± Don't waste your time
±± maybe
±±± worth seeing
±±±± excellent
±±±±± Masterpiece

• Simon Birch ±±±
  Due in video stores: March 16
  Hollywood Pictures; rated PG (language, thematic elements, accident scene)
  Cast: Joseph Mazzello, Ian Michael Smith
  Story: Simon Birch, afflicted with dwarfism and a bad heart, says God wants to make him a hero; he teaches his friend to believe in God.
  Critique: Although the movie doesn't blame God for tragedy, its God is "still cut out of celluloid. Depending on the viewer's mood, it's either too poignant or too melodramatic."
  Reviewed in WORLD: Sept. 19, 1998 Pleasantville ±
  Due in video stores: March 23
  New Line Cinema; rated PG-13 (sexual situations)
  Cast: Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, Joan Allen, William H. Macey
  Story: Two teens are magically zapped into their favorite TV show, to find it a "tiny town where everybody behaves, nothing goes wrong, and the home team wins every game."
  Critique: "Its moral: postmodernism is good; everything that came before is repressive. Should get an S for satisfactory effort, an I for ingenuity, and an N for nastiness."
  Reviewed in WORLD: Nov. 7, 1998