Andy Seiler

It could be argued that this movie's callousness toward human life is nihilistic and nasty. But Woo takes everything so absurdly far that audiences laugh at what horrified them moments before. [27Jun1997 Pg01.D]

Excitingly edited and evocatively scored, Microcosmos adapts big filmmaking techniques to tiny creatures. You get thrills, slapstick and even romance. [11 Nov 1996]

A must-see for animation fans.

Uneven, amateurish and borderline misogynistic. But it's also very funny, and it never loses its cool.

One of the strangest sequels of all time, director George Miller's wildly imaginative vision of animals loose in a dangerous urban dreamscape at times seems much closer to his work on the Mad Max series than to the bucolic charms of the original, which he produced but did not direct. [25 Nov 1998, p.1D]

The low-key approach probably gets closer to the soul of Leonard, but it lacks zip. As a result, Out of Sight sometimes runs out of gas.

Gives new meaning to the phrase "not for the squeamish."

The economical, fast-paced style and creepy mood are reminiscent of "The Twilight Zone."

Handsomely mounted, strikingly photographed in wide screen and exquisitely acted, director Bille August's new version of Les Miserables is at least the 21st adaptation for the movies or television. [01 May 1998]

Snake Eyes sports some of the most breathtaking filmmaking of De Palma's career -- and Nicolas Cage is the one actor who cannot be upstaged by it. [18 September 1998, p. 11E]

Fans will appreciate not only that the film is predictably solid and surprisingly sharp but that parts of it are just plain bad.

By emphasizing surreal humor and fast-paced action instead, Rodriguez has crafted a prepubescent version of James Bond without aping that series' style.

All coy and fey -- and painless to digest.

Director Dominik Moll knows how to make a gruesome-free thriller and even manages some dark laughs as he turns the screws.

Thinking isn't going to do anyone a bit of good during Blue Streak. Turn off your brain instead and you might enjoy it.

One wishes producer Spike Lee had stepped in to give the dialogue some sass.

This surprisingly sentimental science-fiction thriller boasts enough fresh twists to satisfy time-travel junkies.

Robbins' performance as Winston is the best thing in the movie.

The movie, lacking snap and sarcasm, fails to convey the book's tone. [16 Sep 1998, p.3D]

If Wonderland is difficult to embrace, it is easy to admire.

The action scenes in Vertical Limit take cliffhanging to the highest peaks of excitement. It's a shame the story keeps dragging us down to sea level.

You may enjoy One Night -- but you may feel guilty about it in the morning.

Far too familiar.

Pure nonsense is hard to sustain for an entire feature-length movie.

This savage parody of the many recent coming-of-age-in-the-ghetto melodramas is rude, crude and outrageous. It's as likely to elicit gasps from the politically correct as chuckles from the impossible-to-shock. [15 Jan 1996, p.4D]

It's a good actors' showcase, yet not a particularly satisfying movie. [22 Jan 1999]

Best to wait until the movie makes it to TV - where its missteps will loom less large.

A curious but intriguing movie that leaves you bemused and more than a little confused.

The computer animation of the monsters here is a herky-jerky cartoon blur that is anything but scary.

Pretty hard to buy into at all.

It's still the same sick story. Even the small touches seem stale.

Amusingly macabre. [16 July 1999]

Lucky Numbers is anything but lucky for stars John Travolta and Lisa Kudrow.

As the couple stand on the bluffs overlooking San Francisco Bay, you may find yourself wishing Forlani would push Prinze in.

Wenders creates an imaginative, stylized cityscape, but what's missing is the compelling story that could bring the setting to life.

Missing are well-choreographed action scenes, likable characters and involving plot twists.

Good spirits are worth something, and the movie has them, as well as scattershot chuckles.

Allen Daviau's cinematography is so striking that the movie would probably play better with the sound off.

The movie is something of a white elephant itself, a luxuriant, lumbering behemoth. It is pleasant, occasionally amusing - and often dull.

It is a measure of the movie's lack of inspiration that William Shatner is the funniest thing in it.

Cronenberg can create alternative worlds like few other filmmakers, and that's a real achievement. If he learns to make us care about them, he'll really have something. [23 April 1999, Life, p.8E]

Not since Demi Moore lived happily ever after in "The Scarlet Letter" has a filmmaker felt so free to fudge a famous plot.

A cynical sex comedy that manages to be infantile and jaded at the same time.

The actors take a back seat to computer-generated demonic images and apocalyptic special effects.

No disinfectant could clean up this misbegotten, Americanized remake of "Les Visiteurs."

The scariest thing about this appalling and seemingly endless movie is that you paid for your ticket and now have to sit through it.

Mowing the lawn might be more involving than watching this subpar sci-fi sequel, which manages to be complicated and witless at the same time. [15 Jan 1996, p.4D]

Friedberg, who previously made Nielsen's golfing video and rental car commercials, knows only the low road -- and gets lost anyway. [24 May 1996, Pg.04.D]

The script, based on a novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, is deeply dumb, depressingly derivative (ripping off "Planet of the Apes" the most) and just plain nonsense.

Shot by a special-effects superstar making his first stab at directing, Mark Dippe, the result is dizzying in its unreality, and the visual tricks are impressive. [01Aug1997 Pg.02.D]

Would not even make a decent five-minute TV sketch. At any length, it smells.

The movie was postponed from 1998 and shielded from critics. (They were ot allowed to see the movie before the opening, usually a bid sign.) [15 January 1999, Life, p.8E]