Lots of movies deal with friends and lovers of a certain age growing apart. But few can hear, as Thraves does, the sound of death chains rattling in the background.

The film's bemused but genuine respect for the ingenious obviousness of a bygone cinematic language is quite moving.

Has its own sense of logic and integrity that demand a kind of begrudged respect.

Has moments of terrific lucidity, even brilliance.

Before it finally twists itself into a pretzel in the third act, this paranoid thriller creates a scary mood and allows its leading actors to go all the way with it.

Its honesty and insights are refreshing.

A crowd pleaser, but there's something a bit prim and pre-determined about its conclusions.

Slow and depressing, but ultimately haunting film.

A dopey but sweet-natured I-love-to-dance film, fits nicely into the downhill-since-"The-Red-Shoes" tradition of ballet movies.

As he did in "Run Lola Run," he has clearly patented an original combination of cinematic eye and ear candy and a profound, irresistible fascination for the role of chance in this world.

By no means any kind of masterpiece, but viewed as one might any number of American or European independents of similar theme and nature, it not only stands its ground, but is at times one or two notches better than many of them.

One sour note is Richard Marvin's derivative score. It's just awful and often pulls the movie down.

The story moves beyond the limitations of its setting, transforming itself into an affecting parable about the lengths to which parents will go to protect their children from trauma, cruelty and knowledge of evil.

Has a real sense of the wonder of the early years.

Surely, there will be audiences that see South Park as one of the signs of the coming apocalypse, which may be exactly why another audience finds it so ruthlessly, irresistably funny.

Gorgeous and troubling.

A class act, from top to bottom.

Raucously funny.

For all the cynicism on the soundtrack and the occasional lapses in tone, this is a remarkably generous comedy.

Fascinating.

Nearly the perfect balance between straight-faced pulp action and amused wonder at the outlandish world of comic books.

Beautifully shot, full of lush, vibrant colors and expertly wrought sets...a club-kid's frothy date flick.

For all its flaws, Fantasia 2000 is certainly something to see.

Bulworth shoots along with great vigor, and its non-politically correct jabs are occasionally exhilarating.

But it's the boy and the dog who make My Dog Skip resonate. The formula may be an old one, but it's still a good one.

Thanks to solid performances by Damon, Williams, and Driver, the story glides by on charm.

An acerbically comic fable.

Breaks virtually no new narrative ground, yet treads the familiar territory it does cover with grace, style, wit and fun.

Gitai, a veteran documentary director, refuses to find an easy resolution to the story, and that will frustrate as many people as it pleases.

Parts of this three-hour World War II epic are brilliant -- especially the 40-minute sequence in which the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor is stunningly re-created.

One of the weirdest, hardest-to-place studio films I've seen in years.

Wouldn't you rather learn about his culture from Norbu than from Richard Gere?

The film gets an "A" for effort, but doesn't have the courage to really get as bloody, messy and dirty as its subject matter inherently is.

Takes an easy target and turns it into something naggingly weird.

The single best thing about Stuart Little is Nathan Lane.

It's possible that Ritchie's most important asset is the comic constant within his characters' existential dilemmas. To a man (and, indeed, they're all men), Ritchie's anti-heroes are at odds, in either large or small ways, with their own natures.

A decent, smart, well-acted film.

A piece of fluff that can be enjoyed without guilt.

Delivers its humor with clockwork reliability.

Something rare: a mess of a movie that is somehow infectious, and infectious not despite the mess, but because of it.

Gorris has beefed up the role of Natalia (Watson), with the end result that the film's emphasis is appropriately divided between the two characters in an emotionally satisfying way.

Smith has crammed the film with enough genuinely funny moments and insightful bits to make it well worth seeing.

The winks and nods to fans are deliciously satisfying.

Isn't quite enough to save the Bond franchise -- but it does prove that 007 is Y2K-compliant.

Julia Roberts owns this sweet-natured film.

As with Bill Clinton himself, Primary Colors forces one to take the disappointing with the good, the letdown with the promise, the compromises with the hope.

The graphic battles may grow repetitious toward the end, the final scenes are almost sadistically drawn out, and the script often lacks humor. But this movie moves.

Quite smart, sensitive, and relatively sophisticated.

(Morris) sees Leuchter's story as more personal, more about one individual's self-absorption and folly, than an indictment of a particular system.

(Owen's) existential angst and the interesting layers of character and setting give Croupier a sharp, engaging edge.

A very pleasant experience in watching life unfold in its own direction and time.

Norton's performance, which is every bit as varied as his Oscar-nominated work in Primal Fear, once more demonstrates that he's one of the most remarkable chameleons working in film.

his bleak and somewhat sadistic picture is the type of movie that unfolds like a slow car wreck. You know something bad is going to happen, you just aren’t sure what, or how, and when it eventually happens it is repulsive and yet you still can’t turn away.

