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A
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The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
(2003)
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Marshall Fine
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Like the first two films in this series, it feels complete in itself. But it also serves as a rousing finale to what will stand as a towering film achievement.
Posted Jan 14, 2026
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A
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The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
(2001)
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Marshall Fine
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The film's amazing imagery and ensemble cast supplement and enhance what has been distilled into a headlong adventure that fairly flies by... How [Peter Jackson] extracted this film from Tolkien's tedious prose is the real magic.
Posted Jan 13, 2026
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3.5/4
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A Few Good Men
(1992)
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Marshall Fine
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"A Few Good Men" is rousing entertainment with more than cheap thrills on its mind.
Posted Jan 08, 2026
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Hook
(1991)
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Marshall Fine
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Fortunately, that second half is a lulu. It is what one wants from Hook: wit, visual brilliance, heart-tugging emotion. And it more than makes up for the jogging in place of the film's first half.
Posted Dec 19, 2025
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Dracula
(1979)
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Peter Travers
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Every potentially dramatic moment is undercut by Badham's cutting away to another moment.
Posted Oct 23, 2025
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3.5/4
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Boogie Nights
(1997)
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Marshall Fine
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Boogie Nights is sprawling and audacious, a wildly entertaining ride that also serves as a cautionary tale and, in many ways, a historical document.
Posted Sep 24, 2025
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4/4
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Toy Story
(1995)
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Marshall Fine
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The intensity of the visual experience is potent, even intoxicating. It's so strong that the toys look real.
Posted Sep 10, 2025
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4/4
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This Is Spinal Tap
(1984)
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Marshall Fine
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Reiner perfectly creates the sense of unexpected disaster caught fortuitously on film.
Posted Sep 09, 2025
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3.5/4
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Requiem for a Dream
(2000)
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Marshall Fine
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Burstyn's performance is particularly harrowing, a terrifying look at the unintended consequences of the pursuit of fame.
Posted Aug 21, 2025
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3/4
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Braveheart
(1995)
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Marshall Fine
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An ambitious and satisfying endeavor that establishes Mel Gibson as a director of strength and vision. Though his reach ultimately exceeds his grasp, it's a film that's worth the effort.
Posted Aug 07, 2025
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4/4
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Jurassic Park
(1993)
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Marshall Fine
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Jurassic Park is a dead-center bull's-eye, a film destined to be one of the all-time blockbusters -- and one that actually deserves the accolades.
Posted Jul 01, 2025
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3/4
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The Lost World: Jurassic Park
(1997)
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Marshall Fine
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While The Lost World has a number of well-made action sequences and some occasionally snappy dialogue, this sequel feels like a sequel: mechanical plot seemingly designed solely to create set-ups for said scenes of jeopardy.
Posted Jun 30, 2025
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Jurassic Park III
(2001)
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Marshall Fine
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Jurassic Park III is not terrible filmmaking, but it is formula fare of the least imaginative type.
Posted Jun 25, 2025
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4/4
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Apollo 13
(1995)
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Marshall Fine
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Apollo 13 makes the heart beat faster, the blood rush and, finally, the tears flow. It is, without question, the best film of the year so far.
Posted Jun 24, 2025
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4/4
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Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
(1980)
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Marshall Fine
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The Empire Strikes Back stands at the darkest and most emotionally complex of the three Star Wars films -- but also must contend with being a film that, while self-contained, is both a sequel and a bridge to a final chapter.
Posted Apr 23, 2025
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2.5/4
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Scream 3
(2000)
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Marshall Fine
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It's all just button pushing on a well oiled machine, designed to manipulate people into jumping with fright. This kind of cheap thrill rapidly succumbs to the law of diminishing returns.
Posted Feb 19, 2025
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3.5/4
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Tarzan
(1999)
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Marshall Fine
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The animation is magical: a pen, ink and computer explosion that captures the startling energy of contemporary comic books.
Posted Dec 20, 2024
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4/4
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Mulan
(1998)
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Marshall Fine
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Mulan continues Disney's winning streak, with an animated film that rises to the level of art, without losing its ability to entertain.
Posted Dec 20, 2024
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3.5/4
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The Lion King
(1994)
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Marshall Fine
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It effectively mixes broad comedy with adventure, music, and a soupçon of romance, creating a satisfying film that will entertain the whole family.
