The series may well have been the last great variety show, weaving running-gag comedy through standards, novelty songs, and sketches performed with impeccable puppetry and alongside entertainment legends. 
Few family films have the breadth of appeal of The Muppet Movie, the best screen evidence of the Muppeteers' dedication to magnificent illusion. [new DVD review] 
Take two "mahna"s and call me in the morning. 
An extraordinary, often mesmerizing achievement of design and performance that's held back by an underdeveloped script and a milquetoast leading character. 
The chaotic narrative proceeds in fits and starts, and the sights and sounds are often dated, but somehow the film's wit and wonder linger in the mind. 
Based on an Elmore Leonard short story, the 1957 Western 3:10 to Yuma largely chugs along with familiar genre efficiency, including a ticking-clock tension clearly inspired by 1952 favorite High Noon... 
If the story of a stodgy but conflicted Stasi captain gives sympathy to a historical devil, it also allows for an intriguing angle on the evergreen cinematic theme of voyeurism. 
It's Rickman who runs away with the whole film by running the gamut from teflon smoothie to desperate madman. 
Those episodes, which aired in 2007 before an afterlife on DVD, continue the series' glory by exploring the complex aftermath of Caesar's assassination. 
Whether taken as a cultural relic or the definitive screen treatment, Othello demands to be seen for Olivier's bravura, high-wire performance. 
We've come a long way in terms of animated superhero adventures, but the Superfriends have an old-fashioned charm and, to many, a nostalgic kick. 
Paterson's lovely, sweet story locates unexpected emotional power... 
In his 36 years of filmmaking, David Lynch has never been more fearless or more fearsome...Inland Empire brims with surprising and scary images. 
Go West, one of the Marx Brothers' decidedly off-kilter later outings from the MGM years, tenaciously manages some memorable moments and makes a virtue of its slim running time by generally hastening... 
A sort of Ambien/No-Doz cocktail likely to send all but fanboy brains into self-protective shutoff mode. 
It's Grint who grounds in reality, as best he can, Brock's directing debut...this conventional Britcom lightly hums along for a good stretch before running off the road. 
As family films have changed to appease jaded audiences, an emphasis has been put on dazzling kiddies while keeping the parents awake. As such, animated adventures have begun to evolve into a strang... 
A power play about power plays, Jean Anouilh's now-classic Becket provided the basis for one of the great screen pairings. 
The earnestness of Cage and tough-as-nails Moore backfires in the face of godawful dialogue and a very poorly established central conceit. 
Zhang Yimou is back with the latest Chinese competitor in the Opulence Olympics, and not a moment too soon. 
Nolan's supreme confidence, narrative skill, and taste for complexity make for unusually rich popular entertainment. Where was The Prestige this summer when we needed it most? 
Meanders at times, and stretches credibility...[but] The Quiet's creepy character study reaches an emotionally satisfying conclusion. 
Returning to a sentimental mode, Zhang Yimou brings us Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, a hard-to-resist emotional journey graced with near-epic visual appeal and subtle lost-in-translation humor... 
As a look at the injustices blithely wrought in the name of democracy, The Road to Guantanamo comes none too soon. 
Tarantinoid...the machinations are all familiar enough that your unoccupied brain may drift off to wonder how Hartnett's made a career out of bad haircuts. 
The wit of the show is in the clever transplanting of human situations to animal ones, which in turn reflect on the foibles of our daily lives. 
Emblematizes De Palma's refusal to take Hollywood seriously. 
Resembles Crumb in its depiction of damaged souls whose only refuge is art. 
Plain-good storytelling: rigorous acting, handheld urgency, and editing prowess render the whiff of manipulation moot. 
There's a casual informality to Pollack's documentary technique....results are semi-revealing. 
In the film's best scene, Roth interrogates Lange about potatoes. Unfortunately such moments are rare. 
A buffoonish but bitter social satire that runs to classical depths, Seduced and Abandoned takes no prisoners for society's misogynistic crimes in the name of familial honor. 
In his laughing-outlaw way, Hooper pointed a new direction for horror cinema. [2-Disc Ultimate Edition Reviewed] 
A painfully protracted muddle of dull deals and somnambulent standoffs. 
Sprinkled comments provide enough intellectual provocation to begin debate, but the main course is Koko's wide-ranging behavior. 
By Columbo's fifth season, the character was firmly established....every detail contributed delicious eccentricity to a character as unpredictable to criminals as the proverbial curious cat. 
The writers deserve credit for continuing to whip up entertaining iterations on the Monk formula. 
"Oh, serious, serious, serious!" —Patrick "Kitten" Braden
Breakfast on Pluto, the picaresque tale of one Patrick "Kitten" Braden, is a larkish ode to fabulousness in the face of solemnity. In... 
May prove to be the feel-good movie of the year...the only problem is that we can't enjoy the live performances in their entirety. 
Eugene Jarecki's Why We Fight ironically reclaims the title of Frank Capra's WWII propaganda shorts. According to Jarecki, we fight in primal but wrongheadedly wanton retaliation, and we fight out of... 