A perennial favorite on college campuses since it first reached the screen at the height of the Vietnam War.

A paralyzingly beautiful documentary with a global vision: an odyssey through landscape and time, which is an attempt to capture the essence of life.

This potent drama might be dismissed as therapy in the guise of filmmaking if it weren't so clear-eyed. At its core are three remarkable performances.

Zsigmond's superb photography conveys much of the lyrical quality of the story but the screenplay by Sharp ("Night Moves") falls short by comparison.

Davidson's young cast is remarkable, engaging and guilelessly funny without being so cute that their calculated actions ring false.

This film represents a perfect match of filmmaker and material. Akerman's fondness for long, static takes and circular, recurring dialogue perfectly suits the maddening repetitions that set the tone of Proust's darkest work.

D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus's record of the event is an invaluable document, its technical limitations notwithstanding.

This feverish drama examines issues of faith and redemption through the practice of prayer intercession.

At well over two hours it's merely exhausting, and the constant evocation of the fearsome power of "The Lodge," which proves Pat's salvation (Nwamu is himself a Freemason), is as silly-spooky as the White and Black Lodge hokum of "Twin Peaks."

While the film isn't entirely amateurish -- shots are cut together and the cinematography is professional if not precisely stylish -- the story feels as though large pieces are missing and the characters behave so inconsistently that there's zero incentive to care about their tribulations.

Overall, this puff piece is shapeless, repetitive and feels much longer than it is.

The occasional eerie moment can't elevate this routine piece of by-the-numbers J-horror above the pack.

Visually inventive, The Maker is a superficially compelling film that adds nothing new to the environment-vs.-heredity debate.

The rhythms of Charlotte's mannered, artificial dialogue are better suited to stage than screen -- each segment started life as a one-act play and overall the film works better as a conversation starter than drama.

Mukherjee's charm keeps the child-like Geeta from being thoroughly annoying, and the musical numbers are pleasant, if not particularly memorable.

The result is slick, mainstream entertainment with just enough surprises that you don't have to feel like a fool for enjoying it.

Clearly a labor of love and a call to action, but it's undermined by the sheer volume of topics it tackles in addition to the main subject.

This entry has more overt humor than the other PHANTASMs, and some of it strays too far on the goofy side, but Coscarelli keeps the key plot and its attendant horrors anchored in commendable seriousness.

Extensive attention to detail of sets and costumes, superior photography, and standout performances by Taylor, Ferrer, and Woolf put this a cut above other Arthurian legend films.

Those expecting a reverent sequel to the King tale will no doubt be disappointed.

Against the odds, this horror series (initially based on a Stephen King short story) has actually improved over time to the point where this third installment is a creditable if far-fetched chiller.

The dialogue flows a little too thickly in an awkward attempt to find a parallel with the then-raging Vietnam War; Hale, a TV veteran, directs loosely, but the few action scenes he does permit are snappy and scary.

Clumsily designed as a showcase for special effects, this lamebrain kiddie comedy is a shoddily directed and performed attempt to retool Ghostbusters as a latter-day Hardy Boys' mystery.

This is really just by-the-numbers moviemaking, the kind of project that would have been made with more zip back in the Corman glory days--if, in that pre-sequel crazy climate, it would have been made at all.

Without sympathetic characters or laughs, THE STONED AGE has little to offer beyond a classic '70s soundtrack featuring Blue Oyster Cult, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Ted Nugent, and Foghat's "Slow Ride" (which was used over the closing crawl in the far more ambitious DAZED AND CONFUSED).

American Ninja 3 is a comic-book of a movie that goes too far to be a satisfying adventure and not far enough to be an entertaining parody.

Most certainly, the practice of martial arts is more rigorous than the mise en scene displayed in American Ninja 4: The Annihilation would indicate. Indeed, any term denoting film structure hardly applies to this cinematic hash.

The movie looks as though it was shot on a budget somewhat smaller than the local six o'clock newscast.

Plays no better than a bad after-school special. None of the characters is the least bit sympathetic. Just what audience the filmmakers were aiming at is a mystery, though the movie may have therapeutic value as an anaesthetic.

On the positive side, Coscarelli makes ingenious use of the clips from the original film, and comes up with the occasional creepy moment. But more often, PHANTASM: OBLIVION is extremely slow-paced and works only on a scene-by-scene basis rather than as a coherent whole.

Feeble attempts at black humor can't save this stillborn teen terror-tale. The humor misses the mark, and the "suspenseful" moments slow the proceedings down even further.

While the film does contain a handful of suspenseful sequences, it also suffers from poor pacing and an overall reliance on cliches.

Even the Critters seem to be going through the motions, which hopefully marks the end of this clearly exhausted series.

Though more coherent than the disastrous Hellraiser: Bloodline, this psychological thriller with demons gets bogged down in too many "Is it real or just a nightmare?" sequences, and Sheffer's typically wooden performance as Joe makes it hard to sympathize with his travails.

The puppets are depicted simply but effectively, mixing real puppets, undersized actors in costumes, and stop-motion animation. Richard Band's haunting, waltz-timed theme music is back, and visuals expert David Allen, who animated the puppets in the first film, steps behind the cameras here for a somewhat wobbly job of directing.

