The best parts of It Might Get Loud, though, occur when Guggenheim visits with the musicians one on one.

Places in the Heart is set in another time and place. But it becomes universal because it is also a personal story of an artist turning from the safe confessional platitudes of Yuppiedom to a more mature confrontation with the complexities in his own past. [05 Oct 1984, p.C1]

The Madonna that Keshishian has caught on film is as interesting for her ambition -- love me , desire me -- as any other quality. [17 May 1991, p.G5]

The truth is, Jet Li has gotten soft in his old age. While fans of the "Once Upon a Time in China" star will be pleased to learn that at least half of Fearless is action, what they may not realize is just how mushy everything else is.

John Cassavetes has been making exquisitely personal films -- or agonizingly personal ones, depending on one's tastes -- for years now. Sometimes, they are intimate dramas (Faces, Husbands, A Woman Under the Influence). Sometimes, they are dark comedies in melodramatic dress (Gloria). And sometimes, as in the newly released Big Trouble, they are just a mess. [19 Apr 1986, p.D1]

The most intriguing character in the movie is the confused, tormented Conrad, who initially comes off as the kind of troubled adolescent who will end up riddling his classroom with bullets.

War may set the stage for Strayed, but the film's real focus is something much quieter and internal: People caught in the throes of a transformation that is not of their making and struggling to adapt.

A rather luminous movie on the power of love.

Initially sounds perverted but ends up being just the opposite.

A perfectly cast Keanu Reeves pokes deadpan fun at himself in the role of Justin's New Age dentist, who hypnotizes the kid and encourages him to find his inner ''power animal.'' And Vince Vaughn, in a rare straight turn, is excellent as Justin's high school teacher.

Basterds isn't so revolutionary or so finely crafted as "Pulp Fiction" was, but it crackles with the same energy and imagination and chutzpah.

Part chopsocky action, part romance, part hokey fantasy, Dragon will please anyone open to a well-made, if superficial, Hollywood biography, a "biopic-lite." [8 May 1993, p.G5]

The film is sad in a beautiful, peaceful manner, and its exploration of mortality is different from most others, since the three central protagonists are all barely in their 30s.

The most memorable aspect of Batman is the film's attention to florid detail. At times, Burton's strange touches upstage the simple good-vs.-evil parable. [23 June 1989, p.H4]

The movie doesn't quite achieve the transcendent effect it reaches for, saddled with an ending that fails to live up to our expectations. But the experience of watching Babel is undeniably riveting: Even if the film doesn't really lead anywhere, you still can't take your eyes off it.

Unstoppable is the slowest, talkiest movie you'll ever see about a runaway freight train loaded with toxic chemicals.

Brave has a manic, almost daffy energy and sense of humor.

Viva is "Rocky" in drag and sequins, transplanted to Havana. The movie is pure formula, but it’s surprisingly effective anyway, because director Paddy Breathnach and screenwriter Mark O’Halloran don’t sugarcoat the reality of life on the island.

The movie isn't just hilarious: It's witty and inventive, too, and in hindsight, it isn't even all that dumb.

Ashes of Time Redux is primarily a sensory experience that deserves to be seen on as big a screen as possible.

Bold and intrepid film buffs: The gauntlet has been thrown. Here's something you don't see every day - thank goodness.

An impeccably shot, studiously staged, passionately acted bore, one of those curious fizzles in which everyone seems to do everything right, but the film simply refuses to take off.

Surprisingly effective, rousing entertainment, which boasts plenty of old-school, at times jaw-dropping stunt work done the manly way.

Palo Alto is a pale imitation of the early novels of Bret Easton Ellis, who wrote about young ennui and misdirection from the inside out.

It's such a pleasure in so many ways that one feels like yelling, "Welcome back." Forget Scarface, all is forgiven. Body Double reminds us what it's like to be in the presence of an original, and that does not happen often at the movies, these days or any days. [27 Oct 1984, p.D1]

As for getting close to Wintour -- or even explaining the unfathomable mystery that can be haute couture -- the film comes up empty.

Smashing, supremely engrossing picture.

The title's only the beginning of the many puns, and the story takes enough twists and turns through the Irish countryside to be engaging. But in the end, too much talk, too much forced quirkiness, and too many scenes we've seen before bring it down. [1 July 1998, p.2d]

And although The Cooler doesn't do anything fresh with its Vegas milieu, the movie is refreshingly frank and astute when it comes to depicting sex.

On the plus side, if you're flummoxed by the twisty plot or its occasional holes, you can always gaze contentedly at Clive Owen and be wholly entertained.

Norton isn't the first guy who comes to mind when you think ''period piece,'' but he's starred in two such films this year (in addition to The Painted Veil, he stars in "The Illusionist"), and he is terrific in both.

