It's an unholy mess.

In the movie's high point, (Jeremy) Northam conducts an antagonistic interview with the boy, who eludes well-placed lawyerly traps.

Cronenberg can create alternative worlds like few other filmmakers, and that's a real achievement. If he learns to make us care about them, he'll really have something. [23 April 1999, Life, p.8E]

When it comes to eloquently telling it like it is, Election puts the nation's political pundits to shame.

The distractions are more satisfying than the romantic main course. [23 April 1999, Life, p.8E]

Top-flight cast.

Spend 60 years in jail with Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence, and you'll understand why they call it the pokey. [16 April 1999, Life, p.5E]

Here's Jackie Chan playing twins separated at birth, though not as separated as English is from the actors' lip movements in this silly, speedy, wretched dubbed action goof. [16 April 1999, Life, p.8E]

This dark comedy comes off more giddy than gritty.

Bale tends to be overwrought and self-conscious as he wrestles with his demons, here in both '60s flashbacks (the liveliest segment) and in the 1977 present, in which punk clubs and easy women represent temptation. [09 Apr 1999]

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]

Fortune is smiling down on veteran filmmaker Robert Altman with Cookie's Fortune.

While the attractive cast is willing, the translation into '90s teen culture is weak -- like a clueless adult's notion of cool.

Even if a lot of adults have problems following this picture 100%, look for computer-savvy teen-agers to guarantee this sometimes original but too often derivative time-killer a shelf life.

Artful it's not. But it's awfully affable. [26 March 1999, Life, p.9E]

Clean up the language, and this little roach of a movie could play the bottom half of a double bill with Rowan and Martin's “The Maltese Bippy.” [26 March 1999, Life, p.9E]

This movie is a howler as well -- possibly even intentionally -- but if it is a black comedy, the joke is overextended by far too many arms and legs. [19 March 1999, Life, p. 13E]

Works best as a ponderous metaphor for life's uncertainties. As a lighthearted comedy, the force, alas, is not with it. [19 March 1999, Life, p.13E]

Thankfully, this time Eastwood flirts (and ogles) but stops just short of going completely over the top. [19 March 1999, Life, p.13E]

No abomination but forgettably mediocre. [19 March 1999, Life, p. 13E]

Two films in one: an intriguing child-disappearance mystery and an uncommonly affecting domestic drama realized by four terrific central performances.

Even if this movie wasn't based on a computer game, Starship Troopers' reputation would still have just shot up another 50 notches. [19 March 1999, Life, p.11E]

The original was a Midol moment, this is a Prozac exercise. [12 March 1999, Life, p.8E]

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]

A half-funny, half-ugly comedy about underworld ineptitude. [5 Mar 1999]

While the film comes to a mildly clever conclusion, it feels like a bottle of vintage champagne that never gets to pop its cork at midnight. All that fizz potential wasted. [26 Feb 1999]

More amusing than a lot of expensive Hollywood comedies [26 February 1999, Life, p.5E]

The two m's in 8MM could stand for "messy melodrama." [26 February 1999, Life, p.5E]