1. o matter how silly the situation, each member of the uniformly strong cast creates a nice balance between sentimental and sweet -- which is just how every holiday gathering should feel.
2. If you like schmaltzy, music-saturated family movies, This Christmas will set all the right bells jingling.
3. Family holiday dramedy has some iffy content.
4. If you're looking for a film that celebrates the holiday spirit, This Christmas would be my first suggestion because it's heartfelt and not too sweet.
5. Easily the best film of its genre since 'Soul Food' and definitely makes for a excellent holiday season treat.
6. A happy Christmas package that more or less ignores the fact that it's a black American family story
7. While formula is still the same, it's quite amusing, romantic, and a delightful holiday treat for a family to enjoy.
8. This is a very entertaining movie, despite all the inplausablities, and doesn't get down to the insipidness of most Holiday family outings.
9. Here's a family you'll want to visit for the holidays. Maybe you'll event want to stay through New Year's.
10. ...there's a genuine feeling of a real family's real Christmas, with all its heat as well as warmth, the kind of thing that's missing from the plastic platitudes of holiday junk like Fred Claus...
Consensus: This Christmas features strong performances and a sharp portrayal of family dynamics, but relies too heavily on holiday movie clichés.
Q: 1. It bides time while watching extras watching Jolie do her fashion-model strut, her famous lips pursed just so. It doesn't help that she is so icily imperious that she seems more like a creepily gorgeous space alien than an actual human being.
2. Two of Hollywood's most glamorous and cherished Hollywood heartthrobs team up for what will likely go down as one of the year's most disappointing misfires.
3. Frequently feels as if it has been assembled in some strange parallel world, one where Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie possess none of the charisma or subversive appeal that has consistently made each of them a magnetic screen presence...
4. one of the oddest star vehicles to come out of the Hollywood dream factory in some time...Depp and Jolie know exactly what they are doing. Jolie has never been more ludicrously Barbie-Doll/Sophia Loren glamorous
5. There's not enough oxygen in any room for these two giant egos to share... ...they're about as cuddly together as alien intelligences from different galaxies making first contact.
6. Beautiful people in exotic locations provide a serviceable espionage romp in 'The Tourist.'
7. consistently flat and uninspired, as if everyone is working on a different page
8. Two of the most fascinating people in the world in a movie that is not their best but still entertaining
9. The only thing worth noting is that the film is beautifully shot, but too bad 'The Tourist' is a just a lifeless, boring romantic mess.
10. The damn thing's been soundtracked within an inch of its life. Whenever Ange glides into a room it sounds like a concert harpist's having a coronary.
Based on these individual reviews, what is the critic consensus?

A: Consensus: The scenery and the stars are undeniably beautiful, but they can't make up for The Tourist's slow, muddled plot, or the lack of chemistry between Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie.
1. A new millennium hybrid of Dangerous Minds and Hoosiers.
2. An inspirational film about a high school coach who has the gall to suggest that athletes must make their mark in the classroom as well as on the basketball court.
3. For all Coach Carter's moralizing, it is an eminently palatable drama, and Samuel L. Jackson -- who has certainly been known to take nobility to the nth degree -- is first-rate as Carter.
4. With his steely, don't-mess-with-me aura, Jackson is ideally cast as Carter. When he blows his whistle and demands that everyone do wind sprints, you might think he means you, too.
5. The movie's moral messages are all on target. Too bad the movie is much, much too long and Jackson gives one of his dullest performances ever.
6. Samuel L. Jackson plays the real-life coach of a high school basketball team in this solid, unsurprising sports drama.
7. Coach Carter will be greeted with reviews that overflow with sports metaphors. Let's just say that the movie scores solidly.
8. The movie's 'message' -- life is more than just sports -- is delivered with the delicacy of a piano dropped from a fifth-story window.
9. If you've spent a week with CBS' prime-time lineup, you've heard this tune a million times.
10. The film nicely balances the stories, allowing some of the teammates to emerge as believably streetwise characters.
Consensus: Even though it's based on a true story, Coach Carter is pretty formulaic stuff, but it's effective and energetic, thanks to a strong central performance from Samuel L. Jackson.
Q: 1. Suffused with clear-eyed affection for its subject and times, this is not your little brother's punk documentary.
2. Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten is a film for fans -- really big fans. More-casual admirers, perhaps those whose only Strummer CD is the Clash's "London Calling," should probably stay away.
3. A remarkably well-detailed doc that proves 'Rock The Casbah' is not just that song from the cell phone commercials.
4. The end result is a documentary that feels very insider and exclusive... it's probably best suited to those who are already fans.
5. Julien Temple has assembled a complex portrait of a human being and the times in which he lived.
6. Temple's film offers a rich, detailed portrait of a commanding but idealistic Strummer against the backdrop of the do-it-yourself punk ethos of the late '70s.
7. The Future Is Unwritten does an ample job of capturing the many facets of Strummer, who was simultaneously self-effacing and and heroic, devoted and calculating, sensitive and brazen.
8. The Future Is Written is a loving testimonial to one of rock's true originals.
9. Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten is that rarest of movie biographies: a warts-and-all exploration of the life and times of its subject.
10. Julian Temple has done cinematic justice to the punk humanist born John Graham Mellor.
Based on these individual reviews, what is the critic consensus?

A: Consensus: Displaying Joe Strummer warts and all, The Future is Unwritten succeeds as both an engrossing documentary and a comprehensive examination of one of music's most legendary figures.
1. It's difficult to think of another recent film so seamlessly rendered or that envelops an audience so completely in its period authenticity.
2. An exceptional breadth of context and compassion is evident here, though the film is as much a triumph of production design as it is of acting, writing and direction.
3. Even with his film's solid foundation, Leigh seemingly cannot resist the pulpy histrionics.
4. It's almost as if a propaganda film made by Planned Parenthood had resurfaced after decades in storage. Timely, it's not.
5. The title heroine's goodness may stretch credulity, but such people do in fact exist.
6. Like any good Leigh film, Vera Drake is about the nature of family, which is the same thing as the nature of humanity.
7. A Mike Leigh mistake.
8. Leigh and Staunton seem like prisoners of their own plodding naturalism.
9. Staunton is phenomenal -- she barely speaks throughout the entire last third of the film, but the power of her posture and distraught expressions are enough to break your heart.
10. Vera is given a thoroughly devastating portrayal by Imelda Staunton, in the kind of role that elevates an actress into a lofty realm where those who never knew her suddenly knew it all along.

Consensus: With a piercingly powerful performance by Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake brings teeming humanity to the controversial subject of abortion.