Clifford Terry

Buoyed by Rex Maidment's fine, lush photography - it was shot around Portofino - and uniformly superb performances, Enchanted April is a wonderfully lovely, sweet, bright (and sometimes funnny) BBC film that is uplifting without being sappy. [7 Aug 1992, p.L]

Like a relentlessly charismatic political candidate offering the moon, stars and a viable health-care plan, Bob Roberts promises much but ultimately fails to deliver.

The villainous creatures are less yucky than their counterparts in the original (the meanest dudes look like overfed lobsters with an epidermal problem), the sets are cheesy and the special effects (supervised by Derek Meddings of Batman) are humdrum. [11 Feb 1991, p.7C]

Slow-paced and repetitive, Needful Things is overlong and overwrought, and the whole thing should be promptly exorcised. [27 Aug 1993, p.A]

Throughout the film, cinematographer Arthur Jafa brings in lovely, imaginative photography, showing a remarkable eye for light and composition, while Dash provides crisp, sensitive direction in putting together a moving work about a simple but proud people immersed in a distinct culture and ritual as they try to "touch their own spirits."

So I Married an Axe Murderer - originally set for a March release - starts out briskly enough, with a nice, dark, off-stride feel, but, like many comedies, fizzles out after the first lap. [30 July 1993, p.C]

One of those comedic pieces that steps off smartly but about halfway through starts to stumble home as it disintegrates into farce and squishy sentimentality. [23 Apr 1994, p.19]

Wretchedly unfunny. [14 Aug 1992, p.18]

A solid meat and potatoes film. Like the land itself, there are no frills, and the cinematography by William Wages is commendable. But, someone should tell the filmmakers that there probably weren't any big mountains outside of St. Paul, even in 1917.

Extracting a meat-and-potato slickness from the screenplay by James Toback (a sucker for facile laughs), director Barry Levinson (Rain Man) provides a good chunk of entertainment if not much creative risk. Fast-paced in its first half, Bugsy eventually slips into a stall, especially in the clumsy scenes where the protagonist tries to handle domesticity with his long- suffering family.

No question, there are funny moments. There should have been more. [21 May 1983]

The Addams Family doesn't deliver. After a while the ghoulish one-liners and macabre sight gags grow repetitive - the sadistic/masochistic interplay between Morticia and Gomez particularly grows weary - as too much of the humor comes off like unbridled Late Mel Brooks. [22 Nov 1991, p.B]

Sniper moves briskly along, aided by the lush photography by veteran Bill Butler. [29 Jan 1993, p.I]

There is enough material to provide grins and, sometimes, guffaws. Along the way, there are jokes and sight gags involving convenience-store robberies, ocean debris, dandruff commercials, Bartlett's "Familiar Quotations," frequent-flyer miles, Nazis, Ninja Turtles, Oprah, Mike Tyson and Mr. Potato Head. And, of course, the favorite targets of this particular genre: mimes and doughnut-eating cops.

FX 2 is entertaining enough, but lacks the zip and wit of the original.

Charming and gentle and steady-on, it contains few dramatic moments (except for one notable scene involving two children), even fewer surprises, and lacks the judgmental harshness and bite of Bergman's most celebrated creations. [14 Aug 1992, p.B]

The steady Costner gives a competent enough performance this time out as he dances with foxes, or at least one, while Grammy winner Houston is quite impressive in her feature debut, displaying both hot and cool emotion as well as performing six new songs...Unfortunately, she is assigned to handle lines like, "You're a hard one to figure out, Frank Farmer," and "I've never felt this safe before." Unfortunately, too, the romance gets in the way of the thriller, and when the two principals finally take to their bed, so does the movie. [25 Nov 1992, p.C2]

A crackling, intelligent thriller.

Made with a flashy hit-and-run-style, the documentary too often tries to record too much of the overall campaign, instead of concentrating more on the details of insider baseball-or, as it were, the fun-and-war games.

Written by Marc Lawrence, a writer on "Family Ties," "Life With Mikey" has a sitcom sensibility. The script is simply incredulous, the lines are predictable and the stupid sight gags run from cake-in-the-face to, if you really want to know, retching-in-the-hat. One wonders why Lapine - a respected stage director ("Into the Woods," "Falsettoland") ever hooked up with this; obviously, he is determined to segue into films. [4 June 1993, p.F2]

Director Ardolino and his unnamed colleagues should be given a couple of swift raps across the palm with a ruler.

By the time the boundaries between innocence and injuriousness have been drawn, it is apparent that the film could greatly benefit from more doubt than certainty.

At times, though, the appealing but uneven film seems rather disjointed, with Anders not quite getting a handle on her material, which is weakened by a sometimes-murky storyline (some of the minor characters drift in and out for no apparent reason) and pretention (there is a lot of talk at the end about the desert being a kind of metaphor for hope and renewal). Still, Anders decidedly is a director worth watching. [6 Nov 1992, p.J]

Unhappily, Manhattan Murder Mystery could use more comedy and less mystery. As the movie progresses, it gets sillier rather than wittier. Still, it is nice to get back to the old Woody Allen as a non-brooding director - nothing Bergmanesque here - and it is nice (never mind the off-screen circumstances) to see Diane Keaton up there in place of Mia Farrow. [20 Aug 1993, p.A]

Candy is indisputably charming. A master of timing, he also is adept at doing a kind of verbal doubletake after saying the wrong thing, and, like Jackie Gleason, carries his weight with style and grace. The problem is, he can't carry the whole film. [24 May 1991, p.B]

Despite the superficial Hitchcock trappings, from the Bay Area locales to trains and high places, the comedy thriller is neither particularly comic nor particularly thrilling, and after this outing, director Carpenter (Halloween, Starman) may wish to stay out of sight as well. [28 Feb 1992, p.B]

Ploddingly written by Barry Michael Cooper, this shrug-evoking movie has been grimly directed by the numbers by Ichaso, who overlays his production with the obligatory sax music and in-your-viscera violence. [25 Feb 1994, p.A]

An amiable comedy about a patched-together football squad, tries to do just that, comes up short after half time, but hangs on well enough to beat the spread.