Ron Wells

Does for psychedelics what "Boogie Nights" does for cocaine; displaying in graphical detail the ultimate failure of drugs as an escape route.

Garofalo is amazing, as always, and the film is almost about her as much as the leads. The recreation of the casts' high school years is wickedly funny and dead on.

Best of all, Robert Downey Jr., as Rick's seedy private eye provides a little comic relief at his own expense.

Hey, I'm not saying it's bad. It's kind of entertaining, what I can recall of it after two days. It's, uh, okay. Just okay, though.

Lee gives us cross-section of characters, almost none of whom escape the summer unchanged.

The title refers to your expected condition when you see this movie. Oh well. It'll be HUGE on video.

I completely dreaded sitting through this movie...Two-hour purgatory.

At least the 20 people who saw it with me -- found it hysterically funny. On the other hand, they all seemed pretty stoned.

At least the studio hired enough likable scene-stealing actors and comedians to carry the bloated carcass of this film over the course of two hours.

The stars have zero chemistry and the movie is none too thrilling.

After half a century, does the story hold up? Eh, pretty much. In the end, the story doesn't really matter that much as this is really a vehicle for the amazing visuals.

As always, Don Cheadle is fantastic, but the film belongs to Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Aside from all the known material on public record the filmmakers chose not to use, Howard isn't even capable of believably bringing this off.

David Schwimmer, our whiny friend, is used to good effect as Heche's boyfriend.

It's a harsh lesson, but this movie is more than able to grab and hold your attention for it. I just wouldn't bring a date.

The best thing about a movie like this is I never have to see it again.

Gallo transcends the medium in a manner I only associate with David Lynch. It's brilliantly spooky.

In the end, the whole shebang comes off like a bunch of snotty, rich white kids screwing each other and screwing each other over.

Quentin actually made a REAL movie, with believable characters and performances, rather than just repositories for clever dialog.

Unfortunately, the script is a light romantic comedy and unwilling to go the extra distance to really make it stick.

Scorcese has made one of his best and most personal films...Kundun is also mercifully free of white teachers or saviors, such as, oh, say, Brad Pitt?

A very funny and painfully relevant two hours of entertainment.

This is a big, silly film. Is it full of explosions and one-liners? Of course. Is it entertaining? Of course.

World Traveler did seem completely aimless for the first third. However, once I comprehended where Freundlich was going with this, I began to really enjoy where the film was taking me.

This is a family film. There's a great deal of wackiness.

While we do get a bit of gore, the movie is really about this wacky bunch of people jumping on each other's nerves, kind of a zany hero's journey.

Some of the acting may not be the best and many of the points aren't made with a soft touch, but damn, I can't think of another film about addiction with a more accurate view from the inside.

Clooney has finally made a GOOD movie.

The portrait drawn by this film is of a man loved and/or respected by nearly all that have known him.

I don't want to say any more about the plot, it's just too much sick fun.

Probably the best comment I could give it is that after sitting through the first two and 1/2 hours, I would have happily sat through another five. How long am I going to have to wait for that DVD Box Set?

OK, the premise may be a little hard to take, but there's plenty of good writing here, anyway.

One warning however: James Caan's shoulder hair, when seen on this size screen, may frighten children considerably (you'll at least want to discuss it openly after the show, answering any questions your kids may have in an honest and direct manner).

Sometimes the movie can't decide whether to tug REALLY HARD at the heart strings, or make you laugh at the zany oil riggers.

Despite some brief nudity and much swearing, the whole endeavor feels like some sort of half-assed Christian "Adventures in Faith" story I might have endured in Sunday school.

Now the big question: Does this whole thing actually work? Some of the time.

Much of the animation is stunning and all of the vocal performances are good to great. It's just much of the passion seems to be in not stepping on anyone's beliefs or interpretations, instead of in telling the story in the most compelling way possible.

BRILLIANT and WITTY. Those are two words that will not be used to described this film.

I'm going to beat my head into a wall until I relieve myself of the memory of this film that was, well, retarded.

Remember when John Hughes made small, original, oh say, GOOD movies?

Rips out at least one dimension to reduce everything to archetypal good guys and bad guys, or bad guy and worse guys.

It looks like Williamson threw five old scripts in the air and Rodriguez shot the first 90 pages he picked up. I'd like a little more meat on my burger because all I can taste is the cheese.

The stunts are great but they make sense and don't blow the sense of reality of the whole movie.

I'll just say to anyone lamenting the state of American cinema since the 1970s, if you're curious where the next generation of auteurs is coming from, look in the art houses and look in The Matrix.

Hot Damn! A full-on gory (relatively) unpretensious horror movie!... Far better than it has any right to be.

If distinctly uneven CGI, minimal originality and overly convenient plot devices turn you off, this may not be your film.

Of all the teen films released this year, this one is, by far, the best.

They should have produced this in 3D for IMAX as Metropolis is the kind of work destined to blow the minds of stoners everywhere.

The biggest thing wrong with this mess is its whole attitude. The film tries to condemn all these shocking things, but if you're not shocked, just wait a couple of minutes and they'll try again.

The movie doesn't stink. The performances are good, potentially great, especially Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates.

The final result becomes a search not for a knight in shining armor, but one of acceptance for one's own identity.

I saw this movie in a room full of San Francisco movie critics, and I haven't heard that much laughter since, well, the piano duet in "Island of Dr. Moreau" (which you must admit, was pretty funny.)

