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.