Walter Addiego

The Phantom is a spiritless affair likely to vanish quickly from first-run screens.

An unbroken flow of sad or nasty incidents.

A well-intentioned, but all-thumbs down drama.

It's an assaultive work about an assaultive fellow.

An unbearable exercise in provocation.

Depressing. So is director Marshall Curry's avowal in the press notes that the film will leave viewers with "a more nuanced view of the world."

It has the distinctive look of a Walter Hill picture, but in the end boils down to little more than a Bruce Willis action vehicle.

The new version has been speeded up and dumbed down, which does not reflect well on the mouse factory's view of its audience these days.

Despite its sometimes bloody content, the mood of Happy Death Day is remarkably sappy, aimed at the broadest possible audience for a film of its genre. Think of it as “slasher lite” and an acceptable date movie for unadventurous types, and you have the gist of it.

The performers don't really seem at the top of their game here.

The jokes run hot, cold and tepid.

Ineptly written and shot like a fashion mag, rings hollow throughout. It's a long, long way from "Jules and Jim."

You can get away with almost anything in a farce except failing to be funny, and that's what kills Death at a Funeral.

Most of the time the audience is two steps ahead of the characters.

Has more in common with a horror movie than with a genuine political work.

Demon Knight may be a good career move by director Ernest Dickerson ( "Juice" ), proving that he can work with a reasonably large budget on a genre film. But the picture breaks no ground, and in terms of his own development, it's hardly a step forward.

The film is morbid and mawkish, and packed with enough forced whimsy to make you scream.

If only it wasn't such bloody nonsense.

So it's hard to know who gets the blame for Payback. I say we cut Mel some slack and put the hex on Helgeland.

About as close to pure mall fodder as you'll see.

Grumpier Old Men certainly isn't relying on its mawkish and hokey story to put warm bodies in the seats. There's no reason to see the picture - a sequel to their 1993 hit, “Grumpy Old Men" - other than to relish the talents of these two veterans, plus Sophia Loren, a newcomer to the series.

Moretz is an appealing young woman whose star is rising. She'll probably have an exceptional career, but If I Stay won't be a highlight.

The effort is undermined with crass humor, mugging and slapstick.

Somehow, the funny stuff gets sucked into a kind of black hole in the center of the satire, along with all the comic debris. What should have been a surreal flight to the planet Lucas crumbles into a harmless collection of cosmic dustballs. [24 Jun 1987, p.52]

Hoodwinked is a computer-animated, "Shrek"-style satire of "Little Red Riding Hood" that offers a few laughs but overall is pretty tired.

Legends of the Fall never makes you think too hard; its woes-of-a-proud-family formula takes a back seat to a self-conscious visual style that strains toward the level of myth.

With the exception of a couple of inspired moments, Mary Reilly is merely a curious variation of an often-told story.

A lightweight and sentimental exercise that succeeds at little except maybe inspiring the viewer to go out and find a decent curry.