question: It's predictably uplifting fare from Frank Capra, perhaps the most consciously uplifting of all great American directors -- but thanks to immensely appealing performances and a nimble script, You Can't Take It With You is hard not to love.

numbered reviews: 1. Kid-friendly Capra classic stars a quirky family.
2. A classic case of good old-fashioned American optimism.
3. Easily the No. 1 cinema comedy of 1938.
4. Demonstrates Capra's skill at tweaking the heartstrings as well as the funny bone.
5. The comedy moves smoothly and briskly under Capra's canny method of direction.
6. Please see this one. Heck, see any Frank Capra movie.
7. If you haven't seen it, make a point of catching this Capra classic.
8. It's a grand picture.
9. Its stage origins might be all too obvious, but the excellent ensemble cast makes it an enjoyable breeze, and the in-laws meeting scene is farce comedy at its best.
10. The tempo is generally fast and there are no sudden spurts or sharp letdowns.


question: The cast is warmly appealing, but with the loss of cultural context and addition of big-name celebrities, this American version loses the nuances of the original.

numbered reviews: 1. Lopez has the simultaneous gift and curse of being exactly as good as her material; she fully inhabits the solemnity of Paulina without overshadowing the central conflict.
2. Miscast, misguided and woefully misbegotten, this clumsy American remake of the deftly delicate 1996 sleeper hit from Japan is too blah to bludgeon.
3. The original remains the standard, and it's a far deeper work, but this paint-by-numbers project manages to get by on its good humour and undeniably entertaining ensemble cast.
4. It's a surprisingly acceptable variation on a theme.
5. Turns a sweet, lilting story into a clunky, clichéd and tedious movie sitcom.
6. Takes a small, exquisite Japanese movie and turns it into a big, stupid American movie. Still, it must be said that as glossy and overproduced as the thing is, it's a good Big Stupid American movie.
7. A cozy star vehicle for Jennifer Lopez and Richard Gere.
8. Where the original soared, the new version hugs the ground. It's like the difference between Fred Astaire's dancing and Richard Gere's.
9. While its situations are never hugely believable, this long-delayed remake is otherwise a consistently delightful comedy of character and a surprisingly strong showcase for its stars.
10. This mildly entertaining bauble will disappear from your memory even before you've dislodged the last popcorn husks from your back teeth.


question: Lacking energy and humor, Hoot is a ho-hum story of eco-awareness that falls flat as a pancake.

numbered reviews: 1. The story dawdles but it has a healthy message to impart about standing up to evildoers.
2. Lame and preachy.
3. Wil Shriner tries to adapt a Carl Hiaasen novel about kids standing up for owls and instead proves his ineptitude as a director.
4. This fun family film, based on Carl Hiaasen's Newbery award-winning book of the same name, has a strong ecological message served with a big helping of giggle-inducing sight gags.
5. Shriner fails to give it any real life, and the twangy, laid-back, Jimmy Buffett-heavy score sums up the film's lack of energy.
6. Of all the attributes that make "Hoot" a terrible movie, it's the soundtrack that's truly bad enough to drive you to Margaritaville.
7. A cross between the world as kids wish it was and children as their parents would like them to be.
8. The movie's low-key anti-establishment posture is vastly preferable to the knee-jerk fulminations of a Michael Moore.
9. A modest, lightly comic film that succeeds on sheer good faith.
10. One more reminder that kids are better off with a book than a middling movie adaptation of a book.


question: Deliver Us From Evil is a superb documentary and a searing look at an institution protecting its leaders at the expense of its followers. A profoundly disturbing chronicle of a wolf in sheep's clothing, the film builds a clear-eyed case against pedophile priest Oliver O'Grady, and the Catholic bureaucracy that protected him. The recollections of O'Grady's victims are nothing short of shocking and heartbreaking.

numbered reviews:
1. If Berg's movie were a newspaper story, it would win the Pulitzer Prize for public service.
2. Manages to find a chilling new angle to the subject of sex abuse scandals within the Catholic Church.
3. It's a howl of rage and a keen-eyed study of a subject that, unfortunately, never stops being news: the way institutional power acts as a shield under whose cover the strong can abuse the weak.
4. The movie is a litany of victims and a chilling indictment.
5. The church declined to comment to Berg. Her film speaks volumes about its silence -- and about a wrong that can never be righted.
6. The film, which reduced a roomful of jaded film critics to tears, could literally make you sick.
7. The wrenching documentary Deliver Us From Evil explores the mind of a pedophile as it accuses the Catholic Church of failing to protect children.
8. Even people who reject the idea of inherent evil may be shaken by Berg's scrupulous yet passionate recounting of the story of Oliver O'Grady.
9. What truly sets Deliver Us from Evil apart from other documentaries is interviews with the monster himself.
10. After watching this film, you will believe that evil exists on earth. That the movie deals in truth and established facts makes it all the more disturbing.