Gabriel Byrne

Following are capsule reviews of today's screenings in the American Film Institute Los Angeles International Film Festival at the Cineplex Odeon Century Plaza Cinemas: 'A Soldier's Tale' New Zealand, 1988, 90 minutes 9 p.m. Well-meaning but ponderous and improbable wartime romance, adapted by New Zealand director Larry Parr and Grant Hindin from M.K. Joseph's novel. In 1944 Normandy, a British soldier (well-played by Gabriel Byrne) and a young French woman (Marianne Basler)

Lily Tomlin will star in an hourlong comedy series for HBO, created by husband-and-wife producers Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason of "Designing Women" and "Evening Shade" sitcom fame. The comedy, "12 Miles of Bad Road," features Tomlin as Amelia Shakespeare, head of a real estate company and matriarch of a wealthy Dallas family. In the pilot, Mary Kay Place plays Amelia's sister and Leslie Jordan plays a cousin.

What are we to make of critics who expect us to trust their opinions when they get even simple details wrong? Mathews calls Ray Liotta's character in "GoodFellas" a "Mafia lieutenant"; a key plot point is that he can never be "made" a Mafioso. Worse, Mathews calls Gabriel Byrne's Irish character in "Miller's Crossing" a "Mafia prince." More disturbing is Mathews' checkbook criticism, which examines dollars made rather than artistic aims achieved. The films he discusses are attempts by serious artists to record the moral temper of our time.

Bad things happen to bad people in "2:22," a so-so heist thriller that rarely fulfills its genre-elevating ambitions. With a starrier cast and a more adept script, this noir-ish exercise might have beaten its derivative vibe and hasty contrivances. But as is, director Phillip Guzman, who co-penned with star Mick Rossi, doesn't engage the viewer much beyond the movie's visual sheen and its undelivered promise of villainous tension. An inordinate amount of the first act is spent getting to know four unpleasant career criminals (played by Rossi, Robert Miano, Aaron Gallagher and Jorge A. Jiminez)

Unit Instruments said it has opened a service facility in Scotland in response to the rapid growth of semiconductor activity there and in northern England. "Several major manufacturers, including Motorola, National Semiconductor and NEC, have expanded their semiconductor fabrication facilities in Scotland," said Gabriel J. Byrne, managing director of Unit Ltd. in Dublin, Ireland. Siemens has announced a $1.5-billion fabrication plant investment for Newcastle, England.

"Shipwrecked" (citywide) is old-style Disney, a period high-seas adventure complete with pirates and buried treasure that Uncle Walt would have loved. It's perfect for grammar-school kids, but unlike writer-director Nils Gaup's Oscar-nominated "Pathfinder," which also featured a youthful hero, it's a bit of a yawn for adults (and doubtlessly most teens as well) who can easily guess what's coming next.

A half-hour a day, that's all you need to make a difference. At least that's what the health experts tell us about exercise, and the same is true for HBO's miraculous five-day-a-week series "In Treatment. " As psychoanalyst Paul Weston, Gabriel Byrne has redefined the concept of transference. Though the show follows the therapy of four patients (well, five, since Thursday is devoted to a couple, Jake and Amy), the story is less about the treatment than the doctor. Battling a crush on one patient (Laura, Mondays)

Here are the winners at the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.'