Mean Machine may not have the resonance to linger in the memory affectionately as "The Longest Yard" does, but it plays well, with a fast pace and plenty of punch.

Smart and sassy high school movie that's fun for all ages.

It unfolds in a hearty, good-natured Australian comedy that affectionately depicts how the citizens of a small town become connected to the Apollo moon flight.

It is impossible to watch this warm, wonderful film without becoming aware of the enormous impact the Yiddish theater has had on every aspect of American show business.

Porizkova and Sands seem too young for their roles, but then the film seems as timeless as a fable.

Shyer and Sweet bring consistent clarity and ever-increasing depth to the playing out of Jeanne's bold scheming and single-minded resolve; a tone of brisk wit gives way effortlessly to poignancy and ultimately tragedy.

Butterworth guides us through the world of chaos and romantic confusion he's created as if it's the most natural place in the world. After a while, we actually believe it is.

A virulent but thoroughly entertaining trilogy of tales about the besieged lower classes of Edinburgh, ripe with vulgarity, self-loathing, violence and economic disorder.

A raucous, profane but surprisingly endearing piece of work.

(To be) thoroughly enjoyed as a privileged look at one of the loopiest of late 20th century lives.

An emotion-charged tale that's also an edgy commentary on women's destinies and how they're still so largely affected by men.

With power, intensity, remarkable range and an ability to disturb that is both unnerving and electric, it is more than Washington's most impressive part.

Connects the antics of professional wrestlers with their lives out of the ring with such compassion, humor and perception that the result is utterly captivating.

A cheerful and smart mock documentary about hairdressing and Hollywood that knows enough not to take itself too seriously.

A lot of this is quite well done, but Bromell has a tendency to have too schematic an aesthetic agenda for his story: treating film noir like kabuki is not necessarily the best way to go, no matter how beautifully you do it.

Drift is a slender, intimate tale that is thoughtful and revealing, nicely written, directed and acted.

ZigZag is also richly cinematic. Los Angeles locales have been chosen with a keen eye to freshness and pungent atmosphere, and they have been masterfully photographed by James L. Carter with a notably effective play of dark and light.

Birot is an engaging storyteller who can inspire luminous, spontaneous portrayals, but her ending is so drastic that it feels unearned, a note of bleakness struck merely for its own sake.

Charming, slyly comic and far from conventionally religious.

Gradually, the power of the material and the stars takes hold, flashbacks begin to flesh out the characters' lives, and Boesman & Lena comes alive--achingly and passionately.

An uncommonly satisfying private-eye mystery that is at once classic in form and deeply personal in feeling.

Telling things through the eyes of a spoiled, precocious, troublemaking 8-year-old narrator is both an overdone device and not a particularly engaging one.

A droll, hearty Irish comedy with a serious undertow all the more effective for its unexpected candor and depth.

As worthy and moving as The Color of Paradise is, it is not entirely free of the manipulative, the arbitrary and the downright punitive.

Such a rigorous exploration of sexual obsession that it proves to be a most demanding film.

An ambitious and largely successful documentary testimony-tribute to the founders of the so-called Beat movement.

An admirable, thoughtful venture, but it may leave you with the feeling that you've seen it all before.

It is a superb period re-creation and boasts a formidable international cast.... It is nevertheless absorbing and illuminating in regard to the eras its spans but is also pretty wearying by the time it starts winding down.

A serious film with a lot on its mind, is probably the most intelligent treatment of this period we've had.

Will delight video game fans in search of over-scaled eye candy.

Has a great deal of the unapologetically broad and silly comedy.

A film as romantic as its title.

Locale is crucial here, and Monte Carlo, Athens and Istanbul are a wonderful trio of cities for glamorous romance, intrigue and danger--and they could not seem more richly atmospheric with Dreujou's lush camerawork.

Moves smoothly amid a near-perfect period evocation, captured in an array of shifting moods.

