While this third go-round may not seem necessary amid summer's blockbusters, it's an entertaining jaunt back in time with the likably mismatched duo.

The pitch of the script, written by director Mark Herman, isn't perfect. But these earthy blokes are an engaging lot, the soot of the earth, with an admirably wry view of their bleak situations. [23May1997 Pg 03.D]

Nothing is easily resolved in this complex drama, which makes it all the more honestly moving. More than anything, this is a film about a woman on a journey of self-discovery, finding her way gingerly.

City loses some bearings in its second half, becoming a ragged collection of punchy action scenes. Big deal. It's also one of the most enjoyably ragged examples of fuzz vs. scuz since 1972's Across 110th Street. [8 Mar 1991, p.2D]

A better effort than Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and a worthy follow-up to runaway hit Wonder Woman, Justice League does the DC icons proud with some high-profile additions and a strong if unspectacular effort full of fun character moments.

Unexpectedly charming. It's a classic date movie, but it also will appeal to pre-dating tweens and middle-aged romantics.

This is a Frank Capra-meets-Judd Apatow comedy with a sweetness-laced ribaldry.

Director Dominik Moll knows how to make a gruesome-free thriller and even manages some dark laughs as he turns the screws.

It's a stellar cast, but you can't help but lament the bad timing.

Though no film for the ages, it's two grown-up hours to tickle clear, sharp, minds. [27 Jan 1995, p.4D]

If it's a spirit-lifter you want, Rudy is the perfect pep rally for your soul. [13 Oct 1993, p.8D]

Eastern Promises has a compelling story and strong performances to back up what may seem excessive or sensationalistic.

The animation is also top-notch: Bo has a bunch of dazzling scenes as a porcelain warrior, and human characters look better than ever. With the emphasis on Woody’s tale, Buzz and the other returning toys spend much of the movie as side characters, but it turns into a true romp when everyone's plots coincide.

There's also a nice cheekiness to the material written by Robert Towne ("Chinatown"), and the usual cool high-tech toys are deployed.

While the two leads emerge soulless as melodrama hovers around the edges of the tale, the era is convincingly portrayed and the melancholy mood is hauntingly rendered.

The film is, however, almost inevitably wistful for the past, and many of its emotional touches come from juxtaposed then-and-now footage of the participants.

It is a lovely film for the holiday season, as well as afterward, and is reminiscent of "Finding Neverland," without the darker undercurrents.

Both darkly funny and life-affirming, in an offbeat and offhanded way.

Featuring an impressive voice cast, a clever script, an abundance of pig puns and a duck the size of a T. Rex, the film treads familiar ground by pitting a bunch of Davids vs. egotistical Goliaths on the soccer pitch. But it does so in such a supremely quirky and earnestly heartwarming fashion that it’s hard not to be charmed.

In its focus on an ordinary family facing a nightmarish scenario, Snitch is a terrifying but relatable story.

Once this 2 1/4-hour slow-starter finally finds its rhythm, we're reminded of how gripping policy give-and-take around a long rectangular table can be.

It's Barrymore's most ambitious role to date. She proves she is maturing as an actress.

As frothy and smooth as a chilled margarita on a hot Vegas night.

In exploring the complicated nature of family bonds, Brothers is thought-provoking. The wounds inflicted by the cruelty of a troubled parent can prove as painful as battle scars.

Even when there are lulls, the emotions seem authentic.

Yummy yet empty.

While it reaches for the stars, director Christopher Nolan's Interstellar is a flawed masterpiece...The story is ever-ambitious, sometimes riveting and thought-provoking, but also plodding and hokey and not as visionary as its cutting-edge special effects.

Think "Animal Farm" redone as Ant Farm. [2 October 1998, p. 11E]

Oftentimes, the original book is better than its movie version. And while King’s tweetstorm is an infamous Homeric odyssey in the world of 280 characters, Zola is a solid spin, vividly capturing a stripper saga that would have been harrowing to live through, but is fun to sit back and witness.

Their performances may not get touted on many year-end movie lists, but the Kemp brothers - Gary and Martin - are the make-or-break element of the spotty but often gripping The Krays. In this case, happily, it's make. [09 Nov 1990, p.4D]

Sarah's Key is, for the most part, an exercise in reserve. We never see Hitler, never enter battle. Paquet-Brenner (Pretty Things, Walled In), rightly tells his Holocaust story as it now lives: through survivors and descendants.

Fortune is smiling down on veteran filmmaker Robert Altman with Cookie's Fortune.

If you end up cursing, try not to forget The Abyss' spectacular oil-rig collapse, a killer chase scene, two fine leads, and one Oscar-worthy "creature'' special effect midway through. Do forget the rest - unless you really dig Casper, the Friendly Ghost. [9 Aug 1989, Life, p.1D]

Characters are richly drawn and relatable, though at times stories teeter on melodrama. The overall effect, however, is powerful.