Eventually falls into the same candy-coated trap it's trying to expose. But the fact that a movie can acknowledge the trap exists is a step in the right direction.

Starting small and building steadily, the movie reaps some fall-down funny laughs.

A modest picture with quiet ambitions that is likely to disappear into that lush tropical rainforest where so many films of this sort, some much worse and others much better, have all gone in time. Catch it while you can.

One of the most consistently amusing ways in which it frustrates audience expectations has to do with how amazingly little of this very violent cast of characters' violence actually ends up being expressed onscreen.

It's a guy's film that doesn't just revel in testosterone, though -- it has a more purposeful agenda.

Let your children have their childhood while you have a rare, grown-up experience at the multi-plex for a change.

It’s unlikely anyone who sees Blackfish will be trekking to Shamu Stadium this summer.

For fans of science fiction...Galaxy Quest is a sweet, funny valentine to their obsessiveness.

If you like a little action with your war movies, or maybe some butt-kicking Resistance types and a Mission: Impossible-like finale, you won't be disappointed.

In the end, solid acting, stellar special-effects, and well-wrought tension make the film a worthy date flick or matinee outing.

There's an almost natty precision about this picture that's so rare these days in American movies that it provides satisfaction in itself.

Sometimes feels like an acting class gone berserk, with Penn indulging his high-powered cast

A two-hour slice --of comedy pie.

Unlike the original, Hannibal may make us hide our eyes, but it doesn't get inside our heads.

Westerners may find the religious aspects wearying and a little fantastic. The Color of Paradise is both parable and fable, a retelling of Isaac and Abraham.

A film so driven by pure style that a script barely seems necessary in its first half, Boogie Nights becomes bogged down in a predictable aftermath of drug deals, post-stardom decay, cocaine-fueled nuttiness, and self-loathing.

A fascinating combination of dare, stunt and genuine artistic risk -- often disorganized, but never less than entertaining.

Feels like a first draft, in need of toning, pruning, and a little old-fashioned discipline. As an outline, the picture is full of possibilities.

It's smart, funny and insightful and it's quite easy to see what attracted the stars to it.

So campy that it almost plays like a sendup of the series. It is to Alien what "The Bride of Frankenstein" was to other 1930s Frankenstein movies, and it even shares some of the same themes.

But it IS enjoyable.

Will eventually be remembered as a disposable farce, but one that leaves a happy memory.

The film doesn’t come into focus contextually until the closing moments, but as the bullets fly the rhythm is established right from the outset.

Whether or not Breaking the Waves succeeds as a profound work is something that's hard to say after one viewing, but it is certainly a wholly original piece of work.

Silly in some parts, but sheer fun in most, Bootmen will get you wiggling in your seat with a big grin pasted on your face.

It may be a very good, very Brooksian sitcom, but it's accomplished entirely with the broad strokes and resolutely flat surfaces of television.

It’s funnier than it has any right to be, really.

Smith puts the soul in the machine of Series 7, producing an emotional power too real for reality-TV to handle.

It's very effective.

It is Foster who presents the biggest single problem, delivering a monochromatic performance that finds her character not much more than flinty and strained.

Wood’s energetic, tightly wound performance carries the movie; his ability to juggle all the different information coming at him — keeping time on the piano while speaking and hitting his cues — is admirable and probably exhausting.

A by-the-numbers action-comedy that is greatly enlivened by Lawrence's pugnacious, fast-mouthed style.

A perfectly enjoyable and occasionally charming ride.

Tight and quick-moving, the film scores its points and gets on with it.

Snappy heist film that keeps changing the rules of a mystery so that one is never sure whose hands are at the controls.

It's the hardships that led to Atlanta -- and that he faced after -- that make his story so compelling.

Quick and funny, and a refreshing break from period-film stuffiness.

Captivating an audience from the get-go and drawing our attention and emotions ever deeper into the layered mysteries of a dreamy fable.

Despite being very much a “filmed play” it doesn’t come across as too theatrical. Polanski uses plenty of close-ups and keeps the action moving.

Ryan Gosling wanted to make an art film and, despite some dull patches, pretty much succeeded.

This is a film about a journey, and while the destination – baseball’s major leagues – is continuously dangled in front of its protagonists, it’s getting there that counts. Oh, and also how fast you can throw a ball. That counts, too.

First and foremost I’m So Excited! is late night cabaret – funny, filthy and more than a little bit sloshed.

There are some laughs – and a few moments worthy of tears – but there’s a breaking point of believability in here somewhere that keeps Nebraska merely good as opposed to great.

Juri’s performance makes it impossible to divert your eyes from the screen, no matter how much you might want to, and a brave film that eventually succumbs to convention is still braver than most.

The Best Man Holiday goes whole hog on the holiday cheese, and there’s something admirable about an adult feature that doesn’t balk at real feelings, especially around the holidays (sex montages notwithstanding).