Stone isn't interested in merely bashing modern football: Any Given Sunday looks at the best and worst of the sport.

It’s hard not to think of the film as a timely reflection of today’s deep economic recession...writer-director Courtney Hunt has something of the eye for detail expected from a good short story writer.

Napoleon Dynamite may not even be friggin' sweet, but it does have skills.

In vino veritas...Payne has supplanted the Coen Brothers as a reliable purveyor of smart comedy

A fascinating true-crime story, elegant period detail, and Clint Eastwood's consummate filmmaking technique mask [that]...Changeling lacks enough grit and intellect to convert moody melodrama into thoughtful drama.

Pulls off the trick of the feel-good movie in a way movies haven't managed in a long time.

Makes a surprisingly convincing case for Dante and Randal as characters worthy of a revisit once a decade.

Soul Men may get by on novelty, but what novelty!

Problematic as a narrative...[but] Lee's simply too smart and talented to make a dismissible film. 

Specially filmed in the final days, this version of RENT may not be definitive, but it certainly has sentimental value and...presents the unexpurgated play.

A most unusual musical...Learning something from his subject, Stone gives the picture a snappy rhythm.

Works precisely because it is so upsetting, unusually so for a studio film, and so empathetic for Connie at the hands of her attractive manipulator.

Americans shouldn't have to feel comfortable with the thought of kicking back and having a beer with their President, but it's not a bad criterion for a comedy filmmaker, and Smith is that guy.

Breaks no new ground for movies or for Ritchie, but it is an amusing diversion and therefore a return to form.

Rings false, belittling instead of honoring its sensitive subject with its twinkly score, kid-glove nobility and cloying payoffs.

Relentlessly dour, filled with unsympathetic characters, and made out of cardboard melodrama. It's the last of those sins that is unforgivable.

Whether Being There is an indictment of our narrow view of the world, a celebration of empty-headedness or all of the above, "Life is a state of mind," and Ashby's film is a gift to treasure.

More infamous for its widespread ineptitude than for its artistic innovation...

Perhaps the greatest compliment to be paid to Vicky Cristina Barcelona is that it serves as a spot-on emblem of Allen's own life philosophy: cling to the transient pleasures, as you're bound to be let down in the end.

Utterly predictable, formulaic, but not entirely unamusing.

Works up decent comic energy, if few actual funny jokes, but we know we've been suckered when we arrive at...yet another animated sing-along to a bygone pop hit.

A shaggy dog of a movie that will appeal big-time to its young target audience...Juno meets After Hours.

A funny and horrifying allegory of American politics and adult society, as seen through the prism—or shall we say "prison"?—that is secondary education.

The Showtime series Dexter challenges comfortable assumptions about human nature...a winningly novelistic narrative.

The race-baiting thriller Lakeview Terrace is exactly what you would expect from a screenplay by a Hollywood hack and an established playwright: some sharp dialogue grafted onto a credibility-stretching and familiar plot.

Jovovich brings an intensity to the role well-matched to Besson's stylistic energy, though this comic-bookish take on Jeanne D'Arc won't be winning any historical-society awards.

Reverent docudrama...to those completely unfamiliar with the case, Zodiac should be every bit as satisfying as a true-crime paperback.

Peter Jackson's King Kong is all things cinema, in the hands of a clever but overindulged filmmaker.

On the surface El Norte is the essence of simplicity. But in 1983, the simple story was both news to many and history to many others finally seeing their story depicted on screen on their terms.

Works the brain in two-part harmony: the melody skids effortlessly across the historical timeline of the Ching dynasty, China's last, and the harmony part is all aesthetic appeal...

Marvel's new deal with Madhouse Studio bodes well for the future. The Japanese animation giant...has the chops to produce spectacular, dynamic, colorful, stylish animation (or, rather, anime) that's an evolutionary leap for Marvel on the small screen.

Despite an excellent performance by Luke Wilson and a promising start, Henry Poole is Here ends up an overindulgent misfire.

Like a biography plucked from the shelf of a grade-school library...includes ample inspiration and sufficient history to get to its destination in "express" fashion.

Would be innocuous if it weren't so utterly, utterly misguided.

Liman adds to his knack for controlling audience tension a moody visual sense that exploits the mournful, sleeping-giant, old-world architecture of Prague as a place where action may break out at any moment, and frequently does.

Predicated on finally delivering answers we basically already know...and cornered into bigger and better variations on the same basic action tropes, The Bourne Ultimatum turns out to be: be pretty damn exciting or get off the stage.

If one were to rewind a James Bond movie, one might get The Bourne Supremacy, a steadfastly unglamorous spy thriller with a few adrenaline jolts for good measure.

A spy version of Pygmalion, complete with perverse romance, Nikita was well ahead of the curve when it came to women warriors as modern shoot-'em-up stars.

Berg fashions a Spike Lee-esque prism through which he sheds light on the game, though Berg hasn't so much got game as he got highlight.

As for Squires' outlandish behavior and Kingsley's theatrical performance, they're entertaining, but very hard to believe. The film lives more comfortably in the milieu of '90s youth culture...

Nothing in Superhero Movie could be described as magical, but for comic-book fans in a forgiving mood, this lowbrow outing has its moments.

Despite its rusty mechanics and hodgepodge of tones, Pineapple Express convincingly imitates the mode of Midnight Run: on-the-run odd-couple comedy with gunplay and car chases.

The new thriller that emphatically pairs [De Niro and Pacino] qualifies as a historic event, whether it's any good or not.

Pretty thin material, but it still holds up for the same reason it worked in 1994: Carrey unleashed in a part tailor-made for just that purpose.

Oh, Napoleon Dynamite! What have you wrought?

Penn has managed an impressive achievement that qualifies as a great American film.

So colossally ridiculous (and transparently derivative) that willing suspension of disbelief is a fool’s errand.

An enduring film property with an unforgettable catch phrase ("Klaatu barada nikto")...[and] socially conscious themes.

[A] hugely entertaining dramatization of Plato's "Allegory of the Cave"...a fable that would be relevant 50 years earlier and no doubt will remain relevant 50 years hence.

Whedon's smart, densely plotted, fast-paced story provides ample opportunities for characterization, revealing the pain beneath the characters' defensive humor.