Pleasant and light and builds nicely within its own self-circumscribed intent.

A featherweight comedy in which he fetches coffee for twentysomethings and calls them "ace" and "boss" without a hint of irony. It's painful to watch for anyone who remembers the thunder De Niro used to have at his fingertips.

Beauty plays like a costumed version of "Melrose Place" or "Dynasty." But despite the film's gaudy, trashy excesses, and despite the constant flash of flesh for the men in the audience, this one is really for the women. [06 Mar 1998, p.25]

The movie runs the risk of coming off as misogynistic tripe, especially considering it was written by two men and directed by another. Somehow it avoids that fate, rising to the level of a serviceable YA fantasy about the way mortality gives meaning to life.

For all the film's patness and lame predictability, Candy gives it a strange charm. He seems to be inherently funny, and his subtle weirdness, so useful on SCTV, is handy here as well. It helps make seeing Uncle Buck marginally worthwhile. [18 Aug 1989, p.E13]

It doesn't help that director Ken Kwapis stages everything like a sitcom, has no sense of pace, and buries the theme of late-life friendship under a haze of sentiment and trail dust.

An ambitious but shapeless mix of road movie, romance and critique of black male-female relationships. [23 Jul 1993]

Vastly entertaining, slightly overlong.

Cage is superb as a hollowed-out, ferocious man of action chasing his demons recklessly with machine gun firing away.

Two-thirds of the way through, it falls apart into TV-movie-of-the-week land, even with the rhapsodic Nastassja Kinski in the lead.

With strong performances, the gorgeously overwhelming environment (the sounds of wind and flies are practically supporting characters), and at least one agonizingly long close-up, Age of Uprising unsettles as it raises troubling questions about the price, morality and flexibility of a "principled stand."

The result is minor Gilliam: still more engaging than most moviemaking, but nonetheless a letdown after such a long wait.

It's a clear and moving story, although the messier edges of the man have been smoothed out, and some of the victories may have been exaggerated to provide a happier ending.

Also effective is the romance between Gere and Lillete Dubey, an Indian actor who play's Patel's mother.

As it stands, the film is more often self-absorbed than self-aware.

Feast is set and was shot in Portland, and if nothing else it makes the case that we live in one gorgeous city.

It offers the small delight of watching a master step back from more ardent work to put together a diverting miniature. And in the scheme of things, that's actually more of an accomplishment than it might sound. Minor Mozart, after all, is still pretty darned good.

Still, this feels like minor Phillips to me -- something in the neighborhood of 2006's "School for Scoundrels," quality-wise, though with a much grimmer heart.

Fabulously acted throughout.

The Baxter is so ineptly conceived, staged, written and played that you suspect it's part of a psychology experiment to see if people will laugh at anything.

There's plenty of sweat but no blood or tears in Love. Without talented actors or a compelling story, it's not love. It's just sex.

As is, the slapstick humor and mild repartee won't please many with a mindset above that of a 10-year-old, while the level of (admittedly fantastical) violence might be a bit much for the pre-teen set.

This 90-minute exploration of the myriad ways Lego is great suffers from a relentlessly annoying narrator and a punishingly peppy tone. Still, if you're an AFOL—that is, an Adult Fan of Lego — or even a KFOL — you can figure that one out, right?—there's plenty to make it worth your while. If you're not, don't bother.

Scattered and silly. If it evokes any strong feelings from you, it will probably be hunger -- the food all looks so good.

The stories don't resonate, the film has a drab look and feel, and it lacks the passionate zing with which the least of Almodovar's works teems.

I can see how Mamma Mia! might be a fun stage musical. As a movie musical, it's a train wreck.

It's written almost without wit or romance, it's populated by bland actors, and it's photographed as if through a Jell-O mold. If this is adolescence, then senility can't come soon enough. [29 Jan 1999]

This is a totally predictable exercise if you're not in the target market.