Baadasssss! (2004)

"Van Peebles' stiff, needlessly flashy direction lacks the energy this material required to become truly transporting, and the relationships between the characters, particularly the father and son, is never convincing."

Baby Mama (2008)

"Baby Mama is just amusing enough to provoke a few chuckles and just short enough to keep you from glancing at your watch."

Bad Boys II (2003)

"The latest collaboration between director Michael Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, two filmmakers who bring out the worst in each other, is just as bloated and fatuous as their previous efforts."

Bad Company (2002)

"Schumacher bungles the action sequences as badly as he bungled Batman and Robin, and he pushes the violence to the limits of the PG-13 rating."

Bad Education (2004)

"It's Almodóvar's ode to obsessive love, to artistic passion and to the cinema itself."

Bad Santa (2003)

"For those who don't mind a little bile in their eggnog, it's the perfect antidote to all that prefab Christmas cheer."

Baise Moi (2001)

"The movie's only value is in unwittingly defining more clearly how played out the whole transgressing-boundaries- as-art thing has become."

The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005)

"It's hard to feel any sense of tragedy, much less sympathy, for a parent whose idea of child rearing borders on abuse."

Balls of Fury (2007)

"While it's sporadically amusing, Balls of Fury scores fewer points for humor than it could have."

Bamboozled (2000)

"Certainly provocative, but the movie smacks mostly of sour grapes."

Bandslam (2009)

"The performances in Bandslam are uniformly strong -- good enough to make you wish this bunch of charismatic, talented kids had been given better material."

The Bank (2002)

"The Bank, despite its faulty finale, is a fun and thrilling ride."

Barbershop (2002)

"Ice Cube, as usual, is an appealing presence, but the rest of the cast shines as well."

Bartleby (2002)

"Though this film can be clumsy, its ambitions are equally -- and admirably -- uncommercial."

Basic Instinct 2 (2006)

"Few expected Basic Instinct 2 to be very good, but no one expected it to be this boring."

Battle of Algiers (1966)

"An extraordinary movie that ruffled many feathers when it first came out. Almost 40 years later, it retains the poignancy it delivered back then."

The Beach (2000)

"It has a mythical pull to which anyone who's ever felt trapped inside an office cubicle, yearning for escape, will relate. The surprise is that the movie makes that cubicle seem like a mighty nice place to be."

Bear Cub (2004)

"Albaladejo takes a warm approach to his characters, from Pedro's boisterous circle of like-minded gay pals (known as 'bears' for their stocky builds and facial hair) to Bernardo's paternal grandmother."

Because I Said So (2007)

"The search for true love is the backbone of romantic comedy as well as the lifeblood of match.com, but this film's clumsy, completely inauthentic portrayal of it is handled in a shockingly tedious fashion."

Bedazzled (2000)

"A cute and clever good-vs-evil parable that ought to appeal to those weary of SNL retreads and gross-out humor."

Bee Season (2005)

"A cold and intellectual look at people searching for spiritual meaning that, instead of imparting any resonant observations about faith and family, comes off as kooky and affected."

Before Night Falls (2000)

"Soulful, deeply moving."

Behind Enemy Lines (2001)

"Moore, just up from television commercials, relies too heavily on a pastiche of stylistic elements cribbed from others."

Being Julia (2004)

"This is, of course, the sort of role about which actresses dream, and it is Annette Bening who brings Julia to raging, mischievous, unforgettable life."

Bend It Like Beckham (2003)

"That rare breed of crowd pleaser, one in which it doesn't matter that you immediately know how it's all going to end, because getting there is so much fun."