There's no adroitness, no grace in the handling of the pitching emotions - funny, sad, icky - that such a story presents.

Jaw-droppingly corny. [22 Jan 1999, p.03]

At one point, Dulaine takes the students to his studio and they look up at the mirrored disco ball glittering above the dance floor. "Corny, but cool," says one of the sweathogs. My feelings about the film precisely.

There are big, jaunty gusts of music, and there are big, jaunty gusts of acting: the Heath Ledger-esque Alexander Fehling pumps up his Johann Wolfgang von Goethe with brash, boyish verve and stormy emoting.

Offers a worshipful but insightful portrait of the group - centered, of course, on its charismatic front man.

The film is uniquely spirited, radiating the exuberance and sexual heat of an Elvis musical, a characteristic shared by its songs and dances.

Even though the soap employed is Irish Spring, this is still a soap opera.

Three things make the film worthwhile: Shatner's performance; the sequence involving Data getting his "emotion chip" implant; and John Alonzo's crystalline cinematography, which makes Generations the most beautiful Trek ever. [18 Nov. 1994, p.03]

This provocative account of a war-weary administration that denied Surratt her right to a fair trial starts slow but builds momentum in the scenes with Wright and Evan Rachel Wood as Surratt's flinty daughter, Anna.

The new King is competent, reasonably entertaining, faithful to the original, wholesome, sometimes even enjoyable.

Not everyone's cup of tea, but a strong, heady brew.

As stories go, The Astronaut Farmer is engaging, even if it serves up a kind of Plains State brand of Rocky-esque hooey.

Gritty and compelling up to a point, but cheaply exploitive as well.

The troupe deserves every bit of its worldwide renown, and it makes this Imax trip one well worth taking.

Lacks an essential sense of purpose.

Doesn't overdo it on the 1950s period charm -- lots of tweed, old cars and bikes, great woolly sweaters and painted rowhouses -- and the performances never get out of hand, even when the plot does.

Invincible works, simply but provocatively, as a parable about the oppressed and the oppressors, victimhood and fanaticism.

A film with many redeeming qualities. Its heart is certainly in the right place, but its head makes some misjudgments.

Since the main reason I go to movies is to engage with characters, I prefer "The Pledge," the film opening today by Madonna's first husband, Sean Penn, rather than this stylish fluff by her second spouse.

Facing Windows is rich stuff. Maybe too rich. But thanks to fine performances and a grounded script, the pieces of this intriguing little puzzle all manage to fit.

Just misses being great. The dark shaman mysticism doesn't entirely mesh with the earthbound quest across the wild and glorious Southwest. And the ending, with its shoot-outs and sacrifices, has a choppy, unneccessarily complicated feel.

Romance and Cigarettes is lewd and it's lurid and looks to be a lost pop opera, but it has more vitality than anything else out there.

It's not just Hollywood convention that gets in the way of the story, it's the lack of depth, heft and heart at its core.

Best when skewering New Age entrepreneurs for what might be called Compassionate Capitalism. Steve Martin is sublime as Kate's boss, Barry, purveyor of organic food and Zen koans.

The film is too formulaic and far too prone to melodrama, with outsize emotions as ridiculous as its comic-book villains.

5 Flights Up is a sweet film with a few nicely turned lines, some good jokes, and some very lovely dialogue. But it's not much more than fluff and air.

The irony of Anesthesia is that, while it uses interconnectivity as a storytelling mechanism, the characters do not really connect.

A satisfyingly screwy New York story.