Thomas' easygoing warmth helps to melt Stiles' icy veneer, and one of Dance's few pleasures is an extended musical segment where she tries to ape his homeboy posturings.

Were this movie a naval battle, it would be Lord Nelson vs. Judd Nelson, so decisively do the older actors knock the younger off the screen. [26Dec1997 Pg03.D]

A cameo by a well-known actor in the final scene suggests there will be a third ride on this familiar marriage go-round.

The only possible reasons to do this concept again is sheer laziness (it's easier to borrow an idea) and pure greed (it's cheaper to borrow an idea). [2 April 1999, Life, p.6E]

This is a joyless, frenetic film that is very rarely funny.

While it features three strong performance and the debut of a promising filmmaker, the story line is obvious and rather melodramatic.

Each story has its moments, but "Air" lacks an overarching vision.

By nature, the character (Rock) is as gentle and affable as this Amazonian adventure is -- a yarn complete with an oddball robber baron, pro football linemen, Type-A monkeys and hallucinogenic fruit.

Stretching what was a cute concept to the breaking point.

Top-flight cast.

If you drop the "c" in hockey you get a perfect description of Mystery, Alaska.

The usually peppy troupe is simply going through the show-biz motions rather than rocketing to where no Muppet caper has gone before. [14 July 1999, p.12D]

Trust-- and the genre itself -- needs to dump the stale formula and embrace reality and reinvention.

Plays a little like a pacifistic variation on Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon."

Directed by Tony Scott (Top Gun) with his usual testosterone-injected verve, Scout is never boring but hardly edifying. With a nod to the '90s, the formula does digress to allow the pals to expose their emotional wounds to each other. [13 Dec 1991, p.4D]

The film has its funny moments, but they are too few to make the holiday excursion worthwhile.

It has a few moments of fun and whimsy, but it lacks the joyous spirit and intelligent humor of the children's novel on which it's based.

The opposite of entertainment, a self-satisfied soap opera from hell. But anyone itchy to see Ricci in her fleshy glory will adore her femme fatale for the Jerry Springer age, a Stanwyck stoked on steroids and SweeTarts.

Snowden’s a polarizing whistleblower portrayed as an American hero here but in too pedestrian a fashion for such a hot-button topic, and the movie seems at times as awkward as its brainiac subject.

It's reduced to glorified refereeing of family squabbles discomfortingly magnified by his frequent use of close-ups.

Part horror film, part space thriller and all gore-fest, the movie ends up being a lot like its protagonist: a mess of a monster that stretches itself too thin to scare much.

Crowe's performance is the best thing about the ambitious historical drama, which takes some artistic liberties.

A befuddling mélange of superpowered showdowns, psychological gaslighting and self-important comic meanderings, it's a finale that doesn’t know what it wants to be.

Leaden, non-involving and filled with mind-numbing computer-generated effects.

It's far more annoying than frightening.

Instead of hip, though, Tank Girl is prefab and purified, a calculated cult attraction. It's Danger by Mattel, and Petty, in her ripped stockings and torpedo bra, is a cyber-Barbie. This is one chick flick that at least has bite. Too bad its teeth are false. [3 Apr 1995, p.4D]

The story feels like a less complicated companion to "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." Obvious logical questions are ignored. For instance, if she remains 29, does that make her immortal?

The lesson of the lovely-looking, but disappointing, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is avoid tinkering too much with a novelist's work.