Jonathan Foreman

Comes closer to what a Bond movie should be and once was.

A delightful, fresh dark comedy.

It turns into something that is much smarter, and in a gentle, low-key way, tougher and funnier than you expect.

The filmmakers have an pleasurably accurate sense of the embarrassments that darken early adolescence and of the amazing cruelty of teenage girls.

Lighthearted and smart enough to be one of the best Altmanesque ensemble comedies of the last couple of years.

Though Human Stain is sometimes too chaotic and sometimes too neat, it boasts some of the best acting of the year.

Rescues a rarely performed tragedy and makes a brilliant case that it is the Shakespeare play for our time.

Much has, and will, be made of the grisly scenes throughout the film.

It's an original, and a gamble, and one of those movies that works better than it should, despite considerable flaws of conception and execution.

It's hardly a dramatic story. You learn absolutely nothing about her personal life. But there is plenty of drama in that amazing, soulful voice and the songs she sang.

Disappointing and surprisingly crude.

There are affecting scenes, and not all of Cacoyannis' additions to the Chekhov text detract from the effect of its moving brilliance.

Fake-sounding dialogue, some over-deliberate performances and five amazingly trite linked stories.

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

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

Energetic, often very funny comedy filled with sharp, vivid performances by a terrific ensemble cast.

What really wrecks Wolfgang Petersen's Troy is some of the worst casting in recent Hollywood history: The lackluster ensemble hired by the director is overwhelmed by the generally impressive sets and crowd scenes, by the task of playing epic heroes and by David Benioff's rambling, tone-deaf screenplay "inspired by Homer's 'Iliad.'"

Honest but also derivative and crude.

If Schwarzberg had chosen to concentrate on eccentrics, rural artists or people like his New York bike messenger, female aerobatic champion and California cliff dancer, "Heart and Soul" would have been a much more interesting film.

A rather crude affair that feels like a student film, due to performances that often lack conviction and would-be "street" dialogue that rings false.

A test of endurance, and not just because you need a rather stronger word than "explicit" to describe this long-unreleased, self-consciously provocative film.

Beautifully shot and often moving.

An example of Hollywood schlock from the team of Joel Schumacher (director) and Jerry Bruckheimer (producer) that lacks the faintest trace of imagination or genuine feeling.

By far the best single performance in the film - and it is really, really terrific, utterly believable and moving - is by Emma Thompson. To the extent that there is genuine feeling in the movie that doesn't feel slickly manipulative, it's in the scenes involving her character.

Its abundant laughs are heavily reliant on the chemistry of stars Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson - who show once again that they're as fine a comic team as Hollywood has ever produced.

Despite its treacly sentimentality, predictability and gutless evasiveness about the power of the church in 1950s Ireland, Evelyn manages to be an enjoyable piece of family entertainment.

Vastly superior to the small and independent films that have come out during the last six months.

Although the jokes aren't as consistently funny as those in "Lock, Stock," once again writer-director Ritchie demonstrates a deeply pleasurable combination of verbal flair and visual wit while conveying the genuine, intimidating hardness of the English working class and its love of language.