Bullock's quippy snippiness isn't enough...If Miss Congeniality is a consolation prize, let's hope Miss Congenialty 2 is a parting 'gift.'

For all its failings...[has] enough thoughtfulness, creative energy, and comedic idiosyncracy to outpace any five modern comedies, much less two.

A somber accounting crafted with impressive verisimilitude and anchored by Bruno Ganz's rock-solid performance as the Führer...perhaps the definitive film on its subject.

Personally, I hope the press notes for Ice Princess will be the only ones this year to include the phrase "hunky zamboni driver," but you just never know.

The Land of Enchantment lives up to its name in this unusual and surprisingly affecting comedy-drama.

Interest never wanes as this story unfolds, though [screenwriter] Uchovsky starts a lot more than he can finish satisfactorily in 104 minutes.

Holding back tears, Willis actually delivers the soon to be immortal line "Yeah, Tommy, Captain Wubba's gonna save Planet Xenon." Now, that sounds like a movie.

I'm hard-pressed not to recommend Robots as an energetic family-movie distraction...[but] plotting is...mechanical.

Dear Frankie isn't a good film, but it is a nice little movie...[about] what can happen when people become the conscious artists of their own lives.

A valuable if understandably haphazard record of the American occupation of Iraq.

Like Scream remade with butter knives...takes a lazily superficial tack on the old werewolf yarn.

Emotional truth and delicate visual cues distinguish a story so patiently naturalistic that the viewer will feel a part of this dysfunctional family.

The disconcerting examples of Damiano, Reems, and Lovelace—each, in his or her way, regretful—are the hardest pills to, um, swallow.

I'm not sure if Diary of a Mad Black Woman is heartfelt or cynical, but if anyone can write a movie that's both, it's probably Tyler Perry.

Comes across as patently false...are there really any suburbs in America like this one, with its family's cute, tragicomic disintegration in the wake of a son's suicide?

Because of Winn-Dixie—based on the beloved novel by Kate DiCamillo—turns out to be a modest success for the family crowd.

From [its] tone-poem opening to an operatic finale, Sky Blue is a visual marvel that deserves to be seen if not believed.

Her Majesty has worse problems than a lack of realism, namely mediocre direction and acting that's at the level of bad community theatre.

Reasonably satisfying cinematic junk food...enough crackerjack sequences and admirably trippy rhythms for a recommendation.

Over a decade after the premiere of Batman: The Animated Series, the extended Batman animation family hasn't quite worn out its welcome.

One of the less-inspired animated Batman efforts [but] an enjoyable and generally kid-friendly adventure all the same.

Respects the character...and winningly combines personal drama and clever themes with intrigue and action to tell a story in keeping with Batman's classic comic adventures.

The PG-13 rating...reflects the mortal intensity of this most chilling of animated Batman tales.

Head-On is not for the faint of heart, with its depressive magnetism to bloody violence...[a] twisted, rough-hewn mad-love story.

To see the high-pitched sponge...protest, "I am 100 percent man!" is to laugh: don't try to deny it...Kids will have a ball; parents will be forgiven a few cat-naps.

It's a blessing that The Wedding Date doesn't try too hard, but it's a curse that it doesn't try hard enough.

Amenábar's lyricism and Bardem's keen projection of dignified commitment enable The Sea Inside movingly to evoke humanity affronted...

Roars to life in its least intimate passages...If not for his blind spot for his "angel in hell" Phantom, Schumacher would do Webber's popular entertainment justice.

The screenplay by playwright Jose Rivera skillfully translates the straightforward diaries into quietly compelling dramatic terms.

Puts Sean Penn through his actorly paces, which would be enough for most movies, but also intelligently explores the development of a [desperate] man.

Raises a number of interesting and disturbing questions...[but] takes artistic and intellectual missteps...deserves some credit for its performances and provocation.

Has the blunt energy of a teamster's truck taking on speed bumps...watch underrated actors Broderick and Baldwin try to outdo each other.

Mood over matter...[If] a puzzle is more about spending time with the pieces than regarding the finished picture...you can enjoy The Forgotten as a matinee trifle.

Jerryrigged out of painful stereotypes...so offensive, crude, and dumb that the occasional legitimate satire and good-natured family-values message are effectively negated.

That Gallo's narrative never allows Daisy to be more than a foil for Bud betrays...that the director has it in for those darn women, leaving—well, a bad taste in our mouths.

Chadha has an eye for casting and visual color, and a knack for goosing the story along with modernized references...[and] musical numbers...

An account of a random act of kindness more than it is an exposé of the red-light district....Kauffman and Briski illuminate the potential and promise inherent in any child.

Edited too spastically to be of any use....a slow-leaking tire which goes flat before we reach a destination.

Differently abled characters are too seldom portrayed on screen [but] the overall impression of the film is rather mawkishly obvious.

Conspiracy of Silence is well-meaning but has has no faith in its audience.

[Though] he's like the Joe Garagiola of the deep...Cameron's unadvisable whims are excusable: as a coffee table book, Aliens of the Deep is a beaut.

Qualifies, barely, as a guilty pleasure...with its generous scrapbook of literary wisdom and pleasantly overcooked performances.