Unfolds as a shaggy-dog story, full of hilarious and outrageous twists that suggest that weirdness lies just below the surface of daily life seemingly at its most ordinary.

An elegant, deliberate film about loneliness and hope, connection and loss.

An adroit, ambitious, richly detailed and keenly observant piece of filmmaking by the director of the haunting Rio drama "Via Appia" (1990).

Those who have even a small soft spot for baseball's soothing rhythms will be hard-pressed to resist it.

A tribute to old-fashioned craftsmanship and skill both on and off the screen, it's as crisp and efficient as its law enforcement protagonists, able to make the best of its traditional genre elements.

Blends great cinematic energy with an awkwardly mixed multinational cast and aggressively over-modernized dialogue.

It's weird, wacky territory you enter in The Price of Milk, and we don't just mean New Zealand.

Warm and appealing, but there clearly was a far more informative and comprehensive film to be made of the life and world of Francis Barrett.

A film of much gentleness, tenderness and keen observation into the way laughter and pain have a way of colliding into each other.

It's polished without being slick; well-paced and graceful and brought alive by stellar performances led by Jaffrey.

These formidable actresses [Redgrave and Daly], abetted by a persuasive Connick, and by Hurt as the most genteel and benevolent of ghosts, set a high standard for a splendid ensemble cast.

One of the most successful, provocative and intensely contemporary of Israeli films, so much so that to watch it is to feel the country having a passionate argument with itself.

Has noticeable problems with characterization and dialogue. But once that awesome storm, one of the most terrifying ever put on film, gets cranked up, it's hard to remember what those difficulties were, let alone care too much about them.

A film as arresting and at times as frustrating as the Pistols themselves.

The well-made Princesa is daring, for it ends on an upbeat note in circumstances that are traditionally treated otherwise.

An accurate sense of how today's Hollywood works.

Willem Dafoe's performance in Shadow of the Vampire is so irresistible it not only breaks that cycle but turns an otherwise just adequate film into something everyone will want to take a look at.

Poetic and ambiguous, it manages to be magical in both the beautiful and terrifying senses of the word.

Script resounds throughout with astringent dialogue and stark authenticity.

In her feature debut, Zeig, -- displays confidence and style aplenty.

It's unfortunate and ironic that Temple risks so much so successfully in evoking an atmosphere of literary imagination as well as Coleridge's drug-induced fantasies only to conclude his film in a thud of fustian staginess.

Stirring, often tragic yet hopeful, In Search of Peace benefits from its eloquent narrator Michael Douglas, and from the voices of Edward Asner, Anne Bancroft, Richard Dreyfuss, Miriam Margolyes and Michael York.

Dealing with all these crises and decisions gives Thirteen Days a surprising amount of tension and watchability for a story whose outcome we already know.

It is high-energy entertainment that is also silly and sentimental and so over-the-top as to become wearying at times. But that it is also funny and good-natured ends up counting more.

Too lethargic and strung-out for its own good. Thankfully, it casts a pleasant, amusing and touching spell anyway, but more energy and a markedly shorter running time might have turned a sunny diversion into something more special.

The impact of its finish has been dissipated by too much meandering along the way.

Gitai has created a film that is as beautiful as it is all but unbearable to watch.

In Just One Time, sexual fantasy gives way to a consideration of values without being heavy-handed. Janger draws winning performances from everyone.

Mr. Death, which is shot through with one dark absurdity after another, emerges as a cautionary tale if ever there was one.

As somber as much of this deceptively simple yet consistently acute, subtle and observant film is, an effect heightened by a carefully controlled use of color, it is not without hope.

Has an edgy feel and a knockout soundtrack.

A venturesome, beautifully realized psychological mood piece that reveals its first-time feature director's understanding of the expressive power of the camera.

Frequently awkward, peppered with moments that make you shake your head, Bulworth's singular nature makes it a film that can't be shrugged off.

Has a slamming first hour. As Ian Wilson's camera darts over Charles Lee's spookily atmospheric sets, enigmas sprout like mushrooms.

