"Document" "films adapted from comic books have had plenty of success , whether they 're ab out superheroes ( batman , superman , spawn ) , or geared toward kids ( casper ) or the arthouse crowd ( ghost world ) , but there 's never really been a comic book like from hell before ." "every now and then a movie comes along from a suspect studio , with every indic ation that it will be a stinker , and to everybody 's surprise ( perhaps even th e studio ) the film becomes a critical darling ." "you 've got mail works alot better than it deserves to ." " jaws is a rare film that grabs your attention before it shows you a single im age on screen . the movie opens with blackness , and only distant , alien-like u nderwater sounds ." "moviemaking is a lot like being the general manager of an nfl team in the post- salary cap era -- you 've got to know how to allocate your resources ." "on june 30 , 1960 , a self-taught , idealistic , yet pragmatic , young man beca me , at age 36 , the first head of government of a newly independent african sta te , formerly the belgian congo ." "apparently , director tony kaye had a major battle with new line regarding his new film , american history x ." "one of my colleagues was surprised when i told her i was willing to see betsy ' s wedding ." "after bloody clashes and independence won , lumumba refused to pander to the be lgians , who continued a condescending and paternalistic relationship with the c ongo ." "the american action film has been slowly drowning to death in a sea of asian wi re-fu copycats ." "after watching rat race last week , i noticed my cheeks were sore and realize d that , when not laughing aloud , i had held a grin for virtually all of the fi lm 's 112 minutes ." "i 've noticed something lately that i 've never thought of before ." "synopsis : bobby garfield ( yelchin ) lives in a small town with his mirthless widowed mother ( hope davis ) ." "synopsis : in this movie , steven spielberg , one of today 's finest directors , attempts to spice up the 1800s story of a long courtroom battle over the fate of prisoner cinque ( djimon hounsou ) - - a young angry man from sierra leone wh o was kidnapped into slavery - - and his fellow prisoners ." "the police negotiator is the person with the entirely unenviable job of going i nto ground zero and attempting to talk a dangerous criminal out of doing whateve r he or she intends to do ." "plot : a young man who loves heavy metal music and especially the band steel dr agon , to whom he 's devoted a tribute band in which he sings , gets launched in to stardom when the real group get rid of their lead singer and call on him to t ake his place ." "carry on matron is the last great carry-on film in my opinion ." "the ultimate match up between good and evil , the untouchables is an excellen t movie because it looks deeper into an already examined rivalry ." "having not seen , who framed roger rabbit in over 10 years , and not remember ing much besides that i liked it then , i decided to rent it recently ." "there 's something about ben stiller that makes him a popular choice among cast ing directors these days ." "by phil curtolo mel gibson ( braveheart ) gave a gripping performance as the fa ther of a young kidnapped boy in ron howard 's ransom ." "one can not observe a star trek movie and expect to see serious science fiction . the purpose of star trek is to provide flashy , innocent fun ." "a fully loaded entertainment review - website coming in july !" "when bulworth ended , i allowed myself a sigh of relief : ?" "call 911 for the cliche police if you must , but the eyes are the window to the soul . the finest actors working in films are those who can command the screen with a gaze : paul newman , ralph fiennes , anthony hopkins , morgan freeman ." "hilarious , ultra-low budget comedy from film school dropout kevin smith chroni cles a day in the life of two convenience store slackers ( brian o 'halloran and jeff anderson ) ." "for those of us who were n't yet born when the 1960 's rock 'n' rolled around , monterey pop affords an affectionate glimpse of the music that influenced our p arents to be hippies ." "the most common ( and in many cases the only ) complaint against francis ford c oppola 's 1972 masterpiece the godfather is glamorising of mafia , which is pres ented as an institution guided by ancient tradition and virtues like honour , lo yalty and solidarity more suitable for some gentler , kinder ages ." " the blair witch project was perhaps one of a kind , a unique film that played completely on its own merit , managing to scare even the most experienced horro r fans out of their senses ." "seen may 31 , 1999 on home video ( rented ) ." "linda fiorentino disappeared off the radar after a deservedly heralded turn in the cable pic the last seduction , and her being cast as dogma 's lead is nothin g short of inexplicable ." "you 've heard all the hype ." "as african american detective vergil tibbs questions a suspected white murderer inside a jail cell , there is a wonderful , eye-catching shot which instantaneo usly presents the main message of the entire film ." "in wonder boys michael douglas plays an aged writer \ professor with such lived -in naturalism that i believe