Any qualms that The Addams Family movie might be more creaky than kooky quickly evaporate, like mist over a still-toasty cadaver. [22 Nov 1991, p.1D]

Knight is a medieval festival for the eye and ear, with rich blue hues and stirring fanfares. [07 Jul 1995, p.1D]

As holiday heartwarmers go, The Santa Clause is an amusing stocking stuffer, a sitcom-superficial novelty that jingles many of the same bells as last year's "Mrs. Doubtfire". [11 Nov 1994 Pg. 12.D]

One of those movies that makes for a fantastic trailer. Much beyond that can feel like repeat viewing.

2-1/4 hours of MTV-produced tough love, with a dance break and pool party to relieve -- momentarily -- a series of motivational rants from lead Samuel L. Jackson.

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.

Even if the refreshing gust doesn't stay with you long, it's fun while it lasts.

But director Jodie Foster and writer W.D.Richter aren't content to serve the usual Planes, Trains and Cliches at their Thanksgiving feast. With her keen actor's instincts, Foster piles on plenty for her terrific cast to chew on and for us to savor. [03 Nov 1995, Pg.01.D]

Overall, Confetti is agreeable and appropriately daft, though occasionally tepid and contrived.

Unlike his tough guy roles in "Taken" or "Non-Stop," Neeson is at least given some good dialogue. And he's a jot more world-weary than kick-ass here.

This just in: Morning Glory can't decide whether to skewer the morning news or wallow in its pap.

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

For novelty value, you can do worse than seeing Sean Penn in a rare chance to don evening-wear on screen, but this isn't a sight to sustain a two-hour haul.

Mother Nature has always gotten the Cindy Crawford treatment from director Carroll Ballard (The Black Stallion, Never Cry Wolf). And he does right by Wind's splashy backdrop of America's Cup boat racing, as the camera bobs and weaves about like a wave-whipped buoy. Too bad there has to be a story, for Wind becomes so much hot air whenever it stays on land. [11 Sep 1992, p.8D]

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

It's over-the-top stuff, to be sure. But Bosses never crosses that line into the macabre.

The stars make this political drama engrossing, despite its few missteps.

Time to get out your flood pants and economy-size Kleenex. Sally Field has the weepies again. But unlike the hoked-up waterworks that turned Field's Steel Magnolias into rust, Not Without My Daughter has an iron-clad plus going for it - harrowing reality. [11 Jan 1991, p.1D]

There's at least one plot element too many here; let your own taste determine which one. Yet until it dissolves into conventional melodrama during a climactic fracas, this fast-paced story is never less than watchable.

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.

It's Complicated is vacuous overall, although attractively packaged.

An exploration of where science ends and spirituality picks up, this second feature from writer-director Mike Cahill (Another Earth) is captivating, suspenseful and thought-provoking.

The movie works mostly because of the artistry of its stellar cast and heartfelt script by writer-director Paul Andrew Williams.

Casanova is an entertaining if silly romp, with amusing dialogue, gorgeous production design and painterly cinematography. Venice, where the movie is set, has never been so breathtaking.

The film is loaded with a gripping plot and enjoyably sketchy characters but hobbled by an uneven tone that ricochets between zany comedy and serious crime thriller.

The film is slow in getting started and once it's underway it's only intermittently involving. It's also occasionally far-fetched.

Sherlock Holmes has been reimagined with fighting skills as potent as his intellectual acumen.

Where once Waters was brilliantly polluted, now he comes off diluted.

Must we import the rubbish we export?

Rob Reiner's self-congratulatory Ghosts of Mississippi portrays Medgar Evers' slaying from the viewpoint of a white guy and can't even do a capable job of that. [20 Dec 1996]

Director Roman Polanski co-stars with and directs wife Sharon Tate in their only collaboration. That's one reason this box office bomb, which came out less than two years before Tate was murdered by Charles Manson's crew, has picked up a following. [08 Oct 2004, p.4E]

Director Peter Berg's frenetic style heightens tension and a sense of disorientation. But some will find its chaotic quality dizzying and off-putting.

Delivers diverting comic fluff for the bland clan's fans. [23 Aug 1996, p.8D]

That Circle of Life everybody was singing about three decades ago? Thanks to Jenkins’ inimitable grace and Miranda’s tuneful swagger, it continues to feel vibrant.

