AMÉLIE -- (Grade: A) The most magical film this year is French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet's playful fantasy Amélie. This eye-popping tale follows the adventures of a pixyish waitress named Amélie (Audrey Tautou) in Paris' Montmartre neighborhood. Amélie watches movies with wide--eyed amazement, oblivious to the packed Parisian theater audience around her. She catches small details that ordinary moviegoers would ordinarily miss. She loves movies, and the movies seem to love Amélie right back. Dizzy photography and slapstick comedy keep the film moving. Amélie has more than enough trick shots to keep Jeunet's long-time fans happy. -- SR (Rated R.)

A BEAUTIFUL MIND -- (Grade: A) Russell Crowe's characters have heretofore been manly men. He's played tough men of loyalty who'd rather fight than have their honor questioned. In A Beautiful Mind, Crowe plays troubled John Forbes Nash Jr., a man who wants to be a strong intellect. A Beautiful Mind is a loose biopic that follows Nash's journey from his break-though mathematical discovery and acceptance into top-secret government work to his eventual breakdown. Jennifer Connelly continues her comeback with a fine performance as Nash's unfailing wife. In this Oscar hopeful season, A Beautiful Mind is one film that completely deserves its accolades. -- RP (Rated PG-13.)

BIG FAT LIAR -- (Grade: D) Hollywood producer Marty Wolf (Paul Giamatti) and 14-year-old Jason Shepherd (Frankie Muniz) are the two truth-impaired guys who cross paths when Shepard's school assignment turns into Wolf's pitch for a summer blockbuster. By the end of Big Fat Liar, Wolf receives his comeuppance for stealing Shepherd's paper, and Shepherd experiences redemption. Big Fat Liar springs from Robert Rodriguez's Spy Kids mold, but TV director Shawn Levy (The Adventures of Jett Jackson) is no Rodriguez. It's too bad the film ends up feeling like a reunion special for a show that never was, thanks to a supporting role from Lee Majors (Six Million Dollar Man). -- ttc (Rated PG.)

DRAGONFLY -- (Grade: F) Veteran leading man Kevin Costner is earnest in his performance as Chicago doctor Joe Darrow, a man who believes his deceased wife is trying to communicate with him through her former child patients. For director Tom Shadyac, best known for the comedies Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Patch Adams and The Nutty Professor, Dragonfly is his chance to tell a more serious story, this time a Sixth Sense-like supernatural drama. Despite Costner and Shadyac's good intentions, Dragonfly is more high-strung melodrama than creepy ghost story. Dragonfly is every bit as tenacious as the health-care drama John Q., another embarrassing movie that will stop at nothing to drive its audiences to tears. Costner, overflowing with emotional gusto, verges on soap opera hysterics. If he was hoping to jolt his credibility with Dragonfly, pulling a Bruce Willis/Sixth Sense role, I hope he has another plan. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

THE ENDURANCE: SHACKLETON'S LEGENDARY ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION -- (Grade: B) Archival filmed footage from expedition photographer Frank Hurley and still photographs are the visual resources put to powerful use by veteran director George Butler for his enthralling documentary about Sir Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated trek to Antarctica. Recent books and an OMNIMAX film have brought extra attention to Shackleton's heroic story of survival, but nothing compares to the human emotion captured by Butler through interviews with direct descendents of Shackleton's crew, historians and readings of the crew's diaries. The Endurance boasts no elaborate recreations of Shackleton's journey across the icy Weddell Sea. Thanks to Butler's skill at telling a riveting story, The Endurance doesn't need them. -- SR (Rated G.)

40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS -- (Grade: B) It's official: Josh Hartnett can do comedy. In 40 Days, Hartnett is Matt Sullivan, a hip and oversexed San Francisco 20-something, trying desperately to shake his obsession with an ex-girlfriend. So Matt vows to refrain from sex for 40 long days. Enter Erica (Shannyn Sossamon), an attractive single woman. Can Matt make it? In terms of weighty films, 40 Days is helium. It's a total romp, broad and generic enough to appeal to the masses. And yet, thanks almost completely to Hartnett, the film rises above the remedial level of Tomcats, the American Pie franchise and other mostly tasteless sex comedies that have surfaced in the last couple of years. -- RP (Rated R.)

