Throughout, Pacino absolutely nails the hollow but overpowering charisma that is so easily mistaken for leadership; anyone whose heart has ever been broken by a politician will recognize it at once.

This rich, complex and surprisingly entertaining film also becomes a meditation on filmmaking and the parallels McElwee finds between cinema and, of all things, smoking.

A cautiously optimistic epic, deeply rooted in American history. Bolstered by Surtees's magnificent cinematography, Fielding's fine score and an excellent supporting cast highlighted by the scene-stealing dry wit of Chief Dan George, Josey Wales affirms life and community with bracing conviction.

Like all of Leigh's films and plays, it was devised though improvisational exercises in which the actors created characters based on someone they knew. As such, it is a mixture of flawlessly played ensemble scenes and brief, often wordless moments.

Clift fell in love with his leading lady and helped her through her most difficult scenes, with spellbinding results.

Documentarian George Butler ("Pumping Iron") wisely opted to stick to the cold, hard facts of the expedition's tale while layering in warmer material, like interviews with historians and descendants of the crew and narrator Liam Neeson's lilting bedtime-story delivery.

Despite outward appearances, Paolo Virzi's utterly charming fable is actually a razor-sharp political satire.

With very little dialogue and a creative use of sound, Tati (the actor and director) gives us an entirely new way of looking at a very familiar landscape.

A powerful piece of documentary filmmaking.

A trying, contrary mix of religion and carnality that teeters on the verge of preposterous self-indulgence.

The film's look and themes also recall those of Howard Hawks. Avoiding artful, fussy compositions, Tarantino constructs much of Reservoir Dogs from simple medium-shot long takes.

Frei assembles a fascinating profile of a deeply humanistic artist who, in spite of all that he's witnessed, remains surprisingly idealistic, and retains an extraordinary faith in the ability of images to communicate the truth of the world around him.

What could easily have been a dry, didactic film is granted unusual power by Cantet's cast, all of whom seem to innately understand the personal nature of Cantet's subject.

Director Polanski, a master of movie atmospherics (e.g., Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby), here creates a hauntingly foreign, forbiddingly stylish Paris that seems to move to the oneiric disco stylings of Grace Jones. Harrison Ford, outstanding as an American innocent abroad, moves persuasively from complacency to confusion, rage, and paranoid desperation in a performance comparable to James Stewart's best work for Hitchcock.

Here, writer Fraser and director Lester went back to the original and hewed closely to the source material, but adding a lot of fun. Some good slapstick combines with moments of real drama and menace to make this movie a winner.

Cheung, slinking around the corridors of her hotel in her sheath of shiny black latex to the dissonant chords of Sonic Youth, is an instant icon of everything.

Ever hear of a rock musical that actually rocked? John Cameron Mitchell's glorious adaptation of his acclaimed Off-Broadway show might be a first.

A massive, many-faceted film that continues to hold up, viewing after viewing.

A fun, breezy roadtrip across the Western landscape.

Even those who dismiss Von Trier as a talented sadist might reconsider after seeing this revealing and ultimately poignant documentary -- and the funny thing is, on the surface it's not even about him.

With an actor only slightly more expressive than Ryan O'Neal in the lead, this sombre costume epic might have reached the level of tragedy; as it is, the film is langorous to a fault, but so visually delightful and keenly observed that its excesses demand forgiveness.

Offbeat documentary filmmakers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato dissect the history and legend of perhaps the best known and most profitable pornographic movies ever made.

Van Sant casts a gently hypnotic spell that is not easily forgotten.

Actor Tim Roth's austere directing debut is one of the most difficult, emotionally wrenching experiences you're likely to have in a movie theater any time soon.

The sparse story of the struggle of the two men with their obsessions, and with each other, skillfully creates a mood that is hard to shake after the ending credits. The car chases are breathtaking.

It's never dull -- beautifully acted and handsomely shot in sepia-toned Cinemascope.

Superb thriller...IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT was carefully directed by Norman Jewison, who avoids sentimentality and all the racial cliches that could have crept into almost every scene.

Hurt's performance is remarkably assured, and Davis beautifully captures her character's insouciance. Less than perfect is Turner, whose capable performance presents a figure somewhat hollow at the center.

Blue-ribbon acting from both the four- and two-legged performers.

That Terry Gilliam managed to make Twelve Monkeys into a clever, complex, and poignant success is as astonishing as it is satisfying.

An affectionate tale, told with sensitivity and a wonderfully offbeat sense of humor.

This is a brave, groundbreaking film.

An interesting, often absorbing offbeat western with excellent production values.

A suitably glum yet cathartic film experience.

