1 Even fans of Ismail Merchant 's work , I suspect , would have a hard time sitting through this one .	
1 Aggressive self-glorification and a manipulative whitewash .	
3 The Importance of Being Earnest , so thick with wit it plays like a reading from Bartlett 's Familiar Quotations	
1 There 's little to recommend Snow Dogs , unless one considers cliched dialogue and perverse escapism a source of high hilarity .	
3 I still like Moonlight Mile , better judgment be damned .	
3 A welcome relief from baseball movies that try too hard to be mythic , this one is a sweet and modest and ultimately winning story .	
4 Best indie of the year , so far .	
3 Do n't judge this one too soon - it 's a dark , gritty story but it takes off in totally unexpected directions and keeps on going .	
3 So could young romantics out on a date .	
0 Tartakovsky 's team has some freakish powers of visual charm , but the five writers slip into the modern rut of narrative banality .	
4 If a horror movie 's primary goal is to frighten and disturb , then They works spectacularly well ... A shiver-inducing , nerve-rattling ride .	
3 Less the sensational true-crime hell-jaunt purists might like and more experimental in its storytelling -LRB- though no less horrifying for it -RRB- .	
1 I 'm sure the filmmaker would disagree , but , honestly , I do n't see the point .	
4 Jones has tackled a meaty subject and drawn engaging characters while peppering the pages with memorable zingers .	
4 Bloody Sunday has the grace to call for prevention rather than to place blame , making it one of the best war movies ever made .	
0 Thanks largely to Williams , all the interesting developments are processed in 60 minutes -- the rest is just an overexposed waste of film .	
3 Mark Pellington 's latest pop thriller is as kooky and overeager as it is spooky and subtly in love with myth .	
0 Downright transparent is the script 's endless assault of embarrassingly ham-fisted sex jokes that reek of a script rewrite designed to garner the film a  cooler  PG-13 rating .	
3 is many things -- stoner midnight flick , sci-fi deconstruction , gay fantasia -- but above all it 's a love story as sanguine as its title .	
3 -LRB- An -RRB- absorbing documentary .	
1 The major problem with Windtalkers is that the bulk of the movie centers on the wrong character .	
3 All in all , it 's a pretty good execution of a story that 's a lot richer than the ones Hollywood action screenwriters usually come up with on their own .	
4 In IMAX in short , it 's just as wonderful on the big screen .	
0 Scarcely worth a mention apart from reporting on the number of tumbleweeds blowing through the empty theatres graced with its company .	
1 -LRB- Green is -RRB- the comedy equivalent of Saddam Hussein , and I 'm just about ready to go to the U.N. and ask permission for a preemptive strike .	
3 A surprisingly ' solid ' achievement by director Malcolm D. Lee and writer John Ridley .	
3 Changing Lanes tries for more .	
1 Shyamalan should stop trying to please his mom .	
1 A mawkish self-parody that plays like some weird Masterpiece Theater sketch with neither a point of view nor a compelling reason for being .	
2 Takes one character we do n't like and another we do n't believe , and puts them into a battle of wills that is impossible to care about and is n't very funny .	
4 300 years of Russian history and culture compressed into an evanescent , seamless and sumptuous stream of consciousness .	
3 The filmmakers want nothing else than to show us a good time , and in their cheap , B movie way , they succeed .	
2 It 's the unsettling images of a war-ravaged land that prove more potent and riveting than the unlikely story of Sarah and Harrison .	
3 Winds up being both revelatory and narcissistic , achieving some honest insight into relationships that most high-concept films candy-coat with pat storylines , precious circumstances and beautiful stars .	
2 A brilliant gag at the expense of those who paid for it and those who pay to see it .	
4 A triumph , a film that hews out a world and carries us effortlessly from darkness to light .	
1 Just about everyone involved here seems to be coasting .	
4 One of the year 's most weirdly engaging and unpredictable character pieces .	
4 Intriguing and downright intoxicating .	
1 It feels like very light Errol Morris , focusing on eccentricity but failing , ultimately , to make something bigger out of its scrapbook of oddballs .	
4 Spielberg 's realization of a near-future America is masterful .	
3 He 's one of the few ' cool ' actors who never seems aware of his own coolness .	
1 ... stale and uninspired .	
3 An uncluttered , resonant gem that relays its universal points without lectures or confrontations . '	
2 As any creature-feature fan knows , when you cross toxic chemicals with a bunch of exotic creatures , you get a lot of running around , screaming and death .	
1 Kim Ki-Deok seems to have in mind an -LRB- emotionally at least -RRB- adolescent audience demanding regular shocks and bouts of barely defensible sexual violence to keep it interested .	
2 A well-made but emotionally scattered film whose hero gives his heart only to the dog .	
2 Those who love Cinema Paradiso will find the new scenes interesting , but few will find the movie improved .	
2 ... the one thing this Wild film has that other Imax films do n't : chimps , lots of chimps , all blown up to the size of a house .	
3 This is a children 's film in the truest sense .	
1 An awkwardly contrived exercise in magic realism .	
1 The punch lines that miss , unfortunately , outnumber the hits by three-to-one .	
3 Evokes the style and flash of the double-cross that made Mamet 's  House of Games  and last fall 's  Heist  so much fun .	
1 There 's a great deal of corny dialogue and preposterous moments .	
1 If you saw it on TV , you 'd probably turn it off , convinced that you had already seen that movie .	
3 More sophisticated and literate than such pictures usually are ... an amusing little catch .	
4 It 's a fairy tale that comes from a renowned Indian film culture that allows Americans to finally revel in its splendor .	
1 A singularly off-putting romantic comedy .	
0 Would 've been nice if the screenwriters had trusted audiences to understand a complex story , and left off the film 's predictable denouement .	
3 An earnest , roughshod document , it serves as a workable primer for the region 's recent history , and would make a terrific 10th-grade learning tool .	
1 Cloaks a familiar anti-feminist equation -LRB- career - kids = misery -RRB- in tiresome romantic-comedy duds .	
3 His work transcends the boy-meets-girl posturing of typical love stories .	
1 An even more predictable , cliche-ridden endeavor than its predecessor .	
2 Or both .	
0 Ah , yes , that would be me : fighting off the urge to doze .	
4 Miyazaki is one of world cinema 's most wondrously gifted artists and storytellers .	
3 A chronicle not only of one man 's quest to be president , but of how that man single-handedly turned a plane full of hard-bitten , cynical journalists into what was essentially , by campaign 's end , an extended publicity department .	
3 At a time when commercialism has squeezed the life out of whatever idealism American moviemaking ever had , Godfrey Reggio 's career shines like a lonely beacon .	
3 Robert Harmon 's less-is-more approach delivers real bump-in - the-night chills -- his greatest triumph is keeping the creepy crawlies hidden in the film 's thick shadows .	
4 Sillier , cuter , and shorter than the first -LRB- as best I remember -RRB- , but still a very good time at the cinema .	
3 Not about scares but a mood in which an ominous , pervasive , and unknown threat lurks just below the proceedings and adds an almost constant mindset of suspense .	
3 A breezy blend of art , history , esoteric musings and philosophy .	
3 Now as a former Gong Show addict , I 'll admit it , my only complaint is that we did n't get more re-creations of all those famous moments from the show .	
4 The increasingly diverse French director has created a film that one can honestly describe as looking , sounding and simply feeling like no other film in recent history .	
3 One of those joyous films that leaps over national boundaries and celebrates universal human nature .	
2 A difficult but worthy film that bites off more than it can chew by linking the massacre of Armenians in 1915 with some difficult relationships in the present .	
1 Halfway through the movie , the humor dwindles .	
3 In fact , even better .	
2 Proves that some movie formulas do n't need messing with -- like the big-bug movie .	
2 An uplifting , largely bogus story .	
4 Superbly photographed and staged by Mendes with a series of riveting set pieces the likes of which mainstream audiences have rarely seen .	
1 It has become apparent that the franchise 's best years are long past .	
2 Screenwriter Chris ver Weil 's directing debut is good-natured and never dull , but its virtues are small and easily overshadowed by its predictability .	
0 The jokes are flat , and the action looks fake .	
0 Festers in just such a dungpile that you 'd swear you were watching monkeys flinging their feces at you .	
1 First , for a movie that tries to be smart , it 's kinda dumb .	
1 ... silly humbuggery ...	
1 Is n't as sharp as the original ... Despite some visual virtues , ' Blade II ' just does n't cut it .	
0 -LRB- A -RRB- rather thinly-conceived movie .	
4 Robinson 's web of suspense matches the page-turning frenzy that Clancy creates .	
3 A slight but sweet film .	
1 Time of Favor could have given audiences the time of day by concentrating on the elements of a revealing alienation among a culture of people who sadly are at hostile odds with one another through recklessness and retaliation .	
4 While maintaining the appearance of clinical objectivity , this sad , occasionally horrifying but often inspiring film is among Wiseman 's warmest .	
0 A dreary movie .	
1 Sadly , though many of the actors throw off a spark or two when they first appear , they ca n't generate enough heat in this cold vacuum of a comedy to start a reaction .	
1 To the filmmakers , Ivan is a prince of a fellow , but he comes across as shallow and glib though not mean-spirited , and there 's no indication that he 's been responsible for putting together any movies of particular value or merit .	
3 Using a stock plot , About a Boy injects just enough freshness into the proceedings to provide an enjoyable 100 minutes in a movie theater .	
3 Beating the Austin Powers films at their own game , this blaxploitation spoof downplays the raunch in favor of gags that rely on the strength of their own cleverness as opposed to the extent of their outrageousness .	
4 Judith and Zaza 's extended bedroom sequence ... is so intimate and sensual and funny and psychologically self-revealing that it makes most of what passes for sex in the movies look like cheap hysterics .	
0 ... irritating soul-searching garbage .	
4 It is a happy , heady jumble of thought and storytelling , an insane comic undertaking that ultimately coheres into a sane and breathtakingly creative film .	
2 There is more than one joke about putting the toilet seat down .	
2 has -RRB-	
0 It appears to have been made by people to whom the idea of narrative logic or cohesion is an entirely foreign concept .	
1 Nothing but an episode of Smackdown !	
1 Perhaps a better celebration of these unfairly dismissed heroes would be a film that is n't this painfully forced , false and fabricated .	
0 A relative letdown .	
2 The band performances featured in Drumline are red hot ... -LRB- but -RRB- from a mere story point of view , the film 's ice cold .	
1 A non-mystery mystery .	
1 Fails so fundamentally on every conventional level that it achieves some kind of goofy grandeur .	
2 Though uniformly well acted , especially by young Ballesta and Galan -LRB- a first-time actor -RRB- , writer / director Achero Manas 's film is schematic and obvious .	
2 For a movie audience , The Hours does n't connect in a neat way , but introduces characters who illuminate mysteries of sex , duty and love .	
1 Purports to be a Hollywood satire but winds up as the kind of film that should be the target of something deeper and more engaging .	
1 This is no  Waterboy ! 	
3 Bigelow offers some flashy twists and turns that occasionally fortify this turgid fable .	
0 Stupid , infantile , redundant , sloppy , over-the-top , and amateurish .	
0 The movie resolutely avoids all the comic possibilities of its situation , and becomes one more dumb high school comedy about sex gags and prom dates .	
4 With or without the sex , a wonderful tale of love and destiny , told well by a master storyteller	
3 Though it goes further than both , anyone who has seen The Hunger or Cat People will find little new here , but a tasty performance from Vincent Gallo lifts this tale of cannibal lust above the ordinary .	
1 Translation : ' We do n't need to try very hard . '	
4  Frailty  offers chills much like those that you get when sitting around a campfire around midnight , telling creepy stories to give each other the willies .	
4 Very well written and directed with brutal honesty and respect for its audience .	
4 Every individual will see the movie through the prism of his or her own beliefs and prejudices , but the one thing most will take away is the sense that peace is possible .	
4 Delia , Greta , and Paula rank as three of the most multilayered and sympathetic female characters of the year .	
1 The town has kind of an authentic feel , but each one of these people stand out and everybody else is in the background and it just seems manufactured to me and artificial .	
1 Julie Davis is the Kathie Lee Gifford of film directors , sadly proving once again ego does n't always go hand in hand with talent .	
1 To be oblivious to the existence of this film would be very sweet indeed .	
2 A porn film without the sex scenes .	
3  Barbershop  is a good-hearted ensemble comedy with a variety of quirky characters and an engaging story .	
4 Consistently clever and suspenseful .	
3 Cremaster 3 is at once a tough pill to swallow and a minor miracle of self-expression .	
4 I walked away from this new version of E.T. just as I hoped I would -- with moist eyes .	
0 -LRB- Carvey 's -RRB- characters are both overplayed and exaggerated , but then again , subtlety has never been his trademark .	
1 The rollerball sequences feel sanitised and stagey .	
1 A nearly 21 / 2 hours , the film is way too indulgent .	
1 Claims to sort the bad guys from the good , which is its essential problem .	
1 Good-looking but relentlessly lowbrow outing plays like Clueless Does South Fork .	
3 The concept is a hoot .	
2 The directive to protect the code at all costs also begins to blur as the importance of the man and the code merge	
0 Obvious , obnoxious and didactic burlesque .	
1 A little more intensity and a little less charm would have saved this film a world of hurt .	
3 Just bring on the Battle Bots , please !	
3 Sweet Home Alabama is n't going to win any Academy Awards , but this date-night diversion will definitely win some hearts .	
1 The young stars are too cute ; the story and ensuing complications are too manipulative ; the message is too blatant ; the resolutions are too convenient .	
1 A characteristically engorged and sloppy coming-of-age movie .	
4 A wry , affectionate delight .	
3 The auteur 's ear for the way fears and slights are telegraphed in the most blithe exchanges gives the film its lingering tug .	
1 Friday After Next is the kind of film that could only be made by African-Americans because of its broad racial insensitivity towards African-Americans .	
3 Definitely funny stuff , but it 's more of the ' laughing at ' variety than the ' laughing with . '	
4 An emotionally strong and politically potent piece of cinema .	
2 A puzzling experience .	
2 Jonah is only so-so ... the addition of a biblical message will either improve the film for you , or it will lessen it .	
0 ... in the pile of useless actioners from MTV schmucks who do n't know how to tell a story for more than four minutes .	
0 It is not the first time that director Sara Sugarman stoops to having characters drop their pants for laughs and not the last time she fails to provoke them .	
3 There is a strong directorial stamp on every frame of this stylish film that is able to visualize schizophrenia but is still confident enough to step back and look at the sick character with a sane eye .	
4 Captures the raw comic energy of one of our most flamboyant female comics .	
4 An exceptionally acted , quietly affecting cop drama .	
3 She nearly glows with enthusiasm , sensuality and a conniving wit .	
3 Despite modest aspirations its occasional charms are not to be dismissed .	
1 So exaggerated and broad that it comes off as annoying rather than charming .	
1 The film has the thrown-together feel of a summer-camp talent show : hastily written , underrehearsed , arbitrarily plotted and filled with crude humor and vulgar innuendo .	
2 The cast comes through even when the movie does n't .	
3 A rock-solid gangster movie with a fair amount of suspense , intriguing characters and bizarre bank robberies , plus a heavy dose of father-and-son dynamics .	
1 But its storytelling prowess and special effects are both listless .	
2 Newcomer helmer Kevin Donovan is hamstrung by a badly handled screenplay of what is really an amusing concept -- a high-tech tux that transforms its wearer into a superman .	
1 A processed comedy chop suey .	
4 A sexy , peculiar and always entertaining costume drama set in Renaissance Spain , and the fact that it 's based on true events somehow makes it all the more compelling .	
3 The Santa Clause 2 proves itself a more streamlined and thought out encounter than the original could ever have hoped to be .	
3 It 's a sweet , laugh-a-minute crowd pleaser that lifts your spirits as well as the corners of your mouth .	
2 -LRB- Raimi 's -RRB- matured quite a bit with Spider-Man , even though it 's one of the most plain white toast comic book films you 'll ever see .	
4 ... a powerful sequel and one of the best films of the year .	
3 Combines improbable melodrama -LRB- gored bullfighters , comatose ballerinas -RRB- with subtly kinky bedside vigils and sensational denouements , and yet at the end , we are undeniably touched .	
1 Not that any of us should be complaining when a film clocks in around 90 minutes these days , but the plotting here leaves a lot to be desired .	
1 Dignified CEO 's meet at a rustic retreat and pee against a tree .	
1 A sugar-coated Rocky whose valuable messages are forgotten 10 minutes after the last trombone honks .	
2 One gets the impression the creators of Do n't Ask Do n't Tell laughed a hell of a lot at their own jokes .	
1 Schrader aims to present an unflinching look at one man 's downfall , brought about by his lack of self-awareness .	
0 After that it becomes long and tedious like a classroom play in a college history course .	
0 While the story is better-focused than the incomprehensible Anne Rice novel it 's based upon , Queen Of The Damned is a pointless , meandering celebration of the goth-vampire , tortured woe-is-me lifestyle .	
3 The color sense of Stuart Little 2 is its most immediate and most obvious pleasure , but it would count for very little if the movie were n't as beautifully shaped and as delicately calibrated in tone as it is .	
2 Parts	
3 In visual fertility Treasure Planet rivals the top Japanese animations of recent vintage .	
0 As the movie dragged on , I thought I heard a mysterious voice , and felt myself powerfully drawn toward the light -- the light of the exit sign .	
3 This is a very ambitious project for a fairly inexperienced filmmaker , but good actors , good poetry and good music help sustain it .	
3 It 's mostly a pleasure to watch .	
4 Audiard successfully maintains suspense on different levels throughout a film that is both gripping and compelling .	
2 Skillful as he is , Mr. Shyamalan is undone by his pretensions .	
2 The real charm of this trifle is the deadpan comic face of its star , Jean Reno , who resembles Sly Stallone in a hot sake half-sleep .	
3 And there 's an element of heartbreak to watching it now , with older and wiser eyes , because we know what will happen after Greene 's story ends .	
1 Rather than real figures	
3 By no means a great movie , but it is a refreshingly forthright one .	
2 Show me the mugging .	
4 It 's a rollicking adventure for you and all your mateys , regardless of their ages .	
3 If you 're content with a clever pseudo-bio that manages to have a good time as it doles out pieces of the famous director 's life , Eisenstein delivers .	
4 A visual spectacle full of stunning images and effects .	
3 The difference is that I truly enjoyed most of Mostly Martha while I ne	
1 Limps along on a squirm-inducing fish-out-of-water formula that goes nowhere and goes there very , very slowly .	
2 A really funny fifteen-minute short stretched beyond its limits to fill an almost feature-length film .	
4 Writer and director Otar Iosseliani 's pleasant tale about a factory worker who escapes for a holiday in Venice reveals how we all need a playful respite from the grind to refresh our souls .	
0 A mechanical action-comedy whose seeming purpose is to market the charismatic Jackie Chan to even younger audiences .	
2 But I do .	
1 Director Jay Russell stomps in hobnail boots over Natalie Babbitt 's gentle , endearing 1975 children 's novel .	
2 It is an indelible epic American story about two families , one black and one white , facing change in both their inner and outer lives .	
3 ... -LRB- the film -RRB- works , due mostly to the tongue-in-cheek attitude of the screenplay .	
4 Muccino , who directed from his own screenplay , is a canny crowd pleaser , and The Last Kiss ... provides more than enough sentimental catharsis for a satisfying evening at the multiplex .	
4 An hour and a half of joyful solo performance .	
2 Better than the tepid Star Trek : Insurrection ; falls short of First Contact because the villain could n't pick the lint off Borg Queen Alice Krige 's cape ; and finishes half a parsec -LRB- a nose -RRB- ahead of Generations .	
0 It 's just rather leaden and dull .	
3 Although the subject matter may still be too close to recent national events , the film works - mostly due to its superior cast of characters .	
4 As an actress , Madonna is one helluva singer .	
3 The filmmakers ' eye for detail and the high standards of performance convey a strong sense of the girls ' environment .	
2 It wraps up a classic mother / daughter struggle in recycled paper with a shiny new bow and while the audience can tell it 's not all new , at least it looks pretty .	
0 or maybe  How will you feel after an 88-minute rip-off of The Rock with action confined to slo-mo gun firing and random glass-shattering ? 	
2 Only at the prospect of Beck 's next project .	
4 So vivid a portrait of a woman consumed by lust and love and crushed by betrayal that it conjures up the intoxicating fumes and emotional ghosts of a freshly painted Rembrandt .	
1 Dong never pushes for insights beyond the superficial tensions of the dynamic he 's dissecting , and the film settles too easily along the contours of expectation .	
1 A sleek advert for youthful anomie that never quite equals the sum of its pretensions .	
0 So boring that even its target audience talked all the way through it .	
4 -LRB- Dong -RRB- makes a valiant effort to understand everyone 's point of view , and he does such a good job of it that Family Fundamentals gets you riled up .	
4 -- but it makes for one of the most purely enjoyable and satisfying evenings at the movies I 've had in a while .	
3 The heart of the film is a touching reflection on aging , suffering and the prospect of death .	
3 When all is said and done , she loves them to pieces -- and so , I trust , will you .	
3 It takes you somewhere you 're not likely to have seen before , but beneath the exotic surface -LRB- and exotic dancing -RRB- it 's surprisingly old-fashioned .	
0 It 's petty thievery like this that puts flimsy flicks like this behind bars	
1 Paul Cox needed to show it .	
0 Nearly every attempt at humor here is DOA .	
2 A piquant meditation on the things that prevent people from reaching happiness .	
4 This movie is to be cherished .	
1 Too bland and fustily tasteful to be truly prurient .	
4 While Tattoo borrows heavily from both Seven and The Silence of the Lambs , it manages to maintain both a level of sophisticated intrigue and human-scale characters that suck the audience in .	
1 Once he starts learning to compromise with reality enough to become comparatively sane and healthy , the film becomes predictably conventional .	
3 The film is ... determined to treat its characters , weak and strong , as fallible human beings , not caricatures , and to carefully delineate the cost of the inevitable conflicts between human urges and an institution concerned with self-preservation .	
3 Producer John Penotti surveyed high school students ... and came back with the astonishing revelation that  they wanted to see something that did n't talk down to them . 	
4 Jones ... makes a great impression as the writer-director of this little $ 1.8 million charmer , which may not be cutting-edge indie filmmaking but has a huge heart .	
2 ... a visually seductive , unrepentantly trashy take on Rice 's second installment of her Vampire Chronicles .	
1 Twenty-three movies into a mostly magnificent directorial career , Clint Eastwood 's efficiently minimalist style finally has failed him .	
2 It 's like a  Big Chill  reunion of the Baader-Meinhof Gang , only these guys are more harmless pranksters than political activists .	
4 Ms. Hutchins is talented enough and charismatic enough to make us care about Zelda 's ultimate fate .	
2 It 's exactly what you 'd expect .	
1 It 's definitely not made for kids or their parents , for that matter , and I think even fans of Sandler 's comic taste may find it uninteresting .	
0 You can not guess why the cast and crew did n't sign a pact to burn the negative and the script and pretend the whole thing never existed .	
3 A stirring road movie .	
3 If you 've grown tired of going where no man has gone before , but several movies have - take heart .	
3 It has more than a few moments that are insightful enough to be fondly remembered in the endlessly challenging maze of moviegoing .	
1 It just goes to show , an intelligent person is n't necessarily an admirable storyteller .	
1 Steven Soderbergh does n't remake Andrei Tarkovsky 's Solaris so much as distill it .	
1 Anyone who wants to start writing screenplays can just follow the same blueprint from hundreds of other films , sell it to the highest bidder and walk away without anyone truly knowing your identity .	
2 New Yorkers always seem to find the oddest places to dwell ...	
1 Vaguely interesting , but it 's just too too much .	
1 The characterizations and dialogue lack depth or complexity , with the ironic exception of Scooter .	
3 dramatic snapshot	
2 What we get ... is Caddyshack crossed with the Loyal Order of Raccoons .	
4 Though few will argue that it ranks with the best of Herzog 's works , Invincible shows he 's back in form , with an astoundingly rich film .	
3 There are no special effects , and no Hollywood endings .	
4 From a deceptively simple premise , this deeply moving French drama develops a startling story that works both as a detailed personal portrait and as a rather frightening examination of modern times .	
2 It looks much more like a cartoon in the end than The Simpsons ever has .	
1 Upper Teens may get cynical .	
3 A small movie with a big heart .	
3 feeling to it , but like the 1920 's , the trip there is a great deal of fun .	
3 Essentially a collection of bits -- and they 're all naughty .	
2 Disney aficionados will notice distinct parallels between this story and the 1971 musical  Bedknobs and Broomsticks ,  which also dealt with British children rediscovering the power of fantasy during wartime .	
1 These guys seem great to knock back a beer with but they 're simply not funny performers .	
3 The Powerpuff Girls arrive on the big screen with their super-powers , their super-simple animation and their super-dooper-adorability intact .	
1 Coal is n't as easy to come by as it used to be and this would be a worthy substitute for naughty children 's stockings .	
3 If -LRB- Jaglom 's -RRB- latest effort is not the director at his most sparkling , some of its repartee is still worth hearing .	
3 Gives an intriguing twist to the French coming-of-age genre .	
3 I 'd be lying if I said my ribcage did n't ache by the end of Kung Pow .	
3 Has the capability of effecting change and inspiring hope .	
0 Kitschy , flashy , overlong soap opera .	
1 White has n't developed characters so much as caricatures , one-dimensional buffoons that get him a few laughs but nothing else .	
3 It may be a no-brainer , but at least it 's a funny no-brainer .	
3 -LRB- Allen 's -RRB- best works understand why snobbery is a better satiric target than middle-America diversions could ever be .	
1 It gives poor Dana Carvey nothing to do that is really funny , and then expects us to laugh because he acts so goofy all the time .	
3 If cinema had been around to capture the chaos of France in the 1790 's , one imagines the result would look like something like this .	
2 At the end of the movie , my 6-year-old nephew said ,  I guess I come from a broken family , and my uncles are all aliens , too . 	
3 Metaphors abound , but it is easy to take this film at face value and enjoy its slightly humorous and tender story .	
1 This Orange has some juice , but it 's far from fresh-squeezed .	
3 You need n't be steeped in '50s sociology , pop culture or movie lore to appreciate the emotional depth of Haynes ' work .	
2 Decasia is what has happened already to so many silent movies , newsreels and the like .	
4 More than anything else , Kissing Jessica Stein injects freshness and spirit into the romantic comedy genre , which has been held hostage by generic scripts that seek to remake Sleepless in Seattle again and again .	
2 Once again , the intelligence of gay audiences has been grossly underestimated , and a meaty plot and well-developed characters have been sacrificed for skin and flash that barely fizzle .	
3 Here is a VH1 Behind the Music special that has something a little more special behind it : music that did n't sell many records but helped change a nation .	
0 Interminably bleak , to say nothing of boring .	
3 Maintains your interest until the end and even leaves you with a few lingering animated thoughts .	
3 From blushing to gushing -- Imamura squirts the screen in ' Warm Water Under a Red Bridge '	
3 Affirms the gifts of all involved , starting with Spielberg and going right through the ranks of the players -- on-camera and off -- that he brings together .	
2 A somewhat disappointing and meandering saga .	
1 A cleverly crafted but ultimately hollow mockumentary .	
1 This is as lax and limp a comedy as I 've seen in a while , a meander through worn-out material .	
1 -LRB- A -RRB- mess .	
0 A work that lacks both a purpose and a strong pulse .	
3 The sword fighting is well done and Auteuil is a goofy pleasure .	
4 The IMAX screen enhances the personal touch of manual animation .	
1 The movie would seem less of a trifle if Ms. Sugarman followed through on her defiance of the saccharine .	
0 ' The War of the Roses , ' trailer-trash style .	
0 A fifty car pileup of cliches .	
4 Hopkins , squarely fills the screen .	
2 Everything its title implies , a standard-issue crime drama spat out from the Tinseltown assembly line .	
0 Before long , you 're desperate for the evening to end .	
4 -LRB- Ramsay -RRB- visually transforms the dreary expanse of dead-end distaste the characters inhabit into a poem of art , music and metaphor .	
2 A disturbing examination of what appears to be the definition of a ' bad ' police shooting .	
0 Every sequel you skip will be two hours gained .	
0 Lots of effort and intelligence are on display but in execution it is all awkward , static , and lifeless rumblings .	
3 The subtitled costume drama is set in a remote African empire before cell phones , guns , and the internal combustion engine , but the politics that thump through it are as timely as tomorrow .	
3 Davis is funny , charming and quirky in her feature film acting debut as Amy .	
0 An uncomfortable movie , suffocating and sometimes almost senseless , The Grey Zone does have a center , though a morbid one .	
2 When you think you 've figured out Bielinsky 's great game , that 's when you 're in the most trouble : He 's the con , and you 're just the mark .	
4 Swimming is above all about a young woman 's face , and by casting an actress whose face projects that woman 's doubts and yearnings , it succeeds .	
2 You want to call Domino 's .	
3  the road paved with good intentions leads to the video store 	
3 Chris Columbus ' sequel is faster , livelier and a good deal funnier than his original .	
2 The whole affair is as predictable as can be .	
3 But it also has many of the things that made the first one charming .	
2 Sheridan	
3 This slight premise ... works because of the ideal casting of the masterful British actor Ian Holm as the aged Napoleon .	
1 It is most of the things Costner movies are known for ; it 's sanctimonious , self-righteous and so eager to earn our love that you want to slap it .	
4 This is a very funny , heartwarming film .	
4 I was amused and entertained by the unfolding of Bielinsky 's cleverly constructed scenario , and greatly impressed by the skill of the actors involved in the enterprise .	
3 For most of the distance the picture provides a satisfyingly unsettling ride into the dark places of our national psyche .	
2 The respective charms of Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant have worn threadbare .	
3 ... enthusiastically invokes the percussion rhythm , the brass soul and the sense of fierce competition that helps make great marching bands half the fun of college football games .	
3 What 's invigorating about it is that it does n't give a damn .	
3 Star / producer Salma Hayek and director Julie Taymor have infused Frida with a visual style unique and inherent to the titular character 's paintings and in the process created a masterful work of art of their own .	
3 This one is not nearly as dreadful as expected .	
1 But ... in trying to capture the novel 's deeper intimate resonances , the film has -- ironically - distanced us from the characters .	
3 Real Women Have Curves wears its empowerment on its sleeve but even its worst harangues are easy to swallow thanks to remarkable performances by Ferrera and Ontiveros .	
1 There 's a whole heap of nothing at the core of this slight coming-of-age / coming-out tale .	
0 It 's probably not easy to make such a worthless film ...	
3 The creative animation work may not look as fully ' rendered ' as Pixar 's industry standard , but it uses lighting effects and innovative backgrounds to an equally impressive degree .	
2 Clever but not especially compelling .	
1 ... if it had been only half-an-hour long or a TV special , the humor would have been fast and furious -- at ninety minutes , it drags .	
1 It drowns in sap .	
2 ' Rare Birds ' tries to force its quirkiness upon the audience .	
4 A solid and refined piece of moviemaking imbued with passion and attitude .	
1 Bland but harmless .	
3 It 's good to see Michael Caine whipping out the dirty words and punching people in the stomach again .	
3 The film exudes the urbane sweetness that Woody Allen seems to have bitterly forsaken .	
0 There 's not a comedic moment in this romantic comedy .	
1 I admire it and yet can not recommend it , because it overstays its natural running time .	
0 An incredibly irritating comedy about thoroughly vacuous people ... manages to embody the worst excesses of nouvelle vague without any of its sense of fun or energy .	
1 Wait to see it then .	
2 -- was a fad that had long since vanished .	
1 An uneasy mix of run-of-the-mill raunchy humor and seemingly sincere personal reflection .	
1 Should have been worth cheering as a breakthrough but is devoid of wit and humor .	
1 Stone seems to have a knack for wrapping the theater in a cold blanket of urban desperation .	
1 That 's muy loco , but no more ridiculous than most of the rest of  Dragonfly . 	
1 Any attempts at nuance given by the capable cast is drowned out by director Jon Purdy 's sledgehammer sap .	
3 For every cheesy scene , though , there is a really cool bit -- the movie 's conception of a future-world holographic librarian -LRB- Orlando Jones -RRB- who knows everything and answers all questions , is visually smart , cleverly written , and nicely realized .	
4 The mark of a respectable summer blockbuster is one of two things : unadulterated thrills or genuine laughs .	
2 As a hybrid teen thriller and murder mystery , Murder by Numbers fits the profile too closely .	
3 Alternately frustrating and rewarding .	
1 It merely indulges in the worst elements of all of them .	
3 The fascination comes in the power of the Huston performance , which seems so larger than life and yet so fragile , and in the way the Ivan character accepts the news of his illness so quickly but still finds himself unable to react .	
2 The film tries to touch on spousal abuse but veers off course and becomes just another revenge film .	
3 -LRB- Stephen -RRB- Earnhart 's film is more about the optimism of a group of people who are struggling to give themselves a better lot in life than the ones they currently have .	
1 Queen of the Damned as you might have guessed , makes sorry use of Aaliyah in her one and only starring role -- she does little here but point at things that explode into flame .	
4 The modern master of the chase sequence returns with a chase to end all chases	
2 into Scrooge .	
1 A baffling mixed platter of gritty realism and magic realism with a hard-to-swallow premise .	
1 -LRB- I -RRB- t 's certainly laudable that the movie deals with hot-button issues in a comedic context , but Barbershop is n't as funny as it should be .	
3 But once the falcon arrives in the skies above Manhattan , the adventure is on red alert .	
4 A fascinating literary mystery story with multiple strands about the controversy of who really wrote Shakespeare 's plays .	
1 Unless there are zoning ordinances to protect your community from the dullest science fiction , Impostor is opening today at a theater near you .	
