A dark, violent film, it has undeniable visual power and sporadic moments of wit. There's quite a bit of fun, but it's not the cheery entertainment you might be hoping for from your favorite porker. [25 Nov 1998, p.D1]

The film, built around McKellen's magnificent performance, is a sleek and deceptively artful work, a bio-pic that manages to encompass the whole of a man's rich life by concentrating solely on the final months of it.

Feels as true as a documentary, as painful as a blow to the heart.

One of the greatest films about the civilian experience of war ever made anywhere.

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

What makes The Last Days stand above the many similar films about the Holocaust and its survivors, though, is the fluidity with which Moll structures and passes through his material. In this, he's ably accompanied by Hans Zimmer's eloquent score and the crisp, simple photography of cinematographer Harris Done. [19 Feb 1999]

Even with this curiously limp resolution, I Stand Alone is unforgettable moviemaking, more muscular than anything seen since Jean-Luc Godard still had some spit and vinegar in him. It may not be palatable, but it's played with convincing fury. [08 Oct 1999]

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]

In the passion, violence and tough talk, it finds a beating heart and an evocative love story. [13 Nov 1998, p.28]

Its an intriguing reimagining of a period that was moving rapidly. [21 Aug 1998]

One of the best films ever made in this country, filled with our proudest national virtues, cognizant of our deeply rooted human weaknesses and frighteningly able to evoke emotions.

Edge of Seventeen has such a sweet heart that you wish it were more capably made and played. If you can forgive a great many little stumbles, you may succumb to its decency. But there's a lot to overlook. [17 Sep 1999]

The film isnt without bumps -- theres something rather gnomish and self-serving about its tolerance for grotesqueries and caricature -- but it presents us with a wholly rendered, largely credible world peppered with witty little moments and wryly chosen details. [19 Jun 1998, p.30]

Wild demonstrates that even a workaday movie can become something special when blessed with once-in-a-lifetime casting and a couple of dozen hilarious one-liners. [19 Jun 1998, p.32]

The film is shot (by Dan Lausten) with a credible creepiness, and it teems with clever touches. [17 Apr 1998]

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]

Superbly acted in Cassavetes-style naturalism; but only for those who can take strong stuff. [06 Mar 1998, p.26]

A dull, clumsy copy of the original The Blues Brothers, this'll give you the blues, all right. [06 Feb 1998, p.24]

Go only if you're really, really willing to suspend disbelief. [16 Jan 1998, p.23]

You'll laugh and cry at the film, but you'll bridle, too, at Brooks' clumsy technique.

It's quite possible that Titanic is one of the greatest romantic epics ever filmed.

Would somebody please pull the plug on James Bond? It's not that Tomorrow Never Dies is inconceivably bad. What with dashing Pierce Brosnan cavorting as 007, nifty Michelle Yeoh playing chop-socky on bad guys' heads, and a nearly-sentient BMW in Bond's bag of tricks, it's got at least as much going for it as, oh, a good Steven Seagal film. [19 Dec 1997, p.19]

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

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

Tupac may not have been Denzel Washington as an actor, but he deserved a better sendoff than this film, which, by the time the silly climax rolls around, is barely worthy of Wesley Snipes. [8 Oct 1997, p.D04]

Few films so thoroughly lose their way as The Edge. After developing an engrossing plot and mood, it goes frankly bonkers, and the intensity whistles out of it like air from a punctured tire. When it finally limps home -- at least 20 minutes too late -- you're left with a sour, treacly taste where once you had savored something almost exquisite. [26 Sep 1997, p.21]

Ultimately, it is nothing more than a souped-up, intermittently interesting take on some familiar material. [24 Oct 1997, p.22]

John Cassavetes walked a jagged knife-edge of improvised drama, a high-stakes game of chicken with the actors and with chance itself. But Nick Cassavetes plays it safer, sometimes reducing existential heroes to sentimental cartoons. Still, She's So Lovely has plenty of great stuff: original, realistic gunplay, fearlessly unglamorous acting and one excellently hairy hairpin turn in the story. [29 Aug 1997, p.23]