Posted Dec 19, 2024
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4/4
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Beauty and the Beast
(1991)
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Marshall Fine
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I don't know how else to put this except to say it straight out: Adults, don't be such snobs. Go see this movie. Take your kids. See it even if you don't have kids. But don't ignore it just because it's a cartoon.
Posted Dec 16, 2024
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2.5/4
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Bram Stoker's Dracula
(1992)
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Marshall Fine
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To be sure, Coppola has created a highly watchable vision that's a masterpiece of art direction and costume design. The work of designers Thomas Sanders and Eiko Ishioka is lush and lavish. But that's the kind of stuff that belongs in a museum.
Posted Sep 26, 2024
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3.5/4
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Alien Resurrection
(1997)
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Marshall Fine
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Let's see: It's a big improvement over No. 3, not as good as No. 2 but on a par with or slightly better than No. 1. Anything else you want to know about Alien Resurrection?
Posted Aug 07, 2024
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2.5/4
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Twister
(1996)
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Marshall Fine
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The only thing that keeps this film moving are the storms, which show up like clockwork. They're an impressive lot, to be sure, guaranteed to give you a newfound respect for the overwhelming power of nature (or, perhaps, for the magic of computers).
Posted Jul 16, 2024
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2.5/4
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Planet of the Apes
(2001)
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Marshall Fine
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Planet of the Apes monkeys around a lot but never manages to ape the sense of adventure or excitement of the 1968 film. Rather, it is consistent with the rest of Tim Burton's work: amazing to look at and instantly forgettable.
Posted Apr 30, 2024
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4/4
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Little Women
(1994)
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Marshall Fine
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Little Women manages to be traditional without being conservative. It tells its story with great love and greater joy -- and both properties are conveyed to the audience.
Posted Apr 11, 2024
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3/4
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Forrest Gump
(1994)
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Marshall Fine
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Hanks shows the gears turning in Forrest's head -- and the limits of just how far they will turn. Even as luck rises again and again to save Forrest and push him forward, Hanks maintains a simplicity and openness that keeps Forrest real -- and engrossing.
Posted Mar 01, 2024
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4/4
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Pulp Fiction
(1994)
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Marshall Fine
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As bloody, violent and profane as it is, Pulp Fiction is also amazingly funny in dark, unexpected ways. Its humor springs both from the situations Tarantino creates and from the unusual turns his characters choose.
Posted Feb 29, 2024
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3.5/4
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Amélie
(2001)
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Marshall Fine
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It’s a lighter-than-air French pastry of a film that will have you begging for more.
Posted Feb 13, 2024
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3/4
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Heat
(1995)
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Marshall Fine
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It's a fascinating experiment at making a movie that offers as much character and plot complexity as a novel. Had Mann been able to distill it further, it could have been a truly great movie.
Posted Dec 19, 2023
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3.5/4
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The Last of the Mohicans
(1992)
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Marshall Fine
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The real thing: a sweeping tale of adventure, romance and intrigue, played against a backdrop of history. With its stunning photography and gripping action, it is an epic tale that blazes by in what seems like an instant.
Posted Dec 14, 2023
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3/4
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Smoke Signals
(1998)
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Marshall Fine
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Though it offers insight into Native American life, Smoke Signals isn't merely an exercise in cultural tourism. Rather, it is a human story, one that springs from a specific culture and, as a result, hits a universal chord.
Posted Nov 08, 2023
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3.5/4
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The Exorcist
(1973)
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Marshall Fine
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What has given The Exorcist legs for all these years is its ability to earn its scares honestly, accruing tension over the course of two hours, releasing it in little spasms of relief and then cranking up the suspense until it is very nearly unbearable.
Posted Sep 28, 2023
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3.5/4
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Traffic
(2000)
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Marshall Fine
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Soderbergh understands that each strand of this story is a separate but crucial part of this film's web, which demonstrates the unthought-of ways drugs touch the lives of people who would otherwise seem immune to such problems.
Posted Sep 06, 2023
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3/4
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Batman
(1989)
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Marshall Fine
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While it is frequently a visionary film of surpassing beauty, intelligence and originality, it is also coolly personal, which will [come] as a shock to people who are expecting a populist entertainment.