Moodily filmed in an effectively Germanic style, with a neat supporting turn by Calthrop and fine set pieces such as the chase through the British Museum, BLACKMAIL still plays well, and is a suitable precursor to the master director's later work.

Smith relies on the audience’s memory, anger and sense of community to explore a wide range of conflicting facts and emotions. The ambivalent trust forged between performer and audience as they journey through Newton’s story is kinetic and revealing of both sides.

His (Finkiel) ability to control economical dialogue with subtle but unusually powerful images -- haunted faces peering out from behind foggy bus windows; train tracks that once carried other passengers to a death camp -- lend this quiet, unforgettable film an uncanny power.

Once Kim and Heidi finally meet, it becomes something much more complex: a gripping drama of culture clash and familial responsibility that also serves as a stinging metaphor for U.S. involvement in Third World nations like Vietnam.

Straight Time is a powerful film that shows a criminal as he is. The film has no tired explanations for Hoffman's behavior, no fingers are pointed, no apologies or excuses are offered.

If any film can be considered required viewing as the conflict in Iraq continues to drag on and be reported, surely this among them.

More of the same from Taiwanese auteur Tsai Ming-liang, which is good news to anyone who's fallen under the sweet, melancholy spell of this unique director's previous films.

The film features a host of fine character portrayals and a compelling climax that compensates for its length.

THE SEA WOLF contains little of the prolixity of Jack London's philosophically oriented novel, yet it is true to the spirit of the book. The megalomania of the ship's master is wonderfully expressed in Edward G. Robinson's fine portrayal of the contemptuous captain.

The rare sequel that actually improves on the original, this robust entertainment's intelligence and emotional impact belie conventional wisdom that summer movie spectaculars are by nature brainless nonsense and only a stupid snob would complain about their cynical insubstantiality.

Serves as a powerful tribute to a group of heroes who gave those they saved something nearly as valuable as life: proof that the best of the human spirit can endure even through the worst of times.

Andersson creates a world that's at once surreal and disturbingly familiar; absurd, yet tremendously sad. The haunting score is by ABBA's Benny Andersson.

An intoxicatingly beautiful, maddeningly elliptical and utterly enthralling meditation on the fleeting pleasures and haunting aftermath of doomed romance.

Richardson's direction of this unhappy little gem gives off the appropriate dull glimmer while being economical and inventive.

The film burbles with delightful dialogue and a sparkling sense of life.

Bette Midler turns in a magnificent performance as a dissipated, Janis Joplin-like rock singer.

One of the best things the highly variable Jane Fonda has ever done.

Though the story meanders, the film's look is nothing short of breathtaking.

I like Amanda Bynes movies…and I’m a dork!

A love triangle played out on the Isle of Man is the basis for Alfred Hitchcock's last silent film, THE MANXMAN, an uncharacteristic example of Hitchcock with tongue out of cheek.

Although comparisons with Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark are inevitable, it is the interplay between Turner and Douglas that gives the film its real charm. Norman and DeVito score strongly in roles that would have been played by Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre 30 years ago, and the whole film has the feel of an old Warner Bros. thriller with broadly comic overtones.

All the paraphernalia so important to the image of the Reich, particularly the uniforms, are painstakingly rendered, bringing a heightened sense of realism to what might otherwise have been a romantic coming-of-age tale.

Overall, Pocahontas is a triumph as a visual experience (though the music is unusually bland), but a disappointment as a film.

Fitzmaurice directs with great style here and makes the most of the lavish production techniques available to him.

This is a very funny satire of television.

Unlike most mainstream filmmakers, Ratnam doesn't try to include something for everyone, but he does deliver several handsome production numbers.

The movie does open up a lot of heretofore vacuum-sealed cans of worms. Does sex represent a sort of grand completeness that men secretly yearn for in their friendships?

A gentle film that metaphorically examines the artist's relationship to her art, BABETTE'S FEAST is the sort of story that one cannot help but find uplifting.

Cagney is riveting as Chaney (who died in 1930 at the age of 47), enacting the many great roles the silent star made famous in startling cameo performances.

Formulaic and derivative, but sufficiently well made to work as both teen-angst melodrama and bone-rattling brawl picture.

While Rick Baker's special effects work is remarkable (and won the first competitive Oscar for makeup), Landis seems content to simply showcase it, shooting it in close-ups and bright lighting without any attempt to build any emotion into the sequence.

But in the end it all comes to naught: Tantalyzing though the leads are, the paintings remain elusive.

