This serpentine variation on CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON was a shrewdly-conceived, well-marketed hit. With a better cast than this kind of material usually gets, and pretty good direction by Luis Llosa, the movie provides some lively, suspenseful entertainment, even if it remains not much more plausible than, say, GODZILLA. Snakes just don't do the things the big anacondas in this movie do. After a prolog in which a man on a boat on a tropical river is terrorized by some unseen creature, killing himself rather than facing it, on the Amazon River in Brazil, we meet documentary filmmaker Terri Flores (Jennifer Lopez) and her scientist partner Dr. Steven Cale (Eric Stoltz) are preparing to head upriver to look for a mysterious lost tribe of Indians, the People of the Mist. (About whom you can promptly forget.) Also on the boat ...

title: Liar Liar function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); <br> studio: Warner Home Video MPAA rating: PG-13 starring: Jim Carrey, Maura Tierney, Jennifer Tilly, Swoosie Kurtz, Cary Elwes release year: 1997 film rating: Three and a half stars reviewed by: Abbie Bernstein Silly, sentimental, friendly and tailored to the unique talents of Jim Carrey, ‘Liar Liar’ succeeds at being continuously funny. Every single scene has laughs, though it must be said that this movie plays better with an audience than viewed solo.

title: Contact function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); starring: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, James Woods, John Hurt, Tom Skerritt and Angela Bassett film rating: Four stars sound/picture: Four stars reviewed by: Kim Wilson Based on the novel by the late Carl Sagan, Contact ponders both the theological and scientific consequences of contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster) plays a driven, yet stubborn astronomer who listens to the stars waiting for signs of life other than our own. Finally, while facing both ridicule from many in her field and the expiration of funding for her program, Ellie hears something unusual from a nearby star named Vega.

At the time of its 1995 theatrical release, ‘Waterworld’ was the most expensive movie ever made, coming in at over $170 million and the money is, in fact, on the screen. Their millions spent on exceedingly well-executed special effects, ‘Waterworld’ is nothing if not an eyeful. The principal problem with ‘Waterworld’ is that all of those bucks were spent on a fairly familiar post-apocalypse tale, albeit presented here in a brand-new variation. The set-up is that, centuries before the story proper begins, the polar ice caps have melted--shown in an effect that wittily utilizes the Universal logo at the start of Chapter 1--leaving all known land submerged well beneath the seas. The few survivors live in floating fortress-cities or exist as lone sailors. One of the latter, the Mariner (Kevin Costner), has gills behind his ears, only interacting with full humans ...

title: Scream function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); <br> studio: Dimension Home Video MPAA rating: Unrated starring: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich and Drew Barrymore release year: 1996 reviewed by: Bill Warren While a similar barrage of predictable slashing and thrashing has been done before, horror master Wes Craven cranks up the production values, updates the dialogue and smartens up the characters to bring this tired genre into the '90's.