it may be his best performance ." "plot : derek zoolander is a male model ." "unzipped is a cinematic portrait of isaac mizrahi , an artist whose palette is fabric ." "dora ( fernanda montenegro ) sits behind a make-shift desk at rio+s major train station ." "the event of events is upon us ." "sometimes a movie comes along that falls somewhat askew of the rest ." "that thing you do !" " he 's back , and it 's about time ." "dreamworks pictures presents a jinks / cohen company production kevin spacey an nette bening american beauty thora birch allison janney peter gallagher mena s uvari wes bentley and chris cooper co-producers stan wlodkowski alan ball music by thomas newman costume designer julie weiss film editor tariq anway chris gree nbury production designer naomi shohan director of photography conrad l ." "will hunting ( matt damon ) is a natural genius ." "if there 's one thing in common about all of hollywood 's major studios , it 's that their productions are moving toward mainstream more and more ." "what do you get when you slap together a movie based on a story by the legendar y george lucas , directed by virtuoso director steven spielberg , and starring o ne of the biggest box-office stars in the world , harrison ford ?" "` we run tings ." "at first glance , it appears that the home alone movies are brainless slapstick intended for those with minds of 8-year olds ." "-- comedy , rated pg , runs about 1 : 40 -- starring : john goodman , kathy mor iarty , and a bunch of teenagers -- directed by joe dante and written by charles hass -- summary : lawrence woolsley ( john goodman ) brings his new horror film mant !" "when _star wars _ came out some twenty years ago , the image of traveling throu ghout the stars has become a commonplace image ." "warning : contains what the matrix is ." "national lampoon 's animal house , made in 1978 and set in 1962 , remains one o f the -- no , fuck that noise -- * the * funniest movie ever made ." "every year , hollywood crowns a new it boy --a young actor pegged for major m ovie stardom ." "synopsis : leonard shelby ( pearce ) is a former insurance investigator on the trail of the man who killed his wife ." "earth is a harsh , unconsoling drama about the time when india gained independe nce from britain and the ensuing turmoil that engulfed the subcontinent ." "up until about a year ago , john travolta 's career consisted of those look wh o 's talking movies ( notice how they never called them look who 's talented ) and the 1991 bomb shout ( which was bad enough to make most people scream ) ." "i was fortunate enough to attend an advance screening for the upcoming thriller conspiracy theory ." "the disney studios has its formula for annual , full-length animated features d own so pat that it 's hard to remember which one you 're watching at any given m oment ." "i had been expecting more of this movie than the less than thrilling twister ." "disney 's 35th animated feature-- a retooling of the olympian legend crossed wi th , well , the superman story-- is surprisingly soft at the center ." "the computer-animated comedy shrek is designed to be enjoyed on different lev els by different groups ." "after watching the first ten minutes of this japanese film , you will never eat a bowl of ramen the same way again ." "there 's an old saying that states something about leaving the best for last ." "why do so many children 's films treat their target audience with utter contemp t ?" "susan granger 's review of the closet ( miramax films ) in this hilarious fre nch farce , a shy , boring accountant ( daniel auteil ) named francois pignon di scovers he 's going to be fired from his job at a condom factory ." "roman emperor marcus aurelius ( richard harris ) chooses his trusted general ma ximus ( russell crowe ) as his successor ." "what a great film ." "ingredients : starving artist lusting after a beautiful woman from his childhoo d synopsis : great expectations ( 1998 ) is a modernized version of a charles di ckens novel ." "you 've seen this moment before , recently : a particularly troubled character senses danger of the paranormal kind when the room temperature inexplicably plum mets to below freezing . the difference is that when it happens to lili taylor ' s nell in the haunting , we do n't care . the hero of the sixth sense , a young boy named cole , is a rich creation , and we wish nothing more than for the ghos ts who haunt him to take a hike . the seasons have changed since an ex-patient s hot jaded child psychologist malcolm crowe ( willis ) in the comfort of his own bedroom ." "hollywood has really done the whole dracula thing to death ( no pun intended - honest ) ." "stendhal 's syndrome : a condition where , in the presence of art , a person be comes engulfed in a painting and hallucinates and may afterwards suffer symptoms such as depression , suicidal behaviour and personality disorder ." "close your eyes for a moment , if you will , and imagine the sound of stephen r ea 's gaelic brogue , silky smooth and irish like a pint of guinness ." "zero effect gets its title from the main character , daryl zero ( bill pullman ) , although we do n't understand what it truly means until the very last line o f dialogue in the