Problem: 1. Dazzling, dizzying, daredevil experience...
2. I actually hid my eyes from the laser-projected 3D Imax image at one point, overwhelmed by the sheer visceral spectacle of it all.
3. A celebration of an extraordinary man, an astonishing feat and the towers themselves; a tribute to human endeavour. Jaw-dropping.
4. Initially a toe-curling mix of The Pink Panther and Amélie, this fable ultimately offers pure entertainment. Life of Pi in the sky.
5. Despite a wobbly start, "The Walk" eventually finds its feet once you realize Zemeckis and company are delivering a confident, charming and unexpectedly stirring version of the tale aimed more at children than Marsh's warts-and-all documentary.
6. Man on Wire... was enough to give vertigo sufferers damp palms and palpitations. Watching Zemickis's breathtaking Imax 3D recreation of Petit's stunt, even those with a cool head for heights will break out in cold sweats.
7. The final half-hour, as Petit takes to the wire, is basically one sustained money shot.
8. Dazzling to look at with awe-inspiring standard effects (read: CGI) , but it lacks enough truly special effects, a.k.a. humanism.
9. The Walk is an entertaining and often thrilling piece of storytelling, in addition to being an impressive display of 3D filmmaking.
10. The Walk, while it could have used a better script, is a transporting experience, and the ultimate reason for that is that the Philippe Petit we see offers up his death-defying showmanship as an act of faith, not just for himself but for everyone.
What is the consensus?
****
Answer: The Walk attempts a tricky balancing act between thrilling visuals and fact-based drama -- and like its wire-walking protagonist, pulls it off with impressive élan.


Problem: 1. Deft and delicate and exquisitely uncomfortable, but it also offers revelations that are joyful, sad and true.
2. The result is a bit twisty, largely credible and well played by the talented leads.
3. Does Brice even fully grasp what he's getting at? Maybe not. That's why this is such a juicy specimen of the Cocktail Party Walpurgisnacht subgenre. He's in nearly the same place as his riven characters.
4. I haven't laughed out loud so long and often at any comedy so far this year.
5. The kind of tame comedy that promises something transgressive but then chickens out before going anywhere that might unsettle its core audience.
6. A shocking, provocative and memorable trip. I wish the movie was about something deeper than physical attraction, and our general insecurities. It's not, so the stakes stay low. But it's intriguing.
7. Painfully funny and brilliantly performed.
8. The writing is blatantly sexual but utterly unrevealing; the characters and their problems are cut to fit the airtight plot.
9. Like the sex comedy it's billed as, The Overnight teases and titillates, but the film's sincerity addressing the messiness of monogamy is what cements its bawdy brilliance.
10. The cast ... is totally game for the film's over-the-top escapades.
What is the consensus?
****
Answer: Witty and unpredictable, The Overnight benefits from writer-director Patrick Brice's sure-handed touch and strong performances from a talented cast.


Problem: 1. A work of straightforward emotion and pulse-quickening tension.
2. For a piece of propaganda, this has a lot more artfulness than you'll recall, replete with quiet moments of public mourning and a stirring flag-hoisting (dyed red on the new print, too).
3. Sergei Eisenstein's masterpiece is a persistently political work salvaged by its unforgettable grasp of motion.
4. Battleship Potemkin is agitprop, but cinematically magnificent agitprop...
5. The direction of Sergei Eisenstein is original and powerful.
6. Eisenstein proved himself to be the first of what would become a familiar filmmaking type: the entertainer/sadist.
7. Packs so much eye-and-heart power that its abrupt ending seems to come hard on the opening rather than an hour-and-a-third later.
8. Capturing a unique moment in time, Eisentsein's 1925 masterpiece is a must-see for viewers interested in film theory, history, and aesthetics, and not just because of its seminal Odessa Steps sequence, later imitated by many directors.
9. Startlingly beautiful.
10. comes from a time where films communicated primarily through images, even if its themes fade into historical irrelevance.
What is the consensus?
****
Answer:
A technical masterpiece, Battleship Potemkin is Soviet cinema at its finest, and its montage editing techniques remain influential to this day.