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Holly McClure of Crosswalk.com agrees that it's "an entertaining movie, but not necessarily a family-friendly movie."

Mainstream reviewers didn't find as much to laugh at; Marshall Fine of Gannett News Service complains that it's "a one-joke movie" with the best bits "given away in commercials," and the Orlando Sentinel's Jay Boyar says "Lawrence gives this depressing effort his all, but that is not nearly enough." Reviewers of all sorts agreed that there wasn't much point in looking for depth from this movie.

"The film's moral point," writes Crosswalk.com's Michael Elliott, that "one's actions and appearances might lie but truth can still be in one's heart, was misleading."

Preview's Paul Bicking echoes that, saying "some people may be offended by scenes in the gospel church where [Lawrence] gets up as Big Momma and 'testifies' about telling the truth."

Mr. Ed, meet Lucky, entertainment's latest talking horse. In Running Free, Lucky narrates his own life story—from his abandonment as a colt to his adoption by an orphaned stableboy in a southern African mining town. Trouble is, reviewers hated the voiceovers, which presumably were added to help young ones follow the story of this family-targeted movie.

"I didn't like the voice of the horse or the way the dialogue was written—it was kind of corny," says Holly McClure of Crosswalk.com.

Mainstream reviewer John Anderson of Newsday agrees: "The visual storytelling is so strong it would have told the tale quite adequately, even eloquently, without resorting to the horse's mouth." Chatty animals aside, the film earned high praise for its themes and its desert photography.

The Dove Foundation says the movie does well at "alerting children that although the world can be a difficult place, we can overcome its brutality and disappointments."

The U.S. Catholic Conference highlights the film's "beautiful shots of wildlife and desert grandeur," which also drew compliments from mainstream reviewer Jean Oppenheimer of New Times Los Angeles: "Running Free is so visually magnificent that anyone who feels spiritually or emotionally connected to nature will walk away with something."

Preview's Mary Draughon likewise calls it "a visual treat" for its desert scenes and native animals, but warns readers of the visuals of "rear male nudity in one scene, and the adolescent native girl's breast [which] is exposed once very briefly."

Hmm… a G-rated film with a teen's bare breast raises only one eyebrow? I seem to remember a wave of complaints over the same thing in the PG-13 American Beauty last fall. Maybe it needed a talking horse.

Passion of Mind is a psychological mystery about a woman (Demi Moore) who inhabits two lives—one as a mother in rural France and the other as a wealthy literary agent in New York City—waking in one world when sleeping in the other.

Most mainstream critics panned it, but Crosswalk.com's Holly McClure says that's because they saw it as a puzzle rather than an emotional journey. (Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times joshes, "at least she doesn't have eager kidneys; getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom could lead to schizophrenic whiplash.")

McClure says that "women will appreciate the emotional journey each of her characters take in trying to discover which life is real, which isn't, and why she is fantasizing about one of them.… It explores the fears they have about their choices in life (career, relationships, children) and the passion to want to have all of it."

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June (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44