The movie gives you what you think you want, and then gives you some more, and just when you think things can't get any worse, Haneke swoops in and smashes the wall between fiction and reality, turning the viewer into a direct accomplice to what's transpiring onscreen. It is an astonishing film, sure to be controversial, and quite simply unforgettable. [30 Jan. 1998, p.6G]

A Shock to the System has wit, a cool classy charm and a hero you root for even after he rigs his house's faulty wiring so his nagging wife unwittingly electrocutes herself while he's out of town on business. [23 Mar 1990, p.G5]

An exploration of how fear and mob rule can poison even the purest of souls.

Profoundly hopeful and optimistic film.

Even the graceful ending, one that lifts the film a notch, is startling. But at the very least, His Secret Life will leave you thinking.

Allen's most amiable, breeziest comedy in years.

Strangely, considering the source, the most appealing aspect of Stakeout is Badham's success with the characters. Dreyfuss and Estevez work well off one another, Stowe and Dreyfuss are a likable couple and there's something approaching depth to most of the people on screen. [7 Aug 1987, p.D5]

The Avengers has a knockout final 30 minutes, all gee-whiz crash and bang and eye candy that makes grand use of 3D and IMAX and all the other toys. But the Transformers movies did that, too.

It feels like three movies stitched together.

To lump in this smart, subtle, deviously effective thriller with "The Omen" or "The Good Son" is neither fair nor entirely accurate.

Sad confusions and emotional disconnections are what the story is all about.

There are 10 minutes of animation in the film, and it could have used a few more: They have a spirited, inventive energy that the rest of this well-intentioned but awfully melodramatic movie lacks.

Unfortunately, the film's climactic finale grows repetitive and goes on a little too long; once you've seen bodies flying and crashing through buildings once, you've seen it plenty.

The movie fails utterly at coming up with a story that merits all the eye candy.

Marshall, who established himself as a great movie musical director with 2002’s Oscar-winning Chicago, has done a masterful job of collaborating with Sondheim and Lapine to transform their 1987 Tony Award-winning, two-act musical into a film that flows seamlessly as it juggles its intertwining storylines.

See How They Fall is at its best when coasting on the chemistry between scheming Max and childlike Johnny, whose odd- couple relationship arises out of necessity and ends up as something closer to father and son. First-time director Jacques Audiard toys with the story's timeline and wraps things up with a subtly cold-blooded ending that earns the film its noir status with a wink and a bitter smile. [10 Feb 1995, p.19G]

Likely The Great Ziegfeld will be catalogued as the most sumptuous cinemusical ever produced. Truly a "colossal" show, it is the musical spectacle to end all such. [12 Apr 1936, p.39]

This is a weird piece of work, silly and exhilarating. And yes, the sequel's better. [15 Jun 1990, p.10]

Some of the creations these chefs produce defy belief (and make you wish you could jump into the screen to have a taste).

From a purely cinematic standpoint, The Underneath is Soderbergh's most daring work yet, full of elliptical flashbacks and fast-forwards; ominous camera angles and cinematic tricks. But Soderbergh's movies (sex, lies and videotape, Kafka, King of the Hill) have always been cunningly smart, and The Underneath is not. [28 April 1995, p.5G]

As it is, much of this movie is simply incomprehensible, however enthusiastically it was designed and is performed. If it were only a little better, one might even spend some time trying to figure what to make of it. [24 Apr 1985, p.B6]

What Sunshine State lacks in momentum, it makes up for with a Dickensian sprawl of characters -- 50 in all -- who possess the depth and humanity that has become a Sayles trademark.

But even if the film is short on analysis and skepticism, Tammy makes for a fascinating subject anyway.

Remains naggingly hollow, a cerebral exercise in whimsy that isn't nearly clever or funny enough to seem like more than grand self-indulgence.

What The Bank Job ends up stealing is all your precious time.

Talk to Me is a welcome reminder of a time when radio truly listened to the people instead of just shouted at them.

Raising Arizona is the best comedy about kidnapping ever made. Small category, admittedly. This is a film that gets a laugh -- legitimate, unqualified, not a sick laugh at all -- out of a running gag in which a baby is left in the middle of an Arizona highway by thugs on the lam. Cars bear down, a "biker from Hell" attacks. How many filmmakers could get away with baby-in-jeopardy jokes? [10 Apr 1987, p.D1]

Slacker is not always so purposefully creepy, but it's often as darkly funny; none of its characters is what you'd call normal, but the film's off-kilter view is such that they seem utterly in tune with their odd lives and odder times. [29 May 1992, p.5]

Lee delivers a beautiful evocation of the American Dream in its simplest, purest form.