film ." "the long kiss goodnight ( r ) meryl streep tried it and failed ." "screen story by kevin yagher and andrew kevin walker ." "mpaa : not rated ( though i feel it would likely be pg , for martial-arts viole nce ." "well , i know that stallone is 50 years old now , but in daylight he does n't l ook it !" "logical time travel movies are a near-impossibility ." "blade is the movie that shows that wesley snipes really can live up to his pote ntial as one of hollywood 's premier leading men ." "the truman show ( paramount pictures ) running time : 1 hour 42 minutes starrin g jim carrey and ed harris directed by peter weir after a long wait , jim carrey 's dramatic debut finally makes it to the big screen ." "no film in recent has left me with such conflicted feelings as neil jordan 's h arrowing , humorous , horrifying adaptation of patrick mccabe 's novel about you ng lad francie brady 's ( eamonn owens ) descent into madness in 1960s ireland . " "just how inseparable is the team of sgt ." "since 1990 , the dramatic picture has undergone a certain change of style ." "a big surprise to me . the good trailer had hinted that they pulled the impossi ble off , but making a blues brothers movie without jake blues ( john belushi ) is such a dumb idea i really had no hope ." "after having heard so many critics describe return to me as an old-fashioned hollywood romance , i kept asking myself going into this movie : what exactly is an old-fashioned hollywood romance ?" "wild things is a suspenseful thriller starring matt dillon , denise richards , and neve campbell that deals with all the issues ; sex , love , murder , and bet rayal . the setting of the film is a town named blue bay ." "* * * * * * minor plot spoilers in review * * * * * * * * * * * * no major spoi lers are in review * * * * * * the previous two alien films have each had thei r own unique styles to them ." "are you tired of all the hot new releases being gone by the time you get to the video store ?" "many people dislike french films for their lack of closure ." "the keen wisdom of an elderly bank robber , the naive ambitions of a sexy hospi tal nurse , and a partnership that blossoms between the two are the fine compone nts that make up a modest , little caper adventure entitled `where the money is ." "robert benton has assembled a stellar , mature cast for his latest feature , tw ilight , a film noir mystery set amid the fading stars of hollywood ." "warning : anyone offended by blatant , leering machismo had better avoid this f ilm ." "accepting his oscar as producer of this year 's best picture winner , saul zaen tz remarked that his cup runneth over ." "a bleak look at how the boston underworld operates , a film which was based on the best-seller by george v ." " footloose has only one goal in mind : to reel in an audience with cheesy sent iment and feel-good antics ." "as i walked out of crouching tiger , hidden dragon i thought to myself that i h ad had just seen a great film ." " crazy/beautiful suffers from the damned-if-you-do , damned-if-you-do n't synd rome ." "everyone knows someone like giles de 'ath : stuffy , arrogant , set in his ways , and at war with anything that could in any way be associated with progress . " "for many people , procrastination is n't a problem to overcome , it 's a high a rt ." "meet joe black ( reviewed on nov ." "call it touched by a demon ." "james l ." "plot : two teen couples go to a church party , drink and then drive ." "the happy bastard 's quick movie review damn that y2k bug ." "it is movies like these that make a jaded movie viewer thankful for the inventi on of the timex indiglo watch ." " quest for camelot is warner bros ." "synopsis : a mentally unstable man undergoing psychotherapy saves a boy from a potentially fatal accident and then falls in love with the boy 's mother , a fle dgling restauranteur ." "capsule : in 2176 on the planet mars police taking into custody an accused murd erer face the title menace ." "so ask yourself what 8mm ( eight millimeter ) is really all about . is it a bout a wholesome surveillance man who loses sight of his values after becoming e nmeshed in the seedy , sleazy underworld of hardcore pornography ? is it about t he business itself , how , bubbling just beneath the surface of big-town america na , there 's a sordid world of sick and depraved people who wo n't necessarily stop short of murder in order to satisfy their sick and twisted desires ?" "that 's exactly how long the movie felt to me ." "call it a road trip for the walking wounded ." "plot : a young french boy sees his parents killed before his eyes by tim roth , oops ." "best remembered for his understated performance as dr ." "janeane garofalo in a romantic comedy -- it was a good idea a couple years ago with the truth about cats and dogs but is almost excruciating in the matchmaker ." "and now the high-flying hong kong style of filmmaking has made its way down to the classics , and it is n't pretty ." "a movie like mortal kombat : annihilation works ( and must be reviewed on ) mul tiple levels ." "she was the femme in la femme nikita ." "john carpenter makes b-movies ." "i 'm really starting to wonder about alicia silverstone ." "so what do you get when you mix