Posted Jul 25, 2023
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2.5/4
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In the Mood for Love
(2000)
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Marshall Fine
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In the Mood for Love tells an aching story of romance held at arm's length. Too often, it holds the audience at a distance as well.
Posted Jul 15, 2023
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The Matrix
(1999)
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Marshall Fine
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The Matrix is a journey into a genuinely original vision of our cyber-future that will have you checking your own reality by the time it's over.
Posted Jul 11, 2023
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2/4
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Armageddon
(1998)
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Marshall Fine
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Bay, not trusting the magnetism of his actors, inflates every scene with the cinema equivalent of pure oxygen. Everything is played at such an intense pitch that it all loses its impact.
Posted Jun 22, 2023
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3.5/4
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Crossing Delancey
(1988)
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Marshall Fine
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Crossing Delancey is a small, unexpected treasure. It's a feel-good movie that lifts you up without insulting your intelligence or pandering to your soft side.
Posted May 16, 2023
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2.5/4
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Godzilla
(1998)
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Marshall Fine
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Emmerich and Devlin have made the world's most elaborate B movie: filled with ever-larger action and special-effects set-pieces, strung together by the merest whisper of a story beyond the expected lizard-on-a-rampage plot.
Posted Feb 15, 2023
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2.5/4
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Wild Things
(1998)
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Marshall Fine
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Peters' script is filled with the kind of howlingly awful dialogue found in the worst TV potboilers on the WB. Meanwhile, once McNaughton starts flipping over cards and shows his hand, the remaining moves become obvious.
Posted Feb 02, 2023
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4/4
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The Big Lebowski
(1998)
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Marshall Fine
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Raymond Chandler meets Cheech and Chong in the Coen brothers' The Big Lebowski, the funniest spin on the detective film in years.
Posted Jan 19, 2023
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2/4
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Eve's Bayou
(1997)
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Marshall Fine
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Lemmons has tried to write a memory tale... But the memories she has come up with to fill the time drag and crawl, trying on different tones without ever finding a consistent one or making her characters more than sketches.
Posted Jan 09, 2023
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2.5/4
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Groundhog Day
(1993)
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Marshall Fine
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Groundhog Day offers OK Murray: not great, not awful, few huge laughs, no big lulls. It's another case of Murray outshining his material and, in the process, making the whole enterprise look better than it is.
Posted Dec 07, 2022
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3.5/4
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Gladiator
(2000)
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Marshall Fine
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The blend of digital imagery and contemporary showmanship combine to make you feel like a privileged ticket-holder at a compellingly ghastly program in the most famous arena on Earth.
Posted Nov 01, 2022
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3/4
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Addams Family Values
(1993)
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Marshall Fine
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Rudnick and director Barry Sonnenberg can't find a plot that's as involving as the characters themselves, but they've still created an uproarious confection whose strengths overshadow its shortcomings.
Posted Sep 21, 2022
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3.5/4
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Titanic
(1997)
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Marshall Fine
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The result is a three-plus-hour marvel, an epic adventure that immerses the audience into a touching romance, then takes a sharp turn into action and thrills, when the famous ship meets its doom. Titanic, it turns out, was worth waiting for.
Posted Mar 17, 2022
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3/4
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Love & Basketball
(2000)
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Marshall Fine
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[Prince-Bythewood] draws strong performances from an attractive pair of leads in Epps and Lathan, both of whom have the acting chops and the athletic ability to be convincing in their roles.
Posted Mar 09, 2022
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3.5/4
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Beloved
(1998)
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Marshall Fine
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[Winfrey gives] a compelling performance, one endowed with total commitment to this role, minus any trace of vanity.
Posted Feb 02, 2022
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4/4
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Devil in a Blue Dress
(1995)
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Marshall Fine
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Devil in a Blue Dress is as good as movie-making gets. It's one of the most satisfying films of the season -- and of the year.
Posted Oct 26, 2021
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A
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Real Women Have Curves
(2002)
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Marshall Fine
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It's all handled with a deft touch, thanks to a spirited performance by America Ferrera as Ana and a prickly (but amusing) one by Lupe Ontiveros.
Posted Sep 09, 2021
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