4 finely crafted , finely written , exquisitely performed	
3 It does n't matter that the film is less than 90 minutes .	
3 Its sheer dynamism is infectious .	
2 Troll the cult section of your local video store for the real deal .	
1 It does n't offer audiences any way of gripping what its point is , or even its attitude toward its subject .	
1 A loquacious and dreary piece of business .	
1 -LRB- A -RRB- slummer .	
1 Ultimately , in the history of the Academy , people may be wondering what all that jazz was about  Chicago  in 2002 .	
1 The direction occasionally rises to the level of marginal competence , but for most of the film it is hard to tell who is chasing who or why .	
1 ... this story gets sillier , not scarier , as it goes along ...	
2 You can thank me for this .	
1 Despite its Hawaiian setting , the science-fiction trimmings and some moments of rowdy slapstick , the basic plot of  Lilo  could have been pulled from a tear-stained vintage Shirley Temple script .	
3 The sheer joy and pride they took in their work -- and in each other -- shines through every frame .	
3 Filmmaker Stacy Peralta has a flashy editing style that does n't always jell with Sean Penn 's monotone narration , but he respects the material without sentimentalizing it .	
3 Although commentary on Nachtwey is provided ... it 's the image that really tells the tale .	
4 LaBute masterfully balances both Traditional or Modern stories together in a manner that one never overwhelms the other .	
1 Anemic , pretentious .	
1 There might be some sort of credible gender-provoking philosophy submerged here , but who the hell cares ?	
1  -LRB- Hopkins -RRB- does n't so much phone in his performance as fax it .	
4 ... is funny in the way that makes you ache with sadness -LRB- the way Chekhov is funny -RRB- , profound without ever being self-important , warm without ever succumbing to sentimentality .	
1 Ultimately too repellent to fully endear itself to American art house audiences , but it is notable for its stylistic austerity and forcefulness .	
1 This feature is about as necessary as a hole in the head	
3 This filmed Tosca -- not the first , by the way -- is a pretty good job , if it 's filmed Tosca that you want .	
0 The plot is paper-thin and the characters are n't interesting enough to watch them go about their daily activities for two whole hours .	
3 I like that Smith , he 's not making fun of these people , he 's not laughing at them .	
3 It throws quirky characters , odd situations , and off-kilter dialogue at us , all as if to say ,  Look at this !	
0 It 's hard to understand why anyone in his right mind would even think to make the attraction a movie .	
3 An intense and effective film about loneliness and the chilly anonymity of the environments where so many of us spend so much of our time .	
3 It 's still a comic book , but Maguire makes it a comic book with soul .	
1 Where the film falters is in its tone .	
4 Amazing !	
4 A live-wire film that never loses its ability to shock and amaze .	
4 The large-format film is well suited to capture these musicians in full regalia and the incredible IMAX sound system lets you feel the beat down to your toes .	
1 Even bigger and more ambitious than the first installment , Spy Kids 2 looks as if it were made by a highly gifted 12-year-old instead of a grown man .	
0 The leads are so unmemorable , despite several attempts at lengthy dialogue scenes , that one eventually resents having to inhale this gutter romancer 's secondhand material .	
3 The heat of the moment prevails .	
1 Bigelow handles the nuclear crisis sequences evenly but milks drama when she should be building suspense , and drags out too many scenes toward the end that should move quickly .	
3 If you have n't seen the film lately , you may be surprised at the variety of tones in Spielberg 's work .	
1 The movie 's biggest shocks come from seeing former nymphette Juliette Lewis playing a salt-of-the-earth mommy named Minnie and watching Slim travel incognito in a ridiculous wig no respectable Halloween costume shop would ever try to sell .	
1 A timid , soggy near miss .	
1 hard as this may be to believe , Here on Earth , a surprisingly similar teen drama , was a better film .	
3 It 's far from a frothy piece , and the characters are complex , laden with plenty of baggage and tinged with tragic undertones .	
2 The execution is so pedestrian that the most positive comment we can make is that Rob Schneider actually turns in a pretty convincing performance as a prissy teenage girl .	
3 Oh , look at that clever angle !	
0 A crass and insulting homage to great films like Some Like It Hot and the John Wayne classics .	
3 I do n't know if Frailty will turn Bill Paxton into an A-list director , but he can rest contentedly with the knowledge that he 's made at least one damn fine horror movie .	
0 This movie , a certain scene in particular , brought me uncomfortably close to losing my lunch .	
4 An energizing , intoxicating documentary charting the rise of hip-hop culture in general and the art of scratching -LRB- or turntablism -RRB- in particular .	
1 ... for all its social and political potential , State Property does n't end up being very inspiring or insightful .	
3 Other than the slightly flawed -LRB- and fairly unbelievable -RRB- finale , everything else is top shelf .	
3 And it sees those relationships , including that between the son and his wife , and the wife and the father , and between the two brothers , with incredible subtlety and acumen .	
3 A seriocomic debut of extravagant promise by Georgian-Israeli director Dover Kosashvili .	
1 The movie eventually snaps under the strain of its plot contrivances and its need to reassure .	
4 Maelstrom is strange and compelling , engrossing and different , a moral tale with a twisted sense of humor .	
3 A touching , small-scale story of family responsibility and care in the community .	
1 Boasts eye-catching art direction but has a forcefully quirky tone that quickly wears out its limited welcome .	
3 This is a smart movie that knows its classical music , knows its Freud and knows its Sade .	
4 Their work is fantastic .	
2 near the end takes on a whole other meaning .	
1 It plods along methodically , somehow under the assumption that its  dead wife communicating from beyond the grave  framework is even remotely new or interesting .	
2 A virtual roller-coaster ride of glamour and sleaze .	
0 The problem is that it is one that allows him to churn out one mediocre movie after another .	
4 unpretentious , charming , quirky , original	
3 Where Janice Beard falters in its recycled aspects , implausibility , and sags in pace , it rises in its courageousness , and comedic employment .	
1 The movie is as padded as Allen 's jelly belly .	
4 An intelligently made -LRB- and beautifully edited -RRB- picture that at the very least has a spark of life to it -- more than you can say for plenty of movies that flow through the Hollywood pipeline without a hitch .	
3 The unexplored story opportunities of  Punch-Drunk Love  may have worked against the maker 's minimalist intent but it is an interesting exercise by talented writer / director Anderson .	
3 Rock solid family fun out of the gates , extremely imaginative through out , but wanes in the middle	
3 The Scorpion King is more fun than Conan the Barbarian .	
1 All the more disquieting for its relatively gore-free allusions to the serial murders , but it falls down in its attempts to humanize its subject .	
1 Once the downward spiral comes to pass , Auto Focus bears out as your typical junkie opera ...	
1 In the book-on-tape market , the film of  The Kid Stays in the Picture  would be an abridged edition	
1 After an hour and a half of wondering -- sometimes amusedly , sometimes impatiently -- just what this strenuously unconventional movie is supposed to be , you discover that the answer is as conventional as can be .	
3 An ebullient Tunisian film about the startling transformation of a tradition-bound widow who is drawn into the exotic world of belly dancing .	
2 A Frankenstein mishmash that careens from dark satire to cartoonish slapstick , Bartleby performs neither one very well .	
3 Though filmed partly in Canada , Paid in Full has clever ways of capturing inner-city life during the Reagan years .	
0 The Sweetest Thing leaves a bitter taste .	
1 The satire is just too easy to be genuinely satisfying .	
4 -LRB- A -RRB- real pleasure in its laid-back way .	
0 Aloof and lacks any real raw emotion , which is fatal for a film that relies on personal relationships .	
2 Otherwise , maybe .	
3 If you answered yes , by all means enjoy The New Guy .	
4 He does this so well you do n't have the slightest difficulty accepting him in the role .	
3 The premise of Jason X is silly but strangely believable .	
1 The star who helped give a spark to  Chasing Amy  and  Changing Lanes  falls flat as thinking man CIA agent Jack Ryan in this summer 's new action film ,  The Sum of All Fears . 	
3 A playful Iranian parable about openness , particularly the need for people of diverse political perspectives to get along despite their ideological differences .	
2 If only there were one for this kind of movie .	
0 Strong filmmaking requires a clear sense of purpose , and in that oh-so-important category , The Four Feathers comes up short .	
3 Nothing overly original , mind you , but solidly entertaining .	
4 At its best , this is grand-scale moviemaking for a larger-than-life figure , an artist who has been awarded mythic status in contemporary culture .	
3 It 's fun , but it 's a real howler .	
0 A semi-autobiographical film that 's so sloppily written and cast that you can not believe anyone more central to the creation of Bugsy than the caterer had anything to do with it .	
3 Like many Western action films , this thriller is too loud and thoroughly overbearing , but its heartfelt concern about North Korea 's recent past and South Korea 's future adds a much needed moral weight .	
4 The actors are fantastic .	
1 Call me a cynic , but there 's something awfully deadly about any movie with a life-affirming message .	
2 I have no problem with  difficult  movies , or movies that ask the audience to meet them halfway and connect the dots instead of having things all spelled out .	
3 By surrounding us with hyper-artificiality , Haynes makes us see familiar issues , like racism and homophobia , in a fresh way .	
1 Full Frontal , which opens today nationwide , could almost be classified as a movie-industry satire , but it lacks the generous inclusiveness that is the genre 's definitive , if disingenuous , feature .	
4 ' Drumline ' shows a level of young , Black manhood that is funny , touching , smart and complicated .	
4 This sensitive , smart , savvy , compelling coming-of-age drama delves into the passive-aggressive psychology of co-dependence and the struggle for self-esteem .	
3 As Hannibal would say , yes , ' It 's like having an old friend for dinner ' .	
3 Williams absolutely nails Sy 's queasy infatuation and overall strangeness .	
1 Paul Bettany is good at being the ultra-violent gangster wannabe , but the movie is certainly not number 1 .	
0 Personally , I 'd rather watch them on the Animal Planet .	
0 An annoying orgy of excess and exploitation that has no point and goes nowhere .	
3 This deeply spiritual film taps into the meaning and consolation in afterlife communications .	
3 The power of Shanghai Ghetto , a documentary by Dana Janklowicz-Mann and Amir Mann , rests in the voices of men and women , now in their 70s , who lived there in the 1940s .	
0 There is nothing redeeming about this movie .	
3 It 's a spectacular performance - ahem , we hope it 's only acting .	
3 If you like an extreme action-packed film with a hint of humor , then Triple X marks the spot .	
3 The film is saved from are n't - kids-cute sentimentality by a warmth that is n't faked and a stately sense of composition .	
1 A few pieces of the film buzz and whir ; very little of it actually clicks .	
3 Like any good romance , Son of the Bride , proves it 's never too late to learn .	
4 What a concept , what an idea , what a thrill ride .	
3 And , thanks to the presence of ' the King , ' it also rocks .	
3 I do n't feel the least bit ashamed in admitting that my enjoyment came at the expense of seeing justice served , even if it 's a dish that 's best served cold .	
3 The performances are strong , though the subject matter demands acting that borders on hammy at times .	
3 It has a caffeinated , sloppy brilliance , sparkling with ideas you wish had been developed with more care , but animated by an energy that puts the dutiful efforts of more disciplined grade-grubbers to shame .	
3 Birot creates a drama with such a well-defined sense of place and age -- as in , 15 years old -- that the torments and angst become almost as operatic to us as they are to her characters .	
1 Toward the end Sum of All Fears morphs into a mundane '70s disaster flick .	
3 The tasteful little revision works wonders , enhancing the cultural and economic subtext , bringing richer meaning to the story 's morals .	
0 I liked the original short story but this movie , even at an hour and twenty-some minutes , it 's too long and it goes nowhere .	
0 ... a sour little movie at its core ; an exploration of the emptiness that underlay the relentless gaiety of the 1920 's ... The film 's ending has a  What was it all for ? 	
1 Check your brain and your secret agent decoder ring at the door because you do n't want to think too much about what 's going on .	
2 In my opinion , Analyze That is not as funny or entertaining as Analyze This , but it is a respectable sequel .	
0 A generic bloodbath that often becomes laughably unbearable when it is n't merely offensive .	
3 Quitting offers piercing domestic drama with spikes of sly humor .	
3 An improvement on the feeble examples of big-screen Poke-mania that have preceded it .	
3 You wo n't have any trouble getting kids to eat up these Veggies .	
1 Overwrought , melodramatic bodice-ripper .	
2 Steers has an unexpectedly adamant streak of warm-blooded empathy for all his disparate Manhattan denizens -- especially the a \*\* holes .	
2 These two are generating about as much chemistry as an Iraqi factory poised to receive a UN inspector .	
3 This familiar rise-and-fall tale is long on glamour and short on larger moralistic consequences , though it 's told with sharp ears and eyes for the tenor of the times .	
0 Even the hastily and amateurishly drawn animation can not engage .	
1 Plodding , peevish and gimmicky .	
0 To say that this vapid vehicle is downright doltish and uneventful is just as obvious as telling a country skunk that he has severe body odor .	
0 It 's crap on a leash -- far too polite to scale the lunatic heights of Joe Dante 's similarly styled Gremlins .	
4 At 78 minutes it just zings along with vibrance and warmth .	
4 You have to see it .	
0 If ever such a dependable concept was botched in execution , this is it .	
1 ... while the humor aspects of ' Jason X ' were far more entertaining than I had expected , everything else about the film tanks .	
3 Stevens ' vibrant creative instincts are the difference between this and countless other flicks about guys and dolls .	
1 There 's an excellent 90-minute film here ; unfortunately , it runs for 170 .	
4 Brian Tufano 's handsome widescreen photography and Paul Grabowsky 's excellent music turn this fairly parochial melodrama into something really rather special .	
2 Old people will love this movie , and I mean that in the nicest possible way : Last Orders will touch the heart of anyone old enough to have earned a 50-year friendship .	
3 These characters are so well established that the gang feels comfortable with taking insane liberties and doing the goofiest stuff out of left field , and I 'm all for that .	
1 A sometimes incisive and sensitive portrait that is undercut by its awkward structure and a final veering toward melodrama .	
1 Too intensely focused on the travails of being Hal Hartley to function as pastiche , No Such Thing is Hartley 's least accessible screed yet .	
4 A simple tale of an unlikely friendship , but thanks to the gorgeous locales and exceptional lead performances , it has considerable charm .	
3 Yes , soar .	
2 Qutting may be a flawed film , but it is nothing if not sincere .	
1 A painfully slow cliche-ridden film filled with more holes than Clyde Barrow 's car .	
3 Nicole Kidman evolved from star to superstar some time over the past year , which means that Birthday Girl is the kind of quirkily appealing minor movie she might not make for a while .	
2 It seems Grant does n't need the floppy hair and the self-deprecating stammers after all .	
1 Predecessors The Mummy and The Mummy Returns stand as intellectual masterpieces next to The Scorpion King .	
1 A really good premise is frittered away in middle-of-the-road blandness .	
4 The Pianist -LRB- is -RRB- a supremely hopeful cautionary tale of war 's madness remembered that we , today , can prevent its tragic waste of life .	
1 Seems like someone going through the motions .	
1 At once overly old-fashioned in its sudsy plotting and heavy-handed in its effort to modernize it with encomia to diversity and tolerance .	
2 Another in a long line of ultra-violent war movies , this one is not quite what it could have been as a film , but the story and theme make up for it .	
3 The concert footage is stirring , the recording sessions are intriguing , and -- on the way to striking a blow for artistic integrity -- this quality band may pick up new admirers .	
3 There are a couple of things that elevate  Glory  above most of its ilk , most notably the mere presence of Duvall .	
1 An ugly , revolting movie .	
3 It never quite makes it to the boiling point , but manages to sustain a good simmer for most of its running time .	
2 The main problem being that it 's only a peek .	
0 It 's simply stupid , irrelevant and deeply , truly , bottomlessly cynical .	
1 If you 're not fans of the adventues of Steve and Terri , you should avoid this like the dreaded King Brown snake .	
2 Wait for pay per view or rental but do n't dismiss BarberShop out of hand .	
0 So bland and utterly forgettable that it might as well have been titled Generic Jennifer Lopez Romantic Comedy .	
4 And thanks to Kline 's superbly nuanced performance , that pondering is highly pleasurable .	
2 The film was n't preachy , but it was feminism by the book .	
3 A lot more dimensional and complex than its sunny disposition would lead you to believe .	
4 Miller comes at film with bracing intelligence and a vision both painterly and literary .	
0 Deep down , I realized the harsh reality of my situation : I would leave the theater with a lower I.Q. than when I had entered .	
1 ... Liotta is put in an impossible spot because his character 's deceptions ultimately undo him and the believability of the entire scenario .	
4 Vividly demonstrates that the director of such Hollywood blockbusters as Patriot Games can still turn out a small , personal film with an emotional wallop .	
3 Oddly compelling .	
1 Apparently designed as a reverie about memory and regret , but the only thing you 'll regret is remembering the experience of sitting through it .	
1 Bad company .	
4 An engrossing and infectiously enthusiastic documentary .	
4 Its gentle , touching story creeps into your heart .	
2 The Fast Runner ' transports the viewer into an unusual space	
1 Every joke is repeated at least four times .	
2 What you end up getting is the Vertical Limit of surfing movies - memorable stunts with lots of downtime in between .	
3 Should be required viewing for civics classes and would-be public servants alike .	
4 Noyce has worked wonders with the material .	
3 , is a temporal inquiry that shoulders its philosophical burden lightly .	
2 On a certain base level , Blue Crush delivers what it promises , just not well enough to recommend it .	
1 Gussied up with so many distracting special effects and visual party tricks that it 's not clear whether we 're supposed to shriek or laugh .	
0 The movie is concocted and carried out by folks worthy of scorn , and the nicest thing I can say is that I ca n't remember a single name responsible for it .	
2 The impulses that produced this project ... are commendable , but the results are uneven .	
4 Hugely entertaining from start to finish , featuring a fall from grace that still leaves shockwaves , it will gratify anyone who has ever suspected Hollywood of being overrun by corrupt and hedonistic weasels .	
0 A loud , brash and mainly unfunny high school comedy .	
1 The movie 's something-borrowed construction feels less the product of loving , well integrated homage and more like a mere excuse for the wan , thinly sketched story .	
1 The movie keeps coming back to the achingly unfunny Phonce and his several silly subplots .	
2 ... a mostly boring affair with a confusing sudden finale that 's likely to irk viewers .	
3 The humor and humanity of Monsoon Wedding are in perfect balance .	
2 What begins as a film in the tradition of The Graduate quickly switches into something more recyclable than significant .	
1 Apparently reassembled from the cutting-room floor of any given daytime soap .	
4 The universal theme of becoming a better person through love has never been filmed more irresistibly than in ' Baran . '	
1 American and European cinema has amassed a vast Holocaust literature , but it is impossible to think of any film more challenging or depressing than The Grey Zone .	
3 Although mainstream American movies tend to exploit the familiar , every once in a while a film arrives from the margin that gives viewers a chance to learn , to grow , to travel .	
2 Film ca n't quite maintain its initial momentum , but remains sporadically funny throughout .	
0 Most of the problems with the film do n't derive from the screenplay , but rather the mediocre performances by most of the actors involved	
1 Mattei so completely loses himself to the film 's circular structure to ever offer any insightful discourse on , well , Love in the Time of Money .	
4 Returning director Rob Minkoff ... and screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin ... have done a fine job of updating White 's dry wit to a new age .	
2 That is because - damn it !	
3 Deliciously mean-spirited and wryly observant .	
3 When twentysomething hotsies make movies about their lives , hard-driving narcissism is a given , but what a world we 'd live in if Argento 's Hollywood counterparts ... had this much imagination and nerve .	
0 But the second half of the movie really goes downhill .	
0 It is supremely unfunny and unentertaining to watch middle-age and older men drink to excess , piss on trees , b.s. one another and put on a show in drag .	
4 A good music documentary , probably one of the best since The Last Waltz .	
4 But what 's nice is that there 's a casual intelligence that permeates the script .	
4 This is an undeniably intriguing film from an adventurous young talent who finds his inspiration on the fringes of the American underground .	
2 This follow-up seems so similar to the 1953 Disney classic that it makes one long for a geriatric Peter .	
1 This movie is so bad , that it 's almost worth seeing because it 's so bad .	
3 Gently humorous and touching .	
4 It cuts to the core of what it actually means to face your fears , to be a girl in a world of boys , to be a boy truly in love with a girl , and to ride the big metaphorical wave that is life -- wherever it takes you .	
2 Spider-Man is in the same category as X-Men - occasionally brilliant but mostly average , showing signs of potential for the sequels , but not giving us much this time around .	
3 Represents a worthy departure from the culture clash comedies that have marked an emerging Indian American cinema .	
3 Yet in its own aloof , unreachable way it 's so fascinating you wo n't be able to look away for a second .	
1 ' Christian Bale 's Quinn -LRB- is -RRB- a leather clad grunge-pirate with a hairdo like Gandalf in a wind-tunnel and a simply astounding cor-blimey-luv-a-duck cockney accent . '	
3 Yet the act is still charming here .	
4 It has that rare quality of being able to creep the living hell out of you ...	
3 He drags it back , single-handed .	
1 A  Home Alone  film that is staged like  Rosemary 's Baby ,  but is not as well-conceived as either of those films .	
3 Often hilarious .	
3 An elegant work , Food of Love is as consistently engaging as it is revealing .	
1 Give Shapiro , Goldman , and Bolado credit for good intentions , but there 's nothing here that they could n't have done in half an hour .	
3 It 's not nearly as fresh or enjoyable as its predecessor , but there are enough high points to keep this from being a complete waste of time .	
1 This tale has been told and retold ; the races and rackets change , but the song remains the same .	
0 Worthless , from its pseudo-rock-video opening to the idiocy of its last frames .	
0 Makes a joke out of car chases for an hour and then gives us half an hour of car chases .	
4 A knowing sense of humor and a lot of warmth ignite Son of the Bride .	
1 Though there are entertaining and audacious moments , the movie 's wildly careening tone and an extremely flat lead performance do little to salvage this filmmaker 's flailing reputation .	
4 I had more fun watching Spy than I had with most of the big summer movies .	
2 the shackles	
3 Watching this gentle , mesmerizing portrait of a man coming to terms with time , you barely realize your mind is being blown .	
0 Nair just does n't have the necessary self-control to guide a loose , poorly structured film through the pitfalls of incoherence and redundancy .	
3 Chouraqui brings documentary-like credibility to the horrors of the killing field and the barbarism of ' ethnic cleansing . '	
0 And it 's not that funny -- which is just generally insulting .	
2 Far-fetched premise , convoluted plot , and thematic mumbo jumbo about destiny and redemptive love .	
3 A muddle splashed with bloody beauty as vivid as any Scorsese has ever given us .	
3 A wild ride juiced with enough energy and excitement for at least three films .	
2 Murder by Numbers ' is n't a great movie , but it 's a perfectly acceptable widget .	
0 It may as well be called  Jar-Jar Binks : The Movie . 	
1 There are some fairly unsettling scenes , but they never succeed in really rattling the viewer .	
4 Special P.O.V. camera mounts on bikes , skateboards , and motorcycles provide an intense experience when splashed across the immense IMAX screen .	
2 A fantastic premise anchors this movie , but what it needs is either a more rigid , Blair Witch-style commitment to its mockumentary format , or a more straightforward , dramatic treatment , with all the grandiosity that that implies .	
2  Not really as bad as you might think ! 	
2 I saw Juwanna Mann so you do n't have to .	
3 As an introduction to the man 's theories and influence , Derrida is all but useless ; as a portrait of the artist as an endlessly inquisitive old man , however , it 's invaluable .	
4 A delightful , if minor , pastry of a movie .	
3 And Vin Diesel is the man .	
3 While there are times when the film 's reach exceeds its grasp , the production works more often than it does n't .	
3 It 's a day at the beach -- with air conditioning and popcorn .	
1 ... a bland , pretentious mess .	
0 The actors try hard but come off too amateurish and awkward .	
3 Goldbacher draws on an elegant visual sense and a talent for easy , seductive pacing ... but she and writing partner Laurence Coriat do n't manage an equally assured narrative coinage .	
3 -LRB- Shyamalan -RRB- turns the goose-pimple genre on its empty head and fills it with spirit , purpose and emotionally bruised characters who add up to more than body count .	
1 I 'd be hard pressed to think of a film more cloyingly sappy than Evelyn this year .	
3 Tsai convincingly paints a specifically urban sense of disassociation here .	
1 This 10th film in the series looks and feels tired .	
0 A long , dull procession of despair , set to cello music culled from a minimalist funeral .	
0 For most movies , 84 minutes is short , but this one feels like a life sentence .	
2 Not to mention a sharper , cleaner camera lens .	
2 would have been benefited from a sharper , cleaner script before it went in front of the camera .	
3 If you 're as happy listening to movies as you are watching them , and the slow parade of human frailty fascinates you , then you 're at the right film .	
3 With exquisite craftsmanship ... Olivier Assayas has fashioned an absorbing look at provincial bourgeois French society .	
1 However sincere it may be , The Rising Place never quite justifies its own existence .	
1 What could have been right at home as a nifty plot line in Steven Soderbergh 's Traffic fails to arrive at any satisfying destination .	
2 You get the idea , though , that Kapur intended the film to be more than that .	
3 A tasty appetizer that leaves you wanting more .	
2 The film has too many spots where it 's on slippery footing , but is acceptable entertainment for the entire family and one that 's especially fit for the kiddies .	
4 That the real Antwone Fisher was able to overcome his personal obstacles and become a good man is a wonderful thing ; that he has been able to share his story so compellingly with us is a minor miracle .	
0 Men in Black II achieves ultimate insignificance -- it 's the sci-fi comedy spectacle as Whiffle-Ball epic .	
2  I blame all men for war ,  -LRB- the warden 's daughter -RRB- tells her father .	
2 If you do n't laugh , flee .	
3 that it 'll probably be the best and most mature comedy of the 2002 summer season speaks more of the season than the picture	
3 Leigh is n't breaking new ground , but he knows how a daily grind can kill love .	
3 The movie itself is far from disappointing , offering an original take on courtroom movies , a few nifty twists that are so crucial to the genre and another first-rate performance by top-billed star Bruce Willis .	
1 About half of them are funny , a few are sexy and none are useful in telling the story , which is paper-thin and decidedly unoriginal .	
1 Its one-sidedness ... flirts with propaganda .	
0 Final verdict : You 've seen it all before .	
0 Boring and meandering .	
1 Throwing in everything except someone pulling the pin from a grenade with his teeth , Windtalkers seems to have ransacked every old World War II movie for overly familiar material .	
1 A reworking of Die Hard and Cliffhanger but it 's nowhere near as exciting as either .	
1 -LRB- The kid 's -RRB- just too bratty for sympathy , and as the film grows to its finale , his little changes ring hollow .	
4 Texan director George Ratliff had unlimited access to families and church meetings , and he delivers fascinating psychological fare .	
1 Star Trek was kind of terrific once , but now it is a copy of a copy of a copy .	
0 Ms. Phoenix is completely lacking in charm and charisma , and is unable to project either Esther 's initial anomie or her eventual awakening .	
1 The audacity to view one of Shakespeare 's better known tragedies as a dark comedy is , by itself , deserving of discussion .	
1 Throw Smoochy from the train !	
0 Cold , Sterile And Lacking Any Color Or Warmth .	
1 Mindless and boring martial arts and gunplay with too little excitement and zero compelling storyline .	
1 A puppy dog so desperate for attention it nearly breaks its little neck trying to perform entertaining tricks .	
3 In the end there is one word that best describes this film : honest .	
4 It 's the funniest American comedy since Graffiti Bridge .	
3 ' Film aficionados can not help but love Cinema Paradiso , whether the original version or new Director 's Cut . '	
2 The only upside to all of this unpleasantness is , given its Labor Day weekend upload , FearDotCom should log a minimal number of hits .	
1 The type of dumbed-down exercise in stereotypes that gives the -LRB- teen comedy -RRB- genre a bad name .	
2 an  O Bruin , Where Art Thou ? 	
0 ... no charm , no laughs , no fun , no reason to watch .	
3 A deft , delightful mix of sulky teen drama and overcoming-obstacles sports-movie triumph .	
1 ... there 's a choppy , surface-effect feeling to the whole enterprise .	
3 Predictable storyline and by-the-book scripting is all but washed away by sumptuous ocean visuals and the cinematic stylings of director John Stockwell .	
2 Warmed-over hash .	
2 It was a dark and stormy night ...	
1 Drowning 's too good for this sucker .	
3 A full experience , a love story and a murder mystery that expands into a meditation on the deep deceptions of innocence .	
1 At times Auto Focus feels so distant you might as well be watching it through a telescope .	
3 Rarely does such high-profile talent serve such literate material .	
1 For all its shoot-outs , fistfights , and car chases , this movie is a phlegmatic bore , so tedious it makes the silly spy vs. spy film The Sum of All Fears , starring Ben Affleck , seem downright Hitchcockian .	
4 A true-blue delight .	
2 Less about Shakespeare than the spawn of fools who saw Quentin Tarantino 's handful of raucous gangster films and branched out into their own pseudo-witty copycat interpretations .	
2 It 's not hateful .	
3 One of the most gloriously unsubtle and adrenalized extreme shockers since The Evil Dead .	
1 It 's provocative stuff , but the speculative effort is hampered by Taylor 's cartoonish performance and the film 's ill-considered notion that Hitler 's destiny was shaped by the most random of chances .	
2 In -LRB- screenwriter -RRB- Charlie Kaufman 's world , truth and fiction are equally strange , and his for the taking .	
1 The modern-day characters are nowhere near as vivid as the 19th-century ones .	
3 Poetic , heartbreaking .	
1 The film did n't convince me that Calvin Jr. 's Barbershop represents some sort of beacon of hope in the middle of Chicago 's South Side .	
1 Anyone else who may , for whatever reason , be thinking about going to see this movie is hereby given fair warning .	
0 ... about as exciting to watch as two last-place basketball teams playing one another on the final day of the season .	
1 A gushy episode of  M \* A \* S \* H  only this time from an Asian perspective .	
1 I ca n't remember the last time I saw worse stunt editing or cheaper action movie production values than in Extreme Ops .	
4 It 's a lovely , sad dance highlighted by Kwan 's unique directing style .	
1 Unless you 're a fanatic , the best advice is : ' Scooby ' do n't .	
4 The search for redemption makes for a touching love story , mainly because Blanchett and Ribisi compellingly tap into a spiritual aspect of their characters ' suffering .	
3 For a long time the film succeeds with its dark , delicate treatment of these characters and its unerring respect for them .	
3 Manages to be wholesome and subversive at the same time .	
3 An enjoyable above average summer diversion .	
0 So muddled , repetitive and ragged that it says far less about the horrifying historical reality than about the filmmaker 's characteristic style .	
0 Laughably , irredeemably awful .	
3 Twohy 's a good yarn-spinner , and ultimately the story compels .	
1 The whole thing comes off like a particularly amateurish episode of Bewitched that takes place during Spring Break .	
3 Clooney directs this film always keeping the balance between the fantastic and the believable ...	
3 I liked About Schmidt a lot , but I have a feeling that I would have liked it much more if Harry & Tonto never existed .	
2 The dominant feeling is something like nostalgia . '	
0 A loud , witless mess that has none of the charm and little of the intrigue from the TV series .	
0 An empty , purposeless exercise .	
3 A lot smarter than your average Bond .	
3 A French film with a more down-home flavor .	
1 Is it really an advantage to invest such subtlety and warmth in an animatronic bear when the humans are acting like puppets ?	
2 Director David Jacobson gives Dahmer a consideration that the murderer never game his victims .	
1 Empire ca n't make up its mind whether it wants to be a gangster flick or an art film .	
1 What happens when something goes bump in the night and nobody cares ?	
3 Smith examines the intimate , unguarded moments of folks who live in unusual homes -- which pop up in nearly every corner of the country .	
4 It picked me up , swung me around , and dropped me back in my seat with more emotional force than any other recent film .	
0 ... you can be forgiven for realizing that you 've spent the past 20 minutes looking at your watch and waiting for Frida to just die already .	
1 Belongs in the too-hot-for-TV direct-to-video / DVD category , and this is why I have given it a one-star rating .	
2 Ultimately feels like just one more in the long line of films this year about the business of making movies .	
2 The date movie that Franz Kafka would have made .	
4 This charming , thought-provoking New York fest of life and love has its rewards .	
3 Neither the funniest film that Eddie Murphy nor Robert De Niro has ever made , Showtime is nevertheless efficiently amusing for a good while .	
2 Viewed as a comedy , a romance , a fairy tale , or a drama , there 's nothing remotely triumphant about this motion picture .	
3 An intriguing look at the French film industry during the German occupation ; its most delightful moments come when various characters express their quirky inner selves .	
2 ... hopefully it 'll be at the dollar theatres by the time Christmas rolls around .	
2 Basically , it 's pretty but dumb .	
0 -LRB- A -RRB- soulless , stupid sequel ...	
1 They crush each other under cars , throw each other out windows , electrocute and dismember their victims in full consciousness .	
0 Not even Felinni would know what to make of this Italian freakshow .	
0 Fails as a dystopian movie , as a retooling of Fahrenheit 451 , and even as a rip-off of The Matrix .	
4 Tunney , brimming with coltish , neurotic energy , holds the screen like a true star .	
2 LaBute was more fun when his characters were torturing each other psychologically and talking about their genitals in public .	
3 I 've never bought from telemarketers , but I bought this movie .	
3 At its best , it 's Black Hawk Down with more heart .	
3 Elling builds gradually until you feel fully embraced by this gentle comedy .	
2 It bites hard .	
2 This is a harrowing movie about how parents know where all the buttons are , and how to push them .	
3 ... strips Bible stores of the potential for sanctimoniousness , making them meaningful for both kids and church-wary adults .	
3 Too daft by half ... but supremely good natured .	
2 A static and sugary little half-hour , after-school special about interfaith understanding , stretched out to 90 minutes .	
