question: A charming piece of work with believable characters.

numbered reviews: 1. Funny, awkward, or poignant!
2. A refreshing, loving look at friendship and growing up black.
3. With tender storytelling instincts and a keen ear for teenspeak, Famuyiwa flaunts a knack for feel-good comedy.
4. It's got heart and it's much smarter and funnier than you'd be led to believe.
5. The Wood paints a fair picture of growing up black, bright and, of all things, without sullen malice or uncorrectable misogyny.
6. It's about time someone made a movie with black male characters who are believable and funny without being buffoonish.
7. The growing-up stuff is kind of wonderful.
8. A fair and admirable comedy we haven't quite seen before.
9. Since positive images of middle-class black friendships and romance remain rare while gangster tales, drugs and gang gunfire dominate the screen, The Wood gets bonus points.
10. The Wood is a solid debut for director Famuyiwa.


question: With little chemistry among the performers, humorless gags, and a predictable storyline, Fool's Gold fails on every level.

numbered reviews: 1. It's not a complete power failure, but it's close.
2. A comedy with no jokes is more like a dulledy.
3. This movie feels very generic and very, very long; after it's over, you might need a little sunscreen for your brain.
4. So intricate, so convoluted and so full of various character names that it becomes impossible to follow.
5. Fool's Gold makes Six Days, Seven Nights look like Raiders of the Lost Ark. It makes Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End look like Pirates: Curse of the Black Pearl. It makes Into the Blue look like everything
6. Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson have the spar-flirt formula down pat.
7. Alas, the nautical romantic comedy constitutes a missed opportunity-a voyage to Red Lobster in a dinghy-mostly thanks to mediocre directing.
8. Not only do we not care about the lost treasure, their characters aren't developed enough for us to give a hoot, so nothing about this story strikes gold.
9. The action does kick in eventually, but director Andy Tennant's staging is uninspired. The picture also grows more violent than you might expect -- a development that smacks of desperation.
10. The plot gets messier without getting funnier, and there's something distasteful about the way the movie treats its black Bahamian characters.


question: Blame it on Fidel is a charming comedy of manners, class, and politics, elevated by a remarkable performance from lead child actor Nina Kervel.

numbered reviews: 1. [Director] Gavras has undeniable skill as a screenwriter, suggesting that the production might have benefited from a more experienced helmer.
2. One of those rare films that maintain unwavering fidelity to a child's view of the world.
3. Ridiculously charming.
4. Gavras's style is already as assured as her father's, and her ability to balance the audience's understanding of grown-up beliefs with that of a rapidly maturing girl is deft.
5. ...an adult-level film that does a great job of giving a child's view of a world in the throes of change.
6. Gavras uses Anna's precocious reason to tackle a generation's idealism head-on.
7. A wrenching, funny and wise little picture, with a diva-like junior star at its center.
8. The film lacks a sympathetic character even in its eternally petulant child protagonist and is lax in differentiating who's who.
9. Politics -- hardly a movie audience's immediate choice when it comes to entertainment -- becomes a deeply engaging subject in Blame It on Fidel thanks to a 9-year-old charmer who steals our hearts.
10. It's all too easy to read Blame It On Fidel as a simple morality tale, an allegory comparing conservatism to childishness, and political awakening to emotional maturity.


question: Thanks to the cast, Ghostbusters 2 is reasonably amusing, but it lacks the charm, wit, and energy of its predecessor.

numbered reviews:
1. There's plenty to enjoy here and fans of the group won't care about the shortcomings.
2. Hammered together out of the junkiest of elements, the movie rattles along with a pleasing rambunctiousness, tossing off its quips and one-liners and scoring on a remarkably high percentage of them.
3. No one has ever accused Ghostbusters II of being a great film, or even a good one, for that matter
4. Bottom line: with Murray on fire and enough clever dialogue to rival its predecessor, Ghostbusters II is good enough to put post-milennial comedy to shame.
5. Feels like a blueprint concocted by the bean-counters at Columbia Pictures.
6. The film is largely an excuse for a cast get-together, with the Ghostbusters, under judicial restraining order after the havoc wreaked in part one, suffering lives of semi-obscurity.
7. Even the special effects are more to the point of the comedy than they were in the first film. For some reason, this appears to leave more room for the sort of random funny business that Mr. Murray and his friends do best.
8. A few bright moments thanks to the cast.
9. A loose, assured sequel that has the breezy ambition of simply being fun and likable. And it is.
10. Best forgotten sequel.