Its message is unobjectionable, and there are a few laughs to be had, but too much of Elf is like Buddy's favorite meals: syrupy sweet.

The cycle thrills here are everything: flips, collisions, a chase across the top of a fast-moving train and even a zoom down the aisle of one of the train's cars as the passengers take it in stride.

With Bonham Carter's been-there, done-that performance and a plot that spins out of control, we end up with a movie that you can't quite sink your teeth into.

Much of the action in Ice Age: Continental Drift takes place on an iceberg fashioned into a seagoing vessel. No one seems to be piloting the boat, which is an apt metaphor for the film.

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 harder this film tries to be quirky and edgy, the more it feels like a run-of-the mill TV movie.

What starts as a bright and bouncy time-waster that at least borrows from the best of its genre-defining ilk -- "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", "Clueless", "Carrie", "The Breakfast Club" -- eventually stumbles into sappy message-movie territory. [29 Jan 1999, p. 09E]

Misguided raunchfest.

It’s a lot of soapy melodrama and underdeveloped characters that never really go anywhere.

It's mystifying how such a muddled and silly movie drew the talented cast it did.

Lively pulls off one of her best movie roles so far – ranking up there with her surprisingly delicious shark flick “The Shallows” – and is surrounded by plenty of visual spectacle, yet is waylaid by a narrative that lacks excitement. Even the twists seem painfully ordinary.

Sinbad steers First Kid past mediocrity. [30 Aug 1996]

You'll figure out just about everything that's going to happen in Cool Runnings, a congenial Disney comedy, quicker than an icicle melts in Kingston. [4 Oct 1993, p.4D]

An immature obsession with sex at 17 seems understandable. But at 30 it's getting cringe-inducing.

So the cliches are as thick as a vat of honey. And the love story proves just as syrupy. But for those who lap up this sappy vision of romance, it contains all the key ingredients.

Despite Mel Gibson wearing dude duds, Jodie Foster picking their inside pockets, and even James Garner for incalculable good will, the poker hand in the all-new Maverick is almost an empty house. [20 May 1994, p.1D]

By trying to combine fantasy and romance with goofy humor, globe-trotting adventure and feel-good inspiration, Stiller has made Mitty a mixed bag of clashing tones and facile redemption.

Woody, please: Go back to the European locales that so energized you of late.

The perfect vehicle for Johnson's charm and talents is still out there. It's certainly not in the muscle car he pilots in Faster.

Hurried, harried. [14 February 1997, pg.D4]

It's instantly devoured and quickly forgotten.

By the time you've given up guessing whether S.W.A.T. wants to be a half-serious action pic or just affably jokey, its storytelling has turned so ludicrously melodramatic that it doesn't matter.

How to lose an audience in 10 minutes: Cobble together a predictable and forced romantic comedy that should have been funnier.

The movie keeps switching focus without ever getting its bearings, and when Brando exits earlier than expected, there's little but mayhem to fall back on. Moreau and mayhem are synonymous, to be sure, but we already know this going in. [23 Aug 1996]

Low on Diesel fuel, though probably amusing enough if you're part of the intended demographic, which appears to be the age group that likes to stick fingers up noses.

Lean on Me is surprisingly subdued (and very coolly photographed, too, by Victor Hammer). It may be that Avildsen was feeling disciplined - Clark's influence, perhaps. And, then, school board politics and students' testing skills aren't exactly juicy dramatic themes. [3 March 1989, p.4D]

Director Hugh Wilson and co-writer Peter Torokvei allow this Driving Miss Daisy with attitude to fully steep, like a cup of fine tea spiked with lemon. [11Mar1994 Pg. 01.D]

Yet another ho-hum family comedy hits screens this weekend -- this one in peppermint holiday flavor.