Rene Rodriguez

Les Voleurs requires undivided attention and a willingness to let the storyteller tell the tale his way. But Techine proves he's worthy of your trust. [31 Jan 1997, p.4G]

The movie is small and familiar, but this time, those turn out to be strengths.

Simply too odd and unconventional to ever appeal to a broad audience, either at the multiplex or on home video.

Manages to turn an internal, solitary activity into fodder for an engaging, even exciting movie.

The Dance of Reality, which deserves a place along Amarcord as a fantastical take on coming of age, is the work of a wise and experienced old soul with the heart and curiosity of a young man in love with life.

This is a big, audacious stunt of a movie -- pointless, perhaps, but incredibly fun to play with.

For all its excitement Kung Fu Hustle is mostly a marvel of comedic ingenuity and mile-a-minute creativity run wild. You've never seen anything like it.

Gibney even convinced Armstrong to sit down for one final interview in May. In it, he comes off as somewhat contrite but also victimized, as if he were being single out for something everyone does.

Lee delivers a beautiful evocation of the American Dream in its simplest, purest form.

Expertly shot and choreographed in Eastwood’s clean, unfussy style, the Iraq sequences are taut, harrowing and at times excruciatingly suspenseful, particularly a setpiece in which Kyle faces off against his Iraqi counterpart, a superb sniper who has made it his mission to take down the American sharpshooter.

This is a movie best seen cold.

The enchanting A Walk in the Clouds glows in the luminous tones of a fondly remembered tale, like an old bit of nostalgia your grandfather might have recounted on a clear-skied summer night. It's sweet and decorous and familiar -- you'll be able to map out the plot 15 minutes into it -- but even that works in the movie's favor. It gives predictability a good name. [11 Aug 1995, p.5G]

A work of wonderfully sinister fantasy. Director Brad Silberling is always mindful of his kiddie audience -- the movie is never even remotely scary.

The graphic sex scenes radiate an uncommon heat, and Im can pull off a hugely effective shock when he wants to.

Although the premise sounds gimmicky, Rob the Mob is based on a true, incredible story, and the sense of mortal danger is palpable every time Thomas goes in to score some loot (these men were not to be trifled with).

Surprisingly effective, rousing entertainment, which boasts plenty of old-school, at times jaw-dropping stunt work done the manly way.

Here is an excellent crime thriller made with grown-ups in mind: Yep, it must definitely be fall.

Slight but extremely effective, and its characters so engaging that even the sad finale, which is not entirely unexpected or original, manages to pack surprising power.

Best of all, L'Auberge Espagnol uses Barcelona as a veritable character, a picturesque, vivacious place where, as one character puts it, ''No one eats before 10 p.m."

The film is sad in a beautiful, peaceful manner, and its exploration of mortality is different from most others, since the three central protagonists are all barely in their 30s.

An involving, sweetly touching love story, buoyed by Crowe's natural, poetic dialogue and his knack for writing characters (especially women) who feel like real people instead of plot devices.

Faster, leaner and more compact than the original. Dumber, too, but that's almost always the case with remakes.

The best artists - the ones whose work endures and matters and changes the world - are often troublemakers who challenge the status quo. Out of their defiance comes art. Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, director Alison Klayman's riveting documentary of the esteemed Chinese sculptor/painter/iconoclast, is practically a handbook on social rebellion.

Has the feverish intensity of a bad dream, leavened with a subversive sense of humor that is both sophisticated and cracked.

Ashes of Time Redux is primarily a sensory experience that deserves to be seen on as big a screen as possible.

The most suspenseful sequence of any movie I've seen this year comes near the end of Waiting for Superman.

The movie humanizes Tyson and brings him down to the land of mortals, making his achievements loom larger. And if the boxer hasn't entirely made peace with his troubled soul, Tyson suggests the struggle is going his way.

Handsome Harry has some shakily staged scenes and erratic acting, but it also has wonderful moments.

Like most of le Carré’s novel, A Most Wanted Man has a veracity most spy thrillers lack, and the suspense is of the intellectual, not visceral, kind.

The more you know about the 1912 tragedy, the more you will appreciate the sights of Ghosts of the Abyss.

A fat streak of melancholy courses throughout Young Adult - who would have guessed the sight of a Kentaco Hut, one of those one-stop conglomerations of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, could be this depressing?