Essential to the success it manages is Hartnett's low-key, charismatic performance -- cool, withholding, compelling. The triumph of his insinuating Hugo/Iago is how plausible he is, how he manages to convincingly inject poison in so many minds without seeming to be trying.

Its portrait of the many ways we can complicate our romantic lives may have a few serious moments, but it's intended to go down easy, and that's what it does.

Complexity and personality among key figures keeps Himalaya involving throughout its grueling journey and lifts the film above the merely ethnographic.

The non-fighting parts of Kiss of the Dragon are, despite the presence of co-star Bridget Fonda, completely non-compelling. It's a proud convention in films like this for fans to mark time during exposition, waiting patiently for the action to start up again, and Kiss is very much in that tradition.

Offers the pleasures of a chamber drama's bravura performances from a pair of supremely accomplished pros.

A romantic comedy of wit and substance that actor-writer Dan Bucatinsky and director Julie Davis have moved gracefully from stage to screen with a change of title and sexual orientation.

If this beautifully made if flawed film sends people back to his book, it will have done good work for sure.

Has vast scope, unflagging energy, a rousing Jerry Goldsmith score and a horrendous disaster sequence that conveys much in discreet fashion in keeping with post-Sept. 11 sensibilities yet is needlessly evasive in telling us the precise extent of its magnitude.

Morris pulls off a genuine shocker to cap his film, but his method exacts its price. It takes fully a third of the film's 109 minutes to become involved in it, thanks to Morris' deadpan tone and the initially jarring effect of his intercutting between straightforward talking heads and his B-movie reenactment of the crime. [2 Sept 1988]

Turns out to be an extremely likable vehicle with a genuine sense of fun.

One of the ironies of Casino is that even though Scorsese is interested in the story's wider implications, he focuses so much energy on that unsavory romantic triangle that he and the film lose sight of the larger issues.

In an odd way Pretty Horses has been too faithful to the spirit of this somber, fatalistic, melancholy romance, too much a stubborn ode to stoicism, to light any emotional fires.

A blithe-spirited comedy in which teenagers discover their romantic vicissitudes mirrored in their high school production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." It's being directed by their nasty drama teacher (Martin Short, hilarious), who has written 12 original songs for the production.

Medem is one of the few directors who understands sensuality and knows how to make it happen on screen. Sex and Lucia specializes in pleasant eroticism, using nudity, Koko de la Rica's dreamy cinematography and Alberto Iglesias' Goya-winning score to create episodes of voluptuous lovemaking.

The new Willard, which has taken the original's humanity and the psychological validity, leavened with a dollop of dark humor, and replaced them with a technically impressive but essentially heartless spoof.

It is crucial when viewing All My Loved Ones, with its fine ensemble cast and well-evoked sense of time and place, to remember that it unfolds as a recollection of David, a boy of perhaps 10 in 1938.

It's a film enthralled by its own lower depths… Although Bad Lieutenant is structured as a redemptive thriller, it functions primarily as a freak show with religioso overtones. [30 Dec 1992, Calendar, p.F-7]

Noticeable skill has gone into the making of Seven, but it's hard to take much pleasure in that.

A sketchy trifle that is sporadically amusing but also off-putting around the edges.

Strangely entertaining.

The film effectively conveys the fears and frustrations of Palestinians struggling in a country that treats them as the enemy.

Brown has expertly captured the exhilarating and terrifying experience of watching surfers attack waves so preposterously large and ridiculously beautiful they defy description.

Made from a sophisticated European perspective, this is a light summer entertainment with an able, highly attractive cast.

A rare bird indeed -- a disarming, appealingly modest discovery, beautifully shot, nicely performed. Perched on the knife's edge of absurdity, the story at once embraces the large questions (who is the enemy and why) and shrugs them off with a laugh.

It's a sad love story that's insightful at its core and indulgent around the edges, a film whose instincts are impeccable when focusing on that romance but less than compelling when it wanders elsewhere.

