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* Grindhouse (Garber review) *****
I have no hesitation recommending this one with a full five-star rating. Go see it in theatres -- it will not translate as well to the small screen. [More]

* In Bruges (Keyes review) ****
Two hitmen spice up the picturesque Belgian town of Bruges with filthy language, in this not-for-the-kiddies dark comedy. John Keyes gives it four stars. [More]

* Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (Garber review sans Quicktime trailer) *****
Here's the same five-star review sans embedded trailer. [More]

*Finding Nemo (Garber review) *****
Nemo is a charming little fellow -- a clown-fish with a minor "disability" -- and since he is the only surviving offspring of his proud daddy, Marlin, perhaps old dad is just a tad(pole) overly protective. [More]

*Flushed Away (Garber review) *****
It says a great deal about the calibre of an animated feature film when two critics leave the theatre after a first viewing and both say: "We'll HAVE to buy this one when the DVD comes out." [More]

*Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Garber review) *****
We had the remarkable experience of viewing the film in its English-language form, while in Paris, and we thought sadly that many of the visual and language puns would, in fact, be lost on our fellow audience members. . . [More]

300 (Kit Johnson review) *****
A scant few years ago, a niche graphic novelist named Frank Miller was relatively unknown. But -- largely due to the lack of original ideas coming out of Hollywood -- studio execs have turned to buying up all comic book and graphic novel rights. Five stars. [More]

A rude shock from Down Under *
Only a few days in, a controversial Aussie film is provoking jeers and walkouts, writes MATTHEW HAYS [More]

Against the Ropes: A one-way ticket to palookaville ** 1/2
Inspired by the gutsy life of taboo-smashing female boxing manager Jackie Kallen (Meg Ryan), Against the Ropes wobbles like a punch-drunk fighter. [More]

Air Guitar Nation (Waldman review) ***
A delightful romp. Robert Waldman gives this mockumentary three stars. [More]

Batman Begins (Garber review) ****
Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins prequel explores the origins of the Batman legend and the Dark Knight's emergence as a force for good in Gotham. [More]

Borat (Kit Johnson review) *****
Based on the Ali G sketch, Borat is an offensive, misunderstood, anti-Semite who comes to America to learn from the "best country in world" about how to make his country better through a documentary movie. [More]

Closer (Madelyn Miller review) ****
"Warning," says Madelyn Miller, "Do not go to see the movie Closer with your significant other; it may be dangerous to your relationship." [More]

Desolation Sound (Waldman review) *
Going from Vancouver to secluded Desolation Sound seemed like a no-brainer for Laurel and Michael Elliot; everything seems to be going well -- until one of their big city friends decides to pay them a visit. [More]

Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star **
As with most Adam Sandler comedies, it's the unearned pathos that makes this picture difficult to stomach... [More]

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Groen review) *
Anatomy of a lover's mind... [More]

Eurotrip: The kids don't even swear ** 1/2
Ha, here's a laugh: One of the hottest properties around Hollywood a few summers ago was The Ugly Americans, the story of four innocents abroad, chasing through France and Germany in search of fraternité and frauleins.More]

Fahrenheit 9/11 (Garber review) **** 1/2
I'm going to step out of character a little today and get political. Let's just say that today -- only a few days before the Canadian National election takes place -- is the perfect time for all Canadians to see this Michael Moore film. [More]

Finding Neverland (Garber review) ****
This wonderful Johnny Depp vehicle is bound and determined to put an end to the questions and controversy surrounding the life of James M. Barrie and his relationship with the family that inspired his stage play, Peter Pan. [More]

Good Bye, Lenin! (Groen review) ***
Remembrance of East past... [More]

Grindhouse (Kit Johnson review) *****
I was told that our policy is that if you would recommend a film to 10 out of 10 people, it rates five stars. Hell, I would recommend this movie-duo to DEAD people! Go see it. . .NOW! [More]

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Garber review) ****
If Harry Potter already has you spellbound, you will enjoy the magic and the vision of this adventure. [More]

Hellboy (Groen review) ***
If you like your movies inspired by comic books — and who among us does not — then Hellboy is quite the little treat. [More]

Hitch (Madelyn Miller review) *
"I loved this movie." Confesses Madelyn Miller. "It was a perfect match for my mood and mindset. I think it was because I went with someone I have had a crush on for a long time." [More]

Hollywood North: Would-be satire quickly heads south (Lacey review) ***
The Canadian movie industry is always a ripe subject for satire. Year after year, tax-supported pseudo-commercial films are justified by dubious claims of cultural worthiness. The industry has been mocked before, on television by SCTV and in the Paul Donovan movie, Paint Cans (1994). Now we have Hollywood North from Peter O'Brian, himself a veteran producer of the darkest days of the tax-shelter period of the late seventies. [More]

Jersey Girl (Groen review) ** 1/2
By his own admission, Smith has no feel for the camera, and that hasn't changed — even Vilmos Zsigmond, the great cinematographer, can't seem to help him here. [More]

Karla (Garber review) *
A highly subjective review: In my mind, this was -- at first -- a "must-see" film, a reflection of the Canadian psyche at its worst. However, after viewing a press preview, I honestly can't recommend that anyone will want to spend a couple of hours in a darkened movie theatre in close company with this pair of psychopaths. [More]

Kill Bill (Groen review) **** 1/2
The most influential director of the 1990s is back with a dazzling kung fu actioner [More]

Kill Bill 2: Relax, it's just play-acting (Groen review) *** 1/2
Although Tarantino doesn't quite deliver the goods in part two of Kill Bill, there's lots to savour. [More]

Kitchen Stories (Lacey review) ****
Kitchen Stories, set in Norway of the early 1950s, is a comedy, albeit of the Scandinavian deadpan variety, with a chuckle beneath a solemn exterior. [More]

Lost in Translation: Lost and found in Tokyo ****
In Sofia Coppola's captivating second film, two lonely hearts in limbo connect and Bill Murray really hits his stride, LIAM LACEY writes [More]

LOTR: Return of the King (Lacey Review) ****
The Ring thing is back, with kings and eagles and flying dragons, and wraiths and mountain fortresses and at the heart of it, a couple of plucky little boy-men out to save the world. [More]

Love Actually: Feel the love, over and over *** 1/2
Romantic comedies don't usually run in excess of two hours, though a quick glance at the cast of this homage to love British-style will offer a clue to the reason for its length. [More]

Luck (Groen review) *** 1/2
This hockey film wins until it loses... [More]

Man on Fire (Groen review) ** 1/2
Revenge served tepid... [More]

Master & Commander: Dashing derring-do (Groen review) ****
Peter Weir's high-seas yarn has red-blooded swashbuckling for the lads and Russell Crowe striking manly poses on the prow for the lasses. [More]

Miracle: This sure ain't Slap Shot (Groen review) ** 1/2
Every once in a sentimental while, the American Goliath likes to pretend it's a David, and takes inspiration from movies -- Seabiscuit is one, this pseudo-epic is another -- that honour the spirit of the plucky little guy who beats the odds to triumph over the big bad giant. [More]

Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle -- Hauru no Ugoku Shiro (Garber review) *****
Director Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away) again creates a world apart from our own, yet jarringly resonant of the terra firma we know. A brilliantly haunting feature-length animated adventure-of-the-spirit. Five stars. [More]

Mona Lisa Smile (Groen review) ***
First things first: As one of my wise editors noted, no person who can flash as many teeth as Julia Roberts should ever star in a movie called Mona Lisa Smile. [More]

Monsieur Ibrahim: Sharif still has the touch (Lacey review) *** 1/2
A warm, if somewhat wooly, coming-of-age fable set in Paris of the early sixties, Monsieur Ibrahim explores the friendship between a Jewish teenager (Pierre Boulanger) and an elderly Muslim shopkeeper (Omar Sharif), who teaches him wisdom from the Koran. [More]

Munich (Waldman Review) *****
Inner turmoil, political chicanery, financial opportunists, violent crusaders, the importance of family and the right to self-defence and preservation make Munich a hopeful and helpful experience, logging in at a tension-packed 144 minutes. [More]

My Architect: A Son's Journey: Journey behind a father's façade ****
Five years in the making, and currently nominated for an Oscar, My Architect: A Son's Story is a twofold story of heroic achievements and personal failings. Both stories are about the architect Louis Kahn, a major figure in modern architecture and, as we discover, a lousy dad. [More]