There's a lot more at work in this raucously entertaining movie than cross-dressing clichés.

Strikes out toward freakishly original territory after all. Fans of the off-beat, your movie has arrived.

Although the movie doesn't exactly romanticize the period, the film still generates a twinge of pride in viewers who lived in South Florida during that time -- and lived to tell about it.

There's never any question how Rescue Dawn will end, but as conventional and straightforward as the movie is, it's easy to understand why Herzog was driven to tell this story twice.

The screenplay for 7 Boxes is a beautiful example of how to craft a tense and increasingly complex thriller out of a simple scenario.

Juno comes on all wisecracking and aren't-we-clever, but don't be surprised if you find yourself getting choked up -- with happy tears -- by the end.

The movie is a goofy, ridiculous blast, and yet Raimi means business: Even the precociously cute kitty isn't safe in this one.

Playful, effervescent comedy.

For all its doom and gloom, Revenge of the Sith turns out to have a happy ending after all, giving Star Wars the send-off it deserves.

By film's end, we're deep into Coen brothers territory, with an extra splash of Sam Raimi-level gore.

There's no question The Invasion works in a mechanical, by-the-numbers manner. But it's what the movie leaves you with -- absolutely nothing -- that is the scariest thing about it.

If nothing else, Startup.com is a pointed reminder that mixing business and friendship never, ever works.

Cruz, who has never been able to fully show what she's capable of as an actress in an English-language film, takes to the role of the dark-haired hellcat with a sexy, bewitching fury.

Go for Sisters is minor Sayles, and the movie occasionally meanders. But the characters stay with you, particularly Bernice and Fontayne, whose relationship is beautifully transformed over the course of the film.

The movie's emotional impact is undeniable. It's a devastating portrait of smart, civilized people driven to behave in uncivilized ways, until it's too late.

The wonderfully sad, exhilarating ending proves this filmmaker knew exactly where he was headed the entire time.

Heavenly Creatures uses its special effects ingeniously, and unlike Jackson's previous credits (the cult gorefests Dead Alive and Bad Taste), it's a movie with serious artistic ambitions. He immerses you in the heightened, giddy mindset of these two girls so completely, you can understand why they'd fight so ferociously to defend it. It's a strange, vivid movie, with moments that capture the texture of dreams -- and the fervor of teenage friendship and romance -- with thrilling precision. [9 Dec 1994, p.G5]

Its playful approach to chronology and voice-over narration serves to amplify its themes instead of coming off as a show-off trick.

The Box is a mess, but it's a curiously haunting, intriguing, brain-tickling mess, and it delivers that "Donnie Darko" feeling in truckloads. Or should that be rocketloads?

Achingly beautiful and visually transfixing, Samsara offers a transporting vacation from the usual multiplex fare. It's a movie to get lost in.

Engaging and enjoyable.

It's a simple message, and it's delivered with a grace and subtlety that's rare in would-be blockbusters.

It also leaves you pondering what you would have done if you had been one of the soldiers stationed there, fighting in an increasingly loony and surreal war. There but for the grace of God, and all that.

Django Unchained is the most brutal film Quentin Tarantino has ever made. Unlike "Kill Bill" or "Inglourious Basterds," where the violence was thrilling and carried a visceral kick, the carnage here is often ugly and difficult to watch.

All of Egoyan's movies have revolved around characters with damaged, fragile psyches, but rarely have they been illustrated as deftly -- and as gracefully -- as in Felicia's Journey.

Part of the reason The Amazing Spider-Man feels so fresh and invigorating is that its story is so simple - anyone remember exactly what the deal was with Loki and that cube? - and its protagonist so relatable.

Sometimes, love can feel like hate or annoyance — it is, as the title states, strange. But sometimes, more often than not, it can be a wonderful thing.

Mr. Fox's old-fashioned, hand-crafted animation is one of its main attractions. Another is Anderson's whimsical, dry humor, a natural for this tale of a crafty, dapper fox.

It is a testament to how well the movie is made that even the most hardened viewer might find himself tearing up at moments -- and you won't have to hate yourself in the morning.

A ferociously entertaining and mean little horror movie that achieves the kind of outrageous vibe best enjoyed in a crowded, noisy theater.

Serves as a beautiful and delicate reminder of the myriad ways in which life is lived on this huge planet of ours.