Moore's concern about issues is genuine, and his showboating technique is often entertaining. But he is not the most organized person in the world, and there is a scattershot randomness about this film that is both its essence and a source of frustration.

For all of Troche's skill and talent, The Safety of Objects (a splendid title) nevertheless tries to cover too much territory. In movies, as elsewhere, a little less sometimes can add up to a lot more.

Its nervy decision to cut as wide a swath as possible through one of the most exciting and meaningful periods of our history have created something that's impossible not to both applaud and enjoy.

It is amazing how writer-director Neil Turitz, a seasoned journalist, has taken the familiar ingredients of the spiky New York dating game movie and made them seem so fresh and original, filled with individuals acutely detailed and compassionately observed.

Gets high marks for tension and excitement.

There isn't much else to the film beyond slapstick antics and professional gloss, but the results are diverting enough, in great measure because it's essentially a scene-by-scene remake Mario Monicelli's 1958 satire, "Big Deal on Madonna Street."

It's Zeta-Jones who keeps you watching from start to finish -- You'd have to go back to Joan Crawford in her hungry prime, in films like "Rain" and "The Women," to find another female film star who grabs hold of the screen with such ferocity.

Some may be offended by Eddie Griffin's blunt language, yet they would find it hard to deny that he tells it like it is.

The Guru turns out to be just a flirtation with the musical rather than a full-on embrace. That's a shame because the musical interludes are where the film wears its heart and finds its soul.

There is something reassuring in seeing free-thinking individuals express their personalities so emphatically yet invitingly in the places they live.

An affectionate documentary about a free-spirited group.

Of course, James is exploiting Stevie, but the peculiar power of this film lies in James' indirect acknowledgment of it and his hope that his film has some point and value.

Isn't in league with the Nicholas Ray classic ("Rebel Without a Cause"), but in its ferocious energy and lead performances it's many cuts above most big-screen soap operas.

Director Dan Ireland and the Jermanoks strive for and achieve a light romantic comedy with humorous, fanciful plotting yet shaded by genuine tenderness and passion.

The damning commentary and revelations about the perils of globalization, not just for Jamaica but developing countries the world over, do come across loud and clear.

The film's strengths may actually work against it with younger fans who might be disappointed by the few stomach-churning, white-knuckler moments.

If the second film never reaches the highs of the first -- we have met the players before and there are no new worlds of wonder -- it nonetheless invests moviegoing with a sense of adventure.

Delightfully bittersweet culture-clash comedy. If what's funny is frequently hilarious, then what's nasty truly stings, and the film is honest enough not to tie up everything with a ribbon.

Yes, the denouement is disturbing, but it is rather too calculatedly so, and too insistently underlined by an overly sentimental Stanley Clarke score. [12 July 1991]

A modest pleasure that accomplishes its goals with ease and confidence.

Has the virtue of sincerity but not that of restraint. Unlike Terrence Malick, whose shadow looms over the film's visual style, the Smiths over-explain, not grasping that all those barren fields and blood-red clouds are doing plenty of work for them.

On the whole, this lively, bittersweet Columbia release works well and is sure to connect strongly with fans of Sandler at his most free-wheeling and uninhibited. Scrub off the latrine humor, and underneath there's a heart-tugging sentimental tale of uplift and redemption.

A mordantly funny and shrewdly understated millennial fantasy.

More creepy and flesh-crawling than overwhelmingly gory, it nevertheless takes pride in characters who get splattered with blood as often as take-out fries get doused with catsup.

Their instincts as filmmakers override their instincts as moralizers. Menace II Society is best--and most shocking--when it just sets out its horrors and lets us find our own way. [26 May 1993, Calendar, p.F-1]

Schepisi not only inspired the cast to give well-shaded, reflective portrayals but also made the film a work of honest, heartfelt sentiment.

Works as a heart-warming, involving experience.

