David Sterritt

It's surprising that so much material, so many moods, and such an interesting cast end up making such a small, unmemorable splash.

The picture is equally long on eye-dazzling camera work and New Age sentimentality.

Some of his theories seem cockamamie compared with current intellectual norms, though, so it's too bad the filmmakers don't give him time to make a coherent case.

Written and directed by Deepa Mehta, this Indian production is not filmed very interestingly, but reveals much about conflicts between traditional and modern attitudes in Indian society.

Witherspoon fills the screen with bright-eyed bounce. The rest of the cast is as forgettable as the flimsy story.

Eddie Murphy does his patented routines effectively, and the dialogue has some pungent moments, but the movie doesn't succeed as the "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" update it would like to be.

A bit too neat and calculated to make the emotions ring really true.

This sensationalistic tale doesn't delve very far into the issues it raises.

Parents will yawn, but younger children may enjoy the fun. [09 Aug 1985, p.24]

Far from a great film, but it certainly stretches the envelope.

Old-fashioned storytelling.

Its ideas are worth pondering, but as a movie it's less memorable than its interesting cast suggests.

Flashy but uninvolving crime thriller.

Christopher Hampton's film conveys the basic plot of Joseph Conrad's sinuous novel but loses the book's sardonic tone and psychological depth.

As directed by Hugh Hudson, the movie isn't workaday for a second, with its epic scale and awesome vistas and all. Instead of enhancing the story, though, the niggling details and dignified touches just slow things down. [12 Apr 1984, p.33]

Despite his fascinating subject and an impressive cast -- Sayles lets his story drift in too many directions, as if he'd lost his Florida road map somewhere along the way during his travels.

The settings and visual effects are imaginatively done, but the dialogue is silly and the plot is a mishmash, with echoes of everything from the "Aliens" movies to Michael Crichton's novel "Sphere," which pushes similar buttons a little more intelligently.

The most startling aspect of this slow-building horror movie is how unexpectedly it morphs from a quietly romantic suspense yarn to a flat-out tale of terror that may have some viewers hiding under their seats.

Solid acting helps the story stay earthbound when Aronofsky's filmmaking gets addicted to its own flashy cynicism, but the picture sometimes seems as dazed and confused as the situations it wants to criticize.

Meant to be a romp in the old Ken Kesey tradition, it's more like a dull drive with a bunch of leftover flower children.

The screenplay provides enough cute one-liners and love-struck speeches to give the comedy intermittent charm.

Has touching and instructive moments.

Kids may yawn at the movie's dawdling pace.

Murphy gives one of his more-restrained performances, which suits the mood of carefully contained mayhem established by Steve Carr, the director.

Where's the real 007 when we really need him? Or better yet -- Calling Inspector Clouseau!

Fantasy-style plot doesn't mesh easily with the unsettling psychological themes woven through it.

In both its original 1973 version and its expanded 2000 edition, this hugely popular horror yarn is less a cleverly spun story than a disjointed collection of shockeroos, surrounding a few ghoulishly effective moments with overcooked plot twists and in-your-face vulgarity. [2000 re-release]

Never quite catches fire.

What keeps The Mosquito Coast from being a great movie is too much caution.

Scott's filmmaking is as blunt and bullying as the mayhem it portrays.

The comedy is tooooo loooooong for the two or three jokes it has to play with, and Kinnear does the picture's only three-dimensional acting.

The setting is cramped and the story is illogical, but it's suspenseful as long as you don't think about it very hard.

Like the Oscar-nominated "Seabiscuit," though, Miracle fails to ring true as it tries to make a sporting event an all-embracing metaphor for the American way.

Hanks and Ryan are as appealing as ever, and Ephron's fashion-conscious camera gives the action a slickly attractive sheen.

Directed by Charles Shyer, who brings much imagination to the first half but loses all momentum in the homestretch. [04 Oct 1984, p.27]

The remake of Unfaithfully Yours is just a shadow of its source, using the basic plot and characters, but diluting Sturges's ideas. [23 Feb 1984, p.21]

More cautionary than titillating...some of it (is) deliberately disturbing.

Carax's cinematic imagination makes it worth viewing by movie buffs with a sense of adventure and a tolerance for explicit sex.

A likable though slender documentary.

