question: In this family of twelve children, much chaos ensues, but little hilarity.

numbered reviews: 1. Hollywood has tried too hard, attempting to re-create organic family life through excessive artificiality.
2. Remember when we used to look forward to Steve Martin movies? Those days may be gone with Martin now relegated to messy slapstick comedies that strain to see whether they can be as sentimental as they are predictable.
3. This turkey unfolds like the worst-ever episode of The Brady Bunch, only without a laugh track to tell us when we're supposed to be enjoying ourselves.
4. Good performances keep the movie from collapsing under the weight of its cliches.
5. Harmless family fare that's as forgettable as it is initially funny.
6. Safe, predictable and thoroughly unexceptional family entertainment of the variety that you could probably find at any time of the day or night on any number of cable television networks.
7. By starring in three of the worst comedies of 2003, Steve Martin has officially turned himself into the Anti-Comic.
8. Most of Tom and Kate Baker's 12 children seem to have been flown in from a casting office in Burbank.
9. From playful mugging to tender affection, Martin exudes a strong star persona, and he and Hunt share romantic warmth despite a dearth of alone time.
10. The children in this movie are all self-serving ingrates.


question: A tense and effective thriller, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead marks a triumphant return to form for director Sidney Lumet.

numbered reviews: 1. The movie, however, belongs to Lumet: The fact that he's produced such a vital work as an octogenarian is amazing enough, but the way this tragedy unfolds without a single false move puts the film among the best work of a very prestigious career.
2. After a long series of artistic missteps, Sidney Lumet, 83, makes a smashing return to form with this bleak crime thriller that shows off the veteran director's many strengths.
3. Proof that Sidney Lumet's talent is, in every sense, timeless.
4. Lumet tries getting back to the outrageous satirical mode of Network and Just Tell Me What You Want, but this family dysfunction story fails the classic requirements of social critique.
5. A botched-heist thriller with labyrinthine plot twists, suspenseful character revelations and out-of-sequence narrative elements befitting a grand opera mounted on a massive scale.
6. Back in form after decades of mediocre work, Lumet elevates with skillful, elegant helming and good acting what's essentially updated version of old heist films and family melodramas of Arthur Miller and company, defined by explicit Freudian psychology.
7. The 83-year-old Mr. Lumet, who has handled such immortals as Brando and Magnani in his career, expertly extracts individually charismatic performances from Mr. Hoffman, Mr. Hawke, Mr. Finney, Ms. Harris and Ms. Tomei.
8. A triumphantly brisk, bleak B-movie.
9. This is not classic Sidney Lumet, but it's ample evidence that after more than 40 years working in this business, the director is still capable of crafting an entertaining and thought provoking motion picture.
10. Three years after being presented a Lifetime Achievement Oscar, the 83-year-old director comes forth with a violent family melodrama that is his strongest movie in at least two decades.


question: Sometimes inventive and witty, this animated adventure into an ant-sized world is a pleasant diversion.

numbered reviews: 1. While the animation, particularly in the action set pieces, is indeed well done, it's nothing revolutionary nor imaginative that stands out from the rest in this CG-feature-a-week marketplace.
2. Isn't clever or inventive enough to make up for its repetitive and lackluster storytelling.
3. Cute animated movie with a message for kids.
4. It's a fun adventure fantasy, and I was never bored...
5. Ten year old Lucas Nickle ( the voice of Zach Tyler Eisen) stomps an anthill after an encounter with neighborhood bullies. With the help of a magic potion, the ants shrink the boy down to their size. The insects are about to get even and Lucas will learn
6. ...this visually arresting story of a young geek's friendship with some enterprising ants isn't as compelling in the script department.
7. One of those animated features you can enjoy even without a kid by your side.
8. It's imaginative and amusing with its engaging characters and nicely crafted animation, even though the ants themselves are visually the least interesting ... Uplifting and bright.
9. The film acknowledges that faith is an important part of our social fabric, and if the film has any moral lessons to pass on, it implicitly roots them in a spiritual foundation.
10. The new computer-animated movie, "The Ant Bully," knows a few things about bullies, most of which we already know--all of which bear repeating.


question: Meandering and insubstantial, Aloha finds writer-director Cameron Crowe at his most sentimental and least compelling.

numbered reviews:
1. Infuriatingly messy and opaque...so misshapen and tonally awkward that whatever [Crowe] intended has to be imagined rather than experienced.
2. Cameron Crowe throws every love story trick possible at the screen and nothing sticks. Say aloha - as in goodbye - to Aloha.
3. A big-name cast doesn't necessarily translate into a good movie.
4. What should have been an entertaining romantic comedy from Crowe turns out to be an overly disappointing one. Shame on him for squandering such talent!
5. There are enough small moments here to illustrate what might have been...but some shaggy editing and too many false moves - particularly the ridiculous climax and tone deaf epilog - deep six the film.
6. "Aloha" feels like several films at once, crammed together and sped up, with results that are emotionally hollow and narratively confusing.
7. Cameron Crowe writes movies like he's calling us in eighth grade with his heart on fire.
8. With every film, Crowe's formula comes more increasingly unhinged from any recognizable reality. Now his movies seem to take place on Mars.
9. At least this feels like a Cameron Crowe movie.
10. As a love letter to Hawaii, ALOHA is a sweet - and scenic - yet not always satisfying sentiment.