My Baby's Daddy: Idea or two outnumbered by bodily-function jokes (Lacey review) ** 1/2
When studios choose not to show movies to the press ahead of their theatrical release, the usual reason is that they're trying to limit losses by keeping the negative buzz to a minimum (remember The Avengers?). [More]

My Date With Drew (Garber review) ****
The premise of the film is that 27-year-old Brian Herzlinger is out of a relationship, out of work, out of the loop and pretty much out-of-it in general, but he has not given up on his dream: To get a date with Drew Barrymore. [More]

Mystic River: A current of darkness ****
Clint Eastwood's latest imbues grim life in a poor Boston neighbourhood with the relentlessness of classical tragedy [More]

Napoleon Dynamite & Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story --Revenge of the nerds revisited (Lacey reviews) ** 1/2
The movies' continuing fascination with nerds, geeks, dweebs and dufusses represents a substantial strain of doubt in America's win-win culture. [More]

NASCAR 3D: The Imax Experience: Days of blunder, but in 3-D at least (Groen review) ** 1/2
With its huge camera and its vast screen, the Imax "experience" (as the billing goes) is big on big things, fond of exploring the world at its inflated extremes -- the extreme of outer space, the extreme of Titanic depths, the extreme of belching volcanoes. [More]

Nibbling at the junkie food chain (Cole review) ***
On the Corner is convincingly staged, and filmmaker Geary deftly captures the junkie food chain in an early sequence that finds the just-arrived teenager Randy Henry trying to bum a smoke from one of the Pennsylvania Hotel's mid-level entrepreneurs, Cliffe, a wild-eyed crack dealer. [More]

Peter Pan (Garber review) **** 1/2
Jason Isaacs and Jeremy Sumpter star in Muriel's Wedding director P.J. Hogan's family adventure-fantasy based on the classic story of the boy who wouldn't grow up. Rated PG. Four-and-a-half stars. [More]

Pirates of the Caribbean -- Dead Man's Chest (Garber review) *****
LOVED it! Five Stars. [More]

Polar Express in IMAX 3D *****
An unbelieveable sensory experience earns THIS version of Polar Express an unqualified five stars! [More]

Ratatouille (Garber review) *****
In the new animated-adventure, Ratatouille, a rat named Remy dreams of becoming a great French chef despite his family's wishes and the rather obvious problem of, well, being a RAT -- in a kitchen. [More]

Reno 911!: Miami (Waldman review) **
Mr. Waldman respectfully suggests you wait for this one on video. Two stars. [More]

Rocket Science (Waldman review) * 1/2
Rave reviews at the famed Sundance Film Festival don't necessarily translate to broad appeal. [More]

Rumour Has it . . . (Madelyn Miller review) ****
Madelyn Miller reviews a film that reprises the story-line of The Graduate. Jennifer Anniston stars. [More]

Rush Hour 3 (Waldman review) *** 1/2
France will never be the same once the Rush Hour crew takes on Parisian society. [More]

Scary Movie 3 (Anderson review) ** 1/2
A farmer and his brother respond to the frightened screams of the farmer's daughter. They rush through the stalks to find her out in the cornfield, where the rows have been flattened to form a mysterious pattern. It appears to be a message from supernatural, perhaps extraterrestrial, forces. “What are they trying to tell us?” wonders the farmer. [More]

Sin City (Kit Johnson review) *****
In cinema, what Spiderman has achieved for comic books, Sin City will undoubtedly do for graphic novels, says Kit Johnson. He also calls it an "instant classic." Five stars, no less. [More]

Spartan: Starts strong. Goes all wonky (Groen review) ***
If fiction is a forgery, if art is a con, then David Mamet is a con artist extraordinaire. [More]

Spider-Man: A perfect entry for the spin cycle (Groen review) **** 1/2
From pricey action to deliciously cheap sight gags, the acrobatic arachnid turns out to be even better on the second go-round. [More]

Stardust (Garber review) *****
An exceptional new fantasy quest-film rivals The Princess Bride and The Neverending Story. Five stars. [More]

Starter for 10 (Waldman review) **** 1/2
We have a winner: 4-1/2 stars. [More]

Statement falls flat ***
Despite its high-profile cast, this is a thriller that lacks suspense, and a story of moral urgency that moves at a snail's pace. [More]

Stealth (Kit Johnson review) ** 1/2
"Just enough plot to keep the special effects coming," is how I would sum up this action thriller. Don't get me wrong: There's plenty about the movie to like. It's gripping, edge-of-the-seat fun, but it certainly won't make your brain hurt in any way. [More]

Stuck on You: One double-edged joke ***
It's always a debate whether the latest Farrelly brothers comedy represents a new high or a new low for the reigning kings of sugar-coated gross-out. [More]

Sylvia: Life inside the bell jar (Groen review) *** 1/2
Sylvia refuses to point fingers as it portrays the hellishly fertile period of Plath's union with Ted Hughes [More]

Taking Lives (Cole review) ****
Jolie sparkles in dark thriller... [More]

Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (Garber review) *****
Let's cut right to the chase, here: If you love Jack Black and if you enjoyed School of Rock, this new, spirited rock-'em-sock-'em musical fun-fest will make you laugh out loud. Five stars. (You have to "allow" Quicktime in order to view the trailer embedded in this review. Prompt says: "Click to run an ActiveX control on this webpage" -- click OK.) [More]

The Alamo: Pioneer Texans' patriotic act (Lacey review) *
"People expect things," says an apologetic Davy Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton) on the eve of his death at the Alamo, by way of explaining to a fellow soldier that he's not really the river-jumping, bear-strangling wild man from Tennessee of his legend. [More]

The Aristocrats (Madelyn Miller review) *** 1/2
Warning: Not exactly a movie spoiler, but this review contains words and describes situations that are strictly for adults. Reader discretion is advised! [More]

The Big Bounce: Caper is short on bounce *
Despite its robust cast, this movie often feels content to be second-rate -- underachieving and proud of it. [More]

The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi -- Traipsing around the blood (Lacey review) *** 1/2
Takeshi (Beat) Kitano's shamelessly entertaining new martial-arts drama, The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi, has a fresh craziness that evokes the spirit of Felix the Cat -- violent, capricious, musical and endlessly inventive. [More]

The Butterfly Effect (Groen review) ** 1/2
Say this, and not much else, for The Butterfly Effect: It definitely makes good on that title. [More]

The Cat in the Hat: Yikes -- This Cat is on drugs (Lacey review) **
A semi-intriguing abomination, the movie The Cat in the Hat takes a piece of classic childhood Americana and turns it into something garish, dumb, ugly and senseless. [More]

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Garber review) *****
Controversy swirls around The Chronicles of Narnia and its author C.S. Lewis, but there's no denying this is a first-rate film, with some of the best special effects ever seen on the big screen. Five stars. [More]

The Company: Company worth keeping ****
Robert Altman takes a risk but lands on his feet with this affectionate, fly-on-the-wall look at performers who put their egos and bodies on the line. [More]

The Cooler: See a film without a compass at your own risk ** 1/2
It's a comedy, it's a romance, it's a gangster flick. The Cooler is all of that and much, much less. This is a movie without a compass, switching pace and direction as haphazardly as a caffeinated SUV driver on a cellphone.
Yeah, but what did you really think, Mr. G? For the record: We at evalu8.org liked this film a whole star more than Rick Groen did! Maybe you have to be into Vegas as much as we are. [More]

The Corporation: God Save us from the corporations ****
Corporations are wonderful things, if you own shares and they're up. But, as Enron's chief financial officer marched off to 10 years in prison this week, many agree that all is not well in the corporate world. Is it a question of "bad apples," or is the tree rotten? [More]

The Da Vinci Code (Garber review) *****
Sure, Tom Hanks is pretty much a "sure thing" in any new movie, and you can usually count on Ron Howard to deliver the goods, too, but with all the controversy surrounding the release of the movie, I admit I exhaled a sign of relief that it lived up to my expectations. [More]

The Day After Tomorrow (Groen review) ***
Freud would have a field day with Roland Emmerich. Born in Germany yet beloved in Tinseltown, Emmerich is a director who earns a fat living making big movies that trash American monuments to the sheer delight of American audiences. In the vapid Independence Day, he blew up the White House. In the god-awful Godzilla, he razed the Chrysler Building, the Brooklyn Bridge and Madison Square Garden. Now, in The Day After Tomorrow, he shreds the Hollywood sign, buries the Statue of Liberty up to her celebrated torch, and then gets seriously cold-hearted — turning everything above the Mason-Dixon line into one massive popsicle. Hmm, ponder the subtext only if you dare. [More]