GOSFORD PARK -- (Grade: B) On paper, Robert Altman's Gosford Park sounds like an Agatha Christie remake. Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon) and his young wife, Lady Sylvia (Kristin Scott Thomas), have invited family and assorted friends to their country estate for a genteel shooting party. When a murder disrupts the elegant gathering, it's Constance's maid, Mary Maceachran (Kelly Macdonald), who begins to unravel the source of the foul play. Altman's smug and cynical film stands on its own merits. -- SR (Rated PG.)

HARRISON'S FLOWERS -- (Grade: D) A welcome tweak on the recent surfeit of war movies, Harrison's Flowers is an earnest drama about Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Harrison Lloyd (David Strathairn) who is missing and presumed dead while covering the start of the Bosnian War. Unconvinced of his death, Lloyd's wife Sarah (Andie MacDowell) travels to the war-torn city of Vukovar to find her husband. The always engaging Strathairn has too little screen time to boost the film. Better suited for romantic comedies, MacDowell appears overwhelmed by the seriousness of the story. I won't give away the film's dramatic finale, but I guarantee that most audiences will have lost interest long before Sarah's revelation. -- SR (Rated R.)

HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE -- (Grade: D) Little humor, fun or feeling finds its way into director Chris Columbus' adaptation of J.K. Rowling's popular children's book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The story follows an 11-year-old orphan named Harry Potter, who lives with his cruel aunt and uncle. Harry's dreams of escaping his hard-knock life are answered when he is accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Despite an entertaining ensemble of supporting roles, the film's young star, Daniel Radcliffe, manages only to succeed in looking like Potter. Harry Potter is just Hollywood's latest manufactured extravaganza, void of emotional honesty and storytelling. -- SR (Rated PG.)

ICE AGE -- (Grade: A) Of all the contemporary movie types, the animated feature is the one that's enjoying the biggest heyday. Director Chris Wedge continues the trend with the laugh-out-loud funny Ice Age, a tale of a woolly mammoth (voice of Ray Romano), an annoying sloth (voice of John Leguizamo) and a saber-toothed tiger (voice of Denis Leary) who team up to return a human baby to its tribe. Ice Age is that rare movie which captures the physical language of silent comedy. What's even more impressive is how it captures the clownish slapstick of silent comedy's bygone era. -- SR

IN THE BEDROOM -- (Grade: A) In a film that is all about the inability to express emotions, at least actor-turned-first-time director Todd Field was able to find the perfect face. As the grief-stricken mother, Sissy Spacek embodies every possible emotion in Field's melodrama. Spacek watches as her son (Nick Stahl) carries on with an older, separated mother (Marisa Tomei) with two young boys. Spacek seethes as her husband (Tom Wilkinson) admires the son's youthful indiscretion. Fortunately, In The Bedroom all but guarantees there will be other Todd Field films. -- ttc (Rated R.)

IRIS -- (Grade: A) Actresses Dame Judi Dench and Kate Winslet share the role of novelist/philosopher Iris Murdoch in director Richard Eyre's biopic and it's impossible to say who's better. In a film that mixes Murdoch's college years with her final days when she was stricken with Alzheimer's disease, both Dench and Winslet sparkle with believable, naturalistic performances. They're the soul of this substantive and heartfelt drama, raising the film above woman-in-ill-health melodramatics. The surprises behind Iris are Hugh Bonneville and Jim Broadbent's tour-de-force performance as Murdoch's dutiful husband John Bayley. Like Dench and Winslet, Bonneville and Broadbent divide Bayley's life equally, but Broadbent has the Herculean task of capturing the elderly Bayley's struggles to care for a stricken Iris. Broadbent performs beautifully, and in the process, creates the most engaging character in Eyre's character-driven love story. -- SR (Rated R.)

ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS -- (Grade: A) The cinematic surprise of the year is Italian for Beginners. Film buffs won't know what hit them. Denmark's gritty and cynical Dogme 95 movement unleashes a winning romantic-comedy about a relocated parish minister (Anders W. Berthelsern) and the other lovesick inhabitants of a Copenhagen suburb. Writer/director Lone Scherfig stays true to the Dogme rule book of realistic filmmaking. Italian for Beginners possesses the photographic style of a low-budget documentary. Italian for Beginners' joyful spirit comes out of Scherfig's playful storytelling. By Italian for Beginners' sweet-natured finale, you can't help but be smitten by its charms. -- SR (Rated R.)