3 Visually striking and viscerally repellent .	
1 Too slow for a younger crowd , too shallow for an older one .	
2 Benigni 's Pinocchio is extremely straight and mind-numbingly stilted , its episodic pacing keeping the film from developing any storytelling flow .	
1 A pale Xerox of other , better crime movies .	
0 It 's a visual Rorschach test and I must have failed .	
4 A small movie with a big impact .	
3 Daughter From Danang sticks with its subjects a little longer and tells a deeper story	
3 -- but certainly hard to hate .	
3 In the disturbingly involving family dysfunctional drama How I Killed My Father , French director Anne Fontaine delivers an inspired portrait of male-ridden angst and the emotional blockage that accompanies this human condition	
4 An honest , sensitive story from a Vietnamese point of view .	
2 Who knew ...	
4 A film with almost as many delights for adults as there are for children and dog lovers .	
2 Grainy photography mars an otherwise delightful comedy of errors .	
1 One of those films where the characters inhabit that special annex of hell where adults behave like kids , children behave like adults and everyone screams at the top of their lungs no matter what the situation .	
1 ... a fascinating curiosity piece -- fascinating , that is , for about ten minutes .	
3 It 's the sweet Cinderella story that  Pretty Woman  wanted to be .	
3 An ambitiously naturalistic , albeit half-baked , drama about an abused , inner-city autistic teen .	
1 It 's just a movie that happens to have Jackie Chan in it .	
1 You do n't need to know your Ice-T 's from your Cool-J 's to realize that as far as these shootings are concerned , something is rotten in the state of California .	
0 You can fire a torpedo through some of Clancy 's holes , and the scripters do n't deserve any Oscars .	
1 A moving picture that does not move .	
4 Daily struggles and simple pleasures usurp the preaching message so that , by the time the credits roll across the pat ending , a warm , fuzzy feeling prevails .	
3 Hatosy ... portrays young Brendan with his usual intelligence and subtlety , not to mention a convincing brogue .	
1 The screenplay is hugely overwritten , with tons and tons of dialogue -- most of it given to children .	
3 Writer / director Walter Hill is in his hypermasculine element here , once again able to inject some real vitality and even art into a pulpy concept that , in many other hands would be completely forgettable .	
3 Naomi Watts is terrific as Rachel ; her petite frame and vulnerable persona emphasising her plight and isolation .	
0 With a completely predictable plot , you 'll swear that you 've seen it all before , even if you 've never come within a mile of The Longest Yard .	
2 Life on the rez is no picnic : this picture shows you why .	
2 Aimed squarely at the least demanding of demographic groups : very small children who will be delighted simply to spend more time with familiar cartoon characters .	
4 Speaks eloquently about the symbiotic relationship between art and life .	
4 The entire cast is extraordinarily good .	
4 Cho 's timing is priceless .	
0 ... a weak and ineffective ghost story without a conclusion or pay off .	
2 Rabbit-Proof Fence will probably make you angry .	
1 Time stands still in more ways that one in Clockstoppers , a sci-fi thriller as lazy as it is interminable .	
3 It cooks Conduct in a low , smoky and inviting sizzle .	
4 One of the very best movies ever made about the life of moviemaking .	
3 A flawed but engrossing thriller .	
2 The film sometimes flags ... but there is enough secondary action to keep things moving along at a brisk , amusing pace .	
3 A delightful little film that revels in its own simplicity , Mostly Martha will leave you with a smile on your face and a grumble in your stomach .	
0 It just did n't mean much to me and played too skewed to ever get a hold on -LRB- or be entertained by -RRB- .	
4 It 's never dull and always looks good .	
0 Unfunny and lacking any sense of commitment to or affection for its characters , the Reginald Hudlin comedy relies on toilet humor , ethnic slurs .	
4 Rich in shadowy metaphor and as sharp as a samurai sword , Jiang Wen 's Devils on the Doorstep is a wartime farce in the alternately comic and gut-wrenching style of Joseph Heller or Kurt Vonnegut .	
4 You can take the grandkids or the grandparents and never worry about anyone being bored ... audience is a sea of constant smiles and frequent laughter .	
1 The Tuxedo was n't just bad ; it was , as my friend David Cross would call it , ' Hungry-Man portions of bad ' .	
0 Boll uses a lot of quick cutting and blurry step-printing to goose things up , but dopey dialogue and sometimes inadequate performances kill the effect .	
3 Bogdanovich puts history in perspective and , via Kirsten Dunst 's remarkable performance , he showcases Davies as a young woman of great charm , generosity and diplomacy .	
0 There 's already been too many of these films ...	
1 Almost peerlessly unsettling .	
3 A sly female empowerment movie , although not in a way anyone would expect .	
1 ... The movie feels stitched together from stock situations and characters from other movies .	
4 As a director , Paxton is surprisingly brilliant , deftly sewing together what could have been a confusing and horrifying vision into an intense and engrossing head-trip .	
3 But Toback 's deranged immediacy makes it seem fresh again .	
2 There 's a neat twist , subtly rendered , that could have wrapped things up at 80 minutes , but Kang tacks on three or four more endings .	
0 It 's hard to imagine that even very small children will be impressed by this tired retread .	
3 The performances of the four main actresses bring their characters to life .	
0 The emotional overload of female angst irreparably drags the film down .	
4 Even when there are lulls , the emotions seem authentic , and the picture is so lovely toward the end ... you almost do n't notice the 129-minute running time .	
4 A fascinating case study of flower-power liberation -- and the price that was paid for it .	
1 -- is a crime that should be punishable by chainsaw .	
3 On the surface a silly comedy , Scotland , PA would be forgettable if it were n't such a clever adaptation of the bard 's tragic play .	
1 Cassavetes thinks he 's making Dog Day Afternoon with a cause , but all he 's done is to reduce everything he touches to a shrill , didactic cartoon .	
1 When not wallowing in its characters ' frustrations , the movie is busy contriving false , sitcom-worthy solutions to their problems .	
4 Daring and beautifully made .	
0 Was that movie nothing more than a tepid exercise in trotting out a formula that worked five years ago but has since lost its fizz ?	
2 At no point during K-19 : The Widowmaker did this viewer feel enveloped in a story that , though meant to be universal in its themes of loyalty , courage and dedication to a common goal , never seems to leave the lot .	
3 The leaping story line , shaped by director Peter Kosminsky into sharp slivers and cutting impressions , shows all the signs of rich detail condensed into a few evocative images and striking character traits .	
0 There 's surely something wrong with a comedy where the only belly laughs come from the selection of outtakes tacked onto the end credits .	
4 Jeffs has created a breathtakingly assured and stylish work of spare dialogue and acute expressiveness .	
2 in period costume and with a bigger budget .	
4 The film is impressive for the sights and sounds of the wondrous beats the world has to offer .	
3 Pretty good little movie .	
1 The story is also as unoriginal as they come , already having been recycled more times than I 'd care to count .	
3 Initially gripping , eventually cloying POW drama .	
3 Offers an interesting look at the rapidly changing face of Beijing .	
3 Gaunt , silver-haired and leonine , -LRB- Harris -RRB- brings a tragic dimension and savage full-bodied wit and cunning to the aging Sandeman .	
0 This flat run at a hip-hop Tootsie is so poorly paced you could fit all of Pootie Tang in between its punchlines .	
3 imagine a scenario where Bergman approaches Swedish fatalism using Gary Larson 's Far Side humor	
2 It 's really just another silly Hollywood action film , one among a multitude of simple-minded , yahoo-ing death shows .	
3 Deliberately and skillfully uses ambiguity to suggest possibilities which imbue the theme with added depth and resonance .	
4 All of it works smoothly under the direction of Spielberg , who does a convincing impersonation here of a director enjoying himself immensely .	
3 Even at its worst , it 's not half-bad .	
0 Like a bad improvisation exercise , the superficially written characters ramble on tediously about their lives , loves and the art they 're struggling to create .	
3 Beresford nicely mixes in as much humor as pathos to take us on his sentimental journey of the heart .	
3 Precocious smarter-than-thou wayward teen struggles to rebel against his oppressive , right-wing , propriety-obsessed family .	
3 Its adult themes of familial separation and societal betrayal are head and shoulders above much of the director 's previous popcorn work .	
1 Return to Neverland manages to straddle the line between another classic for the company and just another run-of-the-mill Disney sequel intended for the home video market .	
3 It 's funny .	
1 It 's plotless , shapeless -- and yet , it must be admitted , not entirely humorless .	
3 It 's a talking head documentary , but a great one .	
4 This is DiCaprio 's best performance in anything ever , and easily the most watchable film of the year .	
0 All of the filmmakers ' calculations ca n't rescue Brown Sugar from the curse of blandness .	
2 The dramatic crisis does n't always succeed in its quest to be taken seriously , but Huppert 's volatile performance makes for a riveting movie experience .	
3 A different and emotionally reserved type of survival story -- a film less about refracting all of World War II through the specific conditions of one man , and more about that man lost in its midst .	
1 Sure , I hated myself in the morning .	
4 A rollicking ride , with jaw-dropping action sequences , striking villains , a gorgeous color palette , astounding technology , stirring music and a boffo last hour that leads up to a strangely sinister happy ending .	
2 foreshadowing	
0 Tiresomely derivative and hammily acted .	
1 The film 's final hour , where nearly all the previous unseen material resides , is unconvincing soap opera that Tornatore was right to cut .	
3 The usual movie rah-rah , pleasantly and predictably delivered in low-key style by director Michael Apted and writer Tom Stoppard .	
4 An intelligent and deeply felt work about impossible , irrevocable choices and the price of making them .	
3 A diverse and astonishingly articulate cast of Palestinian and Israeli children .	
2 It would be disingenuous to call Reno a great film , but you can say that about most of the flicks moving in and out of the multiplex .	
2 Photographed with melancholy richness and eloquently performed yet also decidedly uncinematic .	
1 Kapur fails to give his audience a single character worth rooting for -LRB- or worth rooting against , for that matter -RRB- .	
1 Has lost some of the dramatic conviction that underlies the best of comedies ...	
2 Seeing Seinfeld at home as he watches his own appearance on Letterman with a clinical eye reminds you that the key to stand-up is to always make it look easy , even though the reality is anything but .	
3 A movie in which laughter and self-exploitation merge into jolly soft-porn 'em powerment . '	
3 Koury frighteningly and honestly exposes one teenager 's uncomfortable class resentment and , in turn , his self-inflicted retaliation .	
3 Neatly constructed thriller .	
4 One of the best silly horror movies of recent memory , with some real shocks in store for unwary viewers .	
3 Cool .	
0 A peculiar misfire that even Tunney ca n't save .	
3 Coppola has made a film of intoxicating atmosphere and little else .	
2 The film has a childlike quality about it .	
1 There 's some good material in their story about a retail clerk wanting more out of life , but the movie too often spins its wheels with familiar situations and repetitive scenes .	
1 A grating , emaciated flick .	
2 Dense and thoughtful and brimming with ideas that are too complex to be rapidly absorbed .	
1 Nelson 's intentions are good , but the end result does no justice to the story itself .	
1 A very slow , uneventful ride around a pretty tattered old carousel .	
4 Jones has delivered a solidly entertaining and moving family drama .	
2 Sometimes shorter is better .	
1 David Spade as Citizen Kane ?	
4 It 's a great American adventure and a wonderful film to bring to IMAX .	
3 Pratfalls aside , Barbershop gets its greatest play from the timeless spectacle of people really talking to each other .	
1 But it 's also disappointing to a certain degree .	
4 Pete 's screenplay manages to find that real natural , even-flowing tone that few movies are able to accomplish .	
1 This is a third-person story now , told by Hollywood , and much more ordinary for it .	
1 Fails to convince the audience that these brats will ever be anything more than losers .	
1  One look at a girl in tight pants and big tits and you turn stupid ? 	
4 Pacino and Williams seem to keep upping the ante on each other , just as their characters do in the film .	
4 The best didacticism is one carried by a strong sense of humanism , and Bertrand Tavernier 's oft-brilliant Safe Conduct -LRB-  Laissez-passer  -RRB- wears its heart on its sleeve .	
1 Contains all the substance of a Twinkie -- easy to swallow , but scarcely nourishing .	
4 It 's a masterpeice .	
3 S1M0NE 's satire is not subtle , but it is effective .	
3 The Cat 's Meow marks a return to form for director Peter Bogdanovich ...	
1 Despite some charm and heart , this quirky soccer import is forgettable	
1 Inconsequential road-and-buddy pic .	
0 Ozpetek offers an AIDS subtext , skims over the realities of gay sex , and presents yet another tired old vision of the gay community as an all-inclusive world where uptight , middle class bores like Antonia can feel good about themselves .	
1 ' Synthetic ' is the best description of this well-meaning , beautifully produced film that sacrifices its promise for a high-powered star pedigree .	
1 Though clearly well-intentioned , this cross-cultural soap opera is painfully formulaic and stilted .	
3 With so many bad romances out there , this is the kind of movie that deserves a chance to shine .	
3 What redeems the film is the cast , particularly the Ya-Yas themselves .	
0 The only way to tolerate this insipid , brutally clueless film might be with a large dose of painkillers .	
0 The only thing  swept away  is the one hour and thirty-three minutes spent watching this waste of time .	
2 A preposterously melodramatic paean to gang-member teens in Brooklyn circa 1958 .	
3 Jacquot 's strategy allows his cast the benefit of being able to give full performances ... while demonstrating vividly that the beauty and power of the opera reside primarily in the music itself .	
1 Unfortunately , that 's precisely what Arthur Dong 's Family Fundamentals does .	
1 While Hollywood Ending has its share of belly laughs -LRB- including a knockout of a closing line -RRB- , the movie winds up feeling like a great missed opportunity .	
2 A respectable but uninspired thriller that 's intelligent and considered in its details , but ultimately weak in its impact .	
0 One of the worst movies of the year .	
4 Nicholson 's understated performance is wonderful .	
1 It 's just that it 's so not-at-all-good .	
1 I suspect that there are more interesting ways of dealing with the subject .	
3 It 's a quirky , off-beat project .	
1 We have poignancy jostling against farce , thoughtful dialogue elbowed aside by one-liners , and a visual style that incorporates rotoscope animation for no apparent reason except , maybe , that it looks neat .	
0 The effort is sincere and the results are honest , but the film is so bleak that it 's hardly watchable .	
2 Every child 's story is what matters .	
4 The overall fabric is hypnotic , and Mr. Mattei fosters moments of spontaneous intimacy .	
0 If there was any doubt that Peter O'Fallon did n't have an original bone in his body , A Rumor of Angels should dispel it .	
4 The animated sequences are well done and perfectly constructed to convey a sense of childhood imagination and creating adventure out of angst .	
0 Due to stodgy , soap opera-ish dialogue , the rest of the cast comes across as stick figures reading lines from a TelePrompTer .	
3 Despite an overwrought ending , the film works as well as it does because of the performances .	
1 Cinematic pyrotechnics aside , the only thing Avary seems to care about are mean giggles and pulchritude .	
1 Too infuriatingly quirky and taken with its own style .	
1 Watching Queen of the Damned is like reading a research paper , with special effects tossed in .	
3 -LRB- Gayton 's script -RRB- telegraphs every discovery and layers on the gloss of convenience .	
3 No , it 's not as single-minded as John Carpenter 's original , but it 's sure a lot smarter and more unnerving than the sequels .	
1 This starts off with a 1950 's Doris Day feel and it gets very ugly , very fast .	
3 What 's next ?	
2 If you 're paying attention , the  big twists  are pretty easy to guess - but that does n't make the movie any less entertaining .	
4 If you 're a comic fan , you ca n't miss it .	
2 What could have been a pointed little chiller about the frightening seductiveness of new technology loses faith in its own viability and succumbs to joyless special-effects excess .	
3 A genuine mind-bender .	
3 This bracingly truthful antidote to Hollywood teenage movies that slather Clearasil over the blemishes of youth captures the combustible mixture of a chafing inner loneliness and desperate grandiosity that tend to characterize puberty .	
3 An unexpectedly sweet story of sisterhood .	
2 Ultimately , Jane learns her place as a girl , softens up and loses some of the intensity that made her an interesting character to begin with .	
4 It 's a beautiful film , full of elaborate and twisted characters - and it 's also pretty funny .	
1 Disney again ransacks its archives for a quick-buck sequel .	
4 The urban landscapes are detailed down to the signs on the kiosks , and the color palette , with lots of somber blues and pinks , is dreamy and evocative .	
2 A coming-of-age film	
4 Ourside the theatre Roger might be intolerable company , but inside it he 's well worth spending some time with .	
4 What I saw , I enjoyed .	
3 For those of an indulgent , slightly sunbaked and summery mind , Sex and Lucia may well prove diverting enough .	
1 Represents the depths to which the girls-behaving-badly film has fallen .	
0 A depressingly retrograde , ' post-feminist ' romantic comedy that takes an astonishingly condescending attitude toward women .	
3 A quiet family drama with a little bit of romance and a dose of darkness .	
2 Children of the Century , though well dressed and well made , ultimately falls prey to the contradiction that afflicts so many movies about writers .	
0 A woefully dull , redundant concept that bears more than a whiff of exploitation , despite Iwai 's vaunted empathy .	
3 It asks nothing of the audience other than to sit back and enjoy a couple of great actors hamming it up .	
2 Martyr gets royally screwed and comes back for more .	
1 The gags , and the script , are a mixed bag .	
2 A crisply made movie that is no more than mildly amusing .	
3 Promises is a compelling piece that demonstrates just how well children can be trained to live out and carry on their parents ' anguish .	
3 Sure , it 's contrived and predictable , but its performances are so well tuned that the film comes off winningly , even though it 's never as solid as you want it to be .	
0 A humorless journey into a philosophical void .	
2 The movie is essentially a series of fleetingly interesting actors ' moments .	
3 The plot twists give I Am Trying to Break Your Heart an attraction it desperately needed .	
1 The drama discloses almost nothing .	
2 It 's time to let your hair down -- Greek style .	
0 The jokes are sophomoric , stereotypes are sprinkled everywhere and the acting ranges from bad to bodacious .	
3 A well-crafted film that is all the more remarkable because it achieves its emotional power and moments of revelation with restraint and a delicate ambiguity .	
4 Half Past Dead is just such an achievement .	
3 Short and sweet , but also more than anything else slight ... Tadpole pulls back from the consequences of its own actions and revelations .	
1 In the end , Tuck Everlasting falls victim to that everlasting conundrum experienced by every human who ever lived : too much to do , too little time to do it in .	
0 You 'll find yourself wishing that you and they were in another movie .	
2 Leading a double life in an American film only comes to no good , but not here .	
3 If you can push on through the slow spots , you 'll be rewarded with some fine acting .	
1 A film that loses sight of its own story .	
4 Fontaine 's direction , especially her agreeably startling use of close-ups and her grace with a moving camera , creates sheerly cinematic appeal .	
3 Take any 12-year-old boy to see this picture , and he 'll be your slave for a year .	
1 Snow Dogs finds its humour in a black man getting humiliated by a pack of dogs who are smarter than him	
1 Too bad .	
3 Zhuangzhuang creates delicate balance of style , text , and subtext that 's so simple and precise that anything discordant would topple the balance , but against all odds , nothing does .	
1 ... while certainly clever in spots , this too-long , spoofy update of Shakespeare 's Macbeth does n't sustain a high enough level of invention .	
2 There 's an epic here , but you have to put it together yourself .	
3 Filmmakers Dana Janklowicz-Mann and Amir Mann area headed east , Far East , in retelling a historically significant , and personal , episode detailing how one international city welcomed tens of thousands of German Jewish refugees while the world 's democracie	
3 One of those unassuming films that sneaks up on you and stays with you long after you have left the theatre .	
3 Good performances keep it from being a total rehash .	
0 Killing time , that 's all that 's going on here .	
1 Puts on airs of a Hal Hartley wannabe film -- without the vital comic ingredient of the hilarious writer-director himself .	
4 At once subtle and visceral , the film never succumbs to the trap of the maudlin or tearful , offering instead with its unflinching gaze a measure of faith in the future .	
1 I did n't laugh .	
2 In this film we at least see a study in contrasts ; the wide range of one actor , and the limited range of a comedian .	
1 There is simply not enough of interest onscreen to sustain its seventy-minute running time .	
3 Shyamalan takes a potentially trite and overused concept -LRB- aliens come to Earth -RRB- and infuses it into a rustic , realistic , and altogether creepy tale of hidden invasion .	
3 The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys ' take on adolescence feels painfully true .	
0 A particularly joyless , and exceedingly dull , period coming-of-age tale .	
1 Lacks depth .	
3 What 's surprising is how well it holds up in an era in which computer-generated images are the norm .	
1 I do n't think so .	
0 Koepp 's screenplay is n't nearly surprising or clever enough to sustain a reasonable degree of suspense on its own .	
4 Better effects , better acting and a hilarious Kenneth Branagh .	
3 She is a lioness , protecting her cub , and he a reluctant villain , incapable of controlling his crew .	
2 As it stands it 's an opera movie for the buffs .	
1 Sex is one of those films that aims to confuse .	
0 It 's Pauly Shore awful .	
1 Shunji Iwai 's All About Lily Chou Chou is a beautifully shot , but ultimately flawed film about growing up in Japan .	
3 Sheds light on a subject few are familiar with , and makes you care about music you may not have heard before .	
1 Surprisingly , considering that Baird is a former film editor , the movie is rather choppy .	
1 The comedy Death to Smoochy is a rancorous curiosity : a movie without an apparent audience .	
1 Odd and weird .	
1 This is not an easy film .	
2 Simply does n't have sufficient heft to justify its two-hour running time .	
3 You watch for that sense of openness , the little surprises .	
0 The latest Adam Sandler assault and possibly the worst film of the year .	
1 There is only so much baked cardboard I need to chew .	
1 An obvious copy of one of the best films ever made , how could it not be ?	
3 Mordantly funny and intimately knowing ...	
2 ending .	
1 Fairly run-of-the-mill .	
1 Formulaic to the 51st power , more like .	
2 Here Polanski looks back on those places he saw at childhood , and captures them by freeing them from artefact , and by showing them heartbreakingly drably .	
0 The three leads produce adequate performances , but what 's missing from this material is any depth of feeling .	
1 In The New Guy , even the bull gets recycled .	
3 The script is smart , not cloying .	
3 The movie is amateurish , but it 's a minor treat .	
3 Any movie that makes hard work seem heroic deserves a look .	
1 There 's more repetition than creativity throughout the movie .	
1 -LRB- A -RRB- boldly stroked , luridly coloured , uni-dimensional nonsense machine that strokes the eyeballs while it evaporates like so much crypt mist in the brain .	
3 Affable if not timeless , Like Mike raises some worthwhile themes while delivering a wholesome fantasy for kids .	
1 Feels shrill , simple and soapy .	
3 The film is old-fashioned , occasionally charming and as subtle as boldface .	
1 Directed without the expected flair or imagination by Hong Kong master John Woo , Windtalkers airs just about every cliche in the war movie compendium across its indulgent two-hour-and-fifteen-minute length .	
0 Aggravating and tedious .	
0 Starts as an intense political and psychological thriller but is sabotaged by ticking time bombs and other Hollywood-action cliches .	
1 Obvious .	
3 The big ending surprise almost saves the movie .	
3 4Ever has the same sledgehammer appeal as Pokemon videos , but it breathes more on the big screen and induces headaches more slowly .	
3 A smart , steamy mix of road movie , coming-of-age story and political satire .	
3 Warm and exotic .	
3 Yet this one makes up for in heart what it lacks in outright newness .	
4 Over the years , Hollywood has crafted a solid formula for successful animated movies , and Ice Age only improves on it , with terrific computer graphics , inventive action sequences and a droll sense of humor .	
3 It 's up to -LRB- Watts -RRB- to lend credibility to this strange scenario , and her presence succeeds in making us believe .	
2 about the hard-partying	
3 A sharp , amusing study of the cult of celebrity .	
3 This humbling little film , fueled by the light comedic work of Zhao Benshan and the delicate ways of Dong Jie , is just the sort for those moviegoers who complain that ' they do n't make movies like they used to anymore . '	
1 No surprises .	
0 The problem is the needlessly poor quality of its archival prints and film footage .	
3 Moretti ... is the rare common-man artist who 's wise enough to recognize that there are few things in this world more complex -- and , as it turns out , more fragile -- than happiness .	
4 Begins like a docu-drama but builds its multi-character story with a flourish .	
4 There 's none of the happily-ever - after spangle of Monsoon Wedding in Late Marriage -- and that 's part of what makes Dover Kosashvili 's outstanding feature debut so potent .	
4 A time machine , a journey back to your childhood , when cares melted away in the dark theater , and films had the ability to mesmerize , astonish and entertain .	
0 The catch is that they 're stuck with a script that prevents them from firing on all cylinders .	
2 The images are usually abbreviated in favor of mushy obviousness and telegraphed pathos , particularly where Whitaker 's misfit artist is concerned .	
2 Just entertaining enough not to hate , too mediocre to love .	
3 The film does give a pretty good overall picture of the situation in Laramie following the murder of Matthew Shepard .	
2 It 's a documentary that says that the alternate sexuality meant to set you free may require so much relationship maintenance that celibacy can start looking good .	
0 The movie slides downhill as soon as macho action conventions assert themselves .	
1 -LRB- Moore 's -RRB- better at fingering problems than finding solutions .	
1 But for the most part , The Weight of Water comes off as a two-way time-switching myopic mystery that stalls in its lackluster gear of emotional blandness .	
1 The only type of lives this glossy comedy-drama resembles are ones in formulaic mainstream movies .	
2 In the long , dishonorable history of quickie teen-pop exploitation , Like Mike stands out for its only partly synthetic decency .	
0 There 's no energy .	
2 I prefer Soderbergh 's concentration on his two lovers over Tarkovsky 's mostly male , mostly patriarchal debating societies .	
2 The setting is so cool that it chills the characters , reducing our emotional stake in the outcome of  Intacto 's  dangerous and seductively stylish game .	
3 If you think it 's a riot to see Rob Schneider in a young woman 's clothes , then you 'll enjoy The Hot Chick .	
3 Ice Age wo n't drop your jaw , but it will warm your heart , and I 'm giving it a strong thumbs up .	
0 Beneath the uncanny , inevitable and seemingly shrewd facade of movie-biz farce ... lies a plot cobbled together from largely flat and uncreative moments .	
2 Slow , silly and unintentionally hilarious .	
3 What makes the film special is the refreshingly unhibited enthusiasm that the people , in spite of clearly evident poverty and hardship , bring to their music .	
1 The story the movie tells is of Brian De Palma 's addiction to the junk-calorie suspense tropes that have all but ruined his career .	
4 There is a real subject here , and it is handled with intelligence and care .	
4 A delightful entree in the tradition of food movies .	
2 Though it flirts with bathos and pathos and the further Oprahfication of the world as we know it , it still cuts all the way down to broken bone .	
3 Certainly the big finish was n't something Galinsky and Hawley could have planned for ... but part of being a good documentarian is being there when the rope snaps .	
1 While easier to sit through than most of Jaglom 's self-conscious and gratingly irritating films , it 's still tainted by cliches , painful improbability and murky points .	
3 Poignant if familiar story of a young person suspended between two cultures .	
1 Despite some comic sparks , Welcome to Collinwood never catches fire .	
3 There 's a spontaneity to The Chateau , a sense of light-heartedness , that makes it attractive throughout .	
3 A very capable nailbiter .	
2 Soderbergh seems capable only of delivering artfully lighted , earnest inquiries that lack the kind of genuine depth that would make them redeemable .	
1 Novak contemplates a heartland so overwhelmed by its lack of purpose that it seeks excitement in manufactured high drama .	
1 Blue Crush is so prolonged and boring it is n't even close to being the barn-burningly bad movie it promised it would be .	
0 Viewers will need all the luck they can muster just figuring out who 's who in this pretentious mess .	
1 Like an Afterschool Special with costumes by Gianni Versace , Mad Love looks better than it feels .	
0 A summary of the plot does n't quite do justice to the awfulness of the movie , for that comes through all too painfully in the execution .	
1 ... the story simply putters along looking for astute observations and coming up blank .	
4 It is also beautifully acted .	
2 This harrowing journey into combat hell vividly captures the chaotic insanity and personal tragedies that are all too abundant when human hatred spews forth unchecked .	
2 While Holm is terrific as both men and Hjejle quite appealing , the film fails to make the most out of the intriguing premise .	
4 A refreshing change from the usual whoopee-cushion effort aimed at the youth market .	
0 Much like its easily dismissive take on the upscale lifestyle , there is n't much there here .	
2 Robin Williams departs from his fun friendly demeanor in exchange for a darker unnerving role .	
1 This may be the first cartoon ever to look as if it were being shown on the projection television screen of a sports bar .	
3 The film grows on you .	
1 Imperfect ?	
1 Allegiance to Chekhov , which director Michael Cacoyannis displays with somber earnestness in the new adaptation of The Cherry Orchard , is a particularly vexing handicap .	
3 Elegant , mannered and teasing .	
0 I do n't blame Eddie Murphy but should n't Owen Wilson know a movie must have a story and a script ?	
3 ... manages to deliver a fair bit of vampire fun .	
3 This kind of hands-on storytelling is ultimately what makes Shanghai Ghetto move beyond a good , dry , reliable textbook and what allows it to rank with its worthy predecessors .	
3 You 'd have to be a most hard-hearted person not to be moved by this drama .	
3 It might be ' easier ' to watch on video at home , but that should n't stop die-hard French film connoisseurs from going out and enjoying the big-screen experience .	
4 Enticing and often funny documentary .	
2 Here 's my advice , Kev .	
4 The 3-D vistas from orbit , with the space station suspended like a huge set of wind chimes over the great blue globe , are stanzas of breathtaking , awe-inspiring visual poetry .	
0 turns a potentially interesting idea into an excruciating film school experience that plays better only for the film 's publicists or for people who take as many drugs as the film 's characters	
2 But , no , we get another scene , and then another .	
4 There is no substitute for on-screen chemistry , and when Friel pulls the strings that make Williams sink into melancholia , the reaction in Williams is as visceral as a gut punch .	
2 -LRB- Javier Bardem is -RRB- one of the few reasons to watch the film , which director Gerardo Vera has drenched in swoony music and fever-pitched melodrama .	
1 The script ?	
0 The movie is so resolutely cobbled together out of older movies that it even uses a totally unnecessary prologue , just because it seems obligatory .	
4 ... with the gifted Pearce on hand to keep things on semi-stable ground dramatically , this retooled Machine is ultimately effective enough at achieving the modest , crowd-pleasing goals it sets for itself .	
2 The movie is our story as much as it is Schmidt 's , no matter if it 's viewed as a self-reflection or cautionary tale .	
2 We have an actor who is great fun to watch performing in a film that is only mildly diverting .	
2 If you 're not totally weirded - out by the notion of cinema as community-therapy spectacle , Quitting hits home with disorienting force .	
1 Did we really need a remake of  Charade ? 	
4 Exciting documentary .	
3 As comedic spotlights go , Notorious C.H.O. hits all the verbal marks it should .	
2 Blade II is as estrogen-free as movies get , so you might want to leave your date behind for this one , or she 's gonna make you feel like you owe her big-time .	
1 And neither do cliches , no matter how ' inside ' they are .	
3 If it 's not entirely memorable , the movie is certainly easy to watch .	
1 An awkward hybrid of genres that just does n't work .	
4 Marvelously entertaining and deliriously joyous documentary .	
0 Sluggish , tonally uneven .	
2 The film affords us intriguing glimpses of the insights gleaned from a lifetime of spiritual inquiry , but Ram Dass : Fierce Grace does n't organize it with any particular insight .	
3 A bit of a downer and a little over-dramatic at times , but this is a beautiful film for people who like their romances to have that French realism .	
1 entertaining enough , but nothing new	
4 Australian filmmaker David Flatman uses the huge-screen format to make an old-fashioned nature film that educates viewers with words and pictures while entertaining them .	
1 Carrying this wafer-thin movie on his nimble shoulders , Chan wades through putrid writing , direction and timing with a smile that says , ' If I stay positive , maybe I can channel one of my greatest pictures , Drunken Master . '	
3 Skins has a desolate air , but Eyre , a Native American raised by white parents , manages to infuse the rocky path to sibling reconciliation with flashes of warmth and gentle humor .	
2 The bland outweighs the nifty , and Cletis Tout never becomes the clever crime comedy it thinks it is .	
3 Otto-Sallies has a real filmmaker 's eye .	
4 A jaw-droppingly beautiful work	
4 An effortlessly accomplished and richly resonant work .	
3 -LRB-  Safe Conduct  -RRB- is a long movie at 163 minutes but it fills the time with drama , romance , tragedy , bravery , political intrigue , partisans and sabotage .	
2 Not bad , but not all that good .	
3 Expands the limits of what a film can be , taking us into the lives of women to whom we might not give a second look if we passed them on the street .	
3 For all its problems ... The Lady and the Duke surprisingly manages never to grow boring ... which proves that Rohmer still has a sense of his audience .	
3 Clint Eastwood 's Blood Work is a lot like a well-made PB & J sandwich : familiar , fairly uneventful and boasting no real surprises -- but still quite tasty and inviting all the same .	
4 About Schmidt is undoubtedly one of the finest films of the year .	
3 There is no denying the power of Polanski 's film ...	
2 Except for Paymer as the boss who ultimately expresses empathy for Bartleby 's pain , the performances are so stylized as to be drained of human emotion .	
1 The film is an earnest try at beachcombing verismo , but it would be even more indistinct than it is were it not for the striking , quietly vulnerable personality of Ms. Ambrose .	
1 The movie , like Bartleby , is something of a stiff -- an extra-dry office comedy that seems twice as long as its 83 minutes .	