A light, sweet romantic comedy and a Manhattan-without-fear setting make Night a charmer, especially for young couples falling in love. But just as falling in love demands a willing suspension of disbelief, so does this tale of revolving roommates. [3 May 1993, p.8D]

Snipes seems lost. A key player in the novel by virtue of his first-person narration, Snipes' character - now third-person - is all but a non-person. Mostly, he reacts Watson-style to Connery's Sherlock Holmes musings; an attempt to incorporate Snipes' street buddies into a car chase is the film's weakest scene. [30 July 1993, p.1D]

The movie is sure to appeal to fans of the show. But when quality family films, such as "Holes" and "Bend It Like Beckham," are also in theaters, why waste your time on this drivel? The answer, of course, is the kids will insist on it.

Dead-on as entertaining eye candy, a bona fide guilty pleasure -- for the first hour. But the movie loses steam and the sequences that dazzled in the beginning get overshadowed by the excesses of later scenes.

A lot of cinematic ineptitude and moral turpitude can be forgiven in the final 40 minutes, when Halicki redeems his movie by staging one of the greatest car chase scenes in history -- one without much, if any, fakery. [01 Dec 2000, p.8E]

(Craven) and his Scream dream team have done a frightfully good job of killing off and wrapping up the popular horror series.

This wee trinket of a comedy, one of the more offbeat stabs at capturing the absurdity of the religious and political strife in Ireland, is for those who like their Guinness with a shot of wry.

The middling result, diverting while it lasts but too silly to recommend, is merely this week's funhouse action pic. [21 Jun 1996 Pg.01.D]

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.

Rather than a glossy, superficial movie-star vanity project, In the Land of Blood and Honey feels like the sober, hard-hitting work of a humanitarian.

Its rewards may not be eternal, but Heart and Souls will likely satisfy those who love their chuckles choked with tears. [13 Aug 1993, p.4D]

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

From the moment he trudges through the woods in his scratched and smudged birthday suit, Paul Bettany as a saucy Geoffrey Chaucer takes command.

The Two Jakes turns out to be a surprisingly rich movie - if you're willing to spend 138 minutes on what is essentially a psychological study. [10 Aug 1990]

Hopped-up Falling Down is a technically proficient grabber that exploits white-male angst while adeptly juggling two stories filmed in contrasting styles. Slick, maybe facile, and with a nasty streak, it is nonetheless 1993's first consistently engrossing movie. [26 Feb 1993, p.1D]

A two hour aquatic pursuit pic with bruising stunts, fun-to-watch performances, a dozen good chortles and imposing Panavision renderings of post-apocalyptic crud, Waterworld clearly has the makings of a cult movie.

While Van Peebles' ambitions are epic-size, his results, sad to say, are less so. This is one messy Western omelet - highly edible but overscrambled. [14 May 1993, p.3D]

But certainly this is a movie for fans of Willis-style action with a little James Bond and probable instant obsolescence thrown in.

When it focuses on the clash of cultures, laughs naturally flow. When it follows the familiar sports movie playbook too slavishly, it grows tedious.

Those with a taste for irreverent humor and clear-eyed analysis will find it funny, enlightening and disturbing.

As wedding stories go, it's an improvement over the dreadful "Something Borrowed," though it doesn't have anything terribly new to say.

As stuffed with beguiling performances - some of them unexpectedly good - as its script is overstuffed. And though even the beguiled may feel manipulated the next morning (or when hitting the exits), the players put it over by a nose. Happy holidays.

The Glass Castle offers up a movie clan to beat in terms of complete dysfunction, though the brutal and heart-wrenching film is in its own way just as much of a mess.

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

Familiar B-movie fare, but it's also lively fun and presented with well-paced flair.

Adam is a cut above most romances and boasts a intriguing conclusion. One comes away with a sense of hope, leavened by realism.

A disciple of David Lynch's, Roth packs his story with horror, humor, hillbillies and sex. Roth caps his fast-moving story with a joke that's as oddly left-field as it is funny, but truth to tell, it is funny.

While it's intriguing to learn about all the players involved in creating a fashion line, there's too much minutiae to keep the attention of those who are not obsessed with design trends.

Race makes its title's double meaning all too clear, and at a time when the Oscars and movies, in general, struggle with finding racial balance, two guys of different skin colors coming together for some sports-movie magic is a fitting and truly welcoming lapping of the competition.

The film is beautifully shot, with vivid production design. But because of the tale's lack of cohesion, it doesn't carry enough emotional heft.