If Close-Up is not much to look at, it certainly enthralls the mind. [09 Feb 1996, p.16G]

Take Shelter is paced slowly and deliberately, which is necessary to make believable whatever is tormenting Curtis.

A wobbly enterprise saddled by stilted dialogue and convenient contrivances. But view it as a Woody Allen film, and the plot thickens.

Essentially a horror movie for kids, but it is also gentle and funny and whimsical, and even in its darkest moments, Selick never forgets who his target audience is. Still, some young children might have a nightmare or two after seeing it.

Reveals yet another facet of this always-unpredictable filmmaker: a flair for compassionate, humane melodrama.

Wreck-It-Ralph is a gorgeously rendered story that will play just as well to children as to their parents, albeit for different reasons. Playstation and Xbox junkies will be equally pleased.

Regardless of its veracity, this portrait of a drug-addled star who just wants to express himself artistically contains implications that exceed the filmmakers' intentions.

Although Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work is unmistakably a fawning love letter to an amazing performer, its subject proves to be her sharpest, bluntest critic.

This glitzy, infectious and unusually heartfelt musical doesn't always hang together as a satisfying narrative -- too many characters compete for too little screen time -- but its pleasures are numerous enough to override its flaws.

Fast, wacky and bubbling with passion or dark, troubled and doomed. In the unusually titled crazy/beautiful, it's all those things at once.

The movie earns its tension and suspense the old-fashioned way: By making you care about its characters.

What makes Master and Commander so bracing and transporting -- what makes the movie feel unlike any adventure film you've seen before -- is the precise detail and care with which Weir places us aboard the HMS Surprise.

Director Pablo Trapero ( Lion's Den), like so many contemporary Argentine filmmakers, reserves the bulk of his wrath for a country whose authorities and judicial systems have been so grossly corrupt there appears to be no way of correcting them.

Shows us a man who not only derives great pleasure from devoting himself to his job but also, in the process, has helped shaped the greatest city in the world.

Fiendishly tricky contraption.

Ebullient, joyous film.

Has the sort of richness and dimension that are the hallmarks of master storytellers at work.

War may set the stage for Strayed, but the film's real focus is something much quieter and internal: People caught in the throes of a transformation that is not of their making and struggling to adapt.

Big and fast and silly, but it's never dumb, and it's certainly never boring, either. The summer movie onslaught has begun on a high note.

What Bloody Sunday lacks in clarity, it makes up for with a great, fiery passion.

This is the most impressive directorial debut since"Reservoir Dogs." Being John Malkovich is weird, all right-- the best kind of weird, the kind you haven't seen before.

Nothing about Leap Year plays out exactly like you expect, and Rowe prefers to send you home with enigmatic questions instead of clear-cut answers. You may not fully understand Laura, but chances are you won't be able to forget her.

Writer-director Stephane Robelin's frothy comedy is much more "Golden Girls" hijinks than "On Golden Pond."

Even for a sport already filled with horrific accidents and tales of unlikely survival, the mountain-climbing nightmare told in Touching the Void is astonishing.

The movie's power sneaks up on you, reminiscent of something screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond once famously described as "the Billy Wilder touch": A combination of the sweet and the sour, because even funny people, like you and I, aren't always being funny.

Unfortunately, Life After Beth starts feeling more conventional the wilder and darker it gets, and the laughs become more sparse as the movie winds to its bizarre and but unsatisfying conclusion.

Streep is simply amazing to behold, an actress who invests every fiber of her being -- every gesture, every inflection, every strand of hair -- into her performance.

Where Traffic stumbles is in its inability to engage the heart with the same fervor it engages the intellect.

Cynics may roll their eyes at Hardball's earnestness, but the movie proves even the most conventional stories can move and engage you, provided they're told well.

Director James Ponsoldt, who co-wrote the script with Susan Burke (inspired in part by her own experiences), opts for realism and modesty instead of sensation.

But there is so much information to process in The Big Short that only hedge fund managers and stock brokers will be able to track every nuance and shading of this complicated story.

Considering the seedy nature of the adult film industry and the sad fates of many of its stars, Inside Deep Throat is surprisingly light on tragedy.

But for all the duplicitous minds playing games with each other on the screen, Nine Queens' best con artist turns out to be Bielinsky himself -- and his target is the audience.

There's too much caution and not enough lust.

