Ritchie's showmanship--half macho braggadocio, half emotion-tinged bravura--slaps and tickles the viewer into submission. He takes a group of not-so-goodfellas, whose idea of fun is setting farts afire, and, against all odds, makes them lively and engaging.

It's sweet, tart, brightly colored, insubstantial, and utterly lacking in nutritional value. It's also fun to consume, and harmless enough as long as it isn't your whole diet.

Office Space's pleasures don't really depend on plot. It's pretty much what a Dilbert feature should look like.

Originally, somebody may have wanted the film to be a serious exploration of the dark side of high school sports, but it ended up as just one more sports picture.

Not just another lawyer movie, but rather one of the most striking dramas of the year.

A genuinely affecting movie that approaches its adult themes with intelligence, maturity, and rare authenticity.

Money Can't Buy You Happiness. It hasn't been this vividly re-examined in decades, and we're the richer for it.

This terrific movie manages to invest kitchen-sink realism with the soul of a fairy tale.

But in a calculated move that pays off handsomely, the picture's remarkable power is reserved for the end, when the intertwining themes coalesce in an extraordinarily satisfying and stirring way.

Although frustratingly confusing -- often the viewer can't be sure who is on which side or why -- the film brims with physical grandeur, exquisite costumes, and a captivating performance by Blanchett.

Weaving many interconnected plot lines and more than a dozen lives together, this gifted writer-director has fashioned a bleak, brilliant comedy about loneliness, lovelessness, and alienation--a film that constantly upends our assumptions about what is heartbreaking, what is hilarious, and what is both.

While there's nothing original in Rush Hour, it runs through its well-worn paces with both wit and excitement.

Damon looks like a kid lost in the wrong neighborhood, and his acting manners underscore that impression--everything is a bit too fine, too neat...An intermittently interesting, intermittently foolish film.

At best, second-rate pulp, hampered by excessive length, a thematically meandering screenplay, and a general lack of excitement.

The audience responds to Out of Sight the way Jack and Karen do to each other. Instantly we like the way it looks, moves, and sounds. Ultimately we like how it makes us feel.

With all its hip-hop and jive, Bulworth may seem new-style -- but actually it's proffering a populism that Frank Capra would have loved.

Primary Colors lacks the buzz and crackle of observed experience; you never feel like you've been plunged into the workings of a real campaign. It's a sham movie about a sham world.

Full of provocative concepts, but, like most films that attack such metaphysical concerns head-on, things have become a tad too jumbled by the end to be altogether satisfying. It's a problem built into the subject matter...This all said, Dark City is immensely entertaining, as well as visually dazzling.

For all its mystery and its stylistic finesse, there is something vaguely plodding about The Sweet Hereafter.

It's Mamet without the rich slanginess and heat of which he's capable at his best.

Nunez's direction is as self-consciously homey as a floral welcome mat.

It's a killing comedy for people who have learned to stop worrying and love their iden-tity crisis.

This is a dark, often funny walk through Ingmar Bergman turf.

One of the few American independent films right now that actually deserves its high praise.

One of the few unanimously acclaimed classics of Japanese animation.

Though not as visually impressive as comparable Terry Gilliam fare such as Jabberwocky, the verbal wit is fast and abundant (abetted with cameos by Billy Crystal, Peter Cook and Mel Smith), and you'd better believe the midnight movie crowd will remember almost all of it.

Powerful, sensuous and thematically hokey transsexual adventure.

One of the finest qualities of Amadeus is that it reminds us of those rare occasions when an Oscar sweep is actually merited.