Jay Boyar

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.

The main difference between Naked Gun 2 1/2 and Hot Shots! is that almost half the jokes in Naked Gun 2 1/2 were at least slightly funny while in Hot Shots! less than a fifth are any good at all. [2 Aug 1991, p.C5]

Three Amigos will never get any prizes for excitement or originality, but if there were an award for friendliness, this movie would at least be in the running.

The folks who made The 'burbs appear to be card-carrying members of the School of Non-Urban Humor. Basic to the philosophy of this school is the misapprehension that anything occurring outside city limits is intrinsically amusing.

Most of the time, Soapdish is fairly amusing in a zany, anything-goes kind of way. [31 May 1991, p.5]

Sid & Nancy is an honorable try, but it could have been better had Cox found a way to imbue the movie with some of the sheer zaniness of his Repo Man.

A dull-witted variation on the themes of the original Blue Lagoon, in which two young people (played by Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins) were stranded on a tropical island.

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

This is the sort of picture in which people slap each other as they take their marriage vows, suddenly develop life-threatening diseases, and, again, have violent confrontations whenever there's a break in the action. Anything for a laugh, anything for a tear, and nothing much authentic.

Movies like this one - with its spoofy jokes, vacant characters and indefensible plotting - do nothing to keep the western form alive. Deal me out of this con game.

The movie contains Jane Fonda's first big-screen appearance since On Golden Pond (1981); if she doesn't quite find a character in Martha, she is nonetheless riveting. Anne Bancroft, too, is impressive. Finally, though, it is Meg Tilly who makes the movie live. Her performance, which works on both realistic and symbolic levels, allows you to believe in the story.

In praising Heart and Souls, I hope I haven't oversold the film. Really, it's kind of thrown together, but it's thrown together in a fun, unpretentious way that makes it an often delightful distraction for a rainy August afternoon. And it'll probably look even better when it shows up on TV. [13 Aug 1993, p.17]

Instead of displaying the grim wit of RoboCop, RoboCop 2 is crude and punishing. [23 June 1990, p.E1]

Longo and Gibson have so little interest in the personalities of the characters that the actors seem like stand-ins for computer-generated images. [27 May 1995, p.A2]

If The Hunchback of Notre Dame isn't for younger kids, it's an ambitious, often stirring film that's easy to recommend for just about anyone else. [21 June 1996, p.17]

Bad Influence has a somewhat effective screenplay, provided by newcomer David Koepp. The dialogue is much sharper in Bad Influence than it was in The Bedroom Window - although the new film's plot could have used more work. [09 Mar 1990, p.5]

If I had to guess, I'd say that the big white "snow" thing is a flimsy combination of cheap plaster, recycled Styrofoam and some poor soul's false hopes. Pretty much like the movie itself. [11 Dec 1998, p.22]

If you get stuck at Striptease, my advice is to relax and try to enjoy its occasional pleasures.

Director Michael Chapman, an experienced cinematographer, is skilled in conveying ideas through pictures -- quite an advantage in a movie about people who aren't especially verbal. And Chapman's cinematographer, Jan De Bont, has a varied palette that responds to the visual demands of a world in transition.

Director Walter Hill (48 HRS., The Warriors) keeps things moving quickly while making sure that the story doesn't get lost amid the slam-bang action. And Hill's comic-book-style visuals are just about perfect for the material. [08 Jan 1993, p.20]

Director Andrew Davis (Seagal's Above the Law) and screenwriter J.F. Lawton (Pretty Woman) handle the early scenes fairly well. As the villains are putting their plan into place, the plot is involving and the pacing brisk. It's only after the bad guys take over the ship that the film begins to degenerate. The staging falls apart almost immediately, and, before long, it's not clear exactly what is happening and where. [06 Nov 1992, p.24]

As it turns out, the three men in Three Men and a Baby haven't got a clue about diapers -- or bottles or formula or anything concerning babies. They're bachelors -- New York yuppies -- who share a fantastic (and, undoubtedly, astronomically priced) apartment in Manhattan. How the lives of the threesome are changed by the new arrival is the crux of this good-natured comedy.

They all help Malkovich to do his thing, and a remarkable thing it is. That terrific performance of his just might be a selling point, after all. [16 Oct 1992, p.17]

The big problem is the script by 24-year-old Jeffrey Abrams (Taking Care of Business), which is clearly intended as a parable about how a self-centered overachiever and his disintegrating family are redeemed by suffering and sacrifice. What it's really about, however, is how those people are turned into a '50s sitcom family - complete with puppy dog, spunky adolescent, devoted mom and dim-but-well-meaning dad.

What's special about Fly Away Home is the delicate yet unsentimental way that Ballard approaches the material. Working from a straightforward script by Robert Rodat and Vince McKewin, he seems to let the story tell itself. [13 Sep 1996, p.23]

Children will undoubtedly enjoy the ninja flick a lot more than their parents will, and it probably won't even give most kids nightmares. But couldn't a steady diet of this sort of thing help to desensitize very young children to real violence? If so, that's awful - not awesome - dudes.

