Lassie

This 1994 update on the Lassie legend stars Thomas Guiry as a troubled city kid whose family retreats to the country, where he befriends the famous collie and changes for the better. Conflict develops when a ruthless sheep rancher causes trouble for everyone. Director Daniel Petrie (The Bay Boy) aims only to revive the healthy spirit of previous Lassie films (and the television series) in a new milieu, and toward those modest ambitions--predictable plot and all--he succeeds. Guiry is unusually good in what many young actors would have taken to be just another blossoming-teen part. --Tom Keogh...