Rich supplies some eloquent grace notes, and Van Sant uses them to make understated music.

So Freddy's Dead, in the hands of first-time director Rachel Talalay, pretty much tramples incoherently and unscarily across the same old cemeteries of the mind and through the same dark corridors of old, cobwebbed houses. [14 Sept 1991, p.C3]

Osmosis is really an occasion for the brothers to take their culture- debasing scatology to a PG crowd.

Dull but sweet.

The result is mixed bag, an intermittently pleasing but mostly routine effort.

Far too precious and eager to please to really deserve its self-description as a fairy tale.

Has beautiful scenery and some enjoyable moments but leaves the viewer feeling the need to find the book to get the rest of the story.

Doesn't hit its stride until the last 30 minutes, and by then, it's just a little too late.

Not half-bad. It's about three- quarters bad, actually, but what's left offers some goof-off fun.

By the end, everything that was initially serious about the film becomes silly and everything appealing about it turns sour.

The mixed report on La Mission is that writer-director Peter Bratt doesn't really know how to make pictures, but he does know the central character in his movie.

This slight, predictable comedy has appealing moments.

Mostly meets expectations.

A light film, airy, likable and set in Venice.

Sentiment, the kind bordering on schmaltz and easy tears, is found in Shower, a well-meaning generational drama.

Between Two Worlds, written, produced and directed by Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman, takes on too many worlds and too much politics in what could have been a gripping, straight-up documentary about a crisis in Judaism in the United States.

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.

Hanssen is such an enigma that any attempt to explain him has inherent interest. Breach expends too much energy on a minor functionary, but it is still worth seeing for its fleeting looks into a heart of darkness.

Taken as a motion picture, the new "Harry" comes up short. But taken as a visual aid to the experience of reading a book, the new "Harry" does its job.

Swimming With Sharks, despite its attempt to be wicked and hiply fun, is ultimately just tiring as it pits people against one another.

Ronin eventually becomes tiresome, but the pairing of De Niro and Reno never gets old.

Unfortunately, the writing has become so bad that it becomes impossible to keep your head in the game - even as your toes continue to tap to the beat.

An otherwise passable horror film that delivers more than enough cheap thrills to forgive the plot holes.

Adam Sandler finally has a good excuse: The devil made him do it.

The film's constrained style keeps the drama from reaching a full boil.

A movie whose main virtue was its honesty ultimately lands in a place that feels canned and unsatisfying. But on the way there, Backwards isn't so bad.

Despite the terrific set design in The World to Come, the characters don’t feel at home in it; they do very little farm work, for example. Still, Waterston and Kirby do achieve an intimacy that operates as a warm fire warding off the chilliness around them. It’s too bad we were left out in the cold.

Most audience members will probably want more.

One Fine Day is no great shakes, but it avoids being tiresome thanks to the attractiveness of the stars and to a few twists that screenwriters Terrell Seltzer and Ellen Simon offer to differentiate this from other bickering-adversaries-fall-in-love comedies. Both stars also have adorable kids who figure prominently in the plot.

A movie for people who value heart and earnestness over technical filmmaking skill, and consider unpredictable plot turns a betrayal.

In every small way Heston succeeds, but Needful Things ultimately is hard to sit through. It should have been edited with a meat ax. [27 Aug 1993, p.C4]

Catherine Hardwicke's prettified movie is a strange adaptation because it supplants the woodsy horror of the original fairy tale with two new elements: a romantic triangle and a witch hunt.

It's an honest portrayal, but it leaves the audience stranded, without the emotional hook of a character we can care about.

The script is hopeless in both senses of the word, offering no hope and lacking in quality. But I enjoyed the two victims, at least until they started screaming, and appreciate the way director Renny Harlin creates a sense of menace by his choice of lenses and his placement of the camera.

The only problem with this movie, a substantial one, is that there’s a major sag in the story about halfway through. For its first hour, Moonfall is a blast.

We are left to ponder whether this nightmare might be a harbinger of America's economic prospects. And that is a scary thought indeed.

It's a movie, a goofy little movie. Not so bad, but as far as food and sensuality go, ``Like Water for Chocolate'' still has the edge.

The picture eventually collapses under the weight of its own gimmickry, but it's still an entertaining distraction for cerebral horror fans who want an appetizer before the B-horror feast that is "Diary of the Dead."

The movie's one flaw is this: The whole movie hangs on the gradual unraveling of the central mystery and is made with the expectation that the audience is fascinated and hanging on every tidbit.

Miller pulls the various threads together at the end in a rush, like a college student dashing off the final pages of a term paper in the wee hours. But until then, she hops from one plotline to another, leaving the audience scratching their heads and waiting for another visit to the opera house.

If “Stand and Deliver” struck many as a hard-hitting look at life in the urban ghetto, Spare Parts seems like a Disney after-school special by comparison.

A fascinating look at a bizarre man and a brilliant talent. But a good deal of the movie is described by its subtitle -- "A Son's Journey'' -- and to the extent it is, the movie sags.

The film is always a little bit at a distance, almost involving, always good enough to make us root for it, but rarely better than average.

Intermittently funny.

It’s a simple, sick, ridiculous story told with relentless tension and forward thrust.

The narrative is hamstrung by cliché attempts to build McKay’s backstory, shamelessly changing key facts. McConaughey’s performance is just fine, as is Ferrera’s, but the personal stuff feels like a distraction.

This land of sweetness and light may appeal to many, but to some it is going to seem like living hell.

