That Disney touch (which even Disney has trouble replicating) is missing. Even the hockey is unconvincing.

Whatever its virtues, Eli is a movie that can’t help but suffer in comparison to the much-delayed and much better "Road."

Limp and lifeless, this Next Door neighbor should be evicted to DVD.

Daybreakers is a stylish but unavoidably silly sci-fi vampire thriller.

The "Made of Honor" screenwriters don't deliver enough jokes or feisty exchanges between the ill-matched traveling companions.

Equal parts inspired and irresponsible, the new film from Miguel Arteta (director of the cult hit 'Chuck and Buck') turns C.D. Payne's books into a hit-or-miss homage to that French classic of outlaw love, 'Breathless.'

Haneke tells this tale a bit too patiently for my taste. But the metaphors are unmistakable, as is the power of the film’s message.

It’s filmic fool’s gold, as every scene that doesn’t sparkle is just dirt -- dank, gritty visuals, murky plotting and very bad line-readings from Troyer (Mini-Me from the Austin Powers movies).

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.

Though properly chilling when it’s supposed to be, it’s a film whose effects, script and performances keep it at arm’s length when it is supposed to be moving.

An exquisite character study in grief.

A stop any literary-minded movie-goer will want to make.

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

An engaging Israeli film about the days when the people throwing rocks, assassinating soldiers and setting off bombs were Jews out to carve a state for themselves out of the British "mandate" in Palestine.

With Halloween II, Zombie shows conclusively that he's not interested in growing, getting better or ever becoming an original. He's just a hack with a made-up name, a cult following and a wife who can't act.

Terminator Salvation is one of the most visually impressive films in the series. The action is non-stop and the look borders on dazzling.... But ironically for a series that's supposed to be about an embattled humanity struggling against those who lack it, there isn't an emotional moment in this.

So while we can appreciate the decent effects, the bang-up settings and a good cast, we can only hope they got some sight-seeing in on their days off. Whatever magic there was on this shoot is probably in their home movies.

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.

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.

It's stunning work, movingly narrated by actors from Josh Lucas to Robert Duvall, all telling the stories of those who fought and bled and lived to tell the tale. [23 Mar 2007, p.21]

Casino Royale is just swell when Bond is busting up bathrooms in Prague, busting up embassies in Madagascar and busting a move in Nassau. But when he gets to, well, Casino Royale (here, in the former Yugoslav Republic of Montenegro), the film goes utterly flat.

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]

It's a story about storytelling, with differing versions of events in which people die by the sword. Filled with Yimou's characteristic symbolism and zest for striking colors, it's a fictional account of the unification of China.

Director Zack Snyder choreographs this like a video game, emphasizing the body count over character.

In a lot of ways, Die Another Day is a return to Bond's bad-old-days, the early 1980s, when the plots were outlandish and haphazard, the stunts were fake and the whole enterprise was being treated as a cartoon.

Visually imaginative, thematically instructive and thoroughly delightful, it takes us on a roller-coaster ride from innocence to experience without even a hint of that typical kiddie-flick sentimentality.

Longer, more thorough and tweaked to play to modern audiences better, Apocalypse Now Redux packs every bit the wallop it did when it was new. After Gallipoli and Full Metal Jacket, after even Platoon, it remains the definitive anti-war war movie.

It's a delightful cartoon that truly feels African in the way it carries the wisdom of the ages. It feels like a great fable, preserved for generations because of the wise lessons it imparts. [04 Aug 2000, p.19]

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

The latest 007 extravaganza has enough plot developments, double-entendres, emotional underpinnings and, of course, Bond girls, action scenes and explosions to furnish at least a couple of Bondfests, with plenty left over for an episode of Nash Bridges.

It's not enough to have the characters act scared and then to throw in a bunch of special effects. It's absolutely essential to creep out the audience, and that's what De Bont neglects to do. [23 July 1999, p.17]

The actors make the most of Carroll's dialogue, which is often quite witty. [22 Jan 1999, p.17]

This rather basic story is really just a place to hang the action scenes, which should have been the movie's glory. But those scenes turn out to be the worst things about Mighty Joe Young, in which the action is edited, MTV-style, for maximum incoherence.

Perhaps the best thing about this movie isn't any individual performance or scene but the mere fact of its existence. At a time when so many films strain to be either tragically hip on the one hand or distressingly saccharine on the other, a movie like Down in the Delta is a genuine rarity. [25 Dec 1998, p.19]

If I had to guess, I'd say that the big white "snow" thing is a flimsy combination of cheap plaster, recycled Styrofoam and some poor soul's false hopes. Pretty much like the movie itself. [11 Dec 1998, p.22]

The entire production is vaguely unsettling. That, in fact, is one of the most engaging things about Babe: Pig in the City. The imaginative art direction, economical editing and sculptural cinematography combine to make this movie one of the year's most distinctive-looking productions.

