Begins promisingly and entertains for a stretch because you think it's leading to something more than one of the movie year's flattest conclusions.

Might have been more appropriately titled "Hodgepodge." What starts out with a sense of quirky fun loses direction and devolves into a mishmash of story lines.

Packed with digs at Bush-Cheney that even Democrats could find heavy-handed, the movie's lumbering approach reminds us that, OK, Emmerich did "Independence Day" -- but also 1998's "Godzilla," which began sinking back into the sea in week two.

For hilarity, characterization and clever structure, "The Hangover" is far superior. Still, there are some laughs in this uneven but good-natured raunchfest.

A brilliant idea that seems to lack the vision to be great.

This too-belated reprise from the same filmmaking duo isn't any model, but it ought to amuse fans of the original. [23 July 1993, p.5D]

Lottery Ticket is no prize.

This misguided chick flick jumps through a lot of hoops just to state the obvious: "Life goes on, enjoy the time you have."

Tells an increasingly outlandish story with very funny (and often gross) moments. But about an hour in, it grows derivative and disappointing.

It's an innocuous, occasionally cute movie made watchable by the appealing Mandy Moore and hunky Matthew Goode, a Brit who has a bit of Hugh Grant charm in an otherwise silly role.

Lacks tension or mystery. Even the courtroom scenes feel artificial.

Dramatically empty Norse warrior adventure.

For someone of De Niro’s reputation, this Intern gig is a thankless job.

Stereotypical, banally written bloodbath.

Canyon is similarly slick, though even more heavy-handed in hammering home its points. [26 Dec 1991]

Already too long. It makes you want to start moving globs of dirt to tunnel out of the theater as the movie ends with the famous theme to "The Great Escape."

The nasty, overlong and undisciplined sourball of a sex farce about a mother-daughter con team will nonetheless satisfy bigenerational libidinous fantasies.

This movie-within-a-movie action-comedy spoof is a too long, too loud tease as it toys with the Schwarzen-dude's well-toned cinematic image. [18 Jun 1993, p.1D]

De Niro's scowl and Murphy's sass are inherently funny, though in this case both actors are forced to call in moviegoers' long-established goodwill.

Though probably well-intentioned, Radio comes off as manipulative of its audience and exploitative of the mentally challenged.

Goes overboard on the gruesome and scrimps on humor. Raimi's "Drag Me to Hell" was a much funnierchill-fest.

Alas, if you're someone who enjoys movies as, say, a two-hour escape, you may find this documentary on the death of film at digital's hands a bit too inside baseball.

For a movie with a star wrestler at the center of it, Legendary doesn't pack much of a punch.

Like a lot of meds, it loses its effectiveness over time, and you'll build a resistance to Effects eventually, particularly when it dissolves into a standard crime flick.

Though some scenes may be too intense for children, the action is slick, with robot clashes and airborne chases leaving the strongest impression.

This leaden teen comedy is meant to be lively, but it's curiously bland.

Fun at times and tedious at others, it's an action-adventure fantasy aimed particularly at gadget-loving boys.

The devil has a new spawn, but this one is not nearly as creepy as its progenitor.

The movie, though predictable and formulaic, is not that simple, although it might have been better off had it been so basic. It interweaves clichés from several other genres and ends up a mishmash of stories.

Contraband has a few moments of tension, but it adheres to a predictable heist formula hardly worth trafficking in.

The setting is vivid but the film is lifeless, despite many innuendos dropped about FDR's alleged infidelity.

Joyful Noise seems tailor-made for an audience of churchgoers and "Glee" devotees.

Seeing gawky Charlie Korsmo, one-time movie moppet, as a superbrain whose introduction to alcohol leads him to do a rip-roaring rendition of Guns N' Roses' Paradise City, is worth a smile or two. But even that can't save [the] film.

Perry must have felt it was high time for him to try his hand at playing a darker role. But starring in this badly directed, suspense-free film with its unintentionally laughable dialogue does Perry no favors.

Ultimately the story of Jay Moriarity, who died tragically in a diving accident at 22, is a moving one, and he deserved a better tribute than this film.

For a computer-animated movie about dancing penguins, it's surprisingly leaden. Not even the impressive voice talent can rev up this clumsy spectacle.

An intriguing and somber tale of disintegrating and disappointing relationships fused with a coming-of-age story.

