Jay Carr

Best when it's playful, toying with the fact that the Mafia has in a single generation been transmogrified from myth to joke.

Derivative and flawed. But it does throw off a few sparks.

It's one of the year's most unforgettable exercises in pointlessness. [16 Sept 1994, p.62]

Swimming with Sharks is fine when it puts Buddy into outrageous play. But it stumbles in a few other places, requiring a pretty hefty suspension of disbelief - first at Guy's making it into his miserable job that many would kill for, then when he finds himself on the receiving end of romantic attentions. [09 June 1995, p.57]

One of the big problems with Romeo Is Bleeding is its voiceovers. Gary Oldman, as the crooked cop protagonist, drowns in them like quicksand. [4 Feb 1994, p.54]

Botches the chance to delve into the personality of a complex, alluring, and free-spirited woman.

The reason to sit through its uninspired, formulaic moves, however, is its half-dozen spectacular fight sequences.

A crass, witless knockoff of better films.

Takes on provocative and stimulating subject matter, but can't bring it into satisfying dramatic focus, stranding three strong actors who are superior to their material.

You won't see a more humane and delicately moving riff this year on the theme of getting clean.

Smart, unpredictable, and alive with the energies of actors who clearly are enjoying being stretched by their material.

Village of the Damned has everything you want in a horror movie but the horror. [28 Apr 1995, p.90]

Mother's peace crusade ennobles Irish Town.

Takes a vacation from quality.

The film often settles for the sentimental and the anecdotal rather than trying for something richer and deeper, but on those levels it works well enough. Audiences will relate to its warmth and sincerity. Essentially, the film is a series of pages from Levinson's family album and it means something to us because it clearly means something to him. [05 Oct 1990, p.45p]

All Dogs Go to Heaven" has the right spirit, and its warmth will offset what for small kids might be some scary moments. But it does seem skimpy and warmed over. [17 Nov 1989]

Certainly none of Olivier's other contemporary film characters matches Archie's resonances. We're lucky to still have The Entertainer. [04 Aug 1989, p.41]

Daring to be low-key and even a little old-fashioned, Wide Awake is a well-intentioned film that steers clear of cheap sentimental miracles and reassuringly holds out a vision of growth and healing measured in small steps. [27 Mar 1998, p.D8]

Just enough laughs to keep you watching.

Satisfying in every respect, it's a piece of blue-collar chamber music, never treating the characters cheaply, allowing them a complex entwinement of emotions.

Consumerism is running more amok than ever, but this satire of it isn't.

Far and Away is a throwback to the handsome but stodgy historical romances Hollywood used to make, and it can at least be said that it's more ambitious than most of what we'll see this summer. [22 May 1992]

Deeper and richer in humanity than all but a handful of the American films released this year.

Both a lovingly crafted remembrance of things past and a deliberate broadening and darkening of the canvas Levinson previously filled in "Diner," "Tin Men," and "Avalon."

When the chemistry isn't there - and it mostly isn't - the actors and film seem merely self-indulgent, despite the obvious devotion with which She's So Lovely was made. [29 Aug 1997, p.C3]

Its breadth, profundity, and stunningly rendered vision make idealism seem renewed and breathtaking again.

Part of the reason Pet Sematary is so pedestrian is that its leads - Dale Midkiff and Denise Crosby - are uncharismatic. And director Mary Lambert, of Siesta and music video fame, doesn't know how to build and pace her material. [21 Apr 1989, p.46]

It's a spirited and essentially optimistic film, but it's also simplistic.