Nashville (1975)

Drama Rated R

Perhaps the defining moment of Robert Altman’s legendary career. It was here, after all, where Altman’s signature traits were all assembled and perfected: the extensive ensemble cast, the fluid and unforced narrative, the overlapping dialogue that freed the movies from the stilted patter of the stage and injected them with the interrupted babbling of real

Punisher, The (2004)

Action/Adventure Rated R

Perhaps because it is the directorial debut of screenwriter Jonathan Hensleigh, The Punisher has just the sort of narrative economy most comic-book movies lack. Thomas Jane plays a FBI agent bent on avenging the murders of his family. It’s a story born of brutality, and the graphic violence grows wearying. Yet the movie offers plenty

Bright Leaves (2003)

Documentary Rated PG

When does a home movie deserve to be shown to people other than close friends and relatives? Documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee inexplicably earned a national release for this narcissistic consideration of McElwee’s mildly interesting family history. It likely would put most of his distant aunts and uncles to sleep, let alone mainstream America. A native

Skulls, The (2000)

Thriller Rated PG-13

Numbskulls is more like it. Joshua Jackson (television’s “Dawson’s Creek”) plays an Ivy League student who joins a Firm-like secret society. This is a suspense thriller without an inkling of suspense, largely because every move Jackson makes is governed only by the obvious demands of a flimsy script.

Benji: Off the Leash! (2004)

Family Rated PG

It will take a lot of affection for the Benji films of the 1970s and ’80s to endure this belated entry, once again involving endless close-ups of cute pups, repeated chase scenes with inept animal-control wardens and a PETA-friendly story and theme. It’s all fairly innocuous, but you’ve likely had more fun hanging out at

Tears of the Sun (2003)

Action/Adventure Rated R

Tears of the Sun deals with messy subject matter – Africa, ethnic cleansing, American foreign policy – but it wades through such subjects wearing big rubber boots, and then spends its silly finale hosing them off. What begins as a provocative drama about a U.S. rescue mission in civil war-torn Nigeria turns into an ignorant

Battlefield Earth (2000)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

Aside from the curious fascination that comes with watching John Travolta make a fool of himself (his evil alien cackles incessantly and wears a hairdo that makes him look like Marge Simpson in dreads), there isn’t anything enjoyable about this bloated adaptation of L. Ron Hubbard’s futuristic novel. From its first frame to its last

Happy Feet (2006)

Family Rated PG

Animated films have had a long tradition of depicting humans as marauding grotesques, but I can’t think of another one that took as jarring a turn in that direction as Happy Feet. For nearly 90 minutes, this gorgeously computer-animated musical follows the cheerful identity crisis of a young emperor penguin that can dance but not

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

Action/Adventure Rated R

A sturdy, reliable entry in the Arnold Schwarzenegger series – a lot like the stomping cyborg the star plays. As overseen by genre craftsman Jonathan Mostow rather than original director James Cameron, Rise of the Machines is miles away from the slick spectacle of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, yet it respectably returns the series back

Tristan & Isolde (2006)

Drama Rated PG-13

This never attains the full weight that its tragic love story demands, yet it’s nothing to scoff at. The filmmakers are going for an epic romance here, one set in the Dark Ages, and the fact that they haven’t delivered a laughable hoot is something of a moral victory. The soapy story, drawn from British