The story comes full circle in a way that might seem overly schematic did it not have the courage to wear its heart on its sleeve without losing its head.

Though it is difficult to take Unfaithful as seriously as it takes itself, on its own terms it's quite well done.

Successfully venturesome, but you need to know that it's also a real downer.

It's a demented kitsch mess (although the smeary digital video does match the muddled narrative), but it's savvy about celebrity and has more guts and energy than much of what will open this year.

A laugh-out-loud chronicle of the struggling filmmaker's hunt for a girlfriend.

Although overly long at 107 minutes, American Movie is an incisive, largely absorbing work and a far more mature effort than Smith's "American Job."

Made with care and respect, American Rhapsody manages to skirt the edge of excessive sentiment without falling victim to it.

For all his mastery of his medium, Lee is no less effective in directing actors than in creating images.

It may be unfair to ask a film like this not to be shamelessly manipulative, but wouldn't it be nice if audiences could be trusted to feel things more or less on their own without layers of unnecessary hokum entering the picture?

A serious and thoughtful documentary.

A mainstream Hollywood escapist fantasy that in the end melts satire into sentimentality, but it is funny and knowing, detached enough to take a bemused stance toward its calculated tone.

The result is a film that is at best highly uneven and perversely at odds with itself. Luckily, Wilde's delicious sense of absurdity and peerlessly witty dialogue are pretty indestructible, and "Earnest" itself remains a peerless comedy of manners.

A sweet-natured Iranian film of considerable charm and humor that might have been more enjoyable had its writer-director-star, Hamid Jebelli, been a tad less self-indulgent in telling his slender tale.

Myers has a singular talent for skit humor… You can get away with an awful lot of gross, juvenile humor if you've got that to fall back on. [11 June 1999, Calendar, p.F-1]

The sleek, well-oiled, well-acted The Bank, while as meaty as a steak, is short on sizzle.

Atkinson, somehow managing to be simultaneously delicate and broad, can do things with his face that shouldn't be legal. His delighted and delightful Mr. Pollini is a little taste of comic genius.

Though Training Day doesn't resolve itself as well as it deserves and ends strictly cops-and-robbers style, it's given us some great acting and something to ponder. Not every cop show can lay claim to that.

Much of this is involving, although the pace is so relentless that it leaves little time to breathe or grasp precisely what Reggio is attempting to say.

Both audacious and unwieldy, exciting and excessive, this dark thriller is too long, too violent and not always convincing. But at the same time, there's no denying that it's onto something, that its savage indictment of the nexus involving media, crime and a voracious public is a cinematic statement difficult to ignore.

Joe Somebody sends audiences home happy but also with an awareness that happy endings have to be earned in real life as on the screen.

Too mannered and weird around the edges to be convincing.

Has inherent sentimental appeal, but Lee balances it with considerable humor and an unblinking eye toward the realities of a primitive way of life.

Its greeting card look and feel aside, Little Secrets is an otherwise worthy family entertainment.

A funny, raucous action comedy, effectively teams Martin Lawrence and Steve Zahn in a film that's both laugh out loud funny and surprisingly subtle.

Bread and Roses" hits home when one of Maya's co-workers observes, "When we put on uniforms, we become invisible." It's a truth as uncomfortable as it is undeniable.

As Hollywood diversions go, this gleaming MGM release still leaves you wishing the filmmakers took as many risks as their grifters do.

It is a lovely, amusing diversion from the start, but the depth of its poignancy by the time it's over comes as a surprise.

Rarest and most impressive of all, Antwone Fisher is a serious drama set in the African American community, one that showcases powerful, confrontational scenes between black actors.

Visually, the film is a stunner with its impossibly mobile camera work. It is also all but impossible to hold on to the story line.

Exceptionally user-friendly for the technologically challenged among us and rides over its less inspired patches on a wave of cheeky humor.

For his atmospheric debut as a feature director, the actor Matt Dillon has cast himself as a guy in need of saving. It's a nice fit.