An engaging and sometimes gripping movie, if ultimately a superficial one. Reiner has mastered the surface skills of moviemaking, although the inner depths continue to elude him. [11 Dec 1992]

It doesn't have a speck of authentic heart -- you can bet its Hollywood creators wouldn't move to Alabama if their lives depended on it -- but if you belong to the growing legion of Witherspoon worshippers, this is definitely the movie of the week.

The drama is likably low-key but builds little excitement, and Bowie's star billing says more about the power of his agent than the number of scenes he appears in.

Starts quirky, grows steadily darker, doesn't build much excitement.

Directed by John Glen, who keeps the excitement level high for an hour or so, then lets the show slip into the doldrums.

Inherently stale.

Wordy, wearying drama.

The premise is more interesting than the movie, which takes several wrong turns on its way to an unconvincing conclusion.

Rob Cohen's movie has flashes of wit, but there's little substance to the story, and Draco's charms are surrounded by too much graphic violence. [31 May 1996, p.13]

This visually inventive fantasy paints the wide screen with colorful effects, but its psychological and spiritual ideas rarely rise above "new age" fuzziness.

Besson's account of the Maid of Orleans presents itself as a celebration of a martyr's faith but shows more interest in the violence and hatred that surrounded her life.

The quartet appears to be mightily lacking in the brains and judgment departments, but at least it tries to do something about its failings, employing a traveling psychotherapist whose interventions and ruminations provide some of the film's most unwittingly amusing moments.

The subject is compelling but the story is very, very slow.

Their shenanigans rarely run short of explosive energy.

The movie makes a commendable effort to celebrate bravery and underscore the terrors of war, but its melodramatic approach is more spectacular than insightful.

The film actually deserves four stars for its imaginative style and astonishing suspense, zero stars for its shameless exploitation of violent shocks and loveless sensuality.

The story is likable if not memorable, and the Chinese settings lend the basically ordinary plot a touch of novelty.

Burton is an imaginative director with a distinctive artistic vision, but his originality is nowhere to be seen in this by-the-numbers retread.

The story has some chillingly suspenseful episodes, although it's marred by overfamiliar themes and weak dialogue.

While you can't fault The Dancer Upstairs for lack of ambition, its tantalizing ingredients add up to a less impressive package than I'd hoped for. Malkovich should select a more manageable subject the next time he sits in the director's chair.

This romantic farce has a talented cast and energy to spare, but somehow the ingredients don't burn as brightly as one would expect from such promising ingredients.

Animated version of the Rogers & Hammerstein musical.

More concerned with quickening our pulses than broadening our minds.

Ingeniously crafted with flashes of intelligence, if not very memorable.

Gary Sinise is chilling as the villain, and the screenplay by Richard Price and Alexander Ignon shows some interest in class hostility and other social issues, although this doesn't extend far enough to allow the women of the story a chance to shine in their male-dominated surroundings.

The facts of this true-life story are highly dramatic, and they'd have much more power without the sappy sentimentality Beresford needlessly adds to the movie.

Hammers home its tragicomic points too heavily for either its humorous or dramatic aspects to gather much emotional steam.

Along with some creaky plot mechanics in the last third of the story, this reduces the film to ordinary dimensions - a sharp but no longer resonant show.

The movie makes up in sincerity and goodwill what it lacks in originality and style.

A former gang member, his ten-year-old son, and Los Angeles street life are the main concerns of this uneven story, which isn't convincing enough as drama to achieve the consciousness-raising effect that appears to be its goal. [26 Oct 1992, p.12]

Blethyn's lively acting and some visually amusing moments lend spice to this minor but engaging comedy.

In the end, however, the story is too contrived and melodramatic to reach its full potential.

There's precious little to think about despite the screenplay's comic-philosophical musings on fate and coincidence.

Paints a sincere and serious portrait of the seductiveness of evil and the self-destructive nature of depravity.

The overall effect is about the same -- slow start, then escalating suspense and violence. Today's shock-movie fans will enjoy shrieking at it, and others should skip it. In space, no one can hear you ask for your money back.

The acting is endearing and the story has great charm before predictability and sentimentality eventually take over.

Most of the movie is standard action fare, but the political commentary is interesting when it's allowed to surface.

This historical fantasy is too ambitious for its own good, but contains some striking imagery and likable performances.

Well acted, capably directed, not as substantial as it might have been.

