This is Austen lite, but pleasantly so. You can hardly fault a movie that fashions itself around a consummate writer whose keen sense of humor and gift for fully realized characters have resulted in countless screen adaptations.

The movie’s both a reminder to always believe in ourselves, and believe in that old Pixar magic.

Hong Kong's China-born cult director makes his U.S. debut here, serving up so many briskly staged and edited action scenes that you'll wager Sam Peckinpah somehow figured in his gene pool. Forget grenades and assault weapons (though they're here, too); Target deals in bows and arrows, a serpent booby-trap and even one portly hero (Wilford Brimley) on horseback. All this and Brimley's Cajun accent, too. [20 Aug 1993, p.1D]

Despite far-fetched plot points - such as a flash mob of bike messengers ready to rumble and thwart evil - it's easy to get caught up in this life-or-death two-wheeled slalom.

One of the strangest sequels of all time, director George Miller's wildly imaginative vision of animals loose in a dangerous urban dreamscape at times seems much closer to his work on the Mad Max series than to the bucolic charms of the original, which he produced but did not direct. [25 Nov 1998, p.1D]

The cameos are out-of-sight, though the gay jokes and sexual innuendoes are overdone. But even if you don't know Peter from Bobby, you'll still be apt to find the Brady brand of geeky optimism thoroughly infectious. [17 Feb 1995, p.1D]

Thing's opening hour is fast-paced, though not fast enough to obscure the reality that "American Graffiti" and "Diner" had sharper writing and certainly more psychological depth. [04 Oct 1996, Pg.01.D]

This twisted romance possesses the soul and edgy atmosphere of an independent film but not quite the conviction.

A Southern-style "Ocean's 11" without the pretty boys and Vegas attitude but with plenty of laughs.

Those looking to get a raucous laugh should say "I do" to Bridesmaids.

To redo such a sentimental gem without Hepburn's incandescence to light the way seems foolhardy at best, but director Sydney Pollack (Tootsie) miraculously almost pulls off his updated homage simply by choosing well and popping enough champagne corks to make us believe the wealthy are still glamorous despite Donald Trump. [15 Dec 1995, p.1D]

Credit McGlone for humanizing and even making funny one of the most insufferable big-screen boors in recent memory. Cheating on his wife, doing what he can to undermine his older brother's already rocky marriage, McGlone is setting himself up for a fall. Burns' lower-key acting style makes him a cool straight man during their frequent bandyings, into which dad Mahoney (also abandoned by his wife) always adds his own two cents. You probably have to love a guy who claims that his failure to believe in God isn't enough to keep him from being a good Catholic. [23 Aug 1996]

Misfits and misanthropes are the heroes of Role Models, a surprisingly clever comedy.

The actress may get an Oscar nomination for the wrong movie -- "Moulin Rouge" over "The Others" -- but it would be a double misfortune for audiences to overlook a performance that boosts its movie from moderate to memorable.

Under Capricorn is still stigmatized by its terrible reviews and whopping financial losses, but with one of Ingrid Bergman's best performances, a grabber setting (1831 Sydney) and Technicolor cinematography by the era's greatest color specialist (The Red Shoes' Jack Cardiff), a lot of current movies should be as lacking. [27 Jun 2003]

Despite implied fidelity, we might as well be watching William Shakespeare's The Cable Guy. Yet the film's skewed stylistic flourishes capture enough of the original's spirit to provoke more respect than rejection. [01Nov1996, Pg. 01.D]

Rings has moments of edge-of-the-seat excitement, too, such as when the dark riders come looking for Frodo. But it's occasionally tedious when it should be captivating.

A good farce is hard to find. Particularly one that holds up for the entirety of the story and keeps us engrossed, while smiling. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is a particularly effective and cheeky example.

This also is the rare combat movie that deals substantially with mourning widows on the home front.

This Preston Sturges classic cast Hutton as a small-town girl who gets pregnant by a soldier whose name she can't remember. No film better channels her comic energy or makes better use of her obvious yearning for acceptance. [19 Jun 2000]

This is a comedy far funnier in its throwaway asides and extraneous bits. [30 July 1993, p.5D]

Rodriguez is such a visual stylist, and the violence is so cartoonish, that the flurry of whizzing bullets and growing pile of bodies is not as offensive as it might be.

Inventive action sequences, deft stunt work and breathtaking cinematography make for revved-up fun.

Impressive in its ambition, mother! doesn’t quite reach the heights of Aronofsky’s Black Swan in terms of bizarre masterpieces, yet endless conversations about what the heck you just saw will surely be born and raised.

Full-tilt Momoa and quietly powerful Bautista, with some gore and goofiness tossed in, is a satisfying improvement on the usual two-fisted formula.

The film is not without flaws. It glosses over the story of the dissolution of Whitaker's marriage and does not delve deeply enough into the source of his problems with his son. A romance with recovering junkie Nicole (Kelly Reilly) rarely rings true.

Scott Pilgrim, a lovelorn musician, is an appealing fusion of nerdy, cheeky and vulnerable. So, who better to play him than Michael Cera?

The Invisible Man is both a jumpstart and a template for their renaissance: The movie delves into the sheer terror of abuse and explores how Cecilia doesn’t even really understand the psychological scars until she begins to discover some semblance of freedom.