question: Aside from its clichéd resolution, Disturbia is a tense, subtle thriller with a noteworthy performance from Shia LaBeouf.

numbered reviews: 1. LaBeouf, a soulful-eyed wiseguy with a complex emotional repertoire, keeps the movie interesting even after utter predictability sets in.
2. Okay, so DreamWorks has remade Rear Window with teens, but could it actually be good? Welcome back to the edge of your seat.
3. as an homage to old-fashioned suspense films, you could do a lot worse
4. ...what the director gets right - very right in the move's first two acts - is the ways kids relate and interact in a modern world where iPods and laptops are ubiquitous, where a lot of the world is reducible to digital blips.
5. Rear Window gets a facelift for the iPod generation.
6. Disturbia isn't your first choice this weekend if you're in your 20s or older, but for the crowd who are about the same age as Shia and the gang, this is great Friday night material.
7. If not perfection, "Disturbia" achieves something more than most modern thrillers - the right to describe itself in that genre and a few others. This hodgepodge homage becomes stupid and shrill in its final reel, but it's a nifty good time.
8. LaBeouf and Roemer have a frisky chemistry, and the always-reliable Morse is a delicious devil.
9. Rear Window redone for a more paranoid age, an age that embraces its paranoia as The New Normal, and not something to be disturbiaed about at all.
10. Crisp performances, a creepy bad guy, absorbing plot twists, capable direction, and a script that has some telling points to make about the way we saturate ourselves with media make this thriller, like Kale's neighbors, very watchable.


question: It's far from comfortable viewing, but 12 Years a Slave's unflinchingly brutal look at American slavery is also brilliant -- and quite possibly essential -- cinema.

numbered reviews: 1. The film of the decade.
2. 12 Years a Slave is easily the greatest feature film ever made about American slavery.
3. But the much talked-about 12 Years a Slave is more than a beautifully shot art piece. It's history made violently real.
4. Other movies and books have gone here, but few so far and with such overwhelming clarity of purpose.
5. Ejiofor brings imposing physicality and intimidating intellect to the role, and thus Northup poses a threat to his enemies -- even if they can't articulate it as such.
6. An important work, but one that's more potent on an intellectual level than an emotional one.
7. The film offers a formidable indictment of the cruelty of which human beings are capable.
8. McQueen imbues his film with undeniable artistry and intellectual rigor, but startlingly little passion. You will be angered, horrified and moved by what you witness, but you will not be challenged.
9. With this powerful, almost classical drama, British director Steve McQueen has made the seminal film about slavery that Hollywood feared to tackle.
10. The production of "12 Years a Slave" is by far the most ambitious work for director McQueen who makes a strong statement against the still-ongoing issue of slavery.


question: A charismatic turn by star Matt Damon and a consistently ironic tone boost this quietly funny satire about a corporate whistle-blower.

numbered reviews: 1. After 1 1/2 hours of ker-azee chuckles, you get one big clunker of a climax tossed in your lap.
2. While there are difficulties with the tone and the almost smug, clever-clever attitude of The Informant, the unusual nature of the story and, above all else, the performance of Damon make it worth catching.
3. The problem with The Informant!, aside from that overcoaxing exclamation mark, is that it's not especially funny.
4. An amusing and beautifully acted little caper but the very American shenanigans may well struggle to keep you entirely engaged.
5. Hugely enjoyable, frequently hilarious and superbly directed.
6. An engaging corporate comedy-drama that continually catches us (and the characters) off guard. It's great fun to watch, and has a strongly resonant kick.
7. Damon conveys the vulnerability of his character, but the script fails to explore why Whitacre makes the choices he does. He's simply buffoonish.
8. Quirky and eccentric rather than laugh-out-loud funny, mildly amusing rather than fully involving.
9. Damon is great. His comic timing as Mark Whitacre, a biochemist turned inept corporate whistleblower, transforms what should have been a dull film into an entertaining one.
10. Scott Z Burns's script hinges entirely on incidents that take place off-screen. The film will only work if audiences fail to notice this. But they won't, so it won't.


question: Snowpiercer offers an audaciously ambitious action spectacular for filmgoers numb to effects-driven blockbusters.

numbered reviews:
1. Every moment of genius and every half-formed lump alike make this one of the completely essential films of the year.
2. A movie-movie, with edgy cred and a vivid dystopian vision that, while ostensibly futuristic, speaks harshly to the class divide already defining us.
3. Violent, often absurd, but full of brilliant surprises.
4. Merits near-hyperbolic praise.
5. Snowpiercer features uneven performances, but gets great mileage from its set design, the sheer audacity of the premise, and the appearance of one of those movie villains who seem able to take lethal punishment without actually dying.
6. You couldn't ask for a better metaphor for hell on Earth than what Bong Joon-ho has wrought with Snowpiercer: constant forward momentum while getting absolutely nowhere, suffering all the while.
7. Suddenly zombies, nukes or a global pandemic don't seem nearly as devastating as a train ride to nowhere.
8. Snowpiercer feels both heightened and grounded, allegorical yet familiar, able to be experienced. The confined space in no way inhibits tension or excitement, or a sense of forward momentum. It's a film not to be missed.
9. Snowpiercer hits the sweet spot of working as entertainment while still having enough brains to keep you intellectually engaged. It's a movie for people who love movies that play by their own rules.
10. It emerges from a place of fearsome ambition, dressed in the skin of a zealous summer blockbuster but equipped with a brain that far exceeds the standards of its classification.