Unlike the rest of the Class of '09 thus far, The Uninvited marches to an off-beat, and thank goodness for small favors.

Runs hot and cold, but mostly satisfies with its "upgraded" science-fiction razzle-dazzle.

The Last Kiss isn't afraid of exploding romantic conventions--um, at least not at first.

Retrograde, sexist, and gleefully sadistic... pitiable and fearful in the language we go to the movies to learn. The old cop line 'There's nothing to see here' hardly applies.

Like Heathers with the edges filed down a bit...the kind of smooth, clever (and rare) entertainment that critics and audiences can all enjoy, guilt-free.

Arctic Tale isn't a documentary. They say it right there in the title, see? It's a tale.

Like his characters, Oshima is determined to explore and transgress sexual boundaries, if they even exist, by posing a challenge to conventional morality.

More of a mess than the pleasant surprise one might have hoped.

Even dog skeptics might be surprised how deftly Marley & Me adapts newspaper columnist John Grogan's book...into the equivalent of a kid's movie for adults.

Darren Aronofsky’s character study...[has in Mickey Rourke] an actor unusually in sync with a role, indeed what seems to be the role of his career.

A classic suspense film...also the screen equivalent of a classic existentialist drama...The chemical reaction Clouzot gets from these genres is pure dynamite.

Primo kids' stuff, but under-satisfying for adults.

Though in story The World Is Not Enough is not one of the best Bonds, pound for pound it delivers as much thrilling action as any of them.

Connery proved plenty fit for one more outing...a likeable but somewhat mediocre adventure handsomely mounted in the traditional Bond style...

You can't stop him or crop him/He's in widescreen and large/
He ain't playing when he's baggin' Curtis Hanson for Sarge...

Given the shortage of dancing and soaring vocal melodies...Minnelli must lean heavily on personality and a spectacle defined by the pageantry of historic locations, sets and costumes.

Most of all, 12 serves as a reminder of the ultimate responsibility one can take, for a human life. As Arthur Miller might have said, these men deciding the fate of a teenage boy are all his fathers.

The coup de grace comes in the form of Ginormica, a clever metaphor of figurative and literal female empowerment...Plus there’s lots of explosions.

Good to the last drop: the guilt-drenched final line is a prism revealing new facets of character and theme to ponder on the way out of the theater.

The most fascinating element of the film is its formal linking of its multiple, no-nonsense protagonists.

Guilty-pleasure action sequences...amped-up visuals and hearty, young stars...the problem is that the stilted dialogue and style-over-substance form seem instantly dated.

With its ballsy, bar-raising disregard of sense, this solid sequel mildly improves upon the original...summer movie camp 2 gleefully preposterous 2 be dismissed.

On par with the rest of the series....it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt, and then it's off the hook!

Vainly attempts to elevate Riddick into a mythological hero in a political-intrigue contest meant to be Dune in an action context, though it's a lot more like Stargate in a crap context.

A triumph for tireless dance advocate Kelly, the Freed Unit, and the American musical itself.

A masterpiece of mood...Donnie Darko is made less obscure—for better or worse—in Kelly's expanded director's cut.

A docudramatic TV movie at heart, and there's something unseemly about the film's inherently predictable build to Pearl's climactic grief.

This batch of fourteen episodes doesn't mess with a proven, winning formula: a balance of parody, satire, and Peanuts-esque observation about being a kid.

It's the workmanlike Forster who evinces a lack of feel for the material, shooting the kite competitions like WWI dogfights and applying an overbearing score by Alberto Iglesias.

A loving account of the literal and figurative romance of the stage, even under the most trying of social circumstances.

An enduring masterpiece...Truffaut's autobiographical fiction shows an admirable equanimity by depicting the highs and lows of boyhood.

The 22nd Bond film too often seems like an old friend on the wrong anti-depressant: still the person you love, but the rhythm's off and the precious moments fewer and further between.

Alfred posits, "For what is Batman if not an effort to master the chaos that sweeps our world? An attempt to control death itself." Okay, fine, but we get this and dick jokes?

The fatuousness of that title sums up Schumacher's approach. The director allows his few scrupulous choices to be overwhelmed by garish vaudeville.

Burton['s] staging is expert, and his character conceptions are distinctive and gratifying.

Despite its failings...a hugely influential movie with literally towering design, mordant wit, and a hall-of-fame performance by Jack Nicholson.

An unfolding mystery in which truth is elusive, and twists are the order of the day...gives Norton a career-making opportunity to strut his stuff.

Merged the appeal of Bullitt with that of, say, Zabriskie Point...fast cars and dusty existentialism.

An electrifying performance that set a high standard plugged-in rockers continue to pursue.

A fast-paced feature sure to satisfy fans and win a generation of new ones.

That Milk is merely excellent and not transcendent should not obscure its importance to popular culture...

With Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee paints...symbolist drama (is it coincidental that the film begins in Signal, Wyoming?).

Any film that depicts a 'superheroic' rapist-brute as a self-styled parody of America's 'true face' can hardly be accused of thematic squeamishness, and any film that sends readers back to the comic for Moore (and Gibbons) has served the public interest.

Heartbreakingly explores our romantic delusions, and the tragedy of always wanting more than we can have.

As sunglasses and guitar picks fly, cello bows jut, and mics and pointed drumsticks thrust out of the screen, it's a sort of metaphor for the...film (and the band it captures) to ponder which effects are 'real' and which are manufactured in a computer.

Groening’s notoriously prickly fanbase may well overlook the inclusion of nearly the entire extended universe of Futurama characters and focus on the negative: the warmed-over story and jokes.

Likeable enough, and even amusing for stretches, but ultimately too generic for a recommendation.

A memorable comedy for the ages, Groundhog Day digs deeper than most magic-realist comedies...

More conventional than its predecessor, but it's still unconventional by the cop thriller standard set by a wash of anonymous, lesser films.

A witty and highly imaginative historical fiction, well adapted by screenwriter Peter Shaffer from his own hit play.