Although some of the acting is strong, the atmosphere is so relentlessly sleazy that many moviegoers will want to go long before the final credits.

Plenty of surprises, almost all of them nasty.

Bottom line: Kingdom of Heaven is the most exciting action-adventure yarn so far this year. Just don't expect anything deeper.

Would have benefited from more flamboyant film clips and fewer folksy conversations with the garrulous old-timers it focuses on.

Resembles the yacht where it takes place. Everything is arranged for fun, pleasure, and amusement. But the vehicle itself is heavy and cumbersome, and it takes a tad too long to get us where we're going.

The performances are persuasive but the plot rattles on much too long.

The murder-mystery plot is told in rough-and-tumble style, full of sound and fury but signifying almost nothing in the end.

This well-directed Hong Kong drama is at its best when it captures the casual affection that grows between the main characters. It also touches on important Chinese social and political themes, but Kwan understates these so sketchily that they build little psychological power.

Unabashed "Star Wars" clone.

Overacted, overdirected, and overcooked in the usual Tornatore manner, but sheer energy and enthusiasm keep it watchable and listenable most of the way through.

The main characters are unremarkable, and most of the acting is dull.

Although this "Moonstruck" knockoff is diverting to watch, it's basically a low-budget loaf of Italian-American movie clichés.

Gallo's earlier work suggests he has directorial talent, but here it's buried beneath too much ego to be detectible.

In reducing Presumed Innocent to a 126-minute film, director Pakula has necessarily stripped it of many complexities and ambiguities that lend the novel much of its interest. The performances are capable, if rarely inspired.

In this exquisitely filmed adaptation Pacino is as vivid a Shylock as we're likely to see. Despite all the scholarly excuses for this drama, though, it's shot through with outrageously anti-Semitic attitudes.

The same story was told vastly better in the 1949 melodrama "The Reckless Moment."

Contains extremely graphic sex and many twists that are unpredictable but not very compelling.

Kline stands out in the dual roles of the heartless tycoon and his playboy son.

The acting is passionate, but the film would be more effective if it presented a more thoroughgoing lesson in the raging horrors that swept through European culture during the era of the French Revolution.

Figgis brings strong visual imagination to the first hour, but he can't rescue Richard Jefferies's screenplay from plot holes bigger than the manor itself.

While the story is sentimental, heartfelt acting makes its impact less manipulative.

What's lacking in The Upside of Anger is a steady sense that we're watching real people cope with real, jolting emotions.

Gary Oldman and Lena Olin give energetic performances, ably supported by Annabella Sciorra and Roy Scheider as a long-suffering wife and a high-powered mobster. But the movie's main distinction is its increasingly lurid tone, reaching heights of mayhem so bizarre they're almost surrealistic. [4 Feb 1994, p.12]

Bassett and Diggs are appealing as the slightly odd couple, but the movie rambles on too long.

Liam Neeson and Alan Rickman give sturdy performances, but Neil Jordan's historically based drama seems oddly cool and distant with regard to its incendiary subject.

David O. Russell hasn't yet developed enough filmmaking savvy to juggle so many intellectual, emotional, and narrative elements. He's clever and ambitious, but perhaps too much so.

The best reason to see It Runs in the Family is the sight of unquenchable Kirk.

The story has more violence than brains, but Hong Kong action star Chow makes an interestingly moody impression in his first Hollywood role.

It's as forgettable as they come.

But the drama's attack on racism would be more persuasive if it rejected vigilante justice and recognized that hatred and violence of all kinds must be condemned if evils like bigotry are ever to be eradicated.

Some of the suspense set-pieces are impressive, but the picture would pack a greater wallop if it were stitched together more tightly and consistently.

Allen has fun with all his roles -- The rest of the acting is bland, but the movie's preteen target audience won't mind, and adults will find occasional grown-up jokes to chuckle at.

The fine cast is also misused -- especially Kidman, who looks as unruffled at the end of her torments as before they began, and Zellweger, who does a job of overacting that might have gotten rejected by "The Beverly Hillbillies."

The story is as contrived as it is comical.

The result is a run-of-the-mill fantasy, competently produced but disappointingly familiar, from its "Forbidden Planet" premise to the digital-clock countdown near the end.

Conjures up enough involving moments to create some drama.

