Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 4
Descending from Brokeback Mountain, Heath Ledger moves into a completely different characterization as the womanizing Casanova. You might believe you know the tale of this most legendary gigolo. Casanova, however, adds a romanticized spin. The film is satirical and whimsical, but you can also take it as a cautionary tale of suffering the consequences of a deviant past. The lovely Sienna Miller, who gives a delightful performance as the astute, exquisite Francesca Bruni, accompanies Ledger.
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 4
For those who thought the world wasn’t ready for a fair-haired James Bond, Daniel Craig acquits himself extremely well in this twenty-first entry in the franchise, which plays fast and loose with the series’ chronology to show the super spy as a newly minted double-0. Cool, steely-eyed, and, above all, physically and emotionally vulnerable, this Bond can actually love a woman, although we learn in short order why he stopped doing so. In this installment, Bond infiltrates an arms financier’s high-stakes poker game staged to win back clients’ lost money. While the story line doesn’t hold up to close scrutiny, we get to see the evolution of the shaken vodka martini and the spy’s signature line of introduction.
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 3
Halle Berry revived the comics' most seductive villain in 2004. Aside from a new midriff-revealing leather catsuit (meow!), there's little to recommend this movie, which produced a hairball at the box office.
Video: 3
Audio: 4
Extras: 3
Abducted Jessica Martin's frantic wire-connecting on a smashed-up landline phone finally connects her with cell-phoned surfer-dude Ryan (Chris Evans) in Cellular, an action thriller that has just enough cool touches to make it effective. After Jessica (Kim Basinger) is threatened by three men looking for her husband, she is forced to protect her child, give up his locale, and beg this skeptical stranger to believe her and help her. Ryan eventually does and is determined to aid and not lose their tenuous phone link. Part Speed, part Phone Booth, this ride is filled with crashes and chases and is a high-octane trip that's a taut 95 minutes.
Video: 5
Audio: 4
Extras: 4
When a movie is rated PG for "quirky situations," that alone should build curiosity. Throw in another perfect team-up between director Tim Burton, star Johnny Depp, and composer Danny Elfman, plus story by Roald Dahl, and you've got a visual and musical delight for young and old.
Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore, who starred in Finding Neverland with Depp) has lived in the shadow of the Wonka Chocolate Factory all of his short life, yearning to see inside. Willy Wonka's desire to find an heir to his empire causes him to hide golden tickets in five Wonka bars, which are sent around the world. The children who discover the tickets will be admitted entry into the factory, along with one guardian. Charlie, the fittingly pale, poor, and very kind British lad that he is, finds the last golden ticket. Along with his grandfather and the other winners, Charlie goes on a wondrous tour of the chocolate factory up the hill, learning about its secrets, including the Oompa-Loompas, the miniature muscles behind the factory.
Video: 2
Audio: 2
Extras: 2
With so many unanswered questions remaining from their first outing, Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt return with a dozen children for yet another wacky family adventure, where, if we’re lucky, perhaps we’ll learn a lesson. The unnecessary sequel finds Martin’s brood going up against Eugene Levy’s eight overachieving children on a scenic summer vacation. While watching Martin, Hunt, and Levy on screen is always a treat, the family film has very little to offer that it didn’t bring to the table the first time around.
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 3
Pixar has spoiled me. Thanks to films like Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo, I don’t just want an animated movie to appeal to my inner child—I also expect it to engage me as a grownup. Chicken Little has all of the elements of a good animated feature: The story is fast and fun, the main characters are memorable, the animation is outstanding, and it’s got a high warm-and-fuzzy quotient. It just lacks that intangible quality that will inspire the same loyalty and repeat viewings in pre- and postpubescents.
Video: 3
Audio: 3
Extras: 5
The original Clerks, released in 1994, was the seminal work for people of my generation. That should be as disturbing as it sounds. I doubt there was a film school in the country that didn’t spew out Kevin Smith wannabes at a tremendous rate for the better part of a decade. All of them, and every other fan of that film, surely got a twang of disappointment when they heard about Clerks II. Had the great bearded auteur finally sold out? Well, amazingly enough, he pulls it off. Where Clerks was about a bunch of losers wanting to do something with their lives, Clerks II takes place 11 years later and finds the same losers now disappointed that they really haven’t done anything with their lives. It actually works, it’s funny, and it’s a story worth telling.
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 3
This is a special one. The newly minted Academy Award winner for Best Motion Picture is set in L.A., but it could be about all of America, warts and all. Paul Haggis’ script (he also directed) has such depth and insight into thoughts that we have—sometimes fleeting, sometimes ones that are ingrained about race, stereotypes, and prejudice—that it makes you question yourself. The performances are superb. The cast turns in Oscar-worthy performances all around.
Video: 4
Audio: 3
Extras: 3
The third series in the juggernaut forensics franchise brings the police procedural to the city of NYPD Blue, quite literally. In stark contrast to the orange and mango hues of CSI: Miami, NY is bathed in deep, metallic blues and grays, making investigators and killers look as if they could use a good dose of Florida sun. Nowhere is the disparity between the look of the two shows as apparent as in the pilot, which blends both locales as it introduces the new cast.
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