Q: 1. A better grubby guy/hot chick fable than Knocked Up, certainly much more honest about its male-fantasy status
2. The film looks terrific - Besson shoots his beloved Paris in gorgeous black and white photography that recalls both Wings of Desire and It's A Wonderful Life, both of which Angel-A happily steals from.
3. Angel-A is all icky fantasy.
4. The beautiful black-and-white photography -- and disappointingly sappy ending -- are the only remotely sober elements here, thanks to Besson's loopy script and Debbouze's very funny turn as a loser who simply can't believe his luck.
5. In essence, you get It's a Wonderful Life meets Wings of Desire, swapping out the substance for self-help platitudes. If you can get past that, you can enjoy it as a 90-minute look at a lovely postcard.
6. This Parisian fable is a talkathon, affecting a silly toughness, but the sights are good to see again.
7. For many people, including me, the visual virtuosity behind Angel-A will be more than enough to get them over the storytelling bumps and the character inconsistencies.
8. While ultimately there's a repetitive quality to the film's dialogue (the couple appear to be having the same arguments), there's still something pleasant and enjoyable in the performances.
9. The [angel] turns out to be Stuart Smalley, parking André in front of a mirror so he can tell himself he's good enough, he's smart enough, and doggone it, people like him.
10. This movie will make you feel better about life in general, and, in particular, about Paris, which has never looked more magnificent than in Thierry Arbogast's cinematography.
Based on these individual reviews, what is the critic consensus?

A: Consensus: The clunky dialogue and shallow characters fail to capitalize upon Angel-A's stunning, poetic cinematography.


Q: 1. Remember hearing that the early studio inclination with Harry [Potter] was to Americanize him? This tedious, plodding, thoroughly unmagical movie could well be what that Hollywood Harry might have been.
2. Screenwriter John Hodge strips Cooper's story of its details and charm, reducing it to a kind of characterless, elemental video game -- an apocalyptic scavenger hunt.
3. A slapdash story told hastily, without whimsy or wit.
4. Finally [Susan] Cooper's fantasy comes to the screen this weekend with The Seeker.
5. Though it frequently feels like its missing most of its formative folklore, and trails off into fits of formless meandering about two thirds of the way through, The Seeker is actually a rather good ripping yarn.
6. The ultimate question is, was the movie purposefully made into a blur to play directly into the pockets of the fans, or do we chalk this up to standard-issue directorial incompetence? I vote the latter.
7. What's the fun of being a seeker if you don't actually get to do any seeking?
8. This might be the first movie where I hoped I would fall asleep in the middle
9. Director David L. Cunningham applies a jarring, disorienting style to much of the action that, rather than mirroring Will's inner confusion, distances the audience from his plight.
10. Screenwriter John Hodge and director David Cunningham's adaptation seems all too derivative of Star Wars, Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings, and it takes itself more seriously than any of those -- much too seriously.
Based on these individual reviews, what is the critic consensus?

A: Consensus: The magic of the book is lost in translation with The Seeker, due to its clumsy plot and lack of heart.


Q: 1. You'll be rooting for these people to get slaughtered out of sheer boredom.
2. ... doesn't look down upon its target audience... House both treats and terrorizes while legitimizing itself next to other slasher classics.
3. The 2005 remake doesn't hold a candle to the original.
4. '...the 2nd best Paris Hilton film I've seen this year. '
5. When the cast starts wondering where the roadkill is, someone says, 'Follow the smell.' Good tip: That's how you'll know where Wax is playing.
6. This movie gives it to you, as no movie has in some years.
7. Such a vile and despicable heap of trash that I pity any lucid person who will actually pay decent money to sit through it.
8. The unmistakable promise of a sequel in the last scene inspires more resignation than anticipation.
9. A very stupid, very nasty and very messy horror film.
10. It delivers some bracingly nasty gore scenes, but there's no spark left in the run-scream-repeat formula, and a movie whose biggest draw is profoundly untalented hotel-fortune heiress Paris Hilton is in desperate need of some juice.
Based on these individual reviews, what is the critic consensus?

A: Consensus: Bearing little resemblance to the 1953 original, House of Wax is a formulaic but better-than-average teen slasher flick.


Q: 1. You watch it, figure out how it works, and then never have to interact with it ever again.
2. A witty, well-made addition to the [time travel] subgenre.
3. While it isn't that hard to stay a step or two ahead of Timecrimes, the movie is still a nifty little genre piece, an old-fashioned science-fiction mind-game with a healthy dollop of 'Oh, the irony.'
4. more tantalizing than satisfying
5. If only American sci-fi filmmaking was this clever and involving.
6. A grimly funny sci-fi determinist's challenge to the very idea of free will.
7. By the end, details fall into place with a minimum amount of exposition or explicit explanation, making it the best kind of action movie -- the kind that's actually about action.
8. Low-budget Spanish thriller about a guy that stumbles hours into the past and winds up trying to correct his last few mistakes can't survive its contrived plot contortions, non-characters, or "well, duh" obviousness.
9. Vigalondo's film wastes little time in foregrounding the act of seeing.
10. Even though Vigalondo's obvious direction lingers over every carefully arranged tile in the toppling-domino plot, there's still some sinister amusement in watching them stack and fall.
Based on these individual reviews, what is the critic consensus?

A:
Consensus: Timecrimes is a low-budget thriller that's well-crafted and loaded with dark humor and bizarre twists.