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

It’s an eye-opening and modestly funny look at a massive business and a culture with its own signifiers and language.

If you're a gamer, another level of humor opens up, as a variety of characters make surprise appearances throughout the film.

The overall cheekiness of the film far outweighs its preachy moments. For the most part, it's a brisk, funny and engaging movie that does genuinely exciting things with little bits of string and wire and such.

As fascinating as all the film history is, the movie's core is the dynamic between a famous but distant parent and his child.

The movie's got a heart as warm as hellfire.

Candy Mountain is filmed offhandedly and is full of in-joke casting. It works far better than Alex Cox's pointless, bizarre ``Straight to Hell,'' a home movie with musicians. [01 Nov 1988, p.D06]

You'll gasp appalled and laugh outraged and possibly, watching the spectacle of a promising young lad treading desperately in a nasty sea, shed an errant tear.

The movie shifts awkwardly from slapstick firearms training sessions to tender campfire kisses to straightforward suspense (who are those mysterious trench-coated figures?). Combined with unconvincing behavior from all of its characters, that's enough to leave this a disappointing realization of a potentially fascinating idea.

Dope has energy and smarts and a heart in all the right places.

This is padded a bit but still faithful and entertaining. [11 Dec 1992, p.AE15]

This Paul Mazursky film is not a comedy but is full of humor -- and suspense about how Tonto is going to fit into and come out of the surprises along the way. [30 May 2003]

This 1983 film is well-staged, well-acted and backed by a suitably nervous Jerry Goldsmith score. [25 Sep 1998, p.36]

Thanks to a slew of engaging performances and a script that finds the sweet spot between crass and curdled, it's a winner.

It's spirited and funny and deeply entertaining, a summer movie for kids who think like adults and adults who feel like kids.

Pieces of War Horse that may charm some eyes might well bore others to tears.

In the wake of everything we've seen on TV and in movies in recent decades, it's amazing that something as harmless as language can still stupefy us. As The Aristocrats demonstrates, there is real humor in the confrontation of taboos.

Powerful, subtle, quietly terrifying film about the consequences of a widow's stab at a May-December romance.

Her film is just as effective as a portrait of two unknowable, individual souls caught up in events of global scale.

It's a fun and attractive ride.

The combination of immediacy and intimacy in Armadillo is exceedingly rare.

An erotic mystery of sorts, the film works because it's laconic rather than talky and its actors are all up for the material.

In the end it's those amazing, nutty set pieces, coolly guided by the veteran director, that make it all worthwhile.

There is greatness in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York: titanic acting, violent poetry, moviemaking on a grand scale, a real air of daring. And there is flab in it as well, and confusion.

A family film, but it's a wonder if kids will really enjoy it. The picture is geared for older folks, people who'll be heartened by the message that sometimes, you can return to your passions.

In this film, shadowy seams of brutality, loss and grief are traced beneath bright layers of tree boughs, children's laughter and high, empty windows.

Tran's cinematography is delicate yet probing. Faces, especially eyes, tell much of the story.

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.

Despite convincing work from its cast, the movie remains oddly uninvolving.

Fonda's classic performance in a role he owned onstage and on film is a pleasure to watch. [22 Sep 2006, p.46]

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

Bacon's mature performance serves a story that's considerably less sophisticated than he is, making The Woodsman less "brave" and more a slightly better-made movie of the week.

Resembles an amusement park ride -- a visit to a house of horrors that ends, more or less, where it begins.

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

Brick is kinda brilliant and kinda demented, and you love it for the former far more than you hold the latter against it.

Although it tries continually to focus on the heart, it ultimately fails to ignite it.

It is aided both by fine performances by Auteuil, Aumont and Depardieu and by wonderful pacing.

A feel-good movie that doesn't think it needs to rub people's noses in the happy stuff to get its points across or eliminate all the disturbing shades to make a uniformly glowing whole.

There are occasional moments of wisdom, drama and emotion, but we never quite forget the blunt confession of one of the founders of the world championship, who admits that the whole thing began as a joke. Psst, buddy: it still is.

It's frustrating that a movie about a man so deathly serious about music has largely boiled his life down to addiction and adultery.

A bit too familiar, and at times gentle to a fault.

This meandering tale of a pack of ticket inspectors working the Hungarian subway system delights in misleading viewers.

There's talent here, and creativity, but there's that rankling question at the core: Are we meant to sympathize with these outsiders or laugh at them?

It's a sexy thriller, tautly constructed, deeply acted and heartfelt, despite a cool and knowing tone.

Canadian director Richie Mehta ("Amal") based Siddharth on his own random encounter with a father searching for his missing son, and the film never feels less than utterly real in its depiction of both everyday Indian life and the hopelessness that comes so naturally in this sort of tragic situation.

It's a fascinating patchwork.

There's no reason to actively dislike the film, but that's not enough, not at today's ticket prices. Just because you're not despicable, after all, doesn't mean you're the pick of the litter.

Mikhalkov plays the jury foreman, allowing himself a bit of business that eventually erases itself, amounting, effectively, to nothing. Alas, too much of this splashy film is just like that.

Undefeated puts us inside his locker room, and you simply cannot fail to be moved by the human affection, commitment and passion you feel there.

On balance, the filmmakers do a terrific job with one of the weaker stories. It's welcome news that Yates is coming back for one of the stronger ones; he's set to direct "Half-Blood Prince."

A surprisingly in-depth and confrontational examination into the obesity epidemic among Americans, especially children, over the last 30 years.

Land of the Dead is huge. It's Romero doing what he does best: using zombies to create a lowbrow social parable. It shows up junk like "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" for the brainless pap it is. And it's got something that even the best previous "Dead" films have lacked: good acting.