together plot elements from various successful sci-fi films such as close encounters of the third kind , 2001 : a space odyssey , apollo 13 and contact ?" "the law of crowd pleasing romantic movies states that the two leads must end up together by film 's end ." "mighty joe young blunders about for nearly twenty minutes before we actually ge t to see a great big gorilla ." " spawn features good guys , bad guys , lots of fighting , bloody violence , a leather-clad machine gun chick , gooey , self-healing bullet holes , scatologica l humor and a man-eating monster ." " in dreams might keep you awake at night , but not because of its creepy image ry , bizarre visual style or story about a clairvoyant madman who lures young gi rls to their untimely deaths ." " knock off is exactly that : a cheap knock off of an action movie ." " snake eyes is the most aggravating kind of movie : the kind that shows so muc h potential then becomes unbelievably disappointing ." "forgive the fevered criticism but the fervor of the crucible infects ." "one might expect a cathartic viewing experience walking into a new jean-luc god ard film ." "america loves convenience ." "reindeer games is easily the worst of the three recent films penned by ehren kr uger ( scream 3 and arlington rd are the others , each derivative in their own s pecial way ) . the guy ca n't seem to write believable dialogue ( sample from re indeer games : rule # 1 : never put a car thief behind the wheel ) , create mu lti-faceted characters , or even engineer coherent plots but he sure knows how t o pile on numerous nonsensical twists and turns ( no matter if each one deems th e actual story increasingly unlikely ) ." "a follow-up to disney 's live-action 101 dalmatians that 's better , more ent ertaining than the first ?" "one-sided doom and gloom documentary about the possible annihilation of the h uman race as foretold by the bible ." "play it to the bone , the newest addition to ron shelton 's sports - themed rep ertoire fails in numerous ways ." "some movies i should just skip ." "hong kong cinema has been going through a bad spell . the last few productions have been effect laded action adventures that combine both the best and worst of american filmmaking with the same qualities of hong kong films ." "i wish i could have been in the pitch meeting for this ridiculous notion of a s ports film ." "if you 're into watching near on two hours of bored , foul-mouthed florida teen s having sex , doing drugs , having sex , listening to eminem , having sex , pla ying video games , having sex , and killing one of their peers , then bully 's for you ." "sean connery stars as a harvard law professor who heads back into the courtroom , by way of the everglades , to defend a young , educated black man ( blair und erwood ) . the guy is on death row for the murder of a white girl , and says tha t his confession was coerced from the region 's tough , black cop ( lawrence fis hburne ) ." "among multitude of erotic thrillers , that had been released in the early 1990s , woman of desire is interesting only because it was directed by robert ginty , star of the b-grade action films of the previous decade ." " lake placid marks yet another entry in the series of predator pics that wer e a screen staple in the late 1970s ( post- jaws ) and were revived recently b y the godawful anaconda ." "capsule : where are you tonight , leni rienfenstal ?" "the classic story & the production which ruined it marking the centennial anniv ersary of the 1896 h ." "lengthy and lousy are two words to describe the boring drama the english patien t ." "out of sight director steven sorderbergh baffles the hell out of us all in the limey , a cold , uninvolving , confusing new thriller ." "a pseudo-intellectual film about the pseudo-intellectual world of art magazines , high art is as wasted as its drug-addled protagonists ." " party camp , is one of the most mindnumbingly brainless comedies i 've seen i n awhile ." "i 'm currently accepting all future names for drew barrymore characters ." "when it comes to the average teenage romantic comedy , i expect negative review s from critics left and right ." "all through its production and into the early days of its initial , aborted pre -release publicity , hard rain bore the appropriate moniker of the flood ." "instinct is the kind of movie that inexperienced moviegoers will undoubtedly la bel as powerful or touching ." "sydney lumet is the director whose work happens to be of varied quality ." " the world on land -- it 's just too big for me ." "my giant is two movies for the price of one , but neither is worth the cost of admission , even if you get in free ." "talk about a movie that seemed dated before it even hit the theaters !" "this feature is like a double header , two sets of clich ?" "one of the responses those that enjoy detroit rock city ( probably kiss fans , mostly ) might have upon first glance at the rating i 've given the film might be something like : oh , that casey 's gone and become a jaded critic on us ." "has it really been two decades since walter matthau coached the bad news bears ?" "funny how your expectations can be defeated , and not in good ways . the ghost and the darkness promised ( at least , it seemed to me to promise ) a hemingwaye sque showdown between men and nature ." "unfortunately it does n't get much more formulaic than one tough cop ." "supposedly based on a true story in which the british drive to build a rail bri dge deep in africa grinds to a halt after a pair of lions start killing off the workers in 1898 ." "of course i knew this going in ." "louie is a trumpeter swan with no voice ." "one of the most respected names in american independent filmmaking is john sayl es ." "'traffic violation ' dr ." "there are two things the american film industry should avoid at all costs ." "would you believe -- in real life , i mean -- that if you were julia roberts , that you 'd be the ugly underdog to your sister , the creepy catherine zeta-jone s ?" "rated : r for strong violence , language , drug use , nudity , and some sexuali ty ." "movie reviewers have an obligation to see the good , the bad , and the despicab le ." "mr ." " first rule of fight club is , do n't talk about fight club ." "note to screenwriters and self : when you hit the big time , and the studios co me knocking for those scripts that are sitting in your bottom drawer , tell ?" "the recent onslaught of film noir that has popped up in multiplexes , with ever ything ranging from l ." "it rocks-actually , lots of rocks fly at us or from us , in slow or fast motion , at several points in the film ." "there 's a 1 , 000-foot tidal wave at the end of deep impact ." " there will be another , the ads for this sequel proclaimed , and why not ?" "late in down to you , the lead female character ( julia stiles ) states her gre atest fear is having an artificial conversation with her boyfriend ( freddie p rinze jr ." "for better or worse , the appearance of basic instinct in the movie marketplace gave the greenlight to a whole slew of overheated , oversexed , underwritten th rillers ." "it was with great anticipation that i sat down to view braveheart last week as it premiered on american cable ." "susan granger 's review of the watcher ( universal ) just what we need : anot her lurid , trashy serial killer saga ." "ahh yes . the teenage romance ." " virus is the type of cliched , vacuous film that has been recylcled so many t imes before that you wonder why anyone would even bother putting work into makin g it ." "over 40 years ago , a japanese production company called toho introduced the la nd of the rising sun to gojira , a reptilian creature of immense proportions cre ated by mankind 's nuclear testing ." "before the remake of psycho appears , we 've got to suffer through this remake of an earlier hitchcock film , dial m for murder ." "coinciding with the emerging popularity of movies that deal with anything relat ed to serial killers , relentless , 1989 low budget thriller about lapd detectiv e sam dietz , played by character actor leo rossi , spawned three more sequels . " "edward burns tackles his third picture with no looking back , and like his prev ious two , it is a working-class relationship picture ." "i do n't expect much from eddie murphy these days ." "brian de palma , the director who bought us carrie , dressed to kill and missio n : impossible is back , and has bought all his technical expertise with him ." "it 's now the anniversary of the slayings of julie james ' ( jennifer love hewi tt ) best friends ." "lucas was wise to start his star wars trilogy with episode 4 : episode 1 is a b oring , empty spectacle that features some nice special effects ." "five girls spend a day in a closed building doing inventory when a strange box gets delivered there ( is this starting to sound familiar ?" "the first film produced by adam sandler 's happy madison production company ( c lever title eh ?" "tectonic plates is an incredibly painful motion picture experience that nearly prompted me to walk out 20 minutes into the movie ." "various films seen at the seattle film festival : it 's all true/three men on a raft ( u ." "capsule : the weakest and least engaging of the alien movies , dragged down by an uninvolving story and no real tension ." " from the director of the nightmare before christmas it said in the previews , which i 'm guessing was said to get people to go see the movie , obviously it has n't worked since the $ 75 million dollar movie has yet to break $ 5 million ." "numerous comparisons can be made with this movie to past sci-fi , suspense thri llers ." "a documentary from the twin hughes brothers , allen and albert ( dead president s , menace ii society ) , about street pimps , all of whom are african-american ." "gord brody ( tom green ) is an aspiring animator approaching thirty who still l ives in parents jim ( rip torn ) and julie 's ( julie hagerty , airplane ) bas ement ." "much ado about nothing ." "another formula 'feel good ' quirky comedy from the british isles , much like waking ned devine , and a host of other popular low budget movies that turned a nifty profit off a thin story line ." " love to kill starts off aimlessly and gets progressively less coherent as tim e passes ." "whether you like the beatles or not , nobody wants to see the bee gee 's take o n some of the fab four 's best known songs ." "warning : spoilers are included in this review ."