When powerful men amass their armies and go to battle in a tight political race, even the most idealistic and fervent political junkies may find their faith tested, if not obliterated.

The post-war Bosnia drama “The Whistleblower” earns high marks for its humanitarian intentions and for Rachel Weisz's steely performance as an American cop-turned-peacekeeper who exposes a sex-trafficking ring.

“Laughable” probably isn't the word the makers of “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1” were aiming for, but there it is; laughter, in all the wrong places.

A class act such as “The Help” is rare enough in Hollywood. Coming at the tail end of summer blockbuster season, it's almost unheard of.

“Moneyball” is a thinking person's baseball movie, and a baseball fan's thinking movie.

A film about our contemporary lifestyles, “Starry Starry Night” (星空) tells the story of a 13-year-old girl Mei (小美) who faces domestic problems. She has parents who care more about themselves, often argue with each other and fail to reach out to their daughter.

The so-called octagon of mixed martial arts, the caged arena in which bouts take place, has a long way to go in movies if it wants to approach the cinematic power of the boxing ring.

Director Steven Soderbergh's “Contagion,” a sleek, elegantly mounted dissection of a global pandemic, begins simply enough, in Hong Kong, with Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) under the weather and waiting to catch a flight back to America.

It could have been agonizingly mawkish: the story of a young man with everything ahead of him who learns he has a rare form of spinal cancer, one that he only has a 50-percent chance of surviving.

For a movie that intends to be rooted in a recognizable and insightful reality, “Crazy Stupid Love” features an awful lot of moments that clang in a contrived, feel-good manner.