Another run-through of the deathless Arthur-Guinevere-Lancelot legend, cripplingly shackled on its run by the casting of Richard Gere in the part of Lancelot -- a smarty-pantsy, ants-in-his-pantsy Lancelot, with a glide in his step, a dip in his knee, a swivel in his hips, a twitch or a wink or …

Dennis Quaid as Jerry Lee Lewis (Would-Be King of Rock-and-Roll) achieves the almost unbelievable: he overacts to an altitude above that of even Richard Gere as the Jerry Lee aficionado of Breathless. What these two movies have in common, besides Lewis's music, is director Jim McBride, which tells us something …

A tall tale about a tall tale, the bogus "authorized autobiography" of Howard Hughes, peddled by Clifford Irving to McGraw-Hill in the early Seventies. Richard Gere, as the hungering writer ("The middle of my life is at hand. I don't have a couch"), has some funny bits imitating Hughes's speech …

Todd Haynes blows another cloud of mist into the mystique of Bob Dylan. The filmmaker, who once enlisted Barbie dolls to tell the Karen Carpenter story, now borrows a gimmick used by Todd Solondz in Palindromes, employing a rotation of dissimilar actors to play a single role, a multiplication of …

The "cops of cops" are trying to get the goods on a very bad one. Better-than-average script (by Henry Bean), with a decently complicated plot and decently filled-out personal lives for the characters. It gets a bit pretentious when it extends to and over the psychological edge, and the direction …

Personal problems of Beautiful People living the Good Life and planning a Dream House in the Trendy Northwest. A loose remake, and a hollow one, of the 1970 French film, The Things of Life. But where Claude Sautet had the dependable Michel Piccoli in the lead, Mark Rydell has Richard …

Notwithstanding the dropping of three words of the title, the re-do of The Day of the Jackal has not approached its task with a mind to downsizing. Over and above the obligatory bigger gun and bigger action sequences, the principal accretion is in the recruitment of an incarcerated IRA "freedom …

After Richard Gere was chosen (or anointed) for the title role, director Bruce Beresford decided to take no more unnecessary risks. And there is so much hair, so much blood, so much "realism," that all fun, along with all Hittites, is threatened with extinction. But there is still Goliath, of …

A Problem Picture about problem teenagers at an exclusive "behavioral modification" facility. Adam Horovitz, one of the musical Beastie Boys, looks well and moves well as the principal problem. Smirks well, that is, and swaggers well, something like a young Richard Gere -- young enough, in fact, that all of …

In New York City’s splendor, Michelle and Allen’s romance is at the point where it is time for the parents to finally meet. But now face-to-face, the dinner quickly spirals out of control as the parents realize each spouse is sleeping with the other. Trying to hide the affairs from …

Sort of an elaborated segment of "The Unexplained" on TV's Unsolved Mysteries, minus Robert Stack and his trenchcoat. Purportedly based on a factual case circa 1967 (here updated), it details some strange doings in anticipation of a major calamity in the small town of Point Pleasant, W. Va. No more …

Hugh Jackman has testicles where his Adam's apple should be. Richard Gere attempts to finger-bang a robot. Halle Berry dips a giant, unsheathed latex breast into a vat of guacamole. A cartoon kitty uses Elizabeth Banks's face to mark its territory. Movie 43 has gag potential, just not in the …

Mental illness (manic-depressive type) as a sanction to act up a storm. Richard Gere, at his antsy-pantsiest, doesn't think he's ill; he thinks he's back in Breathless (James Brown on the soundtrack). And before the end he literally charms the pants off his psychiatrist, Dr. Elizabeth Bowen (why not Dr. …

Two beautiful strangers of opposite sexes but equivalent hurts (she: “That must have been hurtful”; he: “I know you’re hurting”), alone at an isolated inn on the beach; an approaching storm; a walk in the sand; a roll in the hay; a hope for a new beginning. The promise of …

Outsider penetrates strange new environment on dangerous mission. Now fill in the blanks. Outsider: tough Chicago cop. Strange new environment: New Orleans and Cajun suburbs. Dangerous mission: to avenge his partner's evisceration. The details (a tattoo of a blue parrot on the mystery woman's shoulder, a ponytail on the villain, …