question: While made from overly familiar ingredients, Drew Barrymore's directorial debut has enough charm, energy, and good-natured humor to transcend its many cliches.

numbered reviews: 1. Unlike most Hollywood teen product, here fulfilment comes not from what others think of you but from what you think of yourself. In short, it's Girl Power reinvented.
2. Whip It follows the classic follows the classic tropes of any indie coming-of-age film, big game showdown et al, but does it all so well you'll be instantly charmed.
3. Teeming with girl-power spirit, Barrymore's film exudes an all-encompassing benevolence rather than strident one-upmanship. These girls just want to have fun.
4. An unexpected pleasure...goofily enjoyable.
5. Juliette Lewis and her crazy eyes pretty much make any movie better.
6. Led by Ellen Page, the movie finds the Juno star playing a slightly less cocksure version of the Diablo Cody creation.
7. It doesn't reach for an epic scale but is comfortable in its humility, and that makes it all the more stellar...
8. [Whip It] treats its mostly female cast of characters with respect, and this is (sadly) a rare treat in cinema. Hannah Montana may be this generation's Spice Girl, but Bliss Cavender is the one really waving the 'girl power' flag.
9. What impresses is the girl power spirit often prevalent in Barrymore's work, but also a its sense of optimism and warm heart.
10. Barrymore is just as determined to land some insightful and unexpected dramatic punches as she is with the inherent physical comedy for which the sport is renowned.


question: Inspiration is in short supply in this third Karate Kid film, which recycles the basic narrative from its predecessors but adds scenery-chewing performances and a surprising amount of violence.

numbered reviews: 1. The makers of The Karate Kid Part III -- also responsible for its successful predecessors -- have either delivered or taken a few too many kicks to the head along the way.
2. It's difficult to believe that nearly every member of the primary artistic team from the first two features returned for the third Kid installment, and this was the cruel abomination that resulted.
3. The pattern has so calcified that Gene Autry westerns seem like models of moral complexity by comparison.
4. The unevenness of The Karate Kid movies reaches its peak in The Karate Kid Part III...
5. From hero to punk in 2 hours.
6. A bit of an improvement over the second installment, but so what?
7. A performance from Macchio so irritating that the goodwill left over from the The Karate Kid is gone in a finger-snap.
8. After suffering endless abuse, Daniel wins with just a few well placed whacks: those expecting standard wish-fulfilment fantasy will be disappointed that (in tune with the philosophy, of course) he didn't give the punk a pasting.
9. This is one karate chop too many...master Morita and student Macchio should have stopped before overstaying their welcome in this tepid follow-up
10. With its sluggish script and unaging characters, The Karate Kid Part III has the rote sense of film makers trying to crank out another moneymaker.


question: Starter For 10 is a spirited coming-of-age tale that remains charming and witty even as it veers into darker teritory. The unique setting of a quiz show makes the film wittier than your average romantic comedy.

numbered reviews: 1. This is expertly crafted entertainment that follows all the beats of a traditional romantic comedy, but it's done with such sincerity that it's difficult to begrudge the odd descent into cliché.
2. [The film] bears many of the hallmarks of teen comedies, but also boasts virtues not generally associated with the genre, such as wit, class consciousness, multidimensional characters, and a penetrating intelligence.
3. Enjoyably fluffy romantic comedy with a witty script, an 80s-tastic soundtrack and a superb comic performance from James McAvoy.
4. Has a strong story and engaging characters, even if it never really says anything terribly deep or meaningful.
5. A film whose own wisdom about the world seems principally derived from innumerable coming-of-age tales.
6. Starter For Ten comfortably makes the grade for rib-tickling entertainment.
7. This is a true winner, and the smartest comedy you will see this year.
8. This amiable British romantic comedy further confirms the gifts of star James McAvoy.
9. Starter for 10 brings a fresh approach to an old formula and the result is a romantic comedy that hits all the right buttons.
10. enjoyable if lightweight entertainment


question: Despite Kate Winslet's superb portrayal, The Reader suggests an emotionally distant, Oscar-baiting historical drama.

numbered reviews:
1. I was incredibly moved by this film, the way it delves into emotional investment, the power of literature to humanise, the whole ambition to encompass the responsibility of a nation for the evil that occurred.
2. No doubt there is a fine line between a film that intends to be morally ambiguous and one that feels incomplete.
3. Succeeds on its own terms mainly because of Kate Winslet's earnest Oscar fixated performance.
4. Its issues are infinite and moveable. It's a bold and challenging work.
5. Despite my problems with The Reader, it's still a film well worth seeing, although far from Oscar worthy.
6. ...it is a movie of incredible moral obtuseness.
7. Daldry and Hare replicate adroitly the moral balancing act that makes the book so fascinating...
8. The film...hankers after something redemptive. But whatever difficult possibilities about guilt and silence it explores are dissolved into disconcerting blandness.
9. The Reader does not succeed as a coherent film, despite some fine work by actors and the filmmakers' best intentions.
10. The Reader is all about secrets and lies and the possibility that monstrous actions are not a function of something called Evil, but something messier, stranger and more common to all.