4 Although What Time offers Tsai 's usual style and themes , it has a more colorful , more playful tone than his other films .	
2 There are far worse messages to teach a young audience , which will probably be perfectly happy with the sloppy slapstick comedy .	
1 Resurrection has the dubious distinction of being a really bad imitation of the really bad Blair Witch Project .	
0 A very depressing movie of many missed opportunities .	
4 In XXX , Diesel is that rare creature -- an action hero with table manners , and one who proves that elegance is more than tattoo deep .	
3 The charm of Revolution OS is rather the way it introduces you to new , fervently held ideas and fanciful thinkers .	
3 A surprisingly sweet and gentle comedy .	
2 Hollywood 's answer to an air ball .	
4 It 's a smart , solid , kinetically-charged spy flick worthy of a couple hours of summertime and a bucket of popcorn .	
4 A sensitive , cultivated treatment of Greene 's work as well as a remarkably faithful one .	
4 For those who pride themselves on sophisticated , discerning taste , this might not seem like the proper cup of tea , however it is almost guaranteed that even the stuffiest cinema goers will laugh their \*\*\* off for an hour-and-a-half .	
3 Alternates between deadpan comedy and heartbreaking loneliness and is n't afraid to provoke introspection in both its characters and its audience .	
3 Unfolds in a low-key , organic way that encourages you to accept it as life and go with its flow .	
4 The one-liners are snappy , the situations volatile and the comic opportunities richly rewarded .	
3 The charm of the first movie is still there , and the story feels like the logical , unforced continuation of the careers of a pair of spy kids .	
2 What Bloody Sunday lacks in clarity , it makes up for with a great , fiery passion .	
1 It 's one long bore .	
1 In spite of featuring a script credited to no fewer than five writers , apparently nobody here bothered to check it twice .	
1 The scriptwriters are no less a menace to society than the film 's characters .	
0 If it were any more of a turkey , it would gobble in Dolby Digital stereo .	
3 A culture-clash comedy that , in addition to being very funny , captures some of the discomfort and embarrassment of being a bumbling American in Europe .	
1 What the audience feels is exhaustion , from watching a movie that is dark -LRB- dark green , to be exact -RRB- , sour , bloody and mean .	
2 Colorful and deceptively buoyant until it suddenly pulls the rug out from under you , Burkinabe filmmaker Dani Kouyate 's reworking of a folk story whose roots go back to 7th-century oral traditions is also a pointed political allegory .	
3 Lee 's achievement extends to his supple understanding of the role that Brown played in American culture as an athlete , a movie star , and an image of black indomitability .	
2 Every potential twist is telegraphed well in advance , every performance respectably muted ; the movie itself seems to have been made under the influence of Rohypnol .	
2 ' Men in Black II creates a new threat for the MIB , but recycles the same premise .	
3 A bracing , unblinking work that serves as a painful elegy and sobering cautionary tale .	
0 An awkwardly garish showcase that diverges from anything remotely probing or penetrating .	
1 ... while Dark Water is n't a complete wash -LRB- no pun intended -RRB- , watched side-by-side with Ringu , it ultimately comes off as a pale successor .	
0 ... bibbidy-bobbidi-bland .	
3 It 's light on the chills and heavy on the atmospheric weirdness , and there are moments of jaw-droppingly odd behavior -- yet I found it weirdly appealing .	
1 They kept much of the plot but jettisoned the stuff that would make this a moving experience for people who have n't read the book .	
3 This is historical filmmaking without the balm of right-thinking ideology , either liberal or conservative .	
1 A rude black comedy about the catalytic effect a holy fool has upon those around him in the cutthroat world of children 's television .	
2 It 's obvious -LRB- Je-Gyu is -RRB- trying for poetry ; what he gets instead has all the lyricism of a limerick scrawled in a public restroom .	
0 The movie 's ultimate point -- that everyone should be themselves -- is trite , but the screenwriter and director Michel Gondry restate it to the point of ridiculousness .	
0 Ringu is a disaster of a story , full of holes and completely lacking in chills .	
0 Hopelessly inane , humorless and under-inspired .	
0 A banal , virulently unpleasant excuse for a romantic comedy .	
2 Peralta 's mythmaking could have used some informed , adult hindsight .	
1 Technically and artistically inept .	
4 If you ever wanted to be an astronaut , this is the ultimate movie experience - it 's informative and breathtakingly spectacular .	
0 It 's a loathsome movie , it really is and it makes absolutely no sense .	
4 The movie 's captivating details are all in the performances , from Foreman 's barking-mad Taylor to Thewlis 's smoothly sinister Freddie and Bettany / McDowell 's hard-eyed gangster .	
3 Symbolically , Warm Water Under a Red Bridge is a celebration of feminine energy , a tribute to the power of women to heal .	
4 Cusack 's just brilliant in this .	
3 This submarine drama earns the right to be favorably compared to Das Boot .	
1 ... the cast portrays their cartoon counterparts well ... but quite frankly , Scoob and Shag do n't eat enough during the film . '	
4 The gorgeously elaborate continuation of  The Lord of the Rings  trilogy is so huge that a column of words can not adequately describe co-writer / director Peter Jackson 's expanded vision of J.R.R. Tolkien 's Middle-earth .	
1 No thanks .	
3 It 's never laugh-out-loud funny , but it is frequently amusing .	
4 Amari has dressed up this little parable in a fairly irresistible package full of privileged moments and memorable performances .	
4 I 've never seen or heard anything quite like this film , and I recommend it for its originality alone .	
2 Is  Ballistic  worth the price of admission ?	
2 Gives us a lot to chew on , but not all of it has been properly digested .	
0 And it 's harder still to believe that anyone in his right mind would want to see the it .	
2 Calculated swill .	
4 Driven by a fantastic dual performance from Ian Holm ... the film is funny , insightfully human and a delightful lark for history buffs .	
3 While the film is not entirely successful , it still manages to string together enough charming moments to work .	
0 If we 're to slap protagonist Genevieve LePlouff because she 's French , do we have that same option to slap her creators because they 're clueless and inept ?	
3 A sobering and powerful documentary about the most severe kind of personal loss : rejection by one 's mother .	
2 If Borstal Boy is n't especially realistic , it is an engaging nostalgia piece .	
0 90 punitive minutes of eardrum-dicing gunplay , screeching-metal smashups , and flaccid odd-couple sniping .	
2 Teens only .	
0 Derailed by bad writing and possibly also by some of that extensive post-production reworking to aim the film at young males in the throes of their first full flush of testosterone .	
3 Garcia and the other actors help make the wobbly premise work .	
2 Gloriously straight from the vagina .	
3 It has a dashing and resourceful hero ; a lisping , reptilian villain ; big fights ; big hair ; lavish period scenery ; and a story just complicated enough to let you bask in your own cleverness as you figure it out .	
1 Those 24-and-unders looking for their own Caddyshack to adopt as a generational signpost may have to keep on looking .	
0 There is n't one moment in the film that surprises or delights .	
3 What a great way to spend 4 units of your day .	
4 ... very funny , very enjoyable ...	
4 Whether or not you 're enlightened by any of Derrida 's lectures on  the other  and  the self ,  Derrida is an undeniably fascinating and playful fellow .	
1 Suffers from all the excesses of the genre .	
4 P.T. Anderson understands the grandness of romance and how love is the great equalizer that can calm us of our daily ills and bring out joys in our lives that we never knew were possible .	
2 Absolutely -LRB- and unintentionally -RRB- terrifying .	
3 George Lucas returns as a visionary with a tale full of nuance and character dimension .	
1 One of the most depressing movie-going experiences I can think of is to sit through about 90 minutes of a so-called ' comedy ' and not laugh once .	
1 This remake of Lina Wertmuller 's 1975 eroti-comedy might just be the biggest husband-and-wife disaster since John and Bo Derek made the ridiculous Bolero .	
4 Others , more attuned to the anarchist maxim that ' the urge to destroy is also a creative urge ' , or more willing to see with their own eyes , will find Morrison 's iconoclastic uses of technology to be liberating .	
3 Norton is magnetic as Graham .	
1 Some Body often looks like an episode of the TV show Blind Date , only less technically proficient and without the pop-up comments .	
0 A dull , inconsistent , dishonest female bonding picture .	
1 The fact that it is n't very good is almost beside the point .	
3 He has improved upon the first and taken it a step further , richer and deeper .	
2 While this gentle and affecting melodrama will have luvvies in raptures , it 's far too slight and introspective to appeal to anything wider than a niche audience .	
2 A crude teen-oriented variation on a theme that the playwright Craig Lucas explored with infinitely more grace and eloquence in his Prelude to a Kiss .	
3 A journey that is as difficult for the audience to take as it is for the protagonist -- yet it 's potentially just as rewarding .	
4 The genius of the work speaks volumes , offering up a hallucinatory dreamscape that frustrates and captivates .	
2 -LRB- The digital effects -RRB- reminded me of Terry Gilliam 's rudimentary old Monty Python cartoons , in which he would cut out figures from drawings and photographs and paste them together .	
4 Sensual , funny and , in the end , very touching .	
3 A metaphor for a modern-day urban China searching for its identity .	
1 Enigma is well-made , but it 's just too dry and too placid .	
4 It 's that good .	
1 Well-meant but unoriginal .	
3 If you like peace , you 'll like Promises .	
2 Do you say  hi  to your lover when you wake up in the morning ?	
1 Behan 's memoir is great material for a film -- rowdy , brawny and lyrical in the best Irish sense -- but Sheridan has settled for a lugubrious romance .	
4 It will guarantee to have you leaving the theater with a smile on your face .	
1  Freaky Friday ,  it 's not .	
1 In the end , The Weight of Water comes to resemble the kind of soft-core twaddle you 'd expect to see on Showtime 's ' Red Shoe Diaries . '	
4 Those who are n't put off by the film 's austerity will find it more than capable of rewarding them .	
4 Not since Ghostbusters has a film used Manhattan 's architecture in such a gloriously goofy way .	
4 She may not be real , but the laughs are .	
1 Putting the primitive murderer inside a high-tech space station unleashes a Pandora 's Box of special effects that run the gamut from cheesy to cheesier to cheesiest .	
1 The skirmishes for power waged among victims and predators settle into an undistinguished rhythm of artificial suspense .	
3 This in-depth study of important developments of the computer industry should make it required viewing in university computer science departments for years to come .	
1 Adam Sandler 's 8 Crazy Nights is 75 wasted minutes of Sandler as the voice-over hero in Columbia Pictures ' perverse idea of an animated holiday movie .	
3 Mr. Spielberg and his company just want you to enjoy yourselves without feeling conned .	
1 Nevertheless , it still seems endless .	
4 This is an elegantly balanced movie -- every member of the ensemble has something fascinating to do -- that does n't reveal even a hint of artifice .	
1 The film is weighed down by supporting characters who are either too goodly , wise and knowing or downright comically evil .	
3 An enjoyable feel-good family comedy regardless of race .	
1 Patchy combination of soap opera , low-tech magic realism and , at times , ploddingly sociological commentary .	
2 Going to this movie is a little like chewing whale blubber - it 's an acquired taste that takes time to enjoy , but it 's worth it , even if it does take 3 hours to get through .	
0 Both shrill and soporific , and because everything is repeated five or six times , it can seem tiresomely simpleminded .	
2 Holds limited appeal to those who like explosions , sadism and seeing people beat each other to a pulp .	
2 What 's left is a rich stew of longing .	
0 This thing is just garbage .	
1 What makes Esther Kahn so demanding is that it progresses in such a low-key manner that it risks monotony .	
3 Surprisingly insightful	
3 Ramsay succeeds primarily with her typical blend of unsettling atmospherics , delivering a series of abrasive , stylized sequences that burn themselves upon the viewer 's memory .	
3 Satisfyingly scarifying , fresh and old-fashioned at the same time .	
1 Stinks from start to finish , like a wet burlap sack of gloom .	
1 I was feeling this movie until it veered off too far into the Exxon zone , and left me behind at the station looking for a return ticket to realism .	
1 What we have here is n't a disaster , exactly , but a very handsomely produced let-down .	
0 I ca n't begin to tell you how tedious , how resolutely unamusing , how thoroughly unrewarding all of this is , and what a reckless squandering of four fine acting talents ...	
0 Dramatically lackluster .	
1 They cheapen the overall effect .	
3 A solid , psychological action film from Hong Kong .	
1 See Clockstoppers if you have nothing better to do with 94 minutes .	
4 A lot of fun , with an undeniable energy sparked by two actresses in their 50s working at the peak of their powers .	
4 Works as pretty contagious fun .	
3 Juliette Binoche 's Sand is vivacious , but it 's hard to sense that powerhouse of 19th-century prose behind her childlike smile .	
2 A thunderous ride at first , quiet cadences of pure finesse are few and far between ; their shortage dilutes the potency of otherwise respectable action .	
4 -LRB- Westbrook -RRB- makes a wonderful subject for the camera .	
4 Stevens has a flair for dialogue comedy , the film operates nicely off the element of surprise , and the large cast is solid .	
2 and  They 're coming ! 	
0 As steamy as last week 's pork dumplings .	
2 Some elements of it really blow the big one , but other parts are decent .	
1 Not completely loveable -- but what underdog movie since The Bad News Bears has been ?	
4 The ensemble cast turns in a collectively stellar performance , and the writing is tight and truthful , full of funny situations and honest observations .	
3 Worth a look by those on both sides of the issues , if only for the perspective it offers , one the public rarely sees .	
2 Exploring value choices is a worthwhile topic for a film -- but here the choices are as contrived and artificial as Kerrigan 's platinum-blonde hair .	
1 Chen films the resolutely downbeat Smokers Only with every indulgent , indie trick in the book .	
3 A powerful , inflammatory film about religion that dares to question an ancient faith , and about hatred that offers no easy , comfortable resolution .	
1 About one in three gags in White 's intermittently wise script hits its mark ; the rest are padding unashamedly appropriated from the teen-exploitation playbook .	
4 Astonishingly skillful and moving ... it could become a historically significant work as well as a masterfully made one .	
1 It is too bad that this likable movie is n't more accomplished .	
4 A much better documentary -- more revealing , more emotional and more surprising -- than its pedestrian English title would have you believe .	
3 The most audacious , outrageous , sexually explicit , psychologically probing , pure libido film of the year has arrived from Portugal .	
2 If H.G. Wells had a time machine and could take a look at his kin 's reworked version , what would he say ?	
3 Sharp edges and a deep vein of sadness run through its otherwise comic narrative .	
1 The Christ allegory does n't work because there is no foundation for it	
1 Seemingly disgusted with the lazy material and the finished product 's unshapely look , director Fisher Stevens inexplicably dips key moments from the film in Waking Life water colors .	
4 Sweet and memorable film .	
3 And the positive change in tone here seems to have recharged him .	
3 Drama of temptation , salvation and good intentions is a thoughtful examination of faith , love and power .	
4 Engages us in constant fits of laughter , until we find ourselves surprised at how much we care about the story , and end up walking out not only satisfied but also somewhat touched .	
3 A great companion piece to other Napoleon films .	
3 The ending feels at odds with the rest of the film .	
3 What 's surprising about this traditional thriller , moderately successful but not completely satisfying , is exactly how genteel and unsurprising the execution turns out to be .	
3 The concept behind Kung Pow : Enter the Fist is hilarious .	
4 It zips along with B-movie verve while adding the rich details and go-for-broke acting that heralds something special .	
4 Showtime is a fine-looking film with a bouncy score and a clutch of lively songs for deft punctuation .	
3 It 's fun , wispy , wise and surprisingly inoffensive for a film about a teen in love with his stepmom .	
1 Well , Jason 's gone to Manhattan and Hell , I guess a space station in the year 2455 can be crossed off the list of ideas for the inevitable future sequels -LRB- hey , do n't shoot the messenger -RRB- .	
3 It 's a testament to the film 's considerable charm that it succeeds in entertaining , despite playing out like a feature-length sitcom replete with stereotypical familial quandaries .	
3 What sets Ms. Birot 's film apart from others in the genre is a greater attention to the parents -- and particularly the fateful fathers -- in the emotional evolution of the two bewitched adolescents .	
1 Stephen Earnhart 's documentary is a decomposition of healthy eccentric inspiration and ambition -- wearing a cloak of unsentimental , straightforward text -- when it 's really an exercise in gross romanticization of the delusional personality type .	
2 Less-than-compelling documentary of a Yiddish theater clan .	
2 What started out as a taut contest of wills between Bacon and Theron , deteriorates into a protracted and borderline silly chase sequence .	
4 A fun family movie that 's suitable for all ages -- a movie that will make you laugh , cry and realize , ' It 's never too late to believe in your dreams . '	
0 One of the most unpleasant things the studio has ever produced .	
4 The unique niche of self-critical , behind-the-scenes navel-gazing Kaufman has carved from Orleans ' story and his own infinite insecurity is a work of outstanding originality .	
4 Will warm your heart without making you feel guilty about it .	
3 -LRB- F -RRB- rom the performances and the cinematography to the outstanding soundtrack and unconventional narrative , the film is blazingly alive and admirable on many levels .	
1 It 's a glorified sitcom , and a long , unfunny one at that .	
1 Sounding like Arnold Schwarzenegger , with a physique to match , -LRB- Ahola -RRB- has a wooden delivery and encounters a substantial arc of change that does n't produce any real transformation .	
0 Has the disjointed feel of a bunch of strung-together TV episodes .	
3 Another love story in 2002 's remarkable procession of sweeping pictures that have reinvigorated the romance genre .	
0 A cheap scam put together by some cynical creeps at Revolution Studios and Imagine Entertainment to make the suckers out there surrender $ 9 and 93 minutes of unrecoverable life .	
2 It ca n't escape its past , and it does n't want to .	
2 A picture as erratic as its central character .	
4 it 's refreshing to see a movie that embraces its old-fashioned themes and in the process comes out looking like something wholly original .	
2 Silly , loud and goofy .	
4 A moving and important film .	
2 You wo n't exactly know what 's happening but you 'll be blissfully exhausted .	
1 Russell lacks the visual panache , the comic touch , and perhaps the budget of Sommers 's title-bout features .	
4 It 's dark but has wonderfully funny moments ; you care about the characters ; and the action and special effects are first-rate .	
4 Hardly an objective documentary , but it 's great cinematic polemic ... love Moore or loathe him , you 've got to admire ... the intensity with which he 's willing to express his convictions .	
0 Not only is entry number twenty the worst of the Brosnan bunch , it 's one of the worst of the entire franchise .	
2 Largely , this is a movie that also does it by the numbers .	
1 We never feel anything for these characters , and as a result the film is basically just a curiosity .	
0 We assume he had a bad run in the market or a costly divorce , because there is no earthly reason other than money why this distinguished actor would stoop so low .	
3 It has its faults , but it is a kind , unapologetic , sweetheart of a movie , and Mandy Moore leaves a positive impression .	
3 Maintains your sympathy for this otherwise challenging soul by letting you share her one-room world for a while .	
1 Decent but dull .	
3 This is lightweight filmmaking , to be sure , but it 's pleasant enough -- and oozing with attractive men .	
1 The film is way too full of itself ; it 's stuffy and pretentious in a give-me-an-Oscar kind of way .	
4 The ingenuity that Parker displays in freshening the play is almost in a class with that of Wilde himself .	
2 One of -LRB- Jaglom 's -RRB- better efforts -- a wry and sometime bitter movie about love .	
3 Although it includes a fair share of dumb drug jokes and predictable slapstick ,  Orange County  is far funnier than it would seem to have any right to be .	
2 Expanded to 65 minutes for theatrical release , it still feels somewhat unfinished .	
3 And yet , it still works .	
1 While some of the camera work is interesting , the film 's mid-to-low budget is betrayed by the surprisingly shoddy makeup work .	
1 I think it was Plato who said , ' I think , therefore I know better than to rush to the theatre for this one . '	
2 Count on his movie to work at the back of your neck long after you leave the theater .	
3 Although some viewers will not be able to stomach so much tongue-in-cheek weirdness , those who do will have found a cult favorite to enjoy for a lifetime .	
1 Kids do n't mind crappy movies as much as adults , provided there 's lots of cute animals and clumsy people .	
1 It 's virtually impossible to like any of these despicable characters .	
3 When you 've got the wildly popular Vin Diesel in the equation , it adds up to big box office bucks all but guaranteed .	
0 The Adventures of Pluto Nash is a whole lot of nada .	
2 the phone rings and a voice tells you you 've got seven days left to live .	
1 Adults , other than the parents ... will be hard pressed to succumb to the call of the wild .	
4 With Spy Kids 2 : The Island of Lost Dreams , however , Robert Rodriguez adorns his family-film plot with an elegance and maturity that even most contemporary adult movies are lacking .	
1 Just the sort of lazy tearjerker that gives movies about ordinary folk a bad name .	
3 It treats Ana 's journey with honesty that is tragically rare in the depiction of young women in film .	
1 I could have used my two hours better watching Being John Malkovich again .	
4 Romanek 's themes are every bit as distinctive as his visuals .	
4 It has fun with the quirks of family life , but it also treats the subject with fondness and respect .	
3 Worth a salute just for trying to be more complex than your average film .	
0 Build some robots , haul 'em to the theatre with you for the late show , and put on your own Mystery Science Theatre 3000 tribute to what is almost certainly going to go down as the worst -- and only -- killer website movie of this or any other year .	
4 ... a delicious crime drama on par with the slickest of Mamet .	
4 Return to Never Land is reliable , standard Disney animated fare , with enough creative energy and wit to entertain all ages .	
2 Stuart 's poor-me persona needs a whole bunch of Snowball 's cynicism to cut through the sugar coating .	
3 What 's most refreshing about Real Women Have Curves is its unforced comedy-drama and its relaxed , natural-seeming actors .	
4 The wonder of Mostly Martha is the performance of Gedeck , who makes Martha enormously endearing .	
1 A selection of scenes in search of a movie .	
3 This film can only point the way -- but thank goodness for this signpost .	
4 Hawn and Sarandon form an acting bond that makes The Banger Sisters a fascinating character study with laughs to spare .	
3 This is a movie that is what it is : a pleasant distraction , a Friday night diversion , an excuse to eat popcorn .	
1 This u-boat does n't have a captain .	
1 You leave the same way you came -- a few tasty morsels under your belt , but no new friends .	
1 I 'm not exactly sure what this movie thinks it is about .	
0 The script , the gags , the characters are all direct-to-video stuff , and that 's where this film should have remained .	
2 Just like Igby .	
1 It 's loud and boring ; watching it is like being trapped at a bad rock concert .	
0 The first Fatal Attraction was vile enough .	
0 You begin to long for the end credits as the desert does for rain .	
2 Viewing this underdramatized but overstated film is like watching a transcript of a therapy session brought to humdrum life by some Freudian puppet .	
4 A vibrant whirlwind of love , family and all that goes with it , My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a non-stop funny feast of warmth , colour and cringe .	
1 A culture clash comedy only half as clever as it thinks it is .	
3 It 's definitely a step in the right direction .	
4 This is a gorgeous film - vivid with color , music and life .	
3 A compelling French psychological drama examining the encounter of an aloof father and his chilly son after 20 years apart .	
2 The Rock has a great presence but one battle after another is not the same as one battle followed by killer CGI effects .	
4 ... plenty of warmth to go around , with music and laughter and the love of family .	
0 Unfunny comedy with a lot of static set ups , not much camera movement , and most of the scenes take place indoors in formal settings with motionless characters .	
1 -LRB- T -RRB- he ideas of Revolution # 9 are more compelling than the execution	
2 Boldly engineering a collision between tawdry B-movie flamboyance and grandiose spiritual anomie , Rose 's film , true to its source material , provides a tenacious demonstration of death as the great equalizer .	
1 preachy and	
1 Friday After Next is a lot more bluster than bite .	
1 ' CQ may one day be fondly remembered as Roman Coppola 's brief pretentious period before going on to other films that actually tell a story worth caring about	
2  Punch-Drunk Love  is a little like a chocolate milk moustache ...	
1 Shatner is probably the funniest person in the film , which gives you an idea just how bad it was .	
0 The most horrific movie experience I 've had since  Ca n't Stop The Music . 	
3 Whether or not Ram Dass proves as clear and reliable an authority on that as he was about inner consciousness , Fierce Grace reassures us that he will once again be an honest and loving one .	
2 Not everyone will play the dark , challenging tune taught by The Piano Teacher .	
2 Frank McKlusky C.I. is that movie !	
3 ... quite good at providing some good old fashioned spooks .	
3 When the movie mixes the cornpone and the Cosa Nostra , it finds a nice rhythm .	
3 Payne constructs a hilarious ode to middle America and middle age with this unlikely odyssey , featuring a pathetic , endearing hero who is all too human .	
3 Both exuberantly romantic and serenely melancholy , What Time Is It There ?	
1 It takes a really long , slow and dreary time to dope out what TUCK EVERLASTING is about .	
3 This is a dark , gritty , sometimes funny little gem .	
0 Shallow , noisy and pretentious .	
3 Although largely a heavy-handed indictment of parental failings and the indifference of Spanish social workers and legal system towards child abuse , the film retains ambiguities that make it well worth watching .	
4 Delight your senses and crash this wedding !	
3 Evelyn 's strong cast and surehanded direction make for a winning , heartwarming yarn .	
2 Critics need a good laugh , too , and this too-extreme-for-TV rendition of the notorious MTV show delivers the outrageous , sickening , sidesplitting goods in steaming , visceral heaps .	
0 It 's been 13 months and 295 preview screenings since I last walked out on a movie , but Resident Evil really earned my indignant , preemptive departure .	
0 It 's clotted with heavy-handed symbolism , dime-store psychology and endless scenic shots that make 105 minutes seem twice as long .	
1 So we got Ten Little Indians meets Friday the 13th by way of Clean and Sober , filmed on the set of Carpenter 's The Thing and loaded with actors you 're most likely to find on the next inevitable incarnation of The Love Boat .	
3 After an uncertain start , Murder hits and generally sustains a higher plateau with Bullock 's memorable first interrogation of Gosling .	
0 If I could have looked into my future and saw how bad this movie was , I would go back and choose to skip it .	
4 An intoxicating experience .	
2 The movie worked for me right up to the final scene , and then it caved in .	
1 Schnieder bounces around with limp wrists , wearing tight tummy tops and hip huggers , twirling his hair on his finger and assuming that 's enough to sustain laughs ...	
0 The film is all over the place , really .	
2 If this silly little cartoon can inspire a few kids not to grow up to be greedy bastards , more power to it .	
3 It 's bright , pristine style and bold colors make it as much fun as reading an oversized picture book before bedtime .	
1 In the process of trimming the movie to an expeditious 84 minutes , director Roger Kumble seems to have dumped a whole lot of plot in favor of ... outrageous gags .	
1 A big , loud , bang-the-drum bore .	
2 So riddled with unanswered questions that it requires gargantuan leaps of faith just to watch it plod along .	
1 You leave feeling like you 've endured a long workout without your pulse ever racing .	
2 Maybe Thomas Wolfe was right : You ca n't go home again .	
0 The movie has a script -LRB- by Paul Pender -RRB- made of wood , and it 's relentlessly folksy , a procession of stagy set pieces stacked with binary oppositions .	
2 It 's supposed to be a humorous , all-too-human look at how hope can breed a certain kind of madness -- and strength -- but it never quite adds up .	
2 There are moments of real pleasure to be found in Sara Sugarman 's whimsical comedy Very Annie-Mary but not enough to sustain the film .	
3 The script is high on squaddie banter , low on shocks .	
0  Solaris  is a shapeless inconsequential move relying on the viewer to do most of the work .	
2 It 's fitfully funny but never really takes off .	
2 If you 're a Crocodile Hunter fan , you 'll enjoy at least the  real  portions of the film .	
4 Features what is surely the funniest and most accurate depiction of writer 's block ever .	
3 Both an admirable reconstruction of terrible events , and a fitting memorial to the dead of that day , and of the thousands thereafter .	
1 even after 90 minutes of playing opposite each other Bullock and Grant still look ill at ease sharing the same scene .	
3 The Rock is destined to be the 21st Century 's new  Conan  and that he 's going to make a splash even greater than Arnold Schwarzenegger , Jean-Claud Van Damme or Steven Segal .	
4 The film is darkly funny in its observation of just how much more grueling and time-consuming the illusion of work is than actual work .	
1 -LRB- Lin Chung 's -RRB- voice is rather unexceptional , even irritating -LRB- at least to this Western ear -RRB- , making it awfully hard to buy the impetus for the complicated love triangle that develops between the three central characters .	
2 It 's tough being a black man in America , especially when the Man has taken away your car , your work-hours and denied you health insurance .	
1 The plot has a number of holes , and at times it 's simply baffling .	
3 Plus , like I already mentioned ... it 's Robert Duvall !	
1 It gets old quickly .	
4 -LRB- A -RRB- thoughtful , visually graceful work .	
4 Raimi crafted a complicated hero who is a welcome relief from the usual two-dimensional offerings .	
2 Gere gives a good performance in a film that does n't merit it .	
3 Rarely has skin looked as beautiful , desirable , even delectable , as it does in Trouble Every Day .	
0 The pacing is often way off and there are too many bona fide groaners among too few laughs .	
2 Reyes ' word processor .	
2 In capturing the understated comedic agony of an ever-ruminating , genteel yet decadent aristocracy that can no longer pay its bills , the film could just as well be addressing the turn of the 20th century into the 21st .	
0 The result , however well-intentioned , is ironically just the sort of disposable , kitchen-sink homage that illustrates why the whole is so often less than the sum of its parts in today 's Hollywood .	
1 Just is n't as weird as it ought to be .	
3 With Spy Kids 2 : The Island of Lost Dreams , the Spy Kids franchise establishes itself as a durable part of the movie landscape : a James Bond series for kids .	
1 Something must have been lost in the translation .	
0 It 's a shame that the storyline and its underlying themes ... finally seem so impersonal or even shallow .	
3 If S&M seems like a strange route to true love , maybe it is , but it 's to this film 's -LRB- and its makers ' -RRB- credit that we believe that that 's exactly what these two people need to find each other -- and themselves .	
1 Impostor ca n't think of a thing to do with these characters except have them run through dark tunnels , fight off various anonymous attackers , and evade elaborate surveillance technologies .	
0 The 50-something lovebirds are too immature and unappealing to care about .	
1 A negligible British comedy .	
4 In addition to scoring high for originality of plot -- putting together familiar themes of family , forgiveness and love in a new way -- Lilo & Stitch has a number of other assets to commend it to movie audiences both innocent and jaded .	
3 We want the funk - and this movie 's got it .	
0 I like my Christmas movies with more elves and snow and less pimps and ho 's .	
0 Their parents would do well to cram earplugs in their ears and put pillowcases over their heads for 87 minutes .	
1 It 's rare to see a movie that takes such a speedy swan dive from  promising  to  interesting  to  familiar  before landing squarely on  stupid  .	
1 The modern remake of Dumas 's story is long on narrative and -LRB- too -RRB- short on action .	
4 Duvall is strong as always .	
2 But his showboating wise-cracker stock persona sure is getting old .	
3 A true pleasure .	
3 Daringly perceptive , taut , piercing and feisty , Biggie and Tupac is undeniably subversive and involving in its bold presentation .	
0 They were afraid to show this movie to reviewers before its opening , afraid of the bad reviews they thought they 'd earn .	
2 The movie certainly has its share of clever moments and biting dialogue , but there 's just not much lurking below its abstract surface .	
4 Like the best 60 Minutes	
2 The entire movie is filled with deja vu moments .	
4 As a science fiction movie ,  Minority Report  astounds .	
3 Broomfield reminds us that beneath the hype , the celebrity , the high life , the conspiracies and the mystery there were once a couple of bright young men -- promising , talented , charismatic and tragically doomed .	
3 Director Peter Kosminsky gives these women a forum to demonstrate their acting ' chops ' and they take full advantage .	
2 The animation merely serves up a predictable , maudlin story that swipes heavily from Bambi and The Lion King , yet lacks the emotional resonance of either of those movies .	
0 The most offensive thing about the movie is that Hollywood expects people to pay to see it .	
1 That frenetic spectacle -LRB- on the TV show -RRB- has usually been leavened by a charm that 's conspicuously missing from the Girls ' big-screen blowout .	
3 Though a touch too Arthouse 101 in its poetic symbolism , Heaven proves to be a good match of the sensibilities of two directors .	
3 -LRB- Sports -RRB- admirable energy , full-bodied characterizations and narrative urgency .	
1 A cross between Blow and Boyz N The Hood , this movie strives to be more , but does n't quite get there .	
1 Meandering and confusing .	
3  Nicholas Nickleby  is a perfect family film to take everyone to since there 's no new  A Christmas Carol  out in the theaters this year .	
2 To the degree that ivans xtc .	
2 Matches neorealism 's impact by showing the humanity of a war-torn land filled with people who just want to live their lives .	
3 The performances are amiable and committed , and the comedy more often than not hits the bullseye .	
3 A rich tale of our times , very well told with an appropriate minimum of means .	
3 While Bollywood / Hollywood will undoubtedly provide its keenest pleasures to those familiar with Bombay musicals , it also has plenty for those -LRB- like me -RRB- who are n't .	
1 At 90 minutes this movie is short , but it feels much longer .	
1 If only it were , well , funnier .	
2 Like these Russo guys lookin ' for their Mamet instead found their Sturges .	
3 Family fare .	
1 But the cinematography is cloudy , the picture making becalmed .	
0 Even if the enticing prospect of a lot of nubile young actors in a film about campus depravity did n't fade amid the deliberate , tiresome ugliness , it would be rendered tedious by Avary 's failure to construct a story with even a trace of dramatic interest .	
0 All the movie 's narrative gymnastics ca n't disguise the fact that it 's inauthentic at its core and that its story just is n't worth telling .	
