One man’s mirth is another man’s poison, this critic can only consult his belly as the barometer. On a gut level, Ted 2 is a funny film.

A mention must be given to John Cena, who also appeared in “Trainwreck,” for his comedic talents. Here, he’s a stone-faced drug dealer with a supermarket of goods.

Beirut is a solid political thriller that makes the most of St. Louis native Hamm, who is still best known for his starring role in TV’s “Mad Men.”

While it's satisfying to see fat cats tamed by science and an enraged public, the movie misses the opportunity to sustain the pressure.

If The BFG is unlikely to become a cultural phenomenon of the magnitude of “E.T.,” it’s a film that casts a unique and often mesmerizing spell. But it’s also a bit too talky, particularly in the early going, and Spielberg lets numerous opportunities for humor slip by.

The Secret of Roan Inish glows with a misty, lyrical beauty, helped no little by the cinematography of Haskell Wexler. Once again, writer-director Sayles ("Passion Fish") succeeds in creating a mature, complex film that touches the heart without using any Hollywood tricks. [14 Apr 1995, p.3E]

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

Only when the camera is on Vikander does the film transcend its artifice. In one of the year’s best performances, she imbues Gerda with such poignancy and grace that Redmayne all but fades into the background.

There will never be another Marilyn Monroe or Elizabeth Taylor, but Hollywood may have found a new Lee Remick in Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

Q&A is about 20 minutes too long, and it sometimes gets confusing, but Lumet, who has been making powerful films since Twelve Angry Men in 1957, has not lost his strength. [27 Apr 1990, p.3F]

Goodbye First Love is like a postcard from a lost Eden, a painfully pure oasis where we're not allowed to linger.

Friedel turns in a poignant performance as a man who feels that he has no choice but to act on his principles, regardless of the consequences.

The Big Picture ends perhaps a bit too ambiguously, but there's something refreshing about its faith in the moviegoer's intelligence.

Isn't as memorable or provocative as it might have been. But it's an engaging love story that should appeal to moviegoers with a flair for the offbeat.

Photography — and thus filmmaking — is painting with light. The connection is illuminated in the lovely Renoir, a twilight-years biography of the great French Impressionist.

A VERY Brady Sequel may be the world's first ecologically friendly movie, 90 minutes of recycled situations, dialogue and Day-Glo elevated from the small screen of the '70s to the big screen of today. It's a sunshine day where there is nothing new under the sun. It's also, in the Brady vernacular, far-out fun in a groovy kind of way. [23 Aug 1996, p.6E]

Fortunately, Fish Tank feeds us more than crumbs and leaves us feeling like we've come up for air.

Rock misses the boat in deciding not to relate Good Hair to non African-Americans more.

Director David Fincher, making his feature film debut in strong style, keeps the action fast and furious, though the climactic scenes look an awful lot like the ending of ''Terminator 2.'' It may be just another sequel, but Alien 3 is better than most, and follows nicely after the first two. [22 May 1992, p.3G]

The four leads are entirely engaging including the manic Hart.

Green Zone can't make up its mind whether it's "The Bourne Insurrection" or "Hurt Locker: The Prequel."

Scabrously funny yet essentially gentle, as the main thing that it's probing is our collective ignorance.

What's lacking is a galvanizing performance comparable to that of the Oscar-nominated Catalina Sandino Moreno in "Maria Full of Grace." Still, The Forgiveness of Blood is a memorable portrait of a society and the demands it makes on those caught up in it.

At its heart, this is a compassionate character study. Robbie’s tenderness toward his son and his remorse for a street fight are the raw ingredients of a ripening consciousness.

The central question of Trees Lounge is whether Tommy will ever get wise to himself. The movie does not exactly provide an answer to the question, but Buscemi poses it in an entertaining, insightful and humane way. [24 Oct 1996, p.4G]

FOR about an hour, this movie is like a smooth ride with a good cabbie through the winding streets of deepest lower Manhattan. It's a fascinating, disturbing, at times exhilarating look at the way politics work in a big city, and you better pay attention or you'll miss something...Then, something happens, and it's like being lost on some triple-decker expressway interchange with no idea of how to get home. I think the problem is that there were too many writers with too many different ideas of what they wanted to tell, and the result is it eventually takes a wrong turn into an emotional and intellectual muddle...That first hour is so terrific, with minor exceptions, and the cast is so good, that "City Hall" is still well worth seeing, but ultimately it may leave you with the empty feeling of lost opportunities. [16 Feb 1996, p.3E]

Stölzl blends romance and melancholy in fine style.

On the whole, Flesh and Bone is effectively clean and mean. [05 Nov 1993, p.10E]