It mostly works although the tension never quite escalates to the levels reached by Ridley Scott’s original and James Cameron’s even-better direct follow-up.

Overall this is a compelling and sometimes disturbing motion picture.

Cold War features a few too many ellipses and occasionally substitutes operatic tragedy for credible motivations. This results in a film that, although breathtaking to watch and emotionally wrenching, is strangely unsatisfying.

Hawke has made this movie his way and the result is a story that is by turns romantic and disquieting. It's well worth the price of admission.

It’s experimental without being off-putting and it uses its 100 minutes to build out a character who was frustratingly incomplete in X.

A compelling piece of cinema.

In many ways, the concept underlying Lolita is more provocative than the actual material, which tends to be a bit long-winded. This is more the fault of the book than of Lyne's approach.

The transformation sequences on their own are disturbing enough to upset sensitive viewers (even though the first one doesn't occur until an hour into the 97 minute film, making the first two-thirds of the movie relatively tame, with the exception of a few appearances by Jack, who looks like a "walking meatloaf").

Brandon has apparently inherited a great deal from his father both in terms of his filmmaking techniques and his taste in material. As science fiction, Possessor is a little disappointing – it does too little with a pregnant premise crying out for deeper inspection. As horror, however, it’s a rousing success – a shocking and disturbing gem that doesn’t betray itself by softening things during the final act.

Gordon-Levitt wears three hats (director, writer, actor) and all of them fit.

Although competently made and consistently engaging, there's nothing special about this animated superhero origin story.

From an historical perspective, the story is interesting because it shows a different side of the war than what we're used to observing in motion pictures.

Monsters works not because of its representation of alien creatures or its somewhat derivative back story but because of the atypical manner in which it approaches the character-based narrative.

Hanks’ script is an example of economical storytelling and the end result is a thrilling 75 minutes of the kinds of things one expects from well-made submarine movies.

It’s crisply paced and, although there are times when Lady Chatterley’s Lover seems like little more than an intellectually-approved bodice-ripper, it’s an impressively mounted production that looks good and is emotionally true to the characters and their era.

First time director Jonathan Frakes (who also plays Riker, the Enterprise's second-in-command) injects some badly-needed energy and inventiveness into a series that, prior to this effort, was sinking under its own weight and boldly going nowhere.

The Governess is solidly entertaining material with enough substance to lift it above the traditional period drama.

For the most part, Laggies offers an engaging portal into the life of an appealingly confused 28-year old who doesn't have all the answers and isn't afraid to admit it. Coming-of-age stories, it seems, needn't be limited to teenagers.

It’s as worthy an extension of the first film as one can imagine and its existence does nothing to diminish A Quiet Place. Considering what has happened to too many movies gifted with unnecessary follow-ups, that’s an accomplishment in its own right.

It has two modes: dark and darker, and dares to do some things with the Christmas motif that haven't been done since Norman Rene's "Reckless."

For an American/international audience, perhaps the most important contribution provided by In This Corner of the World is one of perspective.

Arbitrage is actually a fairly straightforward thriller in the John Grisham vein. It doesn't demand that the viewer know the difference between a hedge fund and a hedgehog. Arbitrage also reminds us that thrillers do not have to be action-packed to generate tension.

Formula One fans who remember 1976 will no doubt delight in the film but, for those who (like me) were more interested in other things during the year of America's bicentennial, it's not only a good lesson in sports history but an entertaining two hours to spend in a theater.

While this is certainly not the first motion picture to blend drawn creations with real life actors, no movie to date has approached it quite this way.

Hellboy likely won't be the best comic-to-screen adaptation this year, but, squared off against its early-season challenger, Marvel's "The Punisher," this is the winner.

While the experience it offers may not be to everyone’s taste, it is off-the-beaten path and effective for what it attempts to be.

For a movie that features so much naked flesh, it’s surprising how thoroughly un-erotic Nymphomaniac is. If intent is a defining characteristic of pornography, then this could be described as “anti-porn.”

Although mysteries remain, the film uncovers enough to re-enforce the maxim that fame and stardom can exacerbate rather than cure some ills of the soul.