The less-good stuff: the pirates, who are so blandly and predictably drawn that they sap all the personality out of Peter Dinklage (as an ugly ape skipper), which isn't easy. And the plot, which just barrels forward with very few surprises.

The results are predictable and only mildly entertaining.

Let It Ride has atmosphere, plus a good setting, appealing actors - and a bad script. [19 Aug 1989]

When you've got three of the nation's best actresses in leading roles, it doesn't matter if your script is only adequate and the audience really has to squint here and there to believe what's happening on the screen.

In its own ridiculous way, The Butterfly Effect is an entertaining movie, despite mediocre acting, lackluster direction and a story that's sometimes frustrating. It has the integrity of camp, maintaining an odd earnestness in the face of its own absurdity.

Curiously mellow for a John Carpenter thriller, Village of the Damned, a full-color, cornball special-effects remake of the 1960 sci-fi favorite, is a trip to a village of the darned tedious.

Mainly for those who already know and like Jodorowsky’s work.

The three films are watchable but resolutely minor works, though each has something to recommend it.

A goopy Gwyneth Paltrow movie.

Mocks without achieving the level of good satire.

Some clunky writing and a distracting subplot limit the effectiveness of this ambitious low-budget indie. Great idea for a movie, though.

Its take on the political scene is unsophisticated, and its humor heavy- handed. Like any satire, it exaggerates, but it exaggerates the wrong things. [11 Sep 1992, p.C1]

One of these days, Angelina Jolie might very well direct a great movie. She has a rare talent and intense concerns and interests. But first she is going to have to suppress some self-defeating impulses that have now twice taken potentially effective films and rendered them ridiculous.

A fawning bio-pic.

Shyamalan's story is clearly autobiographical, and he imbued the tender tale with a wistful atmosphere as well as a kindly regard for parochial school, hitting some of the details just right.

As a screenwriter, Lemmons is able to keep all the plot elements in place. But as a director, she is unable to keep things moving.

More of a tribute than a hard-hitting piece of American filmmaking, which is too bad, because the subject - the imprisonment of ex-Black Panther figure Mumia Abu-Jamal - deserves a thorough, serious examination.

An ambitious political thriller, a multilingual film of mood and texture and the occasional haunting image.

Here is more ambiguity, in a film that needs less of it.

If you’re a millennial, odds are you’ll find “Y2K” amusing. But older and younger age groups will want to stick to their vinyl LPs and Tik Tok videos.

It’s always fun to watch the charismatic Bernal.

As the record of a cultural event, Soul Power is a hit-and-miss affair.

You promised only a slim plot, tidy morals and lovers with quaking loins. It was fun while it lasted.

Heavy on the eye candy, light on plot and logic.

It's a fizzle as as comedy. Still, the film has character.

Gets most of the big things wrong and almost all the little things right. For two-thirds of its running time, it's a nasty little delight with an amusing and curmudgeonly central character.

The chief asset of Ain't Them Bodies Saints is Rooney Mara, who gets more interesting with every movie.

Fascinating -- up to a point.

Still, it's almost impossible to entirely wreck this great chestnut of Broadway and film. Thanks mostly to the terrific songs, the new version has transporting moments. [20 March 1999, Daily Notebook, p.B1]

So the bottom line: This is an undeniably effective movie that I mostly enjoyed, even though I’m not altogether sure it should ever have been made.

The story is unbelievable and phenomenally silly, not a good combination.

Sleuth"is that rare film that would have been better longer. You're not through looking at Caine and Law when the final credits roll.

There’s nothing wrong with stretching audience credibility, but, to quote another movie that dabbles in the highly improbable, these things must be done delicately.

Cloying mix of screwball comedy and drama.

Particularly impressive is the film's success at making an actor of average weight look emaciated. His cheekbones are built up so his cheeks appear to sink.

The picture, directed by Rick Famuyiwa, becomes a juggling act, contrasting the efforts of the three grown-up buddies to get to a wedding on time, with flashbacks of their youth.

The film has a persuasive murkiness and one extended mythopoetic final sequence that's almost moving in its silence.

It's a first feature film for both screenwriter Alex Rose and director Gaby Dellal, and their inexperience shows in Frank's underdeveloped relationships with family and friends and in the movie's sluggish pacing.

The pleasures are intermittent but can be located: Jennifer Coolidge, as Jane's travel companion, is funny even when the script isn't, and Feild is a nice stand-in for Colin Firth in the Austen hero department.

The only clear message to emerge here is that Kruger is a world-class talent.

Despite the fact that the movie covers some new cinematic territory, much of the humor feels recycled, mostly from the "Seinfeld" episodes "The Boyfriend" (the one where Jerry has a man crush on Keith Hernandez) and "The Outing."

Essentially a throwaway film.

Too raw for kids and too simplistic for adults.

Some jokes work, some don't and, frankly, I can't remember either, but it leaves a sweet aftertaste. Slight, but sweet.

If you're a fashion insider, you may find the entire film fascinating. If you're not, you may find it way too long.

To my eyes, the whole thing looks sad, like something people might cling to in the absence of religion - or a kind of religion in itself, minus dogma or salvation, but with lots of people standing around dressed like total goofballs.

There’s not enough of a story, and it’s a film that we end up admiring more than liking.

Carbon Nation serves us a full portion of scary statistics, but overall tries to accentuate the positive.

Surprisingly tepid and soapy.

Among Chan devotees, it achieved cult status.

If you want to watch a gaggle of pretty faux-neurotic people hang out and throw quips, you're probably better off watching "Friends."