Jami Bernard

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.