The only constant in Park's brilliantly cruel world is this: No matter how badly things seem to be going, there's a twist of fate lurking around the next curve that will make them worse.

This spoof of the great fictional-film detectives offers consistently funny scenes sparked by Falk, Niven, Sellers, and Guinness.

An enjoyable pastiche of martial arts, romance, music, and video, THE LAST DRAGON presents a likable young hero, Leroy (Taimak), who aspires to become a kung fu master.

It's a high-energy blast.

Considering its queasy subject matter, Junior is surprisingly restrained, although it doesn't carry many laughs to full term.

And while the film is unflinching in its depiction of the brutality of both the English and the Irish, Jordan pointedly dissociates his hero from any actual ugliness.

Never has the adage "You can't help who you fall in love with" been more lavishly illustrated than in this historical drama.

Combined with the Mamet-lite dialogue, a medley of all-too-deliberate pauses, smug literary allusions and calculatedly careless repetitions of the word "thingie" that obscure the meaning hidden in supposedly meaningless prattle, the result is a chic, vitriolic polemic that's as irritating as it means to be provocative.

Dense collage of digitally altered images often looks shockingly like some super-hip media agency's show reel.

However intriguing from a theoretical perspective, this gorgeously shot film is first and foremost and purely sensual experience. Filled with the sights and sounds of Rio of a bygone era, the whole thing virtually pulses with excitement.

Ice Cube is so genial and laid back it's hard to believe he's the same snarling thug who ass-kicks his way through action pictures, let alone the seethingly angry rapper who emerged from NWA in the early 1990s.

Although Sonny is computer generated, Tudyk supplied his voice and body language -- provides the story's emotional core, an irony Asimov would surely have appreciated.

The Mack is lacking in narrative drive and logic, but offers an entertainingly exploitative portrait of a self-made gangster.

Terrio keeps the multiple stories flowing smoothly, and the setting goes a long way to justify the web of fortuitous interconnections -- New York is the ultimate two-degrees-of-separation town.

For parents who were unable to secure tickets for the young fans in their households, it's nothing short of a godsend.

One of the largest wastes of money ever. More than $33 million was spent on this futuristic version of THE DEFIANT ONES or HELL IN THE PACIFIC, both infinitely superior films. The basic flaw is that its premise is older than your great-grandfather's hat.

Running a substantial 140 minutes, the film does, at the very least, give fans a chance to see many of their favorite players hamming it up.

To a post-Vietnam War generation put off by militarism, David Puttnam's inspiring account of the final and most-harrowing WWII mission of the B-17 bomber The Memphis Belle may seem hopelessly dated, but older viewers are likely to find much to enjoy in the film.

People who actually recall 1942 will more greatly appreciate the waves of nostalgia that bathe this affectionate coming-of-age drama, set on a tiny island off New England.

March has the requisite child-woman quality and evinces some sly humor but she, too, is stymied by the schematic screenplay. She is far more convincing as an emblem of nostalgic, adolescent eroticism than as one of France's most distinguished future writers. Small wonder, then, that Duras herself has publicly disowned this adaptation.

A lot fresher and bit more sophisticated than the ordinary run of maudlin chick flicks and crude gross-out sex farces that now pass for romantic comedies.

It's strictly for the kids, and they'll be tickled.

Imagine "Hansel and Gretel" by way of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

It's easy to see why this violent, thrilling tale broke all box-office records in Thailand: Not only does it stir a sense of deep national pride, but Thanit delivers the goods when it comes to action.

This is a terrifically witty, refreshingly unpretentious science-fiction film with the least likely and most likable heroines in memory. All the performers are excellent, especially Maroney, who can veer from petulant to heroic in the blink of an eye.

This comic extravaganza starts off funny, but exhausts rather than delights.

A lightness is maintained throughout, which leads one to believe the makers were not too concerned about taking their material seriously. The result is an unpretentious, sometimes funny, but not quite scary effort.

The film is, in fact, an adaptation of Anton Chekov's "The Seagull." This provenance also explains why there's something slightly old-fashioned about the whole business.