Because a gradually thawing Will plays more to Grant's strengths, the second part of the film, helped as well by Rachel Weisz as a love interest, is much more fun. But it is still hard not to feel that this film is pushing us too hard, slickly trying to seem more honest than it actually is.

It would take an opera expert to judge the merits of Bánk Bán and its renowned singers. But to the layman Erkel's music soars, and the singers' voices sound glorious.

For all his genre-hopping and shape-shifting Spielberg seems to have become too big to tell small stories, which is one reason why the film sputters on one too many false endings.

As an exploitation picture, Das Experiment is mindlessly potent; subtitles are no guarantee of sophistication and subtlety.

Kwietniowski might have tried for some edginess that would express a measure of the excitement Mahowny is experiencing. Despite the driven intensity of the banker, the film threatens to slip into the lifelessness of the drab world it depicts.

It may be Howitt's greatest achievement that we're able to keep the stories straight.

A warm, hard-to-resist story.

In not taking itself too seriously New Suit scores more points than some pictures that take a scathing approach.

While the charismatic performances of Damon and Affleck make Good Will Hunting a difficult entertainment to resist, doing just that is not as hard as the film would like to think.

The trick is getting from a conclusion made five minutes into a movie to an ending 90 minutes away. It can be a scary prospect. In The Sweetest Thing it is mostly a hoot.

Julie Davis' story is fresh and amusing.

An accomplished heart-tugger, a serious romantic comedy that tackles two dilemmas with honesty and compassion.

Smart, amiable and well-paced, and director Tony Goldwyn brings to it an all-too-rare buoyancy and breeziness.

Gaunt, silver-haired and leonine, Harris brings a tragic dimension and savage full-bodied wit and cunning to the aging Sandeman.

Admirably ambitious and utterly unsparing, but as credible as the arc of Danny's odyssey is in itself, the all-important need to evoke a profound sense of the enigmatic and paradoxical in relation to Danny's fate has eluded Bean.

A well-crafted film, and it must be said that its actresses, in being prepared to come close to baring all for art, reveal stunning figures and perform scorching routines.

Overmatched by the strange and compelling true story that is its subject, this unfortunate film ends up both more disingenuous than it wants to admit and more awkward than it can easily acknowledge.

Beautifully put together, sensitively acted by Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue, directed by Mike Figgis with assurance and style and making exceptional use of its musical score, this doomed romance is finally not as satisfying as all of that would have you believe.

A genial look at what happens when a wannabe becomes a headliner, Rock Star only stumbles when it decides it has to deliver a lesson about What's Really Important.

The skill involved holds us in our seats, the project's inability to transcend its built-in limitations keep it from achieving the kind of overarching impact it is after.

An engaging, straightforward narrative about two childhood playmates and the stages of their friendship from 1973 to 2001.

It's not the kind of work that wins awards, but without Cruise's intensity almost willing our interest in Spielberg's unrelentingly dark world, Minority Report wouldn't have nearly as much life as it does.

The film doubtless works better for those able to accept it unquestioningly as a charming fable of the redemptive, healing power of love that it means to be.

So though it takes important steps in that direction, the film pulls back from what seems to be its own logical conclusion.

Director CB Harding captures the relaxed rhythms of the comedians while keeping the film well paced.

Boat Trip is happily a no-holds-barred, all-out farce in which zany complications escalate rapidly and continually.

The film's locales have an appealing authentic feel to them, and everything from decor to music contributes to making Looking for an Echo an appealing heart-tugger.

Egoyan's oblique, layered attack ultimately pays off, evoking a strong emotional connection between past and present, the historical and the personal, in a flowing, cinematic manner in collaboration with his frequent cameraman, Paul Sarossy. The film makes use of an intoxicating array of Armenian music.

McGrath, who adapted the novel, manages to catch the flavor of it without its tang.

Parents may find their attention wandering, but the simple tale contains valuable life lessons for their youngest offspring, who will likely be enchanted.