The Hidden cannot be dismissed as just a police story with a couple of aliens affixed to it. In fact, without the aliens, there wouldn't be any story. [30 Oct 1987, p.D5]

Best of all, the film never makes its characters into stoic or tragic heroes, choosing instead to highlight what makes them human — their hopes, their fears, their anger, the way they learn to live with knowing they’re going to die.

This is the rare breed of Hollywood studio production that has the brash spirit of an independent picture and the sharp wit of a stand-up comic.

A fresh breath of air, warmer than the icy village in which it takes place. You'll leave the theater with a wink and a smile.

In Redbelt, David Mamet enters the realm of sports drama and Rocky-underdog clichés and discovers it's a surprisingly good fit.

This is a story about the banality of evil, and it succeeds all too well -- these people are ordinary, and that's what makes them scary. Guncrazy is, finally, a romance, but not before it's tough as nails and terribly knowing. You won't forget it soon. [13 Feb 1993, p.E5]

The film remains relatively entertaining, simply because the scenario hits so close to home, no matter where you work.

Self-indulgent, overwrought, shallow and ridiculous. It is also brilliant, a blast of cinematic lunacy and as much of a guilty pleasure as the schlocky movies Tarantino adores, which was probably the point. Sometimes, only a Big Mac will do.

Like most movies about death, the gentle, quirky Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself ultimately turns out to be a story about embracing life.

Like Midnight Express, for which Stone received an Academy Award for his screenplay adaptation, Salvador is better movie than document. But if Stone's style is entirely too florid for history, it is grimly arresting by Hollywood standards. Whatever else, Salvador is an original. [9 May 1986, p.D1]

The result is initially exhilarating, ultimately exhausting.

A League of Their Own is as exhilarating as a double- header at Chicago's Wrigley Field. It captures all the familiar baseball sensations, with a curve: the hollow crack of the bat connecting with the ball, the electric tension before that crucial ninth-inning pitch, the team's camaraderie as they spit and adjust their skirts. [1 July 1992, p.E1]

Love makes us do all kinds of crazy things, but in Crazy Love, crazy seems too mild a word.

You may be drawn to Intimacy's graphic scenes, but you'll emerge convinced there's more to life -- and the film -- than sex.

Simple and austere, The Cuckoo also draws from the mysticism of tales of gnomes and other creatures who inhabit remote Nordic lands. It is that blend of reality with allegory that delivers the film's beauty and charm.

Even when sketched in broad terms, Rogowski's downward spiral makes for compelling viewing, and to her credit, director Stickler never romanticizes her subject.

Loses its nerve in the final minutes, relying on a series of contrivances to arrive at an unconvincingly pat, happy ending. The story begged for a darker, more biting resolution.

It is a treat to see Sharif back on the screen and Boulanger is a pleasure to watch. They make Monsieur Ibrahim better than it is.

All about watching Jaa.

The movie even fails on a psychological level, never illustrating how, in a pressure-cooker environment and swept up by mob-think mentality, we are capable of committing acts that innately repel us.

A Dry White Season hits with the force of its convictions, and it hits hard. But it could have been more. [06 Oct 1989, p.G5]

McGrath makes literal what the other movie only hinted at -- that Perry falls in love with Capote -- turning the relationship between author and subject into something far less complicated and more mundane.

Despite its serious subject matter, North Country is a crowd-pleaser at heart.

The Cotton Club never seems to go anywhere, so that we are caught up short when it seems to have gotten somewhere. Then it's over, finished in Hines' blaze of glory, and a few minutes later one wonders what one has seen. It's big and colorful and terribly thin. [14 Dec 1984, p.E18]

If you're making a movie that purports to be about real love, at the very least, you have to make the audience care whether the lovers work out their problems.

The Hunger Games takes no risks.

Grim, tight and well acted.

If you like guessing games, don't miss it.

A quirky romantic comedy with a distinct and pleasing retro feel.

Among the invited guests are Sarah Jessica Parker and Julia Roberts. Only one fellow designer is present: Karl Lagerfeld, the German designer settled in Paris.

The amount of information the viewer is asked to process is voluminous and never stops coming.

Otomo's vision is as dark as his palette is vivid. [15 Nov 1991, p.G17]

Quibbles aside, Babe: Pig in the City recaptures the verbal wit and plentiful heart that made the first film so special. [25 Nov 1998, p.2E]

Awe-inspiring and harrowing, vile and beautiful, as wild and mesmerizing as the Mexican jungle in which it is filmed and one of the most relentlessly thrilling films of the year.

Potiche is filled with rat-a-tat dialogue and broadly humorous situations, but Ozon also employs subtle touches.

A mess, but a fascinating one.

An impressionistic portrait of the seductive nature of evil.

The relentless pace is a big part of the fun. Who ever heard of a slow rollercoaster, anyway? You'll have to ride this one in the theater, though. It simply won't be the same at home.