question: You will see what's coming, but the masterful performances, especially Thornton's, will leave you riveted.

numbered reviews: 1. This is the best movie I have seen in a long time.
2. A fine motion picture.
3. [Thornton] does wonders with Yoakam, who could have played a standard villain but always manages to suggest a man trapped within his prejudices.
4. If there were the slightest justice and curiosity in the Academy Award process, Thornton's work here would get a nomination.
5. Sling Blade takes you down paths full of primitive, almost biblical implications, but it also finds comic relief in moments of palpable tension.
6. The lure of Sling Blade is both elemental and hauntingly familiar, and I would not be surprised if Thornton's breakthrough film is one day considered a classic in its own right.
7. Ambivalence reigns in Sling Blade. For every funny moment there is a shocking revelation. For every cute bit of dialogue interplay there is a disturbing recollection.
8. American films rarely depict the lower-class milieu as respectfully as this unsentimental drama.
9. If you can adjust to Thornton's extremely mannered performance, the piece is effectively chilly.
10. Sling Blade gives you plenty to think about, and neither the story nor the quality of the film can easily be forgotten.


question: Like the tech giant co-founded by its subject, Steve Jobs gathers brilliant people to deliver a product whose elegance belies the intricate complexities at its core.

numbered reviews: 1. The Steve Jobs film we want, and deserve.
2. I came away with the feeling that the filmmakers were practically implying that his early death at 56 was some kind of karmic payback.
3. This is a swift and searing attempt to pull back the curtain on Jobs and, in the process, investigate the relationship between the myth and the man.
4. There's something both sterile and overwhelmingly magnificent about Steve Jobs at the same time.
5. Sorkin's long-held faith in the abilities of great men to lead humanity forward is transmuted by his lack of affinity for technology into something with more perspective and plangency.
6. This is simultaneously Sorkin's most satisfying movie script and Boyle's most graceful work as a director.
7. Racing in high gear from start to finish, Danny Boyle's electric direction temperamentally complements Sorkin's highly theatrical three-act study, which might one day be fascinating to experience in a staged setting.
8. features an Oscar-winning (in a year without a slavery or Holocaust picture, just mail it to him) performance by Michael Fassbender
9. A whirlwind tour through the computer age with a flawed human at its center.
10. In many ways the film reflects its hero's brilliance. It's a scintillating construction, though one that sometimes feels like a product launch in its own right.


question: Sloppily assembled fluff that won't have much of interest for anyone who isn't a preteen girl.

numbered reviews: 1. A juvenile 'I Love Lucy' episode...that's more irritating than charming.
2. Smug, sanitized fantasy, in which the hysterical blonde attention-seeker, in a succession of sparkly outfits, is uprooted from New York to the boring suburbs and learns boring suburban values like telling the truth.
3. What a teenage girl really wants at the movies is what grown-ups want, and not to be talked down to like her kid sister.
4. I confess to a deep uncertainty about whether this can be rightly called a movie. A bunch of scenes, maybe.
5. For the most part the material is stubbornly inert, and the actors at times appear to be flailing.
6. A creative no man's land: nothing ventured, nothing gained, nothing worth watching.
7. An energetic cast and random lines of snappy dialog almost elevate this insipid comedy into something entertaining. But not quite.
8. ["Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" should appeal to very young teenage girls or people who are easily amused watching shiny things.
9. The gimmicks and goofy daydream sequences mount up until the film collapses under their weight.
10. ..shrill, numbing and painful to sit through. Maybe this movie will find an audience in children young enough to be entertained by bright colors.


question: Boasting an entertaining and eccentric cast of characters, Rock School lives up to its name.

numbered reviews:
1. Often hilariously funny, with everyone shamelessly playing up to the cameras. But there's more to it.
2. There's something unsettling and downright Dickensian about Green's hard-knocks method and proprietary stance.
3. Paul Green's openness and honesty in front of the camera is a delightfully unexpected treat.
4. Director Don Argott does a superb job of capturing this unique institution and this great teacher.
5. I dislike the tyrannical tirades and profanity-laced psychology Paul Green uses to inspire his prodigal talent.
6. 'Dynamo' doesn't begin to describe Frank Zappa freak Green, who brings the cream of his crop to Germany to compete in the yearly Zappanale and makes believers of us all.
7. It's funny and moving to see this eccentric nugget of boomer virtuosity played by a generation that has absolutely no idea how weird it was.
8. Awesomely entertaining ... Fitfully self-aware and constantly on, Green makes for a fascinating focal point: a stymied performer turned leather-lunged tyrant in the classroom.
9. Rock fans will likely find the cast of characters and its 'überlord' founder compelling.
10. Succeeds as a riveting movie because it doesn't try to lead us from verse to an obvious chorus about Green, or his uniquely abusive methods.