question: Body of Lies relies on the performances of Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio to elevate it beyond the conventional espionage thriller.

numbered reviews: 1. High production value and solid performances lay enough of a spit shine on an otherwise dingy pile of drivel.
2. As a movie seeking to tell a story, Body of Lies is a confused jumble.
3. Russell Crowe's portrayal of an overweight, amoral CIA honcho in the Middle East thriller Body of Lies is mesmerizing, chilling, disturbing to the bone and one of the best performances of the year.
4. Body of Lies is an A-list project with B-game results.
5. Given the giga-talent involved -- virtuoso visualist Scott, The Departed's William Monahan adapting Washington Post columnist David Ignatius's novel -- I was hoping for something more substantive than Syriana-meets-Spy Game.
6. On this basic premise builds a complicated story plied with onion layers of perspective and cunning.
7. A stumbling block for myself as a big, fat American who doesn't understand all the nuances of Middle Eastern politics is that the movie was often hard to follow.
8. Even if Body of Lies lacks a huge emotional wallop, it dishes plenty of food for thought.
9. This is a little too slick and commanding for its own good; despite Crowe and DiCaprio's best efforts, their characters keep getting flattened by the steamroller narrative.
10. [Ridley Scott] has few peers at keeping a complex script clear and tightly focused...


question: The movie could have benefited from a more experienced director, but a great cast and script overcome any first time jitters the director may have had.

numbered reviews: 1. Casanova Virgil and virginal Dante into the concentric circles of casual sex hell.
2. As one could guess, a gabfest social comedy is completely dependent on its actors, and Roger Dodger has one of this year's best-assembled casts
3. Kidd and Scott have created one of the year's most memorable characters
4. Sitting in the dark while people droan on and on about pretty much anything gets boring after a while.
5. Scott delivers a terrific performance in this fascinating portrait of a modern Lothario.
6. Its keenly observed set-pieces never add up to a larger picture.
7. ...Campbell is entirely convincing as he slips into the shoes of this long-time player.
8. A fresh, original look at sex, replete with scathing humor, pathos and memorable characters.
9. Scott completely owns the film, and leaves you wondering why on earth we don't see an awful lot more of him.
10. Great Scott, 'Rodger Dodger' is not the man


question: A tragi-comic exploration of the universal search for stability in post-Communist Prague.

numbered reviews: 1. Hrebejk's stylish direction and perfectly chosen cast make what might otherwise have been a depressing tale of post-perestroika working class woes into a melancholy, comedic riff on what it means to be European these days.
2. Hrebejk suggests, through this tragi-comic film, that while things are rough now, they've got to get better. I mean, they can't get much worse, can they?
3. Up and Down spends most of its time at the lower elevations.
4. [A] fascinating but disjointed portrait of strained family relations in the modern Czech Republic.
5. A sprawling comedy-drama that actually tries to say something -- not just about its characters, but about the Czech Republic and what it's turned into since becoming a capitalistic society.
6. Forget Crash. This vivisection of race and class, set in the Czech Republic, offers no easy redemption, if any.
7. When you understand its message, the film takes on a different level.
8. An ambitious premise that only just falls short of genius.
9. A compelling tale of everyday extremes.
10. The movie asks us to see these people as humans and to forgive them for being human and doing to each other what humans beings do to each other. It's a deeply humane film.


question: While surprisingly sweeter and warm-hearted than previous Farrelly outings, Shallow Hal is also less funny and more bland.

numbered reviews:
1. Shallow Hal is the most endearing portrait of outcasts since last year's Ghost World.
2. The key to enjoying Shallow Hal is to discard as many expectations as you can about a Farelly Brothers film.
3. When the final act descends into preachiness, it's nearly earned the indulgence.
4. In delivering their message, the Farrelly Brothers seem to have compromised their nothing-is-sacred comedy spirit, but at least their hearts are in the right place.
5. There's just about enough charm and laughs here to keep Farrelly fans happy. Even the fat ones.
6. [An] insulting new comedy from Bobby and Peter Farrelly.
7. The film is not as funny as their best, but fascinates in the discomforting way it foregrounds the brothers' normally buried, facile moral dialectic.
8. The Farrellys take an artistic step backward with this soft, disappointingly sentimental comedy about the true nature of beauty; they seem to have forgotten their roots in the outrageous and gross-out.
9. With the relatively untested Black coming on awfully strong, the lack of directorial finesse lets the enterprise down, creating some clunky scenes and dead air where laughs might have been expected.
10. Romantic comedy is pretty tame for Farrelly Bros.