The Hefner we meet here is the likable rogue we already know.

May be too light for vampire purists or fans of the original show, but fresh blood is just what the doctor ordered.

A B comedy so forgettable that although I know I saw it, I was equally sure that Fred MacMurray was in it. (He wasn't.) But over time, movies - particularly Disney comedies - tend to acquire a hazy, nostalgic charm. [10 Nov 1995]

There are a few good jabs at fame, advertising and sexuality along the way. But don't worry, nothing gets too serious in this silly, on-target movie. [15 Apr 1996, p.5D]

Savvy filmgoers will know they are getting a stale product as soon as they see the wrapper: one of those vintage muscle cars that screams “stakeout.”

Working from his own screenplay, director Brian Helgeland clearly has a feel for the Krays’ criminal milieu, but it’s not long before repetition sets in. There’s only so much brutality that even the most bloodthirsty audience can tolerate.

There’s a lot of comic and fantasy potential here, but much of it gets squandered.

Three actors portray the clumsy-but-limber Li in the years of his arduous training, when he is pulled between a teacher who's inspired by Mao and another who's inspired by bootleg videos of Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Although the outcome is as predetermined as a prix-fixe menu, the storytelling is as smooth as goose-liver pate through a pastry nozzle.

Wahlberg is merely OK. Unfortunately, the film’s effectiveness turns on whether we buy into his angst. And Larson has very little to play. But Goodman and Williams are believably menacing, and Lange is perfect as Bennett’s mom of steel.

Because he's the protagonist of the movie and played by the likable Matt Damon, we keep an open mind, but Promised Land is morally ambiguous to a fault.

THANKS to the boys of summer - nine wonderful child actors - and a sweetly nostalgic story well told by writer-director David Mickey Evans, The Sandlot is a winner. [9 Apr 1993, p.3F]

The overall feel is less of a cohesive documentary and more of a slapdash scrapbook of facts, historical information and name-dropping.

Successful in small doses, but the full regimen needed more testing.

Willard Carroll's poignant, witty script and graceful direction make up for some soap-opera moments. [24 Jan 1999, p.D8]

Stölzl blends romance and melancholy in fine style.

Instead of entertaining us, director Robert Redford offers us a handsome history lesson that's as dry as a hardtack biscuit.

It has a game cast, it’s watchable, fun, sick, sad and has to be seen to be believed.

A film that's as much a character study as it is a crime drama. At the heart of it is Caine's hauntingly memorable performance.

Sticks to the syllabus of a decidedly minor movie, but its humanities faculty is first-rate.

Some moviegoers will find the experience frustrating; others will be exhilarated by a film that’s far afield from the usual formulas.

While Black is painfully effective as the dork who drops slangy kudos on his new BFF, Marsden is a revelation.

The spoof of consumerism scores some predictable points, but the tidy ending is a sell-out to the ultimate marketing machine: Hollywood.

Home delivers like a mailman on Valentine’s Day. But when we scratch beneath the sugary surface, there’s something tart inside that’s difficult to digest.

As shaky as the situation it depicts.

The Great Gatsby is both swooningly romantic and giddily energetic.

AFTER the first 10 minutes or so, there are few surprises in The Package. But director Andrew Davis, given a suspense script with little actual suspense in it, keeps this espionage tale moving right along, and Gene Hackman, as usual, is a plus. The result is a moderately entertaining if predictable action film. [25 Aug 1989, p.3F]

This jam-packed picture is too zippily scripted and edited to get stuck in message mode, yet the stellar cast achieves a rare harmonic convergence.

The story is predictable from start to finish, but there's ample fun getting there. Director Ken Kwapis lets the orangutan set the tone, and it ends up a slapstick ensemble comedy. [12 Jan 1996, p.3E]

The film is constructed from four flimsy vignettes that are artlessly overlapped.

Compared to other Marvel characters, Thor is a difficult sell.

While the cast includes Luis Guzman (as a buffoonish deputy) and Johnny Knoxville (as a local gun nut), there's no sense that these are real people in a real town, and Schwarzenegger's Sheriff Owens has the weakest backstory of all.

Although the characters are three-dimensional, the simultaneous crises and last-act resolutions are a little too neat for a movie about the messiness of life.

The simmering rivalry between Di and Fiamma, inflamed by the kind of glimpsed indiscretion that makes adolescent melodramas tick, explodes in a thriller ending that turns an observant coming-of-age story into something resembling "The Lord of the Flies."

