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.

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

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...

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

Incredibly stupid in just about every way. And yet, it had what may have been my favorite scene at the movies this year...

It's about what makes these particular personalities tick, what draws them to the madness of theater, and the eternal conflict of art and commerce.

Despite being a moving reminder to support our troops, Restrepo cannot help but be "Exhibit A" in the case against the unwinnable "War on Terror."

Frantic without bringing the fun.

Big in scope, but not necessarily in a good way.

Momentarily exciting but utter nonsense, a Burmese Tiger Pit built over a gaping plot hole.

As a pure popcorn, dreams-writ-large, kiss-kiss-bang-bang, globetrotting romp, Knight and Day delivers.

Now that the Shrek franchise has come to a close, it's time for the definitive collection on home video.

The creator of Amélie returns to the black comedy of Delicatessen with Micmacs, a goofy satire on the wages of the war machine.

The simplest way to sum up the greatness of Inception is to identify it as a new classic of science-fiction cinema (and, for that matter, the heist genre).