Critic consensus:A gritty documentary that captures the brutality and banality of bare-knuckle fights among Irish Travellers.

Numbered reviews:1. Knuckle is a curiously riveting work.
2. Simply showing generations of pasty, fat men pounding each other to a pulp shouldn't be mistaken for an in-depth exploration of Gaelic machismo...
3. Ambiguity makes Knuckle a fascinating portrait, but a middling cinematic experience.
4. Knuckle is a documentary about feuding families of Irish Travelers who settle their grudges with bare-knuckle boxing matches, so it's bound to be inherently fascinating, regardless of how well it's assembled.
5. Knuckle largely skirts exploitation, simply by virtue of showing this conflict perpetuate itself over so many years. Clans like the Quinn McDonaghs and the Joyces seem destined to fight for generations after they've forgotten their rationale.
6. While the film becomes slightly redundant, the anger and strife its characters cannot overcome is awful, poetic and, frankly, astonishing.
7. While it's frustrating that Mr. Palmer doesn't dig deep into the complexities of the fights, one of the movie's strengths is the honesty with which he confesses his doubts about them.
8. Though you will wish for more polish and insight, its unruly action is hard to resist.
9. As Palmer rightly shows, there's plenty of heart and soul (rough-and-tumble though it may be) beneath the acres of scar tissue on display here.
10. Palmer's film is brutally compelling to look at, as the lads get down to face-rearranging, but it also carries a lot of tragic historical freight.


Critic consensus:Director Jon Favreau and star Robert Downey Jr. make this smart, high impact superhero movie one that even non-comics fans can enjoy.

Numbered reviews:1. This middle section, in which the newly energized Tony tinkers with his emerging superpowers like a kid in shop class, is the movie's finest and funnest hour.
2. ... lives up to its promise and premise... the benchmark for this summer's blockbusters has just been set.
3. Fulfills all the requirements of its genre admirably, but never rises beyond the level of baseline satisfaction.
4. While not perfect, it comes pretty damn close - Iron Man is one of the best superhero movie adaptations to hit the big screen so far.
5. A slightly-better-than-average popcorn epic featuring a performance from Downey that is so funny and inventive and entertaining that he pretty much winds up carrying the entire movie on his shoulders.
6. Iron Man is a thrilling ride full of excitement and laughs. Finally this year we have a great family film that everyone will enjoy.
7. a fun night at the movies but unfortunately disposable
8. While the movie is technically a marvel, it would have been an empty shell without the strong turn from Downey Jr. Wonderfully sarcastic and hedonistic early on, his transformation from capitalist to hero is logical because of the sincerity the actor inv
9. If you can get past the irony (or hypocrisy) of the central concept Jon Favreau's adaptation is reasonably entertaining and uses its digital effects energetically.
10. "Iron Man" is highly entertaining and well made, and when I say highly entertaining and well made, I mean it's almost in the same league as "Batman Begins," "Spider-Man 2," "Superman Returns" and "X-Men 2." Hard to believe, but yes, it is that good.


Critic consensus:Featuring riveting footage, Sputnik Mania is an informative, well-made piece that effectively captures the mood during the height of the Cold War.

Numbered reviews:
1. Avoids reveling in Cold War kitsch in favor of a serious look one of the most important -- and frightening -- moments in human history.
2. For those too young to remember, Sputnik Mania documents the fear and anxiety that gripped the United States half a century ago when the Soviet Union launched the first satellite in October 1957.
3. The sharply edited film, which includes (happily) just a few talking heads but mostly exciting archival celluloid and campy stock is a love letter to Ike Eisenhower.
4. Director David Hoffman marshals his information into an absorbing story, adroitly narrated by Liev Schreiber, that captures the fears and the hopes of the dawn of the Space Age.
5. The enlightening Sputnik Mania looks at the late '50s, a time that was dominated by Cold War hysteria.
6. [A] smart, wry look at the American enthusiasm for and then paranoia over the first manmade satellite to orbit Earth... [R]ings with a truth that still holds...
7. Sputnik Mania plays, discreetly, like a negative love story between superpowers. Sure they moved on to other enemies, but they still haven't gotten over each other.
8. The reigning champion in the archival footage department features great Soviet footage of those days that (hopefully) will never be seen again---the days of the US-Soviet space race.
9. Clear, comprehensible, polished and articulate, but lacking the gut-punch to raise this portrait of a world-changing event from the level of a museum piece.
10. something unlike anything out there.