The movie isn’t really bad, just tepid, and it’s partly redeemed by a good lead performance.

There’s real artistry to Ferdinand.

Gets better as it goes along.

The movie gradually works its way, with quiet intelligence and apparent conviction, until there's no turning from it. An hour in, and we're on that boat.

Even when it's hard to follow, it looks good. The undersea action is visually convincing, and Ramius' submarine, with all its rooms and compartments, is always believable. The moonlit photography in the picture's final scene is stunning. [2 Mar 1990, Daily Datebook, p.E1]

Nelson's work is relentless, grueling and courageous. He makes a large blunder in having American actors (David Arquette, Steve Buscemi) play Hungarian Jews with American accents, while Harvey Keitel plays a Nazi officer with a German accent.

Told so simply and powerfully that it seems to carry echoes of earlier, timeless tales.

Capable of astonishing even the already cynical.

So this is fairly interesting history, not as interesting as we’d like it to be, but interesting all the same.

Kline is good in a role that suits him perfectly, and his scenes with Steenburgen are among the film’s most affecting. Jacobs is pretty good, too, really pouring on the Southern California “charm.”

Often the movie seems like a lot of empty-headed blather, with one side hating the First Amendment and the other side unable to find a better use for it but to say the f-word.

Intelligently made and contains some impressive set pieces.

Waititi adopts a tone that’s wild enough to accommodate all possibilities, so that even while we’re laughing, we’re in a state of anxiety.

Would have worked better if it had stuck more closely to real estate as the source and target of satire.

Deserves plenty of credit for exploring racial issues story in more realistic terms.

A cute and scruffy movie. Helena Bonham Carter, lending a female presence to the otherwise all-male story, charmingly narrates as Robert’s sister, who pieces together the Stubby legend from letters sent home.

Melissa Rosenberg's screenplay is faithful enough to Meyer's soap-operatic inclinations, but I kind of wish it weren't.

It should come as no surprise that Jonathan Hensleigh's script was not originally written as a "Die Hard" film. The blend of "Die Hard" and "With a Vengeance" is sometimes smooth but never complete. It's as if "Die Hard" were wearing a rented tux.

Lights Out presents actual characters that are interesting, that have rough edges, that act like real people, not victims in waiting.

But Eastwood is undercut by the unbearably weak screenplay by Nick Schenk, who adapts a 1975 novel by N. Richard Nash. Schenk has turned in good work for Eastwood before, including “Gran Torino” and “The Mule,” but here his strategy seems to be having his characters explain everything that they’re doing and feeling, much of which should be delivered visually. Action is character, after all.

What truly propels the film is the growing realization, through both the script and Sweeney’s performance, that Christy isn’t an ordinary person blessed with an extraordinary gift. Rather, she’s an extraordinary person whose very life force is awe-inspiring.

Wicked Little Letters is for people who like British comedy, but also for people who think British comedies are too refined for their taste. This one isn’t. It’s crude and outrageous enough to appeal to modern American audiences.

Those willing to meet (Untitled) even part way will discover a comedy of intelligence and wit, with some strong performances.

Kids will enjoy the wisecracks and foolishness, and the big musical production numbers are toe-tappers -- or would be if the veggies had feet.

A noble attempt that doesn't hang together.

The story doesn't quite pay off, characters are underwritten and the surprise ending is contrived and unconvincing.

Desperately unfunny action comedy.

Stay far, far away.

Though Man on the Moon is lost when it comes to Kaufman's inner life and motivations, it offers a detailed account of his career.

The joy is in the details - from the animated credits to the perky pop score to the pre-"Mad Man" hair, clothes and general sensibility.

If you're looking for cinema verite, look elsewhere. If you're looking for a fun, fizzy sequel in a franchise left for dead 10 years ago, have at it.

A long-winded indulgence in tear-and-a-smile whimsy, elevated above the merely irritating and saccharine by compelling art direction.

Moviegoers will love or hate Oliver Stone and his politics until the end of time. With well-made movies such as Snowden, though, his skill as a filmmaker becomes much harder for the detractors to debate.

Hillcoat and Cave give us more than an action story. They create a world.

It looks like a low-budget film, but in this case that just adds to the charm. Croghan's only false move was to divide her film into segments, each one introduced by a quote from a famous writer.

Brothers has the careful observation, measured pace and lived-in feeling of a good European film.

A Hologram for the King has great energy, and also a languorous, lived-in quality.