The amount of information the viewer is asked to process is voluminous and never stops coming.

Even frothier and more frivolous than the first movie: It's a heist picture so laid-back and unconcerned, even the heist feels like an afterthought.

Passably interesting, occasionally riveting and largely superfluous. But it's certainly a worthwhile curiosity, and it's not what anyone expected. At the movies these days, that alone is worth something.

The weirdest movie of the summer. OK, the year.

The movie is at its best when it flirts with becoming a meta-sequel — a film whose characters know they’ve been in a movie called “Trainspotting.”

By the end of Breach, we never come to fully understand Hanssen -- who could? -- but Cooper's beguiling performance and his tense cat-and-mouse games with Phillippe help bring an extra layer of entertainment to this otherwise rote thriller.

As light and fluffy as it is, Return to Me still proves surprisingly inviting.

This lavish, spectacular reworking of director Desmond Davis' beloved 1981 original is the rare sort of remake that actually makes sense: With all due respect (and copious apologies) to the generation that grew up with the first film, Clash of the Titans just wasn't very good.

The Homesman, director Tommy Lee Jones’ drama about the hardships of pioneer life in 1850s Nebraska, goes from deathly dull to shocking to intriguing to “Look, there’s Meryl Streep in a bonnet!”

It's not much, but it isn't awful, either, provided you're interested in this sort of thing to begin with.

Openly embraces its noir roots, right down to the femme fatale (Connie Nielsen) who strikes a Lauren Bacall-ish pose in an open doorway and whose eyes are lit by a horizontal slant of light.

The movie's second half, which grows progressively sadder, also starts to feel a bit repetitive.

There are precious few moments in Elf when Ferrell doesn't manage to at least get a smile out of you. Considering how cloying the movie might have turned out without him, that's a huge gift all its own.

All about watching Jaa.

If its dark heart had won out to the very end, The Ref could have been a minor classic. But it's a hilarious antidote to heartwarming holiday films -- and has some of the cruelest humor of any comedy in quite some time. [11 Mar 1994, p.G5]

Leatherheads goes on a good 20 minutes too long, and there's very little in it that makes a lasting impression, but it's easy to watch while it's unspooling -- much like, you know, a lot of Cary Grant comedies.

Instead of leaving you lamenting the lack of creativity and originality in the film industry, this modest, playful thriller puts you in a forgiving mood.

The best moments in Matchstick Men belong to Cage and Lohman, who, in "Paper Moon" fashion, prove that the family that cons together, laughs together.

Once you get past its intriguing title, What's Eating Gilbert Grape turns out to be a plain if beautifully photographed slice-of-life drama decked in eccentric garb. Beneath its veneer of oddball characters, it's a rather simple, essentially bloodless tale about life in Endora, Iowa, a tiny dead-end town. [4 March 1994, p.G4]

Unfortunately, Ghobadi doesn't trust his film to convey the message that has already been clearly and entertainingly spelled out, and No One Knows About Persian Cats ends on a sudden note of tragedy that almost ruins the exuberant spirit of everything that has preceded it.

Cars is certainly watchable, and there's always some amusing bit of business happening at the edges of the frame.

The film also plays to the strengths of the found-footage format, proving that sometimes the scariest things are the ones you can barely see. For horror hounds, this is required viewing.

A high tolerance for syrupy melodrama is required in order to enjoy Together.

We never get much insight into this rather mysterious composer, a difficult task but one the movie seems to promise. [04 Feb 1994, p.G21]

The film is not so much suspenseful as intriguing.

Has that formulaic, cookie-cutter feel typical of many Disney toons. The premise is inspired, but the follow-through is merely adequate.

For the farce it so desperately wants to be, the film often feels slack and too reliant on so-so punch lines for laughs.

Worth seeing for Dafoe's performance alone, a singular mixture of camp and pathos that echoes the tragic, romantic allure of vampires in literature and film.

When Mulholland Falls should reverberate with complexity, it simply echoes other movies. It's a glossy tribute to film noir, not a memorable entry in the genre. It's too simple-minded, yet it leaves a heap of questions unanswered. [26 Apr 1996, p.5G]

Whatever faults Avatar may have -- and there are many -- the movie succeeds in immersing you in a photorealistic, painstakingly detailed world more fully than any science fiction movie before.

