Its real liability is on the special effects front: The sub-par digital effects — particularly in the scenes featuring poisonous lizards — detract noticeably from the overall atmosphere.

Lee Van Cleef (master of the menacing grin) makes the most of his role as the leader of a vengeful group of antiterrorists.

De Mello's dedication is inspiring enough to speak for itself.

Although inspired by actual events, the film proceeds along formulaic wish-fulfillment lines, its dynamics unaltered by the casting of a mixed-race actor in what was originally a redneck role; it's a sign of some sort of social progress that justified ass-kicking trumps race.

Good, dirty, escapist fun.

Andreas' cast and crew, however, have done an admirable job of backing up that hilarious title with an intelligent little film that knows its limitations and makes the most of a shoestring budget.

The film veers wildly from decent black comedy to dumb slapstick, and director Reynolds seems unsure of his own intentions. In a few places this film is quite funny, however, although De Luise and all the scenes he's in are unbearable.

It may be a seamless tongue-in-cheek thriller, but it lacks the superbly developed psychological tension of its illustrious predecessors. Director Marshall's film is nothing more than a diversion, and if you personally have no fear of spiders, you might wonder what all the fuss is about.

Freakies fans will swoon.

Ricci brings her trademark gravity to the wary Suzie, but Blanchett's role is the dazzler.

A buzzed-up gloss on the original, it's entertaining -- if fundamentally shallow.

Ultimately, though, the film is forgettable even by the standards of prefabricated pop ephemera.

A refreshingly straightforward, conventional approach to the documentary form. (Review of Original Release)

Unfortunately, director Robert Wise has no feeling for Trek's pop insouciance, and the movie unfolds ponderously.

Not as awful as its notorious reputation would indicate, but certainly not the neglected masterpiece its small cult of supporters has claimed, Boorman's gorgeously shot sequel to The Exorcist has isolated moments of breathtaking imagery, but its parts do not add up to a satisfying whole.

If the naive dramatic situations and trite idealism can be ignored, the viewer is in for an amazing spectacle of special effects in WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE.

While the film is shot in shades of gray, the drama is played out in black and white.

Blaze may be the least sleazy movie about whoring since The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Paul Newman stars as Louisiana governor Earl K. Long in this sanitized romance adapted by director Ron Shelton from the autobiography of Blaze Starr, the Bourbon Street stripper who supposedly stole Long's heart.

The trouble isn't just that this haunted-house story, written by Mark Wheaton and directed by Hong Kong filmmakers Danny and Oxide Pang, is both formulaic and derivative. It's that it's completely free of atmosphere, the very thing that their 2002 "The Eye" had in such creepy abundance.

The script too often sounds like an encrypted communique itself, and it's tiring trying to keep all the nonsensical space-jargon straight. The effort is more demanding than hanging onto a joystick, and not entirely worth the effort.

The film's mix of cheap gags, macabre coming-of-age story, social satire and Cronenbergian body horror is apparently meant to gel into black comedy, but it never quite does.

This amiable picture talks tough, but it's all bluster -- in the end it's as sweet as "Greenfingers."

The results are only so-so.

The plot itself isn't really strong enough to stand alone. And that leaves the film an essentially conventional whodunit, if one with a rather unconventional sleuth at its center.

This curiously empty film was awarded the Jury Prize at the 1997 Cannes film festival.

William Shatner's comic timing helps him nearly steal the picture.

The result is yet another tired, ultimately incoherent horror movie that undoes the promise of its pretty good premise and potentially interesting story structure with dull scares, sloppy ending and a pair of unconvincing, leaden lead performances.

fans of this venerable Eurotrash form will welcome any evidence that it's still alive and writhing lasciviously.