Q. When you see a wide disparity between your reaction to a film and that of most other critics, especially in the case of your giving a good-to-stellar review to something that everyone thinks stunk, do you ever second-guess yourself? For example, with these recent films: “Ella Enchanted,” “The Alamo,” “Jersey Girl,” “Never Die Alone,” “Taking Lives,” “Secret Window,” “Sp artan,” “The Reckoning” and “Hidalgo.” – Sandy Cormack, Baltimore

A. I remain satisfied with all of those reviews. I try to explain the reasons why I praise or dislike a movie, and I think, for example, that my review of “Hidalgo” is a splendid description of the film I saw and the reasons I liked it. Mamet’s “Spartan” is likely to make my best 10 list. “Jersey Girl” suffered because of the Affleck/J.Lo nonsense and because Kevin Smith dared to make a sweet film.

You didn’t ask, but I was stunned that “The Girl Next Door” scored near 60 on the Tomatometer. I agree with Ken Turan of the Los Angeles Times: “What is disturbing and frankly distasteful … is how slick and shameless it is in its eagerness to blur boundaries, to squeeze as much transgressive material as it can into a nominally bland and innocent form.”

The movie’s ads are shamelessly pitched at an audience too young to qualify for the R rating.