The plot, based on a Phillip K. Dick story, is ingenious; and Arnold Schwarzenegger brings an effective blend of machismo and innocence to his role. Too bad director Paul Verhoeven lets brainless violence and tricky special effects swamp the cleverness of the tale itself. [22 June 1990, Arts, p.10]

Spacey is endearing, bringing his shy character to life despite glaring psychological gaps in the screenplay.

There are lots of plot twists and romantic angles. What's lacking is laughs.

The characters are engaging, but the story is hackneyed and the filmmaking is dull. So is much of the acting, except by Jessica Tandy, who carries her own energy wherever she goes.

Amiable, though much too long.

Would have more heft if the filmmakers had been supplied with talented stars, original ideas, and a barely adequate budget.

Colorful and cute. It would be better if it weren't quite so sitcommy and if it didn't outlast its ideas.

It's insulting when such savvy filmmakers expect us to laugh automatically at four-letter words, bathroom humor, and caricatures as crude as they are unoriginal. At its best, The Ladykillers soars above its own worst instincts, especially when Hanks and Hall take over the action.

Steven Spielberg's blockbuster whips up superficial sorts of excitement, and unlike the original "Jurassic Park," the picture looks tacky around the edges.

The acting and crooning are sadly uneven, making this a shaky comeback vehicle for the screen musical.

Penn's excellent acting doesn't raise his character above the level of familiar clichés about woman-chasing jazzmen.

Howard spins the story with enough gusto and gumption to make it reasonably entertaining.

Utterly predictable, but pleasant enough for its young target audience.

Details of the 1963 period are weakly handled, though, and the ending is as false as it is sentimental. [21 Aug 1987]

At heart this is a cuteness exploitation flick.

The story isn't nearly as funny or suspenseful as it would like to be, although the solid cast gives it occasional dashes of pizazz.

The topic is thought-provoking, the flashback-based structure is interesting, and there are surprising twists near the end. But there's also an overdose of sentimentality that badly dilutes the picture's impact.

It's all very sweet and occasionally touching. More lasting shots of more beautiful butterflies would have added a lot, though.

Directed by Ang Lee, whose exposure of middle-class hypocrisy would be more effective if it weren't rigged to provide evidence for the story's take on contemporary values.

Sol doesn't knit the complicated story into a coherent flow, but there are many visually striking moments along the way.

Jim Carrey proves that he's the most inspired clown in movies today, but parents should be warned that much of the picture's humor is extremely rude and crude.

Illuminating, if not exactly edifying.

Glover and Bassett play the title characters with great energy, and Berry has invested the movie with the moral conscience that underpinned his entire career.

Pierce Brosnan has mastered every smidgen of 007 schtick, making the role more thoroughly his own than any actor since Sean Connery -- still the best of the batch -- decided to call it quits.

Delicatessen seems overstuffed at times, unable to digest its own surfeit of jokes, tricks, and surprises.

The film is preoccupied with whiz-bang adventure rather than storytelling. There's also too much cartoon violence for young kids.

Diverting but minor.

The story is so eager to highlight macho action scenes that it loses track of the important historical and political issues it raises.

Good performances by a distinguished cast don't quite overcome the weaknesses of the disappointing screenplay.

Wrong Is Right tries to be an intellectual epic comedy thriller -- a bold mix, to say the least. But its force is muffled by its bulk. Despite its good intentions, it's a dud. [20 May 1982, p.19]

The movie is a disappointment -- not a stain on Benton's career as a serious and literate director, but only half the powerful drama it might have been.

The cast is cute and the action is colorful, but the comedy isn't as captivating as it sets out to be.

There are many tantalizing bits, but the overall result is a simplistic story wrapped in barely explained quantum physics and new-age sound bites. Fascinating and frustrating in about equal measure.

Well made, nice performances, very slowly paced.

Use of a loosely written screenplay and a nonprofessional cast in this picture weakens its dramatic appeal even as it lends authenticity and local color.

Much of the movie exploits its subject for low-grade laughs, but in the end it takes a foursquare stand against the sleazy business it portrays, exposing its capacity for decadence and degradation.

No-nonsense critiques of Brazil's endemic poverty and deeply flawed criminal-justice system lend substance to what otherwise might have seemed a flimsy and sensationalistic tale.

The screenplay by Kevin Williamson ("Scream") keeps the lighting low and the tension high, though a bit more wit would have helped.