Best scenes: Campbell pondering whether to squash her dismembered head in a vice, and a later quandary when he must shotgun his own dismembered hand. Moral: Pimples aren't the worst thing that can happen to your body. [11 Sept 1987, Life, p.3D]

There's the germ of a sexy idea in True Colors, which serves up a duplicitous friendship, Capitol Hill intrigue and even attractive scenery (indoors and out). Too bad some folks have disinfected it. [15 Mar 1991, p.4D]

Strange Magic is strange all right, but hardly magical.

The dashing Jackman plays his part well enough, but the script doesn't provide sufficient "Indiana Jones"-style bons mots to win us over.

These movies can't possibly be the best chance Neeson has got. Certainly he's offered more nuanced dramas that call on subtler acting skills and don't entail a mounting body count.

Cate Blanchett brings little but an arch toughness to the role of Marion, and, in a highly improbably climactic scene, proves herself a veritable knight. Crowe and Blanchett share a perfunctory romance, with few sparks.

Four is so cobbled with bits of other sci-fi and comic-book movies, there's little to distinguish it.

Just like the popular (and more graphically violent) video game it's spun from, kung-fooy and kartoony Kombat shoves plot and personality aside to focus on action cloaked in mystic mumbo-jumbo and gloomy mock-gothic graphics. [21 Aug 1995 Pg. 03.D]

Smurfs is utterly kid-friendly.

When Kevin Costner goes into sensitive-guy mode, beware.

Much more concerned with the emotional ties between twin sisters — both played by Game of Thrones’ Natalie Dormer — than scaring the pants off audiences.

There will always be an audience for the escapist rewards this type of movie always dangles.

This is the kind of movie that has always polarized serious film folk, while the public usually elects to stay home and prune shrubs.

At its worst, Toy Soldiers is just an action variation on the old Rooney- Garland musicals - you know, let's-get-a-buncha-kids-together-and-put-on-a-counterinsurgency. At its best, it's surprisingly bearable for a movie so easily typed. [26 Apr 1991, p.4D]

A mishmash of horror and history genres that's not as bad as its trailers but ultimately is dragged down by, of all things, its star.

The cheesy production values won't grab anyone. When Bryan-Brian aren't schmoozing, there's not much to look at. It's anyone's guess whether this sequel will be as big a hit on tape. But it'll end up on the shelf soon enough. [10 May 1991, p.2D]

The latest entry in the cottage industry launched by 1980's Airplane! oozes diminishing returns. [5 Feb 1993, p.5D]

While Basinger admirably invests her role with deep passion and looks splendid in her Kenya khakis, the true story she stars in is disappointingly tame and dramatically inert.

Director Richard Attenborough's Chaplin is catastrophic only partly because it tries to squeeze in topics, subtopics and more. [24 Dec 1992, p.3D]

It’s cute and heartfelt at times, though the adventure by director Thea Sharrock (“Me Before You”) can’t decide between being a fun-filled romp or an animal-rights drama.

[Jolie] does what she can with the throwback role, though it’s the least of the film’s problems, with an unfocused plot, painfully dull villains and far-fetched sequences. That said, for those who dig really cool fire sequences, you’ll definitely feel the burn.

Self-indulgent, heavy-handed and lumbering, Jayne Mansfield's Car is not a wreck, but it's certainly a vehicle for boredom.

Offers up the absolute bare necessities of a sequel.

The distractions are more satisfying than the romantic main course. [23 April 1999, Life, p.8E]

And though young Miko Hughes does a fine job as the traumatized Simon, this ain't no "Rainboy". [3 Apr 1998, p.SE]

The cringeworthy dialogue and unmoving earnestness are the biggest disasters in this mostly forgettable action flick.

Terry Gilliam's “12 Monkeys” can teach The Thirteenth Floor a little something about how to have fun with time travel. And with one number less. [28 May 1999, Life, p.7E]

Though John Travolta and Christian Slater don boxing gloves to open the dippy but zippy Broken Arrow, the real slugfest in director John Woo's elaborately mounted action pic is between content and style. Call it a draw, and call the movie's content a Speed derivative. [9 Feb 1996, p.1D]

Just as its characters need a reason to live, Go needs a reason for audiences to watch. Neither find much satisfaction.

The computer-generated wolves have more personality than any of the dull characters in The Grey.