The Dreamers: Bertolucci's ménage à blah (Groen review) *
Paris, May, 1968 -- sex is in the air, violence is in the streets, the revolution is on. But don't ever mistake the setting for the mood. [More]

The Fog of War: Older, but is he any wiser? (Lacey Review) *
Forever linked to the Vietnam War, Robert McNamara retouches his past in a gripping character study by filmmaker Errol Morris. [More]

The Girl Next Door: Risqué, but also risk-free business ***
The mainstream prominence of pornography gets a shove forward with the teen comedy, The Girl Next Door, an improbably-not-terrible teen sex comedy. [More]

The Housekeeper: The middle-aged follies (Lacey review) *
A hugely messy Paris apartment, clothes and bottles and plates strewn here and there, a flat-screen television where a tiny man silently plays the piano. The camera turns to see a middle-aged man, lying shoes-and-all on his sofa, suddenly waking up. He drags himself to his bedroom, hugs his pillow and falls asleep again. [More]

The Incredibles (Garber review) *****
From the Academy Award-winning creators of Toy Story, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo, comes this hilarious, action-packed animated adventure about superheroes forced to try to blend in as "normal folks." [More]

The Ladykillers (Groen review) *** 1/2
The Coens' direction does take a gorgeous first step. Their opening sequence is a weird and wonderful prelude to a recurring joke, but the sights go downhill from there. [More]

The Last Samurai: Pacific Cruise (Lacey review) *** 1/2
This western has travelled so far west it has become an eastern -- and a vehicle that takes a U.S. Civil War hero to Japan to find his inner samurai. [More]

The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra: It's the Lost Late Show Outtakes of the Fifties! (Lacey review) ** 1/2
The movie is the blockbuster antithesis, a celebration of vintage fifties and early sixties sci-fi schlock at its most pointless, although "celebration" is a bit too enthusiastic -- recapitulation would be more accurate. [More]

The Matador (Waldman Film Review) ****
Smooth as silk. Stirred but never shaken. Phrases like these sum up the persona of Pierce Brosnan. After being unceremoniously dumped by the James Bond producers, the man many consider the real heir to Sean Connery's coveted throne rebounds nicely in The Matador, a dynamic and hip tale of troubles galore. [More]

The Matrix Revolutions: The Matrix short-circuits (Lacey review) ** 1/2
The once-interesting concept has turned into a tired franchise where even the computer-generated heroics feel hackneyed. [More]

The Missing: Lost on the range ** 1/2
Looking for a film to match John Ford's vision? Keep searching, as Ron Howard misses the mark with this supernatural western. [More]

The Perfect Score: A perfect waste of your time **
Oh, it's perfect all right. In fact, The Perfect Score is a flawless example of the classic January movie release -- the kind of studio picture that even the studio loathes, and so consigns to the dumping ground of the year's frosty first month. [More]

The Polar Express (Garber backgrounder) *****
The Academy Award-winning team of Tom Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis ("Forrest Gump," "Cast Away") reunite for The Polar Express, an inspiring adventure based on the beloved illustrated children's book by Chris Van Allsburg (Jumanji). [More]

The Prince & Me (Groen review) **
Royal meets rural: a stale tale. [More]

The Punisher: Characters aren't alone in getting punished here (Cole review) * 1/2
"Go with God," a sympathetic rescuer advises FBI special agent Frank Castle after hauling him in from the sea. Frank could use some help steering. He just took two in the chest from a gang of assassins. [More]

The Singing Detective: Potter's magic too great for big screen (Groen review) ***
When it first aired back in the eighties, The Singing Detective became an instant landmark in long-form television, proving what could be accomplished when the medium's generous expanse of running time got harnessed to a singular (and single) creative talent -- in this case, Britain's Dennis Potter. [More]

The Snow Walker (Groen review) ****
Love story is worth gnawing on. [More]

The Stepford Wives: Even the satire seems fake (Lacey review) * 1/2
There goes the neighbourhood -- the 2004 remake of a mid-seventies cult classic, The Stepford Wives, comes across as a vapid clone, just like its female characters. [More]

The Terminal: This turkey just doesn't fly (Groen review) **
Not even the golden touch of Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg can clear the lame script and static visuals for takeoff. [More]

The Triplets of Belleville (Groen review) **** 1/2
Every good movie isn't necessarily hard to describe, but every movie that's hard to describe is necessarily good. I'm talking about films so wedded to their medium, so tightly a fusion of sight and sound, that they dodge the explanatory lasso of mere words. Being John Malkovich is a fairly recent example — even its plot has to be seen to be appreciated. Now add The Triplets of Belleville to that short list. And did I mention it's a cartoon? [More]

The trouble with Harry (Groen review) ***
The hero's getting older -- his hormones kick in with this third instalment -- but the Potter franchise isn't getting better. In fact, despite a new director, this is a case of diminishing returns. [More]

The Whole Ten Yards (Cole review) ** 1/2
Should have quit while ahead by nine. [More]

There are no gods in Troy *
It seems there was no room for them in the Hollywood adaptation of the Greek classic, writes LIAM LACEY. Even Brad Pitt, who plays Achilles, admits he was a tad overwhelmed by Homer's Iliad. [More]

Tibet: Cry of The Snow Lion (Lacey review) ****
Cry, the beloved kingdom... [More]

Timeline: Where are Monty Python when you need them? ** 1/2
The 13th century, in case you hadn't noticed, rocks. First there was cute Heath Ledger, breaking bread with Chaucer in A Knight's Tale; then there was Martin Lawrence as Sir Jamal in Black Knight, teaching a 13th-century court how to shake their medieval booties. [More]

Toronto International Film Fest: MINI REVIEWS *
From the Film Fest trenches: a collection of assessments of films at the Toronto International Film Festival - rated on a system of 0 to 4 stars - by Rick Groen, Liam Lacey and James Adams. [More]

Toronto International Film Festival: The best . . . and the rest *
MINI REVIEWS: The following assessments of major films at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival, rated on a system of 0 to 4 stars, are by Rick Groen (R.G.), Liam Lacey (L.L.), Ray Conlogue (R.C.), James Adams (J.A.) and Mark Peranson (M.P.) [More]

Toronto twist to Dickens keeps it down and dirty (Groen review) ***
Twist is a contemporary retelling of the Dickens classic -- Oliver Twist, of course -- that squeezes from the book most of the humour and all of the hope and anything resembling a happy ending. [More]

Touching the Void: Out of touch, out of time ****
Interviews and dramatic scenes recount a legendary climb in the Andes that became a harrowing struggle to survive. [More]

Twisted (Groen review) ** 1/2
Done in by a thin script... [More]

Under the Tuscan Sun: Reno' romance a fixer-upper ***
The golden landscapes of Tuscany are the background in Under the Tuscan Sun, an improbable reworking of Frances Mayes's best-selling non-fiction book about a woman's midlife romantic awakening fantasy. [More]

Welcome to Mooseport: Does anybody love Romano's Mooseport? ** 1/2
Everybody loved Ray, but this flick needs a better script. [More]

Wild Hogs (Waldman review) ***
Robert Waldman gives this wacky middle-age-crisis road movie three stars. [More]

Win a date with Tad Hamilton (Lacey review) *** 1/2
Sweet but clumsy, Win a Date with Tad Hamilton is a youth film with an appealing cast and not much idea what to do with it. [More]

Wordplay (Keyes review) ****
The editor of the NYT puzzles since 1993 has been a genial cryptologist named Will Shortz, whose avowed mission is to "stretch people's brains and bring joy to their lives." John Keyes gives this new movie four stars. [More]

You Got Served: Dance frenzy bookends dour drama *
There ain't much to You Got Served, but at least this teensploitation flick is bookended by two frenzied sequences that fully exploit the visual potential of street dancing. [More]

Zodiac (Waldman review) ****
Crime tales brought to the screen can be engaging experiences if handled properly. [More]

Secondary Sites:
* Deja Vu (Déjà Vu -- Garber review) *****
Gripping, entertaining and a real work-out for your brain, this new release delivers on all counts. Five stars. [More]

* Globe & Mail Movie Look-up *

*28 Days Later (Keyes review) ***
Not to be confused with 28 Days, the 2000 yawner starring Sandra Bullock as a two-dimensional alcoholic attending a one-dimensional rehab clinic, this British horror-thriller directed by Danny Boyle from a script by Alex Garland struggles valiantly to do justice to its core idea. [More]

