The finale, which utilizes vintage home movies to show us the real people we've just seen portrayed, packs a wallop. [19 February 1999, Life, p.13E]

An air of self-congratulation hangs over the empty tank of gas called Jawbreaker, as if writer-director Darren Stein just can't wait to dazzle us with the gaudy visuals he's soldered onto a standard-issue black-comedy script.

Blast feels positively timely if not downright positive about the human race's ability to endure. Forget radiation. Fraser and folks actually survive three decades-plus of Perry Como music. [12 February 1999, Life, p.8E]

At least this movie has flashes of humor, thought nearly all come courtesy of Newman. [12 February 1999, Life, p.8E]

Imagine viewing Men in Black through the fog of a brain-embalming hangover and you won't have to buy a ticket to this piece of space junk. [12 Feb 1999, p.8E]

The premise was a yummy one in the Mexican hit "Like Water for Chocolate," but it's best to pack Tums in case of heartburn this time around. [5 February 1999, Life, p.11E]

Marvin leavened his sociopathy with a hint of little boy naivete or innocence -- Gibson is merely a frequently funny thug. {5 February 1999, Life, p. 11E]

What starts as a bright and bouncy time-waster that at least borrows from the best of its genre-defining ilk -- "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", "Clueless", "Carrie", "The Breakfast Club" -- eventually stumbles into sappy message-movie territory. [29 Jan 1999, p. 09E]

Poor Sharon Stone! Poor Sidney Lumet! [22 January 1999, Life, p.11E]

It's a good actors' showcase, yet not a particularly satisfying movie. [22 Jan 1999]

If "You've Got Mail" jangled your nerves with its Starbucks-fueled cuteness, here's a romance that goes down like instant decaf. [15 January 1999, Life, p.18E]

The movie was postponed from 1998 and shielded from critics. (They were ot allowed to see the movie before the opening, usually a bid sign.) [15 January 1999, Life, p.8E]

James Coburn plays father in what may be the best performance of his career. [30 December 1998, Life, p.3D]

This is a movie that makes it exclusively on star power -- when it's making it at all. [22 Dec 1998, p.4D]

DreamWorks' story of Moses raises the bar on the art of cartooning to the top of Mount Sinai and beyond.

At 65, Boorman flawlessly handles his actors and expertly orchestrates action in one of the widest-looking black-and-white Panavision frames since 1967's In Cold Blood. [18 Dec 1998, p.13E]

The plan in A Simple Plan grows exponentially complex once the first dollar is purloined, an act that makes this unpretentious parable one of the season's better 'what's-going-to-happen-next?' movies.

Accessibly brainy screen charmer.

With the astonishingly assured newcomer Jason Schwartzman to bounce off of, Murray has his best comic foil since those feisty rodents in Groundhog Day and Caddyshack. [5 February 1999, Life, p.11E]

The movie's opening half-hour is merely dull, but the final hour is brain-damaging. [11 Dec 1998]

Engagingly offbeat. [4 December 1998, Life, p.13E]

Untantalizingly reverent remake. [7 December 1998, p.4D]

No comedy this vile should be brazenly foolish enough to give itself this title. [25 November 1998, p. 3D]

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 picture is solidly crafted, performed to the hilt and full of humor.

Suspense takes a vacation in sequel. [13 November 1998, p. 6E]

A notably undynamic treatment of Protestant Elizabeth I's ascension to the British throne.

As funny as it can be, this underdawg comedy isn't much more than Sandler's golf-oriented "Happy Gilmore" with a Cajun accent. [6 November 1998, p. 10E]