Rocky Balboa is far from essential, and there are moments in it bad enough to make you wince. But I dare you not to feel at least a tiny little rush when that opening bell rings, and Rocky starts swinging one final time.

It's the summer's most avant-garde experiment, and those who hate it (and there will be plenty) will complain the movie doesn't have a point. Then again, neither did Seinfeld, and look how that turned out.

Populated by all kinds of grinning skeletons and decomposing zombies, but in Burton's universe, they aren't the slightest bit threatening. It's the drab, flesh-and-blood living you have to worry about.

Marvel Studios will only be able to draw from this well only so many times, though, before fatigue sets in.

My Cousin Vinny is not without its flaws: The movie is overlong, the middle section sags, and there are a couple of running gags that simply aren't very funny. And while the film's courtroom climax is preposterous, the last half hour is definitely worth sticking around for: Pesci makes it a hoot. [13 Mar 1992, p.8]

Despite the lack of substance, Run All Night is far better than those clunky "Taken" movies with their timid PG-13 ratings. If you’re gonna cut Neeson loose against the mob, a bloody R is the way to go.

Unlike "Jaws," Open Water isn't much for traditional popcorn-movie scares. Instead, the movie is more interested in depicting the gradual deterioration of its protagonists' sanity, and how that affects their relationship.

Certainly pleasant, but it's also a bit safe.

Boiler Room's behind-the-scenes veracity makes it highly compelling.

If you're interested in the sheer craft of filmmaking, Cloud Atlas is required viewing - a rare example of a movie getting by entirely on technique and creative bravado.

The overriding tone of A Mighty Heart is neither indignant nor sentimental: The film is consistently cool, almost to a fault.

Bergman can't bring individual scenes together into a collective whole, and the ending (which was reshot at the last minute) closes things on a disappointingly limp note. [28 Jun 1996, p.5G]

The script, which Harron co-wrote with Guinevere Turner, presents a disappointingly superficial portrait of Page as a person.

For all its charms, sometimes feels as self-obsessed as the characters it slyly mocks.

The script was kept under unusually tight wraps during filming, but the biggest surprise in the picture is how talky the whole enterprise is. Particularly deadly is a long stretch in mid-film where the heroes walk through caves, talk about what they're seeing, get captured and talk with their captors, escape and talk some more.

Eclipse, like its two predecessors, is ham-fisted and obvious, a mass-market entertainment with a frustrating lack of imagination.

Beowulf is many things, but boring isn't one of them.

Baadasssss! is best taken as an examination of filmmaking itself.

Slowly loses its grip, becoming just another story about infidelity, albeit an exceptionally polished, well-acted one.

Think of The Truth About Charlie as a Parisian getaway that happens to have a movie percolating in the background.

A lot of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One feels like slushy set-up for the climactic all-out battle due in theaters next summer. The movie doesn't even give us the expected cliffhanger ending, although I'd be lying if I said I'm not eager to see how everything turns out.

But if the film disappoints on an intellectual level, at least it doesn't skimp on pageantry. This is, without question, one of the most beautifully crafted, visually thrilling war pictures ever made -- a painterly spectacle that leaves you looking for Caravaggio's name in the end credits.

The picture may feel more than a little familiar, but Ayer knows how to cook up intense setpieces, and Reeves keeps getting better at the weary hero role he continually gravitates toward.

A coming-of-age film you've seen before. [20 Oct 1995, p.8G]

What O lacks is a sense of spontaneity: Despite its contemporary dialogue and manner, the movie can't overcome a nagging aura of artifice.

Often feels like a cartoon that wishes it were live action.

These two fine, talented actors share a fatal lack of chemistry together, and it's a flaw this grandly ambitious movie cannot overcome.

Washes over you with an enjoyable gloss, and it might even make you cry a little, but it evaporates in memory like fairy dust.

Unless you're the sort who has a Che Guevara T-shirt tucked away somewhere in your closet, the needlessly long The Edukators wears out its welcome.

Cleaner, cuter animal antics.

It's impossible not to shake the feeling that we've been here before, and the movie never does convince you that a return trip was entirely necessary.

Often makes for a compelling comedy-drama about family ties. It's only when the cancer takes center stage that the movie feels like a wash.

It's a testament to their performances -- and the spirit of this surprisingly raunchy, decidedly R-rated comedy -- that by the end credits, you've grown to like them a little bit. You just wouldn't want to live with them.

