Starring: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, David Wenham, Jack Thompson, Bryan B... Review: If looks were everything, director Baz Luhrmann's epic salute to his native land would be the movie of the year. But, crikey, a padded script bloated with subplots and shameless sentimentality can wear you down. Nicole Kidman pushes way too hard (and the strain shows) as Lady Sarah Ashley, a Brit snob who comes to Australia in 1939 to catch her husband cheating and instead finds him murdered. It's not long before she takes over his cattle ranch, befriends a half-caste boy, Nullah (cutie Brandon Walters), victimized by the government's racial policies against Aborigines, and beds down with the Drover (a lively, sexy Hugh Jackman), the cowboy who drives her cheeky bulls to market. There's also World War II, the 1942 Japanese bombing of Darwin and umpteen choruses of "Over the Rainbow," the... Rating: 2 Stars

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, ... Review: Bummer. The vampires have no fangs. The humans are humdrum. The special effects and makeup define cheeseball. And the movie crowds in so many characters from Stephenie Meyer?s book that Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen) is less a director than a traffic cop. But there?s a reason that Twilight has already become the movie equivalent of a bestseller: The love story has teeth. Props to Kristen Stewart, 18, and Robert Pattinson, 22, for playing this uncool-girl-meets-undead-boy story with genuine romantic ardor. They?re both terrific. Even when the movie gets really silly, they never do. Stewart (Panic Room, Into the Wild) brings just the right blend of ferocity and feeling to the role of Bella Swan, the loner from Phoenix who leaves her mom to live with her police-chief dad in rarely sunny... Rating: 2.5 Stars

Starring: Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, James Franco, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna Review: Maybe you don't know a damn thing about gay activist Harvey Milk. Maybe you ought to know that President-elect Barack Obama isn't the only community organizer who went on to make a difference. Maybe thoughtful filmmaking, no matter how incendiary and intimate, isn't worth squat at an infantilized multiplex. Stop me now. There's really no maybe about Milk, directed with a poet's eye by Gus Van Sant from a richly detailed script by Big Love writer Dustin Lance Black. It's a total triumph, brimming with humor, heart, sexual heat, political provocation and a crying need to stir things up, just like Harvey did. If there's a better movie around this year, with more bristling purpose, I sure as hell haven't seen it. San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be... Rating: 4 Stars

Starring: Chazz Palminteri, Robert Davi, Peter Bogdanovich, Miriam Margolye... Review: Here's the little movie that could, a potent directing debut for actor Robert Davi, an immortal Bond villain in License to Kill. Davi plays Danny DePasquale, a star in his 20s when he and his chubby-chaser pal George Zucco (Chazz Palminteri, in top form) lead a doo-wop group called the Dukes. Cut ahead a few decades, and the guys are struggling in California, working in an Italian restaurant run by their Aunt Vee (Miriam Margolyes) and hassling their manager (a terrific Peter Bogdanovich) to repackage them as an oldies group. Danny and George dream of turning Aunt Vee's trattoria into a doo-wop club. But who has the bucks? So they cook up a heist that defines the term "fool's gold." For all the kickass fun, Davi offers a moving portrait of a man caught in the process of trying to... Rating: 3 Stars

Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Roussillon, Mathieu Amalric, Emile B... Review: Holiday films in the hands of Hollywood make me puke. Mom is usually expiring from something terminal while the family dresses the Christmas tree with brave smiles. This French knockout, tough-minded and all the more affecting for it, turned my head around. It hits hard — even the laughs are killers. I should say that Mom (Catherine Deneuve, still an actress and beauty to die for) is slipping away from liver cancer. So what makes this one magic? Start with director Arnaud Desplechin, who co-wrote the deft script with Emmanuel Bourdieu. Desplechin (Kings and Queen, How I Got Into an Argument) is a world-class filmmaker, not some studio hack. He can maintain a light touch even in the face of tragedy. He can layer a film so that it's always springing surprises. He can reference... Rating: 3.5 Stars

Starring: Review: So shoot me. I left the action rush of this follow-up to the terrific 2006 Casino Royale feeling bummed out by James Bond. Well, not by the Bond of Daniel Craig — he's still one nasty-ass dude, with the kind of rough-edged style that the 007 franchise hasn't seen since the glory days of Sean Connery. But the character fun seems to have gone out the window in Quantum of Solace, a fancy-shmancy title (the only thing borrowed from Ian Fleming's short story) for a movie that pours crude oil all over the subtle pleasures and sexy beats that came before. The new movie picks up a few minutes after the last one. Big car chase (all together now: eww!) as Bond, barely recovered from the death of his lady love Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), burns rubber all over Italy with the wiggling body of... Rating: 2.5 Stars