Unfortunately, the film's postmodern staginess assists in keeping Porter endlessly at arm's length.

Branagh's highly entertaining and accessible take on one of the Bard's zestiest comedies.

Sweet, sad and funny...an entertaining fable about the phenomenon of socially crippled singles.

As a musical look at family, generational and cultural conflict, and faith, Fiddler on the Roof makes a virtue of its quaintness.

Any film that features Johnny Depp performing salutes to the great silent comedians (and, in particular, Buster Keaton) deserves a little slack...

A postmodern tragedy of two people at odds who are both right and both wrong in their argument, sharing responsibility for the birth and death of love.

Though the film's heart is in the right place, somehow it all winds up about as flat as one of the celebrated pies at Mystic Pizza.

Clobberin’ action, a touch of ’50s sci-fi, and a heaping portion of titan-clashing theatrics spell something a little different for the comic-book movie.

As a fast-food pitchwoman once asked, 'Where’s the beef?'

A pointless, tired, sugary, pink and teal affront to Reese Witherspoon, Bob Newhart, any important political cause...Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and—oh, let's just say it—humanity.

A touchstone in the development of CGI as a storytelling tool, and almost thirty years later...the basis for a surprising franchise revival, beginning with the big-budget theatrical sequel Tron: Legacy.

Despite its exotic setting, the personal connection of Rio-bred director Carlos Saldanha, the odd eye-popping sequence, and a lot of literal color, the new CGI-animated Rio turns out to be figuratively colorless.

An epic battle between conformity and exceptionality...which will be catnip for superhero buffs and a great time at the movies for everyone else.

Where Black Swan most succeeds is in Aronofsky’s high-flying style, his approach to the story as a fever dream blurring the fine line between a performer playing a role and a psychotic succumbing to delusion.

A mixture of light satire, light tragedy, political thriller, and domestic drama: a Casino Jack of all trades, master of none.

There's something oddly remote about Every Day, which plays like a double-wide version of a perfectly acceptable Showtime pilot.

Doggedly obvious melodrama...But what makes the clichés palatable is a communal commitment to getting the story right.

There's something indelible about Rain Man, and not only to those of us who lived through the time when it was a zeitgeist movie.

Took the world by storm with its strategy of sexual frankness and a towering performance by Marlon Brando.

A quickie sequel to a film released only last year, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules surprisingly improves on its predecessor. 

Wears its off-balance as a badge of pride.

Seen in a forgiving light, it's a perfectly acceptable way to scratch your action-movie itch, but anyone feeling such a tingle will also have to concede that The Man From Nowhere never met a cliché it didn't embrace.

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.