Moneyball is a thinking person's baseball movie, and a baseball fan's thinking movie.

An exquisite character study in grief.

Davis and Spencer give faces and fully-fleshed out lives to women who must have been more than what they did for a living as The Help.

Tyson rose to the challenges of this demanding role with perceptive, luminous work. It remains the peak of her long, distinguished career. [22 Feb 2009, p.10]

Noel Coward's Cavalcade, a rich nostalgic look at a vanished way of life, vividly details the period through the travails of an upper and a lower class family between New Year's Eve 1899 and New Year's Eve 1932. [09 Mar 2003, p.9]

Thanks to Banderas and his Corinthian leather purr and writers who know how to use it, "Puss" is the best animated film of 2011.

The magic in the film is in the actors. Only somebody who has stripped himself emotionally bare for the camera could achieve the level of performance that Goldwyn gets from every single SAG member on this set.

There are so many terrific small moments to discover in The Commitments that there's no danger of ever growing bored. [14 Sep 1991, p.E1]

I Am Love is a cinematic orgy, a sensual Italian feast of food, sex, guilt and grief. An intimate, quiet and even slow movie, its subtle shadings veil turbulent emotions.

Fun-and-fin-filled feature-length Disney cartoon that revitalized the studio's animation department.

The sweet, the comic and the tragic blend together most agreeably in the winsome French romance The Hedgehog.

Comical, colorful, wonderfully cast and beautifully animated.

This latest Star Trek is a well-plotted, well-acted and consistently exciting addition to the popular movie series. [6 Dec. 1991, p.21]

Of all the gonzo-goofy comic book adaptations that embrace video gaming sensibilities, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is the gonzo-goofiest.

This performance reminds us that Bridges is that rare actor who has never had to make that apology. Crazy Heart lets him be every bit as grand as we’d hope him to be.

Chemistry is king. It's one reason the rom-com has long seemed like the toughest code for Hollywood to crack. But never underestimate the power of snappy, rapid-fire banter, the paving stones of the Hollywood road to romance.

A chilling detective tale, a horrific sexual abuse drama and an overlong, emotional, tie-up-every-loose-end melodrama that is sure to be half an hour shorter when Hollywood remakes it without the Swedish dialogue and probably without the cool Swedish edge.

It's an unblinking look into the lives of soldiers doing the most thankless job of all.

Almost every shot is a postcard-perfect African vista, and every animal shown in majestic close-up.

A most deserving Oscar winner and a film that could provoke discussion anywhere it is shown, anywhere people of any age are being bullied.

The rawboned Hawkes manages both charm and menace in the same look, and Dancy gives his character a testy, fearful edge that doesn't make him scary, but rather someone we fear for.

It's a bleak yet optimistic film, and Ferrell perfectly underplays his Carver anti-hero and delivers a rich, layered and subtle performance. And a funny one.

Audacious, violent and disquieting, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a summer sequel that's better than it has any right to be.

Cassel's performance...the best reason to see this, one of the best French (In French with English subtitles) crime thrillers of the new millennium.

Strip away the French and Arabic subtitles, the French-prison setting and the Muslim-messianic title, and A Prophet, opening Friday at The Enzian, would still be the grittiest prison thriller in years.

Working from Blatty's own screenplay, director William Friedkin sets his own unhurried pace. That pace, at times, does seem a tad glacial, and that is the film's biggest failing. But unlike so many horror flicks that followed, this one really is about something. It's about several things, actually: coming of age and letting go, mainly, as well as getting sick and growing old. [2000 re-release]

That humor is a the delicious underpinning to whatever melodrama happens as these five connect and clash. And that humor is what reassures us, even at its darkest moments, that no matter how things work out for the adults, these kids are going to be all right.

It's the best heist picture since "Heat."

Dazzling, scary and sentimental.

