Reviews of the latest films.

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• Strand and Deliver Cast Away maroons a bunch of half-baked ideas on a desert island.  
  David Edelstein Dec. 22, 2000
  
• The Swinger vs. the Fembots  Mel Gibson finds his feminine side in What Women Want. Chocolat is sickeningly sweet. 
  David Edelstein Dec. 15, 2000
  
• All the Indies Were Kung Fu Fighting You need a roadmap to find the hidden masterpiece in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Romantic thriller Proof of Life forgets the romance.
  David Edelstein Dec. 8, 2000
  
• The Fifth Beatle  Revisiting the antic music Richard Lester made with A Hard Day's Night. 
  David Edelstein Dec. 7, 2000
  
• Censorship and Sensibility Quills gives the Marquis de Sade the soft-focus treatment. 
  David Edelstein Nov. 23, 2000
  
• Counter Culture  The dialogue stars in You Can Count on Me. The 6th Day thinks through cloning and capitalism. Why'd they bother with How the Grinch Stole Christmas?  
  David Edelstein Nov. 17, 2000
  
• Red Dwarf  Red Planet goes limp on its way to Mars. Requiem for a Dream punishes its viewers on its way to junkie hell.
  David Edelstein Nov. 10, 2000
  
• Angel Cake  Charlie's Angels delivers Hong Kong action thrills without serving the bogus spirituality. Don't let Spike Lee see Bagger Vance, but catch The Yards before it departs.  
  David Edelstein Nov. 3, 2000
  
• The Blair Witch Switch Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 goes Hollywood in a bad way. 
  David Edelstein Oct. 27, 2000
  
• Bitch-Slapped by an Angel Pay It Forward brings grit to the weeper. Billy Elliot doesn't dance enough. Altman takes a virtuoso turn in Dr. T and the Women. The Contender updates the political thriller. 
  David Edelstein Oct. 20, 2000
  
• Massa Disaster Spike Lee's blackface farce, Bamboozled, degenerates into one big lecture. Two FamilyHouse flaunts its white-liberal romanticism. Meet the Parents milks the Jewish-boy-and-shiksa shtick. 
  David Edelstein Oct. 6, 2000
  
• The Boxer Rebellion Girlfight floats like a butterfly, stings like a feminist. Dancer in the Dark stumbles badly in its attempt to make Björk into a saint. Our man gives Best in Show four paws! 
  David Edelstein Sept. 30, 2000
  
• Sentimental Journey Cameron Crowe returns from the land of classic rock with his coming-of-age epic Almost Famous. 
  David Edelstein Sept. 21, 2000
  
• Soap a Dope Nurse Betty gives the screwball comedy a Tarantino edge. The classic rock of This Is Spinal Tap still rules!  
  David Edelstein Sept. 9, 2000
  
• Spirit of America Bring It On invents a genre: the guilty liberal teen comedy. Love& Sex gives equal time to nerdy women. Saving Grace is pure stinkweed.
  David Edelstein Sept. 2, 2000
  
• August Is the Crudest Month The flavors of late summer: violent but entertaining (The Art of War), depressing (Steal This Movie!), and not-so-terrible (Godzilla 2000). 
  David Edelstein Aug. 26, 2000
  
• Pols on Film  How do you tell a real politician from a Hollywood politician? In the movies, your man always ends up on the Straight Talk Express. 
  David Edelstein Aug. 19, 2000
  
• Depth Psychology The latest in serial killing (The Cell), a slacker romantic comedy (The Tao of Steve), and an amazing one-woman show (I'm the One That I Want). 
  David Edelstein Aug. 19, 2000
  
• Ancient Mariners Codgers show their potency in the slick Space Cowboys. Hollow Man is Paul Verhoeven's latest bloodletting orgy. 
  David Edelstein Aug. 5, 2000
  
• The Grim Weeper The Eyes of Tammy Faye gives an icon her due. X-Men dares to have gravitas. 
  David Edelstein July 29, 2000
  