*A Mighty Wind (Garber review) ****
A Mighty Wind targets the true losers in the Folk Music Scene: the pompous and self-righteous folk impresarios and so-called artistic directors. [More]

*About Schmidt (Keyes review) **** 1/2
Nicholson plays an old fart, an insurance executive forced to confront real life after retiring from a hermetically sealed career atop an office tower in Omaha, Neb. [More]

*Adaptation (Keyes review) **** 1/2
The sooner you see Adaptation, the more you talk it up with your friends, the more DVDs it sells, the greater the chance that the movie industry's notoriously unimaginative, dumbed-down executives will summon the courage to green-light other innovative, risky material. [More]

*Anger Management (Keyes review) ***
Adam Sandler specializes in telling offbeat stories about lovable schlemiels who win in the end, and like Mike Myers (and unlike Jim Carrey), he doesn't seem to have anything against cranking out mass-market comedies one after another. [More]

*Basic (Keyes review) ***
The Hollywood Dream Factory continues to crank out action films predicated on the idea that America's security and military systems are rife with traitors or psychotics... [More]

*Bowling for Columbine (Anthony review) ****
Anecdotal and blatantly one-sided, the film still brazenly bullhorns taboo viewpoints in an America that may have momentarily forgotten how to respect that kind of thing. [More]

*Bulletproof Monk: Confucian homilies, logic-proof plot **
In a plot so preposterous it could only have emerged from the underground comic world, Bulletproof Monk raises the philosophical question: If a butterfly flaps its wings in the mountains of Tibet, can it cause a raucous martial-arts movie to be shot in Canada? [More]

*Chicago (Anthony review) **** 1/2
Here's a review of the film from a guy who hasn't seen the stage play -- ahm, that's me :). [More]

*City of God (Waldman review) *****
Look for Oscar gold from this Brazilian gem. [More]

*Confidence (Keyes review) ***
Somebody soon had better take the heist movie to a higher level, because with each new outing these days, the genre is starting to look as tame and formulaic as an episode of Friends. You know the episode -- the one in which Rachel, Joey, Monica, Chandler, Phoebe and Ross play back-stabbing grifters who steal from an evil narco-lawyer and then rip each other off. [More]

*Daredevil (Keyes review) ***
There is one excellent reason to go see this flick, and it is not Ben Affleck, who is merely adequate as Matt Murdoch, the superhero blinded as a young boy by biohazardous material. [More]

*Dark Blue (Garber review) ****
Okay, so for those of you who agree that Kurt Russell has -- shall we say -- underplayed his talents in far too many movies, keep reading, because this review is all about Russell really not holding back on this one. [More]

*Elf (Garber review) **** 1/2
How often does a movie come along that would guarantee your Grandma a sure thing with the great-grandkids -- and could even have a mighty chuckle or two herself? [More]

*Final Destination 2 (Keyes review) ***
"I have a really bad feeling that it's not over yet," says a terrified survivor after a narrow escape, and you just gotta know that a line like that is akin to asking to be killed. [More]

*Final Destination 2 (Waldman Review) ***
Shot in BC, Final Destination 2 is clean-cut fun out to please thrill seekers -- and succeeding beyond expectations! [More]

*Frida (Waldman review) **** 1/2
Life in the Kahlo household seems the toast of the city. The father of the house, a distinguished German gentleman of Jewish extraction, seems to have a good life. [More]

*Gigli (Keyes review) *
What on earth did Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck see when they cracked the script for Gigli -- each home alone -- away from their agents and handlers, reading from the stack of scripts that surely come their way? [More]

*Gods and Generals (Keyes review) **
Ted Turner could have saved himself and everyone else a lot of money if he had just bought every single living American a VHS set of the nine-episode 1990 documentary series by Ken Burns. [More]

*Gods and Generals (Miller review) **
Madelyn Miller adds her two-cents'-worth to John Keyes' review. (They agree it's a heckuva long movie!) [More]

*Hollywood Homicide (Garber review) ** 1/2
Just a few minutes into this movie, my companion whispered to me: "Is this a comedy?" "No…'action'," I whispered back. I should have reserved my judgement, as Hollywood Homicide turned out to favour Keystone Kops over Boys in Blue. [More]

*I Capture the Castle (Garber review) ****
I Capture the Castle is the kind of movie of which the easiest description might simply be "charming," but in fact, this film goes deeper than that. [More]

*India: Kingdom of the Tiger (Waldman review) *** 1/2
With India: Kingdom of the Tiger, a new movie from IMAX Films with an important message, both average filmgoers and those interested in environmental preservation may be startled to learn of the ongoing perilous plight of the revered Bengal tiger. [More]

*Jungle Book 2 (Garber review) **
Our hero -- young Mowgli -- is back with a "sequel" to The Jungle Book, although to be truthful, in this case there never was a book, and there is barely any jungle, so two of the key elements are decidedly missing. [More]

*Just Married (Waldman review) ***
Many critics panned this movie; Robert Waldman thought it was good fun. [More]

*Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (Garber review) ** 1/2
One has to imagine that Angelina Jolie's life is not wholly different from that of fictional game-spawned character, Lady Lara Croft, in that nobody who's "normal" really lives with such opulence, fancy equipment, inflated breasts, violence and insurmountable (but ultimately achievable) tasks. At least not on a daily basis. [More]

*Laurel Canyon (Lacey review) ***
Rock 'n' roll mama, midlife model [More]

*Life of David Gale, The (Garber review) ** 1/2
A popular university prof devoted to the fight against capital punishment in Texas has been accused of murdering a fellow activist and is now on death row. If you love Kate Winslet, this film will disappoint you; if you love Kevin Spacey, you'll enjoy it. [More]

*Looney Tunes: Back in Action (Keyes review) ****
This roller-coaster of a flick has been carefully calibrated to entertain both adults and their kids, but I'm betting that the adults will get a bigger kick out of it. [More]

*Max (Waldman review) ****
Politics and art can make strange bedfellows. [More]

*My Big Fat Greek Wedding ****
While I found the film averagely entertaining, my friend loved it, and so did another friend I ran into on the way. He said, "I've seen it three times!" Perhaps my upbringing in a similarly loud Mediterranean family squelched any shocking moments of surprise for me. [More]

*National Security (Keyes review) **
Pretty much everything about this movie feels extemporized without a lot of faith that any one joke or sketch or scene is better than the one that preceded it. [More]

*Old School (Keyes review) **
Old School is a truly lazy piece of work, deserving of your hard-earned dollars only if you're absolutely desperate for a guffaw or two. Old Hat would be a more honest title. [More]

*Phone Booth (Keyes review) ***
In the entertainment food chain, the freelance publicist is a strange creature, at once pathetic and dangerous, a hypocritical, sycophantic hustler always looking for out for himself first, in the guise of taking care of his client. [More]

*Piglet's Big Movie ****
On one very blustery day here in LA, we drove across town to see a little film called Piglet's Big Movie. It was a lot of work -- Los Angeles is not rain-ready. But our efforts were rewarded with such a cute picture. [More]

*Pinocchio (Waldman review) **
Disney's classic Pinocchio gets a timely update at the hands of madcap comedian Roberto Benigni. [More]

*Pirates of the Caribbean (Keyes review) ****
Of all the summer blockbusters, this is the most original, and for that reason alone it's the one most deserving of your hard-earned dollars. [More]

*S.W.A.T. (Keyes review) ****
Just when we thought the silly season was in full swing -- the summer blockbuster period, when movies tend to put explosions first and screenwriting second -- along comes a very pleasant surprise. [More]

*Scary Movie 3 (Keyes review) **
Only two stars for this poor third effort, but the intrepid John T.D. Keyes manages to work in a quick bitch-slap to our dear friends in France, all the same... [More]

*Shanghai Knights (Keyes review) ***
Whatever ancient Chinese secret Jackie Chan has discovered to forestall the annual visitation of Father Time, he should bottle it and sell it on eBay. [More]

*Spider-Man (Scholtes review) **** 1/2
Peter S. Scholtes of the Twin Cities' (that would be St. Paul and Minneapolis, MN, for those who have never ventured east of the Rockies) City Pages has -- in THIS humble reviewer's opinion -- written the most lucid and readable review of the Spider-Man pic yet. Or is that because I agree with him? Read on...what else would you be doing on the World Wide WEB? [More]

