The film has such an expansive, likeable spirit.

From the first gentle meeting of its hero and heroine to the last line of dialogue, The Finest Hours executes all the traditional moves beautifully.

Is it too much to ask that he take a risk next time and kill somebody off, however much we’re used to having them in the “Trek” universe?

As you get into the flow of the narrative, and the strangeness of hearing no dialogue recedes, the movie becomes a rewarding experience.

It offers a grim view of prehistoric life: Carnivores slaughter herbivores, though we're spared most direct shots of this violence.

Why is The Emperor's New Groove Disney's funniest animated movie in years? Because it's the least like a Disney animated movie.

Even Wilder's most ardent admirers split on 1970's little-seen, much-edited adventure-comedy "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes", but all agree it is one of his most personally felt movies. [18 Jul 2003, p.11E]

The writing is haphazard at times, though the situations are funny enough in themselves to sustain our interest.

It's a satisfying experience, whatever kind of picture you label it.

Though this film doesn't have the novelty value of the first or the complex plotting of the second, it boasts the most spectacular single sequence.

The picture should satisfy both diehard fans, who liked the plotting and interaction of early Bond films, and "Die Hard" fans, who prefer Bond shaken and stirred by massive explosions, vehicular crashes and gunplay befitting a Central American revolution.

The script by Tim Herlihy and Timothy Dowling gets relaxed, throwaway laughs, even if it doesn’t always hold together.

If you're fond of wigs, you may be in heaven. If you're more interested in Whigs, you may wish the movie had dug deeper under the lovely powdered surface of Lady Georgiana Spencer.

It's hard to fault a script that keeps finding new dilemmas for characters and rewards attentive viewers with in-jokes.

Qualifies as a solid double, maybe a triple.

Rampling carries the film, appearing in virtually every scene.

It's handsomely shot, acted with fervor and reasonably subtle in delivering its message:

It's the chemistry between the stars that makes the film stand out in a drab spring.

If we can’t believe these characters could really be friends, we can live for 101 minutes in a world where they do.

The mediocre original, hampered by a saccharine plot and unconvincing reversals of character, earned lots of money but few plaudits. Now comes Ice Age: The Meltdown, a sequel with more humor, topicality, intelligence and appeal.

When the movie becomes pure fantasy, it's impossible to swallow. (No landlord rents an apartment to a 12-year-old with no adult in sight.)

The rest of this well-intentioned picture never reaches (Washington's) level of subtlety and intensity.

A documentary that's as chaotic, rude and funny as the band could be.

Often powerful, though presented throughout with British understatement.

In an elemental way, though, the film always works. The acting can be basic, a cross between Bollywood directness and Western nuance, but it has weight.

Vertical Limit is like riding a roller coaster for two hours. First it's frighteningly exciting. Then it's mind-numbing

Greene's words haunt us like a prophecy from half a century and half a world away.

This is one of the increasingly rare Hollywood films that treat people in middle age as though their feelings were just as intense and their needs just as valid as those of people half their age.