A powerful film - the best and fullest expression of Mamet's brilliantly brutal sensibility to reach the movie screen. [02 Oct 1992, p.19]

The better you remember 1963, the better your chances of liking Mermaids. It's not so much a movie as it is a time capsule. The fun is in seeing what gets pulled out next. [14 Dec 1990, p.8]

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

Red Rock West is not, in any sense, groundbreaking. When you come right down to it, all Red Rock West really has going for it is its enormous entertainment value. But, hey, that's plenty. [14 Oct 1994, p.31]

What's pleasantly surprising about Gilbert Grape is that director Lasse Hallstrom generally maneuvers quite deftly around his self-created obstacles. In its gently ironic, unforced way, his movie manages to be both uplifting and funny, with the laughs never really being at anyone's expense. [4 March 1994, p.17]

In Bottle Rocket, the small scale and vague amateurishness (especially in the performances) are themselves rather endearing. They seem to go along with the screwed-up characters, as does the loosely structured plot.

My Cousin Vinny is a hoot.

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer isn't entirely successful, but it's admirable nonetheless. The film is an honest and disturbing attempt to come to grips with the sort of modern horror that we must - more urgently every day - try to understand.

This is getting a little monotonous, but yes, it's another instant classic. [24 June 1994, p.17]

The film doesn't go deeply enough into Hawking's theories to really explain them, and it doesn't go deeply enough into Hawking's life to impart anything but a sketchy understanding of the man. Still, considering the almost impenetrable subject matter, it's remarkable that Morris has gotten as far as he has.

Though A Perfect World may deserve to be attacked for its casual pacing and occasional clumsy staging, and for one or two less-than-fabulous performances, the darn thing kind of grew on me. [24 Nov 1993, p.E2]

The comedy - it's too cautious, really, to be called a satire - just sort of tap-dances along, hitting all the usual marks without ever straining too hard.

Except for the political implications of the addition of Freeman's character (which he brings off gracefully) and some revisionism about the nobility of the crusades (which, in my opinion, is long overdue), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is just an adventure movie - which is basically what I like about it. The second half is stronger than the first because it's swifter and more action-packed. Robin's feats of derring-do are always (as Costner might put it) neat - the more improbable, the better.

Though this film version of James and the Giant Peach is far from a classic, it's both reasonably respectful of its source and consistently enjoyable in its own right. And it passes the acid test of children's entertainment. This movie remembers what fun is.

A simple equation, perhaps, but when it comes to comedy, simpler is frequently funnier. This formula has already worked beautifully in France, where the movie has broken all box-office records and has won three Cesars (the French equivalent of the Oscar) including one for best picture.

The irony is that this movie - which fails to emulate such storybook-based virtues as coherent plotting and characterization - is pretty darn empty itself.[15 Feb 1991, p.6]

If Winkler's heart is in the right place, his head is often somewhere else. There's a great movie to be made about the blacklist period, but this just isn't it. [15 Mar 1991, p.8]

The film is a slugger that keeps hitting you with one obvious image after another. Funny thing, though: Obviousness is sometimes effective. If Rocky IV doesn't kill you, it'll conquer you.

In Under the Cherry Moon, the self-styled auteur is obviously aiming for a romantic tragedy with occasional lighthearted moments. What he ends up with, however, is purest camp.

Superman IV is cinematic kryptonite. Not only could it kill the Superman series, it might also leave filmgoers feeling weak.

All things considered, State of Grace is far from a must-see gangster film. But I guess it'll do until the next one comes along. [05 Oct 1990, p.8]

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

For the most part, you can't go wrong praising the exceptional ensemble cast, either. [28 Aug 1992, p.19]

In Sister Act 2, these energized musical numbers and the sparkling comedy work together in ways that are very hard to resist. And considering how terribly resistible (to me, at least) last year's Sister Act was, the sequel seems like a movie miracle. [10 Dec 1993]

Like a political cartoon, Bob Roberts can sometimes be so overtly political that the humor starts to fade. Toward the end, especially, the movie loses some of its force by forcing the issue too far. But Robbins shows so much energy, intelligence and audacity in his directorial debut that it isn't hard to forgive his excesses. [25 Sep 1992, p.18]

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.

The biggest fault of Jagged Edge is that whatever suspense it manages to generate in its climactic scenes is achieved artificially, through tricky editing and manipulative "danger" music. The mystery of the murder -- which should be generating the suspense -- is so transparent that I wasn't anywhere near the edge of my seat.

Crude, adolescent and not very funny.

Stone and Bogosian have gotten hold of a disturbing, even frightening, subject here, and they ride it for all they are worth. Talk Radio says that the depravity of the mass media is fed and surpassed by the roar of the maniac crowd.

Easily the best thing about Shag: The Movie is its soundtrack, which combines newer music with such golden oldies as ''Easier Said Than Done,'' ''Up on the Roof'' and the ever-weird ''Alley Oop.'' These tunes (some of which are performed by the 15-member Voltage Brothers) do a lot to keep the mood light and to cover the lapses in the narrative, of which, you can be sure, there are more than a few.

Working from a script she wrote with producer Andy Ruben, director Katt Shea gets some sexy vibes going, and the atmospherically lit production has an unexpected visual distinction.

Bertolucci's latest effort probably won't create much commotion of any kind. But on balance, it isn't a bad little picture. [27 May 1994, p.22]

Under the sweet, gooey surface of Avalon there's a more impressive movie yearning to break free - a finely textured movie about how an immigrant man's love of the performing arts produced a grandson who became an important American filmmaker. [22 Oct 1990, p.C1]

Extreme Measures is far from a classic. But it begins well and sustains its suspenseful tone for about two-thirds of its length...Grant's performance is one of the best things in the movie.

