If the movie amounts to little more than a historical divertissement, it is well done.
The movie "amounts finally to a high-end, high-toned tourist adventure," Mr. Scott wrote in The Times in 2007.
But see the movie anyway: see it if you crave the shivery thrills of black on black; or if you've ever wanted to cut off someone's head or wanted your own cut off... Invention and audacity are rare in American movies, and I am therefore grateful for "Being John Malkovich," though I wish the movie amounted to more than it does..
Hitler came to power during the completion of the film, and although Lang's claims that his movie amounts to an anti-Nazi critique (something most of the cast and crew would have disagreed with) were exaggerated, it's still a startling exercise in psychological manipulation.
Alexander Payne's monochrome road movie amounts to a catchy, maudlin ballad of the American Depression, eased along by an over-insistent score and yet anchored by a robust performance from Bruce Dern as Woody Grant, an ornery old alcoholic who thinks he's won a fortune.
Add to that the fact that The Voices was made by a woman – let alone an Iranian who has survived war, persecution and the murder of friends and relatives, all of it documented in Persepolis with flair rather than despair – and it becomes clear what an unusual achievement this movie amounts to.
In comparison, worldwide box-office receipts for movies amounted to $21.4bn, according to figures released last year.
Some of the movies amounted mostly to "time capsules," as Israel put it.
A lot of his writing on movies amounts to him waving his hands and shouting, "HE DIDN'T GET OUT OF THE COCADOODIE CAR!" In his essay collection "The Big Picture," he cooks up his own Dick Tracy serial in which the archvillain, Big Boss, tells his henchman, Lefty, that they should switch faces so that Tracy can chase Lefty while Big Boss robs banks with impunity.
And while "The Constant Gardener" is an extremely fine movie, no amount of Oscar osmosis is going to turn it into a huge movie.
