Slight and not exactly memorable, but it moves quickly and has some surprising twists and top-notch performances all around.

If Heaven doesn't quite achieve the transcendent power that Kieslowski might have attained, it comes close. One shot in particular, with the couple making love under a tree in silhouette, is a thing of quiet, sublime beauty that is eloquent in a way words never could be.

These are small subjects here, and intimate ones, and they are handled with great warmth. [27 May 1982, p.B5]

It digs deep into the heart and soul of its lovers, who are idealistic, intelligent and passionate - and yet still risk everything they might gain for stolen moments together.

Some episodes are funnier than others, but they're all underscored by a pervasive melancholy.

The dead-serious Man on Fire awakens a genuine sense of bloodlust in the viewer. This is a slick, big-budget, A-list production designed to stoke our basest impulses -- to make us long for, and cheer at, bloody, merciless vengeance.

Gamely depicts an interesting bit of history, but its real message is a matter of principle.

Something of Angela's Ashes does gets lost in translation -- mainly, its fiercely funny voice.

As with many Hollywood epics, the movie glosses over inconvenient details and takes more than a few creative liberties. Yet First Knight dazzles. The spectacle of Connery charging into battle or Camelot glimmering in the distance makes it a most satisfying romp. [07 Jul 1995, p.5G]

Although it strikes a perfect balance between otherworldly, slimy menace and 1950s B-movie cheesiness, The Host's computer-generated mutant isn't what makes this frantic, wild picture so much fun.

Glory leaves you with not just the sense of its characters' triumph over injustice, but their destruction by the very system that empowered them to begin with. There's no escaping that story, either -- even if Glory doesn't really tell it. [12 Jan 1990, p.G5]

An engaging and powerful portrayal of puberty gone awry.

Vardalos made the Portokaloses so funny they'll make your own family seem tame.

If you need proof that the British are different from the rest of us, look no farther than the thought-provoking Separate Lies, a chilly, intelligent and absorbing drama about infidelity, ethics and forgiveness.

Admirers of the author will find in Edmond all the elements that turned Mamet into a favorite.

The movie isn't a thriller, but it has the tension of a thriller, and its cool, icy tone, deliberate pacing and clean, antiseptic lines are reminiscent of Kubrick and Antonioni.

Impossible not to like.

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 film's refusal to take its characters anything less than seriously makes it cut deeper than a Will Ferrell lampoon.

The World’s End builds to an unexpectedly witty, funny climax that flies in the face of most films of its genre, and although its humor is not for all tastes, no one can say this crazy picture doesn’t have the guts to live up to its title.

Nothing fantastic or supernatural ever happens, but you can still feel cosmic forces at work behind the scenes, conspiring to repeatedly test the movie's characters, doling out reward and punishment in equal doses.

The less you know about Gone Girl going in the better, but even knowing what’s ahead doesn’t prepare you for the movie’s tone, which is funny yet curdled and cynical and black. This is a satirical antidote to the feel-good pap most Hollywood movies about relationships push on their audiences - here’s the perfect date movie for someone you want to break up with.

Midler sweeps into scenes with divine force, and Tomlin plays off her co-star with a barrage of comic nuance. Tomlin is playing parts, Midler is plying shtick, and it's wonderful. [10 Jun 1988, p.D1]

At its best when it is at its most freewheeling -- when it tramples past logic, motivation and basic plausibility in its pursuit of a funny, whimsical kind of nonsense.

It gets awfully corny toward the end ("Print -- choke, gasp -- the truth."), but director George Cukor keeps the atmosphere spooky, and Darryl Hickman is good as a cute little brown-shirt. [12 Sep 1982, p.8]

King Kong makes clear that Jackson has no contemporary peer when it comes to outsized, transporting fantasies that enchant in an era when special effects have become white noise.

This is easily the funniest of the Terminator movies (although not, it should be stressed, the lightest). It is also the shortest and most compact.

It is a startling film in structure, style and story, but most of all in the simplicity of its plot -- which, once revealed (and that takes a while) is a horror story for cineastes. [03 Feb 1983, p.C8]