The following, rated on a system of 0 to 4 stars, are by Rick Groen, Liam Lacey, Leah McLaren and Stephen Cole. Full reviews appeared on the dates indicated.
The Aviator ***
Think of it as Citizen Pain. Director Martin Scorsese is working with a merely ordinary script here in an account of the life of Howard Hughes, aeronautics pioneer, dashing womanizer and anxiety-ridden eccentric. Scorsese's ever-moving camera and gorgeous set designs give his depiction of old Hollywood the giddy intensity of a fever dream. Leonardo DiCaprio as Hughes captures the combination of little-boy terrors and adult grandiosity, and there's a deft turn from Cate Blanchett as Hughes's one-time lover, Katharine Hepburn. But after one of the great plane crashes in screen history, there's a serious drop in momentum when the film stops to obsess over Hughes's obsessions. The ending, long before the period of Hughes's complete decline, attempts to extract some notes of triumph out of his chaotic life. 14A (Dec. 17) -- L.L.
Bad Education ***
Combining a story of abusive priests and the post-Franco liberation of Spain, Pedro Almodovar's latest film lays claim to a gravity it doesn't quite deliver, but it's ingenious all the same. The story starts with the tale of two boys in a Catholic boarding school in 1964 and the overattentive priest who teaches them literature. Later, the two boys are grown up -- one is an actor, the other a director, both making a movie about their past. Using Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo as his principal model, Almodovar creates a loop-de-loop plot of betrayal, disguise and deceit. Gael Garcia Bernal plays the chameleon central character, both in drag and straight, under several names. 18A (Jan. 14) -- L.L.
Because of Winn-Dixie *½
Perky, motherless 10-year-old Opal (AnnaSophia Robb) befriends a big shaggy dog and helps transform the lives of the lonely folk in a small backwater Florida town. Eventually, the dog even helps her unlock the closed heart of her dad (Jeff Daniels). Director Wayne Wang lurches awkwardly from maudlin sentiment to slapstick, and the high-profile cast -- including Eva Marie Saint, Cicely Tyson and singer Dave Mathews -- is hard-pressed to find depth in the cutout characters. Worst of all, the dog is bestowed with a creepy computer-generated smile. G (Feb. 18) -- L.L.
Boogeyman *½
Tim has a problem with closets. When he was 8, his dad locked him in one to prove there was no such thing as the Boogeyman. Oh, don't worry, Dad gets his when something reaches out of the darkened hole and beats the crap out of him. Fifteen years later in this off-the-rack, supernatural horror story, Tim (Barry Watson) has a rich girlfriend and a fabulous apartment. But in that apartment -- you guessed it -- closets! And the first time we see him opening one, Tim's right back where he started, alone, sweating, reliving his perpetual nightmare. The most ludicrous plot twist arrives with Tim deciding to defeat the Boogeyman by spending a night alone in his childhood home, a haunted house with one unique feature -- roomy closets. PG (Feb. 4) -- S.C.
Born into Brothels ***
In this moving, Oscar-nominated documentary, English photojournalist Zana Briski gives eight children of Calcutta prostitutes cameras and teaches them how to photograph the world around them. The photography lessons help the children, living in one of the most squalid corners of the planet, gain confidence and hope. The film follows the director's attempts to use the photos to give the children educational opportunities, though it means taking them out of their homes. 14A (Feb. 18) -- L.L.
Bride & Prejudice ***
It's the small, smelly details that elevate this Indian-fusion retelling of Jane Austen's classic novel from trifle to bona-fide delight. With its flamboyant dance numbers and wide-eyed moral constraints, Bride & Prejudice stays true to its roots: This is a Bollywood movie first, sacrificing none of the kooky customs of the genre. In the end, the film comes off seeming all the more dignified for it. Western audiences will undoubtedly find the chaste fairy-tale formula in some ways absurd, but in the end what is silly about Bride is also what makes it special. That and its leading lady, the luminous Aishwarya Rai, who may well deserve Julia Roberts and several hundred websites calling her the most beautiful woman in the world. G (Feb. 25) -- L.M.
