Kim Morgan

The dialogue is clipped and theatrical, and, aside from Harvey Keitel's German officer, accents are abandoned, which may distract viewers. For me it worked fine.

It's a stylish work, seeping with brilliant animation and potentially interesting characters that didn't need so much time to establish themselves. It's worthwhile, but it's a good thing there's a television show to refer to.

Singleton just may be challenging us to laugh at the film or with it and then feel extremely uneasy for doing so. If so, that's admirable; if not, he's made a very strange soap opera.

Eventually becomes tedious.

Gives just enough to forgive any of its initial flaws and eventually grows on you.

While breezy and fun, the film is also flimsy and sloppy in style and content.

The script is atypically bland for Heckerling.

Though The Hard Word feels flimsy at times, its breeziness and humor, along with Pearce's performance, make it infinitely more amusing than it's got any right to be. You get the feeling that these actors had fun making this film, and that fun is contagious.

The film is weighed down by the decision of director David Atkins to throw too much into the mix. The result is a serious problem of consistency.

A sweet, loopy British comedy filled with good actors and funny moments.

Crowe understands what's interesting about Nash: He's not a feel-good figure. It's a pity the same can't be said for Howard.

The story sounds horrifying, but the film takes some unfortunate twists and never presents us with a multifaceted character in Paxton. Paxton just doesn't play the nice-but-nuts role with a modicum of terror.

Though not terrible, and blessed with some nice performances, this Irish-eyes-are-smiling-despite-the-rain-and-nasty-nuns story is Hallmark Hall of Fame material.

Really, we'd rather just watch a good documentary about the subject. And as the camera flings around, we occasionally forget about what could help the teens and think more about what could help the director: How about a tripod?

A flawed fable but an intriguing one nonetheless. It's "Splash" gone existential. How many films can you name like that?

Pablo Berger's subtle satire Torremolinos 73 is almost there. Almost.

A tepid disappointment that contains one mediocre chase scene and a lot of wasted talent.

This film might've worked better as a comedy.

Too sugary to be funny or offensive or even offensively funny, though any kind of funny would be welcome here.

Understated fun, but not much more.

This film disappointingly feels like a sometimes brilliantly acted, often gorgeously filmed re-enactment of the television show "Unsolved Mysteries."

Two-thirds of the way through, it falls apart into TV-movie-of-the-week land, even with the rhapsodic Nastassja Kinski in the lead.

With little cohesion and no respect for the editing process, Old School often feels like someone threw film clips on the floor and strung them together willy-nilly.

Though the acting in "Sidewalks" is uniformly fine, particularly among the female cast, it's hard to glimpse any meaningful vision, sly insights or cinematic flair.

Another Bond film that turns out to be an unspectacular spectacle, at times winking and fun but too often plodding and hackneyed. That said, as usual Brosnan is terrific, walking through dunderhead moments and a tedious plot with grace.

An unfortunate example of a small picture that feels small.

If you've recently watched that great skateboarding documentary "Dogtown and Z-Boys," Grind will play like a soft-pedaled Afterschool Special.

A slight, smartly dressed bit of melodrama that thinks it's gritty when it's really a bit of puff.