1. [N]owhere near as provocative as you think it's gonna be, as you've been led to believe it's gonna be... which is something of a disappointment.
2. Cockeyed and raffishly amusing tale of redemption, spilling over with blues music and southern-fried sexism.
3. Brewer's reworking of Southern mythologies can sometimes seem condescending, even though his affection for the region's culture is palpable. But there's no denying he knows how to spin a yarn and create vivid, indelible images.
4. It's all outrageous and patently stereotypical but Brewer and the actors invest these representations with everything they have. It's great to see Jackson working hard here to create a character instead of simply Superflying a bunch of snakes on a plane.
5. Writer-director Craig Brewer does several things very right in his follow-up to the overrated Hustle & Flow (which also boasted a dubious grasp of gender relations). But subtlety is not one of them, and neither is a lack of raging misogyny.
6. Black Snake Moan plays its grim subject matter for laughs, imitating the laugh-to-keep-from-crying quality of the blues tunes on its soundtrack.
7. Maybe Jackson should avoid any more movies with 'snake' in the title.
8. A cartoonish Baby Doll, with a suggestive blues song title, about sex, guilt and redemption. Black Snake is also a rather flimsy parable unable to support the weight of Brewers ambition.
9. Black Snake Moan is an odd little number. It tries to be a lot of things at different times, but isn't particularly successful in any genre.
10. If writer/director Craig Brewer were a member of the X-Men, he would be called 'FirstActo,' and his mutant power would be creating dynamic openings to movies. His enemy would be consistency.
Consensus: Uninhibited performances, skillful direction, and a killer blues soundtrack elevate Black Snake Moan beyond its outlandish premise.
1. Has Lady Jane gone as chaste as the PG rating on Bright Star suggests? You have no idea.
2. There are nice bits throughout, and your heart can't help but go out to these impassioned young lovers whom you know are doomed. But Bright Star is too often tarnished by the ordinary.
3. A piece of perfect cinematic poetry, a film that doesn't just capture the work, love, and life of a legendary poet but does do with vibrant, relatable, timeless emotion, innocence, and purity.
4. Campion's story of a tubercular poet and his lady love recasts the hackneyed old stanza in refreshing new verse.
5. What animates this dramatically constrained film are the lively words and the vitality of nature. An image of butterflies blooming in a bedroom is Keats' worldview in miniature.
6. A movie as incandescent as its title.
7. It's refreshing to see romantic drama where credulity hasn't been stretched by the magic of Hollywood or the fantasies of the mind.
8. Bright Star is a rich, sumptuous and, yes, challenging experience.
9. A spellbinding story of true love written and directed by Jane Campion that showcases Abbie Cornish as an accomplished actress.
10. Through a lush filmic vernacular, Campion shows how these two figures were not only fiercely devoted to their work but also kindred spirits.
Consensus: Jane Campion's direction is as refined as her screenplay, and she gets the most out of her cast -- especially Abbie Cornish -- in this understated period drama.
1. Hampered by its own illusions of grandeur.
2. So well crafted and intelligent that it feels churlish to point out that it's easier to admire than actually like.
3. more patches than a quilt despite its sincerely fine beginning.
4. So underwhelming and vacant that it's impossible for many to understand what exactly the picture is trying to say.
5. Yawn.
6. It's mostly well-made and good-looking, and it's also mostly empty.
7. Meandering and unfocused.
8. The Cider House Rules isn't one film at all. It's two films, only one of which is successful.
9. Hallström has given us John Irving defanged, and what's the point in that?
10. Meandering and unfocused.

Consensus: The Cider House Rules has wonderful performances, lovely visuals, and an old-fashioned feel.