Jami Bernard

The movie mostly sustains its excitement of the hunt. But the real star is the panoramic, beautifully composed cinematography of Vilmos Zsigmond. Whether he truly loved the African locations or is cursed with "a gift" doesn't matter; the dynamics of the story often flag, but the visuals lend a palpable excitement. [11 Oct 1996, p.49]

La Promesse believes that decency is an innate human quality that can surface from any rubble. [16 May 1997, p.47]

The Cockettes epitomized a brief confluence of new possibilities, not so much in theater as in personal style, lending them a certain historical value that greatly exceeds their contribution to theater.

Does the testosterone fly? Not as fast as the potty jokes. Ditto the homophobe jokes zing! zing!

In making such an appealing movie about characters who are usually swept under the Hollywood rug, Binder does us all a service.

The filmmakers caught the kids arguing their cases like adversaries on "Judge Judy," sticking to phrases they've memorized or absorbed only too well.

Behind the inspired wackiness is a story about how our warlike nature needs some changing before we can all live in relative harmony.

The movie isn't a day in the park, but it manages to close on an existentially uplifting note.

Poignant, eccentric comedy.

Sophisticated in that European way and predictable in that Hollywood way.

The jolts are mild and too easily anticipated.

Another excellent example of how Iranian cinema uses deceptively simple techniques to decode devastating truths about human nature.

With destitute and disillusioned Mexican laborers much in the news lately, Star Maps is timely, and Spain is effective and affecting in the lead role. The movie's efforts at realism, however, are undermined by a cast of scenery chewers starved for attention. [23 July 1997, p.45]

The real star of the movie is the background work.

The realistic scenes of oyster farming and the beauty of the Hawkesbury River lend this movie a degree of fascination that its taciturn, beer-swilling characters can't provide.

It's a romantic weepie.

It's an uplifting movie about the rewards of perseverance and community.

This is a serious and well-acted drama, not a jokey ripoff, whose relevance (however distant) to Columbine is a plus.

See it only if potty-training is still the most vivid life experience in your book of memories.

Bale fails to make Chris a character compelling enough to stand out from that heavy dose of '70s clothes and hair.

A darkly brilliant sci-fi movie about emotions so deep, the story could be taking place within the chambers of the heart instead of an arid space station. At the same time, it is a coldly theoretical piece that could leave viewers unengaged.

Crudup gives it his best, but his character is so economically drawn, there's hardly anything there -- certainly nothing likable.

Well-acted but otherwise lackluster drama.

A tiresomely madcap story with extremely faint political (and politically incorrect) overtones.

This powerful, compact trilogy speaks volumes about women in Iran.

A gripping thriller whose terror -- unfortunately -- comes from real life.

The cinematic equivalent of the mad-scientist experiment gone awry. It seems to be grooving on its own strangeness, at the expense of its connection with a paying audience.

Movies about the dawning of female sexuality and its links to mother-daughter competition are tough to pull off, but Rain is a splendid example of how to get it right.

A dreary comedy in the same mold (as "The Bad News Bears," only moldier.

After a few movies in which Paltrow was in danger of becoming a caricature of herself, she's back in rare form.

Lacks the charismatic presence of Vin Diesel, who has priced himself right out of the franchise. Without Diesel, there's not much gas, at least not from the nonvehicular elements.

A droll gem that celebrates movie love with feeling and deadpan humor.

The movie is quite off its rocker: Jerry Springer, Chrisopher Walken, Tom Waits as a roadside prophet, a miscast, nervous Lucy Liu as an FBI agent -- it's a feverish, violent jumble that's shot as if high on mescaline -- the drug, not the salad.

It is not a great ad-vain-cha, and it's a lousy movie. But it underscores Irwin's kitschy popularity as a sideshow entertainer on the Animal Planet channel, where he cheerfully wrestles or rescues all manner of Aussie wildlife while telling the camera what great danger he is in.

This is no simplistic vigilante movie. Like Park Chan-wook's "Vengeance" trilogy, it explores the nature of the beast of revenge, leaving the audience in a sweat of dread.

A journey that goes from prosaic to existential. Director Hans Petter Moland's raw drama of father-daughter reconciliation features an excellent cast.

Exhaustingly manic but curiously unfunny movie.

Alnoy's unnerving mood piece is spare and atmospheric, even funny. The movie is accomplished, but gets hung up on arty composition.

Viewers of first-time director Jeong Jae-eun's sober dissection of dismal day-to-day rituals may want to throw themselves into the brackish water long before the movie is over.

The sniper's life is a lonely one, full of shallow breathing and delayed gratification. Solitary as it is, Jude Law manages to get a little action in the bunkers of wartime Stalingrad in the ambitious but sometimes inadvertently silly Enemy at the Gates.

There's magic afoot, even if the movie is more serviceable than magical.

The cinematic equivalent of comfort food it soothed when you were younger and, in its familiarity, it soothes again.

That the actors can work under such scrutiny is amazing, and they are superb. The standout is Brad Renfro as Marty, the kid most under the thumb of the neighborhood bully.

There's definitely room for a female Woody Allen, an accolade garnered by a previous film. However, Amy's Orgasm is chirpy, shrill and coarse, more in the vein of one of Allen's more depressed periods.

Streep is perfect, as per usual, but the showy orchid role goes to Cage in an Oscar-worthy tour de force. He pours his body into Charlie's slumped frame of mind and creates a character churning with endearing contradictions -- the unforgettable nebbish.

It's like a walking tour inside the head of a deeply troubled, deeply talented young man, where most of the systems have already shut down.

Wood is compelling, but Charlie Hunnam ("Nicholas Nickleby") is the one to watch.

It's about the kind of kids who could never sit still enough, unfortunately, for a movie that perfectly captures the frustrations, longings, obsessions and torments of the awkward years before manhood.

Excuse me, but didn't Bette Midler already play this role?

Tough going for most audiences and should be considered more of a rough draft full of lofty ideas unevenly executed.

It's an excellent fusion of subject and style.

The screenplay is chock-full of political and social observation tarnished by uneven ­acting and editing. The clumsy humor doesn't translate well.

The results are amazing, though bittersweet, and demonstrate how complicated and expensive it is (though not impossible) to break the cycle of poverty, crime and lack of education.

Nolte, at least, delivers his lines with laser accuracy, and gives The Golden Bowl the life that so much cogitation could have drained from it.

The comparison to Woody Allen is obvious, not only in the New York setting and the characters' comic approach-avoidance to sex, but in Burns' casting of his real girlfriend to play his screen girlfriend. Uh, Eddie big mistake there. [23 Aug 1996, p.41]

An eye-pleasing French action-slasher film that is cheerfully unencumbered by the usual conventions of stuffy costume drama.

An adorable, infectious work of true sophistication.

Paying homage to Sergio Leone, "Mexico" aims too high and, in the process, becomes more like every generic, overplotted drug-cartel-and-revenge flick out there.

The movie is fun, fun, fun.

A remedial comedy for idiots.

A preposterous action movie in which a Navy SEAL makes the world safe for democracy one continent at a time.