• The Buck Stops Here Chuck & Buck is a psychosexual playhouse. What Lies Beneath is a scary ghost story with Michelle Pfeiffer.
  David Edelstein July 22, 2000
  
• Heterophobia Overwrought caricatures backfire in But I'm a Cheerleader. Praise is a rich dissection of vacuousness. 
  David Edelstein July 8, 2000
  
• The Deep Blue-Collar Sea The Perfect Storm is a well-meaning downer. Mel gets mad in The Patriot.
  David Edelstein July 1, 2000
  
• Good Dirty Fun Me, Myself & Irene is life-affirming filth. Chicken Run is diabolically witty.
  David Edelstein June 24, 2000
  
• Can We Dig It? The new Shaft will be a monster hit, but it's a cynical piece of work. 
  David Edelstein June 17, 2000
  
• The Ecstasy and the Agony Groove is buoyant and all-embracing; watching Love's Labour's Lost is hard labor.
  David Edelstein June 10, 2000
  
• This Movie Will Self-Destruct … Mission: Impossible 2 is drunk on self-love; Shanghai Noon is fun but chopped to hell.
  David Edelstein May 26, 2000
  
• Viagra Falls Woody Allen's take on The Honeymooners is sour and enfeebled; Road Trip is orgasmically challenged.
  David Edelstein May 20, 2000
  
• Planet of the Oafs  Travolta's Battlefield Earth harks back to '50s sci-fi schlock. And not in a good way. 
  David Edelstein May 13, 2000
  
• Crapus Maximus  Gladiator dissolves into bloody, incoherent porridge. Timecode splices the avant-garde with the entertaining. 
  David Edelstein May 6, 2000
  
• Moe Better Blues Are the Three Stooges martyrs, demons, or splendid anti-role models?
  David Edelstein April 22, 2000
  
• Dressed To Kill American Psycho skewers '80s yuppie culture, but is it art?
  David Edelstein April 14, 2000
  
• Beautiful Reamer Ignore the sociology in Black and White; just sit back and let it push your buttons. 
  David Edelstein April 8, 2000
  
• Broken Record High Fidelity reproduces the language of Nick Hornby's novel but fails to capture its drama. 
  David Edelstein April 1, 2000
  
• The Riot Grrrl Next Door Julia Roberts is a larger-than-life hell-raiser in Erin Brockovich. 
  David Edelstein March 18, 2000
  
• The Red and the Black De Palma combines trigonometric genius and Spielbergian corniness in Mission to Mars.
  David Edelstein March 11, 2000
  
• Low Comedy Highs Garry Shandling is poignant and hilarious as an alien stud in What Planet Are You From? 
  David Edelstein March 4, 2000
  
• Parlor Games In the studiously crafted Reindeer Games, the fun is in watching Ben Affleck get clobbered.
  David Edelstein Feb. 26, 2000
  
• Boilermaker Rap-style pacing and Ben Affleck's winning smugness pump up the melodrama in Boiler Room. 
  David Edelstein Feb. 19, 2000
  
• Driftwood Exotic locales, blue water, and Leo DiCaprio are not enough to save The Beach from getting washed out to sea. 
  David Edelstein Feb. 12, 2000
  
• Ironies in the Fire Image-conscious bad guys help make Gun Shy a screwball comedy with weight. Scream 3 is an in-joke-drenched blood bath. 
  David Edelstein Feb. 5, 2000
  
• Off the Chart Sigourney Weaver conquers new territories in A Map of the World; Isn't She Great is worthy of Jacqueline Susann's oeuvre. 
  David Edelstein Jan. 29, 2000
  
• Grand Finale After a messy beginning, Mike Leigh's Topsy-Turvy finds its rhythm; Errol Morris' irony doesn't quite mix with the Holocaust in Mr. Death.
  David Edelstein Jan. 8, 2000