Kevin Thomas

Hamburger Hill pays heartfelt, richly deserved tribute to the young American soldiers who fought so valiantly there. If only director John Irvin, who was in Vietnam in 1969 making a BBC documentary, and writer Jim Carabatsos, a Vietnam veteran, had been content to honor these men who were prepared to risk their lives in what had become a singularly unpopular war. But they don’t trust the soldiers’ brave actions to speak for themselves and instead give them a series of preachy, rabble-rousing speeches that add up to a diatribe against the anti-war movement at home rather than an attack on U.S. involvement in the war in the first place.

A film of simplicity and power, beautifully shot and effortlessly acted by nonprofessionals.

A period spectacle, steeped in awesome splendor and lethal palace intrigue, it climaxes in a stupendous battle scene and epic tragedy.

Opens and closes on a jaunty note: It's the tedious, relentlessly talky 80 minutes in between that's the problem.

Swain balances the personal and the political, allowing his film to be intimate while keeping a larger perspective. It is refreshing to see people on screen who are living in a real world.

Suspenseful entertainment -- but it's also a suitably chilling cautionary tale.

There is a wonderful natural quality to Jeong's storytelling that is enhanced by cinematographer Young-hwan Choi's graceful camerawork and by a dynamic, contemporary score from M&F.

An elegant, witty but also sometimes tedious spin on the legend of Dracula.

A shimmeringly beautiful and wise reverie on love and desire.

Offers breathtaking comic-action fantasy….Exhilarating and sharp, it never stops for a second. [9 April 1999, Calendar, p.F-6]

The ending is a little too neat and smacks of wishful thinking, but Paige has created an engaging and insightful entertainment with considerably more substance than most small-budget, independent gay films.

By the time “The Sacrifice” comes full circle it emerges itself as a symbolic gesture of great emotional impact. We may share Alexander’s sense of impotence, but Tarkovsky turns such feelings into a work of art.

Whatever his intentions, Clark, in his third outing as a director, has come up with a film that is seriously flawed.

A graceful mood piece that is infinitely moving.

A summer treat for sophisticated moviegoers -- graceful and serious, yet not overly so. This easy-to-take movie gets everything just right and is a pleasure to watch.

This is a demanding, intelligent film of considerable complexity and of sufficient seriousness to justify its 128-minute running time.

This is a standard-issue gross Hollywood knockabout comedy in which slapstick antics have been piled up with a steam shovel and driven home with a sledgehammer. Reynolds and Smart are game and even dimensional, but all others are stuck playing tiresome, obnoxious characters.

A rambling fat memoir about a soldier returning home to a Midwestern city, where his roughhouse, bravura ways tear the delicate social fabric apart, has lots of sleazy, low-life glamour on the screen. Scenarist John Patrick and director Vincente Minnelli made it work in this memorable 1959 film.

As writer as well as star, Dedio expresses passionate concern for the lost young souls of Lower Manhattan but by and large doesn't define his characters strongly enough to involve the viewer in their fates very deeply.

Lively, amusing collection of five films that take a wry look at being gay.

Undeniably a heart-tugger, but it is also a stirring affirmation of the rewards of a job well done.

As an exposé, there could hardly be a stronger case for ensuring and strengthening the separation of church and state -- or a stronger message to gay people as to the magnitude of the challenge to win equal rights.

Haneke illuminates beautifully the lives of his people with an eye for the revealing nuance and detail.

Starts encouragingly and finishes strongly with a twist, but the middle is weighed down by too much discourse when it should be visually evoking its ideas and developing its mood of unease.

Controlled Chaos unfortunately also reveals that Zendel's talents do not equal her ambitions.

Virtuosity is a sleek, brutal techno-thriller that generates nonstop action, but for at least some of us the fun is spoiled by its numbing body count and murky story line.

A splendid work that will be a revelation to the uninitiated and a joy to music lovers.

The plot is not absolutely airtight, but Craven's filmmaking is too fast-moving and too involving for this to matter. As a movie, Red-Eye is in every way as well crafted and sharply designed as the Boeing 767 Lisa fatefully boards.