At his best, King's most effective creatures are not the ones behind creaking doors, but inside crooked minds.

Worth a look. It's easy to overrate -- but just as easy to undervalue.

Bubble is a haunting film, made all the more intriguing by the use of ordinary people, not actors, in all the roles.

By showing the struggles and efforts of about half a dozen people, it puts a human face on the tragedy.

A loving ode to a few decades that Spielberg made his own, Ready Player One’s an entertaining nostalgia trip that wears its influences proudly but throws them at such dizzying force that sometimes you feel like you’re buried under Chuck E. Cheese tokens.

While the story is preposterous and most of the cast standard-issue, it's hard not to like a comic-book movie that features both Busby Berkeley-style dance numbers and high-tech vaporizing weaponry.

Blaze is like an old-fashioned striptease - the juicy story line gets you all hot and bothered, but you end up wanting more. [13 Dec 1989, p.4D]

A refreshingly entertaining character study that refuses to dumb down its youthful cast or bury their concerns in service of a catchy soundtrack.

A compelling and uplifting tale that exposes the viewer to an unfamiliar, fascinating culture and a family dynamic that is recognizable and nuanced.

What vaults the film above the standard sports movie is the stellar performance by Michael Sheen.

This “Scream” is neither king of the hill nor top of the heap, but you can’t be too mad at a picture that makes a cathartic treat out of a plunged knife in the eye.

Authentic emotion competes with manufactured sentiment for the heart of Lee Daniels' The Butler.

In his previous works, Chazelle mined the flawed soul of artists in tales that were notably personal, while First Man is a story of an introvert that too often feels distant.

This appealing romantic comedy undertakes the conventions of the formula without an inordinate amount of clichés. Music also infuses the overall plot with a satire of the music industry, and the pop tunes and lyrics are catchy.

Bottom-line funny, often convulsively so. [2 Dec 1988]

A good-natured and engaging fantasy/romantic comedy in the tradition of "Heaven Can Wait" or even "Topper."

Last Chance Harvey is the "Before Sunrise" for the over-45 set.

The new Pelham takes the chilling original premise and modifies it for an era steeped in technology, making for an energetic and engrossing adaptation.

Knowing and original, Men's comedy never quite soars. Yet jump it does, and high enough. [27 Mar 1992, p.1D]

Another of director David Cronenberg's queasy early horror films that, like The Brood and Videodrome, gets under your skin. [04 Jun 2004]

The message here is everything might not be as awesome as it used to be, but that’s OK. It's a grounded, modern sentiment – and a self-reflective one – wrapped in a hyperactively bonkers, extremely enjoyable package.

The movie wouldn't be imaginable without its commanding star. Nicholson is in virtually every scene underplaying to great effect

Without making a big deal of it, this film says a lot about assimilation and the ability to change. [05 Feb 1992, p.5D]

The film wrestles with tonal inconsistencies but features fantastic action scenes to go with a touching underlying narrative about the power of trust.

Through its detailed depiction of the lead character and McConaughey's outstanding portrayal, Dallas Buyers Club enlightens compellingly without sermonizing.

It's a case of bad guys who want to use an invader for nefarious purposes - in this case, germ warfare - and good guys who want to save humanity. The formula is still potent, especially when stirred by director Wolfgang Petersen. [10 Mar 1995, p.1D]

Deadpool 2 is chock-full of all the cartoonish ultraviolence, meta commentary and pop-culture references you’d expect. Where it surprises — and why it works so well — is how it balances an actually touching undercurrent alongside superhero subversiveness.

Crowe has invented a fresh character in Lloyd Dobler, and Cusack has invested him with an ingratiating persona that helps avert disaster when things become a bit melodramatic in the final resolution. [14 April 1989]

Seductively pastoral but also a bit slight, the movie saves its best scene for the very end.

The Postman (Il Postino) is slight, but it's tough to imagine anyone not liking it.

By the time the prey turns hunter, however, the tale becomes overly predictable. And it never taps Kingsley's potential as a ruthless father figure to the beauteous, almost-sympathetic creature. Still, Species is a kick to the finish, groaner ending and all. If anyone could make E.T. forget all about phoning home, it's Sil. [07 July 1995, p.12D]

This time, Lee fails to do the right thing, but he may have come up with a cult film. And compared to too much of this summer's sludge, that's almost mo' better enough. [03 Aug 1990]

Gives Dennis Quaid one of his best screen showcases.

For those who puzzled over the "Twilight" hoopla here are Adam and Eve, the artiest, most sophisticated pair of vampires to hit screens in a long time.

