OPENING TOMORROW
Fierce Creatures 
The ensemble from "A Fish Called Wanda" are back in a nonsequel. The ripping yarn is built around plans to pump up a zoo's profits by stocking it only with fierce creatures. The film and its stars, John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin, are hilarious. (PG-13) At Kahala, Kailua, Kapolei, Pearlridge West, Restaurant Row
In Love and War
The real-life World War I romance between 18-year-old Ernest Hemingway, a wounded Red Cross driver, and 26-year-old Red Cross nurse Agnes Von Kurowsky is portrayed with Chris O'Donnell and Sandra Bullock in the leads. The film is beautifully produced and well-acted, the only disappointment is the true-to-life but sour conclusion to the love affair. (PG-13) At Kapolei, Koko Marina, Pearlridge, Restaurant Row
Zeus and Roxanne (Star rating unavailable)
Zeus is a dog, Roxanne a dolphin. The two form a friendship that inspires one between their respective humans, musician Steve Guttenberg and marine biologist Kathleen Quinlan. (PG) At Kapolei, Keolu, Laie, Marina
CONTINUING
Beverly Hills Ninja As the first white man trained in the secret survival arts of the Japanese warriors, Haru (Chris Farley) is more ninny than ninja and can't do anything right. Farley is a funny guy, which is more than can be said for the scriptwriters. Co-stars Nicolette Sheridan. (PG-13) At Kapolei, Keolu, Koko Marina, Laie, Mililani, Pearlridge West, Restaurant Row, Waikiki 1
Breaking the Waves
This alternately rapturous and devastating love story from director Lars von Trier is one of the best films of 1996. It won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival and star Emily Watson. has reaped best actress awards at festivals all over the globe. (R) At Marina and at Honolulu Academy of Arts Theater, see Film Societies at right.
Daylight
Sylvester Stallone plays a familiar hero role when a group of people are trapped in the Holland Tunnel after an explosion. There's little suspense, and no villain to boo, so the movie's a bit of a bore. (PG-13) At Pearlridge West
The English Patient
This adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's romantic novel of wartime passion packs all the adventurous and emotional wallop of "Casablanca" and all the coolheaded intellectualism of some scholarly treatise on the futility of war. Stars Ralph Fiennes, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas and Juliette Binoche. (R) At Varsity
Evita
Madonna plays the title role in the film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's musical. The clamorous, overblown style can't disguise the vagueness of the story. A triumph of flash over substance. (PG) At Kapolei, Keolu, Waikiki 3
Ghosts of Mississippi
Director Rob Reiner builds suspense in the telling of how the killer of of civil-rights activist Medgar Evers was finally brought to justice. The movie is also a healing experience for viewers. Stars Alec Baldwin, Whoopi Goldberg and James Woods. (PG-13) At Pearlridge West
Jackie Chan's First Strike
The storyline is difficult to follow, but Jackie Chan's stunts are, as usual, extraordinary. Chan is inimitable but makes generally bad movies. He would be something to behold if he ever makes a film with a great filmmaker. (PG-13) At Aikahi, Enchanted Lake, Kam Drive-In, Kapolei, Mililani, Pearlridge West, Restaurant Row, Waikiki 2
Jerry Maguire
A modern morality play in which Tom Cruise plays a sports agent who dishonors himself by being honest. Nobody does redemption better than Cruise, and he does it again - and better, as a sports agent who dishonors himself by being honest. (R) At Kahala, Kailua, Kapolei, Mililani, Pearlridge West, Restaurant Row
Metro
This is a mediocre urban thriller with Eddie Murphy as a San Francisco hostage negotiator who does most of his reasoning with guns. He's tracking a psycho jewel thief (Michael Wincott) who killed his character's partner and threatened his on-again, off-again girlfriend (Carmen Ejogo). A dull compendium of action-movie cliches from the past three decades. (R) At Aikahi, Enchanted Lake, Kahala, Kapolei, Pearlridge, Restaurant Row
Michael
This story about a grungy archangel's visit to Earth owes almost all of its pleasures to the film's star, John Travolta. (PG) At Kahala, Kapolei, Mililani, Nanakuli, Pearlridge West, Restaurant Row
Mother
Writer-director Albert Brooks' perfectly pitched comic direction and witty, surprising script give Debbie Reynolds an ideal showcase as an eccentric mother who uses a hazy-dazey air of ineptness to keep annoying problems like her grown-up son at a distance. (PG-13) At Varsity
One Fine Day
Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney star in an effective update of the screwball comedy format. (PG) At Kahala, Kam Drive-In, Pearlridge West
101 Dalmatians
Where the 1961 animated "101 Dalmatians boasts both style and substance, the live-action remake has neither. Instead it has Glenn Close in an over-the-top impersonation of Disney icon Cruella DeVil, and screenwriter/producer John Hughes' harebrained violence. (G) At Kapolei, Mililani, Pearlridge West
The People vs. Larry Flynt
Extraordinary blend of goofy biography of Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, prurient peekaboo piece, First Amendment courtroom drama and perceptive social satire features touching portrayals by Woody Harrelson and Courtney Love. (R) At Kahala, Kam Drive-In, Restaurant Row
Portrait of a Lady
Jane Campion's adaptation of Henry James' novel is a classic in its own right. Nicole Kidman is stunning as the American innocent Isabel Archer, who chooses the wrong husband for all the right reasons. Barbara Hershey's multilayered performance as expatriate Madame Merle illuminates the character's tragic dimension. (PG) At Kapolei
The Preacher's Wife
The most genuine moment of "The Preacher's Wife" happens in the first minutes when we see the movie's namesake, Julia Biggs (Whitney Houston), belting gospel music. Almost every element of this story of an angel (Denzel Washington) sent to help a preacher (Courtney B. Vance) and his family feels carefully calibrated to meet the ideal of old-fashioned family fare. (PG) At Kapolei
The Relic
This sad rip-off of "Alien" has none of that movie's suspense or technical brilliance. Instead, the story of a biologist (Penelope Ann Miller) and a cop (Tom Sizemore) trying to solve a rash of grisly murders is reminiscent of old hammy disaster films. (R) At Kahala, Kapolei, Keolu, Pearlridge, Restaurant Row
Scream
Director Wes Craven's new teens-in-peril thriller raises the cheesy formula of the stalk-and-slash movie to an unexpected level of intelligence and valid suspense. (R) At Enchanted Lake, Kahala, Kapolei, Mililani, Nanakuli, Pearlridge West, Restaurant Row
Shine
Australian filmmaker Scott Hicks tells the story of a prodigy, pianist David Helfgott, driven to madness by a possessive father, and saved by strangers. It is an unforgettable story of the power of love, richly rendered. (PG-13) At Cinerama
Space Jam
Basketball mega star Michael Jordan and cartoon mega star Bugs Bunny team up for this clever, cute, rambunctious mix of animation and live action. (PG) At Kahala
Turbulence
Dramatically flat variation of the killer-is-loose scenario has Ray Liotta as a convicted killer who gets control of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet en route from New York to Los Angeles. (R) At Keolu, Nanakuli, Pearlridge West
William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet
Director Baz Luhrmann puts Shakespeare's tragedy in a contemporary setting. Stars Leonard DiCaprio and Claire Danes. (PG-13) At Kam Drive-In