JIMMY NEUTRON: BOY GENUIS -- (Grade: A) Some of 2001's best movies were kids' films, the streak continues with Nickelodeon's animated Boy Genuis. James Isaac Neutron has the big-brained ingenuity of MacGyver and a practical nature for using his inventions to solve the problems of daily life. When he mistakenly brings about the kidnapping of all the parents by hungry, chicken-like aliens, Jimmy leads his pals into space to save the day. I especially enjoyed the campfire scene with frights supplied by a great synopsis of The Blair Witch Project. That scene alone will probably send kids to the video store screaming for the movie. -- ttc (Rated G.)

JOHN Q. -- (Grade: F) The first half of John Q. is an enjoyable blue-collar drama. The second half of John Q. is so relentless in its attempts to generate audience tears that you can't help but laugh out loud. Denzel Washington is John Q. Archibald, a factory worker struggling to make ends meet for his family on his downsized salary. When his son Michael (Daniel E. Smith) becomes ill, John discovers that his insurance won't cover the bills. John Q. packs some appealing messages about the country's health care system. Unfortunately, these messages are soon washed over by the film's unintentional comedy. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

LANTANA -- (Grade: A) Anthony LaPaglia's engaging performance as an adulterous police detective is the emotional force behind director Ray Lawrence's rich thriller. LaPaglia plays Leon Zat, a middle-aged man who's turned cool towards the touch of his wife Sonja (Kerry Armstrong). Zat's investigation into the whereabouts of Dr. Valerie Somers (Barbara Hershey), a well-known psychiatrist who's been missing for days, opens the wounds of his own troubled marriage. Nothing in the film is what it appears to be on the surface. LaPaglia's unhappy police detective is the soul of Lawrence's riveting movie. -- SR (Rated R.)

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING -- (Grade: A) Director Peter Jackson tackles J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy books set in Middle-earth with a creative force. The results are extraordinary. The film tells the story of hobbit Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) and the powerful Ruling Ring he inherits from his Uncle Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm). There is plenty of showmanship in Fellowship, but there is also substantive storytelling. Fellowship of the Ring is so good that I imagine high-brow audiences who normally avoid these types of films will find themselves having a great time if they give the film a chance. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

MONSTER'S BALL -- (Grade: A) Halle Berry throws fashionable wardrobes out the window in the stark drama Monster's Ball. As Leticia Musgrove, a Southern widow who falls for the death-row prison guard (Billy Bob Thornton) who executed her convicted-killer husband (Rapper Sean Combs), Berry looks intentionally drab. Monster's Ball is a love story, although it focuses on race, telling its story in a deliberately black-and-white manner. While a movie like Monster's Ball is considered low-budget, its performances outshine most of this year's large-scale movies. -- SR (Rated R.)

THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES -- (Grade: B) What if, throughout history, there has been a force, some otherworldly presence, that has tried to alert us to impending tragedy? So asks The Mothman Prophecies, a refreshingly smart spooker directed by Mark Pellington. John Klein (Richard Gere) is haunted by a vision his wife sees before an accident. In his quest to understand the "moth-like" image, he finds himself in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, a sleepy burg whose inhabitants are also haunted. If the choice is between an intelligent thriller that doesn't take sides and 13 Ghosts, I'll take Mothman. -- RP (Rated PG-13.)

ORANGE COUNTY -- (Grade: D) Orange County has a boatload of rising and established talent. Colin Hanks and Schuyler Fisk headline a cast including Jack Black, John Lithgow, Catherine O'Hara, Lily Tomlin and a host of surprise cameos.Shaun (Hanks) is a smart kid who desperately wants to attend Stanford where he can study to become a writer. His path is blocked by the unstable cast of characters in his life, Along the way to solving his issues, Shaun realizes Orange County may inspire him, much how Yoknapatawpha County, Miss., inspired William Faulkner. -- ttc (Rated PG-13.)

