The Painted Veil (2006)

"The story is told with integrity, and its sense of 1920s colonial China makes for an absorbing, cultural-political backdrop."

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

"It all adds up to what many regard as the year's best film (a National Board of Review best picture), a work of imagination that is thrilling and feels like something completely new."

Panic Room (2002)

"What the audience feels is exhaustion, from watching a movie that is dark (dark green, to be exact), sour, bloody and mean."

Paranormal Activity (2009)

"There's more going on here than simple scares."

Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009)

"Unlike James himself, the movie is a few bricks shy of a load, which explains why a movie obviously ticketed for a holiday release has backed up to mid-January."

Payback (1999)

"A genre that's been beaten to a pulp!"

Pearl Harbor (2001)

"Pearl is more like Top Gun blown up to three hours in a windy gust of self-importance that can't be sustained by a feeble script and a cast lacking in star power."

The Perfect Score (2004)

"It's a curious (and not very appealing) group of rebels, whose outrage seems to grow mainly from a sense of entitlement."

Personal Velocity (2002)

"Even with the explanatory voiceovers, these episodes feel truncated and unsatisfactory."

Phone Booth (2003)

"A movie that loves to torture people for the sake of torturing them."

Pieces of April (2003)

"'Pieces of April' was an extremely bad song (memory bouquet...ugh), so there's every reason to think the movie will be better. And it is... slightly."

Pink Panther (2006)

"Not even the Rocky series is as willfully flogged as The Pink Panther, which is now on its eighth sequel, the third without Sellers."

Planet 51 (2009)

"The animated sci-fi spoof Planet 51 makes you wonder if things might be more interesting on Planet 52."

The Pledge (2001)

"Scenes of the defenseless girl accepting gifts from a 6-foot-5 pedophile while Black watches from a helpless distance are, in my book, refund material."

Poseidon (2006)

"From the beginning, there's something furtive and morally dubious about this splinter group."

Post Grad (2009)

"The movie then works vigorously to squander both talent and timeliness."

Precious: Based on the Novel PUSH by Sapphire (2009)

"With so many performers contributing so much solid work, it may be time to acknowledge that Daniels knows what he's doing. The guy can handle actors."

The Prestige (2006)

"For my money, there was too much turning and not enough prestige in The Prestige."

Pride and Glory (2008)

"The moral decay of movies as evidenced by increased and wholly gratuitous violence against children finds a logical, sorry bottom in Pride and Glory."

The Prince & Me (2004)

"The script puts the two characters through their paces. Blandly."

The Princess and the Frog (2009)

"The Princess and the Frog is a perky, pretty piece of the traditional hand-drawn Disney animation, helped by dandy Randy Newman songs."

The Princess Diaries (2001)

"The flaws in The Princess Diaries' dated story line are numerous and irritating, its message about physical beauty is frustrating, and you might want to think twice before taking any curly-haired, eyeglass-wearing child to see it."

The Promotion (2008)

"Director Steve Conrad probably counts on the natural likability of Scott and Reilly to make this comedy go down a little easier, but it doesn't always do the trick."

The Proposal (2009)

"The leads are appealing, the material familiar -- it adds a Front Page romantic angle to The Devil Wears Prada, and reworks ideas from Green Card."

Public Enemies (2009)

"Director Michael Mann is a stylish, brooding perfectionist who makes movies about men who are stylish, brooding perfectionists."