At times, “Homecoming” resembles a very good after-school special embedded in a cacophonous franchise flick. That’s probably not the demographic the filmmakers were most hoping to please.

Tony Leung plays Ip Man, the real-life kung fu innovator who most famously trained Bruce Lee. His life takes in the upheavals in China from the 1930s through the ’50s, including the Japanese occupation.

This is Eastwood's first acting job since "Million Dollar Baby," and his range, like his raspiness, is fairly one-note.

By relying too much on snappy dialogue and by adhering to the philosophy that "steel should feel like steel and glass should feel like glass," the filmmakers have bridled their imaginations and created a movie about toys that are too blubbery and not rubbery enough.

The acting is amiable and the story is crisply told.

It's one of the season's most original and energetic movies.

Sincere acting and heartfelt filmmaking add energy to this unassuming Tunisian drama.

Almodóvar is attempting to create a continuum of genres as well, one that particularly involves the traditional Hollywood “women’s picture” and film noir. That he doesn’t altogether succeed is perhaps due to the fact that Almodóvar is too enraptured by old movie conventions to give them a new life.

Pure fun.

Nobody can play stupid better than Daniels – think "Dumb and Dumber" – and, as it turns out, few can play smarter. He's a sharp asset in a sharp movie.

The picture is ragged around the edges, but the acting is heartfelt and the raplike poetry sessions have astonishing vigor. [06 Nov 1998, p.B1]

Each man is sharply characterized, and the performances are expert, right down to the cook (Toby Jones).

Best not when it is preaching to us but, rather, in those moments when both King and Riggs drop their public faces and reveal the roiling underneath.

A very good thrill ride and Cruise is better than he's been in a long time.

Leconte reconfirms his growing importance to French cinema with this precisely crafted, marvelously acted drama, which makes a powerful statement on capital punishment.

Like many Altman movies, this is less a dramatic story to follow than an atmospheric environment to visit.

It's conventional in approach and sometimes sentimental, even corny, in its content. But there were so many fascinating overtones in Mr. Charles's life and career that any account of them is bound to be riveting at least part of the time.

We are treated to all manner of worshipy recollections from a stable of Thompson's admirers, including, believe it or not, Patrick Buchanan and James Baker. Who said gonzo politics doesn't make for strange bedfellows?

Black, who wrote "Lethal Weapon," makes his directorial debut, and he puts a fresh spin not only on that film but also on a whole slew of films noirs.

It marks a new artistic peak for director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant, and writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.

Crossing Delancey is a warm and appealing visit with some warm and lovable people - and that's good reason to welcome this ``Moonstruck, Jewish-American Style.''

It’s a reminder that yes, it is a jungle out there. But we should still hold out hope for creating a better world, and not just for the haves, but the “have nots.” While that message may arrive at a place of cynicism when it comes to adults, it finds fertile ground among the youth.

Bowfinger is mediocre . . . can be irksome, tedious, and hard to sit through.

The idealization of the native American existence in The New World, precolonization, is a pleasing fantasy but also timeworn and ahistorical. Surely someone as sophisticated as Malick - who once taught philosophy at MIT and was a Rhodes scholar - understands that he is putting forth a fabrication.

Even if baseball isn't your favorite sport, or if you don't like sports much at all, you'll find something to catch your attention in this smartly made (if unblushingly vulgar) new comedy. [7 July 1988]

Sometimes they're truly hilarious; sometimes they're lazy enough to milk laughs from scattershot vulgarity.

This unusual romantic drama is sensitively acted by a well-chosen cast and subtly directed by Cox.

All give heartfelt, unflashy performances that help make Shattered Glass one of the season's most thoughtful offerings.