Director Roger Donaldson has a lot of fun with his premise. The top-notch special effects, which use a lot of seamless computer animation, make the climax look very nice. The rest of the film is essentially one long chase sequence with a couple of nude scenes and maulings added to liven up the proceedings. No matter what genre you identify Species as, it's not top of the line, but there's also quite a bit of room beneath it.

Sean Connery is perfect for the King Arthur role. Too bad he isn't given more to do than stand around looking regal.

Perhaps the most impressive feat of this film is sustaining white-knuckle tension even though the chain of events is well-known.

Taking advantage of the studio's breathtakingly intricate animation, directors Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg have breathed vitality into this, the fifth "new wave" Disney animated picture.

Safe does not succeed at everything it attempts. The film is overlong and there are times when more aggressive editing might have improved the pace. However, despite certain dramatic shortcomings, Safe is an insightful and darkly comical social commentary.

It's lighter, brighter, funnier, faster-paced, and a whole lot more colorful than before.

A charming piece of cinema that takes several comfortable formulas and expands upon them in ingenious and emotionally-satisfying ways.

Each conversation has at least one memorable line, and it's always delivered in such a casual manner that it blends right in.

This is easily the worst filmed version of anything penned by the prolific author.

A beautiful film, not only in the way it was photographed, but for the manner through which the characters are revealed to us.

Johnny Mnemonic is brash, flashy, and loud, but it lacks a few key ingredients -- namely heart, soul, and intelligence.

Offeris an exhilarating, and occasionally touching, experience that has viewers leaving the theater caught up in an afterglow of wonder. These days, heros like William Wallace are as rare as motion picture displays of this high, uncompromising quality.

To be sure, A Little Princess has a few missteps. For one thing, Miss Minchin could have been played with less villainy, but younger viewers will probably appreciate the one-dimensional nastiness. There are also a few moments of overt sweetness, but these are easily forgiven. Actually, there's very little this movie has to apologize for -- it's the rare kind of picture that can be enjoyed by viewers of eight, eighteen, and eighty.

All the explosions and fights are filmed with consummate skill, and are thrilling in their own right. But that's where it stops. The pacing is erratic and the level of tension ebbs and flows.

Amateur is a curious mixture of high art and delicious campiness, and the result is a funny, insightful, and almost-hypnotic motion picture.

Little Odessa is an extremely complex motion picture, layered with powerful themes and fascinating characters.

It's a thrill-a-minute ride that concludes with a whimper, like a roller-coaster that has all the drops and twists early. Make no mistake, this is a good source of early summer fun, but with a little extra imagination, it could have been a whole lot more.

This is a slice of life with an imperfect beginning and conclusion, but what transpires between those two endpoints is strong enough to leave an impression on anyone with the patience to commit to a movie of such unhurried temperament.

The delicate air of romance that often makes this sort of film worthwhile is absent. French Kiss does it by the numbers, not from the heart.

Crumb is a rare and powerful documentary that completely absorbs the viewer and leaves an impression so blindingly clear that the afterimage cannot be blinked away even when the theater is far behind.

The strengths of The Underneath -- its atmosphere and character-centered basis -- are also its weaknesses.

The plot runs out of steam just past the one-hour mark and the charade, although necessary to the story, goes on for too long. The ending is, of course, the requisite happy one, but it seems a little anticlimactic.

The tale related here isn't all that original, but the honest presentation lends impact to a wrenching scenario.

With a theatrical trailer far better than the actual picture, Schroeder's film delivers little more than a healthy dose of disappointment. The picture is watchable, but nothing about it will linger, except perhaps the feeling that, with a more polished script, it might have been significantly better.

There's only so far a movie can go on loud music, nicely-framed shots, testosterone, and adrenaline. Bad Boys takes the often-traveled road, and leads the audience to a dead end.

Writer/director Jeremy Leven takes pleasure in clouding the division between what's real and what isn't, but he never stretches matters to such an extreme that Don Juan DeMarco is reduced to a mindless farce.

As embodied by Liam Neeson, Rob Roy is a tremendous protagonist -- a naive man whose belief in honor and whose love for a woman, family, and clan make him a figure to cheer for.

Regardless, though it may be occasionally slow-moving and perhaps a half-hour too long, this film is put together with care and a mindfulness of quality.

With a breakneck, don't-bother-to-stop-and-think-about-it pace, Tank Girl zips along for over one-hundred moments, only occasionally lapsing from its zaniness.

Although the forced ending, which seems deigned to create an unnatural moment of triumph, weakens the climactic catharsis, it doesn't diminish the naked honesty which forms the foundation of Dolores Claiborne.

Egoyan has taken a seemingly-simple story and woven it into a near-masterpiece, creating images and an atmosphere that establish the perfect backdrop for a tale of loss, grief, and eroticism.

From that point on, the movie becomes distressingly predictable, with nary a surprise to be found.

While Muriel's Wedding has its moments of exhilarating humor, it is, as often as not, downbeat and even mean-spirited.

This movie is an entertaining and sometimes wildly-exhilarating ride.