These Elvis clones are just one aspect of the zany atmosphere in this sometimes-entertaining comic romp.

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]

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.

The real force of Vertigo, though, comes from Hitchcock's intimate depiction of perversity. Seldom has obsession stood so nakedly revealed. [Restored version; 15 Nov 1996, p.20]

The most mortifying way for a rock star to mess up is for him to direct the dumb movies he stars in. This is the Prince Method. [09 Nov 1990]

Emilio Estevez (Stakeout, the Young Guns movies) isn't exactly Michael J. Fox, but he qualifies as a sympathetic hero, and Rene Russo (Major League) is fine - if a bit bland - as his girlfriend. Besides, the real fun is in the supporting cast. Mick Jagger plays a sort of bounty hunter, and although he has only about 2 1/2 expressions, they're good ones. Jerry Hall, who appears very briefly, plays a newswoman with only one expression: You've seen it before, and it is plenty. [21 Jan 1982, p.D1]

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

Although the filmmakers are subtle in their methods and unobtrusive in their interviewing style, they make their points forcefully.

Although the picture's biggest problems are the lame writing and limp direction, it doesn't help that the main role requires a comedian, which Arnold just is not. [22 Nov 1996, p.20]

At its best, Fried Green Tomatoes is a pleasantly nostalgic tale wrapped around a murder mystery (which, frankly, isn't all that mysterious). The filmmakers do a decent job of weaving the texture of the thoroughly racist and sexist society within which Idgie, Ruth and the movie's major black characters (played by Cicely Tyson and Stan Shaw) must struggle to preserve their self-respect and, at critical times, their lives. At its worst, the film is unexciting and rambles too much.

For an hour or so, Bigelow (Near Dark, Blue Steel) gets by on that great eye of hers. But about halfway, Point Break breaks down. The plot, which has been unimpressive but not irritating, becomes maddeningly implausible. And the performances, which had been generally engaging, lose their edge.

After watching this hot-and-heavy costume drama, I had to wonder why there are not a lot more like it. Not that I necessarily wish there were, you understand. But this sort of picture has so much going for it from a "date-night" perspective that I'm surprised there are so few of them. [13 Mar 1998, p.20]

White Hunter, Black Heart is no African Queen (or even, really, an especially good movie), but it does manage to stay afloat. [12 Oct 1990, p.6]

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]

The filmmaker's dreamy style has a quiet strength: The bright, rich cinematography is a treat for the eyes and the hypnotic musical score is lulling. [10 Sept 1992, p.E1]

This lovely, tentative motion picture tells a captivating tale. [14 May 1993, p.19]

Aliens is one of the most intensely shocking films to open in ages: Even if you think you've got the stamina for cinematic suspense, you may find yourself out in the lobby, midway, catching your breath. This film is also the best monster movie of the year and the best picture of any kind to open so far this summer. Put it another way: Aliens is the Jaws of the '80s.

JFK is a limp, semi-coherent, boring movie. [20 Dec 1991, p.21]

The Brady Bunch Movie is certainly watchable, which is a lot more than I had been expecting. [17 Feb 1995, p.19]

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]

She's the One has fewer rough edges than The Brothers McMullen, but it also has fewer of the weird little nooks and crannies of personality that were the best things about Burns' debut film.

The entire production is vaguely unsettling. That, in fact, is one of the most engaging things about Babe: Pig in the City. The imaginative art direction, economical editing and sculptural cinematography combine to make this movie one of the year's most distinctive-looking productions.

Half of a wonderful movie is nothing to sneeze at. A love affair that ends badly can still be an affair to remember. [21 Oct 1994, p.27]

This new Sabrina stresses the material's Cinderella love story - the part, that is, that was corny and somewhat dated even in the '50s. What director Sydney Pollack and his screenwriters (Barbara Benedek and David Rayfiel) have done is a little like redesigning the Ford Pinto and keeping the unfortunate old gas tank. [15 Dec 1995, p.19]

In Eat Drink Man Woman, Lee's ingredients are wholesome enough and correctly prepared, and the finished product is attractively presented. There's also some inspiration here - enough, perhaps, for a fine meal but not quite enough for an entirely satisfying motion picture. [16 Sep 1994, p.20]

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]

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

LW3 features a lot of violence but not nearly as much as there was in LW2. And Part 3 puts a greater emphasis on the relationships among the characters. [15 May 1992, p.18]

Brando's confusion is understandable. The Freshman is, as he said, a bit of a stinker. But it also contains those moments of high comedy he spoke of. Add Brando's statements together, divide the total by two and you have the right answer about this movie.

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 idea behind Ruthless People is just about irresistible. Much of the fun of this comedy is in watching what happens as virtually everyone in the movie tries to double-cross or otherwise take advantage of everyone else.

There's no mistaking Flight of the Navigator for a really first-rate children's picture like, say, The Black Stallion. But Flight of the Navigator is an enjoyable film that encourages kids to use their heads. Unlike those children's movies that spoon-feed their audiences, this film keeps setting up challenging situations that young moviegoers must think through.