There's a mean little Hollywood satire squirreled away within Hollywood Ending, but you have to look hard to find it.

The Nice Guys never lives up to the promise of its hilarious first 10 minutes, but Crowe and Gosling are good enough to leave you hoping for a sequel.

Befitting a story about marriage, adultery and murder, all the characters in Married Life are constantly lying to each other. Sometimes they even lie to the audience.

Turns out to be far more interesting for grown-ups (the movie is probably too long, and too much, for little kids anyway).

Down in the Valley becomes increasingly harder to believe as it goes along, with people behaving in ways that strain credibility.

For those who can tough it out -- and not everyone will -- Hunger is a searing experience. Just don't expect to have much of an appetite when it's over.

If not exactly epic, the movie is certainly the biggest and most complex of Rodriguez's Mariachi trilogy, which began in "El Mariachi" and continued in "Desperado."

Ferrell's shtick never grows tiresome, because it's constantly changing.

Alice in Wonderland is curiously devoid of metaphors and allegories about a young woman on the cusp of adulthood, about to be engaged by arrangement to a loathsome toad of a man she can barely stomach. The lack of psychological subtext is hugely disappointing.

There's very little in The Chorus you haven't seen before, but the movie's depth of sentiment -- especially its profound humanism -- makes it worth experiencing again.

Despite its flaws, Sleepy Hollow stays with you, the dark beauty of its images powerful enough to invade your dreams.

For a movie whose characters are so preoccupied with immortality, Troy is curiously forgettable.

Doesn't quite avoid the pitfalls of its genre, but at least the movie has the decency to make you laugh on its way to a foregone conclusion. Also, did I mention the sex?

Certainly diverting and, in Thurman, it also has a knockout of a performance.

Costner does things he hasn't done in years: He's funny and playful; he laughs and cracks jokes; and he doesn't look like he's carrying the weight of the universe on his shoulders.

The plot lines all eventually fold into one another to form a well-rounded picture of a family struggling to gain a foothold in a foreign culture, though writer-director Miguel Arteta settles for a disappointingly conventional finale. Still, Star Maps has enough poetic grit and offbeat, unexpected humor to make Arteta a director worth watching. [22 Aug 1997, p.9G]

14-year-old Noah Fleiss gives a performance that's every bit as astonishing as Haley Joel Osment's work in "The Sixth Sense."

Steve Jobs, which by many accounts plays loose with the facts, is at its weakest when it tries to humanize its protagonist.

The movie, while no big deal, makes for much more entertaining viewing than other highly touted vehicles currently fighting for your moviegoing dollars. [25 Apr 1994, p.C2]

At least the special effects in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen are remarkable: You never tire of the endless variations of robots Bay and his computer-generated effects crew come up with.

The Cable Guy might not please fans looking only for Carrey's usual shtick, but from here, it looks like a step toward adulthood. [14 June 1996, p.5G]

As absorbing as much of it is, Unbreakable winds up as a mild disappointment. But it leaves no question the hype around Shyamalan is well-deserved: This guy has a huge career ahead of him.

The movie, elegantly shot by Rodrigo Prieto, is sleek and brisk, using split-screens and graphics to help uninformed viewers grasp the basics of the corporate shenanigans the characters pull on each other.

A perfectly adequate horror romp, but it's hard to imagine anyone remembering it five years from now.

Enjoyably preposterous, old-guys-are-cool-too plot.

We Were Soldiers feels strangely irrelevant -- a well-acted, well-crafted and inconsequential visit to woefully familiar territory.

Amid such a strong cast hitting all the right notes, Caruso looks wan, though he's not bad enough to sink the movie. [21 Apr 1995, p.5G]

Owing to a supremely engaging cast, The Client turns out to be stand-up Hollywood entertainment. Grisham's uninspired storyline can't ruin the efforts of two of the industry's best actors at the top of their form. [20 July 1994, p.E2]

The frustratingly uneven comedy Tropic Thunder has moments of full-on, bust-a-gut hilarity, along with long stretches where you can hear the crickets chirping in the theater.

The movie is all surface and trades on fortune-cookie wisdom.

This is an eerie, inventively mounted movie: It's a shivery fun time, filled with dark corners, deserted hallways and sudden apparitions. But it never manages to genuinely rattle you.