Director Walter Hill (48 HRS., The Warriors) keeps things moving quickly while making sure that the story doesn't get lost amid the slam-bang action. And Hill's comic-book-style visuals are just about perfect for the material. [08 Jan 1993, p.20]

They all help Malkovich to do his thing, and a remarkable thing it is. That terrific performance of his just might be a selling point, after all. [16 Oct 1992, p.17]

What's special about Fly Away Home is the delicate yet unsentimental way that Ballard approaches the material. Working from a straightforward script by Robert Rodat and Vince McKewin, he seems to let the story tell itself. [13 Sep 1996, p.23]

In Bottle Rocket, the small scale and vague amateurishness (especially in the performances) are themselves rather endearing. They seem to go along with the screwed-up characters, as does the loosely structured plot.

My Cousin Vinny is a hoot.

Except for the political implications of the addition of Freeman's character (which he brings off gracefully) and some revisionism about the nobility of the crusades (which, in my opinion, is long overdue), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is just an adventure movie - which is basically what I like about it. The second half is stronger than the first because it's swifter and more action-packed. Robin's feats of derring-do are always (as Costner might put it) neat - the more improbable, the better.

Though this film version of James and the Giant Peach is far from a classic, it's both reasonably respectful of its source and consistently enjoyable in its own right. And it passes the acid test of children's entertainment. This movie remembers what fun is.

Considered to be producer-director Stanley Kramer's most powerful film, containing his strongest message, a stern examination of the last days of mankind. [21 Mar 2004, p.8]

Presumed Innocent is a stylish, dark-toned movie with handsome photography (by Gordon Willis) and solid performances. Without exploiting the sensationalistic elements of the material, director Pakula creates a fascinating mood of impending disaster. If this movie isn't exactly exciting, it definitely holds the viewer's interest.

By the soaring standards of Mike Leigh's career, Career Girls (which opens locally today) is a minor work. But minor-league Leigh is better than major-league most other people, especially because he possesses the most emotionally sophisticated sensibility of any contemporary filmmaker.

The 1937 movie excels with outstanding performances by child star Freddie Bartholomew and Spencer Tracy. [20 Jun 1999, p.56]

If you're on - or even near - the film's wavelength, it's hilarious.

The movie doesn't paint a pretty picture, but it paints one that you sense is emotionally true. In the end, the Odones are heroes, not statues of heroes. You may not always like these people, but how can you help but admire them? [22 Jan 1993, p.E1]

Not everyone has realized this yet, but with Wayne's World and So I Married an Axe Murderer, Mike Myers has somehow become the first major movie star of the '90s. [30 July 1993]

Like the hero himself, the movie is larger than life - a horrific fantasy that gets carried away with itself as the mood builds and the tension mounts

Poitier's performance and Nelson's low-key direction carried this delightful vehicle, adapted to the screen by James Poe from William E. Barrett's eloquent novel. [14 Jan 2001, p.17]

Whether Carrey's fans will like it or not, the film is easily his best crafted piece of work to date. [14 June 1996, p.22]

Frenzy, which was Hitchcock's 54th and next-to-last film, displayed a macabre sense of humor, playful use of film techniques and edge-of-the-seat suspense. [27 Feb 2000, p.60]

The Firm and The Pelican Brief, both of last year, were solid entertainment. Now along comes the movie version of The Client - the best of the Grisham film trilogy.

James Cagney gives an electrifying performance as a psychotic and paranoiac mama’s boy in White Heat. The 1949 film is undoubtedly one of the most terrifying and violent crime films ever made.

For the most part, then, Tomorrow Never Dies is a straightforward action picture. And since the action is clearly and suspensefully staged, this unpretentious production turns out to be the best Bond flick in years.

Director Leo McCarey's An Affair to Remember (1957) was - and always will be - a poignant romantic fairy tale elevated above the typical studio tear-jerker. This is because of the performances turned in by Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, and outstanding production values. [17 Apr 1994, p.71]

Director Ivan Reitman isn't an especially careful moviemaker, though this latest film is structurally superior to such previous efforts as Ghostbusters, Stripes and Meatballs. He's still got a lot to learn about giving dramatic points the proper weight, and his visual sense is shaky. But for all his shortcomings, Reitman seems to have something that other, more elegant directors lack: the ability to get stars to go a little crazy. The enjoyment we get from the goofy performances in his movies is something rather rare.

Much as I like Beauty and the Beast, I think I would have preferred it if its dark parts had even been darker. The brooding beast is a fascinating character to consider, and his fearsome battle with a vicious pack of wolves is one of the most powerful scenes in the movie.