Filmmakers run out of ideas long before the final.

Redford's storytelling skills aren't strong enough to make the tale appear as seamless as it should.

As coarse, vulgar, adolescent action comedies go, Beverly Hills Ninja comes across as relatively tame - less profanity, less violence, less sex than typical for this "Naked Gun" wannabe.

Depardieu gives the story a firm center of gravity, aided by Joffé's eye for colorful settings and period detail.

The movie catches occasional fire when Bridget suddenly says what's really on her mind. The rest is silliness.

Quirky acting combines with Ferrara's dark, brooding style to give the throwaway story a noteworthy measure of dramatic and cinematic interest.

You won't find a load of laughs in 13 Going on 30, but there's plenty of whimsy, which is a close cousin of genuine humor.

The movie is mostly a megadose of good-old-days nostalgia.

The dialogue swings between platitudes and clichés, but the acting is lively and the music will set even lazy toes tapping.

The movie takes no particular stance on the controversies surrounding its heroine, seen by some as a self-serving egomaniac and others as a tireless champion of the poor. Nor can much insight be gleaned from Madonna's energetic but oddly impersonal performance.

The story has too many trite moments, but strong acting and a goodhearted attitude keep it afloat.

Starts cleverly but becomes more preposterous as it goes along.

In the end there's more nasty behavior than constructive insight.

Three brief comedies filmed in English for a German television series. The most thoughtful is Seidelman's contribution, The Dutch Master."

The movie seems sincere in wanting to explore rather than exploit its subject, but any potential insights are cut off by too-obvious characterizations and plot twists. [04 Apr 1986, p.23]

Audiences may howl at the hackneyed plot and dialogue, but you won't hear them over the Dolby sound effects assaulting your eardrums at a gazillion decibels.

Admirers of their MTV series will find a few laughs in this animated odyssey. Others will find it as repetitious as it is vulgar.

The story matters less than the style, full of swooping camera movements, rapid-fire editing, and color-drenched displays of violence the Hong Kong school is famous for.

As a movie, it's mediocre.

There are multiple murders and two gory scenes, but if you love getting scared, then you'll enjoy this thrill ride.

The story is so sentimental that even soap-opera buffs may feel it outwears its welcome.

The movie is just plain muddled - showing the Hoffa forces performing a heinous crime one minute, then glamorizing and sentimentalizing them as if the other stuff had never happened.

The story grows sillier as it goes along, culminating in a final switcheroo that's about as deep as the comic-book ideas that inspired the plot.

The results are more sleazy than insightful.

This pitch-black comedy is less lurid than its title, but director Danny Boyle ultimately fritters away his psychologically rich story in a horror-flick finale.

Much of the historical horrorfest is more frenetic than fascinating. Look out for bursts of over-the-top violence.

Don't race to see it unless a female "Full Monty" is just what you've been waiting for.

The title characters are wittily crafted by Messrs. Stiller and Wilson, and Snoop Dogg is a riot as Huggy Bear.

Excali-BORE, Gere as Lancelot lost-a-lot; inaccurate.

A very well-meaning movie, and it will stand in future years as an eloquent memorial to the World Trade Center tragedy.

Mildly entertaining for a while; think "Stand by Me" meets "Alien," with a soupçon of "Starship Troopers" tossed in.

The screenplay aims high in terms of humanity and complexity, but director Hoge drains it of energy with listless meanderings that provide more yawns than insights.

Ultimately more ambitious than enlightening.

In its cinematic approach, though, the film is as slick as any Hollywood thriller, directed by Fernando Meirelles with visual flourishes - jazzy editing, lurid colors, crackling sound effects - that dilute the impact of what might have been an indelible cautionary tale.

This is the ultimate Woo movie, but while his fans will enjoy every minute, others will find it too long, repetitive, and violent.

The movie has magical moments, but it's too contrived to gather much comic or dramatic power.

Val Kilmer is fun as the mercurial hero, and Elisabeth Shue would be great as the physicist if she didn't waste so much time making googoo-eyes at her handsome new boyfriend.

Much of the acting is energetically good. Moviegoers familiar with "Fargo" and "Red Rock West" will find this adventure eerily familiar.

The result is hardly a subtle film, but it has a stronger sense of combat's real costs and consequences than more sensationalistic pictures like "Black Hawk Down" and "We Were Soldiers" provide.

