Curtis Morgan

The effort is earnest, but the plot turns more and more implausible.

A mediocre widget stamped straight out of the mold of the popular police procedural.

A muddled fantasy revolving around a really good cruise ship piano player, doesn''t live up to its title.

Deadly dull.

A wrenching film.

A mix of slapstick, melodrama and jaw-dropping stunts.

Never shies from acknowledging the natural fascination with their abnormalities.

Bad in a good way if you appreciate this sort of silly thriller.

Oddly entertaining ride.

A garish clashing of sacred images and bloody semihorror, this is a movie that defines the category: interesting failure.

Director Arnaud Desplechin follows his characters on a languid excursion that is circular and, ultimately, probably pointless (which may itself be the point) -- but the trip is also funny, weepy and charming. Like Paul's life, the movie feels messy but beguiling, jumping from past to present, parading about so many look-alike long-legged, haunting women that it's hard to keep track of who's sleeping with whom. [24 April 1998, p.9G]

The timing is off, the gags lame, the twists predictable, the crudity rampant and unamusing.

Among the many problems with the Generation Acne romantic comedy She's All That is that a self-consciously stupid, 9-year-old TV series ["Beverly Hills: 90210"] has covered the same territory with more smarts, style and laughs, albeit the unintentional kind. This movie exists solely to snag a cut of the weekly allowance doled out to bored mall brats. And even they would probably prefer shopping. [29 Jan 1999, p.5G]

A tad too raunchy for its own good.

It's just as voyeuristically enjoyable as those VH-1 has-been bios but without the soft-focus star shots and with far more edge, energy and originality.

Tedious and trite.

Bogs down in a deep muck of inevitability.

In a movie packed with broad humor, the best jokes are so small they're easy to overlook.

Sporadically amusing.

It is a riveting and memorable performance and Kingsley finds subtlety in Logan where there doesn't seem to be any.

Something of Angela's Ashes does gets lost in translation -- mainly, its fiercely funny voice.

When the youngsters are out of the way and old pros Hackman and Weaver work, it's hard to really dislike Heartbreakers. Sometimes, it's even a little bit of harmless fun.

They're all too old to be considered a black brat pack, but you get a feeling The Best Man will lead to even better.

If there's a flaw, it's that Kempner has fashioned more a hagiography than true biography.

The characters are easy to overplay, but the ensemble keeps its feet on the ground.

Isn't a total crock.

Very French and at times threatens to dissolve into a steamy sex farce.

Rising above simple sentiment to explore class differences and the enduring clash between East and West with wit and wisdom.

Humdrum hybrid of stale sitcom characters and creaky sports cliches.

Overdone performances mar the fine ones -- (Turturro) has become, alas, a hambone.

Quite simply, Les Miserables is a messy classic -- difficult to condense, contrived and highly melodramatic, which made it fine fodder for a pop opera. To counter the antiquated excess, Danish director Bille August ( Pelle The Conqueror ) keeps the mood as cool as an autumn night in Copenhagen, which also creates an emotional distance. [01 May 1998, p.6G]

Chan's string of chop-socky films were never boring. Shanghai Noon is.

Pretentious, perplexing and plain rock-dumb movie.

Annie DeSalvo, a first-time director and screenwriter, can't escape the made-for-TV feel but does manage to give her cast, mostly once-big names fallen from grace and popularity, flashes of humanity between lessons about various saints and sermons disguised as dialogue.

Based on evidence in My Favorite Martian, it can be concluded that while life does exist on Planet Disney, it's not particularly intelligent. Or funny. [12 Feb 1999, p.10G]

A charming confection spun from pure whimsy.

One national group for the blind protested Mr. Magoo as insensitive. Magoo's nearsightedness does play a part in the humor, but it seems mainly a manifestation of his kindly but naturally oblivious nature. There's not a cruel joke in this movie.[25 Dec 1997, p.5F]

Remains a remarkable, almost timeless study.

Sad confusions and emotional disconnections are what the story is all about.

The Night Flier flirts with being a decent chiller, one that for a time values the dark morality tale over the oozing entrails. In the end, it gives in to its cheap soul (it was made for and first shown on HBO) and sometimes cheesy plot (adapted from one of King's sillier stories), but not before it conjures up a creepy tone and an aptly unappealing main character. [6 Feb 1998, p.12G]

The enigma of Reeves, sort of a human black hole on screen, works well in "The Matrix" but it drains the life from weepy romance.

It's the slum, the favela, that emerges as Orfeu's most compelling character -- criminally poor yet rich in life.

Flat and forced, Jakob the Liar aspires to be a poignant parable about the power of hope but instead uses one of humanity's greatest tragedies for trite melodrama.

The story is stale, action uninspired, pacing lackadaisical. The whole production looks a little cut-rate, too.

The latest and loosest -- in the saucy sense of the word as well -- adaptation of (Austen's) sly comedies of uppercrust manners.

Simply creaks with contrivance -- particularly in its overwrought finale.

Grim, tight and well acted.

Moves too slowly, running out of gas in the later rounds of the plot.

Entertains but never quite engages.