Robert Horton

A collection of movie situations, recognizable from the films of Coppola and Scorsese, with a less obvious debt to Kazan.

I'm not even sure the movie makes sense at times, yet Campion's offbeat rhythms and eye for startling images always made me happy to be looking at the screen.

An acerbically comic fable.

More complicated, more outrageous, less controlled in every way. But its owes its power to that earlier, greater film.

Enough well-conceived jokes that the whole thing works very nicely.

Scott Thomas and Penn finally develop a bit of unlikely chemistry, aided by the Hitchcockian atmosphere. I found myself rooting for these foolish, pampered, naïve people, and rooting for the movie as well.

A small, scruffy, but agreeably energized comedy.

This mild but amusing comedy wasn't written by Levinson, and the accents may be different, but the feel is similar.

It's like one of the baker's cakes, handsomely rendered on the outside but lacking flavor.

Feels more like a backyard relaxation than a movie.

A truly stunning technical experiment.

The result is fantasy that wafts away.

The story of Groove... provides an ingratiating road map to a cultural phenomenon. Just make sure you drink lots of water while you're there.

A difficult time rising above the level of a reasonably nice TV-movie.

Edward Norton, who created a buzz of excitement in his first year in movies, stubs his toe with Worm... It's the same guy we've seen in countless mean streets pictures, but Norton doesn't find anything new to do with him. He's Ratso Rizzo defanged.

Exemplifies the subpar state of movies today.

Does a lot of little stuff right, and it sparkles at times.

There's no way out of the excruciating melodrama, and the film withers in its trap.

Something rare: a mess of a movie that is somehow infectious, and infectious not despite the mess, but because of it.

There isn't a sensible reason to recommend this movie, except that its melange of clichés and conventions is embarrassingly enjoyable.

A very silly film.

This impeccable ghost story is utterly old-fashioned, a straightforward suspenser with no twists.

Computer technology may be the actual phantom menace, after all.

Eventually fizzles out badly.

The movie itself gets scattered.

Hughley and Jones have an explosively comic chemistry together; her kooky, open-faced looks are a counterpoint to his whipcrack improvisations.

Charlize Theron has charm and skill, but no actress could survive this role, which has the gravity and verisimilitude of a sketch from a late-sixties Nancy Sinatra TV special.

There's very little here that rises above the level of a competent straight-to-video picture, except that whenever Paul Newman and Linda Fiorentino are onscreen together they create something special.