It's possible to be dazzled by a movie and still not like it very much.

The thrill, alas, is gone -- and Fellini seems to know it better than anyone. [11 Jun 1993, p.15]

It wallows in misery so much that the two-hour experience ends up being about as much fun as a real divorce.

Here the homages/critiques of old craft and form are often laughably mangled, and nothing sexy, profound or illuminating results. For all its prettiness, it's the sort of picture that gives the arthouse a bad name.

A drab, gloomy drama that doesn't provide any real enlightenment about why something so awful could happen.

Herzog's drive to bring Dengler's story to a wide audience might have paradoxically caused him to do what he seems normally to abhor: compromise.

It's also exhausting, despite an engaging premise.

Gives just enough to forgive any of its initial flaws and eventually grows on you.

The Dardennes are talents, clearly. Watching Rosetta is like watching them flip you the bird.

Brittain's life and literary output are worthy of celebration, and there's no better time that the centenary of "The War to End All Wars" to commemorate its bloody folly. It's a shame that Testament of Youth does both in such a bloodless way.

The opening sequences of this film from director Olivier Assayas are gripping, as students flee baton-wielding police, then embark on a late-night vandalism spree at a school. But the drama becomes mired with too many characters, too many shots of pretty Italian scenery and an unfocused story.

What's even more amazing about the actor's absorbing, sometimes depraved performance is that while the film around him is generally cheesy and obvious, Washington is to-the-bone real.

For all its cleverness and moments of power, What's Love Got to Do With It is missing more than the question mark at the end of the title. [18 Jun 1993, p.18]

I just wish the movie wasn't also so monologue-choked, muted to a fault and fond of oversimplifying financial lingo to the point of meaninglessness.

Though it's handsomely made and peppered with seamlessly achieved visual glories, Narnia is ineptly acted, crudely staged and burdened with a score that only a masochist could love.

The picture is pinched and predictable. Even with the immensely talented Steve Zahn, an actor who's known to steal scenes and, sometimes, save pictures, the movie is a yawn.

Phoenix makes an interesting case of Leonard's twitchiness and mooning, but neither Paltrow nor Shaw is particularly credible as a Brooklynite, and Rossellini and Moshonov seem like they've wandered in from another film altogether.

The people are pretty, the music scenes are well-staged (they're supposed to be crude and corny, right?) and we've needed a silly romance for a while now. But for all its hugs and kisses, the film refuses to embrace itself.

If the star does his utmost to make a one-dimensional character interesting, his director, Clint Eastwood, adapts Kyle's memoir — a life story rife with moral complexity — by hammering it flat.

Lively, cheeky, dense and, ultimately, too flip, clever and torturously twisted to be fully engrossing.

The film's best sequences -- the troubles of the young woman -- are gems adrift in a sea of Jell-O.

There's a lot of fascinating talk here and a genuine passion for ideas and words. But it's also a case where the messenger is so grating that we feel the perverse urge to kill the message that he carries just to spite him.

JFK drags but is undeniably fascinating. [20 Dec 1991]

Westfeldt becomes irritating. That's one of the film's points, but it's made a little too well.

A dull, uninspiring film that combines pedestrian acting, lackluster special effects and deadly pace with a pseudo-religious theme.

Crowe understands what's interesting about Nash: He's not a feel-good figure. It's a pity the same can't be said for Howard.

Actor Jeroen Willems' portrayal is expressionless, coming across as more boring than stoic.

It's unfortunate that the lack of originality in plot and character keeps Akeelah and the Bee stuck firmly in "After-School Special" territory.