What's missing in Point of No Return is basically the same thing that was missing in La Femme Nikita - cleverness. Both are stylish action pictures that would seem a lot more stylish with a few ingenious plot twists. [23 March 1993, p.E1]

A gorgeously animated combat fantasy - "The Lord of the Rings" meets "Happy Feet."

"Gattaca" director Andrew Niccol's sense of the zeitgeist is as on the money as ever with In Time, a sci-fi parable that plays like "Occupy Wall Street: The Movie."

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.

The movie contains Jane Fonda's first big-screen appearance since On Golden Pond (1981); if she doesn't quite find a character in Martha, she is nonetheless riveting. Anne Bancroft, too, is impressive. Finally, though, it is Meg Tilly who makes the movie live. Her performance, which works on both realistic and symbolic levels, allows you to believe in the story.

This is still a most original take on the consequences of following your own "yellowbrickroad" when you don't know, for sure, that there's an Oz at the end of it.

Aniston's work opposite the screen's premiere mild-mannered funnyman shows her at her most engaged and pitch perfect.

A detail-oriented thriller that lets us keep up even as it races to a conclusion.

One great thing about the script for Housesitter - the new Steve Martin-Goldie Hawn screwball comedy - is that it takes the romanticism of shared dream-spinning and turns it into a sustaining comic device. The other great thing about the script is that it's beautifully structured. [12 June 1992, p.19]

Sweet, sentimental, silly and star-studded, Nanny McPhee Returns is one of the best children's movies of the year.

Three Amigos will never get any prizes for excitement or originality, but if there were an award for friendliness, this movie would at least be in the running.

The spookiest and most entertaining horror flick since "Paranormal Activity."

The ending smacks of Hollywood rewriting of history. But The Devil's Double shows the political consequences of Uday's misdeeds, the delicate negotiations that keep the people with grievances in line. And Dominic Cooper delivers a career-making performance.

The screenplay may have too many holes in it, but it gets a merit badge for the cleverness of its sarcastic dialogue, much of which is unprintable here. [13 Dec 1991, p.20]

3D or not, the film about the mop-topped Canadian - who turns 17 March 1 - doesn't let us get very close to "the talent."

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

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.

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 a fitfully amusing, not remotely scary slasher picture.

Whatever romance and charm Gruen summoned forth from these rough and tumble show people living by their own laws in a traveling, self-contained world of poverty and cruelty, director Francis Lawrence has hacked and ground them off.

The film may be a collection of little moments that don't add up, but on a moment-by-moment basis, it isn't hard to take. [22 Jun 1990, p.6]

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]

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.

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]

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.

When the comedy is on this level, all the actors can do is to hang on and hope for the best. [23 Nov 1990, p.7]

A mirthless, joyless comedy with nary a hint of romance, mystery or justification for its existence.

Shockingly, it's funny. Often in shocking or at least wildly inappropriate ways.