*Spirited Away - Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (Miyazaki's Spirited Away) (Garber review) **** 1/2
Upset by her family's move to the suburbs, a 10-year-old girl is led into a parallel universe by her parents -- who are magically transformed. [More]

*The Burial Society (Garber review) *** 1/2
The central pivot around which the plot turns is a sacred, unapproachable group of aged men, known in Jewish communities as the Chevra Kadisha -- "The Burial Society." [More]

*The Core (Garber review) *** 1/2
Professor of Geophysics Dr. Josh Keyes (Eckhart) discovers that an unknown force has caused the Earth's inner core to stop rotating. With the planet's magnetic field rapidly deteriorating, our atmosphere literally starts to come apart at the seams with catastrophic consequences. To resolve the crisis, Keyes, along with a team of the world's most gifted scientists, travel into the Earth's core in a subterranean craft piloted by "terranauts," Major Rebecca "Beck" Childs (Swank) and Colonel Robert Iverson (Greenwood). Their mission: Detonate a device that will reactivate the core. Go for the fun. Just don't go deep. [More]

*The Legend Of Suriyothai (Miller review) ****
A story of intrigue, romance and war set in a dramatic period of Thailand's history, "The Legend of Suriyothai" is based on actual events in 16th century Thailand. [More]

*The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Anthony review) *** 1/2
Critic Ross Anthony likes The Two Towers, but has reservations... [More]

*The Wild Thornberrys Movie (Waldman review) ***
Dr. Dolittle lives! Or make that Ms. Dolittle. For in the deep jungles of modern Africa lives the Thornberry family. Parents Marianne and Nigel are British filmmakers out to do some exploration of the region's wildlife. [More]

*View from the Top (Keyes review) **
If the trailers on TV are anything to go by, this odd Gwyneth Paltrow vehicle is being marketed as a laugh-out-loud comedy, so if we judge it by the intentions of its producers, View from the Top is a flop. [More]

*Willard (Garber review) ** 1/2
One thing that can be said unequivocally is that if you are a horror genre film lover -- or if you were a big fan of the original movie -- you'll feel you got your money's worth. But if you're going for a big thrilling, suspense movie, you'll be shifting in your seat. [More]

*X2: X-Men United ** 1/2
If you happen to be thumbing through that growing stack of cinematic comic books, spare a good thought for director Bryan Singer -- he puts out a pretty distinctive issue. [More]

13 Going on 30: Garner grows in Big role (Lacey review) ****
A child in an adult body is a familiar premise, but director Gary Winick and his leading lady keep the pace brisk and make an old formula appear fresh... [More]

21 Grams: Fated for greatness **** 1/2
Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's first English feature is one of the year's most original and best-acted films. [More]

28 Days Later: This virus is not contagious ***
Despite an apocalyptic start, Danny Boyle's latest spirals into horror-flick mechanics [More]

3000 Miles to Graceland (Keyes review) *
This train-wreck of a movie would have gone straight to video, except there's a clause in Kevin Costner's contract these days to the effect that as many people as possible must be allowed to see him pump another bullet into his sucking chest wound of a career. [More]

50 First Dates *
Is there anyone out there under the delusion that Adam Sandler's movies are supposed to be the epitome of taste? Good — that relieves us all of risking saddle burn by jumping on a high horse about his latest opus, 50 First Dates. [More]

A Mighty Wind: Anatomy of the folkie ****
A comic ensemble's sendup of the three-part harmony subculture offers a feast of superbly nuanced performances [More]

A portrait of two Tupacs *** 1/2
Since his gunshot murder in 1996, rap star Tupac Shakur's reputation has grown exponentially: The result is a half-dozen best-selling albums, several documentaries and books. [More]

A-list: Box Office Prophets *
A wonderful site for movie stats, records set, film reviews and commentary... [More]

Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London: Cancel that mission (Lacey review) * 1/2
Routine junior spy movie, in the line of Spy Kids, the first Agent Cody Banks and Catch that Kid. [More]

Alex & Emma (Lacey review) ** 1/2
What if there were a movie about a desperate writer struggling with an overdue project, whose fictional characters are thinly disguised versions of real people he knows? I think I'd call it Adaptation and rent it from my local video store. [More]

Alien Vs. Predator: Ugly gooey creatures in a no-win situation (Lacey review) ** 1/2
Yes, it's another great battle of the franchises (Jason Vs. Freddie, Pepsi Vs. Coke, FedEx Vs. Purolator), as Aliens and Predators have a showdown deep beneath the Antarctic ice. . . [More]

Alien, Director's cut (Cole review): A comfortably familiar alien **** 1/2
With today's release of the "director's cut" of Alien, another long-cherished pop culture rumour is proved to be an urban myth. [More]

AllPosters.com *
Check out the current deals on movie posters here. [More]

American Splendor: Hey, big Splendor (Lacey review) *****
Success began to get in the way of comic-book writer Harvey Pekar's determined misery. Now the former file clerk faces more anguish in the form of a terrific movie about his life [More]

American Wedding: Gross in the grandest sense (Conlogue review) *** 1/2
The American Pie trilogy has finally completed itself, much to the relief of those who, even squinting, cannot see the humour in a guy chewing on a dog turd, or shaven pubic hair blowing onto a wedding cake. [More]

Analyse That! (Waldman review) ****
Can lighting strike twice? Clearly the answer is "yes," when it comes to the star pairing of movie heavyweights Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal. [More]

Anchorman: Anchorless, even with Ferrell (Cole review) ***
In the now obligatory-for-comedies, post-credit outtakes, Anchorman's co-writer and star, Will Ferrell can be heard trying out expressions of alarm. [More]

And Now Ladies and Gentlemen (Conlogue review) ***
As he has matured — it's now over 40 years since A Man and a Woman — Claude Lelouch's romantic filmmaking has developed a spiky and personal edge. [More]

Anne Garber's top 10 movies of 2002 *
And here's Anne's list... [More]

Anything Else: That Woody's a case ** 1/2
The decline and fall of Woody Allen continues apace. Sadly apt in title, last year's Hollywood Ending seemed a nadir at the time. Up to that point, the erosion in his work had been obvious but not abject, thanks to the single skill that never deserted him -- his old pro's knack of cranking out a well-structured, three-act, safe-as-taxes comedy. [More]

Austin Powers in Goldmember (Garber review) *** 1/2
Goldmember is the latest Austin Powers movie starring Mike Myers, Mike Myers, Mike Myers and Seth Green -- with a host of astounding cameos. [More]

Bad Bays II: Bad boys bolstering Bush? ***
Let's begin with the obvious and leave the disturbing news for later. Bad Boys II, wherein Will Smith and Martin Lawrence re-dance their buddy cop routine, is a B-movie in the most literal sense: You got your Bad, you got your Boys, you got your Bullets, you got your Banter. [More]

Bad Boy! (Adam's Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights) (Waldman review) *** 1/2
It sure looks like comedian Adam Sandler really has hit his stride this year. [More]

Bad Santa: Cross Santa off your list ** 1/2
Bad Santa is a movie you hate to hate. After all, it comes with the beckoning stamp of director Terry Zwigoff, whose last two films -- the fictional Ghost World and the documentary Crumb -- were both delightful looks at idiosyncratic characters, filled with an intoxicating mix of black humour and bright sensitivity. [More]

Barbarian Invasions: A welcome invasion ****
Denys Arcand's latest movie has a lusty energy that represents a return to form for the Quebec director. [More]

Barbershop 2: Back in Business (Lacey review) ***
As the title suggests, Barbershop 2: Back in Business isn't about to mess with a successful formula. [More]

Battlefield Earth (Keyes review) *
Earthling (and Vancouverite) Barry Pepper (Saving Private Ryan) leads a desperate fight against John Travolta and his fellow Psychlo overlords in this adaptation of "Church" of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's pulp sci-fi novel. [More]

BCMPA Ratings *
BCMPA rates the movies . . . [More]

Beyond Borders: A good cause for disbelief (Lacey Review) ** 1/2
Similar in spirit to sweeping political thrillers such as Régis Wargnier's Indochine, or John Boorman's Beyond Rangoon, Beyond Borders offers a mix of humanitarian crises and romantic escapism that might better have been titled Beyond Belief. [More]

Big Fish: A whopper lacking splash (Lacey review) *
Director Tim Burton's signature visual style is in evidence, but not his riotous energy, which we could use if we're going to sit still for these tall tales. [More]

