Critic consensus:American Gangster is a gritty and entertaining throwback to classic gangster films, with its lead performers firing on all cylinders.

Numbered reviews:1. When American Gangster was announced, with actors Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe and directed by Ridley Scott, it seemed like a can't miss project. It missed.
2. American Gangster is as impersonal and clinical as a police report. It lacks fire, passion and the operatic bravura you would expect from the clash of these ... acting titans.
3. It all seemed like the usual big-budgeted and star-packed middlebrow liberal Hollywood gangster film veering between being serious and nonsensical.
4. Do we need yet another film about drug dealers? No, especially not one that takes 157 minutes to get where it's going.
5. Finally, after 12 years, a filmmaker was finally able to recapture the magic of Virtuosity.
6. Long but never boring, it's an expertly crafted slice of mainstream entertainment telling two concurrent stories.
7. Directed with dazzling energy by Ridley Scott.
8. It likely won't receive all the Oscar hoopla that many are expecting, [but] American Gangster is one of the first films of the year to actually deserve the recognition.
9. Between its formidable acting duo and story in need of retelling, there's plenty here to intrigue.
10. Normally, Scott loves his flash-bang setpieces, but he proves equally adept at low-key verisimilitude and long-form storytelling, the kind that sprawls out over years of incidents that only gradually add up to a powerful whole.


Critic consensus:With high production values and thrilling battle scenes, The Last Samurai is a satisfying epic.

Numbered reviews:1. A prestige product, the very embodiment of good taste...Ultimately, however, the hackneyed story arc makes 'The Last Samurai' seem rather stale.
2. Alas, Tom's ego has landed. It's the kind of obsequious, star-f%@!ing glory-hole Cruise has been savvy enough to avoid for the past decade.
3. The script lays on hokey narration and bombastic dialogue.
4. An intimate tale beautifully told in an epic setting that transcends the label of "Tom Cruise movie."
5. You're 'Shogun' like it!
6. Perhaps the title Dances with Samurai was already taken...
7. A remarkable and exquisitely rendered drama that mixes the raw savagery of war with magical moments of Zen peacefulness and spiritual uplift.
8. The Last Samurai will be the Gladiator of the 2004 Oscars - it's going to simply sweep the awards. Jolly good!
9. A sweeping, powerful film despite its formulaic foundations with plot points being telegraphed at every turn.
10. There are pleasures to be had in the handsome, heroic The Last Samurai. But they're all on the surface.


Critic consensus:It may be too "dark" for some, but Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom remains an ingenious adventure spectacle that showcases one of Hollywood's finest filmmaking teams in vintage form.

Numbered reviews:
1. A nonstop ride of chills and thrills
2. [T]he best of the Indiana Jones movies...it's insanely wonderful, in every sense of those words.
3. ...an obvious step down from its stellar predecessor...
4. This movie is batshit insane.
5. Spielberg has come up with another rousing piece of entertainment.
6. A fun and worthy sequel that really continues the harrowing but exciting exploits of Indiana Jones...
7. With the action nonstop there is no time for mere acting, much less for a coherent plot.
8. More gore, gross-outs than the other Indy blockbusters.
9. an unbelievably crass, unpleasant, horrific picture
10. It's not the darker turn that makes The Temple of Doom uncomfortable at times; it's its mean-spiritedness.