While the film is no groundbreaker, it is a paragon of elegance without austerity, and there's nothing like being in the confident hands of a master filmmaker.

The first of von Trier's efforts to be certifiably farcical.

It might have poked a bit more into Clash's personal story, but as a story of man and puppet it's grand.

Cumberbatch's scenes with Knightley are a model of how a buttoned-up character can open and reveal himself.

It's not a question of agreeing or disagreeing with this film's point of view to say that it isn't as often convincing as it is convinced.

Though Michael Winterbottom's Wonderland appears as gritty as they come, it uncommonly has a romantic heart.

It's got a bust-out performance from Eckhart that's worth remembering.

A slow burn. A portrait of the mundane humor and horror of everyday life, it scalds nerves you may have never thought existed. And yet the film is funny, almost hilariously at times.

A work of gentle, continual hilarity that feels far more ordinary than other Coen works and yet has every bit of the originality and exactness that makes the brothers' best films so wonderful.

The result is a handsome, intelligent film that feels as restrained as its protagonist -- a comic premise without many laughs, a thriller without many thrills.

Warts and all, Factotum feels very close to the real thing.

Fairly lightweight, going after targets we can all agree deserve the needle. But there are five, six, seven gags you've never seen before -- real surprises- -- and the film deploys them smartly to keep you laughing and unsteady for the duration.

With its sweet soul and sharp mind, it's one of the most heartening films of the year.

Despite some fast-paced direction by Wes Craven, Red Eye finally gets so silly, it's practically popping its wing-rivets.

Though it's well-cast and convincingly captures the look and feel of its era, the film loses steam as Accio's story meanders to a predictable conclusion.

Tangled is a lively, funny, deft and delicious musical in the vein of Disney's 1989 classic "The Little Mermaid."

Liman stages the chaotic action scenes, including several iterations of the beach assault, with clarity, precision, and wit. This is his best movie since 2002's "The Bourne Identity."

Studded with sturdy acting.

The film moves with a jazzy, spacey rhythm and palpably evokes the Oregon 70s. Its a movie that makes you think and feel at once. [09 Oct 1998, p.24]

The animation is pretty and clean, reminiscent of other Studio Ghibli films like "Whisper of the Heart," but never achieves wondrous artistry.

Just think back to everything that was funny in "21 Jump Street." It's exactly the same.

"Juno" was accused (wrongly, in my view) of having things both ways: being cute and cynical, edgy and sentimental. Young Adult, despite the fun afforded by Theron and Oswalt, seems content to have things neither.

Ultimately, a heart in the film to go with Rebney's considerable bile.

Scott and Sedgwick are not really comedians, but they nicely impart their characters' rueful humor. [19 Sept 1992, p.C16]

One of the most aggressively ambiguous pictures of the year. There is a certain power to that.

A snappy little heist movie with acting performances both deft and brilliant

A little movie, fine, but a little movie with little in the way of character composition, cinematic panache or intelligent writing.

An enjoyable sojourn into the world of Dickens and could inspire a trend. Shakespeare and Austen have had their Hollywood moments during the past few years; why not the proto-Hollywood Dickens?

You nevertheless can't help but be swept up in the kids' enthusiasms and aspirations and gobs of energy.

It's played with real zest and energy, and if you can stand the heat it gives off it may charm you despite yourself.

There's powerful craft here, and Larsson's story has more than proven its ability to grip. But missing almost entirely is a sense of urgency and discovery.

Rita, Sue and Bob Too, also adapted by a playwright (Andrea Dunbar) from her own work, is more an out-and-out raucous, raunchy comedy, although hardly a madcap, farcical romp. [03 Oct 1987, p.C08]

After the terrifying grotesques that were the live-action "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "The Cat in the Hat," it was easy to dread a feature-length Horton Hears a Who!. But -- surprise -- the computer-animated "Horton" is largely funny and faithful to the spirit of the Dr. Seuss book.

If any of what he says makes sense to you -- and even if it’s only a small piece, it’s terrifying -- then you’ll want to invest in gold and organic seeds and friendly relations with your nearest neighbors. You know: JUST IN CASE.....

Thrilling. [22 Jan 1993, p.AE15]

Piquant, playful, and, in many ways, just as appealing as blockbusters such as "Pride and Prejudice."

An unforgettable movie with a message that is likely to add wrinkles to your conception of what it means to be a good steward of the Earth.

May not be as successful as it is ambitious, but you could do worse than to spend a few hours there.

Burstyn is astonishing, forsaking all vanity to make silly biddy Sara a fully dimensioned human being.

Three impeccably cast actors are fully engaged in something like a psychological thriller that has much of the crushing weight and lingering pain of grown-up life on this Earth.

It IS a film that deflates you too often, despite its efforts to impart a sense of soaring. In the end, where the Wild Things are is in your imagination and in Sendak’s pages, not in this big-hearted but ultimately faint simulation.

There's a lot of pleasure in seeing a mature filmmaker put together something so intricate with what seems like so little strain.

A draggy affair livened occasionally by bursts of color or raw emotion, but just as often convoluted and hackneyed. It's a case of a film taking on, admirably, more than it can chew.

Built on an absolutely marvelous idea but manages to make only about two-thirds of a good movie of it.

Some truly memorable moments, but they come early and, as the film wears its way along, become increasingly hard to call to mind.

Devolves into a contrived, coincidence-driven, by-the-numbers thriller in its final act. That's not to say the movie's a failure. It's impossible to dismiss a film that starts out as such a sensuous, existential crime story.