It sounds promising, but it doesn't work. You get the feeling that Soderbergh, so early in his directing career, has exceeded his reach -- that the com- plicated logistics of making a film on location in eastern Europe, compounded with the challenge of bringing to life such a fundamentally lonely and passive figure, had stymied him. [17 Jan. 1992, p.D1]

It's really not bad... It's a genuine vault at greatness that misses the mark -- but survives.

Nothing in the story feels specific to that California city, or emblematic of it.

As an indulgence in creative verbal abuse, the film offers some nasty fun.

Assassination Nation won’t get any points for narrative cohesion or character development, but it’s a timely, visually arresting statement about how pandemonium in this country threatens to become the new norm.

Pure escapist hokum, with action choreography by Sammo Hung, but I sure miss that old-school wire work.

If only the villains were more villainous, the plot more intriguing and the jokes funnier, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms would be one for the ages.

To be clear, there are dazzling sequences in The Other Side of the Wind, and virtually every minute has something interesting in it. It’s absolutely worth seeing as a curiosity. But as a work of narrative art it doesn’t sustain itself for its full two-hour running time. After an hour, you might even have to struggle to stay awake.

Within the realm of a mildly good time.

Surprisingly decent.

Some movies are in-between and inoffensive and harm absolutely no one. Prom is one of those.

Set It Off blends action and urban drama effectively, but at times isn't sure which foot to lead with.

Can't be dismissed. Yet something keeps this movie from being completely satisfying: a disconnect between the plot and the point.

For baseball fans, it delivers the high heat. For the non-fan, there may be a little too much inside baseball.

Not the usual action movie. It's too odd for that. Based on a true story, it has the weirdness of real life, which is good. But also like real life, it has that funny way of not making much sense or being all that enjoyable.

The film, "suggested by" John Irving's novel "A Prayer for Owen Meany," is so unabashedly manipulative -- and implausible -- that even while crying, many viewers may also feel abused.

The main drawbacks of The Burning Plain are its intentionally coy narrative and a zero-hour revelation that's ill-thought-out and generates some pretty chintzy psychobabble. It's the wobbliest element in an admirable, complex and frustrating movie.

Ezra is an opportunity for Bobby Cannavale to show his abilities as a dramatic actor, but his performance is hampered by one thing: He plays an idiot.

The dialogue, heavy on sarcasm and puncturing insults, never captures the World War II period but sounds ridiculously anachronistic.

It has scale, spectacle and a cast of good actors who seem to believe in what they’re doing. But the movie springs to life only in spurts.

May be too convincing for its own good.

Better than a lot of teen comedies.

This is an ambitious movie that didn’t come quite together in the editing room.

No doubt this seeming effortlessness was hard-won. Movies this smooth don't happen by accident.

Oversaturated with sweetness and light.

While trying to establish whether a conspiracy took place, the film attempts to solve the enigma that was Lee Harvey Oswald.

The Virtuoso covers well-worn territory — the assassin story is almost a genre unto itself — and director Nick Stagliano, hampered by a predictable script, can’t bring much new to the game.

Unfortunately, the thin story feels terribly stretched and often doesn’t make sense.