This is hatred in its purest form. Not a pretty sight, to be sure, but one that is well worth viewing. [04 Jun 1999, p.24]

Not only does Slam strike me as one of the best films about being a writer I've ever seen, it is also the least sentimental coming-of-age movie to come along in years. [06 Nov 1998, p.19]

Permanent Midnight might have been somewhat smoother if it had been framed by the talk-show sequences. The motel scenes with Kitty could have been dropped in favor of scenes that would have offered a deeper sense of Jerry's arrangement with his wife. But the movie touches something real. By the end of Permanent Midnight, you almost feel that you do know someone like Jerry Stahl. [25 Sep 1998, p.23]

Quest for Camelot is certainly no improvement on the studio's jangly Space Jam of 1996. [15 May 1998, p.21]

This latest Les Miserables is a watchable, even worthy, attempt. It's far from miserable. [01 May 1998, p.21]

Where Fargo was cool and wryly detached, the zany new film is aggressively antic - more like parts of their Barton Fink or The Hudsucker Proxy. On occasion, in fact, the Coens' anything-goes approach can begin to get on your nerves. [6 March 1998, p.17]

After watching this hot-and-heavy costume drama, I had to wonder why there are not a lot more like it. Not that I necessarily wish there were, you understand. But this sort of picture has so much going for it from a "date-night" perspective that I'm surprised there are so few of them. [13 Mar 1998, p.20]

Even if the Blues Brothers routine is a joke that has gone on too long, the music in Blues Brothers 2000 turns at least some of the film into an encore worth hearing. [06 Feb 1998, p.20]

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

Mr. Magoo manages to be faithful to cartoon's format without capturing an iota of its charm. [26 Dec 1997, p.24]

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.

Like its fallen star, Gang Related may not be perfect. But there's a lot going on here, just beneath the surface. [8 Oct 1997]

David Mamet, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter (The Verdict) and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (Glengarry Glen Ross), is in a pop-elemental mode here, spinning simple, basic myths about manhood for the masses. [26 Sep 1997, p.19]

It moves along briskly and lightly, leaving little trace and doing no serious damage to boomer memories. [22 Aug 1997, p.19]

"Steel" isn't offensively exploitative, just awkward, goofy and terminally sluggish. But then, how fast-paced could a movie be whose central character clumps around in 75 pounds of body armor? [15 Aug 1997]

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.

Basically, the film is a vehicle for the talent on board. And though the ship is creaky, it does stay afloat. [02 July 1997, p.E2]

Notwithstanding the hero's Superman similarities, Hercules isn't quite super. But it's strong enough to get the job done. [27 June 1997, p.17]

There's an air of desperation about this movie - a sense that the stars are yearning to do something so patently undemanding that it just can't miss.

What's different about this film is that it holds together better than Brooks' other movies. And in the end, it's somewhat sweeter. [17 Jan 1997, p.21]

But eventually, the soulless violence and shoddy plotting wear you out. By the end, you'll start to feel like one of the hostages. [17 Jan 1997, p.A2]

If the thunder-and-lightning sort of movie that Reiner has come up with doesn't square with the quiet power of the material, some of that power breaks through nevertheless. Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that a smaller-scaled production - possibly even a documentary - would have better served this particular story. [03 Jan 1997, p.17]

In a film that could have been called Grumpy Old Prexies, Garner makes a decent replacement for Walter Matthau. Garner and Lemmon, game troopers both, do what they can to wring laughs out of material that went out with the Eisenhower administration.

Although the picture's biggest problems are the lame writing and limp direction, it doesn't help that the main role requires a comedian, which Arnold just is not. [22 Nov 1996, p.20]

Witty, sharp and, ultimately, chastening, Ridicule is a terrific movie in the sinuous tradition of Dangerous Liaisons (1988). [31 Jan 1997]

If the movie isn't a total loss that's because Jordan, Bugs (voice by Billy West) and their friends have an undeniable charm and because some of the classic gags that director Joe Pytka (a TV-commercial guy), producer Ivan Reitman (Twins, Junior) and the screenwriters have adapted from the Looney Tunes shorts are hard to spoil completely.

Get on the Bus turns out to be a better movie than Malcolm X. With the road-picture format Lee is free at last - liberated to set his own pace and follow his better instincts. [16 Oct 1996, p.E1]

Extreme Measures is far from a classic. But it begins well and sustains its suspenseful tone for about two-thirds of its length...Grant's performance is one of the best things in the movie.

