Jay Boyar

Presumed Innocent is a stylish, dark-toned movie with handsome photography (by Gordon Willis) and solid performances. Without exploiting the sensationalistic elements of the material, director Pakula creates a fascinating mood of impending disaster. If this movie isn't exactly exciting, it definitely holds the viewer's interest.

By the soaring standards of Mike Leigh's career, Career Girls (which opens locally today) is a minor work. But minor-league Leigh is better than major-league most other people, especially because he possesses the most emotionally sophisticated sensibility of any contemporary filmmaker.

If you're on - or even near - the film's wavelength, it's hilarious.

The movie doesn't paint a pretty picture, but it paints one that you sense is emotionally true. In the end, the Odones are heroes, not statues of heroes. You may not always like these people, but how can you help but admire them? [22 Jan 1993, p.E1]

Not everyone has realized this yet, but with Wayne's World and So I Married an Axe Murderer, Mike Myers has somehow become the first major movie star of the '90s. [30 July 1993]

Like the hero himself, the movie is larger than life - a horrific fantasy that gets carried away with itself as the mood builds and the tension mounts

Whether Carrey's fans will like it or not, the film is easily his best crafted piece of work to date. [14 June 1996, p.22]

The Firm and The Pelican Brief, both of last year, were solid entertainment. Now along comes the movie version of The Client - the best of the Grisham film trilogy.

For the most part, then, Tomorrow Never Dies is a straightforward action picture. And since the action is clearly and suspensefully staged, this unpretentious production turns out to be the best Bond flick in years.

Director Ivan Reitman isn't an especially careful moviemaker, though this latest film is structurally superior to such previous efforts as Ghostbusters, Stripes and Meatballs. He's still got a lot to learn about giving dramatic points the proper weight, and his visual sense is shaky. But for all his shortcomings, Reitman seems to have something that other, more elegant directors lack: the ability to get stars to go a little crazy. The enjoyment we get from the goofy performances in his movies is something rather rare.

Much as I like Beauty and the Beast, I think I would have preferred it if its dark parts had even been darker. The brooding beast is a fascinating character to consider, and his fearsome battle with a vicious pack of wolves is one of the most powerful scenes in the movie.

It's an efficiently crafted psychological thriller that keeps you guessing - even when you're sure that you have all the answers. [08 Feb 1991, p.6]

Ending The Paper cleverly - in the spirit that it begins - doesn't appear to have occurred to Howard and the Koepps. And that disappointing ending is certainly the movie's loss. [25 March 1994]

Working from a smart, sassy script by James Toback (The Pick-Up Artist, The Big Bang), director Barry Levinson (Rain Man) has fashioned an elegant adult entertainment that is, by turns, dramatic, funny and sexy. It's also a movie with too many loose ends and undeveloped themes, but Levinson's knack for smoothing out unruly material serves him well in this case.

The Last of the Mohicans isn't a classic, but it's one of the most exciting action pictures to come along in recent memory.

Navy Seals stands out among this summer's violence-oriented pictures as the only one that doesn't leave your brain feeling like mashed potatoes. There are plenty of exploding bombs in this picture, not to mention various other forms of destruction...But the action is orchestrated so sensitively that it's both aesthetically satisfying and emotionally resonant. There's a texture to the violence in Navy Seals that's completely absent in this summer's kaboom cartoons.

Putting up with weeks - or even months - of such media-fed psychobabble is a big price to pay for a couple of hours of defiantly unwholesome entertainment. The Getaway might just be worth it, though.

The Big Easy is as atmospheric as they come, but -- surprise! -- it's also sharp and swift. Plus, it has ample amounts of chemistry -- the steamy, sexy kind.

The movie's sneaky intelligence pokes out in surprising, amusing ways.

This picture isn't Shakespeare for the ages, and purists, of course, must be scandalized. But it isn't Shakespeare for the masses, either. This Richard III is only for very particular tastes. To like the film you have to love Shakespeare, but you can't worship him. [16 Feb 1996, p.22]

Imagine the most exciting parts of The Fugitive but filmed with real moviemaking brio by director Brian De Palma (The Untouchables). [12 Nov 1993, p.20]

A creep-out with style to spare. [16 Jan 1998, p.19]

The boldest of Burton's creatures is bogyman Oogie Boogie (Ken Page), a burlap sack of vermin who terrorizes Santa (Ed Ivory). His big boogie-woogie number - a day-glo dance of death called ''Oogie Boogie's Song'' - is so horrifyingly grand that it threatens to steal the show from even the cleverly phantasmagorial ''This Is Halloween'' and the darkly bright (yes, I know that sounds impossible) ''What's This?,'' which pop up early in the film.

With its simple characters and episodic narrative, Kiki's Delivery Service has an unpretentious fairy-tale charm. [04 Sep 1998, p.29]

The movie has a lot going for it, including an array of imaginative special effects and Fox's expertly calibrated performance. [19 July 1996, p.17]

Harrison Ford - that most decent of decent men - helps to carry the new film on his broad shoulders. With his blunt, Everyman features and sympathetically furrowed brow, he comes off as such a solid, good guy that it's impossible not to care about his upstanding character.

This is the sort of breathless joyride that we expect - but don't often get - from a summer movie. [24 May 2000, p.E1]

This may be the most truly disturbing movie to come along since Lynch's Blue Velvet of 1986...But for those who are willing to go the distance with Lynch, the return trip to Twin Peaks is well worth the trouble. [31 Aug 1992]