A revelation. One rarely sees American-made movies that are so unafraid to explore emotional cruelty and portray the consequences without positing easy answers or attaching happy endings.

We all love a good fairy tale, but the enchantment is missing in this predictable sequel.

This handsome movie works thanks to its lack of pretension and an atmosphere somewhat akin to the gentle wackiness of director Bill Forsyth's better works.

Shake it all up and you get Collateral, a movie with only one conceivable flaw: its disinclination to break new ground, though no one held that against "The Fugitive" more than a decade of Augusts ago.

Hunter is far too talented to waste her time with such mediocre material, as is co-star Kathy Bates, who plays Kippie Kann, an overbearing talk-show host.

For at least half the movie, you need a code book a few inches thick to decipher Code 46.

There's more terror than entertainment here, though. I've seen a lot of movies in my life I couldn't wait to see end; this may be the first good one.

A case of smart and talented people trying to jam a Cold War square into a Gulf War circle. You can feel the chafing, to say nothing of the burden this capably crafted shrug has taken on.

Fun at times and tedious at others, it's an action-adventure fantasy aimed particularly at gadget-loving boys.

The Village emerges as a victim of its own ambitions. At one point, Edward advises Ivy: "Do your very best not to scream." That doesn't require much restraint on our part.

The recent model for this kind of surreal jazz-riff comedy is Doug Liman's 1999 "Go," a neo-classic. But you know already from the director (Dude, Where's My Car?'s Danny Leiner) if this movie is for you. Leiner has cornered the recent market on low-rent farces.

Though unlikely to have the lasting quality of "The Graduate," it feels a bit like that seminal film for today's generation.

This 140-minute I-don't-know-what-it-is unravels like a ball of yarn after a bout with a tiger on Colombian catnip. Lee exhaust me.

This incarnation is funny, quirky and clever, with some mesmerizing action sequences.

Taut, tightly paced and thrilling, with some of the best chase sequences -- whether by foot, taxi or Jeep -- in recent memory.

Hisses for Catwoman. Unfortunately for Oscar winner Halle Berry, this movie belongs in the litter box.

The movie is really a lovely ensemble piece. Beautifully conceived and written by Michael Cunningham (Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours), the film has a distinctly novelistic and literate style.

Desperately conceived by even the most insipid standards of contemporary teen-queen cinema, A Cinderella Story operates under a rotting pumpkin of a supposition.

Performances, plot and pacing are as mechanical as the hard-wired cast.

Gracefully acted, and the story packs a powerful punch straight to the gut.

Jeff Bridges has enough demons in The Door in the Floor to jam a crowd scene, but the actor's sheer likability remains undiminished.

That he can make his anchorman chauvinistic, deluded and ridiculous but still manage to give him some humanity is testimony to Ferrell's comic talents.

Sleepover might appeal to 11- and 12-year-old fans of slumber parties, but it likely will leave their parents stifling a few dozen yawns.

A revelation: funny, fascinating and insightful.

For better or worse, but surely satisfying novelty needs, Jerry Bruckheimer's King Arthur is set much earlier than usual and against the crumbling Roman Empire, which may even (or not) be historically legitimate.

De-Lovely has its moments of delight. Its defects lie mostly in failing to fully delineate what made musical icon Cole Porter tick.

A movie this diminutive can be easily oversold, but we might see it on some year-end best lists. It eats at you, just like renewed love.

This is one of those moderately engrossing movies that seems to collapse all at once during the wrap-up, yet it's well-acted all around.