A tad too raunchy for its own good.

Manages to sidestep the potential overload of cheap sentimentality -- an intimate dance between an elderly couple registers with heartbreaking sweetness -- and evokes a lingering sense of loss.

Far from perfect, but for those willing to laugh at the darker side of life, especially Latin American life, it is fun.

Pryor is so lacking in energy that Wilder steals most of the movie from him. For the first time in his career, Wilder actually seems robust, but it's only because he's performing opposite a ghost. It's quite sad. [12 May 1989, p.DW5]

Parts of House are certainly meant to be funny, and other parts draw laughs the way the tools move, without the apparent intent of their creators. As haunted-house tales go, House is something of a bust. [4 March 1986, p.B5]

The experience of watching Funny Games, be it the original or this version, is never forgotten, whatever your ultimate impression of the film.

The Ruins is, with one major caveat, about as good an adaptation of Scott Smith's bestselling novel as Hollywood was ever going to make.

Unlike Uncle Nino's garden, the film never blooms into anything special.

Right now, this goofy film is the best candidate for mindless, enjoyable laughs.

I could tell you what Double Team is about, but life is short. Instead, I'll tell you that Van Damme and Rodman play the good guys, and that they trade lines like "You're crazier than my hairstylist!" and "You look like a carrot with earrings!" [5 Apr 1997, p.1G]

For a good hour or so, The Raven is gruesome, ludicrous fun. Then it's just ludicrous.

Mel Brooks has never been a finesse comic, and no one expects him to hit with every gag. But this film reminds you how far his films have slipped behind the shotgun comedies of the Zucker brothers (David and Jerry) and Jim Abrahams, collectively and singly, who have built on Airplane! to a broad- gag frenzy. [28 July 1993, p.E2]

It was pretty interesting a couple of years ago, too, when a variation of it was the premise for The Final Countdown. The big difference is that the earler film wasn't bad, and this one is. [03 Aug 1984, p.C9]

A severe bout of sequelitis afflicts this eagerly awaited but only sporadically amusing follow-up.

At least The Game Plan does have Johnson, whose innate charisma will make it easier for adult viewers to endure the film without ruing the decision to make a family outing to the multiplex.

Something we've all seen before, far too many times, not only in its premise but also in its lame parade of scatological jokes and its sad, tired pratfalls.

Terrifyingly dull movie.

Barney's Great Adventure makes for fun watching. And you might actually be able to convince your older kids to tag along. [03 Apr 1998, p.6G]

Firefox is no masterpiece, and it's not even a startling picture within its genre -- Cold War mischief. But it's briskly entertaining and, until the nyet-effect of all those stereotyped Russians catches up with us, even believeable. [21 June 1982, p.B4]

This huge, unwieldy movie is busy and overcrowded.

Vardalos may not have been the best possible Connie. But as Billy Wilder could have told you, nobody's perfect.

I will tell you what The Village is not: It is not scary. It is not all that interesting. It isn't even much of a movie.

An uninspired, sporadically funny adaptation that falls short of the book's winsome, frisky chaos.

Largely devoted to whatever laughs may be coaxed from the sound of a freshman belching and the sight of some mighty mature-looking coeds removing their blouses. There's some nose-picking, too, but not enough to save the picture. [20 July 1984, p.D6]

The Prophecy suffers from an overall dreariness, a surprising lack of suspense and sloppy, rapid-fire editing. Despite Walken's alternately amusing and frightening performance, the low-budget movie becomes so tedious that, by the end, even a cameo by the Prince of Darkness fails to impress. [05 Sep 1995, p.5D]

Craven packs routine teen-confrontation material into the plot as filler, and still has trouble getting to 90 minutes. His ending is contrived and nonsensical even by the standards of the form. [14 Oct 1986, p.B7]

It helps that Raw Deal works, for a time at least, as a first-rate cop movie. It is violent to excess -- more graphic by far than Stallone's films, and bloodier, too -- but it's a real movie. [07 June 1986, p.D1]

Jobs works much better as a history of Apple than it does as a portrait of the genius who dreamed it up.