Jay Boyar

The intensity of Caruso's close-to-the-vest performance in this absorbing, brutal crime movie suggests that he may have the makings of a big-screen star. [21 Apr 1995, p.29]

As good as the supporting players are, Cadillac Man is Robin Williams' show. He gives the production its pace, its zest and its heart. Without him, this movie is unimaginable. With him, it's consistently entertaining. Williams knows what every successful salesman knows: Sell yourself, and you'll sell the product. [18 May 1990, p.20]

This new film adaptation of the old radio serial is like Batman (1989) without its spark of pop-cult genius. [01 Jul 1994, p.9]

Director Lesli Linka Glatter (NYPD Blue, Twin Peaks) gets nice performances from her young cast, which includes some of the best little actresses working today. Their adult counterparts are fine too. [20 Oct 1995, p.22]

Quest for Camelot is certainly no improvement on the studio's jangly Space Jam of 1996. [15 May 1998, p.21]

This sequel lacks the zany spark that energized the first movie although the new film is often amusing and its narrative is more streamlined.

Basically, it's like a standard TV cop show with better-than-average acting and a few brief scenes of violence that would be too extreme to pass network standards...The word that comes to mind is generic.

Tombstone has quite a lot going for it, at least for the first hour, including all those colorful characters and lots and lots of action. [27 Dec 1993, p.D1]

Passenger 57 was directed by Kevin Hooks, a former actor who directed last year's Strictly Business. He manages to keep the action fairly clear, which is something that can't be taken for granted in today's adventure movies. [09 Nov 1992, p.C1]

Between dragon scenes, Dragonheart falls apart. [31 May 1996, p.17]

There are theme park attractions with stronger plots and more compelling characters. [26 May 1995, p.17]

Basically, the film is a vehicle for the talent on board. And though the ship is creaky, it does stay afloat. [02 July 1997, p.E2]

Like its fallen star, Gang Related may not be perfect. But there's a lot going on here, just beneath the surface. [8 Oct 1997]

In a film that could have been called Grumpy Old Prexies, Garner makes a decent replacement for Walter Matthau. Garner and Lemmon, game troopers both, do what they can to wring laughs out of material that went out with the Eisenhower administration.

As in the sketches, the Coneheads are humorously outrageous, but somehow they don't seem quite as humorously outrageous as they did 20 years ago. [23 July 1993, p.6]

Director Donald Petrie (Grumpy Old Men) and his screenwriters have nimbly constructed a movie around young Culkin in such a way as to almost conceal the boy's shortcomings - or, at least, to divert us from them for surprisingly long stretches of time. [21 Dec 1994, p.E1]

Ricochet is the sort of super-violent exploitation picture that I'm often inclined to dismiss out-of-hand. So I have to admit to being surprised that I didn't find it repellent. As a matter of fact, parts of the movie are nightmarishly fascinating - and I don't mean that as a put-down. [07 Oct 1991, p.D1]

Where The Last Picture Show was emotionally involving and dramatically episodic, Texasville is sprawling, badly paced and remote. [29 Oct 1990, p.C1]

Director Richard Benjamin and screenwriter Holly Goldberg Sloan use a single comic device throughout the entire movie. In scene after scene, two things are made to happen simultaneously with supposedly hilarious results. [11 Jun 1993, p.22]

This new film version of Lord of the Flies is far from a disgrace. It may not hit a home run, but it doesn't strike out, either. [16 Mar 1990, p.5]

The best monster movie to come slithering out of the muck since Jurassic Park. Species is an exploitation picture while Jurassic Park was mainstream, but the new one is lots of fun if you're in the mood for B-movie thrills. [07 July 1995, p.19]

The Exorcist III isn't crudely exploitative so much as it's just unendurably pretentious. [24 Aug 1990, p.4]

Malkovich temporarily brings the movie to life, but, finally, it's too little, too late. Amusing though it is, his brief performance probably won't be enough to keep "Jennifer Eight Is Enough" off the ballot. [6 Nov 1992, p.23]

Altman's method is risky, but when inspiration strikes the result can be wonderful. When it doesn't, the result can be, well, Ready to Wear.

We're No Angels is far from heavenly. It never even gets off the ground.

Barkin's performance is so detailed that it becomes a little essay about the physical differences between men and women. Too bad that this modern woman's performance is trapped in the movie of an old-fashioned man. [10 May 1991, p.6]

You don't have to be a baby sitter to like The Baby-sitters Club, but it would help. It also would help if you're in early adolescence. [18 Aug 1995, p.20]

Memoirs of an Invisible Man had all the right elements to become Chevy Chase's equivalent of Steve Martin's wonderful Roxanne (including the winsome Daryl Hannah), which was also about a form of alienation. But Chase's movie ends up being merely pleasant. [28 Feb 1992, p.17]