It's an efficiently crafted psychological thriller that keeps you guessing - even when you're sure that you have all the answers. [08 Feb 1991, p.6]

Ending The Paper cleverly - in the spirit that it begins - doesn't appear to have occurred to Howard and the Koepps. And that disappointing ending is certainly the movie's loss. [25 March 1994]

Working from a smart, sassy script by James Toback (The Pick-Up Artist, The Big Bang), director Barry Levinson (Rain Man) has fashioned an elegant adult entertainment that is, by turns, dramatic, funny and sexy. It's also a movie with too many loose ends and undeveloped themes, but Levinson's knack for smoothing out unruly material serves him well in this case.

The Last of the Mohicans isn't a classic, but it's one of the most exciting action pictures to come along in recent memory.

Navy Seals stands out among this summer's violence-oriented pictures as the only one that doesn't leave your brain feeling like mashed potatoes. There are plenty of exploding bombs in this picture, not to mention various other forms of destruction...But the action is orchestrated so sensitively that it's both aesthetically satisfying and emotionally resonant. There's a texture to the violence in Navy Seals that's completely absent in this summer's kaboom cartoons.

Putting up with weeks - or even months - of such media-fed psychobabble is a big price to pay for a couple of hours of defiantly unwholesome entertainment. The Getaway might just be worth it, though.

The Big Easy is as atmospheric as they come, but -- surprise! -- it's also sharp and swift. Plus, it has ample amounts of chemistry -- the steamy, sexy kind.

A vivid and harrowingly exciting melodrama. [05 Oct 1997]

The movie's sneaky intelligence pokes out in surprising, amusing ways.

The Fly...will send cold chills down the spines of the most hardened horror addict. It's a dilly. [29 Aug 1958, p.9D]

A suspenseful, near-forgotten gem about a captured loyal Luftwaffe pilot, Franz Von Werra (Hardy Kruger), who is obsessed with escape. [05 Jun 1994, p.F1]

This picture isn't Shakespeare for the ages, and purists, of course, must be scandalized. But it isn't Shakespeare for the masses, either. This Richard III is only for very particular tastes. To like the film you have to love Shakespeare, but you can't worship him. [16 Feb 1996, p.22]

Imagine the most exciting parts of The Fugitive but filmed with real moviemaking brio by director Brian De Palma (The Untouchables). [12 Nov 1993, p.20]

A creep-out with style to spare. [16 Jan 1998, p.19]

With its simple characters and episodic narrative, Kiki's Delivery Service has an unpretentious fairy-tale charm. [04 Sep 1998, p.29]

A superb character study of the residents of an English seaside hotel. [17 Oct 1999, p.56]

A newfangled old-fashioned movie about glory, honor, sacrifice and a martial code that crosses into fascism, homoerotism and homophobia at the same time -- there are plenty of turn-off buttons in this one. But by Zeus, this is a ripping yarn, told with limb-rending gusto, an iconic ancient battle as seen by an iconic comic-book creator, Frank Miller.

Style always outweighed substance in the atmospheric films of Josef von Sternberg, and this 1932 feature is no exception. [26 Nov 1993, p.32]

The movie has a lot going for it, including an array of imaginative special effects and Fox's expertly calibrated performance. [19 July 1996, p.17]

Harrison Ford - that most decent of decent men - helps to carry the new film on his broad shoulders. With his blunt, Everyman features and sympathetically furrowed brow, he comes off as such a solid, good guy that it's impossible not to care about his upstanding character.

This is the sort of breathless joyride that we expect - but don't often get - from a summer movie. [24 May 2000, p.E1]

This Mission unfolds at a near dead-sprint -- frenetic editing, whiplash camera pans, all hiding an intentionally under-explained plot and generic action beats that will be familiar to anyone who has ever seen a ticking-clock thriller. But if Mission: Impossible 3 is the first pitch of the popcorn-movie season, just two words come to mind -- butter up. [5 May 2006, p.8]

This may be the most truly disturbing movie to come along since Lynch's Blue Velvet of 1986...But for those who are willing to go the distance with Lynch, the return trip to Twin Peaks is well worth the trouble. [31 Aug 1992]

