As Good As It Gets

Anyone who thinks romantic comedies are formulaic hokum is probably all too easily proved right. But every once in a while, a gem comes along to silence the cynics. Director James L. Brooks has crafted a warmhearted modern fable with a prickly sense of humor. Jack Nicholson plays an obsessive-compulsive curmudgeon named Melvin Udall, whose isolated life is complicated by developing relationships with two acquaintances: a gay painter who lives in the apartment next door and a lovely, down-to-earth waitress who serves him lunch every day. The film's genuinely funny, moving script will make the audience feel as if it's earned a pleasant after-glow (and perhaps a Kleenex or two). --Erwin R. Rosinberg

Good Will Hunting

In any other movie, we would hate young Will Hunting. His perfection would be nothing short of irritating and boring. Yet Harvard golden boy Matt Damon sheds layer upon layers of complexity until finally we reach the core of his character near the movie's end. The film itself is nothing particularly exceptional. Director Gus Van Sant prefers a straight-up telling of the tale--there's little to distract you from the fable playing out on screen.   --Soman S. Chainani

Love and Death on Long Island

In the past, Jason Priestley has played roles that have propelled him into nationwide teen idolhood. Similarly, Ronnie Bostock, the heart-throb B-movie actor that Priestly plays in Richard Kwietniowski's debut film occupies an equivalent pop-culture status. Ronnie's biggest fan, however, is not the typical hormone-racked female teenager, but rather the established middle-aged English writer, Giles De'Ath, convincingly played by John Hurt. It's a good showcase for Hurt's talents, the pretty performance of Fiona Loewi and the budding skills of Kwietniowski. It also presents an interesting dilemma about how an elderly man reclaims love and youthfulness, but it lacks a sufficient degree of consistent tension and energy to make this a must-see.   --Nathaniel Mendelsohn

Lost in Space

The movie about the 1960s TV show is a lot more extravagant than its parent. The technology upgrade is to be expected in the post-Star Wars world, and though it's fascinating, it's not enough to save the movie. The dialogue is terrible, and it's a shame because no one gave a particularly bad performance, though Matt LeBlanc did have more than his share of horrible lines. The one expectation that everyone had for the movie, the only thing that fans really remember from the old show, was the role of the evil doctor Smith. Gary Oldman gives an evil performance, to be sure, but since his reasons are explained in the plot exposition, he just doesn't seem as bad as the man from the sitcom. The script also brings random psychology into the relationship with the Robinson family. Ultimately, the best part of the movie is little Will Robinson. His performance almost guarantees that the movie will sell a lot of action figures.   --Shatema A. Threadcraft

Men With Guns

John Sayles rightfully received props for his flowing, inter-generational mural of time, Lone Star. With the awkwardly titled Men With Guns (it amazingly both sounds like, and is, a bad translation), however, Sayles has turned a fundamentally disturbing subject matter fit for a sober documentary into the slow-motion romp of a Mr. Magoo social historian. Main character Dr. Humberto Fuentes (Federico Luppi) undergoes an overblown process of discovery in which we are invited to partake: nasty secret things happening and happen after civil strife. Again, no one can fault Sayles for noble motives, and obviously the story itself merits only the most serious consideration, but Sayles moves much better from family to family than from village to village. And how come they didn't notice all that stuff from the helicopters?   --Nicolas R. Rapold

The Newton Boys

In the tradition of director Richard Linklater's so-ridiculous-that-you-have-to-laugh movies (Dazed and Confused, SubUrbia), The Newton Boys robs money not just from banks, but from moviegoers. Set in the bootlegging world of the 1920s, the Newton Boys (Matthew McConaughey, Vincent D'Onofrio, Ethan Hawke and Skeet Ulrich) are America's most successful bank robbers, and are portrayed as sweet, Southern-drawling teenage heartthrobs. Making a mockery out of the real event, this film persuades moviegoers to fall in love with all those chiseled faces and to forget the fact that their success was made in robbery. The overly-cheesy music and the slow-moving plot also make this film seriously dull.   --Sue Y. Chi

Odd Couple II

Can I have some fries with this one? The gratuitous sequel introduces a new and unfortunate cinema franchise: McNeil Simon's. Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon '47 reprise their classic roles as messy Oscar Madison and natty Felix Ungar in the sequel to Simon's comedy classic, but the result is as flat as a Quarter Pounder without the cheese. The excuse for a plot, the erstwhile roommates' road trip through California en route to their children's wedding, can't support the lack of the genuine humor that characterized the original. And the stale performances make this movie about as palatable as New Coke.   --Elizabeth A. Murphy

The Players Club

What's day like for a stripper at the Players Club, where the girls' stab wounds and bullet holes are only out-paced by the number of kids that they have? That's a joke. This is an impressive first effort from Ice Cube. His premise: the characters might grow during the course of this movie, but understand that every day isn't an epiphany day--most days people just go around doing what they do. Even though there's a main character, Cube showcases a lot of inter-connected lives. But the one real treat was the cat fight scene. There's nothing like a good thrashing, because it's everything all rolled into one. Someone goes home crying and usually nobody dies. Can it get any better? Maybe if it's not in the context of male fantasy culture, but that's just a suggestion. --Shatema A. Threadcraft

A Price Above Rubies

The wow-Hasidic-Jews! genre is now 0 for 2. Renee Zwelleger plays Sonya, a Hasidic Jew who can't handle her religion's strict more. Constantly red-faced or stuck in a deliriously cheesy monologue, Zwelleger tears into the role trying to make the film somewhat watchable. All her effort is ultimately futile: A Price Above Rubies is not only an example of dull storytelling but also of offensive and exasperating, preachy filmmaking. Sonya wants to discover true, "burning" passion. The filmmakers make it obvious that true love cannot be found in her community--a tenuous, seemingly-offensive position. When Sonya is expelled by the community, we feel more relief than sadness.   --Soman S. Chainani

Titanic

Although everybody knows how the movie must end, director James Cameron drains the tension by framing the story of the Titanic through the eyes of Rose (Kate Winslet), who tells about her romance with the impoverished passenger Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio). The two run through the events of normal cinematic romance, and Cameron's script presents the lead actors with incredible cliches. Each of the other characters represents a segment of society rather than a person. As the ship breaks apart and its passengers choose between life and death, Titanic achieves an epic grandeur that the film may not deserve. Overall, a pyrrhic victory for Cameron. --Jeremy J. Ross

Wild Things

Desperately tries to be a clever camp thriller, Matt Dillon, Kevin Bacon, Neve Campbell and newcomer Denise Richards star as the dynamic "wild things" that turn a South Florida affluent suburb into a hotbed of corruption and controversy. The movie is just one big ode to cleavage, bikini carwashes, bisexuals, wet T-shirts and sweaty threesomes. Richards fares the best out of the four in a role that might be remembered for the rest of her career (whether this movie will start it or end it is a whole other question). Almost deserves a cult following, almost. But it's just not wild enough.   --Soman S. Chainani