Not only does the new film generally fail to skewer TV's follies, it isn't even as entertaining as television. And I'm not talking about really good television, like Seinfeld and Murphy Brown. I'm talking about the usual stuff, like Three's Company and Mork & Mindy. [17 Aug 1992, p.D2]

If Larry Fishburne is like a Clint Eastwood who can act better, the new film is like a Dirty Harry movie done right. [17 Apr 1992, p.20]

Actually, the rating fits. The movie isn't quite enough fun to qualify for the "average" category, yet not quite lame enough to deserve to be called "poor." [28 June 1991, p.6]

The latest 007 extravaganza has enough plot developments, double-entendres, emotional underpinnings and, of course, Bond girls, action scenes and explosions to furnish at least a couple of Bondfests, with plenty left over for an episode of Nash Bridges.

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]

For an hour or so The Rookie really cooks, and Clint Eastwood is the main reason why. [07 Dec 1990, p.6]

A thriller that grabs you even before the ironies of its plot kick in is a thriller you don't want to miss. No Way Out is that sort of movie, a thriller that's thrilling throughout.

If Last Man Standing is a failure, it's far from a disgrace. Its intentions seem pure; its method, precise and painstaking. You might say this movie has everything. Everything but excitement. [20 Sep 1996, p.22]

The bottom line is that The Crow is a somewhat-better-than-average exploitation flick that has received an extra shot of hype from the untimely and dramatic demise of its star performer.

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.

Let's just say that compared to Son-in-Law, Green Acres is Noel Coward.

What's surprising about Not Without My Daughter (which was adapted from a book that Betty Mahmoody wrote with William Hoffer) is how effective it is despite its obvious shortcomings. As a conventional thriller along the lines of, say, a Mission: Impossible episode, the movie actually manages to be borderline entertaining. [11 Jan 1991, p.9]

Dalton shows a serious side that's been missing from the role since Sean Connery's earliest 007 days.

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.

By putting Thompson together with Schwarzenegger, DeVito and the others, Reitman creates abundant opportunities for comedy. The situation is ripe with possibilities. [23 Nov 1994, p.E1]

If the Muppets sometime seem at sea in Muppet Treasure Island, the film still has more wit and irony than most kid-oriented productions. Fozzie, in fact, has more in that index finger of his than Barney has in his whole purple carcass. [16 Feb 1996, p.30]

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.

Yet Kids does stay with you - which is more than can be said for a picture like Showgirls, most of which vanished from my consciousness 10 minutes after it ended. Nearly a month has elapsed since I've seen Kids and, tedious though much of it is, the experience lingers. [29 Sept 1995, p.19]

What's different about this film is that it holds together better than Brooks' other movies. And in the end, it's somewhat sweeter. [17 Jan 1997, p.21]

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.

But even with Dudley Moore, this movie would probably have fallen flat. At best, Skin Deep is a VCR movie. Rent it when it comes out on tape, fast forward to the best part, and replay the condom scene until you stop laughing.

Young Guns II shoots blanks. [02 Aug 1990, p.E1]

When the dust clears, Blue Steel turns out to be just one more violent movie whose basic theme is women as victims. [16 Mar 1990, p.3]

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]

Obviously, the premise is pretty implausible, but the moviemakers do a decent job of addressing (if not entirely satifying) our questions about the implausibilities. And the stars, especially Belushi, bring an amazing amount of conviction to this formulaic material. [17 Aug 1990, p.8]

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]

In Howard the Duck, the special effects -- and the Muppety duck jokes -- command so much attention that it's easy to overlook the movie makers' clever narrative touches. It's rather fitting, for example, that Howard is shown to be almost as much of a misfit on the duck world as he is on Earth. And there's a sometimes-touching, sometimes-hilarious Fay Wray-King Kong relationship established between Howard and a sexy, baby-faced rock singer named Beverly (Lea Thompson). The main reason the relationship is so intriguing is that Thompson always keeps you guessing about her character's true feelings for the cantankerous bird. It's hard to fault the tongue-in-bill high spirits of a movie like Howard the Duck.

What's especially encouraging about Just Another Girl is that in it Leslie Harris demonstrates a genuine knack for capturing on film the sounds and rhythms of adolescence. [10 Apr 1993, p.E1]

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]

Not only is House Party breezy fun, but its dialogue often sounds as authentic to its black-teen setting as The Breakfast Club did to its white-teen one. And authentic or not, much of it is funny. [27 April 1990, p.4]

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]

Allen's sensibility is so engaging, his perspective so intelligent and his cast so resourceful that the sum of the movie's parts is greater than its whole. You might say that Alice is like Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters crossed with Gremlins - or like a lesser version of the filmmaker's wonderful comic fantasy of 1985, The Purple Rose of Cairo. [25 Jan 1991, p.4]

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.

Permanent Midnight might have been somewhat smoother if it had been framed by the talk-show sequences. The motel scenes with Kitty could have been dropped in favor of scenes that would have offered a deeper sense of Jerry's arrangement with his wife. But the movie touches something real. By the end of Permanent Midnight, you almost feel that you do know someone like Jerry Stahl. [25 Sep 1998, p.23]

How bad is Something to Talk About? Well, it's not the worst movie I've seen this year, but it is the biggest waste of talent. [4 Aug 1995, p.18]

Bad politics sometimes makes for good movies, and the harsh, politically incorrect truth about Basic Instinct is that it's a tantalizing, suspensefully correct thriller.

