Problem: 1. I've Loved You So Long is a heart-rending movie that takes the audience by surprise.
2. A haunting and redemptive film experience.
3. Locked into a scheme of formal rigor and peek-a-boo screenwriting, the film is too busy calling attention to its own cleverness to allow any room for emotional connection.
4. If this movie is as patient, delicate, and introspective as it pretends, what to make of all the bludgeoning, obvious tactics that keep serving to remind us of its impeccable tact?
5. It's certainly a good film, but its merits seem relatively inconsequential next to the knockout performance by its lead, Scott Thomas ... who uses minimal expressions to convey so much.
6. Without Kristin Scott Thomas, I've Loved You So Long would be a watchable but hardly a memorable movie.
7. I've Loved You So Long is a love letter to family. It's an homage to the restorative power of love. It's a gift of forgiveness.
8. An uneven new French film that plays like a companion piece to the recent British drama Boy A.
9. Like a good book, I've Loved You So Long unfolds in chapters. And when it ends, you close the cover with emotion and reluctance.
10. Anchored by Kristin Scott Thomas' searing, downright engrossing performance...
What is the consensus?
****
Answer: I've Loved You So Long is a sublimely acted family drama as well as a noteworthy directorial debut from Phillipe Claudel.


Problem: 1. Where others have sunk in the mire of imitation, director Paul Anderson and writer Kevin Droney effect a viable balance between exquisitely choreographed action and ironic visual and verbal counterpoint.
2. All the head-crushing and thigh-flexing doesn't compensate for the monotony of a story that simply traipses from one combat (sorry, kombat) to the next.
3. British director Anderson does a fair job with what he was given: four good-looking leads, some very impressive sfx, Babylonian sets, a bone-crunching soundtrack, and a battery of well-choreographed fights.
4. cheesy but still, kick ass
5. ...a one-note gimmick that comes with everything but a joystick for the viewer to control the robotic characters.
6. Hardly award-worthy entertainment, and pretty visually dated, but probably one of the better video game movies ever made comparatively.
7. We'll concede that four-armed Prince Goro is a hoot, Christopher Lambert looks fabulous in a flowing white wig, and Talisa Soto, who plays some kind of princess, can lord it over us anytime.
8. In the realm of movies adapted from video games, "Mortal Kombat" sucks the least...
9. This one's a howler that's so bad it's almost good -- almost.
10. Like watching a lot of sweaty fist fights while trapped in the world's loudest night club.
What is the consensus?
****
Answer: Despite an effective otherwordly atmosphere and appropriately cheesy visuals, Mortal Kombat suffers from its poorly constructed plot, laughable dialogue, and subpar acting.


Problem: 1. Don's journey becomes a vision of lost opportunities and paths not taken, and in Murray's hands it is sublime.
2. ...both Jarmusch and Murray ... do what they do best, even if their specialty is starting to feel like spinning wheels.
3. Don's journey peels back the surface of so many American dreams to find them wanting, while Winston, dodging kids and doting on his 'perfect' wife, seems as rich as a king.
4. There's so much going on behind Murray's sad eyes that words aren't necassary. A great performance.
5. Murray has never been more inward and unanimated ... It's a deeply chilled-out performance ... [and] like the rest of the movie, it's worth seeing.
6. Broken Flowers is ultimately more interesting than it is good.
7. It kept me absorbed all the way through, especially the collaboration between acting auteur Bill Murray and Mr. Jarmusch in virtually every frame of the film.
8. It is not an unpleasant way to spend time.
9. ...has a bottomless poignancy that Jarmusch cements in quiet character moments, symbolic imagery and out-of-reach temptations that wiggle effectively into the subconscious.
10. A wholly and ingeniously realized joy.
What is the consensus?
****
Answer:
Bill Murray's subtle and understated style complements director Jim Jarmusch's minimalist storytelling in this quirky, but deadpan comedy.