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Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle

1. Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer 2011 [A] canned piece of so-called family entertainment, which slathers on the bright colors and peppy eccentricity but fails to capture the books' childlike voice and essential, grumbling charm. full review
2. Rango 2011 The film itself is a magically strange hybrid, a spoofy computer-animated Western acted out by anthropomorphic desert creatures. full review
3. Seven Days In Utopia 2011 Supporting bits, like the saintly love interest played by Deborah Ann Woll, function more as archetypes than flesh-and-blood characters in a lively story. full review
4. Transformers: Dark of the Moon 2011 Bay provides his usual Bayisms: bloated close-ups, manly slo-mo, visual hyperbole and glamour shots of a hot babe standing amid the wreckage. full review
5. The Big Uneasy 2010 The Big Uneasy, a damning new look at the onset and effects of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, is agitating by design. full review
6. Centurion 2010 There are, by my count, six standard types of violence in film these days: Tarantino, comic book, Scorsese, martial arts, horror and stupid. That's right: stupid. For an example, look no further than Centurion. full review
7. The King's Speech 2010 The King's Speech is a warm, wise film -- the best period movie of the year and one of the year's best movies, period. full review
8. The Proposal 2009 It isn't a film with a lot of big guffaws, but I smiled through most of it. full review
9. Extract 2009 There are some priceless character turns. full review
10. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest 2009 One of the knottiest, talkiest tangles of celluloid to roll into theaters this year. full review
11. The Secret of Kells 2009 Its hand-drawn two-dimensional animation springs to life with color and meticulous technique, filigreed and curlicued like the luminous book at its center. full review
12. American Violet 2008 A conventional but wholly gripping docudrama. full review
13. Defiance 2008 It is, all in all, a film as square-shouldered as its leads -- tough-minded, forcibly acted and conventionally spun by Zwick and co-writer Clayton Frohman. full review
14. Happy-Go-Lucky 2008 I've never used this cliche in a review before, and God forbid I ever use it again, so pay close attention: Happy-Go-Lucky is the feel-good movie of the year. full review
15. Man on Wire 2008 Though we know how it ends, it unfolds with suspense. And though it lacks any discussion of the towers' destruction, it succeeds as a tribute to their birth. full review
16. The Other Man 2008 The result is B-grade cheese. The only genuine mystery, for me, is why such a fine cast signed on for such a witless movie. full review
17. What Just Happened? 2008 The sharpest Hollywood satire since The Player. full review
18. The Yes Men Fix the World 2008 Beyond question, the results are overstated, outrageous and wildly, scatologically juvenile. But they're also a hoot to watch. full review
19. Evening 2007 Everything about Evening seems engineered to liquefy moviegoers, specifically middle-age female moviegoers who miss their mothers. This would include me: I was a sloppy mess by the end. full review
20. Hot Rod 2007 A lasting problem with so many SNL-populated movies is the ingrown clubbiness of its humor -- the suggestion, whether overt or implied, that comedy is nothing more than a funny idea flogged to death by a fraternity of late-night wags. full review
21. The Hunting Party 2007 ...it does make room for the latest, loose-screw character part in the reinvention of Gere's career. full review
22. Mr. Bean's Holiday 2007 Don't mistake this simpleton hero, or the movie's own simplicity, for a lack of smarts. Mr. Bean's Holiday is quite savvy about filmmaking, landing a few blows for satire. full review
23. Paranoid Park 2007 Regarding Paranoid Park as an elongated short rather than a feature helps a bit, because it's a miniature in spirit -- a small-format portrait of psychic malaise that just happens to last 84 minutes. full review
24. Puccini for Beginners 2007 Puccini for Beginners doesn't quite make it as romantic comedy. Most of the elements are in place, but the characters seem too narcissistic to fall in love and too broad-brush to be authentic. full review
25. Bug 2006 In all ways, Bug is a head-scratcher. full review
26. Curious George 2006 Visually, the movie benefits from a charming animation style, a traditional 2-D approach layered with shadows and backlit halos. But it benefits most from George, still worming his way into people's hearts. full review
27. Failure to Launch 2006 The comical part -- the part with the assaulting fauna -- is eccentric, knockabout fun, spattered with outlandish setups and amicably offbeat supporting players who reach out and steal the show. full review
28. An Inconvenient Truth 2006 A film that invests hard science with impassioned moral drive. full review
29. Keeping Up With The Steins 2006 A winningly sincere and warmly humorous film about an ancient Jewish milestone in the time of Martha Stewart. full review
30. Last Holiday 2006 A mild, fangless, forgettable thing that entertains some and offends little, barring one obnoxious subcontinental stereotype and a cloying urge to make everybody chipper at the end. full review
31. Nacho Libre 2006 A spongy guy in a clingy suit who has a spongy hairdo is funny, to a point, and kudos to Black for the self-deprecation. Kudos as well for his athleticism and balletic grace as he leaps around the ring. Unfortunately, they can't support a movie. full review
32. United 93 2006 Greengrass' own formidable version brings [the story of United Airlines Flight 93] to life -- and to death -- with a bluntness and nobility that are almost too hard to bear. full review
33. World Trade Center 2006 It displays optimism, patriotism, emotional frankness and faith. Detractors might call it sentimental. Most of all, it exhibits no political slant whatsoever, injecting only heartfelt empathy for the day's many victims and heroes. full review
34. Bad News Bears 2005 The kids in this knowing, tirelessly belligerent retread are as coarse and obnoxious as they ever were, maybe more so. And therein lies the problem. full review
35. Brokeback Mountain 2005 A film about love and the cost of lying that's exquisite in its beauty, painful in its truths. full review
36. Casanova 2005 Despite its oh-so deviant title character, Casanova is a harmless bon-bon, a breezy period farce that mimics lesser Shakespeare and a look that recalls Amadeus or Shakespeare in Love. full review
37. Coach Carter 2005 The kind of boot-strap-pulling, tear-duct-tickling, I-am-Spartacus-crowing movie-on-a-mission that might rankle more cynical movie goers but sets hearts aflutter for most everyone else. full review
38. Elizabethtown 2005 The trailer for Elizabethtown hits on every major plot point in the film and is roughly 121 minutes shorter. See that instead. full review
39. Factotum 2005 Dillon is better now that he's settled into sturdy middle age. He makes more sense; I never got him as a Tiger Beat centerfold. full review
40. Four Brothers 2005 As a vivid, bloody piece of escapist gimmickry, it works. full review
41. Jarhead 2005 I dare anyone to watch this bold exercise in postponed gratification and not come away with a new, disturbed sense of the genre. full review
42. The Longest Yard 2005 A serviceable bone-cruncher of a sports comedy, just tough enough and funny enough to reach the end zone. full review
43. The Producers 2005 ... a kitschy celebration of all things Mel. full review
44. Sahara 2005 It's about good ol' boys on a rip-snorting adventure, and to that end, it succeeds. full review
45. The World's Fastest Indian 2005 The film may be cutesy-poo for some tastes, and there isn't much nail-chewing suspense in Burt's pursuit or his lighthearted subjugation of everyone he meets. But man and "motor-sickle" sneaked up and beguiled me, so all I could do was hop on. full review