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.

Far-fetched as the premise is, I was willing to give the film the benefit of the doubt for the sake of the impressive cast. But as Flatliners rolled along, its pretentiousness became increasingly toxic.

For the first time on the big screen, Williams' whirligig wit is totally unencumbered - and it isn't just free, it's supercharged by animation.

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.

This movie will finally kill off the series.

The film may be a collection of little moments that don't add up, but on a moment-by-moment basis, it isn't hard to take. [22 Jun 1990, p.6]

I am not going to try to tell you that this one-joke, talking-horse comedy is, in any meaningful sense, a good movie. What I am going to say is that it's a little better than my rock-bottom expectations led me to predict.

If it's not the most awful thing I've ever seen, it's close enough to make me wince.

Quite simply, Ran is a great, nightmarish motion picture.

Though the film does contain a few other humorously erotic moments, it's mostly a listless exercise in intentional camp.

If anything saves Untamed Heart from itself, it's Tomei's performance which, if nothing else, proves that her terrific turn in My Cousin Vinny was no fluke. She's a star on the rise, and even in a formula flick that is something to see. [12 Feb 1993, p.20]

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

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.

Singles - a seriocomedy about the twentysomething singles scene in Seattle - doesn't do a whole lot to locate this lost generation on the socio-cultural map. But it's fairly enjoyable most of the time, anyway. [21 Sept 1992, p.D2]

Doc Hollywood is the rare film that actually improves as it develops. What begins as an all-too-standard fish-out-of-water comedy eventually grows into something more. [02 Aug 1991, p.4]

With its delicate fabric, this film sometimes seems in danger of unraveling. But ultimately it holds together, partly due to Foster's fine, poignant performance and also because some of the characters surrounding Nell reflect aspects of her personality. [23 Dec 1994, p.23]

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.

Perhaps the best thing about this movie isn't any individual performance or scene but the mere fact of its existence. At a time when so many films strain to be either tragically hip on the one hand or distressingly saccharine on the other, a movie like Down in the Delta is a genuine rarity. [25 Dec 1998, p.19]

Fortunately, director David Carson and screenwriters Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga (all of whom have served in the Star Trek universe) keep the longueurs to a minimum. Whenever you feel like beaming up (or is it out?), they switch scenes.

To watch To Wong Foo is finally to be reminded that camp-meisters often have a weakness for sentimentality that is far more appalling than anything they do in the name of outrageousness. [08 Sep 1995, p.17]

There are so many terrific small moments to discover in The Commitments that there's no danger of ever growing bored. [14 Sep 1991, p.E1]

One reason that this movie works as well as it does is that everyone takes everything completely seriously. The world of the Addams family may be amusing to us, but to them it's just life. [22 Nov 1991, p.16]

Memphis Belle simply doesn't fly. [12 Oct 1990, p.4]

Filmmaker Haynes has brought forth a punishing little movie, but he fails to make the case that the viewer deserves to be punished. Poison really wants us to suffer - which, come to think of it, is also the underlying aim of many exploitation flicks. For all their cheap thrills, they are basically soul-deadening - and so, ultimately, is this earnest little message movie. [17 May 1991, p.6]

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.

For those of us who will never go to the moon, watching For All Mankind may be as close as we'll come to fulfilling that ancient dream. If what the Hubble eventually sends back is nearly this splendid, it could actually be worth the wait. [17 Aug 1990, p.10]

This delicious, mystical Mexican drama keeps you in an almost constant state of stimulation. [11 June 1993, p.28]

Bottom line: Stake out another movie. [23 July 1993, p.8]

The best to be said for the current production is that the editing is refreshingly swift, the cinematography is clear-eyed and the running time is mercifully short. (I clocked it at just under an hour and a half.) But do I recommend Fire Birds? That's a negative. [29 May 1990, p.D1]

The movie works the way Westerns have always worked: In clear, simple terms and with straightforward dramatic devices.

Where Fargo was cool and wryly detached, the zany new film is aggressively antic - more like parts of their Barton Fink or The Hudsucker Proxy. On occasion, in fact, the Coens' anything-goes approach can begin to get on your nerves. [6 March 1998, p.17]

Hard as it is to justify Bond films on intellectual grounds, there's something invigorating -- and strangely reassuring -- about this sort of picture. It is comforting to feel that should a psychopath threaten the stability of the world, our hero will be ready to wipe the grin off his face and shove him into San Francisco Bay.

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

There is a sweet, simple tale at the center of this overstuffed epic. And sometimes, its romanticism manages to shine through all the picture-book pomp. [07 Jul 1995, p.17]

The movie may have been so structured to offer whites in the audience a central white figure with whom to identify. But it's the ultimate irony that moviemakers who want to call attention to the historical accomplishments of blacks feel that they can only do so if the hero of their film is white. [12 Jan 1990, p.6]

You buy the movie's premise because director Fred Schepisi evokes such a rich spirit of playfulness and romance that you want to buy it. [26 Dec 1994, p.D1]

In Hero, Frears and Peoples send up the press and the public, but they stop short of debunking the notion of heroism itself. [02 Oct 1992, p.17]

Represents a new low for the form. Watching this one, you may be tempted to throw the baby movie out with the bath water.

