Has an inordinate number of good laughs mixed in with the not-so-good ones.

The implicit question overhanging the film: Is the political impetus to present only “positive” imagery of black people an injustice to the fullest range of their experience?

It's a picture marked by competence, not the boiling-over intensity that Frears and Thompson fans have anticipated. [30 Nov 1990]

Although nothing beats seeing and hearing the real story, Herzog has done a fairly compelling job of blending staged action with docudrama authenticity.

It’s a filmmaker’s conceit. These filmmakers may come from Nebraska, but, from the looks of things, they don’t want to be spending much time there.

If audiences are hesitant to believe that the fraternization in this film really happened, it will be because of the storytelling, not the story.

Straightforward and informative, but overlong and repetitious.

Not a deep movie. It is a very honest one, though - there's not a cheap cinematic trick in sight - and it's a graceful one, energizing its small-town story with eloquent camera work and ingenious musical touches.

The most interesting character in Imperium is not even Nate. It’s Gerry Conway (Sam Trammell), a seemingly normal family man who reads the great philosophers and loves the music of Brahms and Tchaikovsky, even making an exception for the recordings of Jewish maestro Leonard Bernstein. Terrorists come in all flavors.

Braff plays Aidan with easygoing exasperation and Hudson is better than I’ve seen her since “Almost Famous.” As a director, Braff touches on lots of Big Themes: mortality, marriage, fatherhood, the disillusion of dreams. Nothing quite comes to full boil, though.

An amiable look at a bygone time and a set of ideas about the world that once held far more power and magic than it does today.

A lavishly produced and often involving drama that never reaches its full potential. [09 Jan 1985, p.25]

This is one of Haneke's least powerful films, although the excellent cast is interesting to watch.

Superbly acted, especially by Giocante as the teasing 16-year-old instigator.

It's imaginatively filmed and builds a sense of brooding emotional power.

The nonlinear story consists of loosely linked fragments, some more effective than others, threaded together in a broodingly poetic way.

A long wallow in misery and, after a while, the pain morphs into polemic.

Waters fills the movie with his usual touches of outrageously bad taste, but beneath the sophomoric shocks his story has a serious message about self-absorbed artists who care more about their own careers than the privacy of the people around them.

Rush and Davis shine, and the drama is engrossingly told until it turns sadly sentimental in the last minutes.

Some scenes are just silly, others are dead-on uproarious. Ditka, a real-life football legend, is a real find as our hero's assistant.

Gilliam's first solo flight as a director is more notable for its inspired visual ideas than for the frequency of its laughs, but Python devotees will have fun.

Eric Eason's script is sometimes unduly contrived and derivative, but we are always aware that something larger is being played out.

I found it immensely touching that these women found it in themselves to keep plugging away. Despite everything, they ended their days with a measure of peace and happiness.

It’s a flurry of good gags and bad. The good ones are worth sitting around for.

While the movie is well acted and creative, its story and style are too self-consciously clever to build a high degree of emotional power.

A startling, suspenseful ride few will forget in a hurry.

Kicks off the Oedipus theme that gallops through the story.

Canet has a good feeling for lowlife atmosphere and he works up a few fine Hitchcockian twirls. Kristin Scott Thomas and Nathalie Baye round out the sleek cast.