There has been a need for a big-screen feature about firefighter heroics since Sept. 11, but as drama, Ladder 49 falls short of even the second rung.

Buried under an avalanche of action. (1996 June 7, pg. D1)

They may call it The Last Castle, but moviegoers will ultimately feel rooked.

Though the tale may fall short on imagination, the principal actors make Over Her Dead Body livelier than one would expect.

Mediocre family fare that's simply not that much fun.

The film simply doesn't come together fluidly. Smaller parts aren't on par with the lead role, and special effects are overdone and cheesy. At times, the essence of Shakespeare's poetry is drowned out.

Some will lazily compare West to the ever-magnificent The Black Stallion, but just for starters, it hasn't the same exquisite outdoor photography. Instead, it's been shot in varying degrees of rust, with varying masses of grain floating around the image. [17 Sep 1993, p.4D]

Until its dopey coda, the film never all-out stumbles, but always exudes Pakula's trademark chilliness. [17 Dec 1993 Pg. 01.D]

Essentially Cars in midair.

Though better than most of Perry's broad comedies, The Family That Preys still suffers from excessive predictability and mawkish sentiment, which detracts from the story's believability.

Marley & Me might be easy to watch, but -- even for die-hard canine lovers -- it's as easy to forget.

The story soon devolves into a far-fetched, futuristic snooze-fest that often defies its own logic. Characters' motivations are rarely clear, and allegiances shift with no explanation.

One of the film's biggest problems is that Richie is an unsympathetic and rather dim character. The badly drawn role does the likable Timberlake no favors.

Drippy, derivative stalker flick.

They’re made women in an underworld that doesn’t want them, and while that theme is sufficiently explored, The Kitchen disappointingly fails to explore the racial politics it hints at and, aside from the main trio, is full of characters who feel paper thin. The results aren’t criminal, per se, but the movie more often finds mediocrity instead of real nuance.

Nothing really fun, scary or exceptionally gross occurs.

It's likely to be overrated by some and underrated by others, and both contingents will be wrong. One can't, however, overrate the performances, with auntie ruling the roost in more ways than one. [29 Mar 1996, p.4D]

This family entertainment hard sell lags far behind even "Dr. Dolittle 2."

Hour not only acknowledges the attacks -- they're a running theme. Lee opens his movie with a shot of the beaming blue spotlights that mark where the twin towers once stood.

The movie gets a mild boost when her escape briefly takes it from just another crummy supernatural thriller into an OK escape melodrama, albeit one dependent on a whopper of an unlikely occurrence.

Although there are insightful moments and surreal bits that pop, it’s overall a bizarre – and at nearly three hours, bloated – film that attempts to honor its subject and instead lets her down.

It's not the grand scale action-adventure it aspires to be, but this faux epic does offer family-friendly entertainment.

Firewall might be worth renting on an inclement weekend when the pickings are slim. It does have some tense moments - even if some of the technical plot points don't quite scan. But, overall, it just feels like a rehash.

The result isn't pretentious, but is the tongue-in-cheeking ever slight. The murders are treated as jokes, there's a horror-motif rock video, and Harry dodges enough bullets with Patricia Clarkson to arm Sands of Iwo Jima. [13 Jul 1988, p.1D]

Arthur Hiller's direction is competent bordering on crisp. The language, as you would expect in a Richard Pryor movie, is pretty strong. [12 May 1989, p.6D]

It doesn't help that the performances are bland (particularly those of Christensen and Bilson) and that what comes out of their mouths is uninspired. Short on imagination and anchored by a wan hero, Jumper is a flight of fancy that never fully takes off.

Simultaneously brash and dull - hardly a combustible combination.

Nothing but set pieces, snoozes between its scenes of carnage.