The Chorus (Les Choristes) ***
If you like your sentimentality served up with heaps of je ne sais quoi, then Les Choristes is definitely le flick for you. This is a formula film with French panache. The formula: It's the old inspirational teacher saga. The panache: Actor Gérard Jugnot, who does for this movie with his subtle charm what Samuel Jackson did for Coach Carter with his sheer charisma. This isn't a performance, it's an article of faith, and his grace is amazing. PG (Jan. 28) -- R.G.
Constantine *½
Less a movie than a set-designed studio pitch, Constantine has Keanu Reeves trading in his black overcoat for a black suit, one ethereal brunette love interest for another (Rachel Weisz) and instead of hanging out in a computer vortex, he elects to confine his dimension hopping between Earth and the underworld. The gothic sequences can be visually breathtaking but the story (inspired by the comic book Hellblazer) is strangely tangled, as dialogue flips from campy one-liners to emotional realism in the course of a scene. The viewer doesn't know whether to be scared, amused or moved. None of which matters, because the plot is so absurdly convoluted that in the end, you'll end up feeling nothing but confused. 14A (Feb. 18) -- L.M.
Finding Neverland ***
A making-of-the-myth movie, this is a fictionalized look at how J.M. Barrie (an eerily calm Johnny Depp) came to create his Peter Pan masterpiece. Many of the biographical details have been altered to allow for a freer flow of the sentimental sap, but the film is just doing to the writer what he did to his own raw material, although not nearly as memorably. Instead, it's content to be a sweet little tear-jerker. However, because it's a well-crafted and superbly acted tear-jerker, we're content too -- this is a mild pleasure to watch. PG (Nov. 19) -- R.G.
Hide and Seek **
From the base-model script to the assembly-line atmosphere, everything about this forgettable thriller is generic except its star. Robert De Niro used to be, and perhaps still is, one of the great actors of his generation. But not lately. Here, taking the title to heart, De Niro seems to shrink his once-magnetic self to near-invisibility. Apparently, having proved that comedy isn't his bag, he's now giving anonymity a whirl. 14A (Jan. 28) -- R.G.
Hitch **½
The strong point here is a vivacious cast: Will Smith in his first romantic comedy as a matchmaker for lonely guys; Eva Mendes as the prickly gossip reporter he falls for; and the scene-stealing Kevin James ( King of Queens) as the pudgy accountant with a crush on a beautiful heiress (Amber Valletta). If only it weren't for the greeting-card dialogue, predictable comic set-ups and saggy directing, this might be the Valentine movie it was intended to be. PG (Feb. 11) -- L.L.
Hotel Rwanda ***
Writer-director Terry George ( In the Name of the Father, Some Mother's Son) redirects his anger from colonialism in his native Northern Ireland to a condemnation of the Western powers' complicity in the 1994 Rwandan genocide in this inspirational story of hotelier Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle), who saved more than 1,200 lives out of the 800,000 to one million who died at the hands of ruthless Hutu militia. Cheadle delivers an eloquent performance as the resourceful hero, though George's version of the massacre is strangely sanitized, and his penchant for emotional button-pushing and cliff-hanger suspense borders on the exploitative. 14A (Jan. 7) -- L.L.
In Good Company ***
There's a certain kind of well-written American comedy -- Billy Wilder's The Apartment springs to mind -- with the happy knack of being all things to all people. In Good Company doesn't rise to Wilder's level, but it's definitely in the same league. Impeccably cast with Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace and Scarlett Johansson in the principal roles, the triangulated plot sees a middle-aged ad exec lose first his job and then his daughter to a company whiz kid. Writer-director Paul Weitz finds some lovely light humour in the heavy-handed world of corporate politics; better yet, his script repeatedly sets up stock situations only to wiggle free with twists as deft as they are surprising. A very genial treat. PG (Dec. 29) -- R.G.