Blizzard packs a wallop -- of warmth ***
Blizzard is a solid bundle of modest charm, one of those instant-mix classics of the season destined to gain an annual foothold on television's Family network -- schedule it right after Charlie Brown's Christmas and somewhere before It's a Wonderful Life. [More]

Blue Butterfly (Cole review) ***
Sometimes, the truth is not this pretty... [More]

Blue Car (Lacey review) ***
Blue Car (Lacey review) [More]

Blue Crush (Keyes review) ***
This beach movie set in Hawaii blends a romantic storyline, starring Kate Bosworth, with action footage of world-class women surfers. [More]

Bon Voyage: Successful voyage, not worth taking (Groen review) ** 1/2
France, June, 1940. The Germans have marched to Paris, leaving the French government plus half the city to flee south to Bordeaux, where chaos swirls and confusion reigns. Hey, what better setting for a farcical comedy of mixed-up manners. Welcome, if you dare, to the wacky war that is Bon Voyage. [More]

Bourne Identity (Garber review) *** 1/2
An Old Story, Bourne Again: In The Bourne Identity, a man with amnesia (Matt Damon) is rescued at sea by the crew of an Italian fishing boat. He's half-dead and the only clues to his identity are two bullets in his back and a bank account number implanted in his hip. [More]

Bringing Out the Dead (Keyes review) *
If Hieronymus Bosch, the 16th-century Dutch painter, were alive today, he would love Bringing Out the Dead. Heck, he probably would have made it. [More]

Broken Wings *** 1/2
In the opening scenes of Broken Wings, 17-year-old Maya and her rock band are waiting in the wings to perform in a competition at a local club. The young singer-songwriter's chance to win a recording contract, or a least advance her budding career, is lost when her mother, apologetically, calls to say she has to work the night shift at the hospital and can't find a sitter. [More]

Brother Bear: Great visuals, but spare us the lessons (Cole review) ** 1/2
The oddest movie to come out of Disney since Herbie ran out of gas in Monte Carlo, Brother Bear is a cartoon about a boy who becomes a man by learning how to be a bear. [More]

Buffalo Soldiers: Soldiers of fortune (Lacey review) *** 1/2
Incompetents, criminals and drug addicts people the U.S. military in a film so different from current fare that it feels radical. [More]

Cabin Fever (Groen review) ***
Good, honest, clean terror free of irony [More]

Calendar Girls: A chick version of The Full Monty (Lacey review) *** 1/2
The real pleasure of this British comedy, based on a true story, is its fine cast of middle-aged actresses. [More]

Capturing the Friedmans *
The harrowing nightmare of a "typical" family's private unravelling is at the centre of Andrew Jarecki's disturbing, yet undeniably fascinating documentary feature Capturing the Friedmans, which has received considerable media attention in the United States since winning the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival this year. [More]

Carandiru: Babenco sets 'em up only to shoot 'em down (Lacey review) ***
Loosely based on Dr. Drauzio Varella's experiences inside Sao Paulo's Carandiru penitentiary, the film is by director Hector Babenco, who returns to the world of the Brazilian criminal underclass that he visited in his first, most famous film, Pixote, and again in Kiss of the Spider Woman. [More]

Catch that kid (Groen review) ** 1/2
Sorry, but beyond the manicured geometry of the baseball diamond, batting one for three just doesn't cut it. In Catch That Kid, the children are engaging yet the script and direction are not, which leaves the thing to get all bogged down in its own derivative mechanics. [More]

Cellular: Hold the phone (Groen review) *
In fact, first in Phone Booth, and now again in Cellular, Hollywood looks to be slouching toward the installation of a brand-new genre -- the telecommunications thriller. Nice idea but, on the evidence to date, the installers are falling down on the job. . . [More]

Chasing Liberty: Daughter fodder wasted ** 1/2
Chasing Liberty ain't what it seems... [More]

Cheaper by the Dozen: Twelve babes a-bawling (Groen review) * 1/2
Back in the middle ages of moviedom, a long half-century ago, the Fox studio released Cheaper by the Dozen, a modest little picture based on a popular little book... [More]

City by the Sea (Keyes review) ****
Robert De Niro delivers a standout performance as a dedicated New York City homicide detective tracking down his own son on a charge of murder. [More]

Clockstoppers (Garber review) *** 1/2
Author: review by Anne Garber
Great. Just what the world needs now: a movie that demonstrates how you can buy just about anything you want or need or crave...on eBay. [More]

Club Dread (Groen review) ** 1/2
Only a good murder can stop the dread... [More]

Cold Creek Manor: Script vies with old mansion in the creakiness stakes **
The most disturbing aspect of Cold Creek Manor -- a predictable, disjointed Cape Fear knockoff -- is that a script this disjointed and unoriginal could actually get the Hollywood green light. [More]

Cold Mountain: Love in the time of choler (Groen review) ****
Director Anthony Minghella's strong effort pales, if slightly, against the novel... [More]

Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen: It's a Sin to waste your time (Groen review) *
Confessions Prompted by Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, a.k.a. A Long Night at a Short Movie...
Editor's note: This movie is so unimportant in the grand scheme of things, that the Globe didn't waste newspaper space on it, deciding to only run the review on its website! [More]

Confidence & Steal: A con, but no payoff ***
There's a story that when someone asked famous thief Willie Sutton why he robbed banks, he answered: "Because that's where the money is." Similar logic appears to be behind Hollywood's ongoing fascination with caper films. [More]

Connie and Carla: Alas, some like it familiar (Lacey review) ** 1/2
Big heart but big cheese. That was the trade-off with Nia Vardalos's megahit romantic comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding, in which audiences found the warmth and ingenuousness of Vardalos's ethnic Cinderella story was enough to get past the sitcom writing and high-pitched performances... [More]

Cowboy Bebop (Garber review) (AKA Tengoku no tobira) ****
Set on Mars in the year 2071, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie is based on the much-loved animated television series by Japanese director Shinichiro Watanabe. [More]

Crime Spree: More crime than spree ** 1/2
Six inept French crooks are sent to Chicago for a jewel heist, and along the way they get chased by a Latin gang, the Chicago police, the FBI and the Mafia. Funny? Not quite. Thrilling. Not really. So what's the point? [More]

Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course (Garber review) ****
Crikey! It's fair dinkum, myte! The best thing about Steve (Crocodile Hunter) Irwin's new movie is, well…Steve Irwin himself. [More]

Darkness Falls (Garber review) *
...STUMBLES and falls, that is. YUK! [More]

Dawn of the Dead (Groen review) ** 1/2
Dead never comes to life... [More]

Demon Seed: Birth (Waldman review) **
Marriage can be a tricky affair. Look at the recent divorce rate statistics to confirm that I-do’s don’t necessarily last forever. . . [More]

Die Another Day: James BOMB? (Garber review) ***
So, for many: disappointing. For me -- with my low expectations -- actually quite a fun diversion. If you're a huge Bond fan, you'll probably like it. [More]

Dirty Pretty Things: Inner demons, outer torments (Lacey review) ****
Contrary to the theory that a good director is one who leaves an indelible stylistic stamp, England's Stephen Frears often seems to make a virtue out of no style. His one famed eccentricity is that he's the writer's friend, and in adaptations as varied as The Grifters, Dangerous Liaisons and High Fidelity, he's the sincere craftsman who lets the characters and story come alive while he hides behind his work. [More]

Distant (Lacey review) **** 1/2
Distant, set in contemporary Istanbul, is a doleful Turkish masterpiece which won major awards at Cannes (Grand Prize and a shared best-acting award for its stars) and is glum to the bone. [More]

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (Keyes review) **
A group of lifelong friends stage a rather unorthodox intervention to help a young playwright (Sandra Bullock) unravel the truth about her eccentric mother, find forgiveness, and let go of her painful past. Definitely a "chick flick" [More]

Dogville: Daring film puts viewers to the test (Lacey review) *****
Is Lars von Trier's new film, Dogville: A, a masterpiece? B, a childish anti-American insult? C, as long and grey as a Scandinavian winter? [More]

Down With Love -- Love, postmodern style (Conlogue) ***
The dialogue is often witty, while the fruit-coloured hotel rooms and flouncing pink gowns -- not to mention Ban the Bomb protesters, bookstore windows full of Profiles in Courage, streetsful of lovingly deployed vintage cars and the wide-eyed optimistic thrill of space exploration -- testify to a goodly amount of genuine affection for the era. [More]

Drowning Mona (Keyes review) *** 1/2
Three cheers -- and three stars, too -- for Bette Midler. There aren't very many actresses in beauty-conscious Hollywood who would be willing to appear as Midler does for the role of Mona Dearly. [More]

