The hinted romance, featuring Aaliyah, makes for some decent drama and some fine comedy.

Standard-issue liberal feel-good fodder.

All the macho men who let down their guard for Blaustein can be proud of the loving deconstruction of violence-as-entertainment that resulted.

Disturbing--if less sophisticated than the best SF (science fiction)-horror TV.

An extraordinarily subtle, witty, and nuanced work.

There are a few pretty good design effects en route, but not enough to compensate for all the embarrassments.

So visually striking, so compulsively watchable as storytelling, and so personal even in its enigmas that I found it much more pleasurable than any of the Hollywood genre films I've seen lately.

Foreigners who argue that Americans are Neanderthal savages can point to this movie as persuasive evidence.

The buildup to social criticism in what at first appears to be pointless and partly misogynist exploitation is subtly impressive.

It's beautifully cast and filmed (cinematography by the matchless Robby Muller) and often quite moving, despite the fact that most of the characters are never developed much beyond mythic or parodic prototypes.

I didn't laugh once.

The whole thing becomes a very rickety and contrived tearjerker.

For every jab at hypocrisy in law enforcement or in the media's crime coverage...there's a scene's worth of uninflected scatology or misogyny.

The ideological reasons for the heroine's project aren't divulged, so I guess we're supposed to be fascinated simply by the fanaticism of her will, doubts and all. I wasn't.

An open-mindedness in the plotting of this romantic comedy set on Ireland's Donegal coast adds a couple of mild surprises to the story.

The characters--their motives at once obvious and obscure--are almost painfully fascinating.

Cliched narrative, which isn't funny as often as seems intended.

The casting of Michael Douglas against type as an over-the-hill novelist and writing professor is the sort of clever move that wins undeserved Oscars.

I had a pretty good time with this until the end, when I felt so soiled by the filmmakers' cynicism and the characters' gratuitous viciousness that I wanted to take a bath.

Arch yet earnest.

Stylishly realized, but its striking cinematography, nontraditional editing, and consistently reflexive use of genre conceits add up as methodically as a math problem.

Dizdar inventively examines bigotry, combining daring humor and hyperbole, dark realism and shining idealism.

Not particularly sensitive or funny comedy-drama.

Kempner's lighthearted yet not apolitical collage conveys how Greenberg's success as an athlete in the 30s and 40s contradicted an ethnic stereotype.

Bruce Willis's marvelous performance as a contract killer only makes everything else about this comedy seem more pathetic.

Its resolution reeks of phoniness and self-congratulation, even if some of the narrative strands leading up to it are fairly absorbing.

Fast-paced editing doesn't compensate for unconvincing dialogue.

Somewhat depressive anecdote drawn out to feature length.