Diana Abu-Jaber

Some might call this cheap, formulaic and manipulative, but then again, it still might make you cry.

The movie falters when it gets mean.

If dissonance is your dish, you'll find Beautiful People tempting indeed.

A smart study of the identity-shredding inherent in so much dissatisfaction and relocation.

While you may like comedies and you make like thrillers, this film does neither of the above with any pizazz.

The atmosphere of the movie is dense and unrelieved; it's a heavy role for such a little boy, and some people won't want to watch such a bleak, monster world.

The Legend of 1900 is still fresh; like the dawning of a new age, it feels like an awakening.

One can only hope that the parties responsible for Bandits are brought to justice and someone can stop them before they film again.

The moments of accidental sweetness that emerge from these odd, ultra-lives are meltingly funny and touching.

This multistoried historical plot is packed with almost three hours of nuances and hidden meanings, and the slippery smiles and sly innuendoes often seem lost in translation.

American teens will respond to the directness of the issues here, as well as the film's brisk and risky tone.

This is a semi-mean-spirited movie; had it remained that way, it could have redeemed itself.

Chock-full of the sort of levity that leaves you feeling you've been beaten about the head with a lead pipe.

Takes a look at the bumpy path to self-discovery.

An all-hell-breaks-loose, panicky fever of a story, all of it drenched in grainy, color-saturated cinematography.

While this film has got a good head on its shoulders and a nicely made-up face, flawless it's not.

Terrible, unnamable enemies turn out to be uncompelling indeed.

Mingles bathos and pathos in unequal measures and instead of getting laughs, looks laughable.

With its fiery tone and fierce intensity, East-West offers a profile of a country suspended in fear as well as of one woman's indomitable passion for freedom.

Basinger herself doesn't have the vibrancy of a female hero.

More of a bunt than a home run.

The humor sizzles.

Has many affecting moments, but you may tire of the tugging on your heart strings.

A treat for the eyes and the heart.

Director Stephen Elliott has acquitted himself admirably in creating this serious thriller.

All the up-from-under satisfaction of an underdog getting over, with the added oomph of the truth.

Searing, intense and unrelenting, Affliction moves to the deepest centers of experience and desire and brings its characters to unflinching life.

Foley is an actors' directors stuck here with a genre piece, and it shows: The action (save a killer car chase) is clumsily staged. Still, the story about corrupt police in New York's Chinatown has occasional moments of depth. [12 Mar 1999]