Sky High gets Kurt Russell back to his retro Disney roots, and he's still in good enough shape at age 54 to wear a supernatural hunk's cape.

Scott seduces audiences with thought-provoking possibilities, then pulls a bait-and-switch, subbing in a familiar monster thriller and fiery explosion-fest.

As entertainment, such dark material can only stretch so far, and Series 7 comes awfully close to being as numbing as the genre it mocks. But its power can't be denied.

Just as sharply funny and as heartwarming, yet unsentimental, as the first.

The movie is really a lovely ensemble piece. Beautifully conceived and written by Michael Cunningham (Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours), the film has a distinctly novelistic and literate style.

Unsettling and well-acted story.

Victor Mature became a star in the 1940 original, which was simply called One Million, B.C. Happy New Year, Vic, but nothing in your version can compete with a blond Raquel Welch -- she wearing the latest '60s open-navel cavewoman garb here [27 Dec 1996, p.3D]

So sobering an example of why crime doesn't pay that it could be shown to petty drug thugs to scare them straight.

Its colorful residents make Zootopia a wondrous place to visit for two hours until you have to go back to real life, where Shakira isn’t a gazelle and law enforcement is a lot less furry.

Fury does capture the brutality of war and the misery of life spent largely confined in an armored tank during the war's final weeks, in April, 1945.

Director Jeff Rowe (“The Mitchells vs. the Machines”) smartly casts actual teenagers as the main characters, makes them pop via a super-cool comic-book visual style and surrounds these familiar heroes in a half shell with a top-notch supporting cast. Best of all, it's the kind of zippy, 99-minute adventure bound to satisfy kids and adults alike in the cinematic doldrums of August.

American Sniper's wartime sequences are well-paced and harrowing, reminiscent of those in 2008's "The Hurt Locker." Like that film, Sniper can be interpreted either as a patriotic salute or as an incisive anti-war movie. In either case, it's a powerful, moving and tragic tale.

Whishaw, Hawkins and Downton Abbey's Bonneville strike just the right notes. Imaginative production design, which occasionally brings to mind Wes Anderson's "Moonrise Kingdom," adds to the story's appeal.

The movie, which ends on an unexpected note of wistful humor, also gleans gentle and non-derisive chuckles out of Fin's physical state.

Though some have taken this '94 film fest fave fairly straight, it strikes me as eerily arch and quite the sly hoot as it connects maybe two-thirds of the time. [07 Mar 1995, p.4D]

"Imitation" illuminates Turing's brilliance in an engrossing and moving film that features a standout, Oscar-worthy performance by Benedict Cumberbatch.

Big Eyes is a fabulous match of artist — Burton — and material. While it's one of the director's more low-key works, his trademark sly wit infuses the mesmerizing stranger-than-fiction biopic.

If This Is It doesn't miraculously restore the middle-aged Jackson to his past glory, it at least offers glimpses of his bygone greatness, and poignant suggestions of what might have been.

J. Edgar shines a probing beam of light on a man who was widely feared, often disliked, but rarely understood.

Everyone is well cast and no one more perfectly than Freeman, who is far more God-like than George Burns ever was. Freeman's God is wise, humble, wry, patient and funny but never mean-spirited.

A bittersweet relationship drama with enough honest emotion and gentle humor to move even the steeliest heart.

Unlike the corner of the entertainment industry it tackles, Mindy Kaling’s quick-witted screenplay for “Late Night” doesn’t go for cheap laughs, but instead wields incisive barbs to successfully make its point.

It's simple stuff, but the movie's heart is in the right place.

Newcomer Shameik Moore shines with geeky gusto in a breakthrough role in the coming-of-age comedy/drama, which tackles racial stereotypes and 1990s culture as a kind of spiritual descendant of "Friday" and "Do the Right Thing" while still featuring a singular voice.

Hustle's approach to a simple good-vs.-evil plot is eccentrically exuberant.

A lively, satirical stab at modern-day reality TV, scary big-brother technology, cultural dissension and rampant income inequality, all slathered in blood-soaked ultraviolence and bonkers charm. And don’t worry, old-school Arnold lovers: It’s so insanely different from the original movie that you can adore one without losing any love for the other.

An Innocent Man is no White Heat, and Selleck is no James Cagney. But this kind of fast-paced entertainment is almost top of the world, ma. [06 Oct 1989, p.5D]

As stylish and cool as the director’s other high-class cinematic efforts, the pulpy goodness of The Killer is straight up more fun than a lot of Fincher outings, thanks to a dark sense of humor and Michael Fassbender's enjoyably droll assassin.

While it lacks a strong overall narrative focus, "Ricardos" makes the most of a strong supporting cast and Sorkin’s excellent, banter-filled script.

When Team America works, it falls squarely into the category of guilty pleasure.