The worst thing about this multifaceted failure is the two-time Oscar winner behind the camera. Where there ought to be a director, there’s nothing but an empty chair.

If the story were only a little better, the characters and situations a little more believable, the very talented Hill could have turned this into a winner. As it is, the direction keeps things taut and rather tense, even as the dialogue sags into nonsense. [25 Dec 1992, p.3H]

Quite a few filmgoers lament the shortage of movies for adults. Ricki and the Flash goes against that trend with rock ’n’ roll attitude.

Brooks has his moments. His facial expressions and body language are often funny and his delivery usually impeccable. But as a director, he doesn't keep the pace even or achieve any semblance of balance between humor and poignancy. [27 July 1991, p.5D]

Energetic, colorful and packed with strong performances and musical numbers good enough to get by, Sparkle beams brightly.

Isn’t a knockout of a film, but it’s light on its feet and throws a lot of good punches.

CLICHE - in words, music and pictures - soars to new heights in A Walk in the Clouds. [11 Aug 1995, p.3E]

Director Nicolai Fuglsig delivers an action drama that gets the job done without ever catching fire. But the well-chosen, charismatic cast makes the most out of the material.

If you’re a dog person, it will be impossible to resist the tale of Arthur and his knights of extreme sports.

Unlike many action-flick heroes, Snake Plissken is more than welcome the second time around. [09 Aug 1996, p.5E]

This movie may be sickly sweet, but it's harmless; and as a handcrafted antidote to a toxic toy story like "G.I.Joe," Paper Heart has healing properties.

The questions raised by Oblivion aren’t especially deep, but the movie does answer a puzzler that has troubled humankind for generations: Can Tom Cruise build a concept so big that he himself can’t lift it?

Smith turns in a subtly layered performance that suggests the hurt behind Kathy's callousness. And O'Donnell gets to the heart of a man who realizes too late that he's made unfortunate choices.

Draft Day isn’t quite a comedy, but it’s got a similar kind of flow that makes it as easily consumable as lite beer.

It's moderately entertaining until about halfway through, when it gets totally out of control. [16 Mar 1990, p.3F]

The screenplay is such a mess that the cast cannot overcome it, and the result is a major disappointment. [18 Dec 1989, p.3D]

Only when there’s an opportunity to blow things up does Fuqua seem fully engaged. Another Western bites the dust.

Dream Team is fairly amusing, but it could have been a total riot. There are moments in it, when the writers and director Howard Zieff push the basic theme to appropriate levels of insanity, that are wackily hilarious. [13 Apr 1989, p.6F]

It comes together with a gruesome though excellent ending that some will find difficult to shake.

Here's a riddle: What's Alice in Wonderland without wonder? It's a beloved character landing in the rubble of wrong-headed revisionism.

It’s hard to understand what went wrong — the cast couldn’t be more appealing, and the film is bursting with special effects. But as an emotionally satisfying experience, it’s a bust.

The Big Year puts the focus on people who aren't inherently interesting - or funny.

A disgrace and a waste of the talents of Oscar winners Keaton, Fonda and Steenburgen and Emmy recipient Bergen. Obviously, the film is intended for an older audience. But is this anemic, feature-length sitcom really the best that Hollywood can do?

Next of Kin is a fast-paced, crisply directed, very entertaining genre movie. It has a lot more style and wit than most of the serious fare that's around. [25 Oct 1989, p.3E]

Rookie of year strikes out in the laughs department. [09 Jul 1993, p.3D]

Michael as a character is defined almost solely by his helplessness and gratitude. He's as lovable as a lost puppy, but a more perceptive movie than The Blind Side would have let us see him from another angle.

It's a compelling tale of surf and survival.

In the Mouth of Madness is not a bad movie, and it maintains a fair amount of suspense for an hour or so. Then it sags, mainly because it has no real payoff, neither dramatic or visual. [03 Feb 1995, p.3F]

This is the kind of film that makes moviegoers long for good, old-fashioned storytelling.

Phoenix is perfectly cast as the ethically problematic Abe, whose novel approach to lifting himself out of an existential funk lends the story its suspense.

As usual, Ridley is immensely appealing as a born warrior with an indestructible sense of right and wrong. Her expressive face lends the fantastical goings-on an emotional resonance.

What the movie crucially lacks is the clockwork complications that produce a payoff.

