Darkly lyrical and imbued with a genuine sense of magic, ROAN INISH has the haunted quality of Irish folk music. It's family entertainment in the best sense of the term.

The weight of the film rests on the shoulders of Hawke and Delpy, and they're both remarkable.

Although Christopher Lambert repeats his film role as the immortal action hero, he is less dynamic than he was in Highlander or even Highlander 2, The Quickening. He is also far less charismatic and interesting to watch than Adrian Paul of the European television serial. Moreover, in this film, Lambert inexplicably whispers his lines, while the special effects are deafening.

The golden shadows of the waning Old West are thrown across the big screen with full reverential treatment in this solid, unsurprising rendition of Jim Harrison's widely praised novella.

Nobody's Fool is to be commended just for acknowledging the existence of old age in the context of youth-obsessed pop culture; more importantly, the film is refreshingly frank about the everyday struggles of many senior citizens in an era of fractured families and a disappearing social safety net.

Good-humored gore, ably directed by Ernest Dickerson (JUICE), formerly Spike Lee's cinematographer.

Based on a harrowing true story and fueled by a blistering, full-throttle performance from newcomer Crissy Rock, Ken Loach's LADYBIRD, LADYBIRD reconfirms his status as dean and foremost exponent of the British tradition of social realism.

Singleton gets points for exposing the hypocrisy of "politically correct" institutions, but stilted dialogue and cardboard characterizations undermine the message.

Acclaimed stage director Nicholas Hytner was obviously determined to make his cinematic debut a memorable one. He doesn't just open up the play; he scatters it across sun-drenched country fields, seemingly all of London, and every nook and cranny of the royal residence. Despite the talents involved, however, the effect is surprisingly static and unexciting, probably because the source material is the kind of talky tour de force that is best carried off on the stage. Even so, Hawthorne's performance is tremendously intelligent and affecting.

Stunning production design, smart pacing, and a well-handled romantic angle make for a seamless, if undemanding, entertainment.

The material is well served by director Roman Polanski, who knows well how to instill a subtle, claustrophobic sense of dread in an audience and has put together a rather elegant potboiler.

The film is beautifully made and thought-provoking, but vacillates too much between the sentimental and the metaphysical.

In its noisy, pointless way, STREET FIGHTER does come close to the frenetic meandering of a video game scenario--which is precisely the problem. Video games are always more fun for the players involved than onlookers; consequently, this whole subgenre seems inherently self-defeating.

There are moments of genuine humor in the film, but Finney virtually sucks the oxygen out of the story, and even tempered pros like Gambon and Fricke can do little to save it.

Mixed Nuts is a relentlessly hectic, poorly structured farce that falls embarrassingly flat. All the comedy here comes at the expense of the characters, reflecting a pronounced cruel streak in Ephron's work for the screen.

Director Gillian Armstrong's feminist spin on classic material retains the moving humanity of Louisa May Alcott's novel while reworking it with welcome freshness.

While the filmmakers haven't bothered to come up with a novel approach to very familiar material, the final product is a reasonably entertaining film that will interest children without putting their parents to sleep.

Underlying the slapstick, however, is an extravagant parody of American culture--bad taste, bad manners, the gushing sentimentality of Lloyd's daydreams, or the classic westward road trip, complete with diner scenes and archetypal rednecks.

The screenplay is a distinct improvement on Crichton's one-dimensional, humorless potboiler. The movie comes closest to thematic coherence in its depiction of something nearly everyone can relate to: the office from hell.

Without sympathetic characters or laughs, THE STONED AGE has little to offer beyond a classic '70s soundtrack featuring Blue Oyster Cult, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Ted Nugent, and Foghat's "Slow Ride" (which was used over the closing crawl in the far more ambitious DAZED AND CONFUSED).

Tommy Lee Jones is superb in the title role, but writer-director Ron Shelton unwisely chose to structure the film as a two-character piece, thus placing undue attention on the lackluster character of Cobb's biographer, Al Stump.

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.

Director Alan Rudolph and producer Robert Altman combine forces to create a quiet, intelligent film about Dorothy Parker.

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

Hemorrhaging enthusiasm, ruthlessly violent, and light-headed with its own hard-core grunge worldview, LOVE AND A .45 unmistakably positions director Carty Talkington among the many pretenders to Tarantino's throne.

Luc Besson is a masterly director of stylish, thrilling, and humorous action set pieces, and this film's bravura opening and closing sequences are two of the year's best.

Of all the recent Disney wannabes, THE SWAN PRINCESS comes closest to capturing the ineffable magic of THE LITTLE MERMAID and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. With its scrupulous attention to background detail and buoyant song score, this animated delight is a children's film crafted with enough sophistication to weave a spell around cynical grown-ups.

A disturbing, boldly conceived story.