Jeff Shannon

Hawks drew from his entire career to enliven this amalgam of genre traditions, once favored by Quentin Tarantino as a litmus test for potential girlfriends. [26 Oct 2003]

As charted by a brilliantly incisive script by former lawyer and Washington Post film critic Paul Attanasio, the ethical crises of "Quiz Show" radiate from that anguished moment when Van Doren takes the bait. [16 Sept 1994, p.C3]

Kobayashi's 1967 hit reflects the social tumult of its time by depicting a defiant swordsman amidst totalitarian excess. The film's escalation of tension is almost unbearable, and Mifune erupts with a ferocity that's as righteous as it is ultimately tragic, for Kobayashi refuses to soften the film's devastating imbalance of power. [16 Jun 2006, p.I22]

It is, by any rational measure, an absolute mess....But we should all know by now that Lynch cannot be judged by "rational measures," and if you're a "Peaks" aficionado who can easily shift into Lynch's gear, Fire Walk With Me will cast an undeniable spell.

The genre's other great star-director team James Stewart and Anthony Mann began a string of five remarkable Westerns with this engrossing, genre-reviving chronicle of a stolen rifle and its fateful role in the lives of its possessors. [26 Oct 2003]

Unfortunately, the highlights are sporadic. British co-directors Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel created the similarly ambitious "Max Headroom" TV series, but they lack the visionary gifts of Terry Gilliam, and so Super Mario Bros. remains more of a game than the awesome movie it's trying to be. Can anyone say that's surprising?

As its title suggests, it plays not only on sight - with masterfully composed images that glisten with the timeless quality of memory - but smell, touch, taste and sound are all equally well utilized, to establish the kind of serenity that has become all but extinct in movies today. [04 Feb 1994, p.D3]

Drawing generously and honestly from her own experience as a single mother of two teenage girls, director Allison Anders, making her solo feature debut, has lovingly adapted Richard Peck's paperback novel "Don't Look and It Won't Hurt," crafting a delicate meditation on loves lost and found in the barren but magical truck-stop town of Laramie, N.M. [28 Aug 1992, p.24]

Just as there can be fresh angles on the old story, there is a growing number of urban-survival cliches that lose their dramatic impact as they grow tiresomely familiar. Sugar Hill is a virtual catalog of these cliches - a serious, well-meaning film that offers no new insight into the crises it professes to understand. [25 Feb 1994, p.D21]

This smooth-as-silk comedy could not be more timely, or connect more hopefully with our current national consciousness.

By the time the real Tina Turner is seen performing the title hit at film's end, director Brian Gibson has achieved his overall goal: What's Love Got To Do With It may not bring anything new to the biopic genre, but it inspires renewed respect and appreciation for a woman who has earned every break in her amazing career.

Dear ol' auntie is not what she seems, and "House" turns into a horror-fantasy comedy that grows increasingly absurd as the body-count rises, provoking more laughs than fear with over-the-top scenes involving severed limbs, a ravenous piano, attacking mattresses and a cat with telekinetic powers. [27 Nov 2009, p.E16]

While Holland may not have imbued the garden with the enchantment so evident in the book, she has sublimely captured the beauty of the garden itself. It offers a simple but overwhelming connection to the kind of paradise we must look harder to find.

Worthy of this and future adaptations, Of Mice and Men is blessed by timeless quality. [16 Oct 1992, p.22]

ueled by the street-wise authority of screenwriter Richard Price ("Sea of Love"), this jazzed-up remake takes a few basic cues from the '47 original, but otherwise it's a sharply updated morality play, toughened by the fact that good and evil aren't so clearly defined. [21 Apr 1995, p.H3]

Unlike "The Program," the other current football movie which pales in comparison, Rudy (which spans 1972-'75) is uncompromisingly truthful to its story and characters. Graced with Anspaugh's respect for authenticity, there's not a false note from anyone in the well-chosen cast, which includes Ned Beatty as Rudy's dad, whose disapproval of Rudy's dream is a cautious act of love; Charles S. Dutton as the stadium groundskeeper who offers quiet support; and Jason Miller ("The Exorcist") as legendary coach Ara Parseghian, who rewards Rudy's tenacity with a place on the varsity practice squad.

Alda brings admirable dimension to his small role, and once again Huston proves that she could read one word of dialogue and assume full command of the screen. [20 Aug 1993, p.D14]

With its dream cast and a burst of cinematic endorphins, The Paper is delivered on time, its headlines written large for enjoyable mass consumption. [25 March 1994, p.D3]

If you take a strict approach to "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story," you will probably squirm at every narrative shortcut and reconstruction of "reality" for mass consumption. If you're a fanatic follower of the late martial-arts master - whose death in 1973 at age 32 was caused by cerebral swelling - the cinematic liberties could prove to be distracting. If, on the other hand, you're just out to be entertained, and neither know nor care about the exact details, you'll probably find this briskly populist biopic not only quite enjoyable, but respectful of Lee's martial-arts legacy and the vibrant spirit that has fueled his immortality. [7 May 1993, p.3]

Zentropa seems like the work of a precocious child who's been given too many expensive toys. [10 Jul 1992, p.24]

What you've got here is nothing more (or less) than a smartly recast 90-minute episode of the old show, and that, as longtime fans of the Hillbillies will tell you, can be more fun than a swim in the ce-ment pond. [15 Oct 1993, p.D18]

Through a deft combination of physical comedy, teenage angst and small-scale exploration of a fascinating premise, “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time” remains smartly committed to the emotional lives of its characters and their intermingled fates.

Indeed, if it didn't rely so much on brawls and shootouts to interrupt a serviceable story line, this might have been a noteworthy screen addition to the Batman legacy. But the requisite outbursts of action are only secondary to the movie's nearly fatal shortcoming: the animation itself. [28 Dec 1993, p.E1]

It's far-fetched yet (for entertainment's sake) entirely credible, and the abundant comedy is intelligent enough to advance a serious and surprisingly sophisticated plot. [09 Sep 1992, p.F3]

Hocus Pocus remains a delightful family comedy, spooky but never scary as it romps its merry way through the graveyard. Here's hoping it doesn't bomb.

By showing us the human side of poverty, Where the Day Takes You proves that a society is best judged by the treatment of its least fortunate members. [11 Sep 1992, p.21]

With its ever-so-earnest desire to shed light on the complex social issues of gang influence in Los Angeles, South Central is a film that's good - or at least, easily recommendable - in spite of itself. [06 Nov 1992, p.27]

If there is any problem with Wes Craven's New Nightmare, it's the fact that analyzing the film is potentially more fun than the film itself. But that's OK, because it means Craven has put enough thought into his work to make it worth thinking about. [14 Oct 1994, p.H40]