The Penn-manship here is far from unimpressive. But if Sean gets a second chance, he should make his audience care as much as he does. [23 Sep 1991, p.4D]

In the canon of comic-book movies, it's not as campy bad as the "Batman" starring George Clooney, but nowhere near the caliber of the Spider-Man movies or "The Dark Knight." It may have more style, but it's only a jot more entertaining than "Catwoman."

An enchantingly beautiful and moving film.

Most of the silliness lands, and the stuff that doesn’t is enveloped by the total chaos, anyway. That’s all to be expected with Deadpool around. The meat of the matter, surprisingly, is the loving closure given to the Fox movie run, plus a reminder how much an unleashed Jackman rules now, and always did.

Mermaids will satisfy those who like sentiment served on a plastic platter. Others should treat it like 3-day-old fish. [14 Dec 1990, p.5D]

The skating scenes are their own reward: It's hard to think of a movie since 1950's "Sunset Boulevard" that has gotten more dramatic impact out of a pool.

"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.

Focus never quite comes into clear view. It's a muddled and twisting romantic caper that at times feels like Steven Soderbergh lite.

The worms, the real stars of the film, are fairly impressive, looming large, plump and slimy as they are boiled, fried, served with sauce and added to omelettes and smoothies.

More amiable than witty and relying heavily on the likability and charm of its lead actors, Leatherheads scores more points as a retro romantic comedy than a football saga.

A satisfying look at young unrequited love, bromances, independence and letting go.

The five stories in The Five Senses flawlessly and even artfully create a unified mood.

Rodriguez is such a visual stylist, and the violence is so cartoonish, that the flurry of whizzing bullets and growing pile of bodies is not as offensive as it might be.

The follow-up fails in every way, as a retread of the beloved ‘90s vehicle and as a youth-centered setup for future installments.

Your mileage may vary when it comes to the over-the-top carnage and in-your-face machismo, but it’s impressive just how bonkers Fate is, like a litter of kittens hopped up on grade-A catnip.

Don't look for any belly laughs, but Quick Change will help you put on a happy face. [13 Jul 1990, p. 4D]

While it takes stabs at realism, mostly in its use of cellular and computer technology, disbelief must be suspended for full immersion in this twisty airborne thriller.

A ludicrous medical thriller operating on the supposition that readers and moviegoers have forgotten about "Coma". [27 Sept 1996]

Regrettably, it's the movie version of John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, a book still thumping its chest on the hardback best-seller list after more than three years.

Good news, parents: Storks is bound to entertain you and your little ones. Bad news: Get ready to answer a lot more awkward questions about where babies come from.

A World War II thriller without enough thrills.

This insipid wannabe frightener features a checklist of derivative conventions.

The women in Coen brothers’ movies are usually the much smarter gender, as it is with “Dolls,” where Joel Coen and Cooke’s script creates a tight-knit relationship between its heroines that’s an absolute delight to watch, surrounded by goofball personalities and a healthy amount of campiness. It’s a playfully madcap turn on the “Thelma & Louise” model, and if Jamie and Marian decided to drive off a cliff, you’d want to be in that Dodge with them.

This is the rare screwball comedy that is superbly paced, cleverly plotted and hilarious from start to finish.

If you've seen "Mean Girls" or "Easy A," you've seen a far better version of The DUFF.

The movie is something of a white elephant itself, a luxuriant, lumbering behemoth. It is pleasant, occasionally amusing - and often dull.

Doesn't shed much light on the fragile and enigmatic writer whose myth has nearly obscured the real woman.

This handsome movie works thanks to its lack of pretension and an atmosphere somewhat akin to the gentle wackiness of director Bill Forsyth's better works.

With its dark, wacky humor, some moments are reminiscent of last year's "Machete."

To redo such a sentimental gem without Hepburn's incandescence to light the way seems foolhardy at best, but director Sydney Pollack (Tootsie) miraculously almost pulls off his updated homage simply by choosing well and popping enough champagne corks to make us believe the wealthy are still glamorous despite Donald Trump. [15 Dec 1995, p.1D]

While Mission: Impossible has found a popular way to reimagine an old show for modern times, Man is immersed in all things retro — from the ginchy fashion to a jazzy score — but for an action adventure, it’s a mostly tedious affair with fleeting moments of cool.

If only The Brave One had captured more of the complex nature of the fear and paranoia plaguing society since 9/11. Instead, it is a well-made but predictable take on the revenge fantasy thriller, with a female twist.

There's no substitute for bad taste. And this one has it double-barreled, both in the timing of its release and as a movie, one said to be loosely based on fact.

There can be too much of a goofily good thing.