Sigourney Weaver more than earned her Oscar nomination for Best Actress in Gorillas in the Mist, dominating every frame of Michael Apted's biopic about primatologist Dian Fossey. Tenderly mothering an orphaned gorilla infant or terrorizing an African poacher with a staged lynching, the statuesque star is never less than fiercely focused, a glamorous warrior for animal rights. As the amateur scientist who researched and spotlighted Rwanda's endangered mountain gorillas in National Geographic, Weaver is the passionate heart that keeps an otherwise flaccid film alive-whether bracing anthropologist Louis Leakey to forcibly offer her services as census-taker of the mountain gorillas; or hanging out with the noble animals until she becomes the first person on record to make friendly physical contact with them; or waging sometimes-physical war on natives and Europeans who decimate the gorillas for trophies or zoo fodder. Unfortunately, the film's stodgy script and direction simply document Fossey's magnificent obsession, offering no insight into what lonely impulse of the soul led this extraordinary woman to climb up an African mountain to bond so strongly with gorillas. Cardboard characters include an eternally smiling, sexless African soulmate (John Omirah Miluwi), a perfect boyfriend (Bryan Brown) who has to be dumped in favor of gorilla-love, and stereotypical villains. Still, the African scenery is spectacular, and who can resist the cross-species thrill when the huge dark hand of Digit, Fossey's favorite, first rests in her outstretched palm? Gorillas in the Mist will please those who savor Sigourney Weaver's Amazonian fervor and the pure fire of her physical and spiritual passion-and harbor a slightly misanthropic fondness for liaisons between beauties and beasts. -Kathleen Murphy.

Strife-torn America wanted a meat-and-potatoes romance in the late '60s, and the country embraced Erich Segal's slim, generic-sounding novel in a big way. It did so again for the film adaptation in 1970, starring Ryan O'Neal as a law student who defies his rich and powerful father (Ray Milland) on every issue, including the former's love for a music student (Ali MacGraw). The two marry, start life together. and then the Grim Reaper turns up at the door. Directed by Arthur Hiller (The In-Laws), the film ends up lacking the kind of stylistic boost that might have made it a must-see for the ages. But its faithfulness to the book's uncomplicated and, yes, moving intentions is pretty solid. O'Neal is convincing as a nice guy who's as bullheaded in his own way as his steely father (a nice job by Milland), and MacGraw has a way of getting under one's skin. A viewer just has to try not laughing at the refrain, "Love means never having to say you're sorry. [+]

A Life Less Ordinary is a surprising disappointment, considering it is the third film from director Danny Boyle, writer John Hodge, and actor Ewan McGregor. This disjointed and strained romantic comedy is not even near the same league as Trainspotting and Shallow Grave. Cameron Diaz is a spoiled heiress and McGregor an aimless janitor brought together by two angels (Holly Hunter and Delroy Lindo) hoping to hang onto their wings. McGregor kidnaps Diaz, the boss's daughter, after being fired from his crummy job. She is not all that averse to being snatched. Most of the laughs are lost to a scattershot story that feels preposterous instead of magical. -Rochelle O'Gorman.

A starkly original film-going experience based on a true life story, this film from New Zealand director Peter Jackson (Dead Alive, The Frighteners) is a stirring drama that offers up the unexpected. The story concerns two girls, outcasts who become best friends, whose bizarre fantasy life becomes more intense as their bond becomes increasingly more obsessive. When the mother of one of the girls tries to intervene and split the girls apart, they kill her and stand trial for murder in what is to this day still a celebrated and controversial case. Kate Winslet (Titanic) and Melanie Lynskey create two sympathetic and yet uncomfortably eerie characters in riveting portrayals. Featuring some startling and unique moments of visual brilliance as well as a disturbing love story between the two girls, Heavenly Creatures is at once both unsettling and beautiful to behold. -Robert Lane.

Originally titled The Killing Box, George Hickenlooper's surreal Civil War movie recounts a gruesome (and fictitious) episode in American history in which a phantom army of Confederate and Union soldiers attacked and crucified armies on both sides. Adrian Pasdar plays Captain John Harling, a Union soldier assigned to investigate the Alabama 51st, a Confederate regiment his superiors believe survived a deadly battle and have made strange bedfellows with a group of Union soldiers. Harling enlists the help of former mentor and current POW Colonel Nehemiah Strayn (Corbin Bernsen), the only member of the 51st to have actually survived the attack, in helping him find and deal with his former soldiers. Assisted as well by an African clairvoyant (Cynda Williams) who escaped one of the massacres, Harling and his men search for the ghost brigade, and when they find them, they learn their terrible secret. Lushly photographed and well acted, Hickenlooper's film sustains a spooky atmosphere even though it never provides any truly scary moments. But what makes the film engaging is the mystery behind the murdered soldiers, the underlying issue of racism, and scenes of injured soldiers suffering in a time before anesthetics. While Pasdar's somber narration has more than a passing resemblance to Apocalypse Now (ironically Martin Sheen makes a brief appearance), Brigade has its own merits and is worthwhile entertainment. Fun trivia game: try and spot soon-to-be-famous Billy Bob Thornton, David Arquette, and Matt LeBlanc. -Bryan Reesman.

Disney's 1992 animated feature is a triumph of wit and skill. The high-tech artwork and graphics look great, the characters are strong, the familiar story is nicely augmented with an interesting villain (Jafar, voiced by Jonathan Freeman), and there's an incredible hook atop the whole thing: Robin Williams's frantically hilarious vocal performance as Aladdin's genie. Even if one isn't particularly moved by the love story between the title character (Scott Weinger) and his girlfriend Jasmine (Linda Larkin), you can easily get lost in Williams's improvisational energy and the equally entertaining performances of Freeman and Gilbert Gottfried (as Jafar's parrot). -Tom Keogh.