Disillusioned and alcoholic, Michael Seeley, an intellectual property lawyer on the verge of losing his position in his firm, is about to be disbarred for verbally assaulting a judge.

Morningstar Online reviews: Tideland, Innocent Voices, Lady in the Water, Monster House, Nacho Libre

Super soppy. Superman Returns to discover that the world is still in need of a superhero in an age when the second coming of Christ has been widely predicted by the supporters of President Bush.

JOHNNY Depp returns to camp it up as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, the second swashbuckling instalment of an incredibly successful franchise.

The Da Vinci Code has been condemned by a number of religious leaders including leading figures in the Catholic Church, and, ironically, no less a personage than ultra-right religious TV personality Jerry Falwell.

As a New Yorker who lived eight tough years during under Giuliani I wondered how could Kevin Keating and his documentary team capture what it meant to live in New York then and make it credible without going over the top with rage and anger?

Intended as a satire on the state of the nation, American Dreamz is more amusing than cutting edge, despite the fact that it caricatures the current president waging war on the world.

TREPIDATION is the feeling a few would share at another prospect of seeing Africa revealed to us through European filmic paraphernalia.

Transamerica is a traditional road movie about a transsexual traversing the US with his new-found son and encountering a series of soap opera-style scenarios that are supposed to transform their lives.

Set in London in about 20 years after endless war and economic collapse saw the downfall of the US empire, V for Vendetta is a captivating political sci-fi thriller.

GIVEN the current political climate of government-sponsored terrorism in support of the US war on the world, it's timely to tell of a time when communist witch-hunts were promoted as the paranoia of the day.

Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) is a penniless ranch hand looking for summer work to save money for his upcoming wedding to Alma (Michelle Williams). An unscrupulous boss (Randy Quaid) hires him with Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) to herd sheep on Brokeback Mountain.

Nothing succeeds like success. Mel Brooks deservedly won an Oscar for his seminal screenplay for The Producers in 1968. The comedy marked his auspicious directorial debut and has, rightly, achieved classic status, showcases one of cinema's finest and funniest musical numbers - Springtime for Hitler.

The political thriller Syriana is on my list of the top ten best movies of 2005. This brilliantly produced and powerfully written film gives us a rare and challenging peak at the politics of the Middle East and the oil interests that drive them.

The political thriller Paradise Now is about a suicide operation in Tel Aviv. From a humanistic perspective Director Hany Abu-Assad presents sensitive subject matter through the lens of Palestinian life under military occupation in the West Bank.

To tell the truth, Oliver Twist was never one of my favourite Dickens characters. Actually, I haven't really liked many of his child characters, considering them to be nauseatingly twee.

David Cronenberg's classy new film moves the director back into the mainstream to present a critical commentary of a cinematic history that has been largely determined by Hollywood's version of the American Dream.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose is about mental illness left untreated. Emily Rose (Jennifer Carpenter) is a young woman with a complex of serious but treatable mental disorders that cause her to hallucinate, convulse, and mutilate herself. She has all medical care withheld from her on advice of her family priest, Father Moore (Tom Wilkinson), who is convinced that she is possessed by demons.

Human rights activist Tessa Quayle (Rachel Weisz) has been found murdered. Her car was discovered overturned in a lakebed in Northern Kenya. A Kenyan doctor by the name of Arnold Bluhm (Hubert Koundé), who had been traveling with Tessa, has disappeared. Arnold and Tessa have secrets.

YEE Haaw? Yee Argh, more like. If you didn't get enough of this risible redneck apologia for southern-fried segregation during its 147 television episodes launched in 1979, you're hardly likely to take up with its dire cinematic successor.