question: A shocking and disturbing, but always compelling look at life in the slums of Rio de Janiero.

numbered reviews: 1. A marvelous achievement that refuses to avert its gaze from the poetry and the insane savagery of the hopeless.
2. I came out of the theater feeling lucky to be alive.
3. It's like Scorsese meets Peckinpah and Sergio Leone, with a samba soundtrack.
4. One of the most uncompromisingly bleak films I've ever seen.
5. Hard to watch but even harder to tear your eyes away from.
6. One of those rare moviegoing experiences that simply flattens you with greatness from the word go.
7. If the traditional gangster flick has appeared to be hobbling on its last legs over the past few years, this lightning bolt of a movie proves that there are still fresh ways to tackle overly familiar material.
8. A lung-burning dash down Brazil's mean streets.
9. There's no denying City of God's effectiveness in dropping us into an environment crawling with deception, brutality and blind ambition.
10. It's a conspicuously stylish attention-getter that heralds the discovery of a major directorial talent.


question: Machete is messy, violent, shallow, and tasteless -- and that's precisely the point of one of the summer's most cartoonishly enjoyable films.

numbered reviews: 1. The film has some outrageously enjoyable set-pieces, but overall, the convoluted plot and Rodriguez' agenda spoil the fun.
2. Un entretenimiento crudo, básico, con personajes de una sola pieza, algunos diálogos increíbles y generosas dosis de sangre y desmembramientos. Un homenaje de Robert Rodríguez al cine clase B que tanto le gusta.
3. Supremely self-aware and steeped in the aesthetics of vintage exploitation movies,Machete is a loving, blood-spattered homage to the gritty grindhouse action pictures of yesteryear.
4. Robert Rodriguez... brings his A game to the Z-grade, revelling in the cheesiness and over-the-top violence.
5. Yes it's a lot of fun and great to see such an illustrious cast get in on the act of making lowbrow cinema with a smile on their face, shame the cult element remains and only fans of the grindhouse genre will be fully engaged from start to finish.
6. Social commentary, you ask? Quite how can a film centrally preoccupied with Danny Trejo stabbing and shooting people and having sex with lots of women have any sort of pretension to political currency?
7. The lack of subtlety and discipline is what can make Machete a disreputable pleasure and less than a full success.
8. [Robert] Rodriguez's politics are right on the surface and about as complex as the film's revenge plot, a kind-of populist response to the anti-immigration rhetoric...
9. Starts out strong but things get a little wonky toward the finale. Sadly, the film is far too married to the faux trailer footage.
10. While it's riotously entertaining, there's nothing much to it.


question: It may not equal its predecessor, but Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay is still good for some laughs -- and food for thought.

numbered reviews: 1. They've given their raunchy comedic world more depth, and it pays off with even bigger laughs than those found in the first one.
2. Like most comedy sequels, it is not as funny as its predecessor -- but, like most comedy sequels, that won't matter too much if you get stoned before you watch it.
3. The HIGHly-anticipated sequel to 2004's Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle comes just how you'd expect it: raunchy, wild, disgusting and completely absurd.
4. Not as fresh or inventive as the first chapter, though the film finds some relevant humor in essentially grim political situations.
5. In spite of their dubiously short stay at the prison of the film's title this multi-culti screwball buddy comedy, about stoner goofballs Harold and Kumar, properly roasts post 9/11 America with an irreverent vengeance.
6. No less eager than its predecessor to use pointed political incorrectness to poke fun at our prejudices.
7. Lacks the fresh charm that made their first such an unexpected (if guilty) pleasure.
8. In its own wacky way, Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay is one of the ballsiest comedies to come out of Hollywood in a long time. No kidding.
9. If you haven't seen the first Harold & Kumar then this one might not be for you, but nonetheless Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay is the best comedy so far for 2008.
10. Whether 'Guantanamo Bay' could have succeeded in spawning a franchise on its own is questionable, but it hits more often than it misses.


question: Talkier and less action-packed than Vol. 1, Kill Bill Vol. 2, nevertheless delivers the goods for those expecting a satisfying conclusion to this two-parter.

numbered reviews:
1. brings a genuinely surprising depth of feeling to the proceedings by filling in the emotional and narrative gaps left hanging in the first volume
2. Kill Bill finds Tarantino at the top of his rebel-rousing game, with both guns blazing and taking no prisoners.
3. At its best, [Tarantino's] referencing ... completely reimagin[es] the original for a new context. At its worst, it's simply name-dropping.
4. You know, I really liked all of the characters in these two movies.
5. There is much to admire but little to love. Tarantino is not a director who engages on an emotional level.
6. This is a movie of head-spinning richness.
7. A gargantuanly entertaining double feature.
8. It exhilarates even as it maddens.
9. So much cinematic majesty perched precariously atop so little common sense ... [but] a castle with a shaky foundation is still quite a sight.
10. If Vol. 1 was a flat-out romp of excess and cartoon violence, Vol. 2 makes you pay an emotional toll for enjoying the spectacle.