Subtle, funny and touching, with a striking downbeat authenticity. Director Craig Zobel is the real thing.

War of the Worlds is rated PG-13. Much of the earth's population is wiped out, leaving very little time for sex or bad language.

Not just a timely movie, a great one...Timbuktu feels at once timely and permanent, immediate and essential.

A piercing satire, a poignant family drama and an investigation of the competing claims of honesty, loyalty, ambition and love.

Recently, I took my son to see The Haunted Mansion, which was one of the worst things (I hesitate even to call it a movie) that I have ever seen. He thought it was better than Finding Nemo and we had a fruitless argument which I'm sure made him acutely aware of the disadvantages of having a film critic for a dad.

My fellow critics and I may occasionally fault a movie for departing, in detail or in spirit, from its literary source, but the grousing of a few adult pedants is nothing compared to the wrath of several million bookish 10-year-olds. Their presumed demands, and the hovering spirit of Harry's creator, J. K. Rowling, inhibit this movie as it did the first Potter film.

Subtle, funny and touching, with a striking downbeat authenticity. Director Craig Zobel is the real thing.