Mike Clark

One of those movies in which pacing, dialogue and the right actors enliven a familiar story.

This is a movie that makes it exclusively on star power -- when it's making it at all. [22 Dec 1998, p.4D]

Overall, though, the movie commands mild respect. Cinematographer Kenneth MacMillan, who also shot Rush, has an ability to keep squalid surroundings from turning into eyesores without polishing them too much. Casey Siemaszko puts his own spin on Curly, the sadistic malcontent who'd like George and Lenny fired from his father's ranch. And however futilely, Sinise and scripter Horton Foote even try to make Curly's doomed Mrs. (Sherilyn Fenn ) more than the one-dimensional sexpot she often is. Bottom line: More mouse than man - but occasionally, a mighty mouse. [2 Oct 1992, p.4D]

This meaty Irish stew isn't arty or elliptical. It ought to connect with anyone who's survived sibling tension or romantic fence-sitting. [9 August 1995, Life, p.5D]

This is a rare twisted crowd-pleaser for longtime fans as well as novices -- or for those that don't know an arachnid from an insect.

A 2-hour classic wrongfully stretched into three.

Even if a lot of adults have problems following this picture 100%, look for computer-savvy teen-agers to guarantee this sometimes original but too often derivative time-killer a shelf life.

The movie keeps switching focus without ever getting its bearings, and when Brando exits earlier than expected, there's little but mayhem to fall back on. Moreau and mayhem are synonymous, to be sure, but we already know this going in. [23 Aug 1996]

Watching this movie, it seems to be the next level down from great -- maybe too episodic. But it burns in the memory weeks after you see it.

It's modest - but within its own framework, tough to beat. [14 Aug 1991, p.4D]

Though Weaver is by all accounts (mine included) in the real-life “none-nicer'” class, I've always suspected she might be great as a shrew. She is. [21 Dec 1988, Life, p.1D]

The movie itself IS dull, however. The characters never engage our interest, and the relentless violence grows monotonous.

Preposterous to the extreme.

Jenny Wingfield's script is ripe enough to include icky man-in-the-moon allusions; mom Tess Harper's pregnancy seems tacked-on; and the climax is pat melodramatic sap. But Sam Waterston (as dad) has his moments. [04 Oct 1991, p.6D]

This breezy farce has lost just enough of its luster to seem no longer disproportionately funnier than its oft-televised Dean Martin-Jerry Lewis remake You're Never Too Young. [29 May 1998]

There's a lot here to feed crime-fiction enthusiasts.

This Lynch-ian knockoff is moodily monotonal, but the sameness is wearying.

Ray could not have been made without star Jamie Foxx.

Sci- fi classic. [20 Dec 1991, p.3D]

All three actors give it their all, but Monaghan stands out with a sexy yet oddly down-to-earth variation on the Midwest girl gone wrong, thanks partly to a dark dysfunctional family secret.

It isn't really dull (only dulled), and the leads are remarkable; one could, in fact, lavish a lot more praise if this labor of love weren't burdened by the year's dopiest movie wrap-up. [23 Nov 1990]

The Long Walk Home sounds as if it's going to be one of those primers in contemporary social history with made-for-TV written all over it. This is much, much better - even worthy of the big screen. [21 Dec 1990, p.5D]

Aside from the "Nutty Professor," this is the funniest Murphy comedy since the Reagan Administration.

Pocahontas catching us off-guard with an impromptu cartwheel isn't the knock-you-down brainstorm of Naomi Watts juggling for King Kong, but it's still deliciously inspired. Trouble is, the bit lasts two seconds, while the movie is a long "might have been" that's doomed to be buried in a flurry of strong late-year releases.

Though his film is like no other baseball movie, it may remind you of Paul Newman's hockey comedy Slap Shot: a knowing look at sport's underbelly - punctuated by jelly-belly laughs. [15 June 1988]

Both the material and the way it's delivered by the movie's comic quartet are so funny.

No situation could be more human, and it's one the youth-dominated film industry rarely touches.

You get the sense that there's probably more to the story than you get here. But the movie's moral will soon be indelible: You just can't fake it in the Internet age.

Clumsy urban thriller.

At its best, the movie is coldly clever with a few brilliant warmer moments - as when someone drops an Alka Seltzer into the tank to soothe the Brain. [14 Dec 1995]

It's hard to recall the last movie that has left such an emotionally searing question dangling in the mind: "What if ... ?"

Impressive yet always self-conscious, Perdition has more class and less sass than any movie in a while.

