This is the kind of people-driven story that the movies used to give us - before special effects took over.

Washington (son of Denzel) has an impressive Afro and winning charisma as the first black cop in town.

The combination of the adventurous Spielbergian lens and a dynamite John Williams score jazzes up the most mundane newspaper conventions, from a copy editor striking words with a red pen to trucks rolling out with first editions. If only the same heroic anthems accompanied the writing of a movie review.

It is an unsettling tale told simply and chillingly by director Peter Mullan, with stand-out performances, an evocative soundtrack and spare, haunting visuals.

Henry V emerges a first-class epic film, so entertaining that it needs no apologies for being based on a 400-year-old play. [10 Nov 1989]

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

Express is 80 tight minutes of railroad intrigue, an Oscar winner for cinematography (there's none better) and the film with the enduring line: "It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily." [22 Oct 1993, p.3D]

Mesmerizing and highly entertaining.

The three principals re-screen the Fellini masterpiece at Ekberg's country villa, and it's the kind of privileged moment only the movies can supply. You can bet Scorsese couldn't resist it, and I can't either. [20 Nov 1992, p.4D]

Jaded samurai Toshiro Mifune shows younger warriors the ropes, just as John Wayne used to toughen up tenderfoots on the range. [21 Apr 1995, p.3D]

A good little movie dominated by a great central performance that's likely to endure. [30 Jan 1998, p.D2]

When it comes to eloquently telling it like it is, Election puts the nation's political pundits to shame.

Has the unanticipated craft and artfully ambiguous appeal of last year's "Croupier," a movie whose art-house word-of-mouth success could be duplicated here.

Equally powerful and feel-good, Creed is an entertaining reminder that this franchise isn’t down for the count yet.

This Pride & Prejudice is a stellar adaptation, bewitching the viewer completely and incandescently with an exquisite blend of emotion and wit.

Deliberately downbeat, it's best as a two-person character study, stumbling a bit whenever it extends its parameters.

Minnelli's other Oscar-winning perennial. [19 Sep 2008, p.4D]

Peter O'Toole's tour-de-force performance makes Venus a movie not to be missed.

The entire film offers a front-row seat to the grandeur. The staging is so massive that even the best seats in a stadium – and the King Kong-sized video screens – could provide only so much detail. But on the big screen, the close-ups are glorious.

Only a truly visionary filmmaker could take a story largely set in a cramped canyon and give it a sense of openness and hope.

The film's most climactic moments involve the chilling audiotapes of avaricious Enron traders as they toy with California's energy crisis, wringing millions in profits from the misfortune of an entire state.

Kudos go to the great Thomas Newman, whose score contributes as much as either lead to what is finally a two-character movie, though one well-performed by all. [23 Sept 1994]

The satisfying and heart-wrenching climax is a last reminder that Caesar’s new adventure is one of this summer’s best.

This is precisely the kind of film that parents clamor for and rarely get: a substantive, stirring, Huck Finn-style saga that doesn't insult anyone's intelligence or mindlessly entertain with crass humor.

A masterwork of suspense, romance and political intrigue.

Well-written, terrifically acted and compelling. It deftly avoids sentimentality and offers a window into the lives of believable, multilayered characters.

The borderline Parenthood is either an iffy comedy with lots of compensations, or a good comedy with more irritating flaws than most movies manage to survive. Whichever, the "feel good'' infantry of summer-film escapists will probably love it. [2 Aug 1989, p.5D]

Violence is in the spirit of the hardest-hitting film noir offerings from the '50s, but far more explicit. It's also in the spirit of the Western.