The most daring thing about Adam, the story of a young man with Asperger's syndrome, is that there isn't a scene in which someone stops to explain exactly what Asperger's IS.

Bandits isn't much more than a pleasant dawdle, one made extra-likable by Thornton and Blanchett, whose ace performances keep the film zipping along even at its most predictable.

The movie is a bauble, but it's an enjoyably weird and original one, and it is anchored by Black's constantly amusing performance.

If Dreamcatcher ultimately feels like an unwieldy pastiche, at least it's never boring.

It's an understatement to say that The Ring is not your ordinary horror film. And never forget to rewind.

Parkland is wildly uneven, although compulsively watchable.

Intrigues mainly for its spare style and brittle, sweat-soaked performances.

Fast Food Nation would have benefited from a longer running time -- the movie often feels like it's missing big chunks of plot -- but Linklater's cautionary message gets through.

Generic but breezily entertaining.

It makes the predictable journey surprisingly fun and enjoyable.

Even if you don't buy the ending, however, High Tension makes for ghoulish, sick fun, and Aja, who is already at work on a remake of Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes, clearly takes this horror stuff very seriously. The genre can always use a few more like him.

In Exodus: Gods and Kings, Scott settles for sticking (mostly) to the Book, skipping the boring parts in order to dish out the razzle-dazzle. This is spectacular entertainment, practically a theme park ride, that could have used more spirituality and soul.

The first half of the movie, which alternates between hilariously vulgar, gross gags and some electric improvs and riffs by Rock and his cast of all-stars, has the crackle and pop of a live performance — it energizes you.

The Ruins is, with one major caveat, about as good an adaptation of Scott Smith's bestselling novel as Hollywood was ever going to make.

There's never a question which side the movie is rooting for during the trial, and the light tone trivializes what might have been a much more intriguing exploration of the American legal system.

Unlike much of Roberts' previous work, it's a movie about characters, not high concept, and it requires her to do more than make cute faces and flash her dazzling grin. [4 Aug 1995, p.4G]

Even though Howard captures the texture, the personalities, and the often-breakneck pace of a big city newsroom, the movie feels oddly light and feathery. In its last third, it briefly threatens to become a biting dark satire before settling on a disappointingly conventional path. Still, there's an awful lot of star power at work here, some of it hard to resist. The Paper is old-fashioned Hollywood entertainment: flashy, breezy, and not at all challenging. [25 March 1994, p.5]

Plot? There is no plot. You want plot, go read "War and Peace."

Sporadically engrossing in a pulpy kind of way.

Lee Daniels’ The Butler is creaky and sentimental and schmaltzy. The movie lacks any of the unhinged qualities of Daniels’ previous films (The Paperboy, Precious, Shadowboxer).

Makes for a compelling comedy-drama about family ties. It's only when the cancer takes center stage that the movie feels like a wash.

It's all amiably hackneyed, but it sucks you in anyway.

Does more than pay lip service to its subtexts.

Seductive, ultimately frustrating.

The work of a talented filmmaker coasting on his own fumes.

This cold, generally soulless movie does feel like it was made by people who are taking themselves way too seriously. Remember the delicious anticipation you felt when The Empire Strikes Back was over? You won't feel that way when The Matrix Reloaded reaches its cliffhanger finale. You'll just feel relief.

If The Tailor of Panama doesn't quite gel, the attempt is still worth savoring.

A surprisingly ambitious entry into a genre that felt bankrupt and over more than a decade ago.

Vol. 2 isn't exactly disappointing, and like all of Tarantino's movies, I suspect it will improve with repeated viewings. But for now, Vol. 2 leaves you pondering what could have been.

For all its tangle of characters and plot twists, Van Helsing isn't the slightest bit involving, and more than once (especially whenever Beckinsale is onscreen), it is unintentionally hilarious. But it's the rare kind of movie where the badness just adds to the fun.

After starring in a string of heavy dramas, Andy Garcia lightens up and goes for the funny in City Island, a breezy comedy that fits the actor like a güayabera.

There's also something to be said for a movie that's content with telling a simple yarn, and telling it well.

Isn't exactly memorable, and as far as its prison setting goes, it has nothing on HBO's infinitely more brutal "Oz." But as late-summer time killers go, you could do worse.