Roth's screenplay, steeped in the peculiar rituals, lock-jawed repression and smug sense of superiority of the WASP ruling class that both shaped America's intelligence community and made it vulnerable, is less interested in derring-do than back-room deals and the day-to-day drudgery of spying, driven by the notion that espionage is a cynical high-stakes game played with people's lives and the ante is human decency and connectedness.

Though the plot has some annoying holes, the dialogue and the performances are excellent.

Director Ron Howard has a good sense of the whimsical, and his film is sweet and unpretentious, though somewhat ribald when one realizes the studio from whence it sprang.

Although the body count averages one murder every 7 1/2 minutes--which will undoubtedly please the gorehounds it was intended for--this film is slightly better than most slice-and-dice efforts and contains several genuine surprises.

The battle scenes are impressive, though underpopulated, and the camerawork is fluid.

The devil is in the degrees. Pineyro and Ferrer have a fine old time teasing the viewer with the ongoing search for the corporate mole.

Iconoclastic New York-based filmmaker Larry Cohen has always stood apart from the Hollywood crowd, inventing new subgenres of exploitation that are invariably bizarre, unpredictable, and clever, even when they don't quite work. The hugely entertaining God Told Me To, a supernatural psychological thriller that's almost horror, sort of science fiction, is among his very strongest works.

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective marks the ascendance of a new star in film farce, as Jim Carrey elevates this stupid, suprisingly shoddy picture into the comedy stratosphere, mainly thanks to his Gumby-like ability to contort his face and body in the most amazing ways.

Once upon a time there was a feisty young woman who didn't sit around twiddling her pretty thumbs and singing "Someday My Prince Will Come." That's the revisionist spin on Cinderella, and it twirls very nicely.

It's a tongue-in-cheek movie that avoids the sappy sentiment of so many "family" films and concentrates on sheer entertainment instead.

Relentlessly grim, At Close Range offers a frightening glimpse at the dark side of American life and poses disturbing questions about family ties. Unfortunately, although director James Foley handles the performances with skill, he also indulges in too many flashy directorial pyrotechnics, muting the emotional impact.

Harryhausen is at his most creative and brilliant (except for the disappointing bronze Titan), the film is well directed by Don Chaffey and adequately acted as these things go. Featuring gorgeous Mediterranean photography and a rousing Bernard Herrmann score, making this a great film for kids that will also please adult viewers. A must-see.

Stylish, well acted drama.

From a sharp, jaundiced script by W.D. Richter ("Buckaroo Banzai"), Jodie Foster has directed a poisoned paean to the great American tradition of torturous family gatherings.

South African director Mark Bamford's sweet-natured ensemble film doesn't shy away from addressing issues of racism -- both black and white.

A funny, entertaining little film that pales in comparison with the original, but has enough value in its own right.

Leigh is stunning in this second cinematic version of author Sherwood's hit play.

Sharply acted and cheerfully coarse.

It's a fearless performance and yields some squirm-inducingly funny moments.

Angelopoulos' leisurely pace and trademark long takes add up to a film guaranteed to please filmmakers nostalgic for the bygone glory days of European cinema.

Neat and quirky, this is undoubtedly one of the freshest black comedies around.

Clocking in at just under two hours, MY COUSIN VINNY moves at an extremely leisurely pace for a Hollywood farce. But that's just one indication of what makes this appealingly quirky comedy stand apart from more run-of-the-mill fare.

Good-humored gore, ably directed by Ernest Dickerson (JUICE), formerly Spike Lee's cinematographer.

Gleefully trashy BONNIE AND CLYDE ripoff, served up the Corman way.

There's nothing more to it than meets the eye, but Bertino understands the mechanics of suspense and knows how to use them.

Sayles' script is an intelligent look at a woman's struggle in 1930s society, and it conveys the proper mood for the character and the times. Teague's direction manages to capture the era on a shoestring budget, and the performances he gets from his cast are solid.

For all the flash and flutter, the movie overall lacks, well, HEFT.

The movie's is really good, clean fun that's fine for slightly older kids and a lot of fun for adults.

The film is compelling, albeit pretty silly in its elaborate "what if?" plot.

Writer-director Curtis Hanson is to be credited for procuring a clever story and offering nail-biting action sequences that build solid suspense. Guttenberg's boyish appearance initially seems wrong for his increasingly forceful role here, but it is exactly that quality that proves to make his unjudicious actions believable. The marvelous French actress Huppert is a standout as the cool, European beauty.

Expertly executed action flick that starts out fast and winds up faster. We've seen it all before, but the execution here supersedes the concept.

Boasting some of the best use of rugged landscape since the westerns of Anthony Mann, First Blood is an effective, if outlandish, picture that exists merely for its big-screen thrills.