Desson Thomson

Hums with compassion for its outlandish, lonely but always sweet characters.

This is a captivating experience.

The images are crisp. The story is restored. And there's no sign of Raymond Burr.

As they stumble, bumble and fumble their way to love, they get more charming by the minute. Which makes them more interesting than Hollywood-style characters, anyway.

A devilishly, hysterically, cacklingly, subversively funny picture that builds and builds until it literally self-destructs.

You will surely leave this movie shocked, shaken and surprisingly moved. And definitely stuck on that poor octopus.

It's not the deepest thematic concern you ever saw on screen. But it's watchable, great fun.

It scores its comic points with dire one-liners, an astringent dearth of sentimentality and only-in-America developments.

No matter what's coming their way, post-apocalyptic doom or gloom, this James Gang of the galaxy is just plain fun to watch.

I had to beg my 8-year-old to stop laughing.

In a sense, Shattered Glass is a parenthetical horror movie in which someone discovers (or worse, denies) the monster within themselves.

Stephen Frear's The Snapper hits the spot nicely, if your spot likes hearty rounds of working-class comedy.

It's great to watch characters in The War Room operating as most of us do -- by the seat of their pants.

Surrender and enjoy the spectacle.

All in all, this is a celebration of Australian exuberance, a national ethic of adventurousness and enormous charisma.

This is Disney at its live-action best and brightest.

Whatever its ultimate position on the greatest hits list, Monsters, Inc. is supple and technologically sophisticated entertainment.

It'll keep you amused enough to sit still and even remember it fondly.

Vietnam will do well on the strength of Williams' performance: He's Groucho in 'Nam, with his rapid-fire quips and cast of imaginary guests. But when it's time to mourn Cronauer's departure, after a final softball game with the locals and a farewell to buddies-in-arms, there isn't a wet eye in the house. [15 Jan 1988, p.N31]

The cliches are obscured by the sheer fun of it all.

The movie's a gas. Very funny, to a rather dark degree.

Apart from moments of conventional schlock (the ending included), "Serpent" twists with expertly drawn menace. The editing's snappy, the images visceral, and Craven's Haiti is a craze of blood ceremonies and political rioting -- it's set during the fall of "Baby Doc" Duvalier.

Belgian actor [Jan] Decleir's tough-guy vulnerability ... gives an otherwise standard police procedural extraordinary grace and power.