A great film and an important one.

A stupid summer movie.

It's too bad with all of the poker action there wasn't enough time to establish the relationships between characters.

It comes off as an amalgam of everything that was cool in 1996, when we first saw the trailer.

Jackson gives an amazing, nuanced performance as he teeters on the edge of paranoia. Spacey gives a great, toned-down show as I guy who's in over his head trying to find out what the hell is going on.

This masterpiece started out at around three stars, but after the credits, it just got sillier and more lurid.

While bearing many similarities to Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream in look and theme, the film covers Maddin’s traditional themes of failed romance. While much brighter than his other films, if you like Maddin’s other works, you’ll probably dig this. If you don’t, this film will not convert you to the cause.

Aside from the pesky problems of tone and lazy writing, the whole move is a little choppy.

It is not quite as stupid as it looks. I'm not saying it ISN'T dumb, though, just not as bad as I think even the studio thought.

This movie best exploits the strengths of the show as well, such as the chemistry among the cast.

I've never been a fan, but in the space of a couple hours the Woodster gives both an explanation AND the finger to ALL of his critics. This is mean-spirited fun, just the way we like it!

The audience will respond better to ENTERTAINMENT than a club to the head.

The fourth best virtual reality film of 1999. The best is "The Matrix". The second best is "eXistenZ". The third best, well, there's got to be something better than this.

Oh, boy. This is not unlike watching one of the movies Jerry Lewis made after that concentration camp/clown epic nearly destroyed his career and his mind.

It's a little frightening to watch Hawn be "bubbly" at her age.

Don't get your expectations up, but "LW4" is a decent enough date film.

It's an excellent date film, but it won't change your life.

It seems as if all of the new animation competition has lit a fire under Disney's collective ass and they have something to prove again.

Hey, it's not "Gone With the Wind" or even "Nightmare on Elm Street", so don't expect a masterpiece. You get a little nudity, a lot of gore, Seth Green doing his ironic commentary thing, and an easy way to kill a couple of hours.

If this is the direction Williams is headed in his career, fantastic. For auteur Romanek, it was at least a good first try.

The problem is, the main conspiracy of the show is so vast, you have to walk around it a couple of times before you can see what it is.

Overall, it's good, not great.

I don't know if this movie could have been made with anyone but Chow Yun-Fat. As Chen, he finally is allowed to display the nervous energy and Eastern rhythms we associate with his Hong Kong work.

If you were expecting a small art film, you know you're in trouble when the first thing you see is Jim Carrey.

Holy Man is just a dumb romantic comedy passing itself off as something else.

Is this what Sean Penn has come to in his 40s? He hasn't appeared this retarded since he was married to Madonna.

If you like Chan's Hong Kong films, you'll like this. Much of the "dramatic" work and dialogue are horrible but the stunt work here is actually superior to many of Chan's films.

Not a film that will change your life. It instead proves that shooting your movie with cheap technology doesn't mean it can't be fun or entertaining. In the end, that's enough.

If you've got the opportunity to have someone as talented and game for anything as Swinton, you really owe it to her to give her a real movie to be in.

The best thing the filmmakers did was to pull a cast out of the stage productions. Importantly, the actors convey a sense of history and comfort with each other.

I wasn't in the mood for this film, but it got to me anyway.

You know, each and every person reading this right now will shell out their six bucks ($9-$14 in L.A./New York) to see this film no matter what I say. Hell, I feel ambivalent about it and I'm still going to pay to see it again.

This should have been a black comic masterpiece. The cast is certainly up to the task, even in the small roles.

It's ironic that a film exploring the mysteries of how people succeed and fail to connect with each other then fails to really connect with its audience.

This movie wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It's still not that good though.

The director’s new masterpiece is a summation of nearly everything he has learned as a filmmaker, and about black culture, but he doesn’t feel the need to beat the audience over the head for each lesson he’s trying to impart.

I've already seen at least 20 documentaries this year. They've left me amused, sad, informed, bored, pissed-off, whatever. I'm willing to bet, though, that I don't see another this year as richly entertaining or as cathartic as The Kid Stays in the Picture. Is it really that good? You better believe it.

Over all, the short stories never gel together or create a unified whole.

Lock is filled with great writing, great acting, colorful characters, and a tight story. I actually like this film more than "Pulp Fiction".

Only promised a few good fights, a lot of chuckles, and an easy way to kill a couple of hours. In today's Hollywood that's hard enough to deliver.

Take the safety off of the comedy Magnum called Happiness and put the barrel in your mouth. You'll laugh your ass off as it takes off the back of your head...It could be the best film of the year. At the very least, I'll never forget it.

Waters brilliantly skewers the pretensions of the New York art world and culture, and uses real people from that world in the process.

In order to spare you the trauma of this cinematrocity, I'll go ahead and tell you how the film turns out. Who killed the General's Daughter? The filmmakers did.

With basically a single set and a limited cast, the producers get the most of their limited budget, particular with a couple of spectacular death scenes.

Not too far below the gloss you can still feel director Denis Villeneuve's beating heart and the fondness he has for his characters. Because he does, you and I can too.

There's some darn poignant stuff going on here.... The problem is that the audience will try to connect everything to the explicit Eden analogy, and not everything will. The director wins points for enticing you to figure it out, though, and I did enjoy it.