Sean Means

The cast of To Die For is perfect all around, but Kidman trumps them all with a gutsy, uncompromising performance...It's an audacious performance for a movie that dares to be nasty.

It's hard to root against Death when the people involved are never brought to life in the first place.

Isn't bad as summer action fare goes -- big and loud, impressively staged by Hong Kong action auteur John Woo, a combination of special effects and eye-popping stunt maneuvers threaded by a plotline that doesn't make sense in the slightest.

Armitage, Cusack and his Evanston chums have their work cut out for them to turn a stone killer into a sympathetic romantic character. That they succeed in such a shrewdly funny way is downright amazing.

It's so good, so jam-packed with delights, that it leaves you gorged -- and bemoaning the fatty glop that passes for moviemaking these days.

For fans of science fiction...Galaxy Quest is a sweet, funny valentine to their obsessiveness.

Human Resources resonates because it restores the humanity to that dehumanizing title phrase.

All the Pretty Horses may end up being a good movie to watch on DVD, when all the footage is restored and we can see the subtle shadings Thornton jettisoned.

Eventually falls into the same candy-coated trap it's trying to expose. But the fact that a movie can acknowledge the trap exists is a step in the right direction.

The heart of this movie isn't two sizes too small; it's just slightly misplaced.

Slow-moving and violent mess...feels slow even at a scant 82 minutes...Even by the slack standards of Van Damme's oeuvre, "The Return" is a letdown.

The risk pays off for Clooney and the Coens, as O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a nicely off-kilter exploration of American gumption.

Smith puts the soul in the machine of Series 7, producing an emotional power too real for reality-TV to handle.

The result is a movie that turns the financial phenomenon of Web startups -- the crazy kids with ideas, and the crazier bankers with more money than sense -- into a moving human drama.

What makes A Simple Plan an exciting, thoughtful thriller isn't the plot twists, but the twists and turns of Hank's tortured conscience as one lie leads to bigger and deadlier deceits.

The most exuberantly funny and smartest teen movie this summer, which is something to cheer about.

I see Austin Powers as Myers' desperate cry for help -- a plea to stop him before he does schtick again.

John, John, John -- one more bad-guy role in a bad movie and you're going to need another comeback.

A kicky little comedy that shows Quentin Tarantino's influence is alive and well in Japan.

A by-the-numbers action-comedy that is greatly enlivened by Lawrence's pugnacious, fast-mouthed style.

Hanks gives possibly the most compelling performance of his career.

For 8- to 12-year-olds and the grownups who love them, Recess is a pleasant Saturday-matinee diversion. The fact that it doesn't aim to be anything more is, in its own way, a blessed relief.

The audience is ready for an unhappy ending -- and Hollywood should have the courage to provide it.

A One-Joke Show.

Breathtaking, heartbreaking.

Something quite different: A movie that's smarter than you are.

It's the hardships that led to Atlanta -- and that he faced after -- that make his story so compelling.

Cage again proves himself the most fearless actor now working in movies.