Once Were Warriors works, to some degree, on three levels: the visceral, the emotional, and the intellectual, and it is the amalgamation of these that makes this a memorable film.

The length is the film's undoing. No matter how tantalizing the premise, overexposure leads inevitably to boredom.

Despite its tendency to tread well-traveled roads, Just Cause is filmed with enough energy and craft that, for the majority of its one-hundred minute running time, it's reasonably entertaining.

If movies were rated solely on the basis of style, The Quick and the Dead would score highly indeed. With its dazzling photography, inventive camera angles, and throbbing bass score, the film is an experience for the eyes and ears. Director Sam Raimi and cinematographer Dante Spinotti have woven a beautifully elaborate tapestry: colorful and evocative -- and depressingly two-dimensional.

Taken as a whole, Shallow Grave is a reasonably enjoyable (for those captivated by this sort of thing) black comedy/noir thriller that justifies at least a portion of the praise being heaped upon it from overseas.

The movie is generally entertaining, if only because the three primary characters capture the audience's sympathy, but the story doesn't contain much honest drama.

The story, although straightforward, is by no means simple, and there's enough in The Secret of Roan Inish to delight both children and adults.

Before Sunrise speaks as much to the mind as to the heart, and much of what it says is likely to strike a responsive chord -- a rare and special accomplishment for any motion picture.

The latest offering from Edward Zwick, the director of "Glory," is the kind of movie that doesn't require much effort to surrender to and enjoy.

Nobody's Fool is about as sublime a motion picture as is likely to come out of Hollywood. With a structure that contravenes the norm, this film concentrates on character first, letting the plot fall naturally into place. Situations are forced on neither the film's inhabitants nor on those in the audience.

Good entertainment stretched to three times its natural length is rarely three times better, but bad entertainment dragged out that long will typically be three times worse. In the case of Demon Knight -- which probably doesn't have ten minutes of worthwhile material -- such a statement could be regarded as infinitely kind.

It's an unforgettable portrait of human anguish and the price that any society must pay when its best intentions go awry.

When this movie is quiet and introspective, it speaks with a clear voice. That insight gets muddled, however, the more forceful Singleton becomes.

The Madness of King George is much more than a simple study of one man's descent into insanity. With a style that's more tongue-in-cheek than melodramatic, the film is always witty and occasionally satirical. The characterizations are flawless (as well as historically accurate), and the political wrangling of the Tories and Whigs (led by PM Pitt and Charles Fox, respectively) provide a deliciously complex backdrop.

Ready to Wear doesn't have enough substance to justify its length, nor does it possess enough raw humor to leaven the flat spots. The jokes are inconsistently funny, with some being worth giggles, some eliciting hearty chuckles, and some prompting little more than shrugs.

Beautifully photographed and tightly paced with a spate of solid performances, this latest Kipling-inspired motion picture is an enjoyable and exuberant film-going experience.

Polanski abandons all attempts at subtlety. The resulting production ends up far too heavy-handed to be considered powerful drama.

It is difficult to deny Nell's intelligence and sensitivity. We approach this story with the same fascination that Nell faces each day, seeing, if only for a short time, how different the world -- and people -- can be.

The only thing of real importance in A Man of No Importance is Albert Finney's performance.

Mixed Nuts makes a point of stating that there's magic at Christmas. After seeing this movie, I'm a believer. After all, it's virtually impossible to come up with an alternate explanation of how something this awful could make it to theaters across the nation.

This tale of four independent sisters of differing temperaments is undeniably melodramatic, but it's very good melodrama, with an accumulation of vitality and charm that elevates the movie to an unexpectedly high level.

At its best, Dumb and Dumber is like an Ernest movie with a scatological bent.

Dramatically, Disclosure isn't especially potent, but it isn't drama that Crichton and Levinson are striving for. On its own terms -- the fear of lost security that many thrillers prey upon -- Disclosure works, and that's all that anyone can reasionably ask from this kind of motion picture.

Shelton took a chance with this film. Given a less talented performer, Cobb could have been an awkward, over-the-top melodrama. As it is, however, the movie works much as Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle does -- as an unobstructed view of human degradation and the damage it wreaks.

Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle is a top-notch movie. Everything is in place -- a striking lead performance, solid supporting players, a well-written script, and, above all, expert direction to merge the ingredients.

Red, the final chapter of Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors trilogy, is a subtle masterpiece. With its satisfying exploration of such complex and diverse themes as destiny and platonic love, Red is not only a self-contained motion picture, but a fitting conclusion to the series.

The new Ivan Reitman/Arnold Schwarzenegger comedy is a one-joke affair, and it takes surprisingly little time for the potential humor in the situation to wear thin.

With some surprisingly strong character interaction, there's a lot to like about this movie, at least for those willing to look beyond all the bloodshed.

Generations spends its running length searching for, and never completely finding, its niche.

Despite its problems, The Swan Princess is actually one of the better non- Disney animated productions to come along in a while. While the creators of Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, and Pocahontas need not feel threatened, parents looking for something different to take their offspring to might find something worthwhile here.

Revealed in unforgettable fashion by a capable director, the events that unfold in this film are not easily forgotten.

