question: More visually elaborate than the fragmented story can sometimes support, The Fall walks the line between labor of love and filmmaker self-indulgence.

numbered reviews: 1. Shot piecemeal over the course of four years on locations in 18 countries, The Fall is a genuine labor of love -- and a real bore.
2. This whacked-out fairy tale for grown-ups is as stunning in its beauty as it is in its lack of logic.
3. Some of the set pieces are ravishing, more often they're ravishingly clunky.
4. For a film that wants to present itself as extravagantly dazzling, there is something thuddingly familiar and bland in its vision.
5. This is a feast for the eyes and a famine for the brain.
6. [Tarsem] Singh's visual sense is stunning, but he's also attuned to the darker corners of children's imaginations.
7. The Fall is aptly named not only because it pertains to a tragic descent but because viewers will feel as if they have plunged headlong into an alternate universe with this dazzling adult fairy tale.
8. Each and every of Tarsem's visuals scratch onerously at the mind, heart, and cornea.
9. A paean to the art of storytelling as it existed before mass-produced visual media replaced the spoken word as the primary creative medium.
10. The scope of Tarsem's imagination and vision and the delightful pairing of Pace and Untaru creates an eclectic fantasy tale unlike anything we've since The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.


question: The story isn't the greatest, but there's an abundance of sci-fi eye candy to compensate.

numbered reviews: 1. By being less talky, Steamboy could've achieved a surreal, dreamlike narrative flow instead of a lurching, unsteady one.
2. As ever, Otomo's attention to the most minute details of setting and character are beyond reproach.
3. It's a roller-coaster action film that thunders along with top-notch set pieces and studiously researched period settings.
4. Its action couldn't have been much more thrilling if done entirely by computer or shot in costly live-action.
5. Never really pops its rivets except in several thrilling action sequences, but the sharp imagery and inventive technology make it worthwhile for animation fans.
6. The weak story and bland hero are no match for the increasingly exciting visuals, while the score by Steve Jablonsky should be on exhibit in the Hall of Lead.
7. There are moments when dialogue, action and the dramatic music by Steve Jablonsky interlock.
8. I gave up trying to make sense of any of this at around the halfway mark, but I never stopped marveling at the ever more baroque spectacle that Otomo's teams of hand- and computer-animators have lovingly, obsessively created.
9. The 'wow' factor in Steamboy's visual energy is powerful enough to enthrall everybody's inner 12-year-old.
10. A fine example of how anime uniquely contributes to world cinema.


question: Subtle and emotionally bleak, this gripping thriller features the Dardenne brothers' recognizable penchant for realism and very strong performances.

numbered reviews: 1. As filmmakers, the Dardennes are more concerned with probing the causes of crime than in glamorizing it.
2. I could see what they were trying to do, but it was a little too artsy and didn't really work for me.
3. The Dardennes are adroit at dangling the carrot, withholding just enough of the story's particulars to keep you curious without testing your patience.
4. Lorna's Silence is an interesting and entertaining film that poses a more difficult moral dilemma than its authors might have intended.
5. With a more linear plot and steadier camerawork than previous efforts, Lorna's Silence is among the Dardennes' more accessible films, despite a drawn-out finale that still doesn't quite satisfy.
6. In a just world, the Dardenne brothers would be as well known as the Coens; outside the United States they probably are already.
7. More entertaining on a base level than a Belgian film about poor people has any right to be.
8. Lorna's Silence doesn't work, but it's a beautiful misfire.
9. In casting the previously unknown Dobroshi, the brothers approach greatness with their lean portrait of simple humanity tested by desire and driven desperate by circumstances.
10. The film is spare, but intense.


question: Wanted is stylish, energetic popcorn fare with witty performances from Angelina Jolie (playing an expert assassin), James McAvoy, and Morgan Freeman that help to distract from its absurdly over-the-top plot.

numbered reviews:
1. It's almost as if the filmmaker wants to lull audiences into thinking this is a conventional action movie, and then pull the rug out from under us...
2. For those looking for an instinctively engaging zero to anti-hero tale, filled with all sorts of imaginative and hip visual shenanigans, one could do far worse than this offering.
3. Criticizing Timur Bekmambetov for overkill is like dismissing Alfred Hitchcock for being fat.
4. All hail Timur Bekmambetov and his stunt team. You will love the last line of the film.
5. This is a blockbuster busting out of the block; this is a Hollywood staple served up on a European platter; this is summertime fare with a wintry verve.
6. Slams the pedal to the metal and never slows down.
7. Wanted manages to deliver what action fans crave while still maintaining a veneer of artfulness.
8. All in all, Wanted does not work. To enjoy it, one must forgo the untidy sum and revel in the remarkable parts.
9. Wanted shows life in the killing lane with lots of zippy effects, action and exploding heads.
10. What Wanted lacks in terms of originality, it more than makes up for with style and excitement.