A film that parents can confidently and with pleasure take their little ones to see - but which is not quite a good movie.

Could have been written by a computer programmed to cannibalize previous sci-fi films.

Begins so briskly and promisingly to stumble aimlessly and flat-footedly to a surprise finale.

It's as light as a feather yet tickles all the same.

A kindler, gentler comedy that's perfect for children and parents to see together.

Slow and predictable, and the characters are so poorly written that its hard to react to them in any way.

An ugly, failed attempt to pull off a "Heathers"-style, teen-oriented black comedy.

An enjoyable minor-league lark. But another "Notting Hill?" Fuhgeddaboutit.

The Return is about bullets, bombs and boobs - the biggest boob being Van Damme, natch, but there are also mammaries aplenty.

Bowfinger's terrific set-pieces... more than make up for the odd weak moment or thin performance.

Better Than Chocolate is well-filmed and for the most part well-acted. But its technical professionalism only serves to make the amateurishly crude patches of Maggie Thompson's script more obvious. [13 Aug 1999, p.062]

Somnolent, draggy but occasionally warm-hearted.

Like a thick slice of ham - tasty, elegantly prepared and served - that aspires to be gourmet fare but in the end turns out to be only half-baked.

In most respects, The Iron Giant is one of the better animated children's films in recent memory, which makes its strident political correctness all the more frustrating.

(Osment) delivers what may be the greatest performance ever by a child actor.

A gleefully cunning comedy.

A runaway bore.

The whole film could use a jolt of caffeine, and a lugubrious woodwind score doesn't help.

It's shocking only in its banality, impotence and utter lack of heat.

May be the creepiest and most original horror film since John Carpenter's classic "Halloween."

But on evidence of the likable but draggy and awfully thin Muppets from Space, Kermit & Co. are showing their age. Miss Piggy is about five years away from Norma Desmondhood, and Kermit is ready for his pipe and cardigan, Mr. DeMille. [14 July 1999, p.048]

Vulgar and lewd and raunchy like you wouldn't believe, and absolutely hilarious from beginning to end.

Late August, Early September is less a living, breathing movie than a dry exercise in theory. [07 Jul 1999, p.048]

It all gets repetitive, and after about the halfway point, you get the feeling that Myers and Co. don't know where to go next, and are making it up as they go along.

The frothy, feel-good Notting Hill is about as enchanting as movies get these days.

Forget the hype, and the backlash. The Phantom Menace is captivating.

At first, it seems stagy and slow and even to verge on the pretentious, but the film steadily accumulates dramatic power as its carefully sketched characters reveal their internal lives. By its end, After Life has developed into one of those haunting movies whose scenes can pop back into your consciousness hours or days after you have seen it. [12 May 1999, p.56]

Cheerful, slightly cheesy entertainment that uses the latest special-effects techniques to breathe life into a venerable film tradition.