Morgan Freeman is still paying his rent with a rather undermining derivation, his character becoming less and less the president of these kidnapping preceedings than an observer of what happens when a bad plot gets all twisted up - but the twists are predictable and dangle, leaving brilliant red herring Michael Wincott with zilch to do.

Amelie (A)

One can't ask for a more perfect  marriage between lighthearted cake and innovative cinematic wizardry. After two visually driven (but painfully stiff) sci-fi pieces and a blundering stint in Hollywood, Jeunet has released his masterpiece; Audrey Tatou, whose simply owns this film, redefines generosity with her perky-sweet innocence.

America's Sweethearts (C-)

A movie that does two hideous, ghastly things: Hands us Julia Roberts, John Cusack and Catherine Zeta-Jones in a movie together - and makes them awfully boring - then still releases the film when supporting turns by Billy Crystal, Hank Azaria and Christopher Walken all gallantly upstage the megastars. Isn't that - underhanded?.

American Outlaws (D+)

I bear this hokey, half-assed horse opera no hostile feelings: I haven't had this many good belly laughs at another film this year.

Amores Perros (B+)

Pace stirring up those adrenal glands, connecting three tiers of transitions and time shifting so seamlessly as to self-crave, creating peepholes that reward us in a tale fraught with amoral characters who transcend the mega-cliched idea of antiheroism with brash originality.

Angel Eyes (C)

Though it gives us too much implication regarding our mysterious character and far too little insight into our main character, this unmistakeable melodrama slows down to a simmer and then still manages to be utterly bland. The theme is healing, the film is sedating.

The Animal (D-)

If a bad film shows why pencils have erasers, The Animal should be scribbled out. A film of unmeasurably bad comic timing and ridiculously obvious random star cameos that gets progressively worse as it uses repeat gag after repeat gag to stand-in as its execution of a premise that should have been given a literal execution.

The Anniversary Party (C-)

It is as if Cumming and Leigh have, instead of writing an intelligent film about snotty famous people, wrote a film mocking themselves for writing The Anniversary Party. This is a rabid exercise in deliberate, melodramatic tension that rubs off on the audience to the point of irritation.

Antitrust (C)

"I'm in the dark, looking at files I shouldn't be looking at - I hope the villain doesn't burst in and catch me!" Not every film billed as a thriller uses the same suspense gimmick repeatedly. Antitrust mixes weak paranoia moods with ridiculous girlfriend issues, and tops it off with a goofy megalomaniac computer nerd villain (Tim Robbins).

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (B+)

The movie, which runs the gamut from pure eye candy to giddy, E.T.-ish wonderment, feels like a watered down version of both Kubrick and Spielberg as well as an admirable collaboration between two obsessive minds. There's no denying that the film does cast a spell. Osment's performance as the robot boy David is miraculous.

Atlantis (B-)

Violent and, for the most part, jumbled; the best part about watching it is when it takes off and all the mumbo jumbo Disney is feeding you no longer matters anymore because exciting, subversive things are taking place on screen. To put it another way, the cookie cutter appears to have been dipped in blotter acid.

Baby Boy (B)

Thankfully,  Singleton removes the political subtext from his pen and writes from his soul. Akin to his signature Boyz N the Hood, a character grows up too fast to mature at a reasonable age. Tyrese Gibson is apt and natural, but Ving Rhames steals the show as the boyfriend, a lovable bear teeming with a scary, looming serenity.

A Beautiful Mind (B)

Big Time (C)

When the only funny - and interesting - thing about a movie in which fake porn actors try to sell a fake porn film is a real porn dealer, everything that doesn't concern the honesty captured on film seems somehow irrelevant and silly.

Black Hawk Down (B)
Blow (C)

Unsatisfied with merely showcasing sympathy for a charming lifelong criminal (who really deserves zero sympathy), Ted Demme mistakingly apes Martin Scorcese in such a lazy, obvious manner. Johnny Depp emerges unscathed, as usual, with another brilliant performance in a mediocre film.

