Despite its implausibilities, Only the Lonely disarms you with its innocence. [24 May 1991, p.E1]

Now comes this American version, which turns out to be the exception, an American remake that's better than the European original.

This offering is a mostly undistinguished addition to the long list of films about alienated and self-pitying young people.

Kate looks like most other productions from 87North, the company behind such cinematic cage fights as Atomic Blonde and the John Wick films. Honestly, this could have been called “Nuclear Brunette.” But with heart.

Clearly, the goal was to make a visually opulent Christmas movie, but these visuals end up sucking up much of the film’s life and spirit. It de-emphasizes the human element, and it makes the movie too long.

The formula is tired, and it’s particularly sad to see Shazam! surrender so completely and pathetically to it, when it might have been DC Comics most human superhero franchise.

A Rubik's Cube of a movie, an intriguing, layered puzzle that isn't easily solved.

Lacks the finesse of other puzzle films.

It's an interesting spectacle, but not enough to carry a movie.

The last half is so superior to the first that you wish they'd rethought the whole thing and devised a way to make it more of a one piece.

Director Mike Figgis (''Internal Affairs'') adorns ''Mr. Jones'' with some unconventional touches, abrupt fade-outs that give a touch of poetry to the endings of scenes -- and keeps the audience believing that ''Mr. Jones'' is a class act long after it's obvious it's not. [8 Oct 1993, p.C3]

The A-Team is a Joe Carnahan movie, i.e., an experiment in propulsion and personality over substance and story.

The Passion of the Christ should have left audiences in a state of exaltation. Instead it just leaves audiences exhausted.

A thoroughly enjoyable three-or four-gimmick comedy.

A series of vignettes that are edited in much the same way one might click from one random Craigslist posting to the next, the film is a fun and free-form celebration of the site's communal spirit and only-in-San Francisco ethos.

It is great summer fun.

Emilio Martinez-Lazaro fails to provide a consistent tone for his movie, which totters between earnest realism and camp.

This stylized romantic comedy offers limited, largely synthetic rewards.

The performances are heavy-handed, except for that of Jon Hamm, who benefits not only from playing something of a wise guy (a sports memorabilia salesman), but also from his own unsentimental instincts.

Here is a culture in which female strength, having no outlet, must become distorted or lethal. In Therese and her aunt, we find two manifestations of the same disease.

Pretty insubstantial.

Almost all of its screen time is taken up with explosions, chases, shootouts, heads coming off, folks getting sliced in half -- and the odd thing about it is that after 40 minutes, it's not disturbing anymore. Just dull. [21 Nov 1990, p.E1]

A so-so, OK, perfectably acceptable, nice, rather charming romantic comedy with two stars who are entirely watchable.

The Thing Called Love should have been a nice, middle-key romance, with a few gentle digs at Nashville's fevered, wildly competitive country-music scene. Instead, it's a hapless, well-intentioned mess -- running in half a dozen directions at once, looking half-planned and semi-improvised, and featuring a skittish, overly mannered performance by Phoenix. [16 March 1994, p.E1]

For the silent masses who cherish those "Hallmark Hall of Fame" specials, but wish they had just a little more profanity, the release of Around the Bend is occasion to rejoice.

For all the precision shooting, Autumn is a colossal misfire, a tedious film noir wannabe. It doesn't even qualify as film gris.

It's mostly entertaining, and has some strong moments, but it lacks the special magic that a musical needs, that sense of its inhabiting a parallel universe where any wonderful thing can happen at any moment, including music suddenly arising from nowhere. [10 Apr 1992]

Despite bursts of hilarity and an A-list cast, this is a dark, difficult, weirdly existential film - like some seriocomic spin on "I and Thou."