question: Unlike more traditional spy films, The Lives of Others doesn't sacrifice character for cloak and dagger chases, and the performances (notably that by the late Ulrich Muhe) stay with you.

numbered reviews: 1. Combines a Cold War thriller, a love story and a Dostoevskian tale of sin and redemption. Go see it.
2. A riveting German film about spying and the fear, distrust, and betrayal that come with it.
3. If the story of a stodgy but conflicted Stasi captain gives sympathy to a historical devil, it also allows for an intriguing angle on the evergreen cinematic theme of voyeurism.
4. Von Donnersmarck proves himself beyond doubt, moving with purpose toward a grace note of quiet benediction.
5. Human nature trumps all in [this] thoughtful, engrossing tale of intrigue and instinct in 1980s East Germany.
6. Donnersmarck delivers something extraordinary: a thriller that's entirely adult in both its concerns and perspective which manages to be thoroughly gripping.
7. Writer-director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck gives his debut feature, The Lives Of Others, no particular style, and the absence of visual risk-taking renders an exciting premise ponderous and stolid.
8. It is an emotionally powerful movie that doesn't leave you when you walk out the theatre doors.
9. A riveting drama about playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), his actress girlfriend Christa-Maria (Martina Gedeck) and the Stasi agent who has wired their apartment and is spying on them in East Berlin.
10. The skillfully acted and directed The Lives of Others is a timely warning about governments that seek to repress dissent.


question: Perfectly cast and packed with suspense, The Hunt for Red October is an old-fashioned submarine thriller with plenty of firepower to spare.

numbered reviews: 1. If any film in Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan series stands out as the best (or even a truly great movie), it's The Hunt for Red October.
2. Exciting submarine adventure w/Connery, Baldwin
3. The entire cast down to the smallest role is meticulously chosen.
4. With a sharp eye for building tension and edgy editing that forces audience attention from distraction, McTiernan's Hunt should more than satisfy its audience.
5. A crackerjack Hollywood thriller that makes most other attempts look pathetic.
6. Delivers its share of honest to goodness thrills.
7. Regressive old-fashioned thriller of a sort that mostly died out 20 years earlier.
8. Book-based Cold War submarine drama is tense and thrilling.
9. It is Sean Connery who really makes this movie work for me.
10. A superbly crafted cold war thriller, with excellent performances, cinematography and tension.


question: First Sunday may have its heart in the right place, but its funny bone is dislocated.

numbered reviews: 1. Even as the film's most stereotypical figure, stand-up comic Katt Williams manages to be the only consistently funny character in this uninspired inspirational comedy.
2. It tries far too hard and achieves far too little. The laughs it causes are guilty ones, but not that guilty, because there aren't that many.
3. Though Ice Cube and Morgan should make an ideal team, neither seems particularly comfortable grappling with Talbert's amateurish script.
4. The film, written and directed by urban theater circuit playwright David E. Talbert, is far from polished, but it has a rambunctious energy that's hard to resist.
5. If there's a God, First Sunday will be the last of its kind for Ice Cube and Tracy Morgan, who deserve better than this wannabe screwball comedy about small-time crooks knocking over a church.
6. Your enjoyment of this movie may depend on the Tracy Morgan factor. Rarely has there been a comic who can switch from funny to unbearably grating with such speed.
7. If Tyler Perry ever wanted to turn Dog Day Afternoon into a treacly after-school special, it would probably end up looking a lot like this.
8. Writer-director David E. Talbert has a fine cast...but he lets them down with a wretched, amateurish script...
9. Talbert's unable to pin down exactly what kind of movie he wants to make, a slapstick sermon or an urban tragicomedy?
10. Ice Cube is now Public Enemy Number Fun, although First Sunday is only fun if you're in dire need of a modernist urban take on the strain of comedy Abbott and Costello used to practice, which, let's be honest, wasn't that funny to begin with.


question: The story may be a bit too melodramatic, but great performances abound in Songcatcher. The real reason to see the movie, however, is the hypnotic music.

numbered reviews:
1. As bossy and joyless as its title character.
2. Filled with an infectious love for the region's songs.
3. It allows McTeer to make another cherishable but not sappy portrait in her remarkable gallery of women.
4. The cast (which includes folk singer Iris Dement) is superb, and the music is its equal.
5. Begins with noble intentions before getting sidetracked by a sappy storyline.
6. Your enjoyment of the Songcatcher will pretty much depend on your predisposition to like it.
7. Perhaps too laden with messages for its own good, but it has many moments of musical beauty.
8. As captivating as it is earnest and off-beat.
9. Muddies the waters with a bogus villain and melodramatic subplots.
10. Made for the lowest common denominator.