We went in half-expecting the blood-splattering glory of “Sweeney Todd” or “Sleepy Hollow” (“Off with her head!”), but Tim Burton reigns in his macabre mind this time to make a benign girls-feel-good Disney movie, a trouble-free modern fantasy adventure. The setting is surreal, but the story’s straightforward.

Director Kathryn Bigelow has finally fulfilled all the promise she has shown in previous films such as vampire classic “Near Dark” and surf action flick “Point Break” with “The Hurt Locker,” which follows American soldiers who are part of an explosive ordnance disposal team in Iraq.

On the surface, “The Blind Side” is a sports film meant to uplift and celebrate the human spirit.

There’s nothing wrong with being narcissistic as long as you are good enough to back it up. Tom Ford is one superb narcissist.

You can remake a classic, but you can’t repeat it. So director Rob Marshall (“Chicago”)  threw a smart curveball with his retelling of Federico Fellini’s 1963 autobiographical masterpiece “8 1⁄2”—he chose instead to adapt its 1982 musical spin-off, “Nine.” And the result, though flawed in many ways, is rather entertaining.

As the film’s title suggests, “Little Big Soldier” is a character study, not a sweeping war epic, and its approach to the Warring States Period is exciting, humorous and highly entertaining, even if it is not a groundbreaking movie.

“Hot Summer Days” has got its timing all wrong. As the title suggests, the film is set during an unusually hot summer (a rather fictional 48 degrees)—so why the hell do you open the movie in February?

“Precious” is an important film, and one you should probably go and see. It’s important because it holds a magnifying glass up to the small and seemingly insignificant human tragedies that happen every day.

Now, whaddaya know? A bunch of Hollywood heavyweights including Anne Hathaway, Aston Kutcher, Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Patrick Dempsey, Jennifer Garner, Julia Roberts and Jamie Foxx, to name just a few, have come together in one movie, just in time for the season of love (and also the season of suffering through endless rom-coms).

People love monster movies. The love affair began in the 1920s, and hasn’t waned since. “The Wolfman” harks back to the early days of horror. It’s shot in a classy old-time style and cast with talented method actors, but then ruthlessley edited into little more than a thinking man’s “Twilight”—and not thinking that hard, mind you.