3 Presents a side of contemporary Chinese life that many outsiders will be surprised to know exists , and does so with an artistry that also smacks of revelation .	
4 The film was immensely enjoyable thanks to great performances by both Steve Buscemi and Rosario Dawson ...	
1 A small independent film suffering from a severe case of Hollywood-itis .	
3 A much more successful translation than its most famous previous film adaptation , writer-director Anthony Friedman 's similarly updated 1970 British production .	
2 A portrait of an artist .	
3 A fun ride .	
2 It 's sincere to a fault , but , unfortunately , not very compelling or much fun .	
2 The movie has generic virtues , and despite a lot of involved talent , seems done by the numbers .	
3 Watching War Photographer , you come to believe that Nachtwey hates the wars he shows and empathizes with the victims he reveals .	
3 The direction has a fluid , no-nonsense authority , and the performances by Harris , Phifer and Cam ' ron seal the deal .	
1 Shreve 's graceful dual narrative gets clunky on the screen , and we keep getting torn away from the compelling historical tale to a less-compelling soap opera .	
3 Robin Williams has thankfully ditched the saccharine sentimentality of Bicentennial Man in favour of an altogether darker side .	
2 I ca n't .	
0 It 's difficult to conceive of anyone who has reached puberty actually finding the characters in Slackers or their antics amusing , let alone funny .	
1 Terminally bland , painfully slow and needlessly confusing ... The movie , shot on digital videotape rather than film , is frequently indecipherable .	
2 Directors Harry Gantz and Joe Gantz have chosen a fascinating subject matter , but the couples exposing themselves are n't all that interesting .	
3 Lawrence plumbs personal tragedy and also the human comedy .	
1 Romething 's really wrong with this ricture !	
3 It 's not particularly well made , but since I found myself howling more than cringing , I 'd say the film works .	
0 A depraved , incoherent , instantly disposable piece of hackery .	
3 So genial is the conceit , this is one of those rare pictures that you root for throughout , dearly hoping that the rich promise of the script will be realized on the screen .	
3 Chaiken ably balances real-time rhythms with propulsive incident .	
2 Goldmember is funny enough to justify the embarrassment of bringing a barf bag to the moviehouse .	
1 ... Pray does n't have a passion for the material .	
1 Blue Crush has all the trappings of an energetic , extreme-sports adventure , but ends up more of a creaky  Pretty Woman  retread , with the emphasis on self-empowering schmaltz and big-wave surfing that gives pic its title an afterthought .	
3 It establishes its ominous mood and tension swiftly , and if the suspense never rises to a higher level , it is nevertheless maintained throughout .	
3 Makes the case for a strong education and good teachers being more valuable in the way they help increase an average student 's self-esteem , and not strictly in the knowledge imparted .	
1 Diane Lane 's sophisticated performance ca n't rescue Adrian Lyne 's Unfaithful from its sleazy moralizing .	
3 A gently funny , sweetly adventurous film that makes you feel genuinely good , that is to say , entirely unconned by false sentiment or sharp , overmanipulative Hollywood practices .	
2 Even with Harris 's strong effort , the script gives him little to effectively probe Lear 's soul-stripping breakdown .	
1 Not good enough to pass for a litmus test of the generation gap and not bad enough to repulse any generation of its fans .	
2 But this is Lohman 's film .	
2 In trying to be daring and original , it comes off as only occasionally satirical and never fresh .	
1 A simpler , leaner treatment would have been preferable ; after all , being about nothing is sometimes funnier than being about something .	
1 The April 2002 instalment of the American War for Independence , complete with loads of CGI and bushels of violence , but not a drop of human blood .	
3 By the end you ca n't help but feel ' stoked . '	
0 Lazy , miserable and smug .	
4 While it 's nothing we have n't seen before from Murphy , I Spy is still fun and enjoyable and so aggressively silly that it 's more than a worthwhile effort .	
3 If you like blood , guts and crazy beasts stalking men with guns though ... you will likely enjoy this monster .	
0 It 's so badly made on every level that I 'm actually having a hard time believing people were paid to make it .	
4 A hugely rewarding experience that 's every bit as enlightening , insightful and entertaining as Grant 's two best films -- Four Weddings and a Funeral and Bridget Jones 's Diary .	
3 The film jolts the laughs from the audience -- as if by cattle prod .	
1 If swimfan does catch on , it may be because teens are looking for something to make them laugh .	
3 Scotland looks wonderful , the fans are often funny fanatics , the showdown sure beats a bad day of golf .	
3 A solidly entertaining little film .	
3 Films about loss , grief and recovery are pretty valuable these days .	
3 out ballsy and stylish	
3 An undeniably gorgeous , terminally smitten document of a troubadour , his acolytes , and the triumph of his band .	
1 Believability was n't one of the film 's virtues .	
4 Much of All About Lily Chou-Chou is mesmerizing : some of its plaintiveness could make you weep .	
1 It is parochial , accessible to a chosen few , standoffish to everyone else , and smugly suggests a superior moral tone is more important than filmmaking skill	
1 Guys say mean things and shoot a lot of bullets .	
4 Like blended shades of lipstick , these components combine into one terrific story with lots of laughs .	
2 The obligatory break-ups and hook-ups do n't seem to have much emotional impact on the characters .	
3 Much of it is funny , but there are also some startling , surrealistic moments ...	
1 The Mothman Prophecies , which is mostly a bore , seems to exist only for its climactic setpiece .	
3 A bittersweet drama about the limbo of grief and how truth-telling can open the door to liberation .	
3 Crudup 's screen presence is the one thing that holds interest in the midst of a mushy , existential exploration of why men leave their families .	
3 Hardly a film that comes along every day .	
1 Here , common sense flies out the window , along with the hail of bullets , none of which ever seem to hit Sascha .	
3 It 's hard to quibble with a flick boasting this many genuine cackles , but Notorious C.H.O. still feels like a promising work-in-progress .	
1 One-sided documentary offers simplistic explanations to a very complex situation .	
3 All in all , an interesting look at the life of the campaign-trail press , especially ones that do n't really care for the candidate they 're forced to follow .	
3 Hugh Grant 's act is so consuming that sometimes it 's difficult to tell who the other actors in the movie are .	
2 ... Myers has turned his franchise into the movie version of an adolescent dirty-joke book done up in post-Tarantino pop-culture riffs ...	
3 An encouraging effort from McCrudden	
3 The work of a filmmaker who has secrets buried at the heart of his story and knows how to take time revealing them .	
1 It 's a lot to ask people to sit still for two hours and change watching such a character , especially when rendered in as flat and impassive a manner as Phoenix 's .	
3 While Broomfield 's film does n't capture the effect of these tragic deaths on hip-hop culture , it succeeds as a powerful look at a failure of our justice system .	
1 When it comes to the battle of Hollywood vs. Woo , it looks like Woo 's a P.O.W.	
2 Gaghan	
2 While Glover , the irrepressible eccentric of River 's Edge , Dead Man and Back to the Future , is perfect casting for the role , he represents Bartleby 's main overall flaw .	
1 This low-rent -- and even lower-wit -- rip-off of the Farrelly brothers ' oeuvre gets way too mushy -- and in a relatively short amount of time .	
2 The real question this movie poses is not ' Who ? '	
4 delightfully rendered	
1 -LRB- Seagal 's -RRB- strenuous attempt at a change in expression could very well clinch him this year 's Razzie .	
0 -LRB- A -RRB- crushing disappointment .	
1 Like the excruciating End of Days , Collateral Damage presents Schwarzenegger as a tragic figure , but sympathy really belongs with any viewer forced to watch him try out so many complicated facial expressions .	
0 No amount of burning , blasting , stabbing , and shooting can hide a weak script .	
1 Not a strike against Yang 's similarly themed Yi Yi , but I found What Time ?	
4 A gem of a romantic crime comedy that turns out to be clever , amusing and unpredictable .	
3 It 's incredible the number of stories the Holocaust has generated .	
1 The dialogue is cumbersome , the simpering soundtrack and editing more so .	
3 Pray has really done his subject justice .	
1 Are we dealing with dreams , visions or being told what actually happened as if it were the third ending of Clue ?	
3 As dumb and cheesy as they may be , the cartoons look almost Shakespearean -- both in depth and breadth -- after watching this digital-effects-heavy , supposed family-friendly comedy .	
1 A few zingers aside , the writing is indifferent , and Jordan Brady 's direction is prosaic .	
0 To call this film a lump of coal would only be to flatter it .	
2 If there 's one big point to Promises , it 's that nothing can change while physical and psychological barriers keep the sides from speaking even one word to each other .	
0 is never quite able to overcome the cultural moat surrounding its ludicrous and contrived plot . '	
2 Sensitively examines general issues of race and justice among the poor , and specifically raises serious questions about the death penalty and asks what good the execution of a mentally challenged woman could possibly do .	
3 In The Pianist , Polanski is saying what he has long wanted to say , confronting the roots of his own preoccupations and obsessions , and he allows nothing to get in the way .	
3 Some Body is a shaky , uncertain film that nevertheless touches a few raw nerves .	
0 Lacks the inspiration of the original and has a bloated plot that stretches the running time about 10 minutes past a child 's interest and an adult 's patience .	
2 Merchant has n't directed this movie so much as produced it -- like sausage .	
2 Adam SANDLER !	
0 Thoroughly awful .	
2 Despite Hoffman 's best efforts , Wilson remains a silent , lumpish cipher ; his encounters reveal nothing about who he is or who he was before .	
3 Intimate and panoramic .	
3 It is philosophy , illustrated through everyday events .	
1 Another useless recycling of a brutal mid - '70s American sports movie .	
2 A plodding look at the French Revolution through the eyes of aristocrats .	
1 Could this be the first major studio production shot on video tape instead of film ?	
0 Please , someone , stop Eric Schaeffer before he makes another film .	
3 Tsai Ming-liang 's witty , wistful new film , What Time Is It There ?	
4 A lively and engaging examination of how similar obsessions can dominate a family .	
2 I did n't think so .	
4 Both heartbreaking and heartwarming ... just a simple fable done in an artless sytle , but it 's tremendously moving .	
3 -LRB- Jeff 's -RRB- gorgeous , fluid compositions , underlined by Neil Finn and Edmund McWilliams 's melancholy music , are charged with metaphor , but rarely easy , obvious or self-indulgent .	
3 The film has the high-buffed gloss and high-octane jolts you expect of De Palma , but what makes it transporting is that it 's also one of the smartest , most pleasurable expressions of pure movie love to come from an American director in years .	
2 Gone are the flamboyant mannerisms that are the trademark of several of his performances .	
0 This is surely one of the most frantic , virulent and foul-natured Christmas season pics ever delivered by a Hollywood studio .	
4 With an unflappable air of decadent urbanity , Everett remains a perfect Wildean actor , and a relaxed Firth displays impeccable comic skill .	
4 A serious movie with serious ideas .	
0 About the only thing to give the movie points for is bravado -- to take an entirely stale concept and push it through the audience 's meat grinder one more time .	
3 Thought-provoking and stylish , if also somewhat hermetic .	
1 Though it 's not very well shot or composed or edited , the score is too insistent and the dialogue is frequently overwrought and crudely literal , the film shatters you in waves .	
1 A movie that harps on media-constructed ' issues ' like whether compromise is the death of self ... this Orgasm -LRB- wo n't be an -RRB- exceedingly memorable one for most people .	
4 Both a successful adaptation and an enjoyable film in its own right .	
1 It 's exactly the kind of movie Toback 's detractors always accuse him of making .	
1 It stars schticky Chris Rock and stolid Anthony Hopkins , who seem barely in the same movie .	
4 The film does a solid job of slowly , steadily building up to the climactic burst of violence .	
2 Unfortunately , neither Sendak nor the directors are particularly engaging or articulate .	
1 It 's not as awful as some of the recent Hollywood trip tripe ... but it 's far from a groundbreaking endeavor .	
2 Try Hell House , which documents the cautionary Christian spook-a-rama of the same name .	
1 I could just feel the screenwriter at every moment ' Tap , tap , tap , tap , tapping away ' on this screenplay .	
4 Its engaging simplicity is driven by appealing leads .	
4 Lan Yu is a genuine love story , full of traditional layers of awakening and ripening and separation and recovery .	
1 Enough is not a bad movie , just mediocre .	
1 We 're left with a story that tries to grab us , only to keep letting go at all the wrong moments .	
4 While Parker and co-writer Catherine di Napoli are faithful to Melville 's plotline , they and a fully engaged supporting cast ... have made the old boy 's characters more quick-witted than any English Lit major would have thought possible .	
2 The director and her capable cast appear to be caught in a heady whirl of New Age-inspired good intentions , but the spell they cast is n't the least bit mesmerizing .	
2 Either a fascinating study of the relationship between mothers and their children or a disturbing story about sociopaths and their marks .	
4 One of those rare films that seems as though it was written for no one , but somehow manages to convince almost everyone that it was put on the screen , just for them .	
0 Hey everybody , wanna watch a movie in which a guy dressed as a children 's party clown gets violently gang-raped ?	
3 Can be viewed as pure composition and form -- film as music	
3 But it does have one saving grace .	
3 Despite a quieter middle section , involving Aragorn 's dreams of Arwen , this is even better than The Fellowship .	
1 plays like an unbalanced mixture of graphic combat footage and almost saccharine domestic interludes that are pure Hollywood .	
4 Scooby Doo is surely everything its fans are hoping it will be , and in that sense is a movie that deserves recommendation .	
1 It all looks and plays like a $ 40 million version of a game you 're more likely to enjoy on a computer .	
1 ' Unfaithful ' cheats on itself and retreats to comfortable territory .	
2 Bravo reveals the true intent of her film by carefully selecting interview subjects who will construct a portrait of Castro so predominantly charitable it can only be seen as propaganda .	
0 No film could possibly be more contemptuous of the single female population .	
0 It 's Splash without the jokes .	
3 If not a home run , then at least a solid base hit .	
4 A shimmeringly lovely coming-of-age portrait , shot in artful , watery tones of blue , green and brown .	
1 Bears about as much resemblance to the experiences of most battered women as Spider-Man does to the experiences of most teenagers .	
1 Has all the values of a straight-to-video movie , but because it has a bigger-name cast , it gets a full theatrical release .	
4 The soundtrack alone is worth the price of admission .	
3 It 's very Beavis and Butthead , yet always seems to elicit a chuckle .	
3 Connoisseurs of Chinese film will be pleased to discover that Tian 's meticulous talent has not withered during his enforced hiatus .	
0 This is rote spookiness , with nary an original idea -LRB- or role , or edit , or score , or anything , really -RRB- in sight , and the whole of the proceedings beg the question ' Why ? '	
3 Beautiful , angry and sad , with a curious sick poetry , as if the Marquis de Sade had gone in for pastel landscapes .	
1 Fluffy neo-noir hiding behind cutesy film references .	
1 ... a cinematic disaster so inadvertently sidesplitting it 's worth the price of admission for the ridicule factor alone .	
2 An overwrought Taiwanese soaper about three people and their mixed-up relationship .	
4 The story ... is inspiring , ironic , and revelatory of just how ridiculous and money-oriented the record industry really is .	
3 It 's rare for any movie to be as subtle and touching as The Son 's Room .	
0 A low-budget affair , Tadpole was shot on digital video , and the images often look smeary and blurry , to the point of distraction .	
2 the Venezuelans say things like  si , pretty much  and  por favor , go home  when talking to Americans .	
1 It 's not original enough .	
1 An empty exercise , a florid but ultimately vapid crime melodrama with lots of surface flash but little emotional resonance .	
1 At some point , all this visual trickery stops being clever and devolves into flashy , vaguely silly overkill .	
3 Director Alfonso Cuaron gets vivid , convincing performances from a fine cast , and generally keeps things going at a rapid pace , occasionally using an omniscient voice-over narrator in the manner of French New Wave films .	
2 A movie that feels like the pilot episode of a new teen-targeted action TV series .	
4 It 's a funny little movie with clever dialogue and likeable characters .	
1 Barney 's ideas about creation and identity do n't really seem all that profound , at least by way of what can be gleaned from this three-hour endurance test built around an hour 's worth of actual material .	
1 Watching this film , what we feel is n't mainly suspense or excitement .	
3 It gives devastating testimony to both people 's capacity for evil and their heroic capacity for good .	
4 A damn fine and a truly distinctive and a deeply pertinent film .	
3 A tone poem of transgression .	
1 Has all the hallmarks of a movie designed strictly for children 's home video , a market so insatiable it absorbs all manner of lame entertainment , as long as 3-year-olds find it diverting .	
1 Flashy gadgets and whirling fight sequences may look cool , but they ca n't distract from the flawed support structure holding Equilibrium up .	
2 The story is virtually impossible to follow here , but there 's a certain style and wit to the dialogue .	
4 An emotionally and spiritually compelling journey seen through the right eyes , with the right actors and with the kind of visual flair that shows what great cinema can really do .	
3 With We Were Soldiers , Hollywood makes a valiant attempt to tell a story about the Vietnam War before the pathology set in .	
3 Shyamalan offers copious hints along the way -- myriad signs , if you will -- that beneath the familiar , funny surface is a far bigger , far more meaningful story than one in which little green men come to Earth for harvesting purposes .	
4 An escapist confection that 's pure entertainment .	
2 I 'll put it this way : If you 're in the mood for a melodrama narrated by talking fish , this is the movie for you .	
3 Takashi Miike keeps pushing the envelope : Ichi the Killer	
1 lazily and glumly settles into a most traditional , reserved kind of filmmaking .	
3 Boasts enough funny dialogue and sharp characterizations to be mildly amusing .	
2 Defies logic , the laws of physics and almost anyone 's willingness to believe in it .	
4 An impressive hybrid .	
0 Idiotic and ugly .	
2 What might 've been an exhilarating exploration of an odd love triangle becomes a sprawl of uncoordinated vectors .	
3 Ultimately engages less for its story of actorly existential despair than for its boundary-hopping formal innovations and glimpse into another kind of Chinese ' cultural revolution . '	
2 Bad in such a bizarre way that it 's almost worth seeing , if only to witness the crazy confluence of purpose and taste .	
2 With not a lot of help from the screenplay -LRB- proficient , but singularly cursory -RRB- , -LRB- Testud -RRB- acts with the feral intensity of the young Bette Davis .	
4 Michael Moore 's latest documentary about America 's thirst for violence is his best film yet ...	
4 One of the best rock documentaries ever .	
1 Reggio and Glass so rhapsodize cynicism , with repetition and languorous slo-mo sequences , that Glass 's dirgelike score becomes a fang-baring lullaby .	
2 Let 's face it -- there are n't many reasons anyone would want to see Crossroads if they 're not big fans of teen pop kitten Britney Spears .	
3 -LRB- Russell -RRB- makes good B movies -LRB- The Mask , The Blob -RRB- , and The Scorpion King more than ably meets those standards .	
1 The story itself is actually quite vapid .	
0 Even by the intentionally low standards of frat-boy humor , Sorority Boys is a bowser .	
3 A big-budget / all-star movie as unblinkingly pure as The Hours is a distinct rarity , and an event .	
2 Don Michael Paul uses quick-cuts , -LRB- very -RRB- large shadows and wide-angle shots taken from a distance to hide the liberal use of a body double -LRB- for Seagal -RRB- .	
2 It 's clear that Mehta simply wanted to update her beloved genre for the thousands of Indians who fancy themselves too sophisticated for the cheese-laced spectacles that pack 'em in on the subcontinent .	
3 Demonstrates a vivid imagination and an impressive style that result in some terrific setpieces .	
1 Hmmm ... might I suggest that the wayward wooden one end it all by stuffing himself into an electric pencil sharpener ?	
3 A pretty decent kid-pleasing , tolerable-to-adults lark of a movie .	
3 White Oleander may leave you rolling your eyes in the dark , but that does n't mean you wo n't like looking at it .	
2 A drama ?	
1 All the sensuality , all the eroticism of a good vampire tale has been , pardon the pun , sucked out and replaced by goth goofiness .	
1 his -LRB- Nelson 's -RRB- screenplay needs some serious re-working to show more of the dilemma , rather than have his characters stage shouting matches about it .	
1 This is not a Jackie Chan movie .	
3 A tour de force drama about the astonishingly pivotal role of imagination in the soulful development of two rowdy teenagers .	
2 Wiseman reveals the victims of domestic abuse in all of their pity and terror .	
3 Amy and Matthew have a bit of a phony relationship , but the film works in spite of it .	
1 An affable but undernourished romantic comedy that fails to match the freshness of the actress-producer and writer 's previous collaboration , Miss Congeniality .	
4 Chamber of Secrets will find millions of eager fans .	
1 An instantly forgettable snow-and-stuntwork extravaganza that likely will be upstaged by an avalanche of more appealing holiday-season product .	
2 A chick flick for guys .	
3 The film reminds me of a vastly improved Germanic version of My Big Fat Greek Wedding -- with better characters , some genuine quirkiness and at least a measure of style .	
3 Diaz , Applegate , Blair and Posey are suitably kooky which should appeal to women and they strip down often enough to keep men alert , if not amused .	
3 It all plays out ... like a high-end John Hughes comedy , a kind of Elder Bueller 's Time Out .	
0 A smug and convoluted action-comedy that does n't allow an earnest moment to pass without reminding audiences that it 's only a movie .	
2 Presents a good case while failing to provide a reason for us to care beyond the very basic dictums of human decency .	
0 It is n't that Stealing Harvard is a horrible movie -- if only it were that grand a failure !	
1 The things this movie tries to get the audience to buy just wo n't fly with most intelligent viewers .	
2 It 's a brilliant , honest performance by Nicholson , but the film is an agonizing bore except when the fantastic Kathy Bates turns up .	
0 It 's dull , spiritless , silly and monotonous : an ultra-loud blast of pointless mayhem , going nowhere fast .	
3 There is a general air of exuberance in All About The Benjamins that 's hard to resist .	
2 The film is a masterpiece of nuance and characterization , marred only by an inexplicable , utterly distracting blunder at the very end .	
3 -LRB- Gosling 's -RRB- combination of explosive physical energy and convincing intelligence helps create a complex , unpredictable character .	
3 Dense , exhilarating documentary .	
0 Not even Steven Spielberg has dreamed up such blatant and sickening product placement in a movie .	
0 is that it 's a crime movie made by someone who obviously knows nothing about crime .	
1 A noble failure .	
0 Becomes a bit of a mishmash : a tearjerker that does n't and a thriller that wo n't .	
1 For a film about action , Ultimate X is the gabbiest giant-screen movie ever , bogging down in a barrage of hype .	
2 The ending does n't work ... but most of the movie works so well I 'm almost recommending it , anyway -- maybe not to everybody , but certainly to people with a curiosity about how a movie can go very right , and then step wrong .	
0 Tries so hard to be quirky and funny that the strain is all too evident .	
1 A droll , bitchy frolic which pokes fun at the price of popularity and small-town pretension in the Lone Star State .	
1 These self-styled athletes have banged their brains into the ground so frequently and furiously , their capacity to explain themselves has gone the same way as their natural instinct for self-preservation .	
1 No amount of good acting is enough to save Oleander 's uninspired story .	
0 ... pays tribute to heroes the way Julia Roberts hands out awards -- with phony humility barely camouflaging grotesque narcissism .	
1 More likely to have you scratching your head than hiding under your seat .	
2 This is NOT a retread of  Dead Poets ' Society . 	
4 It tends to remind one of a really solid Woody Allen film , with its excellent use of New York locales and sharp writing	
3 Wise and deadpan humorous .	
1 Instead of panoramic sweep , Kapur gives us episodic choppiness , undermining the story 's emotional thrust .	
0 It 's too interested in jerking off in all its Byzantine incarnations to bother pleasuring its audience .	
2 A very pretty after-school special .	
3 This real-life Hollywood fairy-tale is more engaging than the usual fantasies Hollywood produces .	
1 Shallow .	
3 Screenwriter Dan Schneider and director Shawn Levy substitute volume and primary colors for humor and bite .	
1 -LRB- T -RRB- oo many of these gross out scenes ...	
4 Secret Ballot is a funny , puzzling movie ambiguous enough to be engaging and oddly moving .	
1 As for children , they wo n't enjoy the movie at all .	
3 Spirit is a visual treat , and it takes chances that are bold by studio standards , but it lacks a strong narrative .	
1 A movie that 's held captive by mediocrity .	
3 It 's probably worth catching solely on its visual merits .	
4 It 's a fun adventure movie for kids -LRB- of all ages -RRB- that like adventure .	
1 It 's so downbeat and nearly humorless that it becomes a chore to sit through -- despite some first-rate performances by its lead .	
3 A showcase for both the scenic splendor of the mountains and for legendary actor Michel Serrault , the film is less successful on other levels .	
1 When the fire burns out , we 've only come face-to-face with a couple dragons and that 's where the film ultimately fails .	
1 Parker updates the setting in an attempt to make the film relevant today , without fully understanding what it was that made the story relevant in the first place .	
2 OK arthouse .	
1 True to its title , it traps audiences in a series of relentlessly nasty situations that we would pay a considerable ransom not to be looking at .	
3 The hot topics of the plot are relegated to the background -- a welcome step forward from the Sally Jesse Raphael atmosphere of films like Philadelphia and American Beauty .	
3 There are so few films about the plight of American Indians in modern America that Skins comes as a welcome , if downbeat , missive from a forgotten front .	
3 While there 's likely very little crossover appeal to those without much interest in the Elizabethans -LRB- as well as rank frustration from those in the know about Rubbo 's dumbed-down tactics -RRB- , Much Ado About Something is an amicable endeavor .	
3 And that makes all the difference .	
2 Like being invited to a classy dinner soiree and not knowing anyone .	
0 The story is lacking any real emotional impact , and the plot is both contrived and cliched .	
4 You 'll probably love it .	
2 Cynics need not apply . '	
3 A sense of real magic , perhaps .	
1 Yes , Spirited Away is a triumph of imagination , but it 's also a failure of storytelling .	
1 Shrewd but pointless .	
2 If all of Eight Legged Freaks was as entertaining as the final hour , I would have no problem giving it an unqualified recommendation .	
3 A weird little movie that 's amusing enough while you watch it , offering fine acting moments and pungent insights into modern L.A. 's show-biz and media subcultures .	
1 A boring masquerade ball where normally good actors , even Kingsley , are made to look bad .	
3 If you are into splatter movies , then you will probably have a reasonably good time with The Salton Sea .	
0 Hate it because it 's lousy .	
4 Director Lee has a true cinematic knack , but it 's also nice to see a movie with its heart so thoroughly , unabashedly on its sleeve .	
0 ... a movie that , quite simply , should n't have been made .	
3 ... certainly an entertaining ride , despite many talky , slow scenes .	
4 ... a series of tales told with the intricate preciseness of the best short story writing .	
3 The cast , collectively a successful example of the lovable-loser protagonist , shows deft comic timing .	
3 Alternating between facetious comic parody and pulp melodrama , this smart-aleck movie ... tosses around some intriguing questions about the difference between human and android life .	
3 A deliberative account of a lifestyle characterized by its surface-obsession -- one that typifies the delirium of post , pre , and extant stardom .	
2 Are monsters born , or made ?	
3 A little melodramatic , but with enough hope to keep you engaged .	
2 It did n't go straight to video .	
0 The misery of these people becomes just another voyeuristic spectacle , to be consumed and forgotten .	
1 It is bad , but certainly not without merit as entertainment .	
4 One of the most original American productions this year , you 'll find yourself remembering this refreshing visit to a Sunshine State .	
1 A bland animated sequel that hardly seems worth the effort .	
1 Maybe LeBlanc thought ,  Hey , the movie about the baseball-playing monkey was worse . 	
1 An excruciating demonstration of the unsalvageability of a movie saddled with an amateurish screenplay .	
1 Feeble comedy .	
4 Many a parent and their teen -LRB- or preteen -RRB- kid could bond while watching A Walk To Remember .	
2 A Jewish WW II doc that is n't trying simply to out-shock , out-outrage or out-depress its potential audience !	
3 Psychologically revealing .	
3 All three women deliver remarkable performances .	
3 Leigh makes these lives count .	
3 This is a nicely handled affair , a film about human darkness but etched with a light -LRB- yet unsentimental -RRB- touch .	
1 But it also comes with the laziness and arrogance of a thing that already knows it 's won .	
4 I like this movie a lot .	
2 If you thought Tom Hanks was just an ordinary big-screen star , wait until you 've seen him eight stories tall .	
3 Bluto Blutarsky , we miss you .	
2 Eric Byler 's nuanced pic avoids easy sentiments and explanations ...	
1 Wildly incompetent but brilliantly named Half Past Dead -- or for Seagal pessimists : Totally Past His Prime .	
1 Most fish stories are a little peculiar , but this is one that should be thrown back in the river .	
2 There ai n't a lot more painful than an unfunny movie that thinks it 's hilarious .	
3 No worse a film than Breaking Out , and Breaking Out was utterly charming .	
2 Maid in Manhattan might not look so appealing on third or fourth viewing down the road ... But as a high concept vehicle for two bright stars of the moment who can rise to fans ' lofty expectations , the movie passes inspection .	
3 Whether or not you buy Mr. Broomfield 's findings , the film acquires an undeniable entertainment value as the slight , pale Mr. Broomfield continues to force himself on people and into situations that would make lesser men run for cover .	
4 Third time 's the charm ... yeah , baby !	
2 Sometimes this modest little number clicks , and sometimes it does n't .	
4 Morvern Callar confirms Lynne Ramsay as an important , original talent in international cinema .	
3 Some Body will take you places you have n't been , and also places you have .	
0 The director , with his fake backdrops and stately pacing , never settles on a consistent tone .	
1 An unencouraging threefold expansion on the former MTV series , accompanying the stunt-hungry dimwits in a random series of collected gags , pranks , pratfalls , dares , injuries , etc. .	
1 This is a movie that starts out like Heathers , then becomes Bring it On , then becomes unwatchable .	
2 Director Chris Eyre is going through the paces again with his usual high melodramatic style of filmmaking .	
0 Suffers from over-familiarity since hit-hungry British filmmakers have strip-mined the Monty formula mercilessly since 1997 .	
2 It is a testament of quiet endurance , of common concern , of reconciled survival .	
3 If you 're in the right B-movie frame of mind , it may just scare the pants off you .	
3 Despite its shortcomings , Girls Ca n't Swim represents an engaging and intimate first feature by a talented director to watch , and it 's a worthy entry in the French coming-of-age genre .	
4 Even if you 've seen  Stomp  -LRB- the stage show -RRB- , you still have to see this !	
2 But if you 've paid a matinee price and bought a big tub of popcorn , there 's guilty fun to be had here .	
2 A highly personal look at the effects of living a dysfunctionally privileged lifestyle , and by the end , we only wish we could have spent more time in its world .	
0 Rollerball IS as bad as you think , and worse than you can imagine .	
4 may prove to be -LRB- Tsai 's -RRB- masterpiece .	
1 Donovan ... squanders his main asset , Jackie Chan , and fumbles the vital action sequences .	
3 Rodriguez does a splendid job of racial profiling Hollywood style -- casting excellent Latin actors of all ages -- a trend long overdue .	
1 One key problem with these ardently Christian storylines is that there is never any question of how things will turn out .	
3 Tends to pile too many  serious issues  on its plate at times , yet remains fairly light , always entertaining , and smartly written .	
4 A marvel of production design .	
0 I have returned from the beyond to warn you : this movie is 90 minutes long , and life is too short .	
1 Has enough gun battles and throwaway humor to cover up the yawning chasm where the plot should be .	
4 Filled with honest performances and exceptional detail , Baran is a gentle film with dramatic punch , a haunting ode to humanity .	
3 Though Nijinsky 's words grow increasingly disturbed , the film maintains a beguiling serenity and poise that make it accessible for a non-narrative feature .	
0 The entire movie is so formulaic and forgettable that it 's hardly over before it begins to fade from memory .	
3 It is as uncompromising as it is nonjudgmental , and makes clear that a prostitute can be as lonely and needy as any of the clients .	
2 Until -LRB- the -RRB- superfluous ... epilogue that leaks suspension of disbelief like a sieve , Die Another Day is as stimulating & heart-rate-raising as any James Bond thriller .	
2 Ensemble movies , like soap operas , depend on empathy .	
4 Nair 's cast is so large it 's Altman-esque , but she deftly spins the multiple stories in a vibrant and intoxicating fashion .	
3 Touches smartly and wistfully on a number of themes , not least the notion that the marginal members of society ... might benefit from a helping hand and a friendly kick in the pants .	
4 The artwork is spectacular and unlike most animaton from Japan , the characters move with grace and panache .	
3 It strikes hardest ... when it reminds you how pertinent its dynamics remain .	
1 Hollywood Ending just is n't very funny .	
1 Before it collapses into exactly the kind of buddy cop comedy it set out to lampoon , anyway .	
3 Unlike lots of Hollywood fluff , this has layered , well-developed characters and some surprises .	
2 An unflinching look at the world 's dispossessed .	
1 Ultimately ... the movie is too heady for children , and too preachy for adults .	
4 Sweetly sexy , funny and touching .	
1 A muddy psychological thriller rife with miscalculations .	
0 May cause you to bite your tongue to keep from laughing at the ridiculous dialog or the oh-so convenient plot twists .	
1 -LRB- T -RRB- he film is never sure to make a clear point -- even if it seeks to rely on an ambiguous presentation .	
2 It 's been made with an innocent yet fervid conviction that our Hollywood has all but lost .	
3 Though the aboriginal aspect lends the ending an extraordinary poignancy , and the story itself could be played out in any working class community in the nation .	
3 A tour de force of modern cinema .	
1 Murder by Numbers just does n't add up .	
4 Brings together some of the biggest names in Japanese anime , with impressive results .	
1 With the exception of McCoist , the players do n't have a clue on the park .	
3 It 's a familiar story , but one that is presented with great sympathy and intelligence .	
1 If nothing else ,  Rollerball  2002 may go down in cinema history as the only movie ever in which the rest of the cast was outshined by LL Cool J.	