The overall direction of the movie may be strongly polemical, but its real strength comes from the resonance of a hundred subtle moments. [04 May 1990, p.3F]

He might be guilty of showboating, but De Niro's knockout performance is a declaration that the star of "Raging Bull" isn't ready to hang up his gloves.

A lot of care went into crafting the handsome production but not enough into making the handsome hero come alive.

A turgid, overlong comedy. [19 July 1996, p.3E]

Some of the themes and the hallucinatory special effects are reminiscent of Cronenberg’s “Naked Lunch,” and there are cheeky allusions to “Dawn of the Dead” and even “Eyes Wide Shut,” but a viewer with an open mind might say that this midnight-style movie is more enjoyable than any of them.

Unfortunately, not enough sequences work well enough to sustain interest. At its best, "Menace" is a searing parody of both stereotypical filmmaking and American race relations. [18 Jan 1996, p.7F]

As a sex-education comedy, Hysteria is flaccid, forced and unfunny.

An utter shipwreck, a would-be adventure with meager rations of magic and a listless crew.

Strives to be entertaining, but for much of its run time it is so emotionally uninvolving that even the smallest children might find themselves bored.

Easy to watch but hard to pin down, like a creature with eight legs going in different directions.

A rousingly funny sequel. [25 July 1993, p.7D]

Aspires to greatness but fumbles badly.

The moral lesson that this movie feeds us smells fishy - because it's not in the book. But the backbone story about a guy who inherits some penguins is enough to tickle the kids.

Like black coffee that's flung in our face, The Killer Inside Me silences the question of whether it's good or bad. But for darn sure, it's strong.

It's not that anything is terribly wrong with Muppets From Space. It just could have been better had the humans been funnier or the story more sharply conceived. Suffice it to say, Jim Henson, you are deeply missed. [14 July 1999, p.E3]

Stays too low to the ground to become an animated classic, but if there's a fairer midwinter's tale, wherefore art thou?

Washington is surprisingly persuasive as a world-weary blade-wielder, and Oldman makes the most of a not particularly interesting villain. But the film's breakout star may be Kunis, who brings to Solara a blend of sassiness and sexiness that's reminiscent of Michelle Pfeiffer.

As the movie gets longer, Romero's hand gets heavier and heavier, and by the climax he can barely lift it to hurl another cliche. The movie ends in the usual way, with lots of blood and Satanic special effects. [23 Apr 1993, p.3G]

The film is flat and lazy, and the audio mix is so low it sounds as if the audience is barely laughing. His cable comedy specials have better production values.

It's zippy, and the movie version has both a computerized sheen and handcrafted detailing. Because the details are cribbed from classics, parents can enjoy this 'toon as much as their kids.

This halftime walk is more like a long slog.

Working from a screenplay by Justin Haythe (“Revolutionary Road”), director Francis Lawrence — who worked with Lawrence on three of the “Hunger Games” films — fails to establish much of a momentum.

Long before the blood starts spilling, it’s clear the new team has mostly nailed it. The reboot is as good a Carrie remake as possible, though it’s not truly a scary movie; the film takes its time living up to its R rating.

After a nifty setup, In Time mostly fails to deliver as it gets lamer by the minute.

Provocative, intelligent but just a bit underwhelming, Our Brand Is Crisis — inspired by a 2005 documentary of the same name — plays as if the filmmakers started out with Oscar aspirations but ultimately weren’t up to the challenge.

This 19th Bond film has all of the required scenes, lines, gags and gadgets to keep Bond fans pleased - as well as a few new twists to update and energize it. [19 Dec 1997, p.E3]

A buddy comedy disguised as a political thriller. It’s full of malarkey, but as a campaign of shock and awe, it’s hard to resist.

It's deliberately difficult to untangle the crossed allegiances of the people that Kelly interviews, and it's melodramatic that he tries to smuggle Ming and a surrendered assassin onto a plane bound for the United States. But dramatizing such a complex situation is a necessary evil.

Just when you've decided it's just another queasy thriller about a woman-hating serial killer, and you're beginning to wonder if Hollywood isn't making too many of these nasty little things, Malice winds up and delivers a terrific curveball. [01 Oct 1993, p.3EV]

With its seductive images and smart dialogue, The City of Your Final Destination has the setting and circumstances for a ripe family drama or a literary love story, yet it never awakens from its siesta.

There aren't enough surprises to justify the title, but The Switch produces sufficient light for a late-summer diversion.

For real balance, the debate needs fiercely leftist truth-tellers in tri-corner hats, calling themselves the Organic Chai Tea Party.