Critic consensus:Lords of Dogtown, while slickly made and edited, lacks the depth and entertaining value of the far superior documentary on the same subject, Dogtown and Z-Boys.

Numbered reviews:1. Lords Of Dogtown is true to its roots, and a pure buzz.
2. Catherine Hardwicke's Lords of Dogtown works as both an energetic thrill ride and a keenly-felt drama about boys gone wild.
3. Directed with vigor and wit.
4. The action sequences are real and raw, and if Lords never quite gets airborne, it does justice to a scene whose legacy rolls on.
5. What Lords needed, and what it mostly lacks, is dramatic impact off the concrete.
6. Demonstrates enough narrative style, grit and artistry to latch onto plenty of viewers with absolutely zero interest in skateboarding.
7. [Hardwicke] brings a social realism to Dogtown and a fondness for the sport that pay early dividends. As the movie unspools, though, it also unravels, because it seems that nothing consequential is at stake.
8. Catherine Hardwicke, working from a Peralta script and stealing the look and verve of his earlier documentary, turns in a dazzling, edgy and entertainingly blunt riff on the gnarly and how they got that way.
9. A credible, handsome and engaging entertainment.
10. A sports memoir fringed with punk rock clamor.


Critic consensus:While 30 Days of Night offers a few thrills, it ultimately succumbs to erratic execution.

Numbered reviews:1. See the movie for the vampires, which are at least visually interesting. The humans are so boring I couldn't wait for them to die.
2. 30 Days of Night isn't deep, but it's effective, and at least it doesn't seem like something you've seen a dozen times before.
3. 30 Days of Night is a high-concept movie idea that's so good, I'm surprised we haven't seen it.
4. Director David Slade takes the film adaptation halfway home by getting the look exactly right.
5. 30 Days of Night is the well-paced and entertaining horror debut of Hard Candy director David Slade, who captures the coolest parts of Steve Niles' comic book series on the big screen.
6. A truly terrifying hell-ride through darkness for grownups.
7. The increasingly ridiculous behavior of some of the other humans turn the film laughable by interrupting its brutality with banality. And when it comes to vampires, brutal is always better.
8. An anemic adaptation of Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith's creepy comic series, 30 Days of Night is lighter on horror than it is on inadvertent humor.
9. Whatever power the original comic had, this film adaptation lost it in translation.
10. You could make a horror film with shocking story developments and creepy twists. Or, you could just have monsters with pointy teeth jump into the frame while making loud noises. For the latter, check out the vampire flick 30 Days of Night.


Critic consensus:Brutal, action heavy, Brazilian cop film with a pointless voiceover. Lacks flair, overdoes the violence and is never quite sure where its morals lie.

Numbered reviews:
1. Subtle shades of friendship are lost in a melee of violence, which quickly crescendos and then maintains a one-note intensity for the duration of the film, punctuated only by an ill-advised narratorial voice that serves to keep the viewer at arm's length.
2. ... for all the glorification of the mercenary methods of this elite squad, it's still a fascinating portrait of a nightmarish police and crime culture and a vivid narrative.
3. It's just a pity the story is so slipshod - it only really gets going halfway through.
4. It's a bit like a Latin American episode of The Bill written by Richard Littlejohn and directed by Chuck Norris.
5. Nascimento's penchant for Rambo theatrics is unfortunate, because elsewhere Elite Squad has interesting things to say.
6. Here is the biggest, fattest, dampest squib of the week: perhaps the most disappointing film ever to have won the Golden Bear at the Berlin film festival.
7. It is impressively made, but leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.
8. An action-drama that's fascinating for its insights into Rio's social structures. But while it's compellingly intense, it's also morally muddled.
9. You'll swear you smell gunpowder during the earthshaking gunfights of "Elite Squad." Forget John Woo's Hong Kong, or Sergio Leone's West. With bullet-slinging gusto, director Jose Padilha ("Bus 174") proudly pronounces Rio de Janeiro the bloodiest onscree
10. Despite the voiceover, Padilha has created a shocking insight into a world in which corrupt cops slug it out against drug dealers but, ultimately, nobody wins.