Though there are scenes in Always (both intimate and spectacular) I love, the film does seem a bit asking-for-it-weightless following an Indiana Jones sequel. Yet if, as I suspect, many reviewers elect to carve up Always, the film will pick up its devotees - now or down the road. [22 Dec. 1989, p.1D]

Generally unheralded, this is one of the really good Douglas performances, smoothly matched by Fonda's. [12 Jan 2007, p.6E]

Blues (hard-) boils down to a question of style in a movie spring when style is at a premium. I'm glad it exists, I wish it were better, and there'll be plenty of readers who think I've under- and overrated it. [20 Apr 1990, p.4D]

JFK is provocative, a technical primer and an ensemble treat with unusually well- realized star cameos. [20 Dec 1991]

Though some have taken this '94 film fest fave fairly straight, it strikes me as eerily arch and quite the sly hoot as it connects maybe two-thirds of the time. [07 Mar 1995, p.4D]

Fortunately, a movie that needs some levity gets a comic boost from William H. Macy as a fictional racing handicapper from the golden days of radio. As if training a horse, Macy cues us to laugh every time he's on screen.

Knoxville is functional only when the movie needs a bravura comic performance, but The Ringer is easy enough to take.

Thornton is excellent and now seems genetically incapable of being anything less than great in any role he takes.

One Fine Day is two formulaic hours, but they do illustrate how two attractive leads and a lickety-split narrative can elevate meager material into something this side of bearability. [20 Dec 1996]

Ultimately, this film is more interesting than rousing; missing is a John Ford-ian wealth of idiosyncratic characters. [9 Nov 1990, Life, 4D]

To its credit, the ravenously awaited film version of Presumed Innocent should engross and reward two distinct audiences: Those who've read Scott Turow's 1987 best seller, and those who haven't. But remember: Engross and reward isn't quite synonymous with a cinematic trip to the moon. [27 July 1990]

Shot in semidocumentary fashion, it builds to a more visceral climax than one initially expects. [26Nov1997 Pg.09.D]

Passable but never exciting, Heist is on a level with those minor Burt Lancaster action pics the actor's name helped bankroll in the '70s.

If artist R. (Robert) Crumb can dispense immediately with his resume in Terry Zwigoff's superb Crumb, we can, too. [21 Apr 1995]

True-blue Ford keeps 'Clear' out of danger. [3 August 1994, p.D1]

The result is a foot-stomping rouser. Where else can you get a cop in his underwear boogalooing with skyscraper terrorists? [15 July 1988, Life, p.4D]

Robert Altman's first movie after M*A*S*H introduced Shelley Duvall and was among the director's personal favorites. All kinds of icons are satirically skewered, from Margaret Hamilton's Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz to Steve McQueen's sweater-clad Bullitt character. [04 Jan 2008, p.11D]

This is still a great Carney performance and inspired casting by writer/director Paul Mazursky. [16 Sep 2005]

Best scenes: Campbell pondering whether to squash her dismembered head in a vice, and a later quandary when he must shotgun his own dismembered hand. Moral: Pimples aren't the worst thing that can happen to your body. [11 Sept 1987, Life, p.3D]

It's a tough entry into the tough black-comic genre; don't be surprised if it becomes a classic. [31 March 1989]

If Martin Scorsese's staggeringly ambitious one-of-a-kind finally has too many flaws to be great, it has as much greatness in it as any movie this year.

A chilly oddball that's easier to admire than love.

Even when there are lulls, the emotions seem authentic.

It's also as good as "Out of Africa."

Few filmmakers of the past 20 years have mesmerized as much in their use of crisp, color-drenched photography.

This is one inspiring movie despite extremely tricky subject matter -- better than "Shine" and among the most affecting ever made about co-existing with mental demons.

The drama sputters through a 70-minute second half. [14 July 2006, p.4E]

In a role as tailor-made for him as the story is for its writer and director, Nicolas Cage anchors the movie with one of his best performances.

This is economy of style that Americans get only in Woody Allen movies -- and even that's not a guarantee.

A Johnny Cash biopic equally packed with music and frustrated love, Walk the Line goes from compelling to enthralling.

So fluidly visual that only a deathbed finale can flag its pace, it's the first Panavision music video to run 21/4 hours, the monotony finally sapping its staying power. [23 Dec 1996 Pg.01.D]

Part of the appeal is the underlying theme of the torch being passed between generations. Think how disappointing it would have been had Dana become an insurance actuary instead of a surfing filmmaker.

The movie, a Technicolor remake of Gable's own 1932 smash Red Dust...is among Gable's best, and it also has underrated Gardner's best performance. [23 Jun 2006, p.8E]

If you savor movies about sleazy plea bargains and other lawyer hardballing, Death has its moments. Otherwise the latest from director Barbet Shroder is only a movie of moments - much like his last: Single White Female. [21 Apr 1995, p.7D]

This time, he (Ang Lee) has Kevin