Bridget Jones' Diary (C+)

A funny film, for sure; but an annoying one, too. Zelwegger, fresh off of her surprisingly magical turn in Nurse Betty, gives us the kind of self loathing Woody Allen would possess if he were an overweight British Girl deciding between her unfaithful boss and a cold family friend. However, he'd have made a shorter film about it.

Bully (B)
Cats & Dogs (B-)

Silly in spots, yes - but for the most part, it plays like an animated episode of Tom & Jerry. The talking cats and dogs aren't given all that much that isn't meant to be cutesy or ironic to say, but the humans are given even less to say. As a calculated reasoning that animals are smarter than humans, I'd say that's a skillful tactic.

The Caveman's Valentine (C-)

Despite some moody imagery, the film doesn't exactly have the kind of focus that makes it watchable. Jackson's scenery chewing performance drives our attention to a point. After that - the movie is just a dull, unimaginitive crime thriller that happens to have a crazy guy our point-of-view filter.

The Center of the World (C+)

Wayne Wang finds a great deal to play with thematically, but loses his momentum in a self-conscious, unnecessary Digital look. Movie hits home the idea that the center of the world is defined by what lies around it. Doesn't help that its momentum slips every time a scene is centered around a distracting, hyper-sexual encounter.

Chain Camera (B-)

Here's a great idea compressed. Give students cameras and have them pass them off until everyone in this Hollywood High School has filmed themselves. Then select vignettes that define things. Okay. Next order of business is to secure some time on PBS, not cut this monster down to ninety minutes. Hard to care about.

Chopper (B+)

Reminds me of Funny Games. This film shows me how wrong it is to love it. The sick thrill comes easy, but it has scarcely been more entertaining. Chopper is a bleak, but flawlessly deceptive biopic. It manages to sensationalize the life of violent psychopath, Mark "Chopper" Read, a unpredictable villain smitten with a justified paranoia.

The Claim (B)

Though it feels familiar (for what reason, I do not know), this terrifically exciting and boldy dark film about a railroad surveyor mixing with a town mayor (who sold wife and daughter for said town) stirred me deeply. I have to double check my emotions each time I watch a film whose score hails from Michael Nyman. Could be misled.

Collateral Damage (D-)
[Note: last projection reveals a 2002 release date probable]

Schwarzenegger's worst film ever - a movie that feels as dated as Commando (1985) in its political agenda as well as its vengeance-driven heroics. There are scenes in this film that will make you laugh out loud. There are other scenes that will make you wonder why John Leguizamo, John Turturro and Elias Koteas chose to participate.

Crazy/Beautiful (D)

Sold as a smart teen romance, Crazy/beautiful is rarely graceful about its Movie-of-the-Week sensibilities. Dunst appears as a druggy skank, but her emaciated-grunge makeup fails to mask the antithesis of her cinematic persona: for once, her performance can't save the terminal melodrama of a film's rather pedestrian scenario.

The Deep End (C)

To say that everything which occurs following the first act of this film was implausible would be a gigantic understatment. I was willing to buy into it to a point, but not until the scene in the boathouse where characters carry on like they're stuck in a bad STV sequel to Cabin Lake Something or Other did I give up on the film entirely.

The Dish (C)

A story that probably wasn't worth telling. A set of characters closely related to the denizens of the unholy Britcom ©  populate a film with such boring, easily reversable conflicts, I kept waiting for the fan to be doused in shit. First rule of Based on a True Story screenwriting: Something has to go wrong interestingly.

Dr. Doolittle 2 (C-)

The film is cute at first, but later, it becomes so boorish, its characters lost in a segue into deeply unimpressive digital characters - whose existence on screen seems to haave less and less to do with the narrative.

Driven (C)

Driven (i.e. - the best bad movie I've seen this year) is ridiculous. The watchable moments in this best-of fantasy film are those spotlighting the hyperkinetic, unrealistic what-if's of racing. The laughable moments attempt to show the emotive tantrums and psychological somersaults drivers experience under the pressure of their careers.

