question: With biting satire, plenty of subversive humor, and an unforgettable turn by Robert Downey, Jr., Tropic Thunder is a triumphant late Summer comedy.

numbered reviews: 1. Tropic Thunder wants to make big money mocking big-money movie making, and the only thing that detracts from the fun and comedy is how, even while you're watching it, you can't help but notice the order those priorities come in.
2. Downey imbues the movie with whatever soul (though I use that word cautiously in this context) and commitment it has.
3. Tropic Thunder deserves to be seen solely for Downey Jr.'s brilliant one-man show, which, in a perfect world, would be recognized by Oscar voters come January.
4. Saving the best for first in the case of a radically raunchy pseudo-prologue, the most frightening episode in this jungle gross-out is not warfare, but Cruise's newly bald, hairy and paunchy bizarre update of his classic Risky Business musical romp.
5. Make Satan's Alley. Do it now while Robert Downey Jr. is still Michael Phelps hot. The world needs more monk love set to Enigma.
6. A daring, politically incorrect satire on the movie industry that turns out to be one of summer's loosest, funniest comedies.
7. Simple Jack is not a bone-headed pandering Hollywood idea of what a mentally handicapped person might be like, but a joke about how Hollywood often misses the point and underestimates its audience.
8. Tropic Thunder is crass, gross and rude - but it's also funny as hell.
9. Hell, it may even save Tom Cruise's career. Let's see Batman do that.
10. Ben Stiller's audacious spoof of war movies is - without doubt - the summer's funniest comedy, sending up Hollywood egos.


question: A mirthless movie as fresh as last year's fruit cake, Christmas with the Kranks is a coarse, garish comedy that promotes conformity.

numbered reviews: 1. See Joe Roth's movie and you'll understand the true demeaning of Christmas.
2. Contains momentum-halting continuity errors and clownish antics from hammy performers that will have Santa scribbling furiously on next year's "Naughty" list.
3. ...almost had me convinced to convert to Judaism to avoid having to go through anything ever again that even remotely resembles this movie.
4. Rotten Eggnog
5. It is a perfectly fine, inoffensive family comedy.
6. What better way is there to get into a festive spirit than having it crammed down your throat?
7. This holiday comedy depicts suburbia as a place where all true individualists are treated with a nastiness not in tune with the Christmas spirit.
8. Makes the colossal mistake of making Luther's obsession seem almost a valid protest against conformity -- then lets the neighbors not only win but claim the moral high ground.
9. Humbug. American families deserve a better effort than this.
10. Oh boy. This was a painful experience. Very painful.


question: Disjointed storytelling overshadows noteworthy performances.

numbered reviews: 1. In this season of Oscar-bait overacting, I'm grateful that "A Map of the World" includes recognizable emotional landmass.
2. A film with an every day beginning and an every day ending, and a triumph in between.
3. A searing yet wholly believable journey.
4. Carries surprising dramatic power; and the acting is good enough to carry it over even the admitted rough patches in the final reels.
5. A truly remarkable film. It is just not for everyone.
6. Good performances all through the movie.
7. Acclaimed stage director Scott Elliot makes an auspicious debut behind the camera.
8. An accomplished film that continually takes us beyond our first impressions of people and situations.
9. Worth navigating for its refusal to play to the crowd. There's certainly nothing safe or sweet about Weaver's performance.
10. A Map of the World is a grim, humorless melodrama with very little entertainment value.


question: Despite all the underdog sports movie conventions, the likable cast and lush production values make The Greatest Game Ever Played a solid and uplifting tale.

numbered reviews:
1. not a feel-good, root-for-the-underdog movie, but a caricature of one
2. This charming film (editing tricks aside), is rich in humor and period detail, and amazingly suspenseful considering we already know the outcome.
3. A great underdog film that is absolutely stolen by the 10 year old caddy played by Josh Flitter. If you don't love him, you have no soul.
4. I'm going to bet that Bill Paxton loves golf. Because, despite his deftly directed "Frailty," "The Greatest Game Ever Played" rolls all over the place.
5. The most visually and emotionally dynamic film ever made about a game of golf — perhaps the most visually and emotionally dynamic possible film about a game of golf.
6. As a film replay, The Greatest Game is hardly that, but it's at least a pretty good one.
7. Riddled with underdog cliches and embellishments, and lays the sentimentality on thick at every opportunity, making the emotional response feel more manipulated then genuine.
8. More than any such movie I remember, The Greatest Game Ever Played celebrates the ideal of sportsmanship.
9. Movies about golf are seldom, if ever, 'great.'
10. It may not be, as the title says, the greatest game every played, but it certainly is a darn good round of golf.