Untamed Heart veers into the contrived and the schmaltzy too often to really work the way it wants to. But Tomei and Slater rise above the material. It's their characters, and their unique, touching relationship, that you'll remember. [15 Feb 1993, p.C3]

And unlike other recent dramas such as "Rendition," the film never feels like it's preaching. Instead, it just urges: Whatever you believe, do something.

Dark, nasty fun that gets better when you play it over in your head. But the plot holes seem even larger in hindsight, too. Just tamp down those expectations, then tamp them down some more.

The dialogue is sparse but well used -- it's refreshing to see a movie where people don't feel compelled to talk all the time.

No, it’s not all that sophisticated. But compared to glib junk like Zoolander 2, The Brothers Grimsby is practically high art. Unlike Ben Stiller, at least Cohen is trying.

It's a mean little movie, but it's also thin and repetitive, a premise in search of a story.

The movie earns its R-rating with some graphic (and hilarious) sex scenes and a torrent of four-letter words, but this is a much more sophisticated enterprise than a mere gross-out comedy.

As a story, Mamma Mia! is a sham, a narrative so rickety it makes "Grease" seem like Shakespeare. It fails as a musical, too, since only about half of the songs have any bearing on the scene that preceded them.

Buoyed by strong performances from Perez and Miami-resident Milian, Washington Heights overcomes the familiarity of its premise through its passion and conviction.

This is minor Disney at best, forgettable at worst.

Himalaya doesn't need a traditional story line to transport the viewer into another, fascinating world.

Carries a whiff of disappointment: There's little here Mamet hasn't done before, and done better.

Isn't exactly original: This is basically "Heathers" for a new generation, its satirical edges dulled, if still sharp enough to sting.

But even if the film is short on analysis and skepticism, Tammy makes for a fascinating subject anyway.

Hysteria never gets too preachy or ponderous, and there's something in the film to educate even the most learned viewer.

Grim stuff, filled with great sorrow and tragedy, but it's never maudlin or weepy.

She (Blanchett) single-handedly forms the human heart of this engrossing, if ultimately preposterous, supernatural thriller.

Although never boring and almost continually amusing, Extract doesn't work as a movie because you don't buy a minute of it, even as silly satire.

The genius of a feature film based on the 1980s TV series is that it can't help but exceed expectations that are so low to begin with.

As filler for the long, dry winter movie season, the movie is more than passable, and its sense of humor has a wicked, unforgiving spin that is decidedly pro-rodent.

Traitor is "Syriana" for dummies, a globe-hopping, multi-character look at the war between America and Islamic terrorists that keeps things as relatively simple as an episode of 24. Not that there's anything wrong with that: 24 is a really good show. But it doesn't pretend to be something it's not, either.

As far as its plot mechanics go, The Brave One belongs to the hallowed (if less-than-respectable) genre of exploitative revenge pictures.

More than once during A Scanner Darkly, you find yourself wishing these characters would just shut up.

The movie doesn't make you care.

This is a theme tailor-made for Burton, although there are times in the movie when it feels like he's not taking enough advantage of it.

Fallen may not scare you, but it'll certainly haunt you. [16 Jan 1998, p.4G]

The scale of Finding Dory is bigger than that of "Finding Nemo," but I started missing the smaller, more intimate excitement of the fishing tank inside the dentist’s office in Nemo.

There are moments of heartbreaking beauty in it – although Dolan is still a work in progress. He'll get better – he's immensely talented – but he's not quite there yet.

What Alexander lacks in narrative clarity, it makes up for with pomp and pageantry.

Nine Months displays its Capraesque family values with pride, and it will make you laugh, but there's something oddly mechanical about it -- much like Grant himself. Whether or not the actor lives up to his own hype remains to be seen, but judging from Nine Months, his fame has begun to dwarf his talent. [12 July 1995, p.1E]

It's a brutal, merciless, somber picture, utterly devoid of the heart-tugging sentimentality that always creeps into even his best films.

As a whole, it's a bit of a mess, the work of bratty geniuses with talent to spare, but unsure of what -- if anything -- they're trying to say.

Likable but uneven comedy by writer-directors Glenn Ficara and John Requa (Bad Santa).

The Little Rascals is nowhere near as annoying as it could have been -- you will actually catch yourself laughing in spots -- and the tykes will love it. [05 Aug 1994, p.G5]