Enemy at the Gates (D+)

Saving Private Ryan by way of The Mummy Returns. More video game than film, Gates borrows  the opening sequence (a re-staging of the Battle of Stalingrad) of Ryan,which doesn't serve it in the long run. It's an unimaginative tete a tete between Harris and Law that wastes the talents of both actors.

Evolution (C)

We have some laughs, but by the end, we'll feel cheated. We are the audience of Evolution. We don't care how you get aliens into movies - just that you get them in there. Orlando Jones, fine with us! Slap as much as you can on this commercial sandwich. We'll take the first big, rotten bite.

The Fast and the Furious (B-)

This guilty pleasure amounts to Point Break in the world of souped up Cally hot rods, pedastaling the seduction of thrill sports and championing the people who live on excess adrenaline. Vin Diesel radiates cool with the kind of rare charisma we crave (in films short on brains but big on satisfying excitement).

Fat Girl (B-)

The surprise of the shocking moment in Fat Girl easily blows either of the big secrets in 2001 movies*out the water. The downside to this exponentionally sad French film is that pompous, self-important director, Catherine Breillat, seems more interested in sympathizing with the uber-sexual, gorgeous older sister than the title character.
* - (Vanilla Sky and The Others)

15 Minutes (B-)

Multi-layered, extremely ballsy and often genuinely fascinating film that, while it seems to attack things I feel are deeply original and realistic, is unfortunately racked with implausible routes to these ends and is sometimes shamefully convenient.

FinalFantasy : The Spirits Within (B-)

One of those extraordinarly rare instances where the visual layout (in this case, actors stood in and were computer enhanced to match a dreamy, labrynthine sci-fi landscape) reccomends the film even though everything but the look of the film (including the story) is so played.

Freddy Got Fingered (C)

An admirable failure. Not the immediate pile of waste most critics dismissed it as, nor is it the brilliant button pushing, pseudo-satire other critics praised it as. Freddy Got Fingered is too self-conscious to realize how unfunny it is and too abstract to come alive as a high-minded satire.

From Hell (B)

The Hughes Bros. craft a work of atmosphere and suggestion in their eerie tale, structured as a period murder mystery in which Jack the Ripper has begun to terrorize Whitecastle and only Johnny Depp - a drug-taking, telepathic inspector - can tear apart a stretch of a conspiracy that is more sleazy fiction than history lesson.

Ghost World (B)

A sidesplittingly funny first act (nearly every line is laugh out loud funny) gives way to many clever, very well drawn coming-of-age moments in the lives of two recent high school graduates who also happen to be the most negative girls in town. The always pitch perfect Steve Buscemi plays the nerdy music collector the girls prey on.

John Carpenters 'Ghosts of Mars' (B)

As utterly fascinating as a film about former beings of Mars, resurrected through inhabitants of mining colonies could possibly be. Characters feel like gleeful relics of the space epics of yesteryear: the heroine, the villain, the brain, the muscle and a disciplinary council fall into their archetypes in an non-commital, satisfying way.

Ginger Snaps (C+)

Funny, kinda playful - but way too Canadien TV to feel fresh or even interesting. There are times when it plays like Heathers with werewolves, but there are also times when it plays like every straight-to-video B Horror movie ever concocted. Perkins and Isabelle, the lead actresses, are uniquely talented and worth importing.

The Golden Bowl (B-)

A classical world with a superimposed, anachronistic modernity only barely succeeds in making the dry twists of Henry James' novel involve the characters' emotions. Instead, what keeps the film watchable are the four principles, played by actors who couldn't look or feel less the part, but who nearly melt each other trying.

Gosford Park (B-)
Greenfingers (C)

Clive Owen gives the only performance that doesn't smack of conformity to the obvious formula. Though a model Britcom ©, Greenfingers saps itself into far too pre-chiseled territory to be anything but grating. Note to future pursuees of this genre: vast improvements or permanent burial. Decide.

Hannibal (B-)

More operatic and less of a crime drama than its predecessor, 'Hannibal'  pumps pure waves of oddity (the titillating, gory kind) about halfway through the film. By the time we get to the piece d' resistance, we wish the film had been edited by a competent human being familiar with the concept of pacing.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (B)

Not awe-aspring, but seamlessly translated from the extremely engaging source novel. I loved Hogwarts and its inhabitants but, as in many live-action adaptations of animated features (which this isn't, I know), the main character's similar appearance to an existing representation supercedes the acting talent required.

