Meet the Parents (2000)

Comedy Rated PG-13

Nobody expresses flabbergasted fluster with as much deranged gusto as Ben Stiller, and he gets plenty of chances to do just that here as a boyfriend (and male nurse) looking to impress his girlfriend’s father (Robert De Niro). If the Academy Awards weren’t too snooty to recognize comedic talent, this breezy, riotous comedy would have

Flirting with Disaster (1996)

Comedy Rated R

More id insanity from director David O. Russell (Spanking the Monkey), who wrote and directed this wild farce about a neurotic new father (Ben Stiller, in one of his defining early roles) who drags his wife (Patricia Arquette) on a cross-country search for his birth parents. Along for the ride is the severely unstable adoption

Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003)

Action/Adventure Rated R

It would be easier to admire the can-do philosophy of Robert Rodriguez – he writes, directs, shoots and edits most of his movies with digital-video technology – if the results were as ingenious as the process. This third installment in his series about a mariachi-turned-assassin (Antonio Banderas, joined this time by Johnny Depp), looks slightly

Color Purple, The (1985)

Drama Rated PG-13

The first time Steven Spielberg mistook seriousness for art. His problematic adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pultizer Prize-winning novel is an obvious mismatch of director and material, not that this saga could easily be translated to the screen by anyone. Purple follows most of the tragic life of a Southern black woman (Whoopi Goldberg) in early

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Drama Rated R

“…may be the most moral movie to ever show this much skin.”

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)

Thriller Rated PG-13

A practice run for Woody Allen’s superior Match Point, this essentially has the same premise: an adulterer considers killing his mistress when she threatens to upend his placid domestic life. What Match Point wisely avoided, Crimes indulges in: overwrought philosophical pontificating, obvious symbolism and, most notably, the onscreen presence of Allen himself. Allen has a

Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

Documentary Rated R

Michael Moore’s assault on all things George W. Bush makes valid points, yet his methods still have a tinge of madness. Haphazardly jumping from topic to topic, throwing out accusations faster than a viewer can consider them, Moore’s movies can be as sloppy as his public persona. Yet he is a patriot in a way

Curly Top (1935)

Musical Rated NR

To put Shirley Temple’s influence in perspective, consider that at the age of 9 she had the box-office drawing power of Julia Roberts and Reese Witherspoon combined. Curly Top shouldn’t be watched while eating a candy bar – the combined sugar content with this tale of an orphan (Temple) who is adopted by a millionaire

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)

Comedy Rated R

Writer-director Kevin Smith’s flimsiest film – a road comedy featuring the two crude, New Jersey slackers who have popped up in all of his movies – also may be his funniest, at least to the chosen few. In an admirable gesture of independence, Smith makes movies only for loyal fans of his sophomoric sensibility, not

Decalogue I (1989)

Drama Rated NR

“…when tragedy arrives, it unfolds with the horrific, unadorned awfulness that defines real-life despair.”