Shot mostly with a hand-held camera and in the gray hues you expect from the gruesome landscape, Kippur is highly sophisticated in its action scenes.

Sharp, witty and decidedly different.

For all its tumult, The Clay Bird mostly concentrates on its likable characters, all acted with the kind of understatement that makes a good film better.

Move over donkey, it's Banderas' time to shine.

Because Kitano also wrote and directed the movie, Zatoichi also features all kinds of beguiling, if admittedly bizarre, subplots and forays into nonsequitur territory.

It is a testament to just how well Enchanted works that by the time a dragon is flying around New York City, you've forgotten all about the movie's high-concept humor and become invested in the plight of its characters instead.

The result is a kind of quiet epic of rural life, redolent of the Taviani brothers' Tuscan reveries. And though Jean de Florette is whole enough to stand on its own, there's unfinished business at the end -- enough to hook us. [25 Sep 1987, p.D5]

By turns endearing and hilarious, Lilo & Stitch is proof the folks at Disney should break their own rules more often.

Don’t expect Hitchcock or De Palma here — Reichardt is much too low-key and modest for such crowd-pleasing pyrotechnics — but one long, sustained shot near the end seems to suggest that people who are convinced they are doing the right thing are capable of great evil.

De Palma does some borrowing, too. He always does. Pick your Vietnam War favorite -- Platoon, Apocalypse Now, et al. -- and you'll find an "homage" in Casualties of War. But you won't find the scale or depth that either the war or the genre deserve. It's a big disappointment. [18 Aug 1989, p.G5]

Doesn't have the depth and resonance of a classic, but the picture's modesty is refreshing, and its artistry is awe-inspiring.

The main thing to keep in mind while watching Steven Soderbergh’s thriller Side Effects is not to take the movie too seriously or else you’ll feel betrayed by the end.

It's much easier to linger on his youthful idealism than on how that idealism eventually manifested itself. It certainly makes for a much prettier picture. But when your subject is Ernesto ''Che'' Guevara, it is disingenuous.

Despite its considerable faults, this bizarre, fascinating story is impossible to shake off, like the expression on the face of one of the brothers as he's talking about his father and begins getting choked up (instead of crying, he smiles convincingly, evidence of a life led having to learn to hide his emotions for fear of reprisal).

Slowly loses its grip, becoming just another story about infidelity, albeit an exceptionally polished, well-acted one.

After the nihilistic deconstruction of Deadpool and the flattening self-importance of Batman v. Superman, Captain America: Civil War reminds you how funny and exciting these pictures can be when they’re done right — you know, like comic books. The summer movie season has barely begun, and already the remedy for superhero film fatigue has arrived.

The film does slow down at times and presents only tantalizing hints of Monk, the colorful character. Yet it's a must-see introduction for anyone who can handle their jazz without sugarcoating. [16 Mar 1990, p.G16]

If nothing else, Startup.com is a pointed reminder that mixing business and friendship never, ever works.

This is a small, intimate movie bound to get lost in the holiday shuffle, but its pleasures are worth seeking out.

In the end, Roger Dodger doesn't really add up to much. Guys can be jerks when they're lonely, or even when they're not. It's not news. But Kidd's version of this truth shows he's a writer worth watching.

Occasionally feels a bit suffocating, like being trapped at a party by a drunkard who won't shut up until he tells you his entire life story.

The film's concept is so absurd and Hamer goes about developing it with such a regimented structure that you have to believe that the filmmaker is poking fun at himself and the world he knows well.

Even in its somewhat unwieldy form, Catch Me If You Can is charming, sparkling entertainment.

The deep cast (look out for a slew of crowd-pleasing cameos) play this borderline-silly stuff so well, there isn’t a single unintentional laugh in the entire thing.

The film is all very wistful, and at its best moments has an exquisite mystery to it, the lure of the memory play. And even when it isn't working, there's Turner to watch. That's something. [10 Oct 1986, p.D1]

The filmmakers’ fondness and respect for all things Batman are what elevate The Lego Batman Movie past the trappings of a funny cartoon. Who could have guessed, in the era of non-stop comic-book pictures, that a movie that uses toys as protagonist would do the most justice to the enigmatic Bruce Wayne?

It's a breezy, homespun, relaxing thing...watching this laid-back picture feels, oddly enough, like a vacation from movies.

Baadasssss! is best taken as an examination of filmmaking itself.