1. Herzog is a superb interviewer, never bludgeoning the interviewees with his power as filmmaker nor shying away out of discretion or discouragement.
2. Werner Herzog has a well-deserved reputation for tackling difficult, risky subjects. It took courage to enter the Lone Star State and wade into the mire of capital punishment.
3. The star filmmaker, oft mocked for verging on self-parody, keeps his Teutonic explorer persona in check and allows his subjects' emotional outpourings-sadness, shame, dread, and desperation, and unexpected glimmers of hope and happiness-to set the tone.
4. As it winds to its inevitable conclusion, viewers are left to ponder right and wrong, and most will have the same mixed feelings they had before they took their first bite of popcorn. This looks to be on the short list for Oscar contenders.
5. A virtuoso work, unparalleled in Herzog's career. And it'll just break your heart.
6. A smart documentary that takes sides in the death penalty debate but never shies away from the horrendous crimes at the center of the story.
7. Herzog is empathetic and non-judgmental, even as his interview subjects try to rationalize their lives, declare their innocence and the like.
8. Questions if the state has the right to murder.
9. It is also a devastating portrait of the culture of crime, drug and alcohol abuse, and broken families ...
10. This is humane, fascinating documentary filmmaking that is willing to confront insurmountable issues. And as is the case with most true crime material: truth is stranger than fiction.
Consensus: Another probing, insightful look at an interesting subject, Werner Herzog explores the American prison system with passion and not politics.
1. Right amongst the bottom end of the genre.
2. Barrymore is actually becoming quite the deft physical comedienne, unafraid to make herself look unsightly for effect. But her performance isn't enough to overcome even one of the other problems.
3. Not even Drew Barrymore's million-dollar smile can save this humiliating comedy!
4. A bogus, bottom-of-the-barrel Cinderella story!
5. Lazy. Clumsy. Miscast.
6. I was too delighted with the last two hours to complain.
7. It's a captivating, totally cool teenage chick's flick.
8. Embarrassing, witless!
9. It's silly teenage "Revenge of the Nerds" fun. And it's spirited.
10. Seriously flawed!
Consensus: Unoriginal and unremarkable high school satire adds little to the genre.
1. It has all the right ingredients (but) 60 percent of the movie is spent trying to make a rich, lying, conniving, completely unprincipled Manhattan lawyer seem sympathetic.
2. "Changing Lanes" does hit a few minor potholes along the way, but it's a pleasure to experience Hollywood come off of cruise control.
3. Even if the ride's a little bumpy, with a final lap that's all too suspiciously smooth, you gotta give director Roger Michell, best known for the superfluous Notting Hill, credit for trying.
4. A pretty darn good movie with two very darn good stars.
5. A story and character-driven reminder of the classic paranoia cinema of Arthur Penn and Alan Pakula; if only it ultimately displayed the courage of the same.
6. A teasing drama whose relentless good-deed/bad-deed reversals are just interesting enough to make a sinner like me pray for an even more interesting, less symmetrical, less obviously cross-shaped creation.
7. You've probably had the experience of reading a book nobody likes but that turns out to be interesting to talk about. The movie, Changing Lanes, is like that.
8. When so many Hollywood films actively discourage higher brain functions, you have to give Changing Lanes credit for giving you food for thought.
9. Roger Michell, who did an appealing job directing Persuasion and Notting Hill in England, gets too artsy in his American debut.
10. A film that dares to probe, intelligently, into some of those most essential, difficult American issues: race and class.

Consensus: Though some may find its conclusion unsatisfying, Changing Lanes is a tense, well-crafted exploration of meaty ethical dilemmas.