Jonathan Foreman

In any case, the presence of O'Hara, Kline, Ramis, Black, Tomlin and John Lithgow (who plays Shaun's father) serve mainly to underline the feebleness of the screenplay and the slackness of the direction.

Never less than breezily entertaining.

The sequel's battle scenes -- especially the climactic assault on the Helm's Deep fortress by the armies of darkness -- easily put those of the "Star Wars" series to shame.

Exciting stuff in its primitive, predictable way.

Every good joke in the movie is to be found in those trailers.

A criminally slow, all-but-laughless blaxploitation comedy.

A slow, self-consciously low-key, very dull film that strains for eeriness with long silences and affectless performances.

It's an even rarer pleasure to see a film that combines exciting action with a smart, well-informed script and vivid yet restrained performances.

So unsparingly honest in the way it treats human cruelty and resilience that it makes fashionably bleak films like "In the Company of Men" and even "Boys Don't Cry" seem unforgivably trite or exploitative.

Adequately funny but predictable sitcom

It isn't particularly subtle or original. But it's a good-natured late-summer romp fueled by Lawrence's manic shtick.

This must be one of the worst movies ever to get a big-screen release. If it weren't so boring, this unbelievably bad indie sex comedy would be worth going to for five minutes of laughs at its sheer incompetence.

It's so painful to sit through you eventually stop feeling sorry for the floundering cast.

It's a film that reeks of stupidity and cynicism, one that makes you feel soiled just to have sat through it.

The filmmakers' smug Bay Area bigotry is all too obvious in gratuitous, mocking swipes at Heidi's Southern background.

Sheer delight. An ensemble comedy-drama that recalls Robert Altman's best work.

Heavy-handed, predictable and almost completely unbelievable.

A particularly gross exploitation of the Holocaust for financial gain.

If this cheesy, cheap-looking update of "A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court" had been co-produced by the Ku Klux Klan itself, it could hardly be more repellently stereotypical.

A stunning achievement, every bit the equal of the classic moun taineering book which inspired it.

The whole movie is so ineptly written and directed that its 90 minutes seem to take twice as long.

A relentlessly grim, rather heavy-handed drama of family dysfunction.

Essentially a downscale TV movie about spousal and child abuse.

Doesn't live up to the promise of its trailers.

This brisk, British-American co-production is one of the better political/historical documentaries to come out in some time.

The sad truth is that TV series like "Dawson's Creek" do a better job with precocious teen dialogue.

Takes you on a fascinating and picturesque journey into a relatively unfamiliar culture.

Even a hardened voyeur would require the patience of Job to get through this interminable, shapeless documentary about the swinging subculture.

A misguided exercise - a crude merger of "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Schindler's List" that somehow reminds you of "Hogan's Heroes."

More impressive than the sight of these acts on an eight-story screen is the excellent six-channel IMAX sound system.

The film is worth seeing for George Clooney's performance. More than ever he seems like a Clark Gable for our time.

A misfiring black comedy oddly reminiscent of all those bad 1990s movies about strippers getting killed at bachelor parties.

Its plot and political symbolism manage to be both over-familiar and confusingly muddled.

Elegantly photographed family saga that brims with period detail. Unfortunately, the underlying story is less than compelling,

Essential viewing not just for those fascinated by adventure, exploration and survival, but for anyone interested in the magic of leadership.

A pointless, wincingly snide exercise.

Crippled by lame storytelling.

Draggy and contrived.

It's a funny and occasionally poignant movie.

Flat dialogue and stiff performances (especially by the street kids, like Ballesteros, turned into actors by Schroeder) don't help.

A witty and quietly charming road comedy.

The gleeful teen-horror spoof that proves that the Farrelly brothers have no monopoly on outrageous, politically incorrect comedy.

All of the characters in this story of love, guilt and redemption feel like real people, facing real dilemmas, and you truly care about what happens to them

It's a thinly disguised lecture about intolerance, spotted with historical inaccuracies and groaning with dialogue so dreadful that it makes a fine cast look ridiculous again and again.

One of those rare recent films whose emotional power resonates long after you've left the theater.

A rare and welcome reminder of how original, provocative and moving a low-budget independent film can be.

Courageous, convincing performance by Dunst.

About two-thirds of the way through, a stupid, hyperbolic sensibility takes control of the project, running it screaming off the rails.

Looks and feels like a bad imitation of "Trainspotting" without any of that film's wit or charm.

As entertaining as it is amazingly faithful.

Bland, occasionally funny.

Fascinatingly, many of the interviewees disagree vehemently about Holmes' personality: some of his co-stars and colleagues found him repellently abusive and selfish.

It's not to say that the adolescent humor isn't funny; some of it is hilarious. It's just that this movie lacks the overarching comic sensibility that made "Mary" and even Adam Sandler comedies like "Happy Gilmore" and "The Waterboy" so satisfying.

It's unfortunate that the people DuBowski profiles tend to be self-indulgent or otherwise unappealing. It's still more unfortunate that the film focuses more on relatively easy issues of acceptance.

But given the potentially gripping subject matter, the film is fatally underedited: Every scene feels too long.

When it was first performed in theaters a couple of years after the L.A. riots took place, Twilight: Los Angeles must have been very powerful. Unfortunately, director Mark Levin's filmed version lacks that impact.

Eyes Wide Shut is Stanley Kubrick's Hindenberg.

Best watched while doing a crossword or reading the paper.

Unfortunately, you really only hear about prostitution from the side of the pimp.

Everything about National Security is so lazy and uninspired, it's hard to believe that director Dennis Dugan also made "Happy Gilmore," arguably Adam Sandler's funniest movie.

It is worth catching The Singing Detective to see the brilliant Robert Downey Jr. in another extraordinary performance... Unfortunately, the film itself doesn't really work despite its lineage.

A pathetically inane and unimaginative cross between "XXX" and "Vertical Limit," it could only harm the careers of everyone involved in its making - including top British stage actors Rufus Sewell and Rupert Graves.

With its endless takes of characters silently waiting, say, or getting out of bed, this is the kind of film that can be seen only after a full night's sleep. But it is also clever, funny and sometimes moving.

This movie, cynically and patronizingly aimed at Seagal's predominantly "urban" audience, is sad, tedious proof that even violent exploitation isn't what it used to be.

Not only is Adored amateurish and mawkish even by the standards of American "gaysploitation" cinema, it's weirdly shy about showing nudity and sex.

While the film contains some terrific, realistically bloody battle scenes, it has a distinctly Germanic feel, both in its epic heaviness and in the peculiar way it revises the history of the American Revolution.

Visually gorgeous despite its low budget, The Terrorist is a haunting film.

Even the lovemaking scenes between two of Hollywood's most attractive stars -- often shot from above, like Cinemax soft porn -- are so unerotic, they make your skin crawl.