The acting is top-notch and some scenes are authentically well-observed.

Overall it's a harmless disappointment, hampered by the thin story and a surprisingly dreary looking video-game setting, heavy on the floating platforms, cartoony future-cityscapes and goofy gadgetry.

It can hardly help but outrage at least some of the people some of the time.

Contrived, shallow, distasteful, and ultimately pointless, BODY DOUBLE is more an exercise in empty cinematic style than an engrossing thriller. Although cinematographer Burum executes some absolutely breathtaking camera moves, his effort goes for naught when pitted against director De Palma and cowriter Avrech's insipid narrative. What De Palma has done here is simply take elements from two superb Alfred Hitchcock films, REAR WINDOW and VERTIGO, and combine them into one insipid film. While Griffith is sexy and appealing in her role, Wasson's character is so bland that he generates little interest.

As for first-time feature director Mark Piznarski, he should be cited for excessive use of slow motion, sun-dappled trees and golden light; one more cliche violation and his license to direct would be forfeit.

Pearce can sing, but Drum's trademark "speaking out" -- free-associative ramblings that recall Jim Morrison of the Doors at his most embarrassingly pretentious -- falls far short of the hypnotic effect Tyler describes.

Even the inclusion of Simon's classic songs isn't enough to solve all the problems of this comedic misfire.

Yes, it's a deeply formulaic buddy movie predicated on geezer charm. But the surprise of this comedy about two former Chief Executives forced to get along and get in touch with the real America is how sharply written it is -- almost sharply enough to overcome the crude direction that grotesquely overemphasizes the picture's inevitable sentimental interludes.

Given that most fans are very young, ignoring a key aspect of the Pokemon mythos is bound to confuse and disappoint them.

The film had the calculated feel of a movie made simply because the title was guaranteed to pull in audiences on opening weekend. Sadly, it's the kind of effort that gives horror films a bad name.

In stripping her potentially lurid material of salacious appeal, Martel also makes it murky and oddly arid, a mind-numbing exercise rather than an experience.

The movie's selling point is Schneider acting goofy, chewing on worms, making goo-goo eyes at a she-goat and licking his private parts.

The downside is that it all feels like a big in-joke, and you're not in on it.

A reductive spook show in which a bunch of puny humans get chased around by scary monsters.

The "Bullet" is an amusement-park roller coaster, and the title is a ham-fisted metaphor for facing your fears.

The kids are fine, the original songs range from OK to wretched, and Barney is annoying as ever -- even more so, given his big-screen size and Dolby-enhanced guffaw.

For all the bad press Ishtar received, it does have a certain odd charm... The biggest problem is that any attempted subtlety is swamped by May's bid to turn the film into an epic adventure story.

The Singing Nun was created in the style of MGM's popular family musicals of the 1940s, loaded with gloss and sugary sentimentality. The direction shamelessly panders to these elements, resulting in sluggish development.

So inconsequential that it starts evaporating from memory the minute it's over.

While the hand-drawn animation is visually appealing, the story is completely predictable and Phil Collins's music lacks the impact of his Oscar-winning "Tarzan" tunes.

This lackluster sequel forgoes everything that made the original a superior horror film in favor of simplistic genre cliches.

Plays no better than a bad after-school special. None of the characters is the least bit sympathetic. Just what audience the filmmakers were aiming at is a mystery, though the movie may have therapeutic value as an anaesthetic.

Filmed with great visual style, the film looks terrific but makes almost no sense save for its "insider" references to such films noir as Jean Luc Godard's Alphaville and Fritz Lang's M.

The film is dull going, even for the pre-adolescents at whom it's aimed, and feels far longer than it actually is.

Though the premise has at least the potential to be funny, TRAPPED IN PARADISE is an indigestible blend of smart-ass TV sketch comedy and syrupy sentimentality.

The film only gains its footing in the final half hour, when Griffin and Solvang interview a healer who regularly performs female circumcisions and, finally, two people who actually have AIDS.

The original Phantasm was an inventive fever-dream, but the sequel, unfortunately, lacks that delirious youthful imagination. There are some memorable moments along the way--fleeting images scattered throughout the film that have a cumulative effect--but when the shocks do come, they are mostly retreads of highlights from the first movie.

Slight and pleasantly predictable film coasts along on the considerable charms of its cast and exotic setting.