Episodic, pretentious, and more than a little silly.

By the film's end we feel neither sympathy nor, oddly, total disgust for this most loathsome of killers. We simply begin to understand, and perhaps that's achievement enough.

Sternfeld's script, developed at the Sundance screenwriters' lab, is spare to the point of stinginess; individual scenes play beautifully without adding up to anything, stranding the actors in an emotional vacuum that drains the life from their performances.

Yes, it's great that Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton and Bette Midler -- all women of a certain age, though they've done their best to make sure no one's certain what it is -- get to carry a major motion picture, playing college chums reunited by the perfidy of men.

John Sayles' screenplay never takes itself seriously, so the badinage is relaxed and often funny, avoiding the ponderous.

The manipulative climax works, even as you feel like the jerk in tear-jerking.

The film is talky and much of what is said is didactic, but it is never really preachy. Washington brings tremendous intelligence, dignity, and charisma to his Biko. Kline is also very good as the editor who goes from talking a good liberal game to living it, giving up virtually everything so that he can make the truth known about Biko.

By the time it reaches its fiery finale, the film feels less mythic than self-consciously portentous.

The film, like its subject, is a hoot, both shamelessly entertaining and bursting with personality.

Delightful Bolivian comedy, which also works as a sly critique of mass media.

A feel-good movie with a gentle melancholic undercurrent.

Adventurous viewers will find this unusual genre hybrid an intriguing experience, and Donnie Yen's fight choreography is breathtaking.

While billed as "an intimate look" at Jay-Z, the film reveals next to nothing about him beyond the fact that he possesses a formidable ability to spin and remember lengthy rhymes, however vulgar and reductive their content.

This smart political thriller gets pulses pounding with no pyrotechnics and only one car crash. And it's a doozy.

It's all about as white and bourgeois as you can get, but the film does take a few risks, and some actually pay off.

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

Elegant, stylish, and ultimately boring adaptation of the James novel.

Vallone's production design is a knockout--the film is weakly scripted and scored.

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

Overall, it's like watching a home movie of a charming relative.

Naturally, Big Bird meets some intriguing people going East. Lots of cameos are here to delight parents who take the kids to see this movie.

An utterly preposterous but entertaining sci-fi action brain-bender.

Cocaine cash financed Miami's renaissance, but the film never downplays the human cost at which that urban renewal was purchased.

King's stories are nothing special, and with the exception of the final entry, nothing in the film is particulary scary.

It's all too mawkishly life-affirming for words, the sort of film that wins Golden Globe Awards for its tear-jerking sincerity. And you thought -- hoped? -- they didn't make movies like this anymore.

Despite its drawbacks as entertainment, it remains one of the best technical cartoon features ever produced by Disney.

Chernick may not answer every question about this beguiling and enigmatic film, but you wouldn't want it to: Mystery is an essential part of the Barney experience.

One of many musical stinkers made during a decade infamous for them, FINIAN'S RAINBOW is sadly notable as the last screen musical of the genre's greatest star.