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TOM MEEK
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Dry romp on the high seas
Peter Lord, animator behind claymation staples Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run , directs this very British, very dry romp on the high seas during the time when Britannia did indeed rule the waves.
Bobcat Goldthwait's best work yet
The latest dark comedy from Bobcat Goldthwait tackles both vapid celebrity culture (i.e., Paris Hilton, the Kardashians and American Idol) and the indignity of being an office drone.
Reflections on race and opportunity
Dan Lindsay and T. J. Martin's Oscar-winning documentary about an underequipped high-school football team competing against big-time programs across Tennessee offers a potent contemplation on race and opportunity.
3D animated spectacular
Regrettably, this team loses a lot of Seuss's quirkiness, though not the message about corporate greed and slash-and-burn imperialism.
Movie hell
The filmmakers deliver some gorgeous landscape shots of Asia Minor and leverage the 3D perspective to good effect, but the time between such moments of relief can seem like an eternity of movie hell.
Brief but bloody
The Underworld series got long in the tooth early, but here, in the fourth installment (directed by Swede Måns Mårlind), it grows new fangs.
Rafter-rocking gospel singing
There's not much joy but there's plenty of noise of the rafter-rocking gospel singing variety in Tony Graff's musical dramedy.
Angelina Jolie's feature directorial debut
Jolie has loosely reworked the story of Romeo and Juliet in an infamous setting familiar from CNN but here seen from the inside.
Helium-infused banter
For 50 years, Alvin and the Chipmunks have been driving parents nuts with their helium-infused banter and shrill bastardizations of pop music.
Home invasion
If Rod Lurie's errant remake of Straw Dogs didn't tickle your morbid fear of home invasion, then perhaps the latest from Joel Schumacher ( Falling Down ) might do the job.
Sharks on a Plane may have been a better idea
David R. Ellis's dimensionally enhanced thriller doesn't knock off Jaws so much as it reconfigures Deliverance , with a slight nod to Friday the 13th .
Jeff Prosserman's documentary
Few will dispute the evil avarice behind the $50 billion Ponzi scheme Bernie Madoff masterminded.
First-rate fluff
The little TV series with the can-do pipes rolls out a concert tour that's essentially a love-in with its fan base.
The psyche of Hitler
In La Rafle , director Rose Bosch boldly tackles the psyche of Hitler, showing the Führer enjoying the high life with Eva Braun as he instructs his minions to pressure France to hand over its Jews so he can sate his genocidal bloodlust before the Allies fully catch on to his heinous mission.
A gritty get-down
One thing about Djo Tunda Wa Munga's plucky Third World noir: it never slows down.
Mythical mockumentary
André Øvredal's mythical mockumentary takes place among the ravines and forests of Norway, where a troll problem exists that the public is largely unaware of.
A Yugo in a lot full of Porsches
Alongside such Pixar hits as Monsters, Inc , Toy Story , and The Incredibles , Cars 2 comes off like a Yugo in a lot full of Porsches.
Ostensibly, Cindy Meehl's documentary may focus on the exploits of horse whisperer Buck Brannaman, but it also relates a tale of perseverance.
A visceral portrait of the hopeless
Shot in opulent black and white, the atrocities never cease.
A promise of things to come
There's plenty to admire in Spencer Susser's feature debut, like the impressive cast — Rainn Wilson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Natalie Portman, Piper Laurie — and the heartfelt intentions of Susser's dark coming-of-age tale.
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