If Last Man Standing is a failure, it's far from a disgrace. Its intentions seem pure; its method, precise and painstaking. You might say this movie has everything. Everything but excitement. [20 Sep 1996, p.22]

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]

Writer-director David Koepp (Carlito's Way, Jurassic Park) certainly knows how to hold an audience's attention. [30 Aug 1996, p.15]

I must admit that, all things considered, it's not bad. In fact, I liked it almost as much as the first one, which I thought was vaguely enjoyable, if somewhat too long. [23 Aug 1996, p.17]

She's the One has fewer rough edges than The Brothers McMullen, but it also has fewer of the weird little nooks and crannies of personality that were the best things about Burns' debut film.

A production that's strong on atmosphere but weak in the plot department. Watching this often-tedious film, you begin to feel as if you've been kidnapped - which is appropriate, anyway, since the story concerns an abduction.

Failed attempts at satire aside, John Carpenter's Escape From L.A. is basically a routine action picture. [09 Aug 1996, p.22]

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]

If you get stuck at Striptease, my advice is to relax and try to enjoy its occasional pleasures.

If The Hunchback of Notre Dame isn't for younger kids, it's an ambitious, often stirring film that's easy to recommend for just about anyone else. [21 June 1996, 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]

If it's not the most awful thing I've ever seen, it's close enough to make me wince.

Between dragon scenes, Dragonheart falls apart. [31 May 1996, p.17]

Although the film is watchable and, at times, even borderline entertaining, it has its share of problems. Mainly, the filmmakers seem to have had trouble deciding just what kind of movie they were making. [22 May 1996, p.E1]

The new big-screen Flipper isn't as lame as that series, which is one of the two nicest things you can say about it. The other is that its aquatic sequences are sometimes quite beautiful, with their views of dolphins and other sea life. [17 May 1996, p.17]

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

If you're not on the Kids' wavelength, this could quickly become annoying. So, for that matter, could their offbeat sense of humor, which isn't just dark but gleefully dark. But if you like this sort of thing, it's fun hopping around with the troupe as their movie's geography gradually becomes clear. [21 Apr 1996, p.A2]

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.

Sgt. Bilko is a bigger con job than Bilko himself ever pulled. [29 Mar 1996, p.A2]

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.

If the Muppets sometime seem at sea in Muppet Treasure Island, the film still has more wit and irony than most kid-oriented productions. Fozzie, in fact, has more in that index finger of his than Barney has in his whole purple carcass. [16 Feb 1996, p.30]

Restoration, as I say, has its flaws. The lessons it wants to teach us may be too obvious. And the production's appealing lack of solemnity has the downside of seeming, at times, like superficiality. [26 Jan 1996, p.18]

Mr. Holland's Opus pretty much plays things straight. There are occasional jokes, but, basically, it's a clumsy tear-jerker. The biggest laughs in this one aren't intended. [19 Jan 1996, p.24]

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]

Cutthroat Island isn't so much a movie as it is a burial at sea. As a longtime Geena Davis fan, I hope she won't go down with the ship. [22 Dec 1995, p.M10]

His movie is only partly satisfying. [23 Feb 1996]

This new Sabrina stresses the material's Cinderella love story - the part, that is, that was corny and somewhat dated even in the '50s. What director Sydney Pollack and his screenwriters (Barbara Benedek and David Rayfiel) have done is a little like redesigning the Ford Pinto and keeping the unfortunate old gas tank. [15 Dec 1995, p.19]

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

With DiCaprio and Thewlis cast as 19th-century French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine in Total Eclipse, you'd figure that the new film would almost have to be worth watching -if only for the acting. You would be mistaken. [01 Dec 1995, p.23]

Director Lesli Linka Glatter (NYPD Blue, Twin Peaks) gets nice performances from her young cast, which includes some of the best little actresses working today. Their adult counterparts are fine too. [20 Oct 1995, p.22]

Bigelow's knack for fast-paced action, her skill at evoking a threatening atmosphere and her affinity with damaged people all come together in the daringly kinetic new film. [13 Oct 1995, p.28]

The script, by Showgirls' Joe Eszterhas, seems dead-set on evoking a darkly sensuous mood, full, as it is, of sex games, secret sex tapes and even - Lord help us - a fertility mask. But William Friedkin (Blue Chips, The Exorcist) directs in such a stark, threatening style that the combined effect of their efforts is an uninvolving, faintly creepy brooding. [13 Oct 1995, p.25]

To watch To Wong Foo is finally to be reminded that camp-meisters often have a weakness for sentimentality that is far more appalling than anything they do in the name of outrageousness. [08 Sep 1995, p.17]