This is film noir for the MTV generation: fast-paced, slick, flashy, gleefully mindless, and hollow to the core.

I left Wide Awake feeling the same way I did after seeing a number of Frank Capra's movies -- I was aware of the problems, but that didn't diminish the warm, fuzzy glow I was experiencing.

The problem with this movie is that Wallace has attempted to squeeze a 500-page book into a 130-minute motion picture, something that can't be done without major sacrifices.

This is a comic amusement park ride – a wildly uneven movie that offers tremendous pleasure for the moment, even if it doesn't stand up well to post-screening analysis and scrutiny.

Despite the many laughs Love and Death offers, it never takes cheap shots. It has a vibrant, beating heart - and that makes the comedy all the more worthwhile.

The action sequences were often nail-biters, the lead characters were well-developed, and the dialogue was intelligent.

Hush has three very simple problems: it's incredibly dumb, it's incredibly boring, and it's incredibly predictable (at least up to the stupefying ending).

Enjoyable and inviting.

Dark City has as stunning a visual texture as that of any movie that I've seen...Visually, this film isn't just impressive, it's a tour de force.

There's not a moment of originality in the entire motion picture.

Dangerous Beauty is a lavish historical melodrama that has enough suds, sex, and flashes of flesh to appeal to soap opera-lovers and enough substance to attract those of a more intellectual bent.

This movie desperately wants to be liked. The problem is, there's not much here to like -- at least nothing that's new or interesting.

By trying to satisfy every kind of viewer, it's possible that Sphere may end up pleasing no one.

The plot is so thin that it's not really worth thinking about, but director Antoine Fuqua and cinematographer Peter Lyons Collister have put so much effort into the feel and appearance of the movie that it held my attention.

Nil by Mouth is as powerful as it is uncomfortable, and those in search of a pleasant movie-going experience would be best served looking elsewhere. However, for anyone who isn't bothered by the thought of experiencing a shock to the system, this film is not to be missed. It approaches a serious social issue in the best, most dramatically true manner.

Despite the cries of "sacrilege" by some Blues Brothers and Saturday Night Live (where the Belushi/Aykroyd act started) die-hards, Blues Brothers 2000 represents a respectable follow-up to a uniquely American classic.

May not be an absolute triumph, but it's significantly better than just a good effort.

A horror film that starts out creepy but ends up disjointed and borderline- incoherent. It's a shame that the final product isn't a little better packaged because, unlike many lame entries into the genre, this one actually contains a few interesting, philosophically titillating ideas.

The result is an entertaining and sporadically engrossing two hours.

Although the film is clearly trying to follow in the footsteps of the Beatles' classic, it's several long strides behind, lacking the same sense of originality, spontaneity, high energy, and joi de vivre.

It's not just about a disaster, it is a disaster.

Everything (not just the flesh) is vibrant with life.

Despite the negatives, I'm still recommending Fallen on the strength of its complex plot and especially its ending, which I loved. The final scenes are startling, audacious, and unexpected. It's not often that a plot development takes me by surprise the way this one did.

The two actors, Daniel Day-Lewis and Emily Watson (Breaking the Waves), give such forceful performances and interact so well that it's impossible not to be mesmerized by their interaction.

Despite some obvious overplotting, Oscar and Lucinda is a mostly effective and often affecting motion picture that touches our hearts while daring our minds to balk at its implausible coincidences.

While these may not be the most unusual themes to fashion into a motion picture, Rudolph's atypical approach to the characters and their situations makes for an intriguing, if not always pleasant, movie.

Tarantino keeps things moving along nicely, with a heavier dose of humor and less violence than in Pulp Fiction, but, on the whole, this movie seems more like the work of one of his wannabes than something from the director himself.

If you take The Postman at face value - that it's a straightforward, post- apocalyptic adventure tale, then it could seem like one of the worst movies of the year, if not of all time.