Martin's Bilko is a career grifter who comes out on top every time. He's a Bilko for the nasty '90s, oily and smug.

Highly unlikely plot complications never once threaten to throw this remarkably amusing film off-track, thanks to the narrative intelligence of writer-director David O. Russell, the only member of the filmmaking bratpack who seems to understand how movies work and why they entertain.

Hilarious and stunningly frank, writer-director Todd Solondz's evocation of awkward adolescence is a bracing antidote to the counterfeit nostalgia of "The Wonder Years" or "My So-Called Life".

Spike Lee's newest is really a surprisingly vivid dramatic study of an aspiring actress in moonlighting hell.

Competently directed by respected film editor Stuart Baird, it's a glossy production with plenty of Things That Go Boom, courtesy of producer/demolition expert Joel Silver.

This may be the warmest movie the Coen brothers have ever made. There's something unmistakably human beneath the oh-so-clever surface.

This drag comedy is aimed squarely at middle America, where these cuddly queens should play very well -- just so long as nobody remembers that gay people don't just sing show tunes and cook delightful meals; they also have sex.

A woman's picture with a few - precious few - contemporary flourishes.

Ambitious though it may be, this fourth entry in the HELLRAISER saga is easily the least of the film series.

A contemptible excuse for a romantic comedy.

It sounds like an overfamiliar brand of Southern Gothic, but British director Terence Davies adds some distinctive touches of visual poetry.

Exactly what you'd expect. This moderately amusing formula comedy is the screen debut of sitcom star Kelsey Grammer (Frasier), who plays a naval commander charged with piloting a WWII-era submarine in war games against the high-tech nuclear fleet.

Filmed in Vancouver (which looks like nobody's idea of the Bronx), the film is a throwback to the hoary chop-socky conventions that gave Hong Kong cinema its shabby reputation.

Relentlessly gray and paralyzed by narrative inertia, it collapses under the weight of its stars.

This lightweight road picture about a group of inept thieves has an uneven beginning but ends up charming and satisfying.

Sorry excuse for a comedy.

This adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic adventure novel features plenty of not-too-menacing pirates, and exactly the sort of schtick one expects from the Muppets. It will provide an entertaining diversion for children and adults.

Throughout, Pacino absolutely nails the hollow but overpowering charisma that is so easily mistaken for leadership; anyone whose heart has ever been broken by a politician will recognize it at once.

Wavers between being condescending and downright preposterous, but there are redeeming moments.

The vestiges of Woo's achingly romantic style play badly in this can-do context, while the mayhem is never more -- and occasionally less -- than competent.

A misshapen allegory wrapped around a truly awe-inspiring set piece, Ridley Scott's latest is another waste of his prodigious talent.

Since BLACK SHEEP was directed by talented Penelope Spheeris (WAYNE'S WORLD), we had some hope that we'd find it marginally less distasteful than TOMMY BOY. We were disappointed.

Rodriguez's film is a high-octane fun-house ride with only one speed: sick-making.

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.

A potentially amusing comic premise -- dropping a pair of anarchic stoners into the spaced-out, sanctimonious world of New Age bio-dome enthusiasts -- gets submerged in a shower of witless gags and the feeble one-joke persona of MTV celebrity Pauly Shore.

This time around, expect more of the same -- a tedious, muddleheaded tale about a malevolent spirit haunting cyberspace -- with somewhat tastier special effects.

While there are a couple of genuine laughs here, this AIRPLANE!-style collection of gags and blackouts is strangely sour and ultimately wearisome.

Call it Death Wish Goes Suburban.