I had fun watching Drop Dead Fred, but I want to take special care not to raise expectations unrealistically by overpraising it. The movie is no comic masterpiece, but it is consistently amusing in a way that sometimes reminded me of a kiddie picture and at other times of a more sophisticated comedy.

Although Daniel Petrie Jr., who directed and co-wrote Toy Soldiers (with David Koepp, based on William P. Kennedy's novel), has never before directed a movie, he sure knows how to keep things moving. Even with its faults, Toy Soldiers gets by a lot of the time. [26 Apr 1991, p.12]

Frankly, the original was never one of my favorite Disney cartoons - pleasant enough, but uninspiring. The sequel, I'm afraid, isn't much of an improvement. [16 Nov 1990, p.8]

Nominally a romantic action-comedy, this Goldie Hawn-Mel Gibson picture is actually a mind-numbingly raucous exploitation flick with occasional bad jokes and mild sex scenes. [18 May 1990, p.21]

Spike Lee's ambitious, occasionally brilliant new film about an interracial relationship might have been a masterpiece if only it had been integrated. Thematically integrated, that is. The cast of Jungle Fever is racially integrated, but there's so little holding the diverse elements of the movie together that Lee could have called it Jumble Fever.

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]

A big-screen version of a routine cop show that occasionally gets by on momentum from the original movie.

Abetter title for Jaws The Revenge would be Jaws The Refund. A refund is what a lot of people who go to see this picture will demand. This Time It's Personal, the tag line for the new film's ad campaign, doesn't seem quite right either. This Time It's Terrible would have been more accurate.

One great thing about the script for Housesitter - the new Steve Martin-Goldie Hawn screwball comedy - is that it takes the romanticism of shared dream-spinning and turns it into a sustaining comic device. The other great thing about the script is that it's beautifully structured. [12 June 1992, p.19]

Although the second half of the picture (which could have been called Single White Females Can't Live Together) is mostly a waste, the early scenes are tantalizing enough to be worth a look. [14 Aug 1992, p.17]

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]

Somehow, the new production fails to sustain the creepy, kooky, mysterious, spooky and altogether ooky visual sweep that held the first film together.

There's another, more important reason why Stand By Me isn't for kids. Its perspective is that of a knowing adult, which is to say that though the film is frequently affectionate and funny, it contains a drop too much condescension to be entirely successful.

City Slickers II is not merely one of the worst movies of the year. It's one of the worst movie sequels of all time - and, by the way, one of the least necessary. [10 June 1994, p.21]

Fun-and-fin-filled feature-length Disney cartoon that revitalized the studio's animation department.

Kika is flamboyant and provocative. But the new film, which was partly inspired by the rape trial of William Kennedy Smith, is ultimately quite serious.

No one looks particularly comfortable, not even Midler, who has most of the best dialogue. She's watchable as Stella, but that's really the nicest thing I can say for her work in this unfortunate picture. Does Bette Midler really believe that people of limited means can't raise their kids decently? Or is the Divine Miss M making some great joke whose subtle point I am failing to grasp?

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]

For the most part, Life Stinks is about as far from art - or even simple entertainment - as you can get. And if I may be forgiven a small joke that's as true as it is obvious, most of the time Life Stinks stinks. [30 July 1991, p.E1]

Nine Months does have its problems, but it also has its moments, mainly thanks to a truly remarkable cast. [12 July 1995, p.E1]

What really holds the movie together is Rachel Ward's exceptionally moving portrayal of Fay. [07 Sep 1990, p.7]

"Steel" isn't offensively exploitative, just awkward, goofy and terminally sluggish. But then, how fast-paced could a movie be whose central character clumps around in 75 pounds of body armor? [15 Aug 1997]

This is ugly. [20 Sept 1993, p.D2]

Fifteen years ago Sylvester Stallone starred in a movie called Rocky, which won an Oscar. Now he is starring in a movie called Oscar that is, well, a little rocky. [29 Apr 1991, p.D1]

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover is a serious film, but is it a great one? Not as far as I'm concerned. Overall, I'd say it's only pretty good, though parts of it are much better than that. [30 Apr 1990, p.D1]

To her credit, Spheeris elicits winning performances from most of the kids. [05 Aug 1994, p.6]

What I like best about Husbands and Wives is that for the first time in a long time, Allen seems to be experimenting.

Writer-director David Koepp (Carlito's Way, Jurassic Park) certainly knows how to hold an audience's attention. [30 Aug 1996, p.15]

Like Home Alone, Career Opportunities is inoffensive, breezy and contains a funny cameo appearance by John Candy. The new film starts out well but falls apart midway because the serviceable situations that Hughes and director Bryan Gordon set up don't much go anywhere.

Color me dissatisfied with Color of Night. For starters, it's a murder mystery with a really obvious solution. How obvious? It's so embarrassingly obvious that even I figured it out - and I can never figure these things out.

Witty, sharp and, ultimately, chastening, Ridicule is a terrific movie in the sinuous tradition of Dangerous Liaisons (1988). [31 Jan 1997]

This superficially engaging movie leads you to expect something more - something that would suggest how the experience of playing professional ball changed the lives of the women in the league, and how the league itself may have helped to alter the general public's notions of women and sports.