3 Chilling in its objective portrait of dreary , lost twenty-first century America .	
2 There 's no doubting that this is a highly ambitious and personal project for Egoyan , but it 's also one that , next to his best work , feels clumsy and convoluted .	
1 The sequel plays out like a flimsy excuse to give Blade fans another look at Wesley Snipes ' iconic hero doing battle with dozens of bad guys -- at once .	
3 He 's a better actor than a standup comedian .	
4 A deliciously nonsensical comedy about a city coming apart at its seams .	
3 What makes the movie special is its utter sincerity .	
1 I 'm sorry to say that this should seal the deal - Arnold is not , nor will he be , back .	
1 The script boasts some tart TV-insider humor , but the film has not a trace of humanity or empathy .	
3 Director Roger Kumble offers just enough sweet and traditional romantic comedy to counter the crudity .	
0 This is absolutely and completely ridiculous and an insult to every family whose mother has suffered through the horrible pains of a death by cancer .	
2 Creeps you out in high style , even if Nakata did it better .	
4 The film has the courage of its convictions and excellent performances on its side .	
2 Whether our action-and-popcorn obsessed culture will embrace this engaging and literate psychodrama is n't much of a mystery , unfortunately .	
3 A movie just for Friday fans , critics be damned .	
1 Laconic and very stilted in its dialogue , this indie flick never found its audience , probably because it 's extremely hard to relate to any of the characters .	
1 The package in which this fascinating -- and timely -- content comes wrapped is disappointingly generic .	
1 It 's mildly interesting to ponder the peculiar American style of justice that plays out here , but it 's so muddled and derivative that few will bother thinking it all through .	
1 You try to guess the order in which the kids in the house will be gored .	
1 Not really a thriller so much as a movie for teens to laugh , groan and hiss at .	
4 Graphic sex may be what 's attracting audiences to Unfaithful , but gripping performances by Lane and Gere are what will keep them awake .	
1 Full Frontal had no effect and elicited no sympathies for any of the characters .	
0 ... a bland murder-on-campus yawner .	
0 - spy action flick with Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu never comes together .	
3 Sayles has an eye for the ways people of different ethnicities talk to and about others outside the group .	
3 -LRB- D -RRB- espite its familiar subject matter , Ice Age is consistently amusing and engrossing ...	
4 This documentary is a dazzling , remarkably unpretentious reminder of what -LRB- Evans -RRB- had , lost , and got back .	
1 As earnest as a community-college advertisement , American Chai is enough to make you put away the guitar , sell the amp , and apply to medical school .	
3 A thoroughly enjoyable , heartfelt coming-of-age comedy .	
1 The movie is n't painfully bad , something to be ' fully experienced ' ; it 's just tediously bad , something to be fully forgotten .	
2 This will go on so long as there are moviegoers anxious to see strange young guys doing strange guy things .	
3 The best film of the year 2002 .	
0 Vulgar is too optimistic a title .	
3 Campanella 's competent direction and his excellent cast overcome the obstacles of a predictable outcome and a screenplay that glosses over Rafael 's evolution .	
4 A refreshingly realistic , affectation-free coming-of-age tale .	
3 You can almost see Mendes and company getting together before a single frame had been shot and collectively vowing , ' This is going to be something really good . '	
3 A fascinating examination of the joyous , turbulent self-discovery made by a proper , middle-aged woman .	
4 Its use of the thriller form to examine the labyrinthine ways in which people 's lives cross and change , buffeted by events seemingly out of their control , is intriguing , provocative stuff .	
2 A sterling film - a cross between Boys Do n't Cry , Deliverance , and Ode to Billy Joe - lies somewhere in the story of Matthew Shepard , but that film is yet to be made .	
0 The actors improvise and scream their way around this movie directionless , lacking any of the rollicking dark humor so necessary to make this kind of idea work on screen .	
1 Kapur weighs down the tale with bogus profundities .	
4 One of the greatest films I 've ever seen .	
1 While the production details are lavish , film has little insight into the historical period and its artists , particularly in how Sand developed a notorious reputation .	
2 It 's not life-affirming -- its vulgar and mean , but I liked it .	
4 Adaptation is simply brilliant .	
3 Ultimately ,  MIB II  succeeds due to its rapid-fire delivery and enough inspired levity that it ca n't be dismissed as mindless .	
3 J. Lo will earn her share of the holiday box office pie , although this movie makes one thing perfectly clear : She 's a pretty woman , but she 's no working girl .	
0 Some writer dude , I think his name was , uh , Michael Zaidan , was supposed to have like written the screenplay or something , but , dude , the only thing that I ever saw that was written down were the zeroes on my paycheck .	
1 There 's a persistent theatrical sentiment and a woozy quality to the manner of the storytelling , which undercuts the devastatingly telling impact of utter loss personified in the film 's simple title .	
3 The filmmakers know how to please the eye , but it is not always the prettiest pictures that tell the best story .	
2 A fine film , but it would be a lot better if it stuck to Betty Fisher and left out the other stories .	
1 It 's not a great monster movie .	
4 A must-see for fans of thoughtful war films and those interested in the sights and sounds of battle .	
4 An enthralling aesthetic experience , one that 's steeped in mystery and a ravishing , baroque beauty .	
1 ... comes alive only when it switches gears to the sentimental .	
1 Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant make a great team , but this predictable romantic comedy should get a pink slip .	
0 Very stupid and annoying .	
1 ' It looks good , Sonny , but you missed the point . '	
0 Crummy .	
0 Nothing about this movie works .	
2 ' Tobey Maguire is a poster boy for the geek generation . '	
3 If you 're burnt out on It 's a Wonderful Life marathons and bored with A Christmas Carol , it might just be the movie you 're looking for .	
0 Just another disjointed , fairly predictable psychological thriller .	
1 Pretend it 's a werewolf itself by avoiding eye contact and walking slowly away .	
2 Some stunning visuals -- and some staggeringly boring cinema .	
3 The hypnotic imagery and fragmentary tale explore the connections between place and personal identity .	
3 ... spiced with humor -LRB- ' I speak fluent flatula , ' advises Denlopp after a rather , er , bubbly exchange with an alien deckhand -RRB- and witty updatings -LRB- Silver 's parrot has been replaced with Morph , a cute alien creature who mimics everyone and everything around -RRB-	
4 This is a sincerely crafted picture that deserves to emerge from the traffic jam of holiday movies .	
1 An entertainment so in love with its overinflated mythology that it no longer recognizes the needs of moviegoers for real characters and compelling plots .	
4 What makes Salton Sea surprisingly engrossing is that Caruso takes an atypically hypnotic approach to a world that 's often handled in fast-edit , hopped-up fashion .	
1 This dubious product of a college-spawned -LRB- Colgate U. -RRB- comedy ensemble known as Broken Lizard plays like a mix of Cheech and Chong and CHiPs .	
2 The climactic events are so well realized that you may forget all about the original conflict , just like the movie does	
0 A sleep-inducingly slow-paced crime drama with clumsy dialogue , heavy-handed phoney-feeling sentiment , and an overly-familiar set of plot devices .	
4 It 's a cool event for the whole family .	
1 The movie is not as terrible as the synergistic impulse that created it .	
4 Schnitzler does a fine job contrasting the sleekness of the film 's present with the playful paranoia of the film 's past . '	
2 Twenty years later , Reggio still knows how to make a point with poetic imagery , but his ability to startle has been stifled by the very prevalence of the fast-forward technology that he so stringently takes to task .	
2 You could love Safe Conduct -LRB- Laissez Passer -RRB- for being a subtitled French movie that is 170 minutes long .	
1 You emerge dazed , confused as to whether you 've seen pornography or documentary .	
3 An average kid-empowerment fantasy with slightly above-average brains .	
3 Passion , melodrama , sorrow , laugther , and tears cascade over the screen effortlessly ...	
0 Banal and predictable .	
1 In the wrong hands , i.e. Peploe 's , it 's simply unbearable	
2 A perfectly respectable , perfectly inoffensive , easily forgettable film .	
4 A colorful , joyous celebration of life ; a tapestry woven of romance , dancing , singing , and unforgettable characters .	
1 The film falls short on tension , eloquence , spiritual challenge -- things that have made the original New Testament stories so compelling for 20 centuries .	
1 When ' science fiction ' takes advantage of the fact that its intended audience has n't yet had much science , it does a disservice to the audience and to the genre .	
0 It is n't quite one of the worst movies of the year .	
3 Directed by Kevin Bray , whose crisp framing , edgy camera work , and wholesale ineptitude with acting , tone and pace very obviously mark him as a video helmer making his feature debut .	
3 Hard to resist .	
1 There 's not a spark of new inspiration in it , just more of the same , done with noticeably less energy and imagination .	
1 Murphy and Wilson actually make a pretty good team ... but the project surrounding them is distressingly rote .	
4 It 's a lovely , eerie film that casts an odd , rapt spell .	
1 Writer-director Ritchie reduces Wertmuller 's social mores and politics to tiresome jargon .	
2 You know that ten bucks you 'd spend on a ticket ?	
3 It puts Washington , as honest working man John Q. Archibald , on a pedestal , then keeps lifting the pedestal higher .	
2 Almost everything about the film is unsettling , from the preposterous hairpiece worn by Lai 's villainous father to the endless action sequences .	
1 Often demented in a good way , but it is an uneven film for the most part .	
1 While the ensemble player who gained notice in Guy Ritchie 's Lock , Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch has the bod , he 's unlikely to become a household name on the basis of his first starring vehicle .	
4 Part of the film 's cheeky charm comes from its vintage schmaltz .	
2 The Balkans provide the obstacle course for the love of a good woman .	
1 The problem with  XXX  is that its own action is n't very effective .	
2 There 's a bit of thematic meat on the bones of Queen of the Damned , as its origins in an Anne Rice novel dictate , but generally , it 's a movie that emphasizes style over character and substance .	
3 Remove Spider-Man the movie from its red herring surroundings and it 's apparent that this is one summer film that satisfies .	
1 Little more than a well-mounted history lesson .	
3 Hoffman 's performance is authentic to the core of his being .	
4 Bluer than the Atlantic and more biologically detailed than an autopsy , the movie ... is , also , frequently hilarious .	
3 Some remarkable achival film about how Shanghai -LRB- of all places -RRB- served Jews who escaped the Holocaust .	
3 In painting an unabashedly romantic picture of a nation whose songs spring directly from the lives of the people , the movie exalts the Marxian dream of honest working folk , with little to show for their labor , living harmoniously , joined in song .	
4 A smart , compelling drama .	
0 It is messy , uncouth , incomprehensible , vicious and absurd .	
3 Confessions is without a doubt a memorable directorial debut from King Hunk .	
4 Uplifting as only a document of the worst possibilities of mankind can be , and among the best films of the year .	
3 A fascinating , unnerving examination of the delusions of one unstable man .	
3 This is unusual , food-for-thought cinema that 's as entertaining as it is instructive .	
3 Watching The Powerpuff Girls Movie , my mind kept returning to one anecdote for comparison : the cartoon in Japan that gave people seizures .	
0 Dripping with cliche and bypassing no opportunity to trivialize the material .	
3 If you 're looking for an intelligent movie in which you can release your pent up anger , ENOUGH is just the ticket you need .	
0 My precious new Star Wars movie is a lumbering , wheezy drag ...	
3 There 's nothing more satisfying during a summer of event movies than a spy thriller like The Bourne Identity that 's packed with just as much intelligence as action .	
3 Like Mike is n't going to make box office money that makes Michael Jordan jealous , but it has some cute moments , funny scenes , and hits the target audience -LRB- young Bow Wow fans -RRB- - with nothing but net .	
4 By turns very dark and very funny .	
3 The Last Kiss will probably never achieve the popularity of My Big Fat Greek Wedding , but its provocative central wedding sequence has far more impact .	
1 I 've had more interesting -- and , dare I say , thematically complex -- bowel movements than this long-on-the-shelf , point-and-shoot exercise in gimmicky crime drama .	
3 A coming-of-age tale from New Zealand whose boozy , languid air is balanced by a rich visual clarity and deeply felt performances across the board .	
1 ... less a story than an inexplicable nightmare , right down to the population 's shrugging acceptance to each new horror .	
2 Overall , it 's a pretty mediocre family film .	
4 Impresses as a skillfully assembled , highly polished and professional adaptation ... just about as chilling and unsettling as ' Manhunter ' was .	
2 Some motion pictures portray ultimate passion ; others create ultimate thrills .	
0 Get out your pooper-scoopers .	
3 According to Wendigo , ' nature ' loves the members of the upper class almost as much as they love themselves .	
2 The farcical elements seemed too pat and familiar to hold my interest , yet its diverting grim message is a good one .	
2 Sinks into the usual cafeteria goulash of fart jokes , masturbation jokes , and racist Japanese jokes .	
1 Though a capable thriller , somewhere along the way K-19 jettisoned some crucial drama .	
1 A movie you observe , rather than one you enter into .	
2 scenario that will give most parents pause ... Then , something terrible happens .	
3 Those who trek to the ' plex predisposed to like it probably will enjoy themselves .	
2 ... tackling a low-budget movie in which inexperienced children play the two main characters might not be the best way to cut your teeth in the film industry .	
1 Ignoring that , he made Swimfan anyway	
0 About as enjoyable , I would imagine , as searching for a quarter in a giant pile of elephant feces ... positively dreadful .	
1 Hart 's War seems to want to be a character study , but apparently ca n't quite decide which character .	
0 The movie is about as humorous as watching your favorite pet get buried alive .	
4 MY LITTLE EYE is the best little  horror  movie I 've seen in years .	
1 Unfortunately , a cast of competent performers from movies , television and the theater are cast adrift in various New York City locations with no unifying rhythm or visual style .	
3 Reveals how important our special talents can be when put in service of of others .	
3 Jolie gives it that extra little something that makes it worth checking out at theaters , especially if you 're in the mood for something more comfortable than challenging .	
1 This is very much of a mixed bag , with enough negatives to outweigh the positives .	
3 About the best thing you could say about Narc is that it 's a rock-solid little genre picture .	
2 Deserves high marks for political courage but barely gets by on its artistic merits .	
2 Too ordinary to restore -LRB- Harmon -RRB- to prominence , despite some creepy scenes that evoke childish night terrors , and a praiseworthy attempt to generate suspense rather than gross out the audience .	
1 In truth , it has all the heart of a porno flick -LRB- but none of the sheer lust -RRB- .	
1 Perhaps even the SLC high command found writer-director Mitch Davis 's wall of kitsch hard going .	
1 Been there , done that , liked it much better the first time around - when it was called The Professional .	
3 As a kind of colorful , dramatized PBS program , Frida gets the job done .	
3 It 's not going to be everyone 's bag of popcorn , but it definitely gives you something to chew on .	
2 I 'm not generally a fan of vegetables but this batch is pretty cute .	
3 Ramsay and Morton fill this character study with poetic force and buoyant feeling .	
0 With the cheesiest monsters this side of a horror spoof , which They is n't , it is more likely to induce sleep than fright .	
2 Dogtown and Z-Boys more than exposes the roots of the skateboarding boom that would become  the punk kids ' revolution . 	
2 To some eyes	
0 That such a horrible movie could have sprung from such a great one is one of the year 's worst cinematic tragedies .	
0 That chirpy songbird Britney Spears has popped up with more mindless drivel .	
1 The Master of Disguise falls under the category of ' should have been a sketch on Saturday Night Live . '	
1 A good-natured ensemble comedy that tries hard to make the most of a bumper cast , but never quite gets off the ground .	
3 Like a precious and finely cut diamond , magnificent to behold in its sparkling beauty yet in reality it 's one tough rock .	
3 Yes , but also intriguing and honorable , a worthwhile addition to a distinguished film legacy .	
1 Dogtown is hollow , self-indulgent , and - worst of all - boring .	
4 The case is a convincing one , and should give anyone with a conscience reason to pause .	
0 A loud , low-budget and tired formula film that arrives cloaked in the euphemism ' urban drama . '	
1 The whole affair , true story or not , feels incredibly hokey ... -LRB- it -RRB- comes off like a Hallmark commercial .	
2 It is one more celluloid testimonial to the cruelties experienced by Southern blacks as distilled through a Caucasian perspective .	
1 It 's a hellish , numbing experience to watch , and it does n't offer any insights that have n't been thoroughly debated in the media already , back in the Dahmer heyday of the mid - '90s .	
4 The performances are immaculate , with Roussillon providing comic relief .	
0 A profoundly stupid affair , populating its hackneyed and meanspirited storyline with cardboard characters and performers who value cash above credibility .	
3 An effective portrait of a life in stasis -- of the power of inertia to arrest development in a dead-end existence .	
1 The film starts promisingly , but the ending is all too predictable and far too cliched to really work .	
3 ... begins on a high note and sustains it beautifully .	
3 An instance of an old dog not only learning but inventing a remarkable new trick .	
2  The Tuxedo  should have been the vehicle for Chan that  The Mask  was for Jim Carrey .	
1 The film never finds its tone and several scenes run too long .	
2 Far away .	
2 Saved from being merely way-cool by a basic , credible compassion .	
0 The title , alone , should scare any sane person away .	
1 Unwieldy contraption .	
2 You really have to salute writer-director Haneke -LRB- he adapted Elfriede Jelinek 's novel -RRB- for making a film that is n't nearly as graphic but much more powerful , brutally shocking and difficult to watch .	
1 It 's hard to pity the ' plain ' girl who becomes a ravishing waif after applying a smear of lip-gloss .	
1 The only pain you 'll feel as the credits roll is your stomach grumbling for some tasty grub .	
4 Blessed with a searing lead performance by Ryan Gosling -LRB- Murder by Numbers -RRB- , the movie is powerful and provocative .	
2 Charming , if overly complicated ...	
1 Despite its dry wit and compassion , the film suffers from a philosophical emptiness and maddeningly sedate pacing .	
4 The camera soars above the globe in dazzling panoramic shots that make the most of the large-screen format , before swooping down on a string of exotic locales , scooping the whole world up in a joyous communal festival of rhythm .	
3 -LRB- Grant -RRB- goes beyond his usual fluttering and stammering and captures the soul of a man in pain who gradually comes to recognize it and deal with it .	
0 It makes even Elizabeth Hurley seem graceless and ugly .	
1 Blood Work is laughable in the solemnity with which it tries to pump life into overworked elements from Eastwood 's Dirty Harry period .	
2 Since the movie is based on a Nicholas Sparks best seller , you know death is lurking around the corner , just waiting to spoil things .	
2 Tsai Ming-liang 's ghosts are painfully aware of their not-being .	
3 This is n't exactly profound cinema , but it 's good-natured and sometimes quite funny .	
0 A pathetic exploitation film that tries to seem sincere , and just seems worse for the effort .	
0 Philosophically , intellectually and logistically a mess .	
2 The performances are all solid ; it merely lacks originality to make it a great movie .	
4 Move over Bond ; this girl deserves a sequel .	
1 Barely manages for but a few seconds over its seemingly eternal running time to pique your interest , your imagination , your empathy or anything , really , save your disgust and your indifference .	
1 ... the whole thing succeeded only in making me groggy .	
2 Almost nothing else -- raunchy and graphic as it may be in presentation -- is one-sided , outwardly sexist or mean-spirited .	
3 Alan and his fellow survivors are idiosyncratic enough to lift the movie above its playwriting 101 premise .	
3 It 's a satisfying summer blockbuster and worth a look .	
3 K-19 : The Widowmaker is derivative , overlong , and bombastic -- yet surprisingly entertaining .	
1 The story really has no place to go since Simone is not real -- she ca n't provide any conflict .	
2 Many shallower movies these days seem too long , but this one is egregiously short .	
1 But the feelings evoked in the film are lukewarm and quick to pass .	
0 It is that rare combination of bad writing , bad direction and bad acting -- the trifecta of badness .	
0 You have no affinity for most of the characters .	
3 ... a quietly introspective portrait of the self-esteem of employment and the shame of losing a job ...	
2 At its best -LRB- and it does have some very funny sequences -RRB- Looking for Leonard reminds you just how comically subversive silence can be .	
2 The picture does n't know it 's a comedy .	
2 I have two words to say about Reign of Fire .	
1 Why did they deem it necessary to document all this emotional misery ?	
4 A first-class road movie that proves you can run away from home , but your ego and all your problems go with you .	
4 The story itself it mostly told through on-camera interviews with several survivors , whose riveting memories are rendered with such clarity that it 's as if it all happened only yesterday .	
4 A coming-of-age movie that Hollywood would n't have the guts to make .	
2 Wraps itself in the guise of a dark and quirky comedy , but it is n't as quirky as it thinks it is and its comedy is generally mean-spirited .	
2 A well-acted movie that simply does n't gel .	
0 One of those films that started with a great premise and then just fell apart .	
4 The film boasts dry humor and jarring shocks , plus moments of breathtaking mystery .	
1 El Crimen Del Padre Amaro would likely be most effective if used as a tool to rally anti-Catholic protestors .	
4 A fanciful drama about Napoleon 's last years and his surprising discovery of love and humility .	
4 Excellent performances from Jacqueline Bisset and Martha Plimpton grace this deeply touching melodrama .	
0 I approached the usher and said that if she had to sit through it again , she should ask for a raise .	
3 At its best , which occurs often , Michael Moore 's Bowling for Columbine rekindles the muckraking , soul-searching spirit of the ' Are we a sick society ? '	
3 The casting of von Sydow ... is itself Intacto 's luckiest stroke .	
3 -LRB- Caine -RRB- proves once again he has n't lost his touch , bringing off a superb performance in an admittedly middling film .	
3 A crisp psychological drama -LRB- and -RRB- a fascinating little thriller that would have been perfect for an old  Twilight Zone  episode .	
1 Too often , Son of the Bride becomes an exercise in trying to predict when a preordained  big moment  will occur and not  if . 	
1 It 's hard to care about a film that proposes as epic tragedy the plight of a callow rich boy who is forced to choose between his beautiful , self-satisfied 22-year-old girlfriend and an equally beautiful , self-satisfied 18-year-old mistress .	
2 I admit it , I hate to like it .	
0 To better understand why this did n't connect with me would require another viewing , and I wo n't be sitting through this one again ... that in itself is commentary enough .	
4 Vibrantly colored and beautifully designed , Metropolis is a feast for the eyes .	
2 Chomp chomp !	
0 Oedekerk mugs mercilessly , and the genuinely funny jokes are few and far between .	
4 The pleasure of Read My Lips is like seeing a series of perfect black pearls clicking together to form a string .	
3 As it turns out , you can go home again .	
2 How I Killed My Father is one of those art house films that makes you feel like you 're watching an iceberg melt -- only it never melts .	
0 Fails in making this character understandable , in getting under her skin , in exploring motivation ... Well before the end , the film grows as dull as its characters , about whose fate it is hard to care .	
3 It has plenty of laughs .	
2 Personal Velocity has a no-frills docu-Dogma plainness , yet Miller lingers on invisible , nearly psychic nuances , leaping into digressions of memory and desire .	
2 The screenplay comes across , rather unintentionally , as Hip-Hop Scooby-Doo .	
2 ' Lovely and Amazing , ' unhappily , is neither ... excessively strained and contrived .	
2 , Skins has its heart in the right place	
1 The script is too mainstream and the psychology too textbook to intrigue .	
3 What bubbles up out of John C. Walsh 's Pipe Dream is the distinct and very welcome sense of watching intelligent people making a movie they might actually want to watch .	
2 You do n't want to call the cops .	
4 A genuinely moving and wisely unsentimental drama .	
2 You 'd think by now America would have had enough of plucky British eccentrics with hearts of gold .	
2 After Collateral Damage	
1 It 's Tommy 's job to clean the peep booths surrounding her , and after viewing this one , you 'll feel like mopping up , too .	
2 The vistas are sweeping and the acting is far from painful .	
0 A gratingly unfunny groaner littered with zero-dimensional , unlikable characters and hackneyed , threadbare comic setups .	
2 Nair does n't use -LRB- Monsoon Wedding -RRB- to lament the loss of culture .	
1 But even then , I 'd recommend waiting for DVD and just skipping straight to her scenes .	
3 There are some movies that hit you from the first scene and you know it 's going to be a trip .	
2 A movie that falls victim to frazzled wackiness and frayed satire .	
4 classic cinema served up with heart and humor	
1 What 's missing is what we call the ' wow ' factor .	
4 Kids five and up will be delighted with the fast , funny , and even touching story .	
3 Byler is too savvy a filmmaker to let this morph into a typical romantic triangle .	
0 As a remake , it 's a pale imitation .	
3 Coppola 's directorial debut is an incredibly layered and stylistic film that , despite a fairly slow paced , almost humdrum approach to character development , still manages at least a decent attempt at meaningful cinema .	
1 Sex ironically has little to do with the story , which becomes something about how lame it is to try and evade your responsibilities and that you should never , ever , leave a large dog alone with a toddler .	
1 The movie is without intent .	
1 Director David Fincher and writer David Koepp ca n't sustain it .	
3 Even though we know the outcome , the seesawing of the general 's fate in the arguments of competing lawyers has the stomach-knotting suspense of a legal thriller , while the testimony of witnesses lends the film a resonant undertone of tragedy .	
3 And they succeed merrily at their noble endeavor .	
4 One of the most splendid entertainments to emerge from the French film industry in years .	
1 Once again , director Chris Columbus takes a hat-in-hand approach to Rowling that stifles creativity and allows the film to drag on for nearly three hours .	
0 Apparently , romantic comedy with a fresh point of view just does n't figure in the present Hollywood program .	
0 Despite the fact that this film was n't as bad as I thought it was going to be , it 's still not a good movie	
4 Very well-written and very well-acted .	
4 This fascinating look at Israel in ferment feels as immediate as the latest news footage from Gaza and , because of its heightened , well-shaped dramas , twice as powerful .	
3 A confluence of kiddie entertainment , sophisticated wit and symbolic graphic design .	
1 Jacobi , the most fluent of actors , is given relatively dry material from Nijinsky 's writings to perform , and the visuals , even erotically frank ones , become dullingly repetitive .	
2 It just does n't have much else ... especially in a moral sense .	
3 Has enough wit , energy and geniality to please not only the fanatical adherents on either side , but also people who know nothing about the subject and think they 're not interested .	
3 What one is left with , even after the most awful acts are committed , is an overwhelming sadness that feels as if it has made its way into your very bloodstream .	
0 -LRB- Lee -RRB- treats his audience the same way that Jim Brown treats his women -- as dumb , credulous , unassuming , subordinate subjects .	
3 Though Jackson does n't always succeed in integrating the characters in the foreground into the extraordinarily rich landscape , it must be said that he is an imaginative filmmaker who can see the forest for the trees .	
3 This is a film that manages to find greatness in the hue of its drastic iconography .	
4 The slam-bang superheroics are kinetic enough to engross even the most antsy youngsters .	
4 It 's a masterpiece .	
0 I was trying to decide what annoyed me most about God is Great ... I 'm Not , and then I realized that I just did n't care .	
3 A B-movie you can sit through , enjoy on a certain level and then forget .	
1 Trouble Every Day is a success in some sense , but it 's hard to like a film so cold and dead .	
2 Schneider 's mugging is relentless and his constant need to suddenly transpose himself into another character undermines the story 's continuity and progression .	
3 They are what makes it worth the trip to the theatre .	
3 Caruso sometimes descends into sub-Tarantino cuteness ... but for the most part he makes sure The Salton Sea works the way a good noir should , keeping it tight and nasty .	
2 Just watch Bettany strut his stuff .	
4 Mr. Koshashvili is a director to watch .	
2 It 's an unusual , thoughtful bio-drama with a rich subject and some fantastic moments and scenes .	
3 A living testament to the power of the eccentric and the strange .	
4 It 's technically sumptuous but also almost wildly alive .	
4 It 's a compelling and horrifying story , and The Laramie Project is worthwhile for reminding us that this sort of thing does , in fact , still happen in America .	
4 Most haunting about  Fence  is its conclusion , when we hear the ultimate fate of these girls and realize , much to our dismay , that this really did happen .	
2 In the real world	
1 There is no solace here , no entertainment value , merely a fierce lesson in where filmmaking can take us .	
2 So earnest and well-meaning , and so stocked with talent , that you almost forget the sheer , ponderous awfulness of its script .	
3 Few films have captured the chaos of an urban conflagration with such fury , and audience members will leave feeling as shaken as Nesbitt 's Cooper looks when the bullets stop flying .	
1 Though it pretends to expose the life of male hustlers , it 's exploitive without being insightful .	
4 Serious and thoughtful .	
0 This thing works on no level whatsoever for me .	
3 A properly spooky film about the power of spirits to influence us whether we believe in them or not .	
0 I still want my money back .	
1 It 's unfortunate that Wallace , who wrote Gibson 's Braveheart as well as the recent Pearl Harbor , has such an irrepressible passion for sappy situations and dialogue .	
3 The Woodman seems to have directly influenced this girl-meets-girl love story , but even more reassuring is how its makers actually seem to understand what made Allen 's romantic comedies so pertinent and enduring .	
0 Spreads itself too thin , leaving these actors , as well as the members of the commune , short of profound characterizations	
3 A completely spooky piece of business that gets under your skin and , some plot blips aside , stays there for the duration .	
0 ' Martin Lawrence Live ' is so self-pitying , I almost expected there to be a collection taken for the comedian at the end of the show .	
2 Bang !	
4 The Trials of Henry Kissinger is a remarkable piece of filmmaking ... because you get it .	
1 The film 's most improbable feat ?	
3 The film 's appeal has a lot to do with the casting of Juliette Binoche as Sand , who brings to the role her pale , dark beauty and characteristic warmth .	
2 The result is more depressing than liberating , but it 's never boring .	
4 Witty , contemplative , and sublimely beautiful .	
3 Passions , obsessions , and loneliest dark spots are pushed to their most virtuous limits , lending the narrative an unusually surreal tone .	
3 Undoubtedly the scariest movie ever made about tattoos .	
3 George Clooney , in his first directorial effort , presents this utterly ridiculous shaggy dog story as one of the most creative , energetic and original comedies to hit the screen in years .	
3 It may be a somewhat backhanded compliment to say that the film makes the viewer feel like the movie 's various victimized audience members after a while , but it also happens to be the movie 's most admirable quality	
2 If Deuces Wild had been tweaked up a notch it would have become a camp adventure , one of those movies that 's so bad it starts to become good .	
1 Throughout all the tumult , a question comes to mind : So why is this so boring ?	
3 As animation increasingly emphasizes the computer and the cool , this is a film that takes a stand in favor of tradition and warmth .	
3 The story is smart and entirely charming in intent and execution .	
4 In a summer overrun with movies dominated by CGI aliens and super heroes , it revigorates the mind to see a feature that concentrates on people , a project in which the script and characters hold sway .	
1 It 's a movie that ends with Truckzilla , for cryin ' out loud .	
3 If there 's no art here , it 's still a good yarn -- which is nothing to sneeze at these days .	
4 Scherfig , the writer-director , has made a film so unabashedly hopeful that it actually makes the heart soar .	
2 Cinematic pratfalls given a working over .	
3 Talk to Her is so darned assured , we have absolutely no idea who the main characters are until the film is well under way -- and yet it 's hard to stop watching .	
4 A miraculous movie , I 'm Going Home is so slight , yet overflows with wisdom and emotion .	
3 Wang Xiaoshuai directs this intricately structured and well-realized drama that presents a fascinating glimpse of urban life and the class warfare that embroils two young men .	
1 Imagine Susan Sontag falling in love with Howard Stern .	
2 Blade II has a brilliant director and charismatic star , but it suffers from rampant vampire devaluation .	
1 Releasing a film with the word ' dog ' in its title in January lends itself to easy jokes and insults , and Snow Dogs deserves every single one of them .	
1 Here the love scenes all end in someone screaming .	
2 ... has its moments , but ultimately , its curmudgeon does n't quite make the cut of being placed on any list of favorites .	
2 To work , love stories require the full emotional involvement and support of a viewer .	
4 Adams , with four scriptwriters , takes care with the characters , who are so believable that you feel what they feel .	
1 What ' Blade Runner ' would 've looked like as a low-budget series on a UHF channel .	
3 A good film with a solid pedigree both in front of and , more specifically , behind the camera .	
2 While Serving Sara does have a long way to go before it reaches the level of crudity in the latest Austin Powers extravaganza , there 's nothing here to match that movie 's intermittent moments of inspiration .	
1 The story passes time until it 's time for an absurd finale of twisted metal , fireballs and revenge .	
3 brought to life on the big screen .	
0 ... a hokey piece of nonsense that tries too hard to be emotional .	
3 The mood , look and tone of the film fit the incredible storyline to a T.	
2 Has its share of arresting images .	
1 Starts as a tart little lemon drop of a movie and ends up as a bitter pill .	
0 Certain to be distasteful to children and adults alike , Eight Crazy Nights is a total misfire .	
0 McKay seems embarrassed by his own invention and tries to rush through the intermediary passages , apparently hoping that the audience will not notice the glaring triteness of the plot device he has put in service .	
4 Often shocking but ultimately worthwhile exploration of motherhood and desperate mothers .	
3 This charming but slight tale has warmth , wit and interesting characters compassionately portrayed .	
0 A shame that Stealing Harvard is too busy getting in its own way to be anything but frustrating , boring , and forgettable .	
0 This is not one of the movies you 'd want to watch if you only had a week to live .	
1 It all seemed wasted like DeNiro 's once promising career and the once grand Long Beach boardwalk .	
4 An Inuit masterpiece that will give you goosebumps as its uncanny tale of love , communal discord , and justice unfolds .	