Meet the Fockers **
This is the sequel to the hit comedy Meet the Parents (2000), co-starring Ben Stiller as Greg, a male nurse who tries to impress his future father-in-law, paranoid ex-CIA agent Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro). This time out, Greg brings Jack to meet his oversexed Jewish parents (played by Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand), and the humour turns from clever to crass: a leg-humping dog, seniors' sex classes, a foul-mouthed toddler. A once good idea has been seriously Fockered up. PG (Dec. 22). -- L.L.
The Merchant of Venice ****
In a brilliant opening montage, before a word from text is spoken, director Michael Radford puts his dark stamp all over The Merchant of Venice. What follows is a lean, stripped-down, fiercely intelligent and unapologetically cinematic take on Shakespeare's play, an adaptation designed at each turn to diminish the mechanics of the comedy and to explore the depths of the pathos. Radford keeps the focus squarely on Shylock (a superb Al Pacino), poignantly enough to convince any lingering doubters that this is not an anti-Semitic play but a play about anti-Semitism -- or, at least, about the extremism bred by extremists of every stripe. Let's just say the message hasn't dated. PG (Jan. 21) -- R.G.
Million Dollar Baby ***
Clint Eastwood's drama is about a crusty old boxing trainer, Frankie Dunn (Eastwood), who finds a new reason to live when he begins managing a young woman, Maggie (Hilary Swank), from a tough background. This is familiar material, but well done, with a deft interplay between Eastwood and Morgan Freeman, who plays a former fighter who tells the story in voice-over. Then, just when you think this is going to turn into the female Rocky, Eastwood's movie takes a jarring turn, and becomes a much tougher and more compelling film about love, loss and loyalty. PG (Dec. 15) -- L.L.
Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior ***
Roll over Bruce Lee and tell Jackie Chan the news. From Thailand comes this star-making martial-arts film, with Tony Jaa as the simple country boy trained in ancient martial-arts discipline who must retrieve the head of the Buddha statue that has been stolen by evil Bangkok gangsters. The acting is amateurish, the plot ridiculous and the characters strictly stock but hold down your popcorn and prepare for takeoff: Whether leaping through barbed wire or bringing a crunching elbow down on an enemy's head, Jaa's stunt work, all without wires or CGI effects, is astonishing. 14A (Feb. 11) -- L.L.
Racing Stripes **
An equine version of Babe that's roughly as predictable as the attraction of flies to dung, Racing Stripes is a movie about a zebra who grows up on a Kentucky horse farm and believes, in spite of his stubby legs and black-and-white striations, that he's destined for glory on the track. When "Stripe" enters the family of a grieving widower (Bruce Greenwood) and his adolescent daughter (Hayden Panettiere), his impact is so inspirational the movie might be called Zeebiscuit. At the same time, the script peppers its narrative with poop jokes and talking animals, not to mention enough dated pop-culture riffs to keep followers of Saturday-morning cartoons feeling as if they've never left the home
sofa. G (Jan. 14) -- L.L.
Sideways ***
From director Alexander Payne, Sideways is just that, an oblique take on a couple of well-worn genres -- the buddy flick and the road movie. The two have been paired many times before, but the difference here, the sideways lurch, lies in the nature of the characters. The buddies (Paul Giamatti's sad-sack and Thomas Haden Church's dim-bulb) are both really pathetic guys, middle-age failures whose anxieties form the emotional backdrop, comic and poignant, for the picaresque road show. Buckle up, Payne invites us, because there's fun to be had in watching these losers drift without a compass. 18A (Oct. 29) -- R.G.
The Wedding Date *
Dermot Mulroney is the handsome hooker, Debra Messing is the jilted gal who hires him to be her wedding date. Yep, think Pretty Man, and that should be enough to bring you within sniffing distance of this February stinker. Of course, it's that time of year when Hollywood releases its cinematic turkeys, each one so meagre and insubstantial that it casts no shadow whatsoever, thereby condemning us to further minutes, hours, even weeks of wintry depression. PG (Feb. 4) -- R.G.
Liam Lacey