Despite its sometimes bloody content, the mood of Happy Death Day is remarkably sappy, aimed at the broadest possible audience for a film of its genre. Think of it as “slasher lite” and an acceptable date movie for unadventurous types, and you have the gist of it.

The High Note begins well, ends well and even has a good middle, but there’s one extra plot turn, about 15 minutes before the finish, that’s one too many. It doesn’t spoil the movie, but it adds an unwelcome touch of sentimentality into a story that is otherwise fairly tough throughout.

A film that's sad and poignant but not without humorous moments.

Yet with all its virtues, Thunderheart unravels after the first hour and continues unraveling until it chokes itself. The movie's complicated story, involving the FBI, the government, and the feuding tribal factions, is impossible to sort through. [3 Apr 1992, p.D1]

A bizarre original from the bizarrely original director.

What we get with Geronimo, is very good action long on Western flavor and not especially compelling in the historical sense. [01 Apr 1994, p.C16]

The only weakness of the movie is that, because it’s a true story, it can’t rearrange the order of events for maximum drama. Thus, what is essentially the climax of the film comes about three quarters in, and the rest of it, while never less than interesting, feels like falling action. The good news is that Sweeney and Kirby get their best scenes, respectively, in this last section of the movie.

A romantic saga that dares to ask realistic questions.

A raucous, in-your-face, commando-style action thriller that makes provocative use of Alcatraz as a lunatic's lair and San Francisco as a sitting duck.

Quite remarkably, “The Next Level” actually does manage to level up — both in terms of different landscapes and scenarios and surprising new characters (and actors to play them) — ably matching its predecessor for emotional investment while exceeding it in ambition.

Moana 2 is finally here, ready to assault audiences this holiday season with one of the most ill-conceived sequels in Disney history. It took three directors to sink this movie — Dana Ledoux Miller, Jason Hand and David Derrick Jr. — and it’s so bad it feels like they did it on purpose.

Despite some missteps, this version of “Mean Girls,” especially in its reframing of Janis, promotes feminism and inclusion almost as fervently as “Barbie” — although its characters still only wear pink on Wednesdays.

A workmanlike effort -- a precision piece of filmmaking that provides education for children and a refresher course that adults can benefit from as well.

It's a resplendently basic, lovey- dovey and inside-out "King Lear."

It's more interesting than it sounds. Besides the sheer spectacle, which is notable.

The schmaltz is relentless in The Legend of 1900, the newest film from "Cinema Paradiso'' director Giuseppe Tornatore. It comes in waves, it leeches onto every surface and it turns decent actors into sticky-sweet fuzzballs.

The film is a particular disappointment considering its pedigree.

A neo-noir thriller long on atmosphere and short on production values.

Good looks and brutal action can’t hide the fact that the film traffics in Italian stereotypes with the same impunity as simplistic notions of good and evil.

If you loved the earlier films, these are moments you will hold on to, but they're very few, and they're not enough.

Gets back the mood, the pleasure and even some of the freshness of its first installment.

What happens is important, but more important is how it happens and whom it happens to.

Impossibly thin, porcelain-skinned Joanne Woodward exuded the perfect blend of vulnerability and confusion -- and sassiness and sex appeal -- in her demanding lead role (make that roles) in Nunnally Johnson's The Three Faces of Eve. [24 Oct 2004]

True, the film doesn't need 110 minutes to tell a story this pat, but hey, in dark times, it takes longer to deliver a feel-good message.

Green Card demonstrates that explicit nudity is not necessarily an essential ingredient in creating an erotic atmosphere, but that it does take a director's sensitive understanding of the various ways in which emotion creates desire. When that understanding is combined with a sense of the human comedy, it's cause for celebration. [11 Jan 1991, p.E1]

The Hummingbird Project — is at once an offbeat comedy and a satisfyingly weird thriller.

I lost patience with a widow who is grieving one month and then making out with a guy in a bar the next. This is an emotional recovery even Hamlet's mother might have found unseemly.

The Seagull has all the big things going for it and yet so many little things going against it that it’s just not the movie it might have been.

An impressive and imaginative fantasy.

There’s still plenty of laughs left over for the audience, and the aggressive randomness of the script fuels some genuinely inventive comic moments. Although the writers of this R-rated cinematic binge frequently lose their focus, they never lose their sense of humor.

