Movies

• "Bride Wars"As if to assuage the anxieties of the millions of same-sex couples deprived of the right to wed in this nation, here comes “Bride Wars” to make the entire institution of marriage look almost as awful as last year’s dreadful “27 Dresses” did.
• "Not Easily Broken"Somehow bypassing a Promise Keepers’ weekend marriage encounter and going directly into mainstream theaters, “Not Easily Broken” takes a moralistic view of relationship problems by suggesting that everything will be fixed if the wife spends less time in the office and more time having children. This may well be the first film ever made about the male biological clock.
• "The Unborn"The Kabbalah. Hot college students. An abandoned mental institution. Gary Oldman. Jogging. Twins. Nazi scientists. A suicidal mother. A lost blue mitten. What do these things have in common? They’re all pieces in the convoluted mythology of “The Unborn.”
• "Good"Jean-Luc Godard once said that the best way to review a movie is to make another movie; sometimes, all it takes is seeing a second movie about a certain subject matter to highlight everything that the first movie did wrong. Such is the case with “Good,” which deals with an intellectual who gets swept up into the Nazi party without ever thinking about the larger issues at stake; it’s a powerful film on its own merits, but it also points out how tame and impotent “The Reader” is in examining similar issues.
• "Defiance"“Defiance” director Edward Zwick certainly isn’t afraid of archetypes: We know who the villain’s going to be (it’s the guy with the bad teeth), we know who’s going to marry the hero (it’s the one woman who looks stunning with apparently no makeup on) and we know who the hero is (it’s Daniel Craig as the movie’s one blond, blue-eyed Russian Jew).
• "Revolutionary Road"I genuinely regret never having read Richard Yates’ novel “Revolutionary Road,” not only because its admirers tell me it’s a compelling look at mid-century ennui but also because any future attempts to read it will be tainted by the dreary film adaptation currently being inflicted upon audiences.
• "Valkyrie"Mark Twain might have subtitled “Valkyrie,” “The Not-So-Private History of a Campaign That Failed.” Director Bryan Singer is a master of forward motion in his storytelling, but he never distracts us enough from the knowledge that doom is around the corner for our heroes, a cadre of Nazis who sought to kill Hitler and negotiate with the Allied forces in the waning days of World War II.
• "The Spirit"The previews and trailers indicated this movie would be “Sin City” 1.5 in terms of art direction. I knew enough about the comic books to know that this style might conflict a bit with the source material. Despite this conflict, or perhaps because of it, somewhere inside “The Spirit” is a great film. Its potential can be seen in bits and pieces all over the screen.
• "Bedtime Stories"Even though “Bedtime Stories” represents a first for Sandler — a comedy that’s appropriate for all ages — it still feels like a giant leap backward for him. As Skeeter Bronson, the handyman at a boutique Los Angeles hotel, Sandler is doing that same silly, growly voice he uses in his “Hanukkah Song.”
• "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"Screenwriter Eric Roth is no doubt hoping that you won’t notice how many of his ideas from “Forrest Gump” have made it into his adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novella “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” And even fans of that earlier film may find themselves overburdened; “Gump” director Robert Zemeckis isn’t exactly known for his light touch, but next to “Button” man David Fincher, he’s practically Ernst Lubitsch.
• "Last Chance Harvey"If there’s such a thing as the Laptop Lotto for screenwriters, “Last Chance Harvey” writer-director Joel Hopkins hit the Superball. Hopkins, best known for his award-winning 1998 short film “Jorge,” somehow scored Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson for a screenplay that, by rights, should have snagged Daniel Hugh Kelly and Catherine Oxenberg before winding up on one of the channels you’d ignore on a trans-Atlantic airline.
• "Waltz With Bashir"Unlike anything you’ve ever seen before, “Waltz With Bashir” will change your ideas about the possibility of film. It’s an animated documentary, which probably sounds like a contradiction in terms, but even describing it that way threatens to place it in the kinds of tidy, well-defined boxes that “Waltz With Bashir” consistently defies.
• "Marley and Me"A word of warning to parents out there who have been seduced by the adorable-puppy-in-Christmas-bow advertising of “Marley & Me” and are considering taking their youngsters to see it: Don’t. The dog — and this may technically count as a spoiler, even though the movie is based on a best-selling book — dies. And “Marley & Me” milks audience grief (and will traumatize children) more than “Bambi” and “Old Yeller” combined.
• "Yes Man"“And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself” isn’t just a line from “A Visit from St. Nicholas” — it’s how I felt about Jim Carrey’s performance in the new comedy “Yes Man.” Having been annoyed by his antics in many of his recent outings — take “Fun with Dick and Jane,” please — the world-class mugger dials it down and delights in this breezy (if somewhat formulaic) flick.
• "Seven Pounds"“Seven Pounds” slogs about, impressed with its own supposed depth, as we watch Will Smith play a man attempting to pay for his past sins. Director Gabriele Muccino (“The Pursuit of Happyness”) seems to think he’s in Ingmar Bergman territory, but he’s actually made the longest, most dour episode of “My Name is Earl” imaginable.
