It’s easy to call this film a video action game starring real people, but that “real” part means a lot.

Courtly intrigue should be intriguing, and in that sense, The Princess of Montpensier – although it's somewhat wan and too cerebral for its own good – does a fairly keen job.

Too staid and stolid for audiences on the hunt for easy entertainment.

Distinguished less by its elements of melodrama and psychodrama than by its intense acting and the vivid immediacy of Levring's powerful imagery.

Its ethical and intellectual insights wane when the love story kicks in, weakening what might have been a much deeper movie. Still, its performances are wonderful to watch.

Burden of Dreams is most fascinating, however, when it zeroes in on Herzog himself. [28 Oct 1982, p.18]

The drama makes up in intellectual weight what it sometimes lacks in psychological interest and cinematic realism.

You may not literally laugh or cry, as the ads promise. But you'll have a good time watching the dream-fulfilling denims make their comic-romantic rounds.

Henderson steals the show as an elderly African-American man befriended by one of the main characters.

Strong acting and no-nonsense filmmaking lend interest and impact to the dramatic story.

Although the action tends to become melodramatic and even overwrought at times, the imaginative power of Campion's images and emotional insights (especially with regard to the heroin) rarely allow the story to seem artificial or exaggerated. [12 Nov 1993]

The action is as perky as the main characters.

The coolness here has its creepiness, as in the dispassionate way Fincher depicts Lisbeth's rape and her subsequent, harrowing revenge, but the suspicion remains: Fincher didn't make this movie his own because he doesn't consider it his own.

The athletic scenes are so lively and the main performances are so magnetic that even moviegoers who resist sports-centered pictures may be won over. [11 Sep 1998, p.B2]

It's fun to watch Marlon Brando parody one of his most justly celebrated roles and to see Bert Parks singing ``Maggie's Farm''; Matthew Broderick gives the comedy extra charm. The action sometimes gets bogged down in silly slapstick, though.

Moving the action to a modern American city, the hyperactive movie seems goofy and gimmicky at first, but it acquires real power when the cinematography settles down enough for Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes to do some excellent acting.

As slow-moving as the voyage it portrays,...a surprisingly complex view of contemporary life beneath its good-natured surface.

Although there's quite a bit of nudity and sex, the potentially sensationalistic story is acted with sincerity and directed with a creative eye.

There's only one kind of movie that Spielberg has truly mastered: the kind that looks like a wide-screen video game complete with loony plot twists and mind-bending special effects. And that's Jurassic Park down to its bones. [11 June 1993, Arts, p.12]

The screenplay by director Bell is packed with surprises, and the acting is excellent.

It's often beautiful to watch, although it's more interested in visual style than philosophical depth.

The CGI effects in this film, directed by Brad Peyton, are quite remarkable and help take one’s mind off the cornball disaster-brings-families-together underpinnings.

There's heavy influence from the "Brave New World" brand of dystopian fantasy, but engaging performances and a stylized visual approach lend it originality.

The movie is Allen's most successful in years, even if you don't see it as a self-made commentary on his own career. Credit goes less to the comic dialogue than to the razor-sharp performances of an excellent cast.

If you have a hankering for a pretty good Woody Allen movie and want to brush up on your French at the same time, Shall We Kiss? is the ticket.

Is there a moral objection to be raised about a movie that features a teenage girl as an assassin? I suppose there is, but I couldn't find it in me to object.

Noe's despairing view of human nature is as thoughtful as it is grim, limning the most appalling aspects of earthly experience in terms recalling Dante and Bosh, among other apocalyptic artists.

The sensationalistic beginning and needless mumbo-jumbo ending aside, this is a female buddy film with bite.