There's not enough substance to support the sentiment of this longish comedy-drama.

Just a few years ago, the generally felt aspiration of ethnic groups was to blend in with the majority culture. Today it's to flourish in modern society while actively remembering old-country values...Bend It Like Beckham could cement the trend.

The story is shamelessly corny, and grown-ups will groan at its cliches. It's vividly filmed and energetically acted, though, so youngsters new to outdoor-adventure movies should find it tremendously exciting. [14 Jan 1994, p.13]

The movie is reasonably smart and touching when it deals with the plight of a family on the rocks, but it pushes too many emotional buttons when the ex-wife is diagnosed with a fatal illness that proceeds to take over the story.

The movie would be better as a 30-minute short, though, since its shaky camera work and fuzzy images get monotonous after a while, and there's not much room for character development within the very limited plot.

Music buffs may wish there were a lot more Puccini and a little less talking-head chitchat.

The story is winning but the telling, with Dai adapting and directing from his own novel, is too sentimental in the long run.

Strains too hard to seem smart and savvy.

The title means "The Swamp," and you may feel you're in one after 103 minutes with such a generally unlikable gang.

AT once an old-fashioned adventure and a postmodern pastiche, The Quick and the Dead walks a slim tightrope with impressive skill and humor. Its main reference point is the work of Sergio Leone, the Italian maestro whose "spaghetti westerns" reinvigorated the genre during its last major phase about 30 years ago. [13 Feb 1995, p.13]

Skillfully acted, idealized, uneven.

Barrymore and Busey walk away with the acting honors, but no aspect of the picture is more than mildly entertaining.

The action is fast, furious, and as wacky as science fantasy gets.

Zellweger is as charming as ever, and it's good to find LaBute working with a script by writers who don't fully share his crabbed, cramped view of human nature.

Ultimately, it's more an emotional hodgepodge than a compassionate look at real human problems.

Much of the action seems more like warmed-over Quentin Tarantino than first-rate Steven Soderbergh.

If none of this seems particularly fresh, you're right. "T3" is strikingly similar to "T2" and "T," reflecting Hollywood's reluctance to tamper with a hit series.

The drama is long on 1950s atmosphere and complicated feelings, short on emotional depth and real psychological insight.

The story evokes a lot of varied emotions, but none runs more than an inch below skin deep.

Sweetie is imaginatively filmed, but it's sadly mean-spirited, too. For all its cleverness, it left a mighty sour taste in my mouth. [29 Jan 1990, p.11]

The story is slow and corny, but Whitaker gives commendable dignity to his everyday characters, and the acting is emotionally strong as long as the male romantic interest (Connick) isn't around.

The trouble with Chicago is the sense it conveys that nothing is really at stake -- there's no moral or ethical question that can't be turned into toe-tapping fun.

Wesley Snipes is terrific as the hero.

The comedy as a whole is very slight.

The movie wastes a good opportunity to look at important questions, such as who's responsible for American policy when the president is busy killing terrorists.

Based on a novel by French provocateur Georges Bataille, an important thinker whose fiction rarely translates into good cinema.

Campion is an imaginative filmmaker, but here she reduces a fascinating subject to a two-character soap opera that often seems contrived on both spiritual and psychological levels.

Seems more clever than heartfelt, and whether you enjoy it may depend on how much you like Robert Altman's eccentric western "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," which it uncannily resembles.

The subject is crucially important, but the movie dilutes its impact with by-the-numbers filmmaking, and Cheadle's one-note performance displays few of his acting gifts.

Like its predecessor, it's a hugely ambitious picture...But also like its predecessor, it cares far more about action, adventure, and violence than feelings, relationships, and ideas.

It's a serviceable picture, but hardly a top-notch vehicle for Washington's remarkable gifts.

The story meanders, but the subject is timely and important.

Alas, the movie isn't nearly as amusing as its premise, but it's refreshingly different from most run-of-the-mill teenage fare.

The story is so important and compelling that you wish Jewison had treated it more as an urgent wake-up call than a by-the-numbers morality play.

Nicely acted and capably directed, but hardly memorable.

The acting is solid, but Tony Pierce-Roberts's unimaginative camera work falls short of his highest standard.

As featherweight as its title, but Lyonne gives a winning performance and the mischievous story packs a few good laughs.