Most of the names in My Girl are meant to seem a little peculiar. In fact, everything in My Girl is meant to seem a little peculiar. Which, I would say, is the problem with the movie. When eccentricity becomes as insistent as it does here, it's not really eccentricity any more, it's affectation. My Girl, which opens today, is a festival of affectation. [27 Nov 1991, p.E1]

Cutthroat Island isn't so much a movie as it is a burial at sea. As a longtime Geena Davis fan, I hope she won't go down with the ship. [22 Dec 1995, p.M10]

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]

The Lawnmower Man has it all - melodramatic plot, bad acting, special effects that will undoubtedly seem cheesy in about five minutes and even a concluding sequence in which the usual lofty moral is voiced.

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.

Shelton's approach in Cobb is stunningly successful and also very funny, in a jolting, in-your-face sort of way. Instead of taking the usual sports-biopic tack of glorifying his subject, he digs deep into the dirt of the athlete's life and somehow comes up with a weird sort of anti-glory glory.

A routine action drama, Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book contains qualities of both forgettability and painlessness.

In the final analysis, the action-picture mechanics of the film are too limiting. No Mercy barely has a subject, much less a theme. Yet moments from the picture linger in the mind. If you don't leave the theater satisfied, you may at least be moved.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome isn't a bad movie. It has entertaining sections, decent performances and more than a few provocative images. But it also has a major shortcoming: It's too darned sane.

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.

Watching The Bodyguard is like trying to have a telephone conversation when you have a bad connection. The guy on the other end keeps saying things that sound maddeningly incomplete....After a while, you want to hang up.

The director keeps the pacing brisk, and if he doesn't make as emotional a picture as someone else might have, The Journey of Natty Gann has a quiet dignity.

This is hatred in its purest form. Not a pretty sight, to be sure, but one that is well worth viewing. [04 Jun 1999, p.24]

The way the story is structured, Johnny Depp's performance should have been the movie's centerpiece. But though Depp has a moonbeam quality that's right for Sam, he's not really enough of a clown to make his slapstick scenes come alive. [20 Apr 1993, p.E1]

And for a while, anyway, the filmmakers capitalize on this irresistible premise, winning our complicity in their thriller's voyeuristic game with slick visuals and a delicious mood of anticipation. [22 May 1993, p.E1]

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

This thriller is so completely worked out that it might have been devised by paranoids. Not even the most demented Kennedy-assassination buff could be more thorough about making sure that everything fits with everything else.

What's unusual about Consenting Adults (which opens today) is that virtually everything is implausible. In fact, my bull detector hasn't beeped so much since the last time I went shopping for a new car. If I were to list everything that happens in the film that strains credulity, I'd be here until Woody and Mia get back together. Plus I'd make some of you angry by revealing too many secrets. [16 Oct 1992, p.19]

Director Rudolph keeps the pacing tight and the atmosphere emotionally charged, so that even when his experiment in storytelling doesn't quite work, Mortal Thoughts is still compelling. [19 Apr 1991, p.4]

It is certainly one of the best westerns ever made, and the best film of any kind to come out in 1969.

The screenplay may have too many holes in it, but it gets a merit badge for the cleverness of its sarcastic dialogue, much of which is unprintable here. [13 Dec 1991, p.20]

This latest Les Miserables is a watchable, even worthy, attempt. It's far from miserable. [01 May 1998, p.21]

Director Carl Franklin takes a simple premise and treats it so straightforwardly that the result is jarring - at times, even powerful.

Paul Newman could win an Oscar for his strong, complex performance in The Color of Money. His Eddie Felson, so quick-witted and seemingly imperturbable in the early scenes, eventually drops his foxy pose to reveal some of the raw vulnerability of his Hustler days.

To fully appreciate Fantasia, it's best not to think of the animated sequences as visual adaptations of the music. Instead, think of the music as accompanying the images. [01 Nov 1991, p.28]

Although the film is watchable and, at times, even borderline entertaining, it has its share of problems. Mainly, the filmmakers seem to have had trouble deciding just what kind of movie they were making. [22 May 1996, p.E1]

This latest Star Trek is a well-plotted, well-acted and consistently exciting addition to the popular movie series. [6 Dec. 1991, p.21]

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

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]

This rather basic story is really just a place to hang the action scenes, which should have been the movie's glory. But those scenes turn out to be the worst things about Mighty Joe Young, in which the action is edited, MTV-style, for maximum incoherence.

Despite its shortcomings, however, the movie is often stimulating in a way that movies generally aren't. A dark, mirthless satire set in the near future, the film keeps your attention by holding a warped mirror up to our own time. [19 Mar 1990, p.C1]

All things considered, Pure Luck exists somewhere in that vast middle ground of the cinema - the not-badlands. Watching this film won't make you feel as if you've won the lottery, but at least you won't feel like your pen is leaking. [09 Aug 1991, p.8]

It moves along briskly and lightly, leaving little trace and doing no serious damage to boomer memories. [22 Aug 1997, p.19]

Connery doesn't have many scenes, and he does manage to keep his dignity while he is on the screen. That's more than I can say for a lot of the actors in this movie. [09 Sep 1994]

This souped-up exploitation flick is a little like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - if Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had been set in the near future (1996) and produced by morons. [23 Aug 1991, p.6]

Miami Blues is more interesting than any bad movie I've seen in months, but it is still a bad movie.

