The problem with most movies about junkies is that they're really not about anything but getting high, crashing and screwing up. The problem with most movies about writers is that they can't demonstrate a writer's talent. Put the two together and you've got Permanent Midnight. [18 Sep 1998, p.H6]

Better Than Chocolate is essentially a 101-minute sitcom that runs out of energy (but not vulgarity) long before it reaches its predictable finale. [27 Aug 1999]

Heretic needed some trimming, but Grant’s performance is just the right size.

While the perpetually charming Lawrence isn’t the worst habit a filmmaker can develop, she’s valiantly miscast here in a story that never quite hits its mark.

While it may have seemed revolutionary in its time, it now suffers from the disadvantage of looking like one more Asian movie about alienated youth. [18 Feb 2005, p.I20]

The Mighty Ducks hasn't got a single fresh idea in its 100 fluffily formulaic minutes, so it's surprising that the film is quite easy to enjoy. [02 Oct 1992, p.27]

If all you want out of your Tron movie is amazing visuals, a great score and some fun action sequences with light cycles, cool weapons and even a Recognizer, “Ares” will execute that command. Anything more, though, and it all starts to get a little glitchy.

It’s cute, it’s cuddly and Tatum is charming as the lovable, well-meaning goof. Young children who haven’t seen every trick and trope done better a thousand times will love Smallfoot, but for the rest, it’s instantly forgettable, like a 96-minute memory gap.

“Link” is fun as far as it goes, but from Laika we expect something with a little more depth.

For me, the biggest problem with the script is a mid-film plot twist that takes place almost immediately after we've been told the characters are in danger. The introduction of this possibility is too neat, too fast. [04 Jun 1999]

Their performances lend the movie a touch of class, even if they can't make up for the superficial writing and Schumacher's anything-for-a-jolt direction.

The series shows no signs of stopping (there are not one but two postcredits teasers), and with each iteration, there are diminishing returns on this character and formula, but as long as they keep up the silly, fourth-wall breaking humor, and earnest messages of teamwork and unity, the Sonic franchise just might have some legs.

It’s a quietly competent film and a good story, and in the overstuffed summer movie season, often that’s more than enough.

You keep waiting for the film to come together, for Rick to emerge as a character rather than a cipher, for the women to seem less interchangeable — in short, for a point to it all. By its end, I was still waiting.

At times it's laugh-out-loud funny. In this ode to the passing of childhood, circa 1962, screenwriter David Mickey Evans has partly succeeded in mythologizing something that everyone treasures: the proverbial perfect summer of youth. [7 Apr 1993]

What gives Betsy's Wedding distinction is the writing and casting of an initially peripheral figure, an unnervingly polite young gangster played by Anthony LaPaglia, a television and off-Broadway veteran making his big-screen debut. [22 Jun 1990, p.25]

Somewhere around the middle of Something to Talk About, I stopped believing or caring about the people on the screen. Almost imperceptibly, the movie's engaging characters and sharp dialogue slipped into artificiality, betraying themselves as puppets of a movie forcing them toward a predetermined outcome that doesn't quite mesh with their established reality. Up to that point, the movie had been a lot of fun. [4 Aug 1995, p.C1]

Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth demonstrates, Barker's horrific ideas can still inspire some genuinely creepy cinema. [12 Sep 1992, p.C5]

Had the movie surrounding this easygoing trio been more memorable, the possibility of "Yet Another Stakeout" might actually be appealing.

Anyone who's been starved for Albert Brooks' brand of anxiety-ridden humor will not be completely disappointed. [24 Oct 1991, p.D3]

The humor is broad and obvious (yes, Ferdinand winds up in a china shop, with predictable results), but there are a number of scenes that hit the mark.

Contrived but sassy, silly but fresh, British director Michael Caton-Jones' first American film is almost too sweet to be believed, but just cheeky enough to be enjoyable in an undemanding way. [02 Aug 1991, p.21]

Limited by his budget, Woo makes the most of what he has, but the whole thing feels like he’s cautiously dipping his toe back in the Hollywood pool.

Despite all the nudity, it's less erotic than Duigan's charming schoolkids romance "Flirting." If only "Sirens" could have been a little livelier, if only Duigan, Grant and Neill had gone too far. [11 March 1994, p.D26]

Eastwood’s very good with actors, and the central trio of Richard Jewell make the film worth watching.

The filmmakers have described Band of Robbers as fan fiction, and that feels about right: They don’t quite hit the mark, but it’s fun to watch them trying.

As far as truly caring about anything that goes on in this epic, well, that’s a chore. And with a run time of more than 2½ hours, that chore becomes ever more burdensome as the minutes tick away.

There’s a funny, offbeat movie lurking in the details here.