There is some lovely cinematography by Shelly Johnson in the classic David Lean style and plenty of excitement. Taken just for that, Hidalgo delivers.

Slap Happy. [16 February 1996, p.D4]

Despite dashes of droll dialogue from screenwriter Ted Griffin, the remake aims for cool but instead gets chilly.

Kidman gets kudos for giving the enterprise a touch of class, while the film gives the studio's library a rare pedigreed addition.

Thornton is excellent and now seems genetically incapable of being anything less than great in any role he takes.

The werewolves have it all over the blood-suckers in The Twilight Saga: New Moon. When these oversize, hirsute creatures burst onto the screen, they inject life into a rather inert story.

An intermittently exciting action film anchored by a strong performance by Jackman, who embodies Wolverine like no one else could.

The cinematography is gorgeous and the makeup amazing, but the story lines are too disconnected.

After a string of iffy Transformers movies, Bay reminds that he can do a much better action movie with humans than alien robots: 13 Hours is his best work in the genre since his 1990s hits Bad Boys and The Rock.

With an ace pop mechanic like Joel Schumacher now in charge of our hero's bruised psyche, the patient not only survives but thrives in the garishly garnished but never groaningly gruesome Batman Forever. [16 Jun 1995, Pg.01.D]

Like the fumbling around of first-time sex, The To Do List has its enjoyable moments but doesn't exactly feel like a peak experience.

Preposterous, goofy and a clear ripoff of “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” Identity still manages to make off with just enough laughs to work, thanks to the wondrous McCarthy, one of the few actresses in Hollywood allowed to showcase her wit and charisma as much as her physique.

It's for people who have always wanted to see Willie Nelson ("Uncle Jesse") lob Molotov cocktails on a freeway and smoke weed with Joe Don Baker, who plays Georgia's governor.

Slither is old-school gooey, slimy, silly B-movie fun.

Lee captures the despair, self-delusion, occasional terror and frequent humor of a praised and popular novel, aided by the potent acting his direction virtually guarantees. [13 Sep 1995, p.01.D]

John Singleton's bizarre but viewable Boyz N the Hood follow-up is surprisingly gooey going. [23 Jul 1993]

It's misleading to call this a documentary — fan fodder is more like it.

Some of us look forward to Guest films the way others pine for installments of Bond or "Star Trek." This skewering of Hollywood will entertain we "Guesties," but it's not at the top of his roster of parodies.

Predictable and foolishly unsuspecting characters react in ways that make you want to shake them. But there's an undeniable sense of silly fun in this erotic thriller.

You may enjoy One Night -- but you may feel guilty about it in the morning.

While Garcia looks around for something to do, the film is making a lot of Hoffman's comic shtick. It's funny, and sometimes very funny, but ultimately as distracting as Chevy Chase's unbilled casting as Davis' boss. [02 Oct 1992, p.1D]

Heathers was such a black-comic revelation that Pump Up the Volume comes as a double surprise. What were the odds, particularly this early in his career, that Christian Slater would end up starring in two of the best high school movies ever? [22 Aug 1990, p.4D]

An enjoyable, rousing film, despite its formulaic quality.

This many-feathered animal occasionally soars before it crash-lands.

In picking up exactly where the last one left off three years ago, Kills separates its two key main characters, and not for the better. It just seems like a filler chapter before another main event, albeit with nasty kills, mythos building and cool references.

For his newest starry murder mystery, based on Christie’s “Hallowe’en Party,” Branagh challenges Poirot’s deductive mind and supernatural belief system and surrounds him with spookiness that can only spiff up a creaky plot and thin characters so much.

Worth stumbling into on cable not all that far into next year.

Flaws and all, Men of Honor ultimately does its duty. It honors the feats of an incredible man.

The faithful will devour it, but everyone else will wonder why it takes a dozen band members (including a horn section), copious shots of Kenny's bulging biceps, and not one, not two, but 3-Ds to give shape to these tunes.

Susan Sarandon has never looked better in her 29-year screen career than she does here.

While potent and well-paced, Contagion doesn't come together as the fearsome bio-thriller it starts out to be. But it may make audiences twitchy about the guy coughing in the next row.

Hemsworth’s machismo is all real, though, and for two war-torn hours, you’ll forget about that iconic hammer of his.

Passable but never exciting, Heist is on a level with those minor Burt Lancaster action pics the actor's name helped bankroll in the '70s.

