The director keeps the pacing brisk, and if he doesn't make as emotional a picture as someone else might have, The Journey of Natty Gann has a quiet dignity.

Yes, it's pretty much a must to have seen the first film. Where Dragon Tattoo felt like fall, Played with Fire was shot in the Swedish summer, which suits the faster pace, ramped up violence and fresh collection of supporting players -- cops, a kickboxer, and a couple of borderline Bond villains.

The fourth comic book movie of the summer is the best comic book movie of the summer. Johnston has delivered a light, clever and deftly balanced adventure picture with real lump in the throat nostalgia.

Best taken as the perfect film to transition your kids from animation to live action fare – short, sweet, and educational.

Tony Curtis does a remarkable portrayal of De Salvo, while Henry Fonda is outstanding as the principal criminal investigator, John S. Bottomley, who must work with few clues. [17 Feb 2002, p.9]

City Island is a light “family” romance that goes about as far as its novel location -- an island neighborhood tucked in the middle of New York City -- and a good cast can carry it.

White Hunter, Black Heart is no African Queen (or even, really, an especially good movie), but it does manage to stay afloat. [12 Oct 1990, p.6]

The filmmakers should be praised for injecting a stark, sense-quickening drama into the current movie scene. Just say yes to this Rush. [13 Jan 1992, p.B1]

Absurdly long, absurdly over the top and absurdly absurd, Five Five - still manages to be more fun than any movie with its outrageous carbon footprint has any right to be.

Lumet's biggest mistake was probably in writing the screenplay himself. A filmmaker who trusts his impulses as much as Lumet does needs an objective presence to help clarify his thinking. But if Q&A raises more Q's than it can provide A's for, it's still pretty OK in my book. [02 May 1990, p.E1]

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

Greatest Movie isn't Spurlock's best. It plays like an overlong, overly cutesy TV news report (woman and man on street interviews included) on product placement.

You buy the movie's premise because director Fred Schepisi evokes such a rich spirit of playfulness and romance that you want to buy it. [26 Dec 1994, p.D1]

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]

The first, and perhaps the best, of five Clark Gable-Jean Harlow vehicles. [08 Feb 1998, p.67]

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]

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]

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]

Stone and Bogosian have gotten hold of a disturbing, even frightening, subject here, and they ride it for all they are worth. Talk Radio says that the depravity of the mass media is fed and surpassed by the roar of the maniac crowd.

It's a sturdy World War II yarn, with harrowing and heart-breaking moments sprinkled throughout.

An awkward blend of ultra-realistic violence, boundaries-bending satire and low comedy.

Despite the film's serious shortcomings, it does have a certain wan charm. And its surprise ending packs a strong punch. [23 Feb 1990, p.4]

The wildly improbable set-up is merely the jumping off point for an exploration of grief, guilt and redemption.

It begins with such promise, a kinky modernist twist on a classical sci-fi morality tale. That it degenerates into conventional, genre horror is all the more disappointing.

An entertaining old-fashioned prison escape movie with a touch of the epic about it.

Shelton's approach in Cobb is stunningly successful and also very funny, in a jolting, in-your-face sort of way. Instead of taking the usual sports-biopic tack of glorifying his subject, he digs deep into the dirt of the athlete's life and somehow comes up with a weird sort of anti-glory glory.

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]