S.W.A.T. (2003)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

S.W.A.T., starring Colin Farrell and Samuel L. Jackson as members of an elite police force, dissolves before your very eyes. What begins as a terse, disciplined look at the procedures of a S.W.A.T. unit gets slowly eaten away by summer-movie conventions, with all the silliness and bombast the genre implies. By the end, you’ll think

Runaway Jury (2003)

Thriller Rated PG-13

Runaway Jury depicts jurors as puppets – the drama lies not in their final decision regarding the case before them, but in who will win the battle to pull their strings. As a case study in manipulation, the movie fascinates. If unnecessary thriller elements take over in the end – this is a John Grisham

Together (2000)

Drama Rated PG

A genial if syrupy crowd pleaser from China, Together follows a rural father (Liu Peiqi) and son (Tang Yun) who move to Beijing to further the boy’s violin education. Much of this is broad, from the father’s clownish behavior to a finale that overflows with tears. Yet director Chen Kaige (Farewell My Concubine) manages some

Shattered Glass (2003)

Drama Rated PG-13

A riveting dramatization of a story that mainly made waves in journalism circles: the exposure of the fraudulent career of New Republic magazine writer Stephen Glass, who made up a good chunk of his stories. Thanks to a revelatory performance by Hayden Christensen (Star Wars: Episode II and III), this becomes an engrossing study of

Undertow (2004)

Drama Rated R

As in his little-known, independent efforts George Washington and All the Real Girls, director David Gordon Green specializes in capturing the idiosyncratic flickers in life that never leave us. Undertow traces the legacy of violence handed down from one generation of men to another when an ex-con (Josh Lucas) pays a visit to his brother

Starsky & Hutch (2004)

Comedy Rated PG-13

Starsky & Hutch accomplishes something truly unique: It has more funny actors than actual laughs. Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell and a rejuvenated Jason Bateman all appear, but the two stars in particular are clearly coasting. Director Todd Phillips (Old School), meanwhile, can’t decide whether his movie is a spoof of the

Timeline (2003)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

Michael Crichton’s time-traveling novel – about a team of archeologists transported to medieval France – comes to the big screen courtesy of seasoned professional Richard Donner (Lethal Weapon). Never quite thrilling, never quite dull, its overriding virtue is its competence. Paul Walker heads the ensemble cast with his usual easy charm, but the script’s reliance

Vera Drake (2004)

Drama Rated R

The transformation Imelda Staunton undergoes in this period drama is astounding – all the more so because it doesn’t involve tricks such as makeup or weight loss. From British realist Mike Leigh (Secrets & Lies), Vera Drake follows a prim and proper housecleaner in 1950s England who performs abortions for poor women on the side

Way of the Gun, The (2000)

Action/Adventure Rated R

As the directorial debut of Christopher McQuarrie, the screenwriter behind The Usual Suspects, this certainly is a posturing and excessive crime flick, but there also is wit, gentleness and even a flickering conscience. Ryan Phillippe and Benicio Del Toro both give strong performances as a pair of hoods who kidnap a pregnant woman (Juliette Lewis)

White Oleander (2002)

Drama Rated PG-13

White Oleander features another Oprah’s Book Club heroine, the kind who earns nobility and respect through contrived suffering. In this adaptation of Janet Fitch’s novel, a 15-year-old girl (Alison Lohman) is shuttled among a series of foster homes where she survives shootings, beatings and suicides, among other traumas. What doesn’t kill you may make you