Critic consensus:John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars is not one of Carpenter's better movies, filled as it is with bad dialogue, bad acting, confusing flashbacks, and scenes that are more campy than scary.

Numbered reviews:1. Slides instantly into the realm of the forgettable.
2. I kept looking for the silhouettes of Joel, Tom Servo and Crow from the dearly-departed MST3K to appear in the bottom right corner of the screen.
3. A rather dull zombie movie with pretensions of being a police drama.
4. There is camp comedy, although it is not clear how much of the silly stuff is intentional and how much is the result of the inept dialogue and abysmal acting.
5. Occasionally veering into that so-bad-it's-good category ... mostly Ghosts of Mars is just so bad.
6. All basic stuff, and yet Carpenter brings pacing and style to it, and Natasha Henstridge provides a cool-headed center.
7. A laughable gorefest and a leading contender for the title Worst Film of the Year.
8. The one intriguing thing about John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars is how such a dreadful screenplay could have made it onto celluloid.
9. Arguably the horror/sci-fi director's most routine movie.
10. Sci-fi at its worst: bad enough to be funny, yet loud and obnoxious enough that it can't even be enjoyed as unintentional comedy.


Critic consensus:The clunky dialogue and shallow characters fail to capitalize upon Angel-A's stunning, poetic cinematography.

Numbered reviews:1. A better grubby guy/hot chick fable than Knocked Up, certainly much more honest about its male-fantasy status
2. The film looks terrific - Besson shoots his beloved Paris in gorgeous black and white photography that recalls both Wings of Desire and It's A Wonderful Life, both of which Angel-A happily steals from.
3. Angel-A is all icky fantasy.
4. The beautiful black-and-white photography -- and disappointingly sappy ending -- are the only remotely sober elements here, thanks to Besson's loopy script and Debbouze's very funny turn as a loser who simply can't believe his luck.
5. In essence, you get It's a Wonderful Life meets Wings of Desire, swapping out the substance for self-help platitudes. If you can get past that, you can enjoy it as a 90-minute look at a lovely postcard.
6. This Parisian fable is a talkathon, affecting a silly toughness, but the sights are good to see again.
7. For many people, including me, the visual virtuosity behind Angel-A will be more than enough to get them over the storytelling bumps and the character inconsistencies.
8. While ultimately there's a repetitive quality to the film's dialogue (the couple appear to be having the same arguments), there's still something pleasant and enjoyable in the performances.
9. The [angel] turns out to be Stuart Smalley, parking André in front of a mirror so he can tell himself he's good enough, he's smart enough, and doggone it, people like him.
10. This movie will make you feel better about life in general, and, in particular, about Paris, which has never looked more magnificent than in Thierry Arbogast's cinematography.


Critic consensus:Lacking the freshness of the first movie, MIB 2 recycles elements from its predecessor with mixed results.

Numbered reviews:
1. While familiarity doesn't exactly breed contempt... there's not much here we haven't encountered before. And didn't it feel a whole lot fresher the first time around?
2. Men in Black II is an efficient entertainment, but it's far from inspired.
3. MIB II hits its marks reliably enough.
4. Men in Black II is just the sort of film that mainstream audiences expect to escape to during the sweltering summer months: It's just funny enough, just clever enough, and it looks just slick enough to pass inspection.
5. A lot of setup for too little payoff.
6. Whether verbal or visual, most of the few decent gags the sequel contains were already told twice in the original.
7. A good-faith attempt has been made to duplicate the original elements, but the mix is wrong, bearings have been lost, the balance is off.
8. It's not nearly as fresh or enjoyable as its predecessor, but there are enough high points to keep this from being a complete waste of time.
9. MIB II is faithful to its source film, which in turn sprang from a comic book. But this feels more like submission to formula than devotion to inspiration.
10. Harmless, forgettable, and simply uninteresting in comparison to recent action flicks like Spider-Man and Minority Report