John C. Reilly

By the end, those who haven't seen Nine Queens may applaud the entertaining sleight-of-hand...those who have may lament that Criminal is the proverbial old dog.

Though Dark Water doesn't run deep....Salles keeps his head above [it]...with superior acting, mise en scene, story, script, and photography.

The film's consistent ticklishness frequently breaks out into uproarious set pieces.

A nutty, fictional ode-elegy to a show that's still going strong, A Prairie Home Companion offers a unique hybrid of a folksy American showman and an improvisatory impresario.

Thrives on bone-dry humor.

The impact is all in the broad strokes of Scorsese's design: the corresponding coming-of-age stories of three confused and violent adolescents: Amsterdam Vallon, New York City, and America.

The film's funniest moments come early...But the more outlandish the joke (a.k.a. little kids pick fights with the men), the less purchase McKay finds, as our investment in the film's reality checks out.

The Promotion skates out onto that thin ice of comedic subtlety. Like its characters, it's not terribly successful, but it's an admirable effort all the same.

An expertly crafted Hollywod entertainment...[constructed] as a series of grippingly fateful 'moments of truth.'

One senses Acker stretching his eleven-minute short rather than containing bigger ideas and characters who have taken on lives of their own: 9 too clearly puts style over substance.

Gothic pop...a ripping yarn for the big screen...

Detailed and consistently funny observation of small-town sincerity muddling through a dog-eat-dog world.

Though Terri doesn’t have the reassuring clarity of a straight path from starting block to finish line, its fits and starts are pretty good.

A slow disintegration of the thin veneer of social niceties, revealing the human animalism underneath. Like Reza's equally popular Art, God of Carnage isn't as deep as it would have you believe, but both plays are catnip for actors.

An annoying provocation with too little to say, a serious credibility deficit, a whiff of misandry, and a miscalculated, unseemly gusto for abusing its hero. Instead of having catharsis, the audience just gets had.

Cohen's act wears thin...still, The Dictator has several memorable moments...

Built for fun...in its dazzlingly elaborate production design and kinetic 3D action...perfect casting...Who Framed Roger Rabbit-esque video-game-character cameos, and a cramming of clever comic touches...

Lurches along a bit awkwardly, but always with utterly dazzling visuals and a goofy gag at the ready.

This latest gentle, sensitive, unhurried tale from Studio Ghibli...excels not only at natural beauty, touched with supernatural flourishes, but also at acute psychological perceptiveness...

Investigates the nature of our need for a partner (who else will apply that pain-relief cream to the small of your back?), how we cling to superficial similarities to justify our matches, and our denial, at our peril, of our animal nature.

Builds to the fulfillment of the 'MonsterVerse' promise (further teased in a post-credits scene) of monster-on-monster action...It's all very silly...and also a kind of bruising primordial thrill ride.

Sing is pleasant enough...but scrutinize it, and you'll find that it's neither very musically accomplished nor very funny. The tone is bright and colorful but still evinces a kind of joyless duty...

Productively acknowledges real-life dangers, with stellar animation and designs shoring up the storytelling of Johnston and Pamela Ribon's witty script...a useful all-ages fable for our time.

Labors a bit to create drama from what’s essentially a gentle, wistful story of two artists together eking out a last hurrah, but there’s a refreshing warmth to a family-friendly show business tale, one not about backbiting but about love...