As a first-time director, Pearce manages something difficult. He creates a tone that acknowledges absurdity, but also consequences. He finds an edge that’s extreme, that’s weird, that’s satirical and that goes right to the edge of farce, and yet the movie is at all points as involving as an intense drama.

Has a certain B-movie integrity -- a muscular commitment to grabbing the viewer's eye and keeping things moving. It won't win any awards, but it holds interest.

It is not merely a thriller but a shocker. It will separate hard-core Jet Li followers from the fair-weather fans.

When all is fretted and done, there's little dramatic payoff in this moody first feature by Bart Freundlich. But cinematographer Stephen Kazmierski's images are appealing, and the mood is on target -- Thanksgiving as hell.

In addition to being extremely funny, the film has a warm spirit and respect for the characters.

The fact that the movie has to entertain with digressions is an indication of more than looseness, but rather a shoddiness...Nothing connected with the job is of any interest at all.

A potent reminder that these characters and the actors who brought them to life will never return again. Seeing the very end of an endlessly hyped trilogy somehow puts a lump in the throat. [Special Edition]

The movie as a whole is a mixed bag, offering up stiff shots of skepticism and a few provocative thoughts on correlation and causality.

One can almost feel the movie Away We Go might have been, if only we could believe that Verona loves Burt - or understand why Burt loves Verona.

The movie is a fantasy, and the choice is either share the fantasy or don't participate.

An unabashed soft- core sex marathon, much of it played for laughs, Sex and Zen could catch on as a voyeur's delight -- an Asian spin on the jiggle- and-hump comedies of sex-satirist Russ Meyer (''Beyond the Valley of the Dolls'').

As a movie, Escape From Tomorrow is at best pretty good, but the way it was made makes it something unique, possibly memorable.

If you can get past a few swear words, the film's simplicity makes Glory Road a good starting point to get young kids to talk about racism.

Again like Chabrol, Fontaine has a way of making you laugh, on and off, for 90 minutes, before leaving you feeling a little queasy from too much truth.

The One and Only Ivan has within it a much more interesting film waiting to break out that really could have been for the whole family, but alas it is trapped within the cement walls of Disney’s cookie-cutter formula.

The film is sweet. Its observations of life in the aftermath of death ring true, especially for anyone who's traveled the contours of mourning. And although it doesn't rank among Crowe's greatest films, it's a better, tighter, more disarming piece of grief work than his baggy and zigzaggy "Elizabethtown."

The Indian in the Cupboard is such a sweet film, and so lacking in the bloodthirstiness and violence that parents dread in children's films, that its mere existence seems worthy of praise. Too bad, then, that it turned out so dull and lifeless.

An almost screwball comedy that turns serious.

Ultimately, Stone is a haunting film about what it feels like to be really and truly lost.

So, Dial of Destiny isn’t great, but it’s still a lot of fun — even compared to some previous “Indiana Jones” movies.

It’s such a pure delight to see Erivo and Grande just standing around when they finally duet on “For Good” that we will take that scene over a hundred where their characters dance, preen or ride a broom on their own.

Ricky Gervais, instead of resting on formula and on a familiar persona, uses his first opportunity as a big-screen actor-director to make an original comedy that expresses some real thinking and feeling.

In Elemental, we have a visually splendid and absolutely gorgeous rendering of a half-baked idea. For some of its running time, it can get by on looks. But ultimately, things like story and making sense start to matter, and that’s when the movie takes on water.

Keeps sinking into its own grimness.

Serious and absurd (mostly, it's a drama) but never finds a good rhythm. The movie flounders in a way that calls too much attention to itself -- and is hurt by jarring and unbelievable plot twists.

This is one well-made thriller, and for a director who wants to work in that genre, this is as strong a first feature as any filmmaker could hope for.

Ultimately, Chechik can't pull off the fractured-fairy-tale aspect of Benny and Joon. His film never explains mental illness, but romanticizes it, making it seem like a state of enchantment. It's ultimately irresponsible, and not very funny. [16 Apr 1993, p.C1]

Although intriguing to look at, Renaissance -- the latest animated film geared to adult audiences -- is undone by a plot that is ridiculously hard to follow and hackneyed.

Dunst is not the only person doing quality work in All Good Things, but she is the only one worth watching.

It's all about the dumb thrill, baby. Leave it alone, or leave your brain and pocket change at the gate, strap yourself in and just enjoy the ride.

The tribute to an aging parent is moving and gives this routine comedy an extra something.