Everything connected with the lovers, who are the point of the movie, is either ordinary or unwittingly funny, and the laughs come early.

Whatever its weaknesses, contemporary parents who want a nontoxic Western to show their children could hardly find better than “Spirit Untamed.” It takes the idea at the end of genre master John Ford’s “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (“This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend”) and virtually rides off in its own, counter-mythic direction with it.

While there's enough to keep the viewer sort of interested and amused, ultimately the whole affair is a trip to nowhere with characters who are more caricature than real. [29 Sep 1990, p.C3]

Ultimately, the film is what Freeman aspires to be: Not a big person making his mark on the world, but a small part of something very big.

Made in America, for the most part, is surprisingly inept -- badly shot, badly lit and badly edited. It's the actors alone, Danson especially, who save it from total disaster. [28 May 1993, p.C1]

Without straining to emphasize the underlying parable, director Harry Hook has brought off a corking adventure that grips the imagination from start to finish. [16 Mar 1990, p.E3]

In the end, it’s left to Shaye to carry the film, and she does so with aplomb. The “Insidious” franchise may be running out of places to go, but Shaye appears to be just getting started.

Like “It Ends with Us,” which was also based on a Colleen Hoover novel, “Reminders of Him” is a movie whose willingness to be deeply unpleasant saves it from becoming a soap opera.

As a grab bag of reminiscences by veteran funny people, bolstered with richly entertaining performance footage, it's boffo.

As uneven as I Think I Love My Wife often is, it still has an emotional resonance lacking in most films about relationships. By dealing with temptation in even a quasi-realistic way, it affirms that, like comedy, monogamy is hard.

Despite the title, Ismailos' documentary is not a study of what constitutes great direction. Rather it's a nicely arranged film in which a variety of filmmakers Ismailos likes discuss their inspirations and influences.

The result isn't a great film, but it's true to the original brutal vision.

This is a movie in search of a finale.

The plotless Dennis the Menace is nonsensical and playful and, in its way, creates a pretty dreamworld that is a foundation of good escapist entertainment. In addition, Walter Matthau takes good-natured grumpiness to new heights as legendary curmudgeon Mr. Wilson, opposite a kid named Mason Gamble, as Dennis, who (another minority opinion) acts circles around Macauley what's-his-name. [25 June 1993, p.C1]

Poetry, lesbian sex and murder might be a killer combination if a deadly pace weren't included in the mix.

Retains the earlier film's ability to delight the viewer with surprise effects and flights of fancy, only now the effects are better.

This is no-holds-barred filmmaking. Some viewers will find it disgusting. Others will call the director's bluff.

Coraci has given us a film that is not only amusing, but well-acted, and not only well-acted, but gorgeous. Micha Klein's animated transitions alone, which are used to signal each change in location, are wondrous and lovely to behold.

The filmmaking is unremarkable, but the obsessiveness of the lead character is infectious enough to make this drama passable entertainment.

Father of the Bride Part II is too long, completely predictable and unabashedly immersed in a posh world that is totally out of reach of most people. It's a comfort to see that riches don't keep some guys from being dithering fools when it comes to life's fundamentals.

The world of The Black Dahlia is beyond bleak, beyond film noir.

If Species sounds ridiculous, it is -- though as ridiculous science fiction films go, this one has its moments. As usual, these moments come early.

Watched today, in light of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of the Trump administration, it has an extra intensity, as a possible preview of coming attractions.

A perfectly OK drama, with a good cast and many good scenes, but it suffers from the usual maladies that films get when they've been out on the ranch too long: all-too-obvious symbolism and a serious case of the longueurs.

Knowing what Powell is capable of, it’s not unreasonable to go into this expecting a bigger payoff.

An innocuous, fluffy little nothing of an almost-pleasant movie.

After a devastating opening, the movie gets sluggish here and there, but it remains interesting throughout, not just culturally, but as a piece of drama.

Colorful and visually pleasing, although there is nothing surprising in the rather predictable story.