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.