Ivan Passer directs with the kind of objective integrity that's rare today, but the script doesn't jell. [14 July 1989, p.3D]

There are some notable oddballs in the filmmaking debut of performance artist Miranda July, whose lead performance in this Sundance winner for "originality" is the most appealing thing about it.

Director Iain Softley employs intriguing camera angles to heighten some of the suspense. It's too bad the movie goes over the top and falls apart in the last third.

Ifans is convincingly world-weary as the earl who prefers writing sonnets to the pageantry of court life. Anonymous aims to be epic but is closer to stately soap opera.

It's hard to rationalize the vision of this dotty elderly woman with the tough-minded politician. The story lacks insight, glosses over key political issues and is unworthy of Streep's masterful performance.

A daring movie in today's current climate - one likely to be remembered at year's end. [18 Oct 1989]

With the exception of her Russian accent, which seems more like an underwhelming audition for a Boris and Natasha cartoon, Lawrence fits the role like a new pair of pointe shoes.

The Village emerges as a victim of its own ambitions. At one point, Edward advises Ivy: "Do your very best not to scream." That doesn't require much restraint on our part.

Serviceable, occasionally compelling but often formulaic.

Has a couple of emotionally resonant scenes that build on the first two story lines. But it lacks the intriguing moody quality of the previous films. The mutants are more pumped up and angry this time, rather than misunderstood and conflicted.

Despite its flaws, Shutter Island is worth seeing for the palpably nightmarish and gothic world conceived by Scorsese

Rather than being a massive foul-up, Artemis Fowl is a sufficient spycraft fantasy that could benefit from the inevitable sequel, and Gad proves once again to be the Mouse House’s Dwayne Johnson, a rock-solid personality who makes everything around him better.

The story doesn't exactly startle with surprises and has a tendency to hammer and rehammer its points.

The movie's best moments are between Banderas and the kids. When the plot shifts to reveal the students' back stories (one has a prostitute mother, another a drunken father), the story becomes a melodramatic rehash of other movies, like "Fame" or "Rent."

With moments of mind-bending creepiness, the film has potential, but eventually it devolves into merely a head-scratcher.

To Gibson's credit, Face's essential hokiness doesn't sink in until later. Let's hope, though, the Mel Man has flushed this scarface stuff out of his system. [25 Aug 1993, p.3D]

Seeing this movie won't get you into MIT, but it's passable fun.

Fast-paced, imaginative and often cute, Shorts is slight but enjoyable family fare.

It's a shame that by its conclusion the movie feels like just another special-effects-driven story.

For those who like their spoofs silly and their cartoonish gore vivid, Shaun offers some amusement.

There’s also a relentless darkness in "Soldado" that some fans of the original will love, but the inherent idealism of Blunt’s Macer is missed: When everybody's a shade of bad, it begs for any sort of normal protagonist.

Because De Niro's performance is aptly ''Scorsese-aggressive'' while Crystal effectively underplays, one can easily sit through this bottom-line disappointment with a smile painted on, waiting for belly laughs that rarely come. [5 Mar 1999]

Director Clark Johnson has an energetic style of filmmaking and a facile way with stunts and chase sequences. The result is a fairly stylish action thriller. We've seen plenty of suspense films in which a seemingly good guy is framed, so it helps when a director can pull off a few cinematic tricks to keep audiences on their toes.

Things will not be a big concession-stand movie because the floating heart is our introduction to a cottage industry we hope won't catch on. It is dirtier than pretty, yet Frears finds beauty in the telling.

While the story is not as mythic or fanciful as it seeks to be, its predictability is trumped by the film's beauty.

Pure nonsense is hard to sustain for an entire feature-length movie.

For such a clumsy and (I'll bet) likely-to-be-panned comedy, Her Alibi has its moments - more, certainly, than its painfully silly trailer suggests. [3 Feb 1989, p.4D]

Amelia goes airborne but never fully soars.