0 The story is bogus and its characters tissue-thin .	
1 Ponderous , plodding soap opera disguised as a feature film .	
1 For casual moviegoers who stumble into Rules expecting a slice of American Pie hijinks starring the kid from Dawson 's Creek , they 'll probably run out screaming .	
0 Totally overwrought , deeply biased , and wholly designed to make you feel guilty about ignoring what the filmmakers clearly believe are The Greatest Musicians of All Time .	
3 As they used to say in the 1950s sci-fi movies , Signs is a tribute to Shyamalan 's gifts , which are such that we 'll keep watching the skies for his next project .	
1 Instead of contriving a climactic hero 's death for the beloved-major - character-who-shall - remain-nameless , why not invite some genuine spontaneity into the film by having the evil aliens ' laser guns actually hit something for once ?	
4 Barry convinces us he 's a dangerous , secretly unhinged guy who could easily have killed a president because it made him feel powerful .	
1 Kapur 's contradictory feelings about his material result in a movie that works against itself .	
2 Tom Shadyac has learned a bit more craft since directing Adams , but he still lingers over every point until the slowest viewer grasps it .	
3 The production values are of the highest and the performances attractive without being memorable .	
4 Nair 's attention to detail creates an impeccable sense of place , while Thurman and Lewis give what can easily be considered career-best performances .	
3 ... in no way original , or even all that memorable , but as downtown Saturday matinee brain candy , it does n't disappoint .	
0 Completely awful Iranian drama ... as much fun as a grouchy ayatollah in a cold mosque .	
0 Neither revelatory nor truly edgy -- merely crassly flamboyant and comedically labored .	
4 Holofcener rejects patent solutions to dramatize life 's messiness from inside out , in all its strange quirks .	
3 And , there 's no way you wo n't be talking about the film once you exit the theater .	
4 It 's a great performance and a reminder of Dickens ' grandeur .	
1 Slap her - she 's not funny !	
2 Last Dance , whatever its flaws , fulfills one facet of its mission in making me want to find out whether , in this case , that 's true .	
1 The laughs are as rare as snake foo yung .	
2 Though the opera itself takes place mostly indoors , Jacquot seems unsure of how to evoke any sort of naturalism on the set .	
1 One of those films that seems tailor made to air on pay cable to offer some modest amusements when one has nothing else to watch .	
1 The sort of picture in which , whenever one of the characters has some serious soul searching to do , they go to a picture-perfect beach during sunset .	
4 Another Best of the Year selection .	
1 ... better described as a ghost story gone badly awry .	
2 Disappointingly , the characters are too strange and dysfunctional , Tom included , to ever get under the skin , but this is compensated in large part by the off-the-wall dialogue , visual playfulness and the outlandishness of the idea itself .	
0 A Rumor of Angels does n't just slip -- it avalanches into forced fuzziness .	
1 Not only is it hokey , manipulative and as bland as Wonder Bread dipped in milk , but it also does the absolute last thing we need Hollywood doing to us : It preaches .	
3 Dogtown & Z-Boys evokes the blithe rebel fantasy with the kind of insouciance embedded in the sexy demise of James Dean .	
1 The story has its redundancies , and the young actors , not very experienced , are sometimes inexpressive .	
4 There 's no reason to miss Interview with the Assassin	
2 Succeeds only because Bullock and Grant were made to share the silver screen .	
1 A bizarre piece of work , with premise and dialogue at the level of kids ' television and plot threads as morose as teen pregnancy , rape and suspected murder	
3 A competent , unpretentious entertainment destined to fill the after-school slot at shopping mall theaters across the country .	
3 While dutifully pulling on heartstrings , directors Dean Deblois and Chris Sanders valiantly keep punching up the mix .	
3 A lyrical metaphor for cultural and personal self-discovery and a picaresque view of a little-remembered world .	
1 There 's ... an underlying Old World sexism to Monday Morning that undercuts its charm .	
1 Little more than a stylish exercise in revisionism whose point ... is no doubt true , but serves as a rather thin moral to such a knowing fable .	
4 If anything , the film is doing something of a public service -- shedding light on a group of extremely talented musicians who might otherwise go unnoticed and underappreciated by music fans .	
1 If the predictability of bland comfort food appeals to you , then the film is a pleasant enough dish .	
0 An exercise in cynicism every bit as ugly as the shabby digital photography and muddy sound .	
2 Strictly middle of the road .	
1 The filmmakers keep pushing the jokes at the expense of character until things fall apart .	
2 Now he makes them .	
2 an insular world	
2 A violent initiation rite for the audience , as much as it is for Angelique , the -LRB- opening -RRB- dance guarantees Karmen 's enthronement among the cinema 's memorable women .	
0 What you expect is just what you get ... assuming the bar of expectations has n't been raised above sixth-grade height .	
3 For all its brooding quality , Ash Wednesday is suspenseful and ultimately unpredictable , with a sterling ensemble cast .	
0 Hollywood Ending is the most disappointing Woody Allen movie ever .	
1 Only masochistic moviegoers need apply .	
4 Rarely have I seen a film so willing to champion the fallibility of the human heart .	
2 Leigh 's daring here is that without once denying the hardscrabble lives of people on the economic fringes of Margaret Thatcher 's ruinous legacy , he insists on the importance of those moments when people can connect and express their love for each other .	
1 -LRB- H -RRB- ad I suffered and bled on the hard ground of Ia Drang , I 'd want something a bit more complex than We Were Soldiers to be remembered by .	
1 The Good Girl is a film in which the talent is undeniable but the results are underwhelming .	
0 Abysmally pathetic	
2 A farce of a parody of a comedy of a premise , it is n't a comparison to reality so much as it is a commentary about our knowledge of films .	
3 It 's surprisingly decent , particularly for a tenth installment in a series .	
2 Your response to its new sequel , Analyze That , may hinge on what you thought of the first film .	
2 Missteps take what was otherwise a fascinating , riveting story and send it down the path of the mundane .	
3 One funny popcorn flick .	
4 But as you watch the movie , you 're too interested to care .	
2 It 's difficult to discern if this is a crazy work of disturbed genius or merely 90 minutes of post-adolescent Electra rebellion .	
3 Earnest , unsubtle and Hollywood-predictable , Green Dragon is still a deeply moving effort to put a human face on the travail of thousands of Vietnamese .	
2 The film 's heady yet far from impenetrable theory suggests that Russians take comfort in their closed-off nationalist reality .	
4 Stay for the credits and see a devastating comic impersonation by Dustin Hoffman that is revelatory .	
1 Humor in I Spy is so anemic .	
1 A fairly harmless but ultimately lifeless feature-length afterschool special .	
1 You can tell almost immediately that Welcome to Collinwood is n't going to jell .	
1 A piece of mildly entertaining , inoffensive fluff that drifts aimlessly for 90 minutes before lodging in the cracks of that ever-growing category : unembarrassing but unmemorable .	
2 Its vision of that awkward age when sex threatens to overwhelm everything else is acute enough to make everyone who has been there squirm with recognition .	
1 An opportunity missed .	
2 It 's sobering , particularly if anyone still thinks this conflict can be resolved easily , or soon .	
4 The most amazing super-sized dosage of goofball stunts any  Jackass  fan could want .	
1 If any of them list this ' credit ' on their resumes in the future , that 'll be much funnier than anything in the film ...	
3 A film neither bitter nor sweet , neither romantic nor comedic , neither warm nor fuzzy .	
0 I 'm not sure which half of Dragonfly is worse : The part where nothing 's happening , or the part where something 's happening , but it 's stupid .	
2 less on forced air	
1 Boasting some of the most poorly staged and lit action in memory , Impostor is as close as you can get to an imitation movie .	
2 ... passable enough for a shoot-out in the o.k. court house of life type of flick .	
4 A highly spirited , imaginative kid 's movie that broaches neo-Augustinian theology : Is God stuck in Heaven because He 's afraid of His best-known creation ?	
0 McKay shows crushingly little curiosity about , or is ill-equipped to examine , the interior lives of the characters in his film , much less incorporate them into his narrative .	
1 I do n't think this movie loves women at all .	
3 A bodice-ripper for intellectuals .	
1 Made to be Jaglomized is the Cannes Film Festival , the annual Riviera spree of flesh , buzz , blab and money .	
3 At once a testament to the divine calling of education and a demonstration of the painstaking process of imparting knowledge .	
0 An unholy mess , driven by the pathetic idea that if you shoot something on crummy-looking videotape , it must be labelled ' hip ' , ' innovative ' and ' realistic ' .	
4 wo n't be placed in the pantheon of the best of the swashbucklers but it is a whole lot of fun and you get to see the one of the world 's best actors , Daniel Auteuil , have a whale of a good time .	
3 Puts a refreshing and comical spin on the all-too-familiar saga of the contemporary single woman .	
1 The biggest problem I have -LRB- other than the very sluggish pace -RRB- is we never really see her Esther blossom as an actress , even though her talent is supposed to be growing .	
2 It 's a good film , but it falls short of its aspiration to be a true ' epic ' .	
4 Quite simply , a joy to watch and -- especially -- to listen to .	
0 The crap continues .	
1 Something has been lost in the translation ... another routine Hollywood frightfest in which the slack execution italicizes the absurdity of the premise .	
1 When the casting call for this movie went out , it must have read ' seeking anyone with acting ambition but no sense of pride or shame . '	
0 The movie is almost completely lacking in suspense , surprise and consistent emotional conviction .	
4 Wickedly funny , visually engrossing , never boring , this movie challenges us to think about the ways we consume pop culture .	
2 Veers uncomfortably close to pro-Serb propaganda .	
4 A strong first act and absolutely , inescapably gorgeous , skyscraper-trapeze motion of the amazing Spider-Man .	
2 Apparently writer-director Attal thought he need only cast himself and his movie-star wife sitting around in their drawers to justify a film .	
1 A jumbled fantasy comedy that did not figure out a coherent game plan at scripting , shooting or post-production stages .	
3 It wo n't hold up over the long haul , but in the moment , Finch 's tale provides the forgettable pleasures of a Saturday matinee .	
2 It 's the type of stunt the Academy loves : a powerful political message stuffed into an otherwise mediocre film .	
1 I did n't find much fascination in the swinging .	
3 Beautifully directed and convincingly acted .	
0 It would be churlish to begrudge anyone for receiving whatever consolation that can be found in Dragonfly , yet it is impossible to find the film anything but appalling , shamelessly manipulative and contrived , and totally lacking in conviction .	
1 Hawke 's film , a boring , pretentious waste of nearly two hours , does n't tell you anything except that the Chelsea Hotel today is populated by whiny , pathetic , starving and untalented artistes .	
1 This romantic / comedy asks the question how much souvlaki can you take before indigestion sets in .	
0 Depicts the sorriest and most sordid of human behavior on the screen , then laughs at how clever it 's being .	
1 The only thing I laughed at were the people who paid to see it .	
3 A suffocating rape-payback horror show that hinges on the subgenre 's most enabling victim ... and an ebullient affection for industrial-model meat freezers .	
1 shows Holmes has the screen presence to become a major-league leading lady , -LRB- but -RRB- the movie itself is an underachiever , a psychological mystery that takes its sweet time building to a climax that 's scarcely a surprise by the time it arrives .	
2 Collateral Damage offers formula payback and the Big Payoff , but the explosions tend to simply hit their marks , pyro-correctly .	
1 The acting is fine but the script is about as interesting as a recording of conversations at the Wal-Mart checkout line .	
1 Like its title character , Esther Kahn is unusual but unfortunately also irritating .	
1 Solondz is without doubt an artist of uncompromising vision , but that vision is beginning to feel , if not morally bankrupt , at least terribly monotonous .	
4 Enormously enjoyable , high-adrenaline documentary .	
3 A different movie -- sometimes tedious -- by a director many viewers would like to skip but film buffs should get to know .	
4 Twenty years later , E.T. is still a cinematic touchstone .	
2 Red Dragon is less baroque and showy than Hannibal , and less emotionally affecting than Silence .	
1 ... hokey art house pretension .	
3 Khouri manages , with terrific flair , to keep the extremes of screwball farce and blood-curdling family intensity on one continuum .	
4 A film centering on a traditional Indian wedding in contemporary New Delhi may not sound like specialized fare , but Mira Nair 's film is an absolute delight for all audiences .	
0 It 's a frightful vanity film that , no doubt , pays off what debt Miramax felt they owed to Benigni .	
1 prechewed	
3 It certainly wo n't win any awards in the plot department but it sets out with no pretensions and delivers big time .	
4 The story gives ample opportunity for large-scale action and suspense , which director Shekhar Kapur supplies with tremendous skill .	
4 What makes How I Killed My Father compelling , besides its terrific performances , is Fontaine 's willingness to wander into the dark areas of parent-child relationships without flinching .	
1 It made me realize that we really have n't had a good cheesy B-movie playing in theaters since ... well ... since last week 's Reign of Fire .	
2 More of an intriguing curiosity than a gripping thriller .	
1 ... instead go rent  Shakes The Clown  , a much funnier film with a similar theme and an equally great Robin Williams performance .	
1 This action-thriller / dark comedy is one of the most repellent things to pop up in a cinematic year already littered with celluloid garbage .	
3 Brown Sugar signals director Rick Famuyiwa 's emergence as an articulate , grown-up voice in African-American cinema .	
4 Almodovar is an imaginative teacher of emotional intelligence in this engaging film about two men who discover what William James once called ' the gift of tears . '	
2 Avary 's film never quite emerges from the shadow of Ellis ' book .	
1 A tired , unimaginative and derivative variation of that already-shallow genre .	
3 Yes , MIBII is rote work and predictable , but with a philosophical visual coming right at the end that extravagantly redeems it .	
3 The film presents visceral and dangerously honest revelations about the men and machines behind the curtains of our planet .	
3 It manages to squeeze by on Angelina Jolie 's surprising flair for self-deprecating comedy .	
3 Once folks started hanging out at the barbershop , they never wanted to leave .	
2 Malone does have a gift for generating nightmarish images that will be hard to burn out of your brain .	
3 There 's a part of us that can not help be entertained by the sight of someone getting away with something .	
3 Manages to accomplish what few sequels can -- it equals the original and in some ways even betters it .	
4 The leads are natural and lovely , the pace is serene , the humor wry and sprightly .	
2 A different kind of love story - one that is dark , disturbing , painful to watch , yet compelling .	
3 Even if you do n't understand what on earth is going on , this is a movie that will stimulate hours of post viewing discussion , if only to be reminded of who did what to whom and why .	
2 In the telling of a story largely untold , Bui chooses to produce something that is ultimately suspiciously familiar .	
3 Provides a satisfactory overview of the bizarre world of extreme athletes as several daredevils express their own views .	
1 Looks and feels like a low-budget hybrid of Scarface or Carlito 's Way .	
3 Kwan is a master of shadow , quietude , and room noise , and Lan Yu is a disarmingly lived-in movie .	
4 Neil Burger here succeeded in ... making the mystery of four decades back the springboard for a more immediate mystery in the present .	
3 Even when it drags , we are forced to reflect that its visual imagination is breathtaking	
3 It 's consistently funny , in an irresistible junior-high way , and consistently free of any gag that would force you to give it a millisecond of thought .	
1 You can drive right by it without noticing anything special , save for a few comic turns , intended and otherwise .	
0 -LRB- MacDowell -RRB- ventures beyond her abilities several times here and reveals how bad an actress she is .	
2 The question hanging over The Time Machine is not , as the main character suggests , ' what if ? '	
4 This is a story that zings all the way through with originality , humour and pathos .	
2 When in doubt , the film ratchets up the stirring soundtrack , throws in a fish-out-of-water gag and lets the cliched dialogue rip .	
4 Offers a guilt-free trip into feel-good territory .	
4 One of the most important and exhilarating forms of animated filmmaking since old Walt doodled Steamboat Willie .	
3 While not quite  Shrek  or  Monsters , Inc.  , it 's not too bad .	
3 In all fairness , I must report that the children of varying ages in my audience never coughed , fidgeted or romped up and down the aisles for bathroom breaks .	
3 ou 've got to love a Disney pic with as little cleavage as this one has , and a heroine as feisty and principled as Jane .	
2 Put it somewhere between Sling Blade and South of Heaven , West of Hell in the pantheon of Billy Bob 's body of work .	
3 Witty dialog between realistic characters showing honest emotions .	
2 13 Conversations may be a bit too enigmatic and overly ambitious to be fully successful , but Sprecher and her screenwriting partner and sister , Karen Sprecher , do n't seem ever to run out of ideas .	
0 The film is so busy making reference to other films and trying to be other films that it fails to have a heart , mind or humor of its own .	
1 Viewers of Barney 's crushingly self-indulgent spectacle will see nothing in it to match the ordeal of sitting through it .	
1 It 's not so much a movie as a joint promotion for the National Basketball Association and teenaged rap and adolescent poster-boy Lil ' Bow Wow .	
3 If you 're part of her targeted audience , you 'll cheer .	
2 Director Kevin Bray excels in breaking glass and marking off the  Miami Vice  checklist of power boats , Latin music and dog tracks .	
3 In the end , the film is less the cheap thriller you 'd expect than it is a fairly revealing study of its two main characters -- damaged-goods people whose orbits will inevitably and dangerously collide .	
3 The film 's strength is n't in its details , but in the larger picture it paints - of a culture in conflict with itself , with the thin veneer of nationalism that covers our deepest , media-soaked fears .	
3 I 'm guessing the director is a magician .	
3 Both a detective story and a romance spiced with the intrigue of academic skullduggery and politics .	
3 Oddly , the film is n't nearly as downbeat as it sounds , but strikes a tone that 's alternately melancholic , hopeful and strangely funny .	
1 Occasionally loud and offensive , but more often , it simply lulls you into a gentle waking coma .	
1 ... Tara Reid plays a college journalist , but she looks like the six-time winner of the Miss Hawaiian Tropic Pageant , so I do n't know what she 's doing in here ...	
1 As original and insightful as last week 's episode of Behind the Music .	
0 A dull , simple-minded and stereotypical tale of drugs , death and mind-numbing indifference on the inner-city streets .	
2 Its juxtaposition of overwrought existentialism and stomach-churning gore will have you forever on the verge of either cracking up or throwing up .	
3 The film 's gamble to occasionally break up the live-action scenes with animated sequences pays off , as does its sensitive handling of some delicate subject matter .	
0 What ensues are much blood-splattering , mass drug-induced bowel evacuations , and none-too-funny commentary on the cultural distinctions between Americans and Brits .	
1 Uzumaki 's interesting social parallel and defiant aesthetic seems a prostituted muse ...	
2 The film 's stagecrafts are intimate and therefore bolder than the otherwise calculated artifice that defines and overwhelms the film 's production design .	
3 A real audience-pleaser that will strike a chord with anyone who 's ever waited in a doctor 's office , emergency room , hospital bed or insurance company office .	
3 Though Jones and Snipes are enthralling	
3 Parris ' performance is credible and remarkably mature .	
2 God is great , the movie 's not .	
4 Highly engaging .	
0 ... an hour-and-a-half of inoffensive , unmemorable filler .	
0 It 's not a bad premise , just a bad movie .	
1 Unfortunately , Carvey 's rubber-face routine is no match for the insipid script he has crafted with Harris Goldberg .	
4 insightfully written , delicately performed	
1 There 's nothing remotely topical or sexy here .	
3 Neither quite a comedy nor a romance , more of an impish divertissement of themes that interest Attal and Gainsbourg -- they live together -- the film has a lot of charm .	
0 If that does n't clue you in that something 's horribly wrong , nothing will .	
3 Never Again , while nothing special , is pleasant , diverting and modest -- definitely a step in the right direction .	
1 Cherish would 've worked a lot better had it been a short film .	
3 You 'll end up moved .	
2 Buries an interesting storyline	
2 Ninety minutes of Viva Castro !	
3 An indispensable peek at the art and the agony of making people laugh .	
3 Does point the way for adventurous Indian filmmakers toward a crossover into nonethnic markets .	
2 Davis has energy , but she does n't bother to make her heroine 's book sound convincing , the gender-war ideas original , or the comic scenes fly .	
4 It 's a technically superb film , shining with all the usual Spielberg flair , expertly utilizing the talents of his top-notch creative team .	
0 What a stiflingly unfunny and unoriginal mess this is !	
1 Its inescapable absurdities are tantamount to insulting the intelligence of anyone who has n't been living under a rock -LRB- since Sept. 11 -RRB- .	
1 -LRB- Jackson and Bledel -RRB- seem to have been picked not for their acting chops , but for their looks and appeal to the pre-teen crowd .	
3 A lovely and beautifully photographed romance .	
1 Feels like the work of someone who may indeed have finally aged past his prime ... and , perhaps more than he realizes , just wants to be liked by the people who can still give him work .	
4 The gags that fly at such a furiously funny pace that the only rip off that we were aware of was the one we felt when the movie ended so damned soon .	
1 It has the requisite faux-urban vibe and hotter-two-years-ago rap and R&B names and references .	
3 If it 's unnerving suspense you 're after -- you 'll find it with Ring , an indisputably spooky film ; with a screenplay to die for .	
4 Vividly conveys the passion , creativity , and fearlessness of one of Mexico 's most colorful and controversial artists -- a captivating drama that will speak to the nonconformist in us all .	
0 MIB II is a movie that makes it possible for the viewer to doze off for a few minutes or make several runs to the concession stand and / or restroom and not feel as if he or she has missed anything .	
1 essentially  Fatal Attraction  remade for viewers who were in diapers when the original was released in 1987 .	
1 Does n't do more than expand a TV show to movie length .	
2 Mushes the college-friends genre -LRB- The Big Chill -RRB- together with the contrivances and overwrought emotion of soap operas .	
0 As aimless as an old pickup skidding completely out of control on a long patch of black ice , the movie makes two hours feel like four .	
2 Harris is supposed to be the star of the story , but comes across as pretty dull and wooden .	
2 A family-friendly fantasy that ends up doing very little with its imaginative premise .	
1 The result is so tame that even slightly wised-up kids would quickly change the channel .	
2 One of the oddest and most inexplicable sequels in movie history .	
3 A mostly believable , refreshingly low-key and quietly inspirational little sports drama .	
2 Boy oh boy , it 's a howler .	
1 The movie starts with a legend and ends with a story that is so far-fetched it would be impossible to believe if it were n't true .	
4 Works because Reno does n't become smug or sanctimonious towards the audience .	
3 A few nonbelievers may rethink their attitudes when they see the joy the characters take in this creed , but skeptics are n't likely to enter the theater .	
3 The film is full of charm .	
2 In both the writing and cutting , it does not achieve the kind of dramatic unity that transports you .	
1 Time Out is as serious as a pink slip .	
3 Often likable , but just as often it 's meandering , low on energy , and too eager to be quirky at moments when a little old-fashioned storytelling would come in handy .	
3 Though this saga would be terrific to read about , it is dicey screen material that only a genius should touch .	
1 There 's got to be a more graceful way of portraying the devastation of this disease .	
2 If you can keep your eyes open amid all the blood and gore , you 'll see Del Toro has brought unexpected gravity to Blade II .	
1 Nothing but one relentlessly depressing situation after another for its entire running time , something that you could easily be dealing with right now in your lives .	
2 It 's all pretty tame .	
2 The plot meanders from gripping to plodding and back .	
1 Parts of the film feel a bit too much like an infomercial for Ram Dass 's latest book aimed at the boomer demographic .	
3 The film 's sense of imagery gives it a terrible strength , but it 's propelled by the acting .	
2 The plan to make Enough into ' an inspiring tale of survival wrapped in the heart-pounding suspense of a stylish psychological thriller '	
3 For once , a movie does not proclaim the truth about two love-struck somebodies , but permits them time and space to convince us of that all on their own .	
2 Paxton 's uneven directorial debut fails to unlock the full potential of what is in many ways a fresh and dramatically substantial spin on the genre .	
0 The attempt to build up a pressure cooker of horrified awe emerges from the simple fact that the movie has virtually nothing to show .	
1 It 's mildly sentimental , unabashedly consumerist ... studiously inoffensive and completely disposable .	
3 Asks what truth can be discerned from non-firsthand experience , and specifically questions cinema 's capability for recording truth .	
4 Extremely well acted by the four primary actors , this is a seriously intended movie that is not easily forgotten .	
3 A formula family tearjerker told with a heavy Irish brogue ... accentuating , rather than muting , the plot 's saccharine thrust .	
3 A four star performance from Kevin Kline who unfortunately works with a two star script .	
0 No French people were harmed during the making of this movie , but they were insulted and the audience was put through torture for an hour and a half .	
4 For all its visual panache and compelling supporting characters , the heart of the film rests in the relationship between Sullivan and his son .	
4 An enjoyable experience .	
1 If they broke out into elaborate choreography , singing and finger snapping it might have held my attention , but as it stands I kept looking for the last exit from Brooklyn .	
2 Elmo touts his drug as being 51 times stronger than coke .	
3 Coral Reef Adventure is a heavyweight film that fights a good fight on behalf of the world 's endangered reefs -- and it lets the pictures do the punching .	
4 A vibrant , colorful , semimusical rendition .	
3 -LRB- A -RRB- strong piece of work .	
4 Visually breathtaking , viscerally exciting , and dramatically moving , it 's the very definition of epic adventure .	
3 Instead of simply handling conventional material in a conventional way , Secretary takes the most unexpected material and handles it in the most unexpected way .	
1 We get the comedy we settle for .	
2 For all of its insights into the dream world of teen life , and its electronic expression through cyber culture	
3 Smaller numbered kidlets will enjoy .	
4 In the new release of Cinema Paradiso , the tale has turned from sweet to bittersweet , and when the tears come during that final , beautiful scene , they finally feel absolutely earned .	
4 A worthy addition to the cinematic canon , which , at last count , numbered 52 different versions .	
3 Buy is an accomplished actress , and this is a big , juicy role .	
0 For the future , one hopes Mr. Plympton will find room for one more member of his little band , a professional screenwriter .	
3 A clever script and skilled actors bring new energy to the familiar topic of office politics .	
4 Hashiguchi covers this territory with wit and originality , suggesting that with his fourth feature -- the first to be released in the U.S. -- a major director is emerging in world cinema .	
3 Davis ' candid , archly funny and deeply authentic take on intimate relationships comes to fruition in her sophomore effort .	
4 Think of it as Gidget , only with muscles and a lot more smarts , but just as endearing and easy to watch .	
1 ... too contrived to be as naturally charming as it needs to be .	
1 The film is strictly routine .	
0 Does n't come close to justifying the hype that surrounded its debut at the Sundance Film Festival two years ago .	
2 The story , touching though it is , does not quite have enough emotional resonance or variety of incident to sustain a feature , and even at 85 minutes it feels a bit long .	
2 The movie is n't horrible , but you can see mediocre cresting on the next wave .	
1 Its salient points are simultaneously buried , drowned and smothered in the excesses of writer-director Roger Avary .	
1 The movie is too impressed with its own solemn insights to work up much entertainment value .	
1 A Movie to Forget	
1 The images lack contrast , are murky and are frequently too dark to be decipherable .	
4 The film 's intimate camera work and searing performances pull us deep into the girls ' confusion and pain as they struggle tragically to comprehend the chasm of knowledge that 's opened between them .	
1 Like leafing through an album of photos accompanied by the sketchiest of captions .	
1 Resembles a soft porn Brian De Palma pastiche .	
3 every once in a while , a movie will come along that turns me into that annoying specimen of humanity that I usually dread encountering the most - The Fanboy	
4 Bogdanovich taps deep into the Hearst mystique , entertainingly reenacting a historic scandal .	
0 Burns ' fifth beer-soaked film feels in almost every possible way -- from the writing and direction to the soggy performances -- tossed off .	
1 The problem with movies about angels is they have a tendency to slip into hokum .	
3 The graphic carnage and re-creation of war-torn Croatia is uncomfortably timely , relevant , and sickeningly real .	
2 Less a heartfelt appeal for the handicapped than a nice Belgian waffle .	
1 As saccharine movies go , this is likely to cause massive cardiac arrest if taken in large doses .	
0 It appears as if even the filmmakers did n't know what kind of movie they were making .	
2 You 'll laugh at either the obviousness of it all or its stupidity or maybe even its inventiveness , but the point is , you 'll laugh .	
2 like a poor man 's You Can Count On Me	
1 A thriller without thrills and a mystery devoid of urgent questions .	
3 Return to Never Land may be another shameless attempt by Disney to rake in dough from baby boomer families , but it 's not half-bad .	
2 They do a good job of painting this family dynamic for the audience but they tried to squeeze too many elements into the film .	
1 The script becomes lifeless and falls apart like a cheap lawn chair .	
1 It 's supposed to be a romantic comedy - it suffers from too much Norma Rae and not enough Pretty Woman .	
3 The leanest and meanest of Solondz 's misanthropic comedies .	
1 It 's as if Solondz had two ideas for two movies , could n't really figure out how to flesh either out , so he just slopped ' em together here .	
1 A low-rent retread of the Alien pictures .	
1 Schaefer 's ... determination to inject farcical raunch ... drowns out the promise of the romantic angle .	
1 Instead of using George and Lucy 's most obvious differences to ignite sparks , Lawrence desperately looks elsewhere , seizing on George 's haplessness and Lucy 's personality tics .	
3 An alternately fascinating and frustrating documentary .	
0 Contrived , maudlin and cliche-ridden ... if this sappy script was the best the contest received , those rejected must have been astronomically bad .	
3 An absorbing and unsettling psychological drama .	
0 It does n't work as either .	
1 ... too sappy for its own good .	
0 Without any redeeming value whatsoever .	
1 A Blair Witch - style adventure that plays like a bad soap opera , with passable performances from everyone in the cast .	
4 It 's a very valuable film ...	
3 And more than that , it 's an observant , unfussily poetic meditation about identity and alienation .	
3 Apart from its own considerable achievement	
3 A marvelous performance by Allison Lohman as an identity-seeking foster child .	
2 As his circle of friends keeps getting smaller one of the characters in Long Time Dead says ' I 'm telling you , this is f \*\*\* ed ' .	
3 Worth a look as a curiosity .	
4 The all-French cast is marveilleux .	
2 Worse than ' Silence of the Lambs ' better than ' Hannibal '	
1 While American Adobo has its heart -LRB- and its palate -RRB- in the right place , its brain is a little scattered -- ditsy , even .	
3 And there 's the inimitable Diaz , holding it all together .	
2 It may not be as cutting , as witty or as true as back in the glory days of Weekend and Two or Three Things I Know About Her , but who else engaged in filmmaking today is so cognizant of the cultural and moral issues involved in the process ?	
4 Tully is in many ways the perfect festival film : a calm , self-assured portrait of small town regret , love , duty and friendship that appeals to the storytelling instincts of a slightly more literate filmgoing audience .	
2 It 's a sight to behold .	
3 A wildly erratic drama with sequences that make you wince in embarrassment and others , thanks to the actors , that are quite touching .	
4 Beautifully crafted and cooly unsettling ... recreates the atmosphere of the crime expertly .	
1 Any rock pile will do for a set .	
2 Where Bowling for Columbine is at its most valuable is in its examination of America 's culture of fear as a root cause of gun violence .	
4 A well paced and satisfying little drama that deserved better than a ' direct-to-video ' release .	
4 A conventional but heartwarming tale .	
4 Woody Allen can write and deliver a one liner as well as anybody .	
2 Blithely anachronistic and slyly achronological .	
4 A slick , engrossing melodrama .	
2 Both flawed and delayed , Martin Scorcese 's Gangs of New York still emerges as his most vital work since GoodFellas .	
2 Entertaining despite its one-joke premise with the thesis that women from Venus and men from Mars can indeed get together .	
4 It 's sweet , funny , charming , and completely delightful .	
4 A movie that both thrills the eye and , in its over-the-top way , touches the heart .	
0 Sinks so low in a poorly played game of absurd plot twists , idiotic court maneuvers and stupid characters that even Freeman ca n't save it .	
3 A surprisingly charming and even witty match for the best of Hollywood 's comic-book adaptations .	
0 The only thing to fear about  Fear Dot Com  is hitting your head on the theater seat in front of you when you doze off thirty minutes into the film .	
3 Affectionately reminds us that , in any language , the huge stuff in life can usually be traced back to the little things .	
1 As is often the case with ambitious , eager first-time filmmakers , Mr. Murray , a prolific director of music videos , stuffs his debut with more plot than it can comfortably hold .	
2 It 's a gag that 's worn a bit thin over the years , though Do n't Ask still finds a few chuckles .	
1 Sad nonsense , this .	
4 An amusing and unexpectedly insightful examination of sexual jealousy , resentment and the fine line between passion and pretence .	
3 Never once predictable .	
2 It 's too bad that the rest is n't more compelling .	
3 The film 's highlight is definitely its screenplay , both for the rhapsodic dialogue that jumps off the page , and for the memorable character creations .	
0 Gaghan captures the half-lit , sometimes creepy intimacy of college dorm rooms , a subtlety that makes the silly , over-the-top coda especially disappointing .	
2 I believe Silberling had the best intentions here , but he just does n't have the restraint to fully realize them .	
4 One fantastic -LRB- and educational -RRB- documentary .	
0 I guess it just goes to show that if you give a filmmaker an unlimited amount of phony blood , nothing good can happen .	
3 The performances are uniformly good .	
1 I wanted more .	
1 Femme Fatale offers nothing more than a bait-and-switch that is beyond playing fair with the audience .	
4  Home Movie  is a sweet treasure and something well worth your time .	
0 Another week , another gross-out college comedy -- ugh .	
2 It 's not too racy and it 's not too offensive .	
2 Make no mistake , ivans xtc .	
2 Impostor does n't do much with its template , despite a remarkably strong cast .	
1 Although no pastry is violated , this nasty comedy pokes fun at the same easy targets as other rowdy raunch-fests -- farts , boobs , unmentionables -- without much success .	
1 Most of the information has already appeared in one forum or another and , no matter how Broomfield dresses it up , it tends to speculation , conspiracy theories or , at best , circumstantial evidence .	
