Mr Brooks (2007) ***

Love In The Time Of Cholera (2007) ***

The Lookout (2007) ***

Zodiac (2007) ***

David Fincher's take on the infamous serial killer from San Francisco.

In The Valley Of Elah (2007) ***

Shrek The Third (2007) ***

The fun continues.

Black Snake Moan (2007) ***

"Black Snake Moan is the oddest, most peculiar movie I've seen about sex and race and redemption in the Deep South", wrote Roger Ebert. Not surprisingly, considering that he's referring to a movie in which Samuel L. Jackson chains a half-naked Christina Ricci to a radiator. What's more surprising is that the movie is actually about how Jackson and Ricci slowly become friends and come to love and respect each other. Written and directed by Craig Brewer (best known for his film debut, ''Hustler & Flow'', which won an Oscar for its song, ''It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp"), ''Black Snake Moan'' begins with Christina Ricci in constant need of sexual gratification. For her, it's either getting fucked, or falling to the ground and writhing as if under attack by fire ants. So when Jackson finds her beaten and raped on the side of the road, and chains her to that radiator, his motives are actually very noble - the idea is to cure her nymphomania through a radical withdrawal treatment. "I aim to cure you of your wickedness," announces Jackson, who bravely resists the temptation when Ricci offers herself to him in exchange for her freedom. It is the performances that make this movie. According to Ebert, Samuel L. Jackson considers it his best film role ever (not an obvious boast for someone who played Gator in ''Jungle Fever'' and Jules in ''Pulp Fiction''), but as an article in Variety rightly points out, "it is Ricci who will be remembered when all else about the film has been forgotten (...) Ricci is clad in scanty cutoffs, panties, midriff-baring shirts at most and often less. Here she is a feral animal, a force of nature, a wild thing with a ferocious physicality and a sexuality like Vesuvius in its prime. Her Rae is Eros unplugged, unquenchable, inexhaustible. Fascinating, scary and entirely debauched, Rae is the sort of female creature who has been seen onscreen many times before, but rarely, or perhaps never, so bluntly portrayed in a Hollywood studio film".

Live Free Or Die Hard (2007) ***

The best "Die Hard" movie since the first "Die Hard" movie. "Yippy-Kay-Yay-Motherfucker".

Il Caimano (2007) ***

Great satire about Sylvio Berlusconi.

Away From Her (2007) ***

Touching drama about an elderly couple.

Secret Sunshine (2007) ***

It's A Free World (2007) ***

Excellent British drama about migrant workers in London.

Mongol (2007) ***

The childhood and early adulthood of Gengiz Khan.

12 (2007) ***

This Russian remake of "Twelve Angry Men" (1957) isn't as good as the original, but it has a much more surprising ending.

3:10 To Yuma (2007) ***

Excellent western starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale.

Fados (2007) ***

Superb musical film by Carlos Saura. It's the final part of his trilogy about Ibero-Latin music, after "Flamenco" (1995) and "Tango" (1998). This film is about fado music from Portugal.

The Orphanage (2007) ***

Excellent horror movie from Spain.

Caregiver (2007) ***

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Meet The Robinsons (2007) ***

Suprising Disney animated film, very different from their usual fare.

Chantal (2007) ***

Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix (2007) ***

The fifth ''Harry Potter'' film. Quite good.

The Babysitters (2007) ***

The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) ***

Terrific action film, the best in the series.

Across The Universe (2007) ***

War (2007) ***

Mad Detective (2007) ***

Memorable police drama from Hong Kong. Directed by Johnnie To ("The Mission") and Wai Ka Fai ("Too Many Ways To Be Number One"), it's an ingenious, often hilarious mix of "The Sixth Sense" and "Training Day".

Superbad (2007) ***

Hairspray (2007) ***

Excellent remake of the classic 1988 John Water's musical set in Baltimore in 1962. John Travolta is terrific as Nikki's mother, a role previously played by the one-and-only Divine.

Odette Toulemonde (2007) ***

A very profound film about what's truly important in life.

Persepolis (2007) ***

Animated film about the experiences of a young Iranian girl who grew up during the Khomeini's revolution and the Iran-Iraq War, went to study in Austria, came back to her country ruled by the Islamic police, and finally left to live in France. A bit overrated, it's still an excellent and innovative film.

Enchanted (2007) ***

Amy Adams is absolutely enchanting in this excellent spoof of Disney's animated musical fairy-tales. Entertaining and clever, this film manages the neat trick of simultaneously ridiculing and celebrating the conventions of the genre. Mostly live-action, but the film includes long animated sequences as well.

Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure (2007) ***

Excellent IMAX animated documentary about fearsome prehistoric dinosaurs living under the sea. Length: 40 minutes.