Hart is much like Murphy: fast-talking, mischievous and irresistible. He's so confident and good-natured that we see how Angela fell for her pint-sized slacker.

More than anything, the striking spectacle of primordial flora and one-of-a-kind fauna makes it easy for audiences to get pleasantly lost in the adventure.

A riveting and disturbing documentary that falls short of greatness by not providing enough insight into the characters. It is mostly intent on inciting a sense of outrage in the viewer, and it succeeds.

Though a tacked-on fisticuffs finale has its charms, it rather contradicts the preceding. Mere subtleties are beyond Stallone and returning Rocky I director John G. Avildsen. [16 Nov 1990, p.4D]

Thanks to a disproportionately superior second hour, Fat Man and Little Boy improves on its historically valid, but commercially suicidal, title. It is not, however, even the screen's second best chronicle of atomic bomb development in wartime Los Alamos, N.M. [20 Oct 1989, p.4D]

Largely because of its engaging cast, Admission is an amiable, but only slightly-above-average, comic romp.

A well-paced action film in the vein of "Speed."

Bettany is the best thing about the movie. A wonderful dramatic actor, he also proves to be richly skilled at romantic comedy, playing Peter with an easy grace and a droll sense of humor.

Borderline amazing and borderline dull at the same time.

The beauty here is in the set-up, which offers Hugh Grant a role to match his star-making turn in "Four Weddings and a Funeral."

Delpy is clearly a gifted writer, especially of comic dialogue. But she and Goldberg don't quite work as an engaging pair.

The movie occasionally reveals truths about relationships that, while not earth-shattering, are nonetheless entertaining and worth considering.

Dragging on too long is a more serious flaw in a romantic comedy than it might be in a complex drama. We don't ask much of a movie like this, but we do require it to be snappy, clever and quick.

The martial-arts sequences take this prosaic thriller to a higher level.

It's a cut above most spooky-kid movies, with a twist that sets it apart.

The superior yet still extraordinarily cheesy "Here We Go Again" suffers from many of the same fundamental problems, though the film exudes an infectious energy and hearty spirit that’ll put you in a powerful Swedish super-pop headlock until you submit.

Intelligent but exasperating, its monotonous tone will wear down even viewers who started out in its corner. [27 Dec 1996]

Things move fast enough to make it a movie to enjoy and then forget.

Director David Fincher shovels on more gloom than even the serial killer genre can sustain in the murkily moody, but self-defeating, Seven.

Despite Thurman's unlikely role, she's rather appealing with De Niro, but the De Niro-Murray chemistry isn't convincing. Murray, a breeze in Groundhog Day, seems tensed up here; the film, long on the shelf and with long-shot cult potential, brings no discredit upon its makers, but no glory either. [5 Mar 1993, p.5D]

Friedkin's latest is good for a few jolts, but also too many unintentional yuks. [27 Apr 1990, p.1D]

Spacey's brazen casting isn't as beyond the pale as it ought to be. In fact, it's hard to imagine this strange and only occasionally successful movie without him.

By contrast, other Hornby screen adaptations are "About a Boy" and "High Fidelity"- superb comedies both and, in Fidelity's case, a treatise on male obsession with far more depth and even more laughs.

A remake of a 2003 French Canadian movie, The Grand Seduction is more bland than grand and more eccentric than seductive.

This comedy deserves credit for taking a decided viewpoint — and delivering a heartfelt if occasionally misguided message.

More amusing than a lot of expensive Hollywood comedies [26 February 1999, Life, p.5E]

Free Birds is pleasant enough holiday fare. And kudos to the animators for transforming a rather unattractive — or at least unappreciated — species into a cast of endearing characters.

Except for its muddier than necessary photography, there aren't any surprises, which probably won't matter to the target audience.

Che is a mass of contradictions, perhaps like the iconic revolutionary himself.

Definitely more than semi-funny.

Where "Mall Cop" is broad, safe and sticks to a formula, Observe and Report is unabashedly crude, cynical, off-kilter and funnier.

A feel-good, all-star monster mash with a low-key smackdown on bullying and a major focus on being as goofy as possible.

Catch offers mild fun but never as much as its animated '60s-retro opening credits portend. They're the cutest of the year.

There's something about a plus-size floral housedress that brings out the best in many male comics, and Lawrence is no exception.