0 Be forewarned , if you 're depressed about anything before watching this film , you may just end up trying to drown yourself in a lake afterwards .	
0 An unfortunate title for a film that has nothing endearing about it .	
1 Shame on writer / director Vicente Aranda for making a florid biopic about mad queens , obsessive relationships , and rampant adultery so dull .	
2 This is SO De Palma .	
4 Spiderman ROCKS	
1 Though there are many tense scenes in Trapped , they prove more distressing than suspenseful .	
2 A passable romantic comedy , in need of another couple of passes through the word processor .	
4 An enjoyable comedy	
3 This film is an act of spiritual faith -- an eloquent , deeply felt meditation on the nature of compassion .	
2 Though it was made with careful attention to detail and is well-acted by James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal , I felt disrespected .	
4 Cuaron repeatedly , perversely undercuts the joie de vivre even as he creates it , giving the movie a mournful undercurrent that places the good-time shenanigans in welcome perspective .	
1 Every visual joke is milked , every set-up obvious and lengthy , every punchline predictable .	
4 A reminder that beyond all the hype and recent digital glitz , Spielberg knows how to tell us about people .	
4 Ryan Gosling is , in a word , brilliant as the conflicted Daniel .	
4 Steven Spielberg brings us another masterpiece	
3 While the frequent allusions to gurus and doshas will strike some Westerners as verging on mumbo-jumbo ... broad streaks of common sense emerge with unimpeachable clarity .	
4 The byplay and bickering between the now spy-savvy siblings , Carmen -LRB- Vega -RRB- and Juni -LRB- Sabara -RRB- Cortez , anchor the film in a very real and amusing give-and-take .	
2 As well-acted and well-intentioned as All or Nothing is , however , the film comes perilously close to being too bleak , too pessimistic and too unflinching for its own good .	
1 This film biggest problem ?	
1 Whatever satire Lucky Break was aiming for , it certainly got lost in the  soon-to-be-forgettable  section of the quirky rip-off prison romp pile .	
2 Mostly Martha could have used a little trimming -- 10 or 15 minutes could be cut and no one would notice -- but it 's a pleasurable trifle .	
2 ' Would n't it be nice if all guys got a taste of what it 's like on the other side of the bra ? '	
0 Generic thriller junk .	
4 Leaping from one arresting image to another , Songs from the Second Floor has all the enjoyable randomness of a very lively dream and so manages to be compelling , amusing and unsettling at the same time .	
1 Nothing about them is attractive .	
3 The mushy finale turns John Q into a movie-of-the-week tearjerker .	
0 A lot of talent is wasted in this crass , low-wattage endeavor .	
4 One of the year 's best films , featuring an Oscar-worthy performance by Julianne Moore .	
3 It 's a scorcher .	
3 It is OK for a movie to be something of a sitcom apparatus , if the lines work , the humor has point and the actors are humanly engaged .	
1 ... although this idea is  new  the results are tired .	
4 A touching drama about old age and grief with a tour de force performance by Michel Piccoli .	
1 The Rules of Attraction gets us too drunk on the party favors to sober us up with the transparent attempts at moralizing .	
4 It 's no accident that The Accidental Spy is a solid action pic that returns the martial arts master to top form .	
3 Everyone should be able to appreciate the wonderful cinematography and naturalistic acting .	
1 A complete waste of time .	
4 It leaves little doubt that Kidman has become one of our best actors .	
3 The cast ... keeps this pretty watchable , and casting Mick Jagger as director of the escort service was inspired .	
2 Mildly amusing .	
3 From the dull , surreal ache of mortal awareness emerges a radiant character portrait .	
1 An ill-conceived jumble that 's not scary , not smart and not engaging .	
1 While Solondz tries and tries hard , Storytelling fails to provide much more insight than the inside column of a torn book jacket .	
3 But on the whole , you 're gonna like this movie .	
0 For dance completists only .	
4 There 's so much to look at in Metropolis you hate to tear your eyes away from the images long enough to read the subtitles .	
1 The film has a kind of hard , cold effect .	
3 Beneath the film 's obvious determination to shock at any cost lies considerable skill and determination , backed by sheer nerve .	
0 How about surprising us by trying something new ?	
3 Katz 's documentary does n't have much panache , but with material this rich it does n't need it .	
3 Reign of Fire just might go down as one of the all-time great apocalypse movies .	
3 O Fantasma is boldly , confidently orchestrated , aesthetically and sexually , and its impact is deeply and rightly disturbing .	
2 Entertaining but like shooting fish in a barrel .	
2 The tonal shifts are jolting , and though Wen 's messages are profound and thoughtfully delivered , more thorough transitions would have made the film more cohesive .	
3 The acting , for the most part , is terrific , although the actors must struggle with the fact that they 're playing characters who sometimes feel more like literary conceits than flesh-and-blood humans .	
3 Though the film is static , its writer-director 's heart is in the right place , his plea for democracy and civic action laudable .	
3 Max pokes , provokes , takes expressionistic license and hits a nerve ... as far as art is concerned , it 's mission accomplished .	
2 Authentic , and at times endearing , humorous , spooky , educational , but at other times as bland as a block of snow .	
2 At its worst , it 's Rambo - meets-John Ford .	
1 Costner 's warm-milk persona is just as ill-fitting as Shadyac 's perfunctory directing chops , and some of the more overtly silly dialogue would sink Laurence Olivier .	
4 It 's a perfect show of respect to just one of those underrated professionals who deserve but rarely receive it .	
3 A vivid , sometimes surreal , glimpse into the mysteries of human behavior .	
1 Do n't let the subtitles fool you ; the movie only proves that Hollywood no longer has a monopoly on mindless action .	
4 The trailer is a riot .	
4 This enthralling documentary ... is at once playful and haunting , an in-depth portrait of an iconoclastic artist who was fundamentally unknowable even to his closest friends .	
2 Very well made , but does n't generate a lot of tension .	
1 This is a film about the irksome , tiresome nature of complacency that remains utterly satisfied to remain the same throughout .	
1 The holes in this film remain agape -- holes punched through by an inconsistent , meandering , and sometimes dry plot .	
0 -LRB- Hell is -RRB- looking down at your watch and realizing Serving Sara is n't even halfway through .	
4 A finely tuned mood piece , a model of menacing atmosphere .	
2 It 's just a little too self-satisfied .	
2 Slow , dry , poorly cast , but beautifully shot .	
3 A movie that will surely be profane , politically charged music to the ears of Cho 's fans .	
3 Marshall puts a suspenseful spin on standard horror flick formula .	
1 What they 're doing is a matter of plumbing arrangements and mind games , of no erotic or sensuous charge .	
1 Each story is built on a potentially interesting idea , but the first two are ruined by amateurish writing and acting , while the third feels limited by its short running time .	
0 Instead of letting the laughs come as they may , Lawrence unleashes his trademark misogyny -- er , comedy -- like a human volcano or an overflowing septic tank , take your pick .	
0 The Paradiso 's rusted-out ruin and ultimate collapse during the film 's final -LRB- restored -RRB- third ... emotionally belittle a cinema classic .	
1 Witless and utterly pointless .	
3 The more you think about the movie , the more you will probably like it .	
1 The director seems to take an unseemly pleasure in -LRB- the characters ' -RRB- misery and at the same time to congratulate himself for having the guts to confront it .	
2 At its worst the screenplay is callow , but at its best it is a young artist 's thoughtful consideration of fatherhood .	
2 And that holds true for both the movie and the title character played by Brendan Fraser .	
0 Forages for audience sympathy like a temperamental child begging for attention , giving audiences no reason to truly care for its decrepit freaks beyond the promise of a reprieve from their incessant whining .	
3 Captivates as it shows excess in business and pleasure , allowing us to find the small , human moments , and leaving off with a grand whimper .	
2 For single digits kidlets Stuart Little 2 is still a no brainer .	
3 Beyond the cleverness , the weirdness and the pristine camerawork , One Hour Photo is a sobering meditation on why we take pictures .	
4 Dramas like this make it human .	
2 The Country Bears has no scenes that will upset or frighten young viewers .	
2 Dodgy mixture of cutesy romance , dark satire and murder mystery .	
3 Cinematic poetry showcases the city 's old-world charm before machines change nearly everything .	
0 The performances are so overstated , the effect comes off as self-parody .	
1 The movie ends with outtakes in which most of the characters forget their lines and just utter ' uhhh , ' which is better than most of the writing in the movie .	
3 Frei assembles a fascinating profile of a deeply humanistic artist who , in spite of all that he 's witnessed , remains surprisingly idealistic , and retains an extraordinary faith in the ability of images to communicate the truth of the world around him .	
3 A moving , if uneven , success .	
3 Yes .	
3 Kids who are into this Thornberry stuff will probably be in wedgie heaven .	
2 As we have come to learn -- as many times as we have fingers to count on -- Jason is a killer who does n't know the meaning of the word ' quit . '	
4 Morvern rocks .	
2 Shanghai Ghetto should be applauded for finding a new angle on a tireless story , but you might want to think twice before booking passage .	
1 In old-fashioned screenwriting parlance , Ms. Shreve 's novel proved too difficult a text to ' lick , ' despite the efforts of a first-rate cast .	
3 A treat for its depiction on not giving up on dreams when you 're a struggling nobody .	
3 The obnoxious title character provides the drama that gives added clout to this doc .	
0 Not only does the thoroughly formulaic film represent totally exemplify middle-of-the-road mainstream , it also represents glossy Hollywood at its laziest .	
2 Bisset delivers a game performance , but she is unable to save the movie .	
2 Analyze That regurgitates and waters down many of the previous film 's successes , with a few new swings thrown in .	
2 A penetrating glimpse into the tissue-thin ego of the stand-up comic .	
0 The whole mess boils down to a transparently hypocritical work that feels as though it 's trying to set the women 's liberation movement back 20 years . '	
4 A captivating and intimate study about dying and loving ...	
3 Enjoyably dumb , sweet , and intermittently hilarious -- if you 've a taste for the quirky , steal a glimpse .	
1 Schneidermeister ... Makin ' a fool of himself ... Losin ' his fan base ...	
1 Nicks and Steinberg match their own creations for pure venality -- that 's giving it the old college try .	
0 Unfortunately , Kapur modernizes A.E.W. Mason 's story to suit the sensibilities of a young American , a decision that plucks  The Four Feathers  bare .	
3 This ready-made midnight movie probably wo n't stand the cold light of day , but under the right conditions , it 's goofy -LRB- if not entirely wholesome -RRB- fun .	
0 Rarely has a film 's title served such dire warning .	
4 More concerned with overall feelings , broader ideas , and open-ended questions than concrete story and definitive answers , Soderbergh 's Solaris is a gorgeous and deceptively minimalist cinematic tone poem .	
1 Feels like pieces a bunch of other , better movies slapped together .	
2 Jones helps breathe some life into the insubstantial plot , but even he is overwhelmed by predictability .	
3 Ash Wednesday is not Edward Burns ' best film , but it is a good and ambitious film .	
1 Woody , what happened ?	
3 Like its New England characters , most of whom wander about in thick clouds of denial , the movie eventually gets around to its real emotional business , striking deep chords of sadness .	
3 It is a likable story , told with competence .	
2 Oliveira seems to pursue silent film representation with every mournful composition .	
2 Sandra Bullock 's best dramatic performance to date -LRB- is -RRB- almost enough to lift -LRB- this -RRB- thrill-kill cat-and-mouser ... above its paint-by-numbers plot .	
0 Soulless and -- even more damning -- virtually joyless , XXX achieves near virtuosity in its crapulence .	
3 The locations go from stark desert to gorgeous beaches .	
3 Does an impressive job of relating the complicated history of the war and of filling in the background .	
3 After one gets the feeling that the typical Hollywood disregard for historical truth and realism is at work here , it 's a matter of finding entertainment in the experiences of Zishe and the fiery presence of Hanussen .	
2 Post 9 / 11 the philosophical message of  Personal Freedom First  might not be as palatable as intended .	
1 The movie is like Scorsese 's Mean Streets redone by someone who ignored it in favor of old ' juvenile delinquent ' paperbacks with titles like Leather Warriors and Switchblade Sexpot .	
1 The film 's maudlin focus on the young woman 's infirmity and her naive dreams play like the worst kind of Hollywood heart-string plucking .	
3 Maryam is more timely now than ever .	
1 Like most movies about the pitfalls of bad behavior ... Circuit gets drawn into the party .	
0 The heedless impetuousness of youth is on full , irritating display in -LRB- this -RRB- meandering and pointless French coming-of-age import from writer-director Anne-Sophie Birot .	
0 The most repugnant adaptation	
3 Filmmakers David Weissman and Bill Weber benefit enormously from the Cockettes ' camera craziness -- not only did they film performances , but they did the same at home .	
1 Will anyone who is n't a Fangoria subscriber be excited that it has n't gone straight to video ?	
4 Darkly funny and frequently insightful .	
1 A spooky yarn of demonic doings on the high seas that works better the less the brain is engaged .	
1 The only young people who possibly will enjoy it are infants ... who might be distracted by the movie 's quick movements and sounds .	
3 An unforgettable look at morality , family , and social expectation through the prism of that omnibus tradition called marriage .	
4 Weaver and LaPaglia are both excellent , in the kind of low-key way that allows us to forget that they are actually movie folk .	
4 smart , funny and just honest enough to provide the pleasures of a slightly naughty , just-above-average off - Broadway play .	
2 For a debut film , Skin of Man , Heart of Beast feels unusually assured .	
3 -LRB-  Take Care of My Cat  -RRB- is an honestly nice little film that takes us on an examination of young adult life in urban South Korea through the hearts and minds of the five principals .	
0 Oversexed , at times overwrought comedy / drama that offers little insight into the experience of being forty , female and single .	
3 An off-beat and fanciful film about the human need for monsters to blame for all that is amiss in the world .	
4 The fun of the movie is the chance it affords to watch Jackson , who also served as executive producer , take his smooth , shrewd , powerful act abroad .	
3 A sharp satire of desperation and cinematic deception .	
1 With a tone as variable as the cinematography , Schaeffer 's film never settles into the light-footed enchantment the material needs , and the characters ' quirks and foibles never jell into charm .	
4 Runs on the pure adrenalin of Pacino 's performance .	
3 Mr. Scorsese 's bravery and integrity in advancing this vision can hardly be underestimated .	
1 The movie is a mess from start to finish .	
4 Demonstrates the unusual power of thoughtful , subjective filmmaking .	
0 In other words , about as bad a film you 're likely to see all year .	
2 The most ill-conceived animated comedy since the 1991 dog Rover Dangerfield .	
3 Even during the climactic hourlong cricket match , boredom never takes hold .	
2 Aptly named , this shimmering , beautifully costumed and filmed production does n't work for me .	
0 An unremittingly ugly movie to look at , listen to , and think about , it is quite possibly the sturdiest example yet of why the DV revolution has cheapened the artistry of making a film .	
2 Meant for Star Wars fans .	
1 The film , like Jimmy 's routines , could use a few good laughs .	
3 It 's a clear-eyed portrait of an intensely lived time , filled with nervous energy , moral ambiguity and great uncertainties .	
4 an admirable , sometimes exceptional film	
2 The doofus-on - the-loose banter of Welcome to Collinwood has a cocky , after-hours loopiness to it .	
4 Armed with a game supporting cast , from the pitch-perfect Forster to the always hilarious Meara and Levy , Like Mike shoots and scores , doing its namesake proud .	
1 As if Drop Dead Gorgeous was n't enough , this equally derisive clunker is fixated on the spectacle of small-town competition .	
0 It 's a drag how Nettelbeck sees working women -- or at least this working woman -- for whom she shows little understanding .	
4 Promises is one film that 's truly deserving of its Oscar nomination .	
2  13 Conversations  holds its goodwill close , but is relatively slow to come to the point .	
1 Such a wildly uneven hit-and-miss enterprise , you ca n't help suspecting that it was improvised on a day-to-day basis during production .	
3 The stars may be college kids , but the subject matter is as adult as you can get : the temptations of the flesh are unleashed by a slightly crazed , overtly determined young woman and a one-night swim turns into an ocean of trouble .	
3 ,  They 're out there ! 	
0 In the end , there is n't much to it .	
3 It 's absolutely amazing how first-time director Kevin Donovan managed to find something new to add to the canon of Chan .	
4 Really quite funny .	
3 Prepare to marvel again .	
4 But mostly it 's a work that , with humor , warmth , and intelligence , captures a life interestingly lived .	
4 A backstage must-see for true fans of comedy .	
1 Medem may have disrobed most of the cast , leaving their bodies exposed , but the plot remains as guarded as a virgin with a chastity belt .	
2 Well-meaning but inert .	
2 Do you chuckle at the thought of an ancient librarian whacking a certain part of a man 's body ?	
4 With Dirty Deeds , David Caesar has stepped into the mainstream of filmmaking with an assurance worthy of international acclaim and with every cinematic tool well under his control -- driven by a natural sense for what works on screen .	
3 Japanese director Shohei Imamura 's latest film is an odd but ultimately satisfying blend of the sophomoric and the sublime .	
0 Rifkin no doubt fancies himself something of a Hubert Selby Jr. , but there is n't an ounce of honest poetry in his entire script ; it 's simply crude and unrelentingly exploitative .	
0 A chilly , remote , emotionally distant piece ... so dull that its tagline should be : ' In space , no one can hear you snore . '	
2 Unofficially , National Lampoon 's Van Wilder is Son of Animal House .	
2 The isolated moments of creative insanity finally are lost in the thin soup of canned humor .	
1 It 's as if Allen , at 66 , has stopped challenging himself .	
1 Some movies were made for the big screen , some for the small screen , and some , like Ballistic : Ecks vs. Sever , were made for the palm screen .	
2 If Reno is to the left of liberal on the political spectrum , her tough , funny , rather chaotic show is n't subversive so much as it is nit-picky about the hypocrisies of our time .	
2 A tedious parable about honesty and good sportsmanship .	
4 Kinnear and Dafoe give what may be the performances of their careers .	
1 It 's difficult to feel anything much while watching this movie , beyond mild disturbance or detached pleasure at the acting .	
1 Like being able to hit on a 15-year old when you 're over 100 .	
1 There 's not a fresh idea at the core of this tale .	
4 But Mr. Polanski creates images even more haunting than those in Mr. Spielberg 's 1993 classic .	
4 Director Charles Stone III applies more detail to the film 's music than to the story line ; what 's best about Drumline is its energy .	
4 Diane Lane works nothing short of a minor miracle in Unfaithful .	
3 If you love reading and / or poetry , then by all means check it out .	
2 The movie , while beautiful , feels labored , with a hint of the writing exercise about it .	
3 Unexpected , and often contradictory , truths emerge .	
1 Normally , Rohmer 's talky films fascinate me , but when he moves his setting to the past , and relies on a historical text , he loses the richness of characterization that makes his films so memorable .	
2 Tom Green and an Ivy League college should never appear together on a marquee , especially when the payoff is an unschooled comedy like Stealing Harvard , which fails to keep 80 minutes from seeming like 800 .	
3 made Eddie Murphy a movie star and the man has n't aged a day .	
3 Even when he 's not at his most critically insightful , Godard can still be smarter than any 50 other filmmakers still at work .	
1 But , like Silence , it 's a movie that gets under your skin .	
1 It sounds like another clever if pointless excursion into the abyss , and that 's more or less how it plays out .	
4 A must for fans of British cinema , if only because so many titans of the industry are along for the ride .	
4 Romantic comedy and Dogme 95 filmmaking may seem odd bedfellows , but they turn out to be delightfully compatible here .	
0 The film 's lack of personality permeates all its aspects -- from the TV movie-esque , affected child acting to the dullest Irish pub scenes ever filmed .	
1 Eight Legged Freaks wo n't join the pantheon of great monster / science fiction flicks that we have come to love ...	
2 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is deja vu all over again , and while that is a cliche , nothing could be more appropriate .	
1 The actors must indeed be good to recite some of this laughable dialogue with a straight face .	
2 Norton holds the film together .	
3 I am not generally a huge fan of cartoons derived from TV shows , but Hey Arnold !	
2 The film thrusts the inchoate but already eldritch Christian Right propaganda machine into national media circles .	
0 If you enjoy being rewarded by a script that assumes you are n't very bright , then Blood Work is for you .	
3 This masterfully calibrated psychological thriller thrives on its taut performances and creepy atmosphere even if the screenplay falls somewhat short .	
3 The charming result is Festival in Cannes .	
2 Though excessively tiresome , The Uncertainty Principle , as verbally pretentious as the title may be , has its handful of redeeming features , as long as you discount its ability to bore .	
4 Me Without You has a bracing truth that 's refreshing after the phoniness of female-bonding pictures like Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood .	
0 ... a plotline that 's as lumpy as two-day old porridge ... the filmmakers ' paws , sad to say , were all over this  un-bear-able  project !	
1 On top of a foundering performance , -LRB- Madonna 's -RRB- denied her own athleticism by lighting that emphasizes every line and sag .	
4 The film is bright and flashy in all the right ways .	
4 A well-done film of a self-reflexive , philosophical nature .	
0 Nothing sticks , really , except a lingering creepiness one feels from being dragged through a sad , sordid universe of guns , drugs , avarice and damaged dreams .	
4 Brosnan gives a portrayal as solid and as perfect as his outstanding performance as Bond in Die Another Day .	
1 What goes on for the 110 minutes of  Panic Room  is a battle of witlessness between a not-so-bright mother and daughter and an even less capable trio of criminals .	
1 Illiterate , often inert sci-fi action thriller .	
3 The best thing about the movie is its personable , amusing cast .	
3 Inherently caustic and oddly whimsical , the film chimes in on the grieving process and strangely draws the audience into the unexplainable pain and eccentricities that are attached to the concept of loss .	
0 Haneke 's script -LRB- from Elfriede Jelinek 's novel -RRB- is contrived , unmotivated , and psychologically unpersuasive , with an inconclusive ending .	
4 A modestly made but profoundly moving documentary .	
0 Movies like High Crimes flog the dead horse of surprise as if it were an obligation .	
0 Loud , chaotic and largely unfunny .	
1 The script is a disaster , with cloying messages and irksome characters .	
1 This mild-mannered farce , directed by one of its writers , John C. Walsh , is corny in a way that bespeaks an expiration date passed a long time ago .	
3 But that they are doing it is thought-provoking .	
1 The problem with the film is whether these ambitions , laudable in themselves , justify a theatrical simulation of the death camp of Auschwitz II-Birkenau .	
3 The picture runs a mere 84 minutes , but it 's no glance .	
2 With its hint of an awkward Hitchcockian theme in tact , Harmon 's daunting narrative promotes a reasonable landscape of conflict and pathos to support the scattershot terrorizing tone	
2 Debate it .	
3 But not without cheesy fun factor .	
3 Upsetting and thought-provoking , the film has an odd purity that does n't bring you into the characters so much as it has you study them .	
3 Could use a little more humanity , but it never lacks in eye-popping visuals .	
2 The problem is not that it 's all derivative , because plenty of funny movies recycle old tropes .	
1 At best this is a film for the under-7 crowd .	
4 A thoughtful movie , a movie that is concerned with souls and risk and schemes and the consequences of one 's actions .	
1 Jaw-droppingly superficial , straining to get by on humor that is not even as daring as John Ritter 's glory days on Three 's Company .	
0 The story of Trouble Every Day ... is so sketchy it amounts to little more than preliminary notes for a science-fiction horror film , and the movie 's fragmentary narrative style makes piecing the story together frustrating difficult .	
0 After you laugh once -LRB- maybe twice -RRB- , you will have completely forgotten the movie by the time you get back to your car in the parking lot .	
1 The screenplay flounders under the weight of too many story lines .	
1 There 's no good answer to that one .	
0 Like many such biographical melodramas , it suffers from the awkwardness that results from adhering to the messiness of true stories .	
2 ... a trashy little bit of fluff stuffed with enjoyable performances and a bewildering sense of self-importance	
2 If you 're really renting this you 're not interested in discretion in your entertainment choices , you 're interested in Anne Geddes , John Grisham , and Thomas Kincaid .	
0 Like a can of 2-day old Coke .	
4 As a girl-meets-girl romantic comedy , Kissing Jessica Steinis quirky , charming and often hilarious .	
3 Assayas ' ambitious , sometimes beautiful adaptation of Jacques Chardonne 's novel .	
2 There are many things that solid acting can do for a movie , but crafting something promising from a mediocre screenplay is not one of them .	
1 A cautionary tale about the folly of superficiality that is itself endlessly superficial .	
2 I was hoping that it would be sleazy and fun , but it was neither .	
4 Thumbs up to Paxton for not falling into the Hollywood trap and making a vanity project with nothing new to offer .	
1 Why , you may ask , why should you buy the movie milk when the TV cow is free ?	
0 Even on its own ludicrous terms , The Sum of All Fears generates little narrative momentum , and invites unflattering comparisons to other installments in the Ryan series .	
0 This mess of a movie is nothing short of a travesty of a transvestite comedy .	
2  On Guard ! 	
3 - I also wanted a little alien as a friend !	
0 A frustrating ' tweener ' -- too slick , contrived and exploitative for the art houses and too cynical , small and decadent for the malls .	
0 Muddled , simplistic and more than a little pretentious .	
3 An oddity , to be sure , but one that you might wind up remembering with a degree of affection rather than revulsion .	
1 After a while , Hoffman 's quirks and mannerisms , particularly his penchant for tearing up on cue -- things that seem so real in small doses -- become annoying and artificial .	
1 Exploitative and largely devoid of the depth or sophistication that would make watching such a graphic treatment of the crimes bearable .	
4 Good , solid storytelling .	
3 We 're drawn in by the dark luster .	
4 A classic fairy tale that perfectly captures the wonders and worries of childhood in a way that few movies have ever approached .	
4 Congrats Disney on a job well done , I enjoyed it just as much !	
2 Some movies can get by without being funny simply by structuring the scenes as if they were jokes : a setup , delivery and payoff .	
1 I wish it would have just gone more over-the-top instead of trying to have it both ways .	
2 Oozes condescension from every pore .	
0 Clumsy , obvious , preposterous , the movie will likely set the cause of woman warriors back decades .	
1 The result is an ' action film ' mired in stasis .	
1 Hollywood has taken quite a nosedive from Alfred Hitchcock 's imaginative flight to Shyamalan 's self-important summer fluff .	
1 This is a movie where the most notable observation is how long you 've been sitting still .	
3 The film is hard to dismiss -- moody , thoughtful , and lit by flashes of mordant humor .	
4 Hard , endearing , caring , warm .	
1 I 've seen some bad singer-turned actors , but Lil Bow Wow takes the cake .	
1 Follows the original film virtually scene for scene and yet manages to bleed it almost completely dry of humor , verve and fun .	
1 A pathetically inane and unimaginative cross between XXX and Vertical Limit .	
4 Shot largely in small rooms , the film has a gentle , unforced intimacy that never becomes claustrophobic .	
1 But I had a lot of problems with this movie .	
3 -LRB- The Cockettes -RRB- provides a window into a subculture hell-bent on expressing itself in every way imaginable . '	
4 Renner carries much of the film with a creepy and dead-on performance .	
1 Feels like a cold old man going through the motions .	
4 These three films form a remarkably cohesive whole , both visually and thematically , through their consistently sensitive and often exciting treatment of an ignored people .	
0 In a big corner office in Hell , Satan is throwing up his hands in surrender , is firing his R&D people , and has decided he will just screen The Master of Disguise 24 / 7 .	
4 A delicious , quirky movie with a terrific screenplay and fanciful direction by Michael Gondry .	
0 Journalistically dubious , inept and often lethally dull .	
1 He 's not good with people .	
2 It 's not a classic spy-action or buddy movie , but it 's entertaining enough and worth a look .	
4 Warm in its loving yet unforgivingly inconsistent depiction of everyday people , relaxed in its perfect quiet pace and proud in its message .	
0  The Adventures of Pluto Nash  is a big time stinker .	
1 And second , what 's with all the shooting ?	
2 ... best seen as speculative history , as much an exploration of the paranoid impulse as a creative sequel to the Warren Report .	
1 Payami tries to raise some serious issues about Iran 's electoral process , but the result is a film that 's about as subtle as a party political broadcast .	
2 The message is that even the most unlikely can link together to conquer all kinds of obstacles , whether they be of nature , of man or of one another .	
3 A glib but bouncy bit of sixties-style slickness in which the hero might wind up caught but the audience gets pure escapism .	
1 Is anyone else out there getting tired of the whole slo-mo , double-pistoled , ballistic-pyrotechnic Hong Kong action aesthetic ?	
1 Coupling disgracefully written dialogue with flailing bodily movements that substitute for acting , Circuit is the awkwardly paced soap opera-ish story .	
4 A rare and lightly entertaining look behind the curtain that separates comics from the people laughing in the crowd .	
1 ... its solemn pretension prevents us from sharing the awe in which it holds itself .	
2 but ' Why ? '	
4 In his U.S. debut , Mr. Schnitzler proves himself a deft pace master and stylist .	
2 Anyone who 's ever suffered under a martinet music instructor has no doubt fantasized about what an unhappy , repressed and twisted personal life their tormentor deserved .	
2 Not one moment in the enterprise did n't make me want to lie down in a dark room with something cool to my brow .	
2 It gets bogged down by hit-and-miss topical humour before getting to the truly good stuff .	
3 Lasker 's canny , meditative script distances sex and love , as Byron and Luther ... realize they ca n't get no satisfaction without the latter .	
2 Whether you like it or not is basically a matter of taste .	
3 harmlessly	
1 One well-timed explosion in a movie can be a knockout , but a hundred of them can be numbing .	
0 Nobody seems to have cared much about any aspect of it , from its cheesy screenplay to the grayish quality of its lighting to its last-minute , haphazard theatrical release .	
2 As self-aware movies go , Who is Cletis Tout ?	
1 Britney Spears ' phoniness is nothing compared to the movie 's contrived , lame screenplay and listless direction .	
3 Nothing can detract from the affection of that moral favorite : friends will be friends through thick and thin .	
3 An interesting look behind the scenes of Chicago-based rock group Wilco ...	
1 Has nothing good to speak about other than the fact that it is relatively short , tries its best to hide the fact that Seagal 's overweight and out of shape .	
3 After watching it , you can only love the players it brings to the fore for the gifted but no-nonsense human beings they are and for the still-inestimable contribution they have made to our shared history .	
3 This is a shrewd and effective film from a director who understands how to create and sustain a mood .	
2 I had more fun with Ben Stiller 's Zoolander , which I thought was rather clever .	
3 If the film 's vision of sport as a secular religion is a bit cloying , its through-line of family and community is heartening in the same way that each season marks a new start .	
4 More mature than Fatal Attraction , more complete than Indecent Proposal and more relevant than 9 1 / 2 Weeks , Unfaithful is at once intimate and universal cinema .	
2 A good-looking but ultimately pointless political thriller with plenty of action and almost no substance .	
0  ... something appears to have been lost in the translation this time .	
2 The strong subject matter continues to shock throughout the film .	
1 A fan film that for the uninitiated plays better on video with the sound turned down .	
3 The result is somewhat satisfying -- it still comes from Spielberg , who has never made anything that was n't at least watchable .	
1 Though there 's a clarity of purpose and even-handedness to the film 's direction , the drama feels rigged and sluggish .	
4 Shot in rich , shadowy black-and-white , Devils chronicles , with increasingly amused irony , the relationship between reluctant captors and befuddled captives .	
4 Nolan proves that he can cross swords with the best of them and helm a more traditionally plotted popcorn thriller while surrendering little of his intellectual rigor or creative composure .	
2 The film did n't move me one way or the other , but it was an honest effort and if you want to see a flick about telemarketers this one will due .	
0 This pathetic junk is barely an hour long .	
2 -LRB- Taylor -RRB- takes us on a ride that 's consistently surprising , easy to watch -- but , oh , so dumb .	
4 Consider it ' perfection . '	
1 But no. .	
1 Lacks the visual flair and bouncing bravado that characterizes better hip-hop clips and is content to recycle images and characters that were already tired 10 years ago .	
3 A flick about our infantilized culture that is n't entirely infantile .	
1 Still , it just sits there like a side dish no one ordered .	
3 It made me want to get made-up and go see this movie with my sisters .	
3 And we do n't avert our eyes for a moment .	
2 with a couple of burnt-out cylinders	
3 Tackles the difficult subject of grief and loss with such life-embracing spirit that the theme does n't drag an audience down .	
4 A moving story of determination and the human spirit .	
0 Disgusting .	
2 Reno does what he can in a thankless situation , the film ricochets from humor to violence and back again , and Ryoko Hirosue makes us wonder if she is always like that .	
3 It goes down easy , leaving virtually no aftertaste .	
2 A sly dissection of the inanities of the contemporary music business and a rather sad story of the difficulties of artistic collaboration .	
4 It 's the kind of movie that , aside from Robert Altman , Spike Lee , the Coen Brothers and a few others , our moviemakers do n't make often enough .	
3 Bolstered by an astonishing voice cast -LRB- excepting Love Hewitt -RRB- , an interesting racial tension , and a storyline that I have n't encountered since at least Pete 's Dragon .	
1 None of this so-called satire has any sting to it , as if Woody is afraid of biting the hand that has finally , to some extent , warmed up to him .	
2 Even if you have no interest in the gang-infested , East-vs .	
1 In this case zero .	
1 Simply put , there should have been a more compelling excuse to pair Susan Sarandon and Goldie Hawn .	
3 Definitely in the guilty pleasure B-movie category , Reign of Fire is so incredibly inane that it is laughingly enjoyable .	
1 -LRB- Tries -RRB- to parody a genre that 's already a joke in the United States .	
2 The film is darkly atmospheric , with Herrmann quietly suggesting the sadness and obsession beneath Hearst 's forced avuncular chortles .