OCEAN'S ELEVEN -- (Grade: C) Steven Soderbergh has said that Ocean's 11 is an old-fashioned heist movie with lots of stars. Soderbergh's remake isn't much of an improvement from the 1960 original. Just released from prison, unreformed thief Danny Ocean (George Clooney) corrals 11 retired criminals to rob three Las Vegas casinos, all owned by a Vegas tycoon (Andy Garcia) who's romantically involved with Ocean's ex-wife (Julia Roberts). The beginning of Ocean's 11 crisscrosses America as Ocean builds his criminal dream team. The second half shows the heist. But instead of building to an exciting climax, it is content to be an affable, buddy tale. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

THE OTHERS -- (Grade: B) Strange noises takes preference over spoken dialogue in a traditional English Gothic like The Others. Unseen people converse behind closed doors. A girl (Alakina Mann) and her younger brother (James Bentley) insist they've seen ghosts. The trick that keeps writer/director Alejandro Amenábar's psychological drama humming is guessing whether these ghosts are real or imagined. The children's irritable mother (Nicole Kidman) is not convinced by their supernatural stories. Still, it's not long before she realizes that something otherworldly is inhabiting their country house. Its core mystery -- who are the Others? -- is somewhat of a movie cliché. But I'm hard-pressed to remember the last film that made me squirm in my seat as much as The Others. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

RESIDENT EVIL -- (Grade: F) I should begin by saying that I am not familiar with the video game this film is based on. But boy howdy, it just has to be more fun playing it than watching it. An elite assault team led by a pair of female commandos (Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez) is sent into an underground genetics laboratory to find out why all the scientists are dead. After battling the lab's central computer, they find their greatest challenge is still ahead of them. The concept behind Resident Evil isn't bad. Take one part Aliens, three parts Return of the Living Dead, throw in a sexy Lara Croft-like heroine and you have the good parts of Resident Evil. However, those scant assets the film had going for it are hardly visible in the final product. -- RP (Rated R.)

RETURN TO NEVERLAND -- (Grade: D) Disney animators create a dull Peter Pan adventure that's not half as fun as the 1953 original movie. Return to Neverland reunites Pan (voice of Blayne Weaver) with his fairy companion Tinkerbell and colorful nemesis Captain Hook (voice of Corey Burton). It's World War II and Pan's old friend Wendy is grown-up now, with children. Wendy's young daughter, Jane (voice of Harriet Owen), doesn't believe in Neverland's fantasies. So it's up to Pan to convince Jane to resume acting like a child. It's too bad Disney marred his return with a lackluster movie.-- SR (Rated G.)

THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS -- (Grade: A) Everything comes together perfectly in filmmaker Wes Anderson's playful comedy, The Royal Tenenbaums. The film's story, co-written by Anderson and Owen Wilson, is about a family of Upper East Side geniuses reunited after 20 years of betrayals. Gwyneth Paltrow is wonderfully pouty as Margot Tenenbaum, a somber playwright who hasn't written anything in seven years. Gene Hackman gives one of the best performances of his career as cranky Royal Tenenbaum. Tenenbaums is a comic celebration of dysfunctional behavior. They're eccentrics struggling through daily life, and nothing is richer than that. -- SR (Rated R.)

SHACKLETON'S ANTARCTIC ADVENTURE -- (Grade: C) One of the greatest tales of human courage and adventure is shrunk down to a 45-minute, routine OMNIMAX film. Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure, a documentary about Sir Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated 1914 journey to Antarctica, replaces interviews with descendents of Shackleton's crew with dramatizations of Shackleton's struggle to rescue his men. Compared to the archival film footage and still photography shot by Frank Hurley, a Shackleton crewmember, the dramatizations are amateurish and uninteresting. -- SR (Unrated.)

SHOWTIME -- (Grade: D) No-nonsense veteran detective Mitch Preston (Robert DeNiro) and media-savvy Patrol Officer 'Ice' Trey Sellars (Eddie Murphy) are forced to team up to investigate a powerful new weapon unleashed on the streets after a sting operation by Preston goes awry. This "odd couple" pairing becomes the basis of a reality cop show concept pitched by television producer Chase Renzi (Rene Russo). Showtime, an amiable spoof of cop films, TV cops and reality shows, is high-concept Hollywood. Think Lethal Weapon meets 48 Hours with a healthy dose of Get Shorty. Unfortunately, it's far better if you don't think since the movie completely lacks even an ounce of common sense or intelligence. Showtime sells itself short and never makes a meaningful observation or achieves big time laughs. -- ttc (Rated PG-13.)

