Angie Errigo

For anyone who appreciates artistic integrity and is interested in genuinely independent films, the prolific and highly personal work of John Sayles is essential viewing.

A wasted effort with a limp storyline that fails to do Michael Crichton's book justice.

A surprisingly sweet romantic comedy debut from Ben Stiller.

Astonishing cinematography and brilliantly played, this certainly one of the most influential crime movies in history.

It's good to know that the widely liked but underused Andy Garcia has here a juicy dramatic role he can get his chops into.

All three leads are genuinely appealing here, with Ryder once again acting her bobby sox off and giving yet further reminder of just how sorely she was missed in Godfather III.

His unique vision as a committed artist and unrepentantly crude joker makes this sweet, disarming, intelligent fun.

A bold but ultimately doomed effort that will irritate all but cultists of the bizarre and the most rabid fans of Mr. Cage.

Williams' virtuoso hijinking and Daniels' Huggy Bearish bonhomie save this from complete ignominy, but we’ve seen it all before.

While the kids may sing a storm when at last they get down to mixing Beethoven, gospel and rap, in the good clean fun department this is monumentally weak and derivative.

The jokes start wearing thin, and most of the noisy characters become rather tedious well before the rag-bag of thesps finally pitch up on Broadway.

In some quarters this will doubtless be hailed as "gritty" and "realistic". Movies about junkies just aren't much fun, however, and to be really powerful or tragic they need to be a lot less hack­neyed and directed with more inspira­tion than this.

Entertaining Sunday afternoon stuff.

Yippee-ki-yay! Willis still has the goods.

Just wonderful with its offbeat but wholly credible storyline, down-to-earth style and exceptionally fine performances.

Much like Pakula's "Presumed Innocent", this is a solid and intelligent, if unspectacular adaptation, and just a tad tighter than The Firm to give it the edge that's needed.

Val Kilmer is extraordinary as Morrison, holding the centre with a demonic charisma, while Stone recreates the late '60s milieu with vibrant versimilitude.

A beautiful, exotic and well-acted cultural hybrid, but it’s never as moving as it ought to be.

It may be unfair to compare a film with its stage source, but the fact remains that the film, while retaining a great deal of both humour and pathos, is a less persuasive work and more obviously a vehicle for a starry ensemble.

As frustrating as it is rewarding.

There's a desperately inevitable, powerfully tragic last reel, but getting there is absolute torture.

One of the most accomplished, influential and enjoyable films of the '70s.

A note to Fonda: even thin, fabulous 67-year-olds shouldn't wear strapless gowns. It's scary.

Ardent, accomplished, overwhelmingly emotional, with something to say and a dream cast saying it in song. Bravo.

Funny peculiar and funny ha ha, with a spontaneity and energy that gather up a powerful emotional head of steam as it chugs along.

Original, sad, suspenseful and involving: the kind of work that helps independent American cinema retain its good name.

Fine performances -- notably from Phoenix -- still don't make this an easy sell. But it is atmospheric, accomplished and intense.

The allusions and illusions are just a treat until about two-thirds of the way in, when a genuinely shocking development takes the film off into psycho-horror that is almost as baffling as it is unsatisfying.

Relentlessly ugly, preposterous and hackneyed of dialogue: guilty on all counts. It will do well, then.

A riot of confused, clever and dazzling moments, Toys is a true formula-defying one-off for which the phrase love it or loathe it might have been coined, and one so audaciously zany that you will be captivated or enraged.

Streep and Eastwood's chemistry makes the film.

As a psychological drama, it's a sophisticated, gripping piece that unusually leaves you wanting to go on past its unsettling conclusion.

It’s sufficiently well done to qualify as cute, quite the thing for a girlie outing with grub after, but it’s utterly phoney baloney.

While this doesn't add up to much more than 'It's good to be rich and have friends', it's entertaining, with some choice performances and the laugh-out-loud quotient of a good sketch show.

Smart, intriguing, funny and sad, with some primo wisecracking dialogue.

Dramatic disappointment aside, there is a feel for the unglamorous, demanding lives of the real dancers.

Natalie Wood is stunning and the drama is full of passion but this suffers a little from 60s hollywood style.

The pace drags terribly, however, and the period detail is distractingly off in small ways that become annoying. Thankfully, though, things perk up with a bravura finale, when Merrill finally takes the witness stand before the dreaded inquisitors.

Poorly written nonsense, but lovers of beefcake action will be happy enough with the heroes gymnastically vaulting monsters and slicing and dicing their way around the ancient world. An extra star for Ralph Fiennes, who is a god.