Factory Girl (2007) ***

1n 1996, Mary Harron made a film called ''I Shot Andy Warhol'' about radical feminist Valerie Solanas’s attempted assassination of the famous artist in 1968. Eleven years later, George Hickenlooper made a film called ''Factory Girl'', set mostly in 1965, which essentially explains why Andy Warhol deserved to get shot. The film stars Sienna Miller as Edie Sedgwick, the legendary New York socialite, model and actress, who had her Warholian 15-minutes of fame before dying of barbiturate overdose in 1971. She was 28 years old. The film doesn’t exactly accuse Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan of indirectly causing her death, but it comes fairly close. While Edie Sedgwick had other problems as well (among other things, she was sexually abused by her father since she was 8), according to the film, those two 60’s legends certainly didn’t help her at all to get over her demons. And while Bob Dylan isn't even identified by name, he has actually threatened a lawsuit against the movie. Stylistically, it's an impressive, if a bit conventional, effort. But what really makes this film great is Sienna Miller's courageous, fabulous and nuanced performance. Watch Edie Sedgwick's films like the brilliant ''Poor Little Rich Girl'' (1965) and the wretched ''Beauty #2'' (1965) to see just how accurate Sienna Miller's portrayal is.

La Graine et le mulet (2007) ***

Un Secret (2007) ***

Sans titre (2007) ***

Héros (2007) *

French film about an insane man kidnapping a celebrity.

La Naissance des pieuvres (2007) ***

Roman de gare (2007) **

Ingenious French film about ghost-writing and serial killers.

99 francs (2007) *

Ceux qui restent (2007) *

Monsieur Max (2007) ***

French drama set in Nazi-occupied France.

Et toi t'es sur qui ? (2007) **

French drama about teenage girls trying to lose their virginity. Directed by Lola Doillon.

Michou d'Auber (2007) **

Touching film about a little Algerian boy in the 1960's France.

Dialogue avec mon jardiner (2007) ***

Les Chansons d'amour (2007) ***

La Vie en rose (2007) ***

Les Témoins (2007) ***

Jardins en automne (2007) **

A typical Otar Iosseliani's film, about a fired government minister discovering the joys of a simple life.

Ensemble c'est tout (2007) **

Audrey Tautou stars in this French drama adapted from a novel by Anna Gavalda.

Gruz 200 (2007) ***

Opium (2007) ***

A Hungarian drama directed by János Szász, "Opium" (also known as "Opium: Diary of a Madwoman") is a very unusual film despite its superficially familiar subject matter. Kirsti Stubø plays a patient in an insane asylum who has a passionate love affair with a resident physician. But there is a twist. The doctor in question is a drug addict, while the woman is actually a very gifted writer. And this isn't the only unusual twist on the familiar "crazy-girl-helped-by-a-kind-doctor" formula of such classic melodramas as "Lilith", "The Three Faces of Eve" or "Suddenly Last Summer". Unlike those earlier films, "Opium" (set in 1913) is unflinching in its realistic portrayal of the realities of a mental-health institution where disturbed women are "cured" by primitive lobotomies that drive metal spikes through their eyeball into the brain. In its display of many strange medical paraphernalia of the period that suspiciously resemble instruments of torture, the film actually looks and feels more like a horror movie than a human drama. But a human drama it is, thanks in large part to Kirsti Stubø's unbelievably intense performance. Whether masturbating with a pencil, writhing uncontrollably under observation, or simply staring blankly into space, she perfectly captures the tragedy of a remarkable woman - intelligent and gifted, but also completely insane.

Ben X (2007) ***

Bakushi (2007) ***

Lust, Caution (2007) ***

We are in Shanghai during World War II. The city in under Japanese occupation. A group of Chinese patriots decide to assassinate a high-ranking Chinese traitor (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai). They send a young student (Tang Wei) to seduce him. While the situation is quite similar to the one presented in "Black Book", no two films could be more dissimilar. In fact - SPOILERS AHEAD - both films could be seen as mirror opposites of each other, united only by intense eroticism. "Black Book" is a story of a sexually liberated woman falling in love with a proverbial "Good German". "Lust Caution" is a story of a sexually inexperienced woman falling in lust with a manipulative monster. He's hardly a tender lover. Their first sexual encounter could only be described as a brutal rape. But it is precisely because he treats her so harshly that this innocent girl (whose own masochistic tendencies she blissfully ignores, but which are quite evident to the viewer) falls head over heels in lust with him. Directed by Ang Lee, "Lust Caution" is a powerful and marvellous erotic film, and a deeply disturbing spy melodrama. It's one thing to watch a young masochist having the time of her life in the clutches of a brutal sadist; it is quite another to watch a idealistic freedom fighter sacrificing, in vain, her life, her cause and her moral integrity. It is a deeply disturbing tragedy about lust and treason.

Beaufort (2007) **

Israeli war drama.