When Interview with the Vampire works, it's as compelling and engrossing a piece of entertainment as is available on film today. When it falters, the weaknesses seem magnified.

The Santa Clause isn't an unmitigated disaster, but it's also a whole lot less impressive than it could be.

Oleanna probes deeply into some of the darker facets of human interaction, and anything with this keen an edge will cause discomfort. Three out of four "characteristic" movie-goers are likely to view this as a bad movie (too slow, too pedantic, too stilted). Oleanna, however, is no more intended for that crowd than are they for it. This film has been made for those willing to look beneath the surface to see a taut, intellectual sparring match where there is no absolute truth. For such an audience, this picture will leave an indelible imprint.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein may not be the definitive version of the 1817 novel, and the director likely attempted more than is practical for a two-hour film, but overambition is preferable to the alternative, especially if it results - as in this case - in something more substantial than Hollywood's typical, fitfully entertaining fluff.

Stargate is peppered with numerous minor faults, some of which - although not all - are easily forgiven. It's the bigger plot problems and lackluster climax which are more difficult to excuse.

Director John Dahl has fun with this material, filming the modern-day noir potboiler with such gusto that it's impossible not to fall under its spell.

Nothing, no matter how outrageous, is beyond Smith, and his willingness to flaunt cinematic taboos is one of the reasons why Clerks is such a unqualified success.

With this film, every layer that you peel away leads to something deeper and richer. Tarantino makes pictures for movie-lovers, and Pulp Fiction is a near-masterpiece.

The rich texture of Hoop Dreams' drama is its greatest asset.

The cinematic horror genre, like the science fiction one, has been badly hamstrung by poor films, and several of the Nightmare on Elm Street entries have been at the forefront of the decline. Therefore, it's somewhat ironic that one of the most intelligent and creative efforts to come along in a while bears the Nightmare theme, title, and signature villain.

As thrillers go, The River Wild is a cut below a "white-knuckler," but it still has its share of spills and chills.

There are moments that sparkle, but the whole is not a worthy sum of its parts, and, while much of what Moretti does is interesting, that doesn't mean that it's enjoyable.

The most interesting personality in Ed Wood is not the title character, but Bela Lugosi. So covered up with makeup that he's barely recognizable, Martin Landau gives a deeply-felt performance -- a eerie and stunning recreation of a man haunted by lost fame.

As a shoot-'em-up, blast-'em-to-pieces film, it's not half bad. As a futuristic time travel movie, however, it has some very serious problems.

One of the reasons that Quiz Show is so extraordinary is because it spins a story as compelling on the personal level as on the national one.

The problem with the film is that it's frequently more tedious than funny.

For something billed as a lightweight romantic comedy, What Happened Was... wades through some surprisingly deep waters.

Fresh takes the setting and tone of Boyz 'N the Hood and Menace II Society and applies it to a thriller. Gone is the documentary-like quality of filmmaking as well as the gritty sense of immediacy. Fresh uses higher-quality film stock and a more traditional cinematographic style to distance the audience ever-so-slightly from the characters. This way, it's easier to appreciate the complexity of Michael's plan and the manner in which he arranges his masterful scheme of manipulation.

Whitmore's Brooks is a brilliantly-realized character, and the scenes with him attempting to cope with life outside of Shawshank represents one of the film's most moving -- and effective -- sequences.

Ultimately, the greatest fault with Killing Zoe may lie in Avary's ambition. In trying to do too much (crime film, love story, psychological thriller, and dissection of an alienated generation) with a ninety-minute motion picture, his focus becomes blurred. Regardless, with a style that alternately recalls John Woo and Sam Peckinpah, and a tone that is nihilistic in the extreme, he has created a movie that, while obviously flawed, isn't easily forgotten.

As a satire on the media's infatuation with violence and murderers, Natural Born Killers hits the bullseye. The problem is, this is a one-note movie. It repeatedly hammers home the same point until the audience is bludgeoned into senselessness.

Where's John McClane when you need him? If nothing else, the main character from the two Die Hard films would have livened up proceedings in this pathetically inept psychological thriller.

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is about the most fun you can have with three guys who like to dress up as women.

Enjoyable, but it's a shallow enjoyment.

Dealing with subjects that could easily have emerged half-baked, Lee instead applies his talent and comes up with a dish cooked to perfection.

As a comedy, The Mask is genial, but its recycled plot is far too thin for the film to succeed as either an adventure or a spoof.

For a movie being touted as a sophisticated farce suitable for family viewing, North turns out to be surprisingly immature.

The Client is an example of what happens when a production team does the best they can possibly do with a routine script.

One of the best things about True Lies is that it's genuinely funny.

This is not a "nice" movie -- it deals with some pretty intense issues (like incest and suicide) -- but it is both bold and inventive, and works because of an unforced approach.

Any time Disney tries their hand at live action, though, the results are usually pretty poor. Just not this bad.

Passionate and magical, Forrest Gump is a tonic for the weary of spirit.

The Shadow's problems have nothing to do with the basic premise; rather, they are flaws in execution. The setup promises something more invigorating than it delivers.