SNOW DOGS -- (Grade: D) The closing credits of Snow Dogs reveal that the story was suggested by the book Winterdance by Gary Paulsen. Snow Dogs presents animals manipulated into exhibiting more human characteristics. I'm sure the kids might get something out of the good messages, but Snow Dogs offers far less than animated features like Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and Monsters, Inc. I might have been far more inclined to go along with the "hokey black guy from Florida inherits a dog sled team in Alaska" story if the producers had gone the animated route. -- ttc (Rated PG.)

SORORITY BOYS -- (Grade: D) They say one man's trash is another man's treasure, but the converse is also true. Take Sorority Boys director Wally Wolodarsky. He takes some simple comic treasures from Animal House, Revenge of the Nerds and Tootsie and mines from them a whole lot of trash. Dave (Barry Watson), Doofer (Harland Williams) and Adam (Michael Rosenbaum) are the studs of their KOK fraternity until they're framed for stealing the frat's designated party fund. In an attempt to sneak back into the frat house, they disguise themselves as homely sorority girls. The cast manage to seem a little charismatic. Barry Watson, as the lead transvestite, should get some work after this misstep. And Michael Rosenbaum plays Lex Luthor on TV's Smallville, so at least he has a credit to fall back on. -- RP (Rated R.)

SUPER TROOPERS -- (Grade: C) Watched at last year's Sundance Film Festival, director Jay Chandrasekhar's indie homage to Police Academy movies packs enough sly humor to stand alone on its own comic merits. Veteran actor Brian Cox is the mentor of a bunch of rag-tag Vermont State Troopers who fight to keep their station from closing. Cox's dramatic presence gives Super Troopers sufficient indie credibility. Super Troopers is the type of throw-away comedy that's not meant to be taken seriously, which explains the special appearance by Wonder Woman Lynda Carter. -- SR (Rated R.)

THE TIME MACHINE -- (Grade: C) Like the time machine itself, a gilded contraption made of brass, wood and leather, director Simon Wells' (great-grandson of author H.G. Wells) adaptation of H.G. Wells' 1885 fantasy, is a quaint and old-fashioned tale. Cleaned of the social politics that drove his great-grandfather's story, Simon Wells' Time Machine update is nothing more than a child-friendly comic book. Guy Pearce is likable as Alexander Hartdegen, the absent-minded inventor who builds a machine that transports him 800,000 years into the future in search of a way to undo past events. Still, Pearce's twitchy charisma fails to keep the film moving. Only Jeremy Irons, playing a monstrous villain who confronts Hartdegen in the future, makes the most of the film's comic book spirit. (Rated PG-13.) -- SR (Rated R.)

VANILLA SKY -- (Grade: B) A complex and mature performance by the usually lackadaisical Tom Cruise is the highlight of director Cameron Crowe's erotic remake of Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar's 1997 thriller Abre Los Ojos. Cruise plays David Aames, a wealthy heir to a Manhattan publishing company, Cameron Diaz plays Julie Gianni, a flirty actress and Aames' girlfriend. The dependable Jason Lee plays Aames' jealous best friend. Co-star Penélope Cruz makes a believable "dream" girl, reinventing the role she played in Amenábar's original film. Crowe brings dramatic tweaks and surrealist flourishes to Amenábar's film about a man who loses his chance at true happines. -- SR (Rated R.)

A WALK TO REMEMBER --(Grade: B) Adapted from the novel by Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember feels familiar because it follows countless teen love stories. There is the hip high school court that's ruled by a James Dean-style prince named Landon Carter (Shane West). His main admirer is Jaime Sullivan (Mandy Moore), an ugly duckling on the verge of achieving swanlike grace. What makes director Adam Shankman's Walk different is that Moore doesn't quite transform Sullivan into a beautiful swan. Nice to see a teen movie willing to wear its heart on its sleeve. --ttc (Rated PG.)

WHEN WE WERE SOLDIERS -- (Grade: D) Mel Gibson plays heroic soldier and dutiful father in writer/director Randall Wallace's Vietnam War drama, the latest entry in Hollywood's post Sept. 11 wave of patriotism. We Were Soldiers is not the best of the current battle movies. That title still belongs to the gritty Black Hawk Down. It's also not the worst, easily besting the comic-book foolishness of Behind Enemy Lines. Gibson's noble presence, as Lt. Col. Hal Moore, a man who leads 400 Army recruits into an ambush by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers, is the saving grace behind Wallace's lumbering film. Still, there is only so much even a hero as likable as Gibson's can do. -- SR (Rated R.)

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