Though low-budget sequels are often out of steam by the third go-round, Puppet Master III is a surprisingly lively and entertaining picture.

Beneath all of the superficially fierce fighting sequences lies just another routine western plot.

STEWARDESS SCHOOL runs down the plot trail like a checklist, making sure each expected scene is in its proper slot. It's never funny, merely sophomoric and dull.

Vincent turns in a fine performance as the rootless drifter who enters a community gripped by fear and comes to care enough for its denizens to put himself on the line for them.

An enjoyable, low-key film, Something Special! boasts some fine acting from its teenage cast.

This unnecessary sequel to the 1977 cult item Attack of the Killer Tomatoes picks up where the latter left off, as, over footage from the first film, we are told that the human race has survived the onslaught of the giant killer fruit, yet some are still traumatized even at the sight of a normal-sized tomato.

The film's Montana vistas are breathtakingly beautiful, and the crisis-in-the-hot-zone sequences are as spooky as those in Outbreak, but Seagal's monologues about the environment, biological warfare, Native American spirituality and natural medicine are excruciating.

The Racers was the first big-budget Hollywood treatment of motor racing, and its very exciting racing footage almost compensates for the slim plot.

The camerawork and cutting during the intense racing scenes are particularly strong, but racing fans will probably find the film more enjoyable than those looking for an involving plot.

It's not all that scary, either, making this psuedo-horror film largely a waste of time for even hard-core fans of the genre.

This is a really strange movie, and it contains so many outlandish, peculiar, grotesque, and incongruous moments that it becomes downright surreal.

Though technically efficient, convincingly acted, and having a number of subtle messages, Swiss Family Robinson was still a hefty loss to RKO.

As senseless as the story is the film contains several memorably creepy scenes, as is to be expected from any film in which mannequins spring to life.

Beyond the skillful lensing of snow-covered mountain locations and interesting sports photography, SKI SCHOOL is a slow-moving picture which doesn't have much to offer. David Mitchell has written a screenplay which leaves his characters underdeveloped and therefore hard to identify or sympathize with. And the female characters, not unsurprisingly, are there only as bimbos or sexual objects.

Russell is likable considering the inane nature of the film, but Dinome, a former model making his feature debut, is all teeth and moussed hair.

A truly amateur production.

This direct rip-off of The Hills Have Eyes has nothing going for it.

The story line is as direct as can be, and little time is wasted with extraneous subplots. Very effective use is made of the location, a decaying old school building that would give anyone the creeps. Good performances by Scuddamore, Iannaccone, and veteran B-movie starlet Munro further enhance the film. The effects are rather good but not too gross, tending to be near-comic.

The Singing Nun was created in the style of MGM's popular family musicals of the 1940s, loaded with gloss and sugary sentimentality. The direction shamelessly panders to these elements, resulting in sluggish development.

An all-star, all-stupid comedy attempt that proves, once again, no actor can triumph over bad material.

The long section during which Kennedy and crew (including Ty Hardin, Robert Culp, and James Gregory) get to know each other is slow going, but the action scenes are generally worth the wait.

This frothy musical has a likable cast and a gossamer-thin story.

This picture was the third remake (out of four) of the Peter B. Kyne story, with its Three Wise Men parallel.

All of this is played for laughs, and the songs aren't half bad.

Dull, humorless, and thankfully, the last of the Dracula films produced by Hammer.

Any attempt to obscure the names of those involved in the making of this fiasco can only be construed as an act of mercy. Troll 2 is really as bad as they come.

This Canadian production -- while somewhat impressive for its low-budget roots and loose but inspired plot twists -- is a tedious exercise in shoddy horror that's just as forgettable as 99 percent of its straight-to-DVD kin.

Pretty melodramatic stuff, given poor technical production by the studio, but saved by Quinn's bravura performance.

Unpretentious social satire that manages to poke a few deserved jabs at modern man's ego. The laughs are a bit sparse, but the witty cast helps carry it along.

This one has more talk than a Senate filibuster and is only a tenth as interesting.

This fast-moving gangster picture was typical of the Warner Bros. releases of the 1930s: lots of shooting, action, and romance, all crammed into a brief 78 minutes as overseen by supervisor Sam Bischoff who went on to be the producer of such epics as THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE, THE PHENIX CITY STORY, among others.

It's fast and furious, but suffers from an overstuffed plot.

GILDA LIVE is simply "The Best of Gilda Radner," as the comedienne reprises her most popular characters from TV's "Saturday Night Live" (then at the peak of its initial success). Radner fans may find this a welcome compilation, but there's little here that wasn't done better on the TV show.

Worth seeing, if only for the great cast and John Alcott's always-impressive photography.

Players give excellent portrayals, but the picture is lacking in both setting and direction.

The story is simply told and absorbing, with excellent performances all around.

The film has some excellent sight gags, some old jokes, and two winning performances from Dreyfuss and Landsberg, who could very well be a comedy team to reckon with, if their next pictures are handled better by the distributor.

Visually the production is good, primarily because of the Texas exteriors and a lot of period autos, indicating the BONNIE AND CLYDE influence had not played out as yet. But the story drags in this Depression-era melodrama.

Brilliant performances by young, inexperienced actors help make this picture work.