Manages to seem fresh, funny, and original from start to finish.

This remarkably clever, often hilarious animation derives much of its humor from its satirical view of the 1950s.

A jagged, uneven, often unfulfilling experience, but there are a few first-rate scenes between Joseph and Hannah that convincingly put forward the capacity for redemption in even the most ravaged of souls.

It's nice to watch a political movie that, for a change, isn't trying to save our souls. It's possible to have a good time with this movie while, at the same time, regretting all that it isn't.

Lavishly produced animation makes imaginative use of familiar formulas, filling the screen with handsome images accompanied by sprightly songs and lively voice-performances.

James Ponsoldt, who directed from a script by Michael H. Weber and Scott Neustadter, is a bit too glib to do justice to this material, but the young actors, especially Woodley, are quite fine.

Stone does a masterly job of balancing two Nixons, the ruthless power-monger and the sadly vulnerable man, allowing each to flourish as a fully rounded screen figure. Yet here, as in many of his other movies, Stone pushes the envelope a little too far, allowing his own similarities to Nixon. [20 Dec 1995, p.14]

What saves it all from being sordid is the open desire of the director, Gregory Jacobs, and his writer, Reid Carolin, to make sure the women in the film, not the male dancers, are ultimately the ones who are celebrated.

It's so clean a film, you could bring your grandmother.

In addition to the usual pontificators like Gore Vidal, whose world weariness has assumed Olympian proportions, the director provides interviews with such right-wing counterparts as Richard Perle and William Kristol. Nobody is allowed much time to develop an argument.

Grand Canyon finds Kasdan in firm control of a restrained and intelligent style. Eliciting first-rate performances from a well-chosen cast, he brings these to the screen with graceful eloquence - giving words as much weight as actions.

It's a beautiful movie to watch, and the cartoony characters are as endearing as they come.

A pleasant little dawdle and yet another example, in these dog days for cinema, that dogs are a movie's best friend.

This is a film that starts out cynically and gradually morphs into sentimentality of a particularly high gloss.

If one's domestic environment is a kind of autobiography, then the five households visited by this entertaining documentary reveal fascinating lives indeed.

Lively acting and stylish directing make this an engaging comedy-drama, although its attitude toward guns and violence is disconcertingly romantic.

Although overlong, the picture has a fair measure of jolts and surprises.

The story is as rambling as the characters, but superb acting by McTeer and Brown goes a long way toward redeeming it.

The offbeat screenplay turns even the corny bits in unpredictable directions, and it's rare indeed to see such consistently superb ensemble acting.

Logue's magnetic performance is the movie's main virtue, supported by a good secondary cast and a sharply written screenplay.

The movie works well as a straight-out horror yarn, proving that the Hughes Brothers are more versatile than their previous "ghetto pictures" suggest.

Directed with the blend of moody atmosphere and punchy violence that has made Kitano one of Japan's most powerful culture heroes. [10 Apr 1998, p.B2]

A caper that rarely goes wrong.

It's a lovely oddity, and one that will probably hit home for preteen audiences all over the world.

The film begins strongly and violently, then simmers down to a standard-issue suspense story.

The picture is a little too pretentious to achieve its artistic and emotional goals, but its ambition and imagination are impressive at times.

Intermittently gripping, but overlong.

Loach has made more memorable films, such as "Raining Stones" and "Ladybird Ladybird," but his dramatic sense remains strong and his social conscience is absolutely unstoppable.