Galeocerdo

Ron Howard is hit-and-miss as a director, and he's due for a critical hit. The strong cast and interesting story make me think this will be a good one.

A great cast and reputedly great director make this one of the fall's most anticipated Oscar hopefuls.

The trailer is ambiguous, but the cast and story suggest an Oscar contender. Baz Luhrmann's movies are never run-of-the-mill, so it should at least be interesting for its size and scope.

Aside from curiosity about what Marc Forster's take on the material will be, this is a must-see because it is a follow-up to 2006's best action movie. I hope Daniel Craig stays with it for as long as the movies attract other great talent.

Danny Boyle is a talented director, and this, his latest film, has been riding a giant wave of buzz and acclaim since its debut at the Toronto Film Festival.

Lovable lead performers and Kevin Smith's idiosyncratic writing style give the film a clever, honest spirit that prevents it from being ruined by dissonance between raunch and sweetness.

With its contemporary yet timeless emotional richness and wondrous scale, 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy is the reason I love movies. It is an endlessly captivating epic of impeccable craft and vitality, visually and audibly breathtaking with a magnificent score, cinematography and production design. Above all, it is a perfect match between a great story and a great storyteller. It is a monumental achievement, the pinnacle of modern cinema.

Along with the third installment, The Two Towers is the greatest fantasy epic ever made. It is darker and deeper than its predecessor and an equally literate, emotional interpretation of a great story with unparalleled scope.

Already a classic, and probably the greatest fantasy film ever made (after its sequels). It is the most ambitious, most breathtaking film since Gone With the Wind.

The biggest movie of the decade is a monolithic masterpiece, a black, towering achievement. The polish of the whole production elevates the film above its pulp roots, and the story has contemporary complexity but an almost mythic scope. One could argue that the film has too much story, that it is either too long or too short, or that it is dark to the point of being a sadomasochistic pleasure. But its power to thrill, disturb, and move an audience is too much fun to be counted against it. This is a volatile superhero film in a class all its own, much less a comic book film than a crime epic; much less a product of trend than a modern classic.

How fitting that the most technically breathtaking film in recent years is a remake of King Kong, the original epic, eye-popping effects extravaganza adventure. This is a modern master's inspired retelling of a classic beauty and the beast fable, an appropriately ambitious and respectful valentine to all things cinema. Every frame glows with gorgeous detail and technical flourish that recalls the ambitious, grand style and showmanship of Hollywood's golden era. At once classic, modern, and timeless, the film actually transcends its own inspirations as a connector between the past, present, and future of cinema.

Anyone who tastefully values character and story over action should recognize the strong points of this movie as opposed to Vol. 1, making this the barely superior chapter. Both are fantastic, but neither is as good as the combined epic that the two films should be.