Excesses or not, I'm rabid to see this again. [10 Mar 1989, p.1D]

Storywise, it’s a solid if overlong tale of family and redemption – fans of “Yellowstone” or “Horizon” will find stuff to love. Where “Rust” stands out is in its look, a gorgeously shot production with an emphasis on contrasts and dark colors that’s a testament to the talents of Hutchins and fellow cinematographer Bianca Cline.

McKay's performance is a revelation. He nails Welles' imperiousness, charm and vocal cadences, and even bears a strong resemblance to the iconic actor/director. He is thoroughly convincing as Welles and electrifies the screen when he's on it.

Director Richard Rush, who later made the classic The Stunt Man, overindulges the arty bike footage. But this is certainly an artifact of an age, photographed by Leslie (later Laszlo) Kovacs, who became one of Hollywood's best cinematographers. [02 Jan 2004, p.4E]

Roll Bounce rates a friendly nod. If it doesn't exactly kick out the jams, it does move them around a little bit.

While style trumps substance, something in the way this '60s tribute moves attracts us.

It all feels about as spontaneous as a concrete blueprint.

Chlumsky's devotion to Culkin, a lovable wimp given to milk mustaches, sets us up for an emotional rainstorm. Only the strong will escape without a tear. [27 Nov 1991, p.1D]

If the sight of half-naked, tattooed sailors firing cannons at each other shivers your timbers, climb aboard. Even passable pirate movies don't sail by every day. [22 Dec 1995, p.3D]

When the comedy connects, it can deliver with funny force

Full of love, Spaceballs is full of laughs; after 13 years of screen disappointments, Brooks has almost delivered another Young Frankenstein. May the box office be with it. [24 Jun 1987, p.1D]

While the story does not quite come to magical life, the themes of courage, hope and decency are sweetly inspiring.

Mottola, who wrote and directed 1996's "The Daytrippers," crafts smart, witty dialogue. But the movie suffers in tone. While much of the story feels like a brainier John Hughes comedy, it veers into more dramatic terrain and loses focus.

This being Irving, the story straddles the sweet and the creepy.

Movies often don't do their stories justice, and that has happened again here. The main problem is a tone that jarringly switches from a kind of Forrest Gump-style narrative to a more generic biopic.

This Hulk is more viscerally angry and packs a bigger wallop than Ang Lee's talkier, more introspective version. But it's hardly the best superhero movie around. "Iron Man" was wittier and more fun.

The courtroom scenes emphasize the movie's potency as a David and Goliath saga. But the film's strength lies in its fact-based story of a wronged man turned crusader, played with vigor by Kinnear.

While director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) piles on outlandish scenarios, the chemistry of the lead actors mitigates the contrived setup and numbing explosions.

The overall message is pleasantly sweet: Bad days happen. Not only are they inevitable, but they serve to make the good times worth savoring. There's nothing dreadful about that.

There are some effectively suspenseful moments in the movie, particularly during the gambling sequences, but one longs for more context and probing into the psyche of an ordinary man with an extraordinary compulsion.

Don't be too quick to turn down The Uninvited. A stylish horror thriller in the vein of "The Ring," it's well-acted, frightening and handsomely produced

"Who wants to see a movie about a kid who's stuck in middle school with a bunch of morons?" Thanks to an endearing cast of characters and an energetic, if light, comic story, we do.

Pro orchestrator that he is, Altman at least gives the illusion of a three-ring circus, but he's working third-rate material without a net. [23 Dec 1994, p.10D]

Once again, the anchor aboard this ship of fools is the drolly doltish Leslie Nielsen, who can deliver lines like "I like my sex the way I play basketball - one on one, with as little dribbling as possible" as if they were first-class mail. Let's hope Zucker and Co. quit while they are ahead. [18 Mar 1994, p.4D]

Individually, the episodes aren't much, but it's impressive that Jarmusch even pulled off the logistics. [01 May 1992, p.7D]

It's only a mild Disney package, despite a dose of Donald Duck dyspepsia. [18 July 1997, p.3D]

A film in which precocious kids say things real kids never would, and larcenous drunks come off as adorable.

The story teeters on the edge of soap opera and emotional manipulation, but director Robert Benton (Kramer vs. Kramer) pulls back in the nick of time. What results is an involving and often poignant examination of love and loss.

Youth's screenplay, by Gustin Nash, is generally witty.

Though he's highly irresponsible, this Alfie is not quite a calculating heel, which makes the material go down easier while blunting the point.

If She-Devil is (at best) ragged, it's also a must for Streep fans. [8 Dec 1989, p.1D]