Head Over Heels (D-)

That this film was able to sustain its sugary sweet existence  for more than ten minutes without going into diabetic shock is beyond me. By the time blood circulates into the plot department, an already laughable premise becomes so incoherent, we root for cherries like  Prinze, Jr. to suddenly find God and abandon acting forever.

Heartbreakers (C+)

In true mainstream original-but-not-that-original form (and despite many glaring flaws), Heartbreakers is so easy to watch, so entertaining as to foil the mind: through twists, dialogue exchanges and sheer volume, our interest never flags, even when we know that some of what we are watching is rather stale to say the least.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (B-)

This is the glam-rock movie Velvet Goldmine could have been: flashy and showy, but tender, scathing, clever, stylized and musically apt. John Cameron Mitchell turns his catchy off-broadway show into a sometimes listless, sometimes bombastic rags-to-riches musical journey.

Heist (B-)

Mamet, this time, doesn't get away with using a wading pool of thin characters in simulated overuse of the signature "twists"; instead, he uses the whole affair as a delivery device, a vehicle, if you will, for his dialogue. The underdeveloped denizens of this simplistic landscape make it easy for Mametspeak to take center stage.

In the Bedroom (A)

Simple, thought Todd Field, "I'll tell a wrenching story using both lived-in relationship turmoil and characters that breathe without dialogue if necessary. And I'll bring in a brilliant Tom Wilkinson and a devastating Sissy Spacek to play parents whose son was killed by his summer affair's ex-husband".

In The Mood For Love (B+)

Not so much the picture of clarity - or, often times, coherence without excess doubt - but, instead, a story told through such beautiful pictures, such arresting images, such rapturous cinematography as to create a visual story to slip over the loose narrative skeleton of two married people who long for - and flirt with - each other.

Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (B-)
Josie and the Pussycats (B-)
Jump Tommorrow (C+)
Jurassic Park 3 (C)
Keep the River on Your Right: a modern cannibal tale (B-)
A Knight's Tale (B-)
The Last Castle (C+)

A familiar prison movie masquerading as a combat-action film. All the pieces fall into place, but they never really come close to convincing us that this is anything more than The Shawshank Redemption with soldiers. Redford, Gandolfini and especially Ruffalo create memorable characters in a wholly forgettable film.

Legally Blonde (B-)

L.I.E. (C+)

Self-conscious and convenient at first, L.I.E. refreshes itself through its introduction of Big John (set to 'Hurdy Gurdy Man'), an ex-marine and sometimes pedophile whose complicated relationship with the film's protagonist is the primary reason to see the film. Brian Cox is electrifying at Big John.

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (B)
Lost and Delirious (D)
The Luzhin Defence (C)
Made (C+)
The Man Who Wasn't There (B+)
Memento (A)
The Mexican (C)
The Million Dollar Hotel (D+)
Monkeybone (C)
Monsters, Inc. (B)
Moulin Rouge (B+)
Mulholland Drive (A-)
The Mummy Returns (C-)
Not Another Teen Movie (C)
Ocean's Eleven (B)
One Night at McCool's (D)
Osmosis Jones (C+)
The Others (B)
Pandaemonium (C+)
Panic (C+)
Planet of the Apes (C+)
The Pledge (C)
Pearl Harbor (D+)
Pootie Tang (D+)
The Princess and the Warrior (A-)

Tykwer proves an auteur unafraid of his palette, mixing technique with storytelling for a quirky, cinematic rush of magic realism. Potente is gleefully likable as the protagonist whose life is saved in an act of courage and compassion by the gruff, but attractive Benno Furmann.

Recess : School's Out (D)
The Road Home (C-)
The Royal Tenenbaums (B+)
Rush Hour 2 (F)
Save the Last Dance (B-)
Scary Movie 2 (C+)
The Score (B+)
Serendipity (C-)

A romantic comedy where everything is certain but we're still watching attractive people in agony for ninety minutes is useless. When its actually being romantic, it's a fine and satisfying film. It is romantic for all of fifteen minutes. It shows us the wrong bulk. I doubt I'm alone in wishing the film were about love rather than destiny.

