Problem: 1. I suggest you catch it on a cheapie night in the theatres, or more sensibly, wait for it on video and enjoy it during those long winter months.
2. Could someone please turn down Denzel Washington's Righteousness Meter? It's set too high.
3. A flawed melodrama that gives itself a self-important weight it cannot sustain throughout.
4. Exciting and thought-provoking.
5. Not dramatic enough to deserve merit, not suspenseful enough to attract an action-oriented audience, and so preachy as to be almost ludicrous.
6. The mediocre result is dismayingly unworthy of Washington and Zwick's combined talents.
7. The movie is more successful at creating tension than in building credible characters.
8. The concept deserves more than heroes and villains pointing guns at each other.
9. [Benning] is the only fresh, compelling character in the film.
10. A stimulating, challenging film.
What is the consensus?
****
Answer: An exciting, well-paced action film.


Problem: 1. Jakob the Liar deserves a place alongside Life Is Beautiful and, yes, even Schindler's List.
2. Jakob the Liar is more pleasant than painful. And with Williams, that's really all we're asking for.
3. Dramatic!
4. The film anticipates all laughter and emotion in ways that make it its own worst enemy.
5. A markedly better picture than Roberto Benigni's far more sentimental Oscar collector.
6. If telling lies can save a people, he reasons, let the stories - and those fictional tanks - roll.
7. Possesses a rewarding life of its own!
8. Williams appears to be riffing for another 'Comic Relief' benefit.
9. The film leans from the comedic to the near-mawkish.
10. Awkward!
What is the consensus?
****
Answer: Any real story is buried by awkward performances and contrived situations.


Problem: 1. Blue is the Warmest Colour is actually a far more thoughtful film about sex, mature relationships and modern love than its soft-core trappings and avant-garde buzz might otherwise suggest.
2. Once you begin to feel its rhythms, the film's mastery is undeniable.
3. A tender, at times devastating portrayal of the lifespan of a relationship, one that's as convincing and intimate as any you've ever seen on screen.
4. Rather than lead us by the hand to a predetermined destination, this is a film that asks us to stand back and observe.
5. Scene after scene brings truthfulness and insight into the at times difficult relationship.
6. There have been many films about the confusion of adolescence and the difficulty of coming out...but he makes the material fresh by understating the subtext while concentrating on the immediate experiences of the characters.
7. Something must be said for a film that's three hours long and remains this consistently engaging.
8. Viewed independently of the argy-bargy surrounding it, Blue Is the Warmest Colour is simply a remarkable work of cinema.
9. A riveting coming of age story that should have universal applicability.
10. Its biggest charm lies in the understated yet giving and uninhibited performances of its leads ... but not all three hours' worth of scenes deserve to be there.
What is the consensus?
****
Answer:
Raw, honest, powerfully acted, and deliciously intense, Blue Is the Warmest Color offers some of modern cinema's most elegantly composed, emotionally absorbing drama.