Vincente Minnelli's 1949 film is patently made on the MGM lot, and Van Heflin makes cloddish country doctor Monsieur Bovary a bit too pleasant. And Emma Bovary's grotesque death is tidied up. Still, the film conveys the story and Emma's naive romantic thralls. [13 Jun 2004]

Ultimately, it's an instructive and entertaining examination of both the overlooked environmental costs of everyday life and the possibilities for change.

Although there's a twist in this tale, most of it is stuff we've seen before. And Wingard doesn't think of a new way to show it.

Like "Trek V," this would be merely an interesting episode on a TV series, but it would move faster. On the big screen, even with the snazzy ship, credibly sized crew and good special effects, it plods in spots. [6 Dec. 1991, p.15]

It takes an almost bracingly explicit attitude toward issues of sexual intimacy, to the degree that just seeing this film might count as therapy for some married couples. The PG-13 rating is justified, and should be taken literally, though I can't imagine too many parents bringing their kids to this one. Talk about an awkward car ride home. 

To quote a source as authoritative as Francis Bacon -- namely a "New Yorker" cartoon: "On the internet no one knows you're a dog."

I Am Legend has one undeniably cool thing about it, namely the vision of Manhattan as a semi-feral wasteland.

Like dark chocolate -- not semi-sweet, but the exotic, nearly black stuff -- Coffee and Cigarettes won't appeal to everyone. Jarmusch is the 70 percent cacao of contemporary filmmakers, and people who love this kind of chocolate swear by it.

Director Jim deSeve has done an excellent job of providing both historical and personal perspective on a topic that provokes heated emotional reactions.

This one wraps up with a melodramatic finale that doesn't really deal with the issues raised earlier. Nevertheless, until then, it is an intelligently written, well-acted film that deals sensitively with the disorientation of guys who find adapting to peace as difficult in its way as adapting to war had been. [13 Mar 1988, p.06]

Directed and co-written by Ron Underwood, Tremors maintains a good, steady tongue-in-cheek tone while working nicely as a suspense thriller. [22 Jan 1990, p.D5]

Balanced precariously between a horror film and a war movie, but it's so sly and assured that you can't dismiss the allegorical, even satirical undertones that Cortés teases out of Sparling's conceit.

Ultimately, the movie takes its characters, and the absurd ethical dilemma it subjects them to, far too seriously.

The Harvey Girls isn't really anything special, cinematically speaking. This run-of-the-mill Judy Garland musical is notable mostly for its Oscar-winning song, "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe."[10 May 2002]

Never loses sight of the human beings at the heart of the conflict -- no matter what side of the conflict they're on.

One of the best political films of the last 20 years. [16 Oct 1988, p.06]

If you're content to let dream logic take over, a lot can be gleaned from this odd, darkly funny meditation on life, death, love and revenge.

By trying to inflate one remarkable life story into the chronicle of a generation, Daniels fills what could have been an inspirational, personal saga with a lot of hot air.

In their hands [Terry Gilliam or Tim Burton or even Steven Spielberg], Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone might have made as terrific a movie as it is a book. When Columbus got the job, however, it was guaranteed only to be a commercial success.

It's in its aspiration to depict deceit and obsession, selfishness and recklessness, bitterness, revenge and fury that the film's power lies. There and in Clive Owen's sure and powerful hands.

In 1960, British director Michael Powell made "Peeping Tom," the definitive exploration of voyeurism in the movies. The shocking thriller also practically ruined the career of the veteran filmmaker. Although the stalker-centric Alone With Her doesn't quite rank with Powell's masterpiece, it shows enough promise that one hopes writer/director Eric Nicholas doesn't share his fate.

Transcends politics and forces us to consider just what it is we ask of young people who answer the call to duty.

A story like this requires a villain worthy of decades of built up horror and rage, and Christensen provides a thoroughly credible stimulus for the nail-biting events of the film.

Tries less to dazzle you than reel you in with competence and restraint.

Howard Hawks admitted that he and co-scenarist William Faulkner never got the hang of how ancient Egyptians probably talked, but he produced a spectacular epic. [05 Oct 2001]

It's often a vivid film and paints its small niche well, but only in the final passages, when AIDS changes everything, does it feel full-blooded.

If I had to pick one word to describe The Great Debaters, it would be "nutritious."

Puss in Boots isn't particularly deep, nor does it take itself seriously -- it just wants to seek glory, win affection and cash in. Done, done and done.