The plot is promising and the acting is earnest, but in the end the movie doesn't quite work.

Denis's pungent images create a nightmarish mood but don't bring full artistic coherence to her odd mix of gothic horror and postmodern reverie.

A true story of the Memphis Belle's magnitude deserved to be told with as much dramatic intensity and as much natural humanity as possible. It deserved to be more than just an action-adventure dressed in phony heroic conventions.

It's campy fun, but if you've seen the previous sequels, the plot grows tiresome and lacks shock value.

There are a few amusing moments, helped by subdued performances from Affleck and Gandolfini, but this is no "Bad Santa" despite its obvious ambition to play similar holiday tricks.

If the heroine really had seven days left, she wouldn't waste it watching stuff like this.

My main complaint -- there's too much emphasis on action -- will strike the film's young target audience as a see-worthy virtue rather than a fault.

Intended as a parody of B-movie fantasies from the '50s, this satire more directly lampoons kiddie thrillers like "Captain Video," putting it perilously close to the pop-culture trash it aims to mock.

The acting is solid, but the story builds less drama and suspense than its high-stakes subject might lead you to expect.

The story is stylishly filmed and acted with high spirits, but there's not much going on in many of its colorful shots.

The action ranges from mildly humorous to merely vulgar; and far too many of the laughs revolve around racially crude confrontations between sweet, blond Goldie and denizens of the big, bad ghetto. [10 March 1986, p.33]

The result can be viewed as an uproarious satire of science fiction in the "Independence Day" mold, or as a rehash of "Gremlins" without the novelty of the original.

McDonald and Montgomery are fun to watch in this mildly amusing Irish romantic comedy.

This delirious film is overflowing with energy and effects, but it lacks the heart and soul that would have made it important as well as impressive.

Sensitive acting by Morgan Freeman and stylish directing by Gary Fleder can't overcome the bottom-line pointlessness of the movie's melodramatic material, which never achieves the dark resonance that helped "The Silence of the Lambs" get under the skin of many moviegoers.

There's too much hokum and too little suspense in the screenplay by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson.

Robin Williams is no Fred MacMurray, but he plays the hero with his customary energy.

Quite funny and eye-catching.

There's lots of atmosphere and information to be gained, but stay away unless you can tolerate graphic plunges into the wildest kinds of youthful excess.

A lot more violent and a tad less creepy than the 1974 original, the much-changed remake delivers enough gory, belligerent mayhem to keep horror fans screaming.

Coogan and Broadbent are agile and expressive, but too much time goes to Chan's silly stunts. A colorful disappointment.

Runs out of good ideas long before it's over, falling below "Prizzi's Honor" and "The Freshman" in the dubious genre of contract-killer comedies.

The acting is capable and the suspense is effective at times, but the gore is grisly and the climax is surprisingly hokey.

Acute sense of color and offbeat storytelling style aren't enough to make this sometimes sensual fantasy more than a whimsical trifle.

The first half is a well-acted psychological drama, but the second half is standard thriller fare with more action than insight.

Kenneth Branagh overplays his portrayal of Neville, but most of the other characters are skillfully acted by a solid cast, including the great Aborigine actor David Gulpilil as the tracker. In all, this is a watchable movie that's not quite the memorable experience it might have been.

The director, Roman Polanski, is often at his weakest in the comedy field, and the insipid vulgarities of this picture are poor substitutes for inventive gags. Yet he shows some of his erstwhile ingenuity when he crowds the screen with sumptuously filmed images of richly costumed characters, much in the manner of his underrated ''Dance of the Vampires'' a number of years ago. [25 July 1986, p.23]

May find some fans among female teens. But even they may decide the project cares more about quick profits than real entertainment value, since the signs are hard to miss.

Russell's stylish and imaginative filmmaking wages its own war against lunkheaded and sometimes offensive material.

Never quite jells into a coherent statement. Or a coherent film.

The first hour is sharply directed, character-driven drama that ranks with Scott's best work. Then he lapses into his usual mode - more a bombardier than an entertainer, filling the screen with sadistic violence and arbitrary plot twists. In all, a wasted opportunity.

The title refers to the commercialization of just about everything in modern society, and Ferrara brings touches of his ornery filmmaking imagination to bear on the pessimistic parable.

Its ambitious aims are commendable in themselves, but regrettable since they overinflate what might have been a simpler and better film.