Digs up both laughs and chills from timeworn material.

Bohemian Rhapsody is probably what Freddie Mercury was aiming for all along, a big, splashy, half-true biopic in the Hollywood style. It’s a bit corny, but grand; a bit obvious, but entertaining, and inspiring almost in spite of itself.

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 Gladiator script by Lyle Kessler and Robert Mark Kamen has been thought out carefully, and only during the climactic fight does it seem contrived when it becomes a parable about corruption. Ultimately, the film was designed to stir up our juices, and it succeeds. [6 March 1992, p.D1]

More intelligent than most summer blockbusters and features at its center a thought-out and committed performance by Will Smith. But in the end it's merely ALMOST good.

From a narrative feature, we want drama and illumination, the truths that go beyond the plain facts. That’s where Mary Shelley comes up a bit short. It’s never less than competent and intelligent, and here and there it’s better than that.

The movie is too lethargic for its own good, and many of the events and minor characters don't quite ring true.

The movie is rich with music and more than a few moments of painful exaltation.

For 70 minutes, Antichrist is a rare exploration of pain, featuring two actors collaborating with each other in agonizing and intimate ways. It also contains some of the best work Gainsbourg has ever done on screen. And then - if I put it more gently I wouldn't really be saying it - director Lars von Trier loses his mind.

This movie borders on the ridiculous, but is pulled back by an aesthetic portrayal of the supernatural and by its stars.

It’s not like bad Tarantino. That would be too kind. It’s like an imitation of a bad imitation of Tarantino — violent, unfelt and witless, and straining to be funny.

More action directors should include scenes such as the Mercers' extended Thanksgiving dinner, which fleshes out the bond between the brothers without using too many words.

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.

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.

An awkward script, a mannered style and the selection of hill-and-dale Petaluma as a stand-in for an Illinois small town all undermine the film.

Original enough to keep an audience guessing most of the way. It has a strong plot that takes surprising and satisfying turns, and there's never really a dull moment. This is the kind of movie that, once you start watching, you have to finish just to see how it turns out. [08 Oct 1991, p.E1]

Mars Needs Moms floats about 45 minutes' worth of story in an 88-minute ocean.

Curiously, the film seems to have no discernible point, and yet -- this is practically unique -- the absence of a point becomes, in itself, a form of narrative interest.

Cmera work can't do anything about the barrenness of the screenplay, nor the sense of fundamental insincerity at the core of the film. [03 Sep 1993]

Downhill is not a funny movie and wasn’t intended to be. It has moments of humor, but of the more uncomfortable variety, not the kind that provoke laughter, but cringing.

This ambitious and sometimes entertaining Brazilian feature tries to pull off a tricky maneuver but doesn't quite get it done.

Melodramatic take on love and war.

Adams sparkles with quick-mindedness and verbal agility. This is a worthy and underused talent.

Fraser and Hurley are terrifically matched for their interplay, and some of the writing is so smart it outclasses the film's cartoonish feel.

Audiences will walk away thinking, "What was that?" But they will walk away thinking.

The best of the longer segments is "Steve," a piece of Pinter light starring Firth as a passive-aggressive neighbor from hell who repeatedly turns up at the door of a bickering couple (Knightley and Tom Mison) to register a series of baseless complaints.

A relentlessly quirky British comedy-drama that demonstrates why more is not always more.

Director Ben Lewin has crafted a biopic spy thriller, kind of, but the script has neither the character shadings to be a biopic nor the pacing and twist and turns to be a spy thriller.