Drumline (Anthony review) ****
Says reviewer Ross Anthony: "The cymbals float like butterflies and the spinning styx sting like bees. I wanted more." [More]

Duplex: It's murder, alright! ** 1/2
Danny Devito's new comedy Duplex follows a yuppie New York couple (Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore) as they plot the murder of the old Irish lady who lives in the upper apartment of the duplex they've just bought. Why murder? [More]

Eight Legged Freaks (Garber review) ** 1/2
What can you say? They're big, they're bad, they're ugg-LEE! [More]

Elephant: An unforgettable Elephant (Groen review) **** 1/2
Gus Van Sant's mesmerizing film captures the frustration we feel trying to understand all the tragic Columbines. [More]

Ella Enchanted: Princess aims to please (Lacey review) ***
No doubt Anne hath a way. The radiant 21-year-old actress Anne Hathaway, a namesake of Mrs. William Shakespeare, is a gawky beauty with oversized eyes who evokes both the demureness of Audrey Hepburn and brass of Julia Roberts. [More]

Empire (Waldman review) **
Big dreams die hard in Empire, a look into the flamboyant life of a two-bit hood on the make. [More]

Extreme Ops (Keyes review) **
If you've been breathing the sort of air (and not exhaling) that Ross Rebagliati was breathing up at Whistler before he went on to win the first-ever gold medal for snowboarding, then you'll be nicely primed for Extreme Ops. [More]

Fahrenheit 9/11: Art steps aside for politics (Groen review) ***
Filmmaking plays second fiddle to rabble-rousing in Moore's hotly anticipated movie. [More]

Father and Sons (Conlogue review) *** 1/2
In the film-Noiret comic genre... [More]

FearDotCom (Garber review) *
Avoid this movie. It's just plain bad. [More]

Features editor John T.D. Keyes offers his choices for the 2002 Vancouver International Film Festival: *
evalu8.org's Features Editor, John Keyes helps you cut to the chase, at this year's VIFF... [More]

Festival Express: All aboard the new rockumentary classic (Lacey review) *** 1/2
Pulled out of archives, garages and more than 30 years of legal limbo, about 70 hours of film have been carefully assembled into what amounts to a new rockumentary classic, Festival Express. [More]

Formula 51 (Garber review) ****
Samuel L. Jackson shines as Elmo McElroy, a one-time '60s pharmacy grad who was derailed back in the day and who resurfaces in present day as a kilt-wearing chemist who has devised a rave drug from harmless, totally legal over-the-counter pharmaceuticals. [More]

Freaky Friday: The freaky fun of trading places (Lacey review) *** 1/2
Every woman who promised herself she wouldn't turn into her mother must find something to recognize in the story of Freaky Friday. Why else would the tale, based on Mary Rodgers's 1972 children's novel about a one-day mother-daughter identity swap, have such staying power? [More]

FREDDY VS. JASON: Too much chat, not enough chill **
This face-off was an inevitable exercise in marketing synergy, but it's also part of a B-movie tradition stretching back decades [More]

Gangs of New York (Garber review) *****
Gritty, violent, realistic and spellbinding, Gangs of New York gets a rare five stars! [More]

Gigli: A hit taken out on the audience *
This summer, the celebrity magazine and TV entertainment shows have produced a purgatorial monotony of data on the canoodlings of movie stars, all of whom happen to be promoting new films. A half-century after the end of the studio system and its publicity manipulations, the use of celebrities' sex lives, real or invented, to sell tickets, is brazenly back in style. [More]

Ginger Snaps II: Unleashed: These wolves won't blow the house down *
Sequel to the Canadian horror film isn't quite in the same witty feminist mould. [More]

Girl with a Pearl Earring: She's a pearl; so is the picture ****
Scarlett Johansson so embodies the period of this cinematic portrait that she looks like she stepped out of a Vermeer frame. [More]

Gothika: The devil made him film it (Groen review) ** 1/2
If on the off chance you've ever wondered, "How bad can any movie be that has Halle Berry on camera almost every moment?", the answer is now at hand: Bad enough. [More]

Grind: Grinding boredom on four wheels *
I could struggle for a polite way to describe the tedium of Grind, a movie about a skateboard team's cross-country quest for sponsorship, but I think the guy who exited the advance screening after less than 15 minutes said it best. "This movie's garbage," he hollered, as the audience members tittered and shuffled their feet, which they continued to do throughout this humourless, hackneyed yawnfest. [More]

Groundhog Day DVD (Garber review) *****
Groundhog Day is not only one of the best comedies of the 1990s, but also one of the best comedies of all time. It's a truly original movie concept. [More]

Haunted Mansion: Take a pass on this Thanksgiving turkey * 1/2
Can't have an American Thanksgiving without a turkey. But say this for The Haunted Mansion: With an opening crawl that reads, "Welcome foolish mortals," it at least offers fair warning. [More]

Hawayein: Bollywood gets real *
Mobs descend on innocent bystanders, killing, raping and maiming thousands in New Delhi as news of Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi's assassination spreads like the rising flames in the city. [More]

Heart breaker or fortune-maker? Alfie (Waldman review) ***
Okay -- so here's one guy who actually liked the remake of Alfie! [More]

Home on the Range (Lacey review) ***
The best part about Home on the Range, the short (76-minute) and formulaic new Disney animated feature about a trio of cows who save their farm, is the singing of two songs by Alan Menken ( Beauty and the Beast). [More]

Honey (Groen) ** 1/2
Honey is a saccharine movie about hip-hop, and that's whack. Or is it wack? Or maybe just wac? Anyway, you see my problem. For an outsider looking in — and a pasty, middle-aged male is about as outside this culture as a body can get — the world of hip-hop seems charged with an enviable energy, vital in its dance and its language and its sheer adaptability. [More]

House of Sand and Fog (Lacey review) *
In a year of movies about dubious real-estate deals (Duplex, Cold Creek Manor, Under The Tuscan Sun) and bleak tales about tragic vigilantism (Mystic River, 21 Grams), House of Sand and Fog falls on both lists. [More]

How Falling Angels took flight ****
The wind beneath this movie's wings was provided, in part, by a young director who fell in love with Barbara Gowdy's book, LIAM LACEY writes. [More]

How to Deal: Shuffling the deck of teen-romance *** 1/2
The script claims it's trying for 'messy, out-of-order moments' but what we get is the umpteenth replay of boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl [More]

Human Stain: Ladies play it down (Groen review) ** 1/2
NICOLE KIDMAN as trailer trash is difficult to fathom. It's one reason why this Stain just doesn't come out in the wash. [More]

I'm Not Scared (Groen review) ***
Horror goes downhill... [More]

Ice Age (Keyes review) ****
Animated feature about a sabretooth tiger (voice of Denis Leary), a sloth (John Leguizamo) and a mammoth (Ray Romano) try to return a lost infant they discover during the Ice Age. [More]

If by Chance -- Getting hitched: A cautionary tale ** 1/2
The wedding flick, that familiar romantic comedy subgenre, is handed to the boys this summer as Hollywood delivers American Wedding (third in the American Pie series with Jason Biggs and Eugene Levy) and The In-Laws (Albert Brooks versus Michael Douglas). Down the aisle first, however, is If by Chance (Casomai), winner of the Ecumenical Jury Prize at last year's Montreal World Film Festival and a one-trick pony you could call the Italian Four Weddings and a Funeral. [More]

In America: Magic beyond the blarney **** 1/2
Back in Ireland, they were a loving family of five, but Frankie died before his third birthday, and his death drove them away -- first to Canada, then across the border and now, in this opening scene, into the murk of the Lincoln Tunnel. [More]

In the Cut: Ladies play it down (Lacey Review) ** 1/2
MEG RYAN gets involved with a cop who may be a killer in director Jane Campion's hack job on a best-selling erotic novel. [More]

In This World (Groen review) ***
A disorienting odyssey with the dispossessed... [More]

James Bond: License Renewed! (Die Another Day) (Waldman review) **** 1/2
Agent 007 himself -- Pierce Brosnan -- gets down to business in Die Another Day, an adrenalin rush from MGM Studios and Eon Productions now setting off charges at Famous Players Theatres around BC. [More]

