question: Fantastic acting and crisply choreographed action sequences propel this unique, cool take on the revenge thriller.

numbered reviews: 1. The forced coming-of-age parable that filmmaker Joe Wright laces with fairy-tale symbolism is heavy-handed from the get-go.
2. This guilty pleasure is by far the coolest movie of the year with cross-generational appeal to fans of espionage thrillers.
3. Joe Wright continues to prove himself as one of the more innovative filmmakers working today.
4. A picture-book story about complicated daddies, wicked stepmothers, and daughters who learn to be brave in the dark woods.
5. Hanna kicks ass.
6. After two stuffy movies and one that stiffed, Joe Wright seems determined to prove he can direct a popcorn movie with Hanna. If you're seeking a higher-brow version of The Professional and take-your-pick of the Bourne flicks, here it is.
7. Distinctive Heroine separates Hanna from the pack.
8. Wright combines his two genres into a stylish exercise that perversely includes some sentiment and insight.
9. It's Ronan who carries the film. She got a best-supporting-actress Oscar nomination for Wright's "Atonement," but here she's asked to do much more, and she nails it.
10. The fact that Ronan is this good at this young age is what's truly frightening here.


question: The American remake of the popular French comedy mostly works a charm under the combined talents of the three leads, who play nicely against type -- although forced plot elements and sentimentality at times dampen the fun.

numbered reviews: 1. Director Leonard Nimoy does not use his ears for comedy -- nor his eyes, even. His three leads recite their lines as though they wanted to take their jumbo-sized salaries and run -- which, given this movie, maybe isn't such a dumb idea.
2. As long as the script tracks the men's relationship with the baby, the picture is lively froth.
3. The movie never steps wrong as long as it focuses on the developing love between the two big men and the tiny baby.
4. Still charming and watchable. The three leads show their comedy potential.
5. Film is a good showcase for the comic abilities of this threesome, all of whom seem to have their one-liner timing down pat.
6. The film works well despite its predictability, perhaps because of it.
7. The three lead performances, Selleck's especially, are wonderfully self-effacing.
8. As a sometime actor, Nimoy understands how to get good performances from the members of his cast.
9. It has the likability of the first movie. The people who made it have carried over much of the original's weightless, sweet-tempered flavor.
10. It would be a better movie if everyone involved had concentrated on making the behavior of the three heroes more believable.


question: Unable to match the suspense and titilation of its predecessor, Basic Instinct 2 boasts a plot so ludicrous and predictable it borders on "so-bad-it's-good."

numbered reviews: 1. Stone's performance is so deliriously over the top that it turns almost every line she speaks into high camp.
2. Basic Instinct 2 is never stupid, but it is insipid and lurid in all the ways you would expect it to be.
3. To get to those shots of Stone's chest and thighs, however, the audience has to wait through a two-hour story that's so tedious that the audience may walk out before Stone eventually liberates herself from her clothing.
4. Numbingly dull when it isn't unintentionally laugh-out-loud funny, this pitiful sequel has almost none of the cheesy/sleazy appeal of the 1992 blockbuster. Michael Douglas stayed away, and so should you.
5. It doesn't know whether it wants to be a Skin-e-max soft core porno or an episode of a primetime cop drama. It's unfulfilling as neither and ends up as an awful hybrid: we'll call it CSI: Cleavageville. I take that back: CSI: Faux Cleavageville.
6. ['Basic Instinct 2'] has to hold the record for the most times the 'f' word has been used, not as an expletive, but as an action verb.
7. The mysteries of Sharon Stone are long gone.
8. Stone's every line of dialogue, every gesture, every hussy lip smack screams 'I'm too sexy for this movie.' And it's often hilarious.
9. The rest of the film may be murky and dull, but physically, it's hard to take your eyes off Stone. She's absolutely stunning.
10. You may come out of the theater complaining how ridiculous it was, but you won't be bored.


question: A violent, crackerjack comedy with a strong Irish flavor and an emminently likable Brendan Gleeson in the main role.

numbered reviews:
1. There is something smug and roguish-by-rote about the usual Gleeson performance. Yet who else could play this protagonist?
2. The reasons it's worth seeing are Gleeson's impish performance and the sparkling dialogue, which marries Irish blarney to Tarantino-lite philiosophising.
3. "The Guard" is not the most original buddy-cop movie you'll see, but it well may be one of the most entertaining.
4. The always-unbeatable Gleeson is on simply outstanding form, conjuring a character both dignified and ridiculous, heroic and hardly bothered.
5. The Guard, like its unconventional hero, is a true original.
6. Like bacon, Brendan Gleeson makes everything taste better.
7. "The Guard" is violent, profane and funny.
8. Spiteful, ironic and human in turn, The Guard is an entertainment that makes most of the year's American comedies look impoverished, and in Gleeson it has a palpable star.
9. Offering shades of Sidney Poitier's In The Heat of the Night, The Guard is a good character study with an above average script.
10. Assured and well-written, it may totter uncertainly in the third act but it's a pleasure to listen to a script with such an ear for shocking insult and knowing offence.