A blast of manic energy in the form of a film.

Self-satisfied -- an undisciplined brat of a film.

Heart and tenderness are rare in cartoon movies. But in an age of frenetic children's fare, the new animated adventure The Iron Giant dares to show a lot of both, and it comes up a winner.

If this isn't the single best performance ever by a preadolescent male (Osment) in a motion picture, then it's tied for whatever is first.

A breezy, occasionally funny spoof.

Pretentious but absorbing.

Wonderful characters keep the movie from gagging on sweetness.

One of the few big-fish horror films that still has the power to surprise.

One of the year's funniest acts of malice.

While it is a spectacle of animatronics, digital graphics and other special effects, the actors are never overwhelmed by them as personalities.

The only thing scary about the new version is realizing that someone keeps giving director Jan De Bont money to make movies.

The strange thing is that for all of Fonda's whining, Pullman's wary squinting and muttering, the bad dialogue, the cheesy effects, the severed toes, the severed heads, the severed bodies and the cliched directorial choices, Lake Placid adds up to a halfway enjoyable time at the movies.

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.

Totally absorbing even when it, too, strays.

Certain to nauseate a portion of its audience.

Small kids ought to love this entry, but die-hard Muppet fans are likely to find it tepid and uneventful -- a minor addition to the Muppet canon.

Although it takes something of a slog to get there, this thriller finally comes through where it counts.

In addition to being extremely funny, the film has a warm spirit and respect for the characters.

The film doesn't leave the audience with a moral. It just leaves a sense of having been in the stimulating company of passionate people -- all of them in the arts or on the fringes of that world, all of them struggling to make something intense and amazing out of their lives.

The most refreshing thing about Summer of Sam is that it doesn't try to impose a moral or define the limits of its story.

A sly variation on the buddy movie.

Nonstop crudeness, vulgarity and unpleasantness. It's without any redeeming social value whatsoever. And it's funny from beginning to end.

The picture, written and directed by Francis Veber, the screenwriter of "La Cage Aux Folles,'' is a complete success.

Nasty to women, cruel to old people and tosses in a cardboard gay couple for gratuitous laughs. It's also got one of those annoying soundtracks that lays rock music right over the dialogue -- as if it wanted to distract us from it.

An inspired mix of spirited family entertainment and harrowing drama.

Director- writer Oliver Parker saps much of the juice from Wilde, slows the pace and directs his actors in an inappropriately naturalistic style.

The action is so fast that the viewer almost breaks out in a sweat...Ultimately vapid. Lola never does develop as a character, and the fuss seems ultimately pointless.

The acting is fine. The ensemble is strong. The story moves along. Yet a coating of sleaze clings to the film, like bread dipped in batter.