Jeepers Creepers: In a flap over the boys **
The surprise box-office success of Freddy Vs. Jason this summer will undoubtedly influence the nature of cheese-ball horror sequels for years to come. Genre fans are salivating at the possibility of all kinds of celebrity death matches: Wishmaster vs. Candyman, Leprechaun vs. Chucky, maybe even a Children of the Corn vs. Village of the Damned battle royal. [More]

John T.D. Keyes' 2002 Top Ten Movies *
John Keyes presents his Top 10 movies of 2002. [More]

K-19: The Widowmaker (Garber review) ***
Claustrophobic? Scared of radiation? Can't imagine Harrison Ford as a Russian? Better skip this one, then... [More]

Kart Racer: Formula 1 movie making ** 1/2
Kart Racer is a go-kart movie custom-built for preteen consumption. [More]

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (Cole review) ** 1/2
Last time we saw Lara Croft she was skiing on skidding feet, hands tight on the reins of a dogteam pulling her from an exploding cave. Moments earlier she'd reduced a Vishnu monster to a fine rain of dust and saved the free world from the Illuminati by joining together severed halves of an ancient triangle at a moment of planetary alignment that comes every 5,000 years. [More]

Le Divorce: Overwrought and over there (Lacey review) ** 1/2
With two appealing young stars, Naomi Watts and Kate Hudson, a best-selling book as its source material and its Paris setting, you'd think Le Divorce would at least be fresh and sprightly. [More]

Life Or Something Like It (Garber review) *** 1/2
Author:reviewed by Anne Garber
Life…Or Something Like It is a charming romp that asks the question: "What would you do with your life (or what remains of it), if you knew for certain you would die next Thursday?" [More]

Maid in Manhattan (Keyes review) *
Let's not pretend that just because J-Lo's latest effort is being marketed in theatres Maid in Manhattan is actually a movie. [More]

Maid in Manhattan (Waldman review) ***
Boy meets girl. Rich meets poor. Let's just say strange things are going on in splendid New York in Maid in Manhattan -- a perfect feel-good movie from Columbia Pictures -- lifting spirits at Colossus and Famous Players Theatres all across BC. [More]

Mambo Italiano: My big gay Italian coming-out ***
Latest ethnic comedy hits in spots but ultimately misses the mark [More]

Matchstick Men (Groen review) ** 1/2
Matchstick Men is a movie about con artists that turns out to be a con job, and guess who's getting played for a sucker? Of course, like any grifter after our money, this one appears legit on the sunny surface of things, duping us with some impressive-looking credentials. Behind the camera, there's Ridley Scott -- sorry, Sir Ridley these days -- whose be-knighted career stretches from Alien and Blade Runner through Thelma & Louise straight on to Gladiator and Black Hawk Down. [More]

Matchstick Men: Colour him comedic (Hays review/interview) *
He directed the legendary sci-fi flick Alien, but Ridley Scott says that really, he's always loved comedy. With Matchstick Men, he proves it [More]

Medallion: Chan missing in action (Groen review) **
The actor's acrobatic gifts play second fiddle to computerized special effects [More]

Minor League effort: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen **
Shouldn't filching a whole team of superheroes and setting them loose to fight a megavillain be more fun than this? [More]

Minority Report (Garber review) *****
Minority Report Wins Majority Support: Minority Report, Spielberg's latest, is an action-packed blockbuster film, depicting America 50 years hence, where future crimes can be detected before they're actually committed. Tom Cruise stars as John Anderton, a police chief who becomes the Justice Department's number-one suspect. [More]

Monster: Theron fills out a killer role ****
The hype around the film Monster is justified by the performance of Charlize Theron: The silky golden South African beauty of Cider House Rules and The Devil's Advocate plays the real-life Florida highway prostitute and convicted serial killer Aileen Wuornos. [More]

Motion Picture Association of America Movie Ratings *
Movie ratings from the MPAA [More]

Moulin Rouge (Keyes review) **** 1/2
Moulin Rouge is remarkable, a brilliant piece of work that sets a new high bar for movie musicals. [More]

Nicholas Nickleby (Waldman review) ****
Master writer Charles Dickens is returned to the big screen with a fitting tribute in Nicholas Nickleby, a dynamic gem now unfolding in all its historic splendour. [More]

One Hour Photo (Keyes review) **** 1/2
Robin Williams continues his string of edgy dramatic performances with this role as a photo shop employee who becomes dangerously obsessed with a young suburban family -- extremely creepy! [More]

Open Range: Costner right at home on the range (Lacey review) ***
Kevin Costner's new movie, Open Range, is a classically styled Western, perhaps the only one of its kind in this centenary year of Hollywood's historically most popular genre. [More]

Osama (Lacey review) ****
Want to go see a film called Osama about cruelty and child abuse under the Taliban? Obviously, this is no easy sell, but give writer-director Siddiq Barmak full credit for portraying his country's social catastrophe with restraint, concision and some real beauty. [More]

Owning Malowny: Crime, Canadian style ****
A new movie about a gambling-obsessed banker who embezzled millions portrays Canada with unusual realism: Even the cops say please, RAY CONLOGUE writes [More]

Party Monster (Lacey review) ** 1/2
"Do you think we're superficial?" asks Macaulay Culkin, who, in his first film role since Richie Rich (1994) plays the real-life nightclub promoter and convicted killer Michael Alig, the title character of Party Monster. [More]

Paycheck (Lacey review) ***
Liam Lacey gives this new Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman vehicle its Pink Slip. [More]

Personal Velocity (Waldman review) ****
Robert Waldman finds much to like in this gritty tale of three women. [More]

Peter Pan: Hormones flying across the sky *
The first live-action film in the sound era of Peter Pan is lush, loud and sparkling, and not nearly as innocent as you might imagine. [More]

Pieces of April: A tart and tender treat (Cole review) **** 1/2
The trouble with sentimental movies is they're usually made by confirmed saps. Oh that more filmmakers didn't observe the pastry chef's fundamental rule -- meringue works best with lemon filling. [More]

Radio (Groen review) ***
Yet another memo from the Department of Faint Praise: Radio isn't nearly as mawkish as its sappy trailer would suggest. [More]

Recent Globe Film reviews *
The following, rated on a system of 0 to 4 stars, are by Rick Groen and Liam Lacey. Full reviews appeared on the dates indicated. [More]

Road to Perdition (Keyes review) **** 1/2
Sam Mendes follows his smash 1999 hit American Beauty with this dark drama about a hitman (Tom Hanks) who seeking revenge. A very dark role, indeed, for Hanks. [More]

Rules of Engagement (Keyes review) * 1/2
When a 30-year Marine veteran (Samuel L. Jackson) is put on trial for ordering his troops to open fire on civilians storming the U.S. embassy in a Third World country, he chooses as his attorney a comrade in arms (Tommy Lee Jones) whose life he once saved. Directed by Oscar-winner William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist). [More]

S1m0ne / Simonem (Trager review) ***
Simone is a virtual actress, though in this case that literally means that she is computer-animated, not that she is on par talent-wise with Denise Richards... [More]

Santa Claus Is Coming To IMAX (Garber review) ****
The Academy Award-nominated team behind the hit Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius is bringing old Kris Kringle to IMAX theaters in the all-new, actual 3D feature Santa Vs. The Snowman. [More]

Saved: A teen comedy with God on its side (Lacey review) *** 1/2
Long we have prayed that Saved!, the religious comedy that was a Sundance hit in January, might serve as a cheeky corrective to the sanguinary excesses of The Passion of the Christ, a reminder that you needn't burn in hell for having a sense of humour. [More]

School of Rock: Rock 'n' roll 'n' recess ****
Nutty professor Jack Black shakes up the school and steals the show in a likable tour de farce. [More]

Scooby-doo-doo, we're warning you **
The first movie wasn't that funny. Scooby-Dooby Doo -- can it really be true? Are you just in it for the money? [More]

Seabiscuit: A canter to the box office (Lacey review) *** 1/2
The movie, with its careful agenda of American rehabilitation, isn't the champion the real Seabiscuit was. But it's a good ride [More]

Secret Window (Groen review) *** 1/2
The pirate's a poet: Depp gets deep... [More]

Seducing Doctor Lewis (Groen review) *** 1/2
Just what the doctor ordered... [More]

Shattered Glass: All the facts that fit the film ***
In telling the true tale of a journalistic fraud, Shattered Glass is convinced it's doing God's work. And if His work is only in the details, then the job looks pretty well done. However... [More]

Shrek 2: Monstrously entertaining (Groen review) **** 1/2
The ogre rules again in a sequel that pitches its split-level humour perfectly to both kids and adults. [