Its unique oddball blend of fatalistic Hemingway-esque masculinity, swoony romance and mythology, literary allusions...and grab bag of styles...makes Pandora and the Flying Dutchman nearly as hypnotic as the romance it retells.

Darkly funny, haunting, and perhaps hopeful...there's a keen sense of absurdism (and in Agnès Godard's brilliant photography a sort of surrealist realism, if there is such a thing) in the circumstances.

Brought to you by Participant Media, makers of Food, Inc. and The Cove. Next time, guys, give a hoot and don’t pollute the multiplex. Save the children.

Consummate showmanship...evidence of a huge pop idol and savvy showman with a finely tuned stage act.

The play widely regarded as the best piece of dramatic literature ever written...[in] the only unexpurgated big-screen version.

How do I find thee ridiculous, The Last Song? Let me count the ways...

The premise begs for wicked bite, but winds up poking along amiably. That’s the problem with these Joneses: it’s all too easy to keep up with them.

Much as I would prefer to see the subtler Carell of Dan in Real Life comically negotiate a struggling marriage to Fey, we’re in a land of gunfire and super-computers.

Deserves its status among sports films, but its ongoing appeal reflects that it's something more: an old-fashioned romantic comedy that succeeds in establishing and deepening memorable characters through memorably flavorful dialogue.

New York is the ghost town and Van Cleef the corrupt sheriff in Escape from New York's thinly disguised postmodern Western, with ex-soldier Russell as the anti-establishment hero who won't cotton to anyone's code but his own.

So a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost walk into a bar...

No one is going to match Grant and Hepburn, but Ryan O'Neal and Barbra Streisand give it the ol' college try in the criminally entertaining What's Up, Doc?

The director’s shrewd and witty approach to the material demonstrates his finely tuned sense of the absurd.

Though lacking in narrative and comic sophistication, National Lampoon's Vacation has something arguably more important: built-in, instant audience identification.

Stylish...sitcomedic...plays it pretty safe.

The top-billed actors deliver: Hanks with his resonant reserve and Newman in conveying Rooney's failed attempt to live up to his self-image as the ultimate just and loving patriarch.

Doesn't quite click on all levels, and the story and character development feels truncated, but there's still plenty to enjoy about its weird occurrences.

I see London, I see France, I see Chevy do a dumb dance.

Seductive blend of mythology and travelogue...there's still sensual pleasure in the urban scenery, colorful visions, and music and dance, most of it defined by joyful abandon.

Malik’s boxed-in circumstances certainly press ethical questions for the viewer, but in Rahim’s psychologically acute performance, Malik is never less than understandable—more often than not, he’s disturbingly sympathetic.

The invitation to introspection about empty American lives is a good idea, but who are we kidding? Hot Tub Time Machine is built for gross gags...and wan '80s nostalgia...

Mother's success partly owes to Bong's twisty mystery script, but the South Korean film wouldn't fly without the achingly intense performance of Kim Hye-ja.

On the page and on the screen, Kick-Ass riffs on the wish-fulfillment afforded by tales of derring-do and the ill-advisedness of taking on the task in real life.

With its colorful, exciting action and well-defined emotional underpinnings, Batman: Under the Red Hood is the best yet in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line.

The extended rescue climax provides the heights of Steamboat Bill, Jr.'s ingenious choreography, but Keaton's brilliance as a performer shines just as brightly (if not more) in the simpler moments...

It's a fine premise to meet with USA's 'Characters Welcome' formula...Creator Jeff Eastin keeps it light, focusing on the odd couple of straight-laced Burke and swingin' Caffrey...

Once you've boogied out to Harold Faltermeyer's self-parodic "Axel F"-style music, it's all downhill from there.

This comic-book knockoff of The A-Team...is a lot easier to enjoy than Fox's sanctioned remake of The A-Team. Perhaps that's because Sylvain White's The Losers is self-aware of its schlock value...

Leading man Sam Worthington exacerbates the film’s downbeat tone: as Perseus, Worthington remains a credible but basically charisma-free actor.

When the film, as it must, comes to an end after two and a half hours, you won't be ready; the bond made to this family makes its sudden absence feel downright brutal.

A sublime melodrama...[with a] still astonishing expressionistic dance sequence.

A patient and never less than gripping character study that serves as a reminder of the emotional intimacy achievable on film.

Tends to be off-putting, which is a shame, because it's on to something about the dynamic between put-together women and the legions of nervous men who shoot themselves in the feet while longing for them.

An enjoyable PG-rated family adventure in its own right, but Columbus' film can't live up to the Potter gold standard, and it strays enough from Riordan's source material to make its tween readership blow a gasket every few minutes.

Haneke's noodlings on the nature of evil...reach a sort of culmination in The White Ribbon, 2009 Palme d'Or winner at the Cannes Film Festival.

The timing is right for HBO's half-hour dramedy Hung...a darkly tinged recessionary comedy of (self-)destruction and erection.

A dumber version of the Alien franchise, but this initial picture works anyway, as an atmospheric exercise in pure, primal action with a science-fiction-y twist.

A campy cult classic remembered for its over-the-top acting, design, and music by Queen.

Serves up soldiers, spies, politicians, reporters, and Iraqi civilians who speak almost entirely in clichés.

Urban legends and archetypal mythology go out for a horror spin...Though the series' mythology is distinctly dark, there's also plenty of fun to be had...

Can I interest you in a nice nap?

'You see what you want to see'...either a quietly affecting, top-drawer drama or a Hallmark Hall of Fame TV-movie dressed up in Euro-indie clothing.

Burger winningly combines relatively rare elements--a turn-of-the-century setting, an assured star turn by Edward Norton, and a deft Philip Glass score--to pull off a tricked-out romantic thriller.

The very concept of turning Life of Brian, itself a filmic spoof of Biblical epics, into a spoof of Handel's Messiah is funny, and the name—riffing on one of Life of Brian's most famous lines—is genius.

Despite being ungainly, Caddyshack is the kind of comedy you can pan for gold in...

The one in which Clint Eastwood gets raped...

A strange but mostly satisfying hybrid of WWII actioner and anti-war satire...

A straight-ahead, old-school action movie for war-espionage junkies.

Multiplex entertainment this distinctive and provocative doesn’t come along every day: it’s a head trip well worth taking.

Delivers more than the filmmaker ever has before...richer themes and more skillful audience involvement.