Edward Zwick brings unimpeachable good intentions to his film about the bloody underbelly of the international diamond trade, but when social conscience jockeys for attention with movie-star glamour, glamour always wins. The result is a rip-snorting adventure set against the backdrop of African misery.

Formulaic though it is, the story hits the right emotional buttons and promises that hope and dogged work trump despair.

A sloppy but ambitious mix of pop anthropology, political observation, and good old-fashioned Val Lewtonesque horror, The Serpent and the Rainbow succeeds more often than it fails.

Not a particularly original or insightful film of its kind, and marred slightly by the whining of Cramer in the lead role, this is nevertheless enjoyable fare for kids.

MOTEL HELL could have been a great black comedy, but the uneasy direction of Kevin Connor fails to get most of the picture off the ground.

This attempt to combine elements of vampire lore with the limited format of the teen sex comedy is a monstrous movie all right, a frighteningly awful horror comedy.

Not everyone's cup of tea, but definitely a must-see for fans of the band.

After slowly introducing the characters, the film accelerates pace. Directer Zemeckis handles comedy well.

Released at a time when the western was undergoing some radical changes thanks to films by Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah, The Train Robbers harkens back to the old style westerns Wayne helped make famous. What's lacking is substance and style.

The first American feature from Italian cult director Dario Argento, TRAUMA is not as flamboyant and extreme as his previous films but still manages to deliver the goods.

The film was a big hit at the box office, but, although the series would produce one more episode, the fizz was definitely gone.

First-time feature director Sanaa Hamri's virtually perfect romantic comedy is a marvelous mix of brains and heart that confronts serious questions about race and dating with sensitivity, humor and enormous sex appeal.

Our favorite parts, though, were the moments of unintentional humor, mostly courtesy of Ms. Archer. Her insufferably goody-goody performance makes you wish Glenn Close would show up brandishing a kitchen knife.

More high - but strangely touching - weirdness from acclaimed Japanese auteur Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

Though its emotions are big, the performances are so nicely nuanced that sentiment never overwhelms the story's emotional realism.

Entertaining as it sometimes is, IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU has such a puppy-dog determination to be liked that you want to get it off your lap.

It's an interesting story, more accessible to non-Trekkers than previous entries.

Hopkins plays "Hopkins," and the buff, terribly miscast Gyllenhaal will be convincing only to viewers who've never set foot on a university campus. What makes it worth seeing, however, is the extraordinary chemistry between the atypically raw and unguarded Paltrow and Davis, a fabulously talented actress once again testing her range with a performance unlike any she's given in the past.

Consistently earnest and well-intentioned but only occasionally moving, despite the efforts of a generally top-notch cast.

Remarkable and evenhanded film.

The verdant, lush Hawaiian setting is visually stunning but the slapstick is forced and unbecoming.

The Big Picture is a failed attempt to spoof the wheelers and dealers behind the scenes in Hollywood. Christopher Guest, who directed and cowrote this diatribe against the inanities of the studio system, has created what amounts to no more than a series of sketches that would probably work better on television than in this prolonged, belabored movie. 

A mixed bag of mixed moods. The somberness of Dickens's oft-filmed seasonal cautionary fable works at cross purposes with the Muppets, keeping their usual gentle anarchy at bay.

The spirit of the book is captured here as the rabbits, faced with problems of ecology, are forced to find a new home. Their trek is filled with surprises and adventures, as well as bloodshed. The job of personifying the rabbits is nicely achieved due to expert readings by the cast.

Simultaneously groundbreaking and remarkably faithful to the classic play.

No aliens. No firefights in space. No robots. Just an eerily attractive, sleekly costumed cast in a stylish, cooly intelligent throwback to the Twilight Zone era of deeply serious science fiction.

Francis Ford Coppola's first mainstream feature (after a few unremarkable skin flicks) is a little gem of gothic horror, stylishly helmed on a shoestring budget.

Though the script is best described as mechanical and it takes a while to get into gear, this computer-generated "reach for the stars" story is a well-calibrated piece of entertainment.