Although not for the faint of heart, it's a potent -- and very tricky -- treat.

In the end Tycoon above all evokes a melancholy awareness of the seemingly eternal exploitation and impoverishment of the Russian people.

Carefully crafted, notably in its deft dramatic structuring, and has become timely in a way its maker could never have anticipated.

Cumming and Leigh -- bring to their stylish, incisive and compassionate film an immediacy and a bracing snap.

Even though the film's tone grows ever more elegiac, it stubbornly remains a celebration of the Kurdish capacity to endure.

Even if it's not quite as lighter than air as its predecessor, Snatch remains a lethal diversion.

Although the term cinéma vérité is overused as a descriptor for documentaries, it applies here. The makers of Horns and Halos eschew the Michael Moore "poke 'em with a stick, let's watch 'em squirm" approach and wisely let the cameras roll, interspersing news footage with their own interviews.

A fine example of digital filmmaking, and Weintrob and his co-writer, Andrew Osborne, manage to raise some serious issues regarding the Internet without taking themselves too seriously.

Perhaps The Heart of Me's greatest success is the way it avoids turning any of its characters into villains. They all act badly at times, but we feel for them just the same; they never lose our sympathy. Weepy or not, that's an accomplishment any kind of film can feel proud of.

In its milieu and parallel story lines, the film suggests a bantam "Short Cuts," but for better and for worse, this is Altman without the razored edge. Cholodenko elicits appealing performances from her ensemble, but she never pushes their characters anywhere there isn't an easy out.

Has the right mix of sugar and spice for a satisfying rush.

Star Trek: Insurrection lacks the adrenalized oomph of its predecessor, but no adventure of the Starship Enterprise is without its gee-whiz affability.

In its first two-thirds, My First Mister, which marks Christine Lahti's feature directorial debut, looks to be a winner. But it takes a disastrously wrong turn toward the end that all but destroys the good work that's come before.

The disconnect between what men say and what they do makes Old School funnier than most of its gags and it also invests the movie with curious pathos.

As a filmmaker, he (Leconte) doesn't have anything profound to say but does say his something with craft, visual flair and professionalism. Depending on your mood, that can be either too little or just enough.

You can go with it or resist it, be exhilarated or worn out. But forgetting the experience is not one of your options.

Both pleasantly old-fashioned and packed with up-to-date computer-generated special effects, the film's constant plot turns, cheeky sensibility and omnipresent action sequences have no trouble attracting our attention and holding on.

Ends up more challenging and intriguing than personally involving, and while these are far from small things, it is only human to hope for more.

Spider-Man may look like an action comic come to life, but its best feature is its romance comic heart. It's that rare cartoon movie in which the villain is less involving than the love story.

Not the place to go look for nuanced, deeply emotional performances. The acting is inevitably on the formal side, suitable for the pageant this film is. But don't let that dissuade you. They won't be making another film like this any time soon, and the chance to see all those elephants is not one you get every day.

The Spanish Prisoner is the smoothest and most convincing of Mamet's elaborate charades and features intriguing performances by Steve Martin and Campbell Scott.

Familiarity and continuity are what the success of this series has always been about. We've been here before, and we like the neighborhood.

"Dark and demanding" doesn't begin to describe this devastating film -- It is not too much to say that without its splendid use of music Love Liza might not be bearable.

Though Schroeder makes you squirm more than you want to at the inevitable scenes of the trussed-up female murder victim, he also has the proclivity and the skill to make at least the B-picture half of Murder by Numbers of more than passing interest.

The result is surprisingly genial, even innocent -- a movie without a screenplay that echoes countless coming-of-age-at-the-beach movies, except maybe "Weekend at Bernie's."

Well-crafted in most aspects, Phantoms is finally more ambitious than satisfying. It also could have used more humor. But it can't be accused of insulting the intelligence of its audiences.

With key scenes so vivid they barely feel scripted, this is more than a same-sex success, it's a most affecting, most sensual on-screen love affair, period.