The plot of STRIKING DISTANCE is full of implausibilities, but they're entirely beside the point, since the film delivers what it promises: tough talk, chase scenes by land and by water, plenty of explosions, and pretty girls murdered in nasty and imaginative ways, served up with a dash of sex and a generous helping of knee-jerk cynicism.

A barrage of pop-culture jokes, time-travel high jinks and plucky orphans that's as confusing as it sounds, and riddled with plot holes to boot.

A hokey monster mish-mash that plunders the richly textured histories of Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein's monster.

Features a nutty mix of broad comedy, romance and maudlin melodrama.

Hero claims to be a gentle, playful parody of the action/adventure genre, but comes off as a mercenary attempt to cash in on summer movie-going habits.

Whatever Howard's reasons for keeping things so stale, it was a bad choice, but lucky for viewers, some stories are just too crazy for even the dullest storytelling to completely ruin the fun.

Granted, the film is a technical marvel: The many chases through rooms, under floors and behind walls -- including one very scary encounter with a nail-gun -- are all done to jaw-dropping, state-of-the-art perfection.

The problem with RUNAWAY is that it never reaches deeper than a playful level, amounting to nothing more than great but shallow entertainment. Selleck provides a thoughtful performance, coming across as a real, feeling person instead of the expected Rambo-esque tough-guy stereotype.

A good opportunity to catch some marvelous acting.

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.

Much better than you'd expect, largely thanks to an extremely game cast.

The result is studded with brilliant moments and an eccentric cast.

Swank and Elba work hard for their paychecks, but Rea quite literally phones in his performance.

Even worse than its hypocrisy, gratuitous homophobia and cheap proselytizing, the movie is dull.

While sometimes evocative, they don't add up to a satisfying movie any more than, as several characters are cautioned, coffee and cigarettes constitute a healthy lunch.

Overlong, overblown, and badly scripted.

Has an intangibly charming goofiness about it that is somehow endearing: here is a movie about teenagers that contains no excessive profanity, no drug references, and no explicit sexual activity.

The film uses the locations well and Gazzara's performance is an actor's dream. But SAINT JACK never quite becomes the "important" film it seems to aspire to be. The story is told in too meandering a style and the many well-acted characterizations never mesh together.

The whole thing is played for laughs, with a pseudohip sense of humor satirizing everything from suburban punks to the military, while delivering a few legitimate chills.

The film is pleasantly humorous, though the jokes are aimed at those interested in history.

It all adds up to an unfortunate misfire: a film at odds with both its source material and itself.

Not bad enough to be good.... This vigorous, pinheaded action flick asks us to accept Cindy as a lawyer.

Actor-turned-filmmaker Ethan Hawke's second feature, an adaptation of his own novel about youthful heartbreak, is hobbled by its singularly unappealing lead characters.

As these films go, School Ties is more simplistic and has its dice more loaded than usual.

THE CARE BEARS MOVIE, like other animated children's films of its ilk, is a double-edged sword. On one hand, this is perfect viewing for three- to six-year-olds, while at the same time it is little more than a 75-minute advertisement for the vast array of Care Bears toys and products.

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.

The result is an inconsistent, incoherent anti-superhero action-adventure comedy.

Overall, it's a curiously lifeless affair.