question: A delightfully postmodern fairy tale, The Princess Bride is a deft, intelligent mix of swashbuckling, romance, and comedy that takes an age-old damsel-in-distress story and makes it fresh.

numbered reviews: 1. A seminal cult classic the exact appeal of which has always eluded me, though most of the world seems to adore it.
2. The lesson it most effectively demonstrates is that cinema has the power to turn you into a kid again. As we wish.
3. 'As you wish' may be gaining on 'we'll always have Paris' as the single most romantic line ever.
4. One of Reiner's most entertaining films, effective as a swashbuckling epic, romantic fable, and satire of these genres.
5. One of the hottest cult videos of the 1980s, and a family classic besides, enjoyed by new generations of youngsters as well as their parents.
6. Based on William Goldman's novel, this is a post-modern fairy tale that challenges and affirms the conventions of a genre that may not be flexible enough to support such horseplay.
7. Rob Reiner's friendly 1987 fairy-tale adventure delicately mines the irony inherent in its make-believe without ever undermining the effectiveness of the fantasy.
8. The leads are vacuous; the absurdities sometimes forced and obvious.
9. One of the Top films of the 1980s - if not, of all time. A treasure of a film that you'll want to watch again and again
10. An effective comedy, an interesting bedtime tale, and one of the greatest date rentals of all time.


question: This documentary traces Franken's transformation from humorist to activist with entertaining, if uneven, results.

numbered reviews: 1. When he's on, he's hot, and when he's not, he's not.
2. This film by Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus forces us to make some decisions about him. For myself, I find him generally gross, in person and in manner.
3. This scattershot movie, shot over two years, follows the zigzag trail of political satirist Al Franken as he feuds with Bill O'Reilly, campaigns against George W. Bush, and helps establish Air America.
4. ... best viewed as an investigation of the phenomenon of ideological celebrity, with Mr. Franken as a willing case study.
5. Proves to be an illuminating (if perhaps unintended) demonstration of how hard it is to keep one's sense of humor when mixing it up in the political mainstream.
6. There's a story to be told in Al Franken's transformation from smarty-pants Saturday Night Live personality to political commentator on the scrappy liberal radio station Air America, but Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus ... fail to find it.
7. What I was really itching for was for him to leave the political battlefield long enough to give us a scripted stand-up act as he'd do it for an audience at The Improv.
8. This smoothly edited snapshot of a roaring mouse... is an outspoken and pretty damn funny portrait...
9. The scope ought to be narrowed, but the film is still pretty entertaining in places, owing to Franken's intelligence and quick wit.
10. There is a lot of preaching to the converted in Nick Doob and Chris Hedges' Al Franken: God Spoke, an adoring and fairly haphazard look behind the scenes with the comedian and liberal gadfly.


question: Unapologetically sweet and maybe even a little corny, The Sound of Music will win over all but the most cynical filmgoers with its classic songs and irresistible warmth.

numbered reviews: 1. Watching it just makes you feel wonderful.
2. Objectively I can look at it and see that is a load of sentimental hogwash, but if I relax and just watch it, it sucks me in every time.
3. Great music, great scenery, how can you not love this?
4. A classic in every sense of the word.
5. Other than The Wizard of Oz, no Hollywood musical is as familiar, reassuring, and beloved of all ages... Andrews anchors the film... her sincerity is absolute.
6. To enjoy director Robert Wise's Best Picture winner you must overlook the bloated, sugar-coated story, and even then it's an uphill slog.
7. established Julie Andrews as a major international movie star. Her radiance and energy fills the screen in scene after scene. She's absolutely magnetic...
8. Did you really think a bunch of mean old Nazis could keep the angelic Julie Andrews from spreading her music and love?
9. One of the most enduring, feel-good musicals ever made, with sing-along songs made for the entire family.
10. The septet of blond and beaming youngsters who have to act like so many Shirley Temples and Freddie Bartholomews when they were young do as well as could be expected with their assortedly artificial roles, but the adults are fairly horrendous.


question: A thin plot is disguised by high octane dancing and action in this Bollywood crossover comedy.

numbered reviews:
1. Less a Bollywood bonbon than a pan-Asian fusion dish, this combination of Indian musical and Chinese chopsocky is, nonetheless, delicious fun.
2. If Slumdog Millionaire's success has Hollywood thinking American audiences are ready for the authentic Indian movie experience, Chandni Chowk to China could quickly put the kibosh on that notion.
3. It's a kung fu action comedy played out to a Bollywood beat.
4. If only it were as much fun as its trailer!
5. This is a pretty entertaining work for the most part despite its unevenness and for those who have never experienced an authentic Bollywood film before, it will serve as a perfectly good introduction to that style of filmmaking.
6. Chandni Chowk to China seamlessly adds kung fu to the usual blend of comedy, dance and melodrama.
7. The movie's ostensible distinction is its coupling of Bollywood and kung fu, but it's really a self-realization course dressed up as kinetic comedy.
8. This Indian/Chinese cinematic hybrid is likable and entertaining but overlong and occasionally hokey.
9. If Chandni Chowk To China is not exactly original, it steals wisely, resulting in a movie that moves and entertains (even if it's too long by at least a half-hour).
10. In fact, at two hours and 34 minutes, CC2C is too much by a half: too much dancing and fighting and too much footage of the Great Wall of China.