Bill Cosford

The direction, by Jim Sheridan, is tough-edged. [27 Oct 1989, p.G7]

Beauty and the Beast is so funny, exciting and suspenseful that its obvious moral (appearance can mean nothing; it's what's inside that counts) is engaging rather than perfunctory. [22 Nov 1991, p.G11]

Rarely do you see first-rate melodrama welded to first-rate political satire. [13 May 1988, p.D5]

Brother's Keeper is fascinating. It doesn't answer all the questions, but it illuminates life in a small, strange and in some ways wonderful place. [16 Nov 1992, p.C3]

Platoon lacks the sweep, the heroic (and anti-heroic) vision of Apocalypse Now, and it lacks that film's signal strength, which was its evocation of the visceral appeal, the sheer romance of war, at least to those not fighting it. Some of Coppola's images in Apocalypse Now were among the most beautiful in contemporary film. Platoon is merely terrifying. [16 Jan 1987, p.6]

The key to the movie's success is that it was made by people who know and doubtless even enjoy rock in all its infinite, often tedious variety. This distinguishes Spinal Tap from the usual run of spoof, created at a distance by bemused outsiders (Johnny Carson in a mop-top wig, etc.). Reiner and company actually understand the media they are lampooning; the result is not only funny, but lethal. [27 Apr 1984, p.D1]

This is a story that in hindsight we can see was waiting for Scorsese to come along. He did. The result is wonderful. [17 Sept 1993, p.G5]

Perhaps because we see so few musicals at all, the Streisand model seems welcome on any terms. But there is also a great deal of warmth in the picture, and it has what one-man shows do when they are working right: It has conviction, and a sense of the artist's vision. This movie was not made by committee, and hence it is free in a way that few American films are. [09 Dec 1983, p.D12]

Roger and Me is a documentary about the effect of auto- plant closings on the Rust Belt city of Flint, Mich., but wait! Don't be scared. This film will not harm you, it will not bore you. In fact, it will leave you charmed and amazed. [13 Jan 1990, p.E1]

Ribald, wry and even, from time to time, suspenseful, The Name of the Rose is actually a movie-movie -- rich in Hollywood convention, dense with images, with muscular performances (the principals play their types to the maximum), with good, old- fashioned movie stuff. Never a dull moment. How very unlikely. [24 Oct 1986, p.D1]

There is not a moment in Goodbye, Children that fails to ring true. It's a beautiful film. [05 Feb 1988, p.C8]

Tootsie is full of good movie writing, and such are its pleasures that you wonder early on why all comedies can't be this good. The problem is that it's hard to do; the trick is that Tootsie makes it look easy. [17 Dec 1982, p.D14]

It's not a wonderful family, and the lives thus illuminated aren't sweet at all. But the movie is both things. In his sheer affinity for the human, Leigh approaches the great Jean Renoir. What fun to watch. [21 Feb. 1992, p.5]

Hail, Spartacus. You're no Kane, you're not even Lawrence. You're a movie dinosaur, lumbering and overpraised. But it's good to have you back. [8 May 1991, p.D1]

Jones brings the character around in a big, flashy performance, and there's not a moment when he isn't fun to watch. Not all of The Fugitive makes sense, though.[6 Aug 1993, p.G5]

The story was adapted by Laura Esquivel from her novel, a bestseller in Mexico. Arau, the actor turned filmmaker, tells the story with the equivalent of a saucier's night out -- the film is physically lovely, and never so sumptuous as when it is concentrating on Tita's creations in and out of the kitchen. [02 Apr 1993, p.G4]

Unlikely as it seems, considering the source, Hope and Glory may be John Boorman's most affecting film. It is surely his most entertaining. [27 Nov 1987, p.D1]

The atmospherics here are impressive. There's an undertone of comic dread in most of Cox's scenes, so artfully established that you wonder where it came from. In this respect, Cox seems a more playful variant of Wim Wenders, whose Paris, Texas might have been this funny had it not taken itself so seriously. Of course, Cox isn't Wenders -- he doesn't have the narrative skills yet. But Repo Man is without qualification the most interesting film yet about people driving around and getting into trouble. And there does seem to be a metaphor in there somewhere. [4 Apr 1985, p.4]

It is a masterpiece of design. The animated backgrounds are voluptuously illustrated, and the action often proceeds at dizzying speed, while an elaborate fabric of subtle visual cues steer the narrative. [25 Nov 1992, p.E1]

What makes the story seem larger and more important than it is are the quality of the performances -- uniformly first-rate -- and the deftness of the director, Neil Jordan, for opposing the several cultures and thereby causing a clash. [8 Aug 1986, p.D1]

But much of what happens in Husbands and Wives isn't just stock Woody. It's stock Hollywood, too. [18 Sept 1992, p.G5]

Leigh is obviously a major talent of the English film resurgence, which may already have peaked but nonetheless offers hopes of its own. His loose way of making films -- the wandering camera, the scenes that seem to invent themselves as they go along -- somehow accommodates a genuine comic intelligence, which usually requires the tightest of controls. [2 June 1989, p.7]

It's a big, likable movie without quite enough jokes, but the stars take turns with the burden, carrying the thing in relays. They're fun to watch. [16 Dec 1986, p.D4]

The good news is that Aliens is scary and mean and just about everything a fan of the original could want. Bad news? There's a too-campy line of forced dialogue during the climax. And that's about it. This is your grade-A sequel, the movie equivalent of a hot "summer read." Aliens is 137 minutes long, and never drags. A solid hour goes by before there is any action, but the picture is never coy, either. [18 July 1986, p.D1]

Homicide fails, finally. But its early success is so complete that the film is a must-see anyway. It changes the rules for cop movies. And when it is good, it is brilliant. [18 Oct 1991, p.7]

Fast, well made and utterly inconsequential -- The Terminator is a vintage "B," and it's good to know that Hollywood can still crank them out. [29 Oct 1984, p.C6]

Now that it has been set to film, it seems somehow dated as well. The greed of the 1980s, thematic backdrop for Mamet's original, is presumed gone. Glengarry Glen Ross looks almost . . . quaint. [02 Oct 1992, p.G5]

Local Hero is almost magical, it is so unexpected. It is whimsy raised a power or two by the skills of a filmmaker who looks at life slightly askew. He sees enchantment in small, off- center encounters, and gets the enchantment onto the screen. [05 Apr 1983, p.D5]