Critic consensus:Russell Crowe's rough charm is put to good use in this masterful adaptation of Patrick O'Brian's novel.

Numbered reviews:1. Crowe and Bettany previously worked together to splendid effect in A Beautiful Mind, and their teamwork here lifts this manly movie to an unusually civilized plane.
2. While the work and expense clearly shows in every frame, it winds up being in the service of a film not quite worthy of it.
3. Forget the plot; see this film because of the way it looks, and expect a few Oscar nominations.
4. A gentleman's action movie.
5. The film's languid pacing quickly grows tedious, and the movie itself, unfortunately, becomes a bore.
6. The details and the epic scale are great, but the story isn't good enough to make it work.
7. A plain old good movie.
8. It's The Perfect Storm with a far more rousing story, or U-571 with hugely better dialogue. I can't help but love this one.
9. Considering how cinema-unfriendly O'Brian was - the author rarely went to the movies, and had to be persuaded to release the film rights -- Master & Commander manages to loosen the shackles of its dry pages.
10. There's no need to be a fan of Patrick O'Brian's 20 Aubrey/Maturin novels to enjoy Peter Weir's adaptation of the first and tenth entries in the series.


Critic consensus:As smart, funny, and trenchant as writer-director-star Chris Rock's best standup work, Top Five is a career highlight for its creator -- and one of the comedy standouts of 2014.

Numbered reviews:1. It paints with a broad brush... but the journey is nonetheless entertaining, and at times wildly funny.
2. Rock is sharpest in observational mode, riffing on Andre's career, but the movie falters when the routine plot devices kick in.
3. Top Five is easily the "Avengers" of comedians where the laugh meter never drops from its highest point.
4. It's much less savvy than his stand-up observations.
5. What follows is part meet-cute, part examination of fame, and all Rock.
6. When it's just Andre and Chelsea, wandering the streets of New York and getting to know each other, Top Five is as good as Rock has ever been on-screen.
7. Chris Rock's Top Five is very funny -- no surprise there -- but it's also unexpectedly romantic.
8. [Rock's] conversations with Dawson crackle with intelligence and sexual chemistry, and a parade of guest artists -- some playing characters, others as themselves -- is folded into the mix with a minimum of awkwardness.
9. As a director, Chris Rock makes a fine stand-up comic.
10. If you want to see one of the richest, most complex female characters in American film this year, go to the picture that's being marketed as a dirty-talking ethnic comedy.


Critic consensus:An uninspired, generic updating of the classic fairy tale.

Numbered reviews:
1. The movie strains to bend the fairy tale to accommodate another coarse high school comedy of air-headed teenage vixens ganging up on a meek little angel.
2. The sort of entertainment that makes you happy to be grown up and able to avoid the current onslaught of trite, lazy, unimaginative films aimed at tween-agers.
3. What we have here is a failure to communicate anything the least bit interesting unless you're under 10 and this is your first cinematic rodeo
4. Alas, the attempts by writer Leigh Dunlap and director Mark Rosman to modernize this fable fall flatter than Cinderella's arches after a night of dancing on glass slippers.
5. A sloppy, idiotic mess that demonstrates nothing but contempt for anyone deluded enough to actually watch it.
6. In this awkward, updated fairy tale, the shallow, bland script drowns in so many cliches that it becomes tedious, except for the most devoted "Lizzie McGuire" fans.
7. You might imagine her father's death by earthquake is a terrible trial, but, this being a romantic teen comedy, the trauma is fleeting.
8. Feels like a pro forma TV movie from the get-go and relies almost entirely on Duff's likability to hold the audience's attention.
9. The whole thing feels like detached adults' cartoonish idea of what high school life is like.
10. The efforts to find Cinderella and struggles with Fiona take longer than they should, but there is an old-fashioned happily ever after ending for everyone who deserves one.