• "The Wrestler"It’s hard not to look for traces of the off-screen Rourke, ’80s movie legend gone off the rails, in his portrayal of Randy “The Ram” Robinson, past-his-prime ’80s wrestling legend, in “The Wrestler,” and perhaps director Darren Aronofsky would rather we didn’t. But Rourke’s work in the film transcends mere stunt-casting; his performance is a howl of pain that seems to come from a very real place, and it’s a potent reminder — as was his compelling role in “Sin City” a few years ago — that even if Rourke has made a mess of his career, his talent remains intact.
• "The Tale of Despereaux"Which came first, the rat or the mouse? Doesn’t really matter. Even though Kate DiCamillo’s book “The Tale of Despereaux” came out in 2003 — and won a Newbery Medal for outstanding children’s literature — the animated film version still feels like a rip-off of “Ratatouille,” which was only released last year.
• "The Day the Earth Stood Still"If you’re looking for chuckles this holiday season, bypass the miserably unfunny “Four Christmases” and go where the real comedy is — “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” a clumsy, moronic remake of Robert Wise’s brilliant 1951 classic about an alien invader trying to save the human race from its own self-destructive impulses.
• "The Reader"I’ve generally been a defender of the films of Stephen Daldry, but seeing “The Reader” made me understand why some people hated his previous movie, “The Hours.” That film, they said, was fussy and airless, tamping down truth and humanity in favor of the brand of dry “culture” that lures certain segments of the moviegoing public with the promise of a tastefully prim Sunday matinee.
• "Gran Torino"You’ll pretty much figure out exactly where “Gran Torino” is taking you within the first 30 minutes, but it’s a testament to the vehicle that you’ll mostly enjoy the ride anyway. Director-star Clint Eastwood brings his advancing age front and center here — he could have called the movie “Grandpa Torino” — with a performance that’s almost shamelessly crowd-pleasing at times.
• "Nothing Like the Holidays"Like the plantains and empanadillas that adorn the film’s Christmas dinner table, “Nothing Like the Holidays” is comfort food. Though its title suggests uniqueness, “Nothing Like the Holidays” is exactly like most holiday films, with the notable exception of an almost entirely Latin cast.
• "Doubt"I never saw John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt” performed onstage, but Shanley’s film version certainly doesn’t shy away from theatricality. Light bulbs explode, telephones ring insistently during tense arguments, literal and metaphorical winds whip up — heck, an actual cat chases an actual mouse, just to make sure the audience knows what’s going on.
• "Che"Steven Soderbergh’s “Che” is by no means a perfect film, but in a season laden with dopey historical movies like “Frost/Nixon,” “Milk” and “The Reader,” it’s exhilarating to watch a film that doesn’t hit all the usual biopic script beats.
• "Frost/Nixon"You know how a comedian can completely ruin his own joke by stopping to explain the punch line? The filmmakers behind “Frost/Nixon” do the same thing, undercutting some of the film’s most powerful moments by tossing in scenes where the characters tell the audience what it has already seen.
• "Cadillac Records"While it tells the story of an exciting period in American pop culture, “Cadillac Records” winds up being so trite, tidy and two-dimensional that you would swear you were watching a late-night infomercial for the great music of Chess Records. All that’s missing is a toll-free number and a paid walk-on by Frankie Avalon.
• "Nobel Son"Just in time for year-end “worst movie” lists comes “Nobel Son,” a movie far too confident in its own cleverness and charm, two elements it lacks in abundance. “Nobel Son” is so utterly idiotic, that I can’t even bring myself to explain the plot.
• "Four Christmases"Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon star in this holiday comedy that starts out casting a sardonic eye on marriage and family but winds up being a treacly advertisement for those very things.
• "Milk"“Milk” brings the politician’s story to life, but it almost mechanically ticks off all the moments you’d expect to see in a biopic. Watching director Gus Van Sant tamp down everything that makes him interesting as a filmmaker to make a big mainstream movie is rather disheartening.
• "Australia"Nobody does “outsized” like Baz Luhrmann, who most recently juiced up both the musical and the tragic romance to heart-exploding intensity with “Moulin Rouge!” Now he’s back to give the business to romantic epics with “Australia,” a sprawling ode to his home country that throws kangaroos, didgeridoos, the outback, a cattle drive, Japanese air raids and Nicole Kidman into a slightly overboiled stew that’s never less than compelling.
• "Twilight"“Twilight” is a vampire movie, but it’s not a horror movie. It’s never an easy task to bring a hit book to the screen, but by filling the screen with stares, stammers and silences, director Catherine Hardwicke and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg tread into the territory of unintentional hilarity.
• "Bolt"One could forgive a movie aimed at children for shamelessly cribbing plot points from “The Last Action Hero” and “The Truman Show” — which “Bolt” totally does — since its target audience is ostensibly not familiar with movies that came out way back in the ’90s. But when the canine protagonist of “Bolt” borrows a character arc from Buzz Lightyear, even youngsters will smell a rip-off.
• "Quantum of Solace"As played by Daniel Craig in “Casino Royale” and now “Quantum of Solace,” there’s a case to be made for 007 as masochist. Craig’s Bond lets the audience feel the impact of every blow to the head, every bullet to the shoulder, every face-first landing into the side of a building.
• "Slumdog Millionaire"“Slumdog Millionaire” is a movie so compelling and, ultimately, upbeat, that it left me grinning wider than anything I’ve seen in ages.