This 1935 adaptation flourishes because of a tasty, idiosyncratic cast (W.C. Fields, Basil Rathbone, Lionel Barrymore) that nicely matches up with Dickens' characterizations, and because of the assured production and direction of David O. Selznick and George Cukor, both at the top of their respective games. [02 Feb 1992, p.G1]

It's Shaq, making his motion-picture debut, who in the end turns Blue Chips into a slam-jam-thank-you-man experience sure to please basketball fans who aren't looking for more emotional involvement than a typical night at the O-rena. [8 Feb 1994, p.16]

A mad compound of naturalism, surrealism, farce and philosophy. [07 Jul 1996, p.65]

Fresh is easily one of the best of the new ''hood flicks'' because it doesn't neglect the basics. There's a story here - a good one - and characters you can connect with.

Cry-Baby is hipper and funnier than any Elvis flick ever was, but in many ways it's not so different from Viva Las Vegas or Blue Hawaii.

A beautifully photographed, sentimental film about a family of itinerant Australian sheepherders who travel from job to job during the 1920s.

Looking around, you realize that only so much is possible in this town. Fortunately, the limited range of possibilities includes a film like Gas, Food, Lodging. [8 Jan 1993]

There probably isn't anyone working in movies today who could have done more with this material than writer-director Paul Mazursky does. In Down and Out, he finds humor in those contemporary issues about which most people haven't quite resolved their feelings. This can lead him into dangerous territory: AIDS, anorexia, homosexuality and even "We Are the World" all figure in Down and Out's unusual comedy. [21 Nov 1999, p.60]

It's a lot of fun to watch - over two hours of thrills, spills, elaborate sets and special effects, all tied together by a pleasingly varied (and lighter than usual) musical score by John Williams.

The music becomes an aspect of Washington's performance - as does, in a satisfying way, everything else in the film. [03 Aug 1990, p.7]

Objective Burma!, which is directed strikingly by Raoul Walsh and has a documentary aura to it, is one of the finest and most realistic World War II dramas made during the war. [25 Oct 1992, p.61]

The 1951 sci-fi classic set the standard for a wave of films examining the Eisenhower era's end-of-the-world paranoia and humanity's newfound power to obliterate itself. [07 Mar 2003, p.40]

The best monster movie to come slithering out of the muck since Jurassic Park. Species is an exploitation picture while Jurassic Park was mainstream, but the new one is lots of fun if you're in the mood for B-movie thrills. [07 July 1995, p.19]

Outbreak is sharp, sometimes-exploitative entertainment that does its job with great efficiency.

Wild Bill is uncompromising almost to the point of orneriness. Director Hill takes you from one incident to the next, trusting you - or, rather, expecting you - to work out the connections among them. [01 Dec 1995, p.21]

The action in Terminator 2 is edited for maximum suspense, and much of it is mounted on such a grand scale that little in movie history comes close. (Scenes in last summer's Die Hard 2 did, but they lacked the finesse of the new film).

The direction, by Marc Forster (Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland), is breathless, with lovely grace notes — he uses silences to end his action beats. And if this incarnation of Bond still doesn't inspire affection, he does command respect, awe, a sense that a real man is risking life and limb for queen and crown.

No one can know what Jim Henson would have thought of The Muppet Christmas Carol, but I suspect he would have admired the way it fuses Dickens' spirit with his and usually comes up with something fresh and subtly different from either. Taking Scrooge's advice, Brian Henson and his crew keep Christmas in their own way - which, I suppose, is the only way to keep it. [11 Dec 1992, p.C-19]

Sayles has created a lively and instructive entertainment, a moral tale that is everything The Natural (1984) should have been.

The setup isn't exactly what you'd call plausible, but the follow-through is consistent and clever.

Despite its faults, however, Pacific Heights does the most important thing that any thriller can do. Whether you're a landlord or a tenant, it'll get you crazy. [28 Sept 1990, p.7]

Director William Wellman's The Public Enemy (1931), which was billed at the time of its release as being "devastatingly real," was the first film to seriously examine the causes of criminal behavior and to portray the gangster as a product of his environment. [22 Aug 1999, p.60]