Skews to fantasy over fact, but when it blinks at you with those puppy-dog eyes, just see if you don't sniffle.

Mochrie's skill at mime is nearly matched by his encyclopedic, happily groan-inducing punnery, while Sherwood has a penchant for zingers and a well-honed sense of the absurd.

Audacious...As much in the Ealing tradition as the Strangelove one, Four Lions posits terrorists on a spectrum of dimwitted to moronic when it comes to the understanding of their cause and its effect.

It would be easy to be cynical about Bambi, the Walt Disney-produced film that launched a thousand anthropomorphic animal movies. But its pre-ironic simplicity has, in many ways, only improved with age.

As interpreted by first-time director George Nolfi (screenwriter of The Bourne Ultimatum), Dick's story transforms into an endearingly silly allegory of the mysterious interaction of free will and fate.

I suspect the young'uns will...take a shine to the hero of Rango: a chameleon that's part Kermit the Frog, part street-corner kook (and all Johnny Depp, who supplies the often hilarious voice).

Like Ralston, Boyle is an adrenaline junkie, and the film's opening moments establish the searching energy of filmmaker and subject.

Though obvious, Bollaín's morality tale dramatizes vital issues facing the global economy, forcing the audience to experience them on a human level.

As ever, Malle's sensitivity is supreme and his delicate style evocative.

While the story of these striking seat-cover seamstresses is well worth telling (and sadly still relevant, given the need for last year’s Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act), screenwriter William Ivory and director Nigel Cole...do not tell it well.

Venice is pretty alright, but like its namesake (or, for that matter, like a kidney stone), The Tourist is just passing through.

The promise of extraordinary brain power isn't fulfilled.

It's no mistake that the film's (anti-)resolving image is a statue of Tillman, frozen in time as a heroic but Sphynx-like riddle.

Writer Paddy Chayevsky's prescient 1976 satire of lies, injustice and the American way...has lost none of its sting.

Taking place over little more than a day in the life of a family, Kore-eda's film locates the profound in the mundane.

Allen has here an interesting idea-that placebos may 'work better' than medicine-to noodle over and ultimately reject; it's just a shame he doesn't entertain us more in the process.

Nolan built a better mousetrap of a neo-noir, using the tricky gimmick of a complex, purposefully disorienting narrative.

Mankiewicz's inside knowledge of show business and its particular personality types gives the film an authenticity and allows for its famously devastating acid wit.

'Weepies' may not be high art, but for those who love them, An Affair to Remember is the Mona Lisa.

Say what you will about Thelma & Louise (many have), but there's no doubt that it was a zeitgeist picture with a potent cultural impact.

Costner went for broke with his large-scale, Panavision epic...

Doctor Who specials and finales are obliged to pull out the stops, and 'A Christmas Carol' doesn't disappoint in this regard.

Like staring at whorehouse wallpaper: it's sort of interesting, but you have a strong feeling you might be wasting your time.

A film that washes over the viewer and invites meditative contemplation about our awareness while swimming the big river of consciousness.

A touchstone for cinematographic greatness and the possibilities of screen acting, as well as an "instant classic" of the boxing-movie genre.

Most will find Noodle all wet—limp, if you will—in Yimou's apparent choice to remake Blood Simple in the style of Raising Arizona.

As a broad-strokes account of Lennon’s complicated family dynamic, trouble-making youth, and first tentative steps toward rock stardom...succeeds as both entertainment and a rumination on the roots of one man’s nascent artistry.

10's tossed-off quality keeps it from greatness, but it also distinguishes Edwards' film from the great mass of contemporary comedies smoothed to a shiny, edgeless formula.

The well-honed dramedic performances by endearingly mock-cranky Hanks and quirky, cryin' Ryan add just enough weight to what might otherwise float away...

I'm not sure there's anyone alive that believes the 1951 film lives up to Lewis Carroll's deathless 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but the animated feature remains a perfectly decent slice of kid-friendly surrealism...

Tati’s masterful mime easily inspires an animated treatment, recapturing his graceful comic body language and 'no subtitles required' international appeal.

Say this for Never Let Me Go, the new film adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's celebrated novel: you haven't seen anything like it at the movies this year.

Conviction may not much tease the intellect, but one would have to be a rock to be unmoved by the true story’s dramatic arc, well played by Swank and Rockwell.

In achieving a credible realism, Leigh and his actors refreshingly avoid the tidy and obvious.

Hughes shows chops in setting a mood and carrying out the grisly business of shotgun showdowns and torturous mano a mano sessions...

(To the tune of “Mister Ed”:)
We’ve had us a film about a horse.
Seabiscuit got Oscar nods, of course.
So another race horse on us they’ll force: Secretariat!

Stars four Oscar-winning actors. It’s not every day that you’re able to use 'Helen Mirren' and 'heavy artillery' in the same sentence, but Red gives you the opportunity.

Since Barney’s Version is nothing if not a character study, Giamatti is the surly, sarcastic selling point.

Hoffman’s actorly sensibility allows the film’s best moments, expressed in gestures and non-verbal signifiers...

By looking at the small-screen picture...[Brooks] provocatively suggests that America's socio-political problems are pretty much the same as the personal problems of its citizens.

Justified shares Leonard's love of character, dialogue, and situation drama, and nicely evokes its master's voice.

Blood, sweat and oil...the only thing worse than the dark, hellish, odorous claustrophobia of the tank's innards is the tunnel vision afforded by the gun-sight...

Spews noxious gas and obnoxious patter.

Melville outlines the valorous and dirty deeds of heroes in taut action sequences that reach unusually existential heights.

Though the carpe diem theme comes as something of a surprise, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps makes its political points, with 'moral hazard'—the dark side of second chances—the film’s punny refrain.

Biutiful doesn’t seem to have much to say about all this sadness, except that death, like love, makes us want to be better people.

Has it really been over twenty years since Spaceballs? And yet the Star Wars parody business is still booming.

The girl with the strength of a man, and the man with a sensitive heart (albeit under layers of crust). The calculated softening of Wayne's macho persona at long last won him the Oscar.

Chan...can make something out of nothing, while Ratner's chief skills seem to be talking himself into the director's chair and hiring the right people.

Makes a choice to eschew fun in favor of pitch-black tonality...but kudos to Harcourt and Martin for their ambition in adding new dimension to an old story.