciting is missing here. But Tarantino's first picture in nearly three years is a faithful adaptation of Elmore Leonard's "Rum Punch," and its melancholy edge is a wistful delight.

Groundlings alumnus Prendergast's dark comedy, drawn from on his own family experiences, is firmly rooted in messy, selfish, often-unappealing human behavior rather than self-referential irony and juvenile goofiness.

Meanwhile Baldwin (bulked up a la DeNiro and playing totally against type), is a revelation, funny and touching.

This raw and raunchy drama from director Henrique Goldman offers what few feature films have ever bothered to attempt: a realistic, wholly sympathetic look at the lives of transgendered prostitutes.

The original Carly Simon songs are well performed, but their soothing lullaby qualities may cause those with short attention spans to nod off.

Moreau gives a beautifully sensitive performance as a woman who finds herself at a literal and figurative crossroads, a performance for which she was quite justly rewarded the Cesar Award in 2005.

Offers exactly what you've come to expect from the series: Bland but wholly innocuous family entertainment featuring a cute kid and an even cuter dog.

Director John Hough, who made his mark in several episodes of the popular television series The Avengers, keeps things moving at a brisk pace and stages the scenes of horror with considerable panache.

The most intelligent and perhaps the best filmic treatment of Edgar Rice Burroughs's classic pulp novels about Tarzan, the white child of noble blood raised by apes in the jungle, since Elmo Lincoln first brought the character to the screen in 1918.

The theme song, a wonderful Portuguese version of Bread's soft-rock classic "Everything I Own," is by Dinah, a long-forgotten Brazilian singing sensation of the 1970s who deserves to be better remembered.