Session 9 (B)
Sexy Beast (B)

More gloss than content, the film belongs to Kingsley's interpretation of the word persuasive, his every line anticipating the next. Director Glazer fills this world with nightmarish set pieces and a concise, if occasionally displeasing pace.

Shrek (C-)
Snatch (C+)

Guy Ritchie's retread of Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels (with big name actors and ten times the subplots). Confusing, funny and ever short attention span ready, Snatch just about overloads itself into being too much movie.

Someone Like You (D)

When it's not blatantly incoherent in drawing parallels between cows and dating, Someone Like You is a fashion show / apartment tour highlighting the latest in wild miscasting, flimsy direction and an exhausted, put-me-to-bed-before-I-collapse storyline.

Songcatcher (D+)
SPY Kids (B+)

Robert Rodriguez's best film yet, this fantasy-adventure kidpic has a Indiana Jones meets The Goonies flare. Badass in the beginning, it proceeds to be such a rich entertainment that it almost ends without me knowing it.

Startup.com (B+)

A dramatically arresting documentary with all the perfect conditions for a fictional film. It feels like a thorough summation of a time in history when dot-comers became a wave of nerdy cyberspace prospectors hoping to strike it rich and yield the mother lode in internet bucks before being cast aside for the next fad.

Sugar & Spice (D-)

Feels like a B Movie being passed off as a Teeny Bopper flick, an underproduced dream sequence of a motion picture where everything we watch is vindicated by one piece of information that, if given at the start of the film, would have rendered the film - a flashback in itself - unnecessary (which is what Sugar && Spice is, essentially).

Swordfish (B)

A sly, off-beat film; part self referential spoof of modern summer thrill rides, part artful Bruckheimer-esque, misinterpretative satire posing as a solid entry to the genre (which is an obvious suggestion that it is not meant to be taken seriously).

The Tailor of Panama (C-)

Not only does this forced post-cold war spy story make little or no sense through its first hour, but Geoffrey Rush seems to be lost in his unnecessary, severe eccentricity. Even the nifty, comedic foreboding encoded in Boorman's tone (and another great performance from Brendan Gleeson) can't mend this tattered hem.

Time and Tide (B-)

Time and Tide is a melodramatic thrill ride whose frentic, colorful action sequences speak every single thing about it. The story does a confusing changeover midway through that most viewers (including myself) will find both daunting and terminal. But: this is John Woo light as envisioned by Won Kar Wi.

Together (B)

Tomb Raider (D)
Town and Country (D+)

A couple of one-liners and a decent (but out of place) ending that reflects what was probably the original vision of the film doesn't excuse miscasting, horrific editing choices, lack of fluidity between scenes and comedy that seems to toil somewhere between being a Woody Allen spoof and a teen comedy about grown ups.

Training Day (B)

After an electrifying thirty minutes, the film lapses into an action setpiece. It veers from the episodic, nearly plotless charisma of a dark, afflicted frankness only briefly, returning with a bang at close to give these assertive, larger than life characters one more chance to flit and flail in the shackles of corruption.

Under the Sand  (C+)
Va Savoir (B)
Vanilla Sky (B-)
The Vertical Ray of the Sun (B+)
Waking Life (C+)
The Wedding Planner (B)

All effort and strength is put into watching Lopez and McGonaughey fall for each other, a task none too difficult for either actor (or the writer for that matter). And endless supply of sequences where charm is rewarded and supporting characters, backstory and plot are of little to no interest to anyone (including the filmmakers).

Wet Hot American Summer (B+)
The Widow of St. Pierre (B-)
With a Friend Like Harry (B)

Often too convenient, though good at suggesting motives, scenarios and sinister possibilites. Sometimes the arrangment of ideas delivers and sometimes it plays like a series of diluted cop-outs. Sergi Lopez is memorably chilling in the title role.