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]

Half of me thinks that Raising Cain is disappointing. The other half thinks it's just stupid. [07 Aug 1992, p.19]

All things considered, Hocus Pocus is much more entertaining than a pimple-people picture has a right to be. In addition to the delightful witches and the delightful Thora Birch, the film's bag of tricks and treats also includes a cat that - thanks to the magic of computer graphics - really seems to talk. [16 July 1993]

Get on the Bus turns out to be a better movie than Malcolm X. With the road-picture format Lee is free at last - liberated to set his own pace and follow his better instincts. [16 Oct 1996, p.E1]

It's a measure of Leigh's sensitivity that the big scene arises naturally, never threatening the delicate fabric of the narrative... And not only has Leigh grown as a storyteller, he appears to have acquired exactly the right amount of filmmaking technique to tell his story.

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]

Aside from Robert De Niro and his totally inappropriate performance, the cast is a mixed bag.

Most big-screen adaptations of small-screen fare seek to discover some deeper - or, at least, more complex - implications of the material. But in this new Fugitive, the filmmakers have taken just the opposite approach.

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

Home Alone-style slapstick with occasional (almost random) heart-tugging. [17 Jun 1994, p.27]

Estevez set out to make a movie about garbage and ended up with a movie that actually is garbage. [27 Aug 1990, p.C1]

The earlier film (and much of the television program) worked for adults by creating a youngster's fantasy world with an eerie fidelity. It got us to laugh by reminding us of the child within ourselves. Watching the new film, however, all we're reminded of is that we outgrew kiddie movies a long time ago.

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]

Medicine Man is bad medicine - very bad. A parable about mankind's folly, it's also a a prime example of it. [08 Feb 1992, p.E1]

The problem is that producer-turned-director Irwin Winkler (Night and the City, Guilty by Suspicion) simply has no idea what he's doing. I take that back. He knows what a producer ought to know: how to latch onto a hot topic and a hot star. Winkler also appears to have picked up enough from the directors he has worked with to give his film a certain second-hand slickness.

Romper Stomper offers an intriguing twist on most chase movies: In this one, you don't want the people who are being pursued to get away. [01 Oct 1993, p.20]

It would be wrong to blame Martin Short alone for the failure of Three Fugitives. Francis Veber, the French filmmaker who wrote and directed the film, must accept much of the responsibility.

A Kiss Before Dying is low-level trash that works. It's far from ambitious, and even considered within the cheap-thriller category, this movie is nothing to make a fuss about. And yet the production is perfectly watchable. [03 May 1991, p.6]

If The Prince of Tides has a saving grace, it's the acting. In what is probably the most subdued role of her life, Streisand is remarkably graceful and charming: This woman who has so often been accused of self-infatuation hands much of the movie over to her co-stars.

Visually imaginative, thematically instructive and thoroughly delightful, it takes us on a roller-coaster ride from innocence to experience without even a hint of that typical kiddie-flick sentimentality.

Effective as these actors are, it's Chase's breezy performance - with its blend of irony and insouciance - that makes Fletch Lives worth a look. He's what Alan Alda would be if Alda could ever figure out how to adapt his TV persona to the big screen.

The new big-screen Flipper isn't as lame as that series, which is one of the two nicest things you can say about it. The other is that its aquatic sequences are sometimes quite beautiful, with their views of dolphins and other sea life. [17 May 1996, p.17]

You would call Amos & Andrew a comedy of errors if it were actually funny. I suppose the precise term is an attempted comedy of errors - or maybe just a turkey. [05 Mar 1993, p.19]

It Could Happen to You does present a life-affirming message about keeping your word - a message that undoubtedly will lead somebody to proclaim it the "feel-good movie of the summer." Yes, it's nice. Very nice. But nice ain't always enough.

In the final analysis, the action-picture mechanics of the film are too limiting. No Mercy barely has a subject, much less a theme. Yet moments from the picture linger in the mind. If you don't leave the theater satisfied, you may at least be moved.

British director Mike Figgis has a genuine knack when it comes to things such as mood, pacing and atmosphere. But he tends to lose track of crucial points - such as whether or not a central character comes out of the story alive. [19 Jan 1990, p.4]

Bigelow's knack for fast-paced action, her skill at evoking a threatening atmosphere and her affinity with damaged people all come together in the daringly kinetic new film. [13 Oct 1995, p.28]

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.

Sgt. Bilko is a bigger con job than Bilko himself ever pulled. [29 Mar 1996, p.A2]

Those who enjoyed the gremlin-in-the-microwave scene from the first film will probably love the paper-shredder sequence in the new one. [15 Jun 1990, p.6]

This PG-rated romp is bland bananas compared to its R-rated predecessor. Besides, immediately following the liberating craziness of Animal House, another slob comedy didn't seem like such a bad idea. Now, after nearly a decade of slob comedies, the last thing we need is yet another, tamer one.

Mistress has a few weak patches, but they're directly tied to the production's funky charm, and without them, the film might not be half so engaging. All things considered, I wouldn't change one word. [27 Nov 1992, p.18]

If the movie isn't a total loss that's because Jordan, Bugs (voice by Billy West) and their friends have an undeniable charm and because some of the classic gags that director Joe Pytka (a TV-commercial guy), producer Ivan Reitman (Twins, Junior) and the screenwriters have adapted from the Looney Tunes shorts are hard to spoil completely.