This isn't the worst movie Warner Bros. has brought out this summer (Scooby-Doo, boo on you), but for it to work, you have to accept the irredeemable stupidity of almost every character. Time better spent: a Shaquille O'Neal film festival on video.

It’s the kind of thing you’d bet would be emotionally manipulative – if only, because that'd be welcome compared to this emotionally disconnecting, sporadically nuanced narrative.

Irredeemably dull. [13 Aug 2004]

Warm, squishy and manipulative, like being slobbered on by a mongrel pup that's begging for more Snausages.[03 Jun 1994]

This isn't a movie to be taken too literally, given that a camera crew keeps on rolling in situations that would make even combat photographers bolt; as a result, the movie plays like one of those self-referential stunts that sometimes wow film festival audiences (as this one did). [24 Sept 1993, p.3D]

At times it feels like a good thing but way too often reminds you that you’re trapped for an hour and a half.

Williams is hampered by her character's limitations. What results is a mannered tale of an immature, empty vessel.

Unwed John Malkovich and Andie MacDowell are living on what amounts to room-service charity in a posh London hotel, waiting for his cocoa crop investment to bankroll their spiralling bill. Neither lead plays a very bearable character, and the pathetic maid (destitute and hearing-impaired) is too obviously conceived as their counterpoint. It's good to see MacDowell loosening up (a little) after her alarmingly stilted dialogue delivery in deadly, dreadful Green Card. But that's all. Sleeping Beauty never awakens from its monotonal slumber. [12 Apr 1991, p.2D]

Great slabs of blarney are washed down with tears and Guinness in this yarn about a struggling Irish clan, and the resulting sentiment is blatant enough to wake Ned Devine.

Has added virtually nothing to two cinema genres with their own prodigious histories: ensemble and black.

Its title notwithstanding, there's nothing that remotely approaches a narrative curve ball in this tired saga of an aging baseball scout.

Breaking and Entering starts out powerfully, then falls apart by the time it reaches its too-neat conclusion.

Flimsy little comedy unworthy of its portentous title.

This frenzied fiesta of firepower is about cloning people for spare parts, but the movie is a clone itself. Possessing no new ideas, it reworks and borrows from such films as "Blade Runner," "The Matrix" and "Logan's Run."

It's an improvement on some of Perry's other films that strike a heavy-handed moralistic note. And it lacks the silly slapstick humor of his Madea movies.

It fails to live up to its early promise, mostly because of an uneven tone and murky character development

A stylistically fastidious, exasperatingly affected package that will put most people in the mood for slumber.

Of course, The Rock looks the part, though with a headband and buckskin, he'd also look like Tonto on steroids.

Rather than being an entertaining trainwreck, the finale nihilistically undermines all the good and thoughtful stuff that came before, doing the couple dirtier than they ever could to each other.

As funny as it can be, this underdawg comedy isn't much more than Sandler's golf-oriented "Happy Gilmore" with a Cajun accent. [6 November 1998, p. 10E]

Aspires to be epic, but mostly it's just unfocused, sprawling and badly in need of editing.

It's so predictable, you can set your watch to when the bulimic will sneak away to the bathroom.

Such overkill might seem like an asset to teenage boys (and those who think like them). The rest of us are better off not wasting our Washingtons.

This remake is shorter than its predecessors, a welcome earthly reward.

On both technical and conceptual levels, Bamboozled is a movie that will leave Spike Lee fans bewildered.

The story, an updated version of the 1951 classic about a portentous extraterrestrial visit, feels musty and derivative, and not only because it's a remake.

Hellboy's cheeky attitude and snarky dialogue, specifically Perlman's snidely funny lines, are the highlights.

Though Imagine That's message is benign, its adult focus is off-base, and every move feels too familiar, formulaic and telegraphed.

Has ambition and style in spades – and thankfully, a plenty sassy Ryan Reynolds in the form of a little yellow rabbit-y dude – even if the quasi-noir private-eye tale is rather uninspired on the whole.

Writer/director Chris Columbus (Mrs. Doubtfire) delivers his usual slapstick and sap shtick, but the sitcom-slick results fall flat. (It's also based on a French farce - bad sign.) [12 July 1995, p.1D]

The thin premise here seems better suited to a sitcom episode than a full-length feature. That's not surprising given that director Mark Mylod's résumé includes British TV comedies and "Entourage" episodes.