Anita Gates

The first half of Behind the Blue Veil makes a case for the noble cause of preserving a way of life; the second half admits its near-futility.

Boss is billed as an action comedy, but it isn’t always clear what is part of the joke and what isn’t.

The film benefits from nice performances and nice work by Mr. DiFolco (making his directorial debut), even if the ending is not as psychologically complex as earlier scenes lead us to hope.

The burning question is why Mr. Hyde’s story has never been made into a feature film. You’ve got big sky, a crazy but magnetically confident old coot, a noble but seemingly hopeless quest and a triumphant ending.

A lovely small surprise of a film.

Ms. Kapoor, in her early 20s, gives a performance that seems to reinvent female confidence.

Mr. Takata deserves praise for refusing to oversimplify the situation, although his film doesn’t always bring the conflict fully to life.

An enthralling documentary.

Like so much of current polarized communication, “Assaulted,” wherever it is shown, is likely to be preaching to the choir.

This is certainly competent filmmaking, sort of like a long “60 Minutes” segment without the confrontational interview style.

This is a sweet adventure story for children. (Surely, American parents can deal with the bare breasts of one talking painting.) For adults it is short on narrative sophistication but visually a true objet d’art.

Their meeting was arranged by the filmmaker, and their encounters reek of false bonhomie.

This film from Rebecca Richman Cohen is a mostly dutiful documentary that drifts dangerously close to earnestness.

The film is an unabashed promotion for space exploration.

Makes its case with breathtaking force.

Giorgio Perlasca, who has been compared to Oskar Schindler, deserves better than this Italian television film.

A one-dimensional romantic comedy that feels like an old-fashioned vehicle picture, the kind the big movie studios used to make in the 1930's and 40's just to bring in the fans of a particular actor or actress.

Inconsequential sequel for the undemanding moviegoer.

With smarter dialogue, it might have made a fascinating film.

For most moviegoers over 12, this, the fourth Three Ninjas movie, will be interminably boring. But it's possible that young children will enjoy the film, since it falls into both the action category and the children-are-smart-adults-can't-do-anything-right genre.

The pleasant surprise is that the film is a delight.

Dan Harnden's screenplay keeps things relatively interesting, despite the very thin plot.

Venom certainly can't be called a good movie, but within its genre it's perfectly palatable.

William Powell and Myrna Loy may not have invented star chemistry but they perfected it.

Touching, intelligent and admirably thoughtful, but more action-packed than its predecessors, thanks to escaped convicts, a local murder and a truly suspenseful finale, with lives at stake.

Rick King's stirring documentary Voices in Wartime is not, as you might guess from the title, a compilation of soldiers' battlefield letters to their families back home. This intense little film is about poetry, and not just Homer's "Iliad."

In this splattery George A. Romero movie from 1977, the title character is not your typical vampire. In fact, he may not be a vampire at all. I mean, did Count Dracula ever need hypodermic needles (for sedation) or razor blades? Mr. Romero, the director who gave the world the ravenous 20th-century zombies of Night of the Living Dead, plays around with the possibility that Martin is just certifiably psychotic.

Most of this is old news. And the filmmakers never make a coherent case, at least not to the layperson. As a result, the film, which runs about 90 minutes, seems painfully long.