Sexy Beast (2000)

Drama Rated R

What at first seems to be a stylistic lark – another British crime caper involving fancy camerawork and foul-mouthed antiheroes – matures into a tragic rumination on the criminal lifestyle. Ben Kingsley has received rave reviews for his performance as a violent and verbose gangster, but it’s Ray Winstone, as the retired, likable lug whom

Shanghai Noon (2000)

Comedy Rated PG-13

This is the giddy and gimmicky action comedy that Wild Wild West should have been. Hong Kong sensation Jackie Chan teams up with low-key comic Owen Wilson (Bottle Rocket) for a free-spirited farce about the adventures of a Chinese Imperial Guard in the Old West. This might not be the stuff of which masterpieces are

Shanghai Knights (2003)

Comedy Rated PG-13

This sequel to 2000’s delightfully goofy action comedy offers mostly lukewarm leftovers, as Owen Wilson’s wannabe outlaw and Jackie Chan’s Chinese Imperial Guard find themselves in Victorian England. Shanghai Knights is no I Spy, and it’s certainly not The Tuxedo, but both Wilson and Chan have done far better work. In fact, it’s called Shanghai

Shaolin Soccer (2001)

Comedy Rated PG-13

An Asian import that blends kung fu with one of the world’s most popular sports, Shaolin Soccer is insane, almost literally. The movie is manic, at least tripolar and desperately in need of help. Of course the screw-loose tone is the picture’s true appeal. The story of a Shaolin martial-arts enthusiast (Stephen Chow, who also

Sorority Boys (2002)

Comedy Rated R

This imbecilic college comedy about three fraternity buddies (Barry Watson, Michael Rosenbaum and Harland Williams) who dress up as coeds predictably revels in misogyny – there are awful jokes about everything from menstruation to date rape – but what’s most galling is the moral hat the movie also tries to wear. Our ostensible heroes, you

Taking Lives (2004)

Thriller Rated R

One more schlocky entry to Angelina Jolie’s filmography and another in a series of thrillers about female FBI profilers who get too close to their work. The movie spends a lot of time covering up its obvious central mystery, then launches into a finale of ludicrous proportions. It’s about then you’ll be thinking of doing

Talented Mr. Ripley, The (1999)

Thriller Rated R

Hitchcock lives in this deeply creepy story about a young man with a gift for impressions (Matt Damon) who lets his passions get the best of him. Like the best of Hitchcock’s work, The Talented Mr. Ripley puts you in the shoes of a killer and makes them feel as comfortable as your own. Also

Flushed Away (2006)

Family Rated PG

The first computer-animated picture from the stop-motion masters of England’s Aardman Features (Wallace & Gromit) and made in California with DreamWorks Animation, this tale of an English pet mouse who must fend for himself in the sewer system depends on distinctly American storytelling: it’s loud, rushed and overly reliant on comic violence. Yet when it

Letters From Iwo Jima (2006)

Drama Rated R

From its subtitles on down, Clint Eastwood’s Letters From Iwo Jima inverts the war-movie experience – at least for those of us who expect such pictures to follow in the footsteps of Saving Private Ryan and Eastwood’s own companion piece, Flags of Our Fathers. With Japanese soldiers batting the same sacrificial puppy-dog eyes that blond-haired

Alpha Dog (2007)

Drama Rated R

There are plenty of contenders for the title of alpha male in Alpha Dog, a barking drama based on an actual account of a drug ring run by privileged California teens. Ben Foster (X-Men: The Last Stand) goes for broke as the requisite hothead, leaving little edible scenery for the likes of Shawn Hatosy, Anton