There's also a nice cheekiness to the material written by Robert Towne ("Chinatown"), and the usual cool high-tech toys are deployed.

As directed by Angelina Jolie, it is occasionally powerful, with soaring visuals. It also is, however, stately and slow to the point of tedium.

Spanning the counterculture '70s to the more career-oriented '80s and doing justice to neither decade, this event-heavy adaptation of Scott Spencer's novel may give viewers whiplash.

The movie is really a lovely ensemble piece. Beautifully conceived and written by Michael Cunningham (Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours), the film has a distinctly novelistic and literate style.

Only a few charming tidbits are nestled snugly in this over-stuffed Christmas stocking.

Tower Heist feigns being an "Ocean's 11" for schmucks, but plays like a retread of "48 Hours."

This is a deceptively low-key movie with emotions visibly raw. Tomei (and Slater, too) give it the heart it sorely needs. [12 Feb 1993, p.8D]

Sarah's Key is, for the most part, an exercise in reserve. We never see Hitler, never enter battle. Paquet-Brenner (Pretty Things, Walled In), rightly tells his Holocaust story as it now lives: through survivors and descendants.

The final installment of the Hobbit trilogy is the best, featuring more spectacular action scenes as well as the series' most emotionally resonant moments.

The movie runs just 80 minutes, but it's enough time for doldrums to set in when nifty special effects and funny verbal exchanges are out grabbing a smoke. [19 Feb 1993, Life, p.5D]

It's terrific to see such well-matched actresses of opposing generations duke it out.

The First Wives Club has a femme casting coup for the ages, and sometimes it only takes the right performers interacting to give sprightly fluff indispensable showmanship. [20 Sep 1996 Pg.01.D]

If you rely on films to keep your kids entertained and distracted for an hour and a half, Meatballs is a masterwork, a visual stunner that manages to break from animation's current 3-D rut.

Buddy movies are a Hollywood staple, but Rory O'Shea Was Here puts a new and profoundly affecting spin on the tired genre.

The Overlook Hotel is still plenty creepy, as is the crusty naked ghost lady in Room 217. But the adaptation of Stephen King's Doctor Sleep is more likely to keep you awake at night with the fresher stuff than the retreads.

Compelling and provocative -- though not memorable.

Even the nasty zingers here seem tiresomely windy. [16May1997 Pg 02.D]

J. Edgar shines a probing beam of light on a man who was widely feared, often disliked, but rarely understood.

Lively, educational and intermittently amusing. The fun, however, grows strained and formulaic as the movie goes on.

This is a romantic comedy for people who don't like rom-coms. There's no chance of a happy ending, but its tender mercies speak volumes.

Neither as funny and scary as the first, nor as campy and breathless as the second, Alien 3 can only settle for third best. Considering the state of sci-fi movies, that may be enough. [22 May 1992, p.12D]

For a well-acted movie about the horrors of war and the lure of revenge, it's surprisingly dull and starchy.

Despite haunting moments in this fabricated fling between a headstrong Native American and an English sea captain, the film isn't as chirpy or majestic as recent Disney fare. [16Jun1995 Pg. 01.D]

In a year full of talking-animal hits, Sing isn't quite as strong a number. It's a tale that might not be particularly thought-provoking but sure is toe-tapping.

Déjà Vu cannot escape the weight of its murky science, action-film formula and preposterous ending.

Carrey's jolly green mug carries Mask. [29 July 1994, p. D1]

Deliver Me From Nowhere is the solid portrait of an artist working through some stuff, and a man learning the power of being the Boss.

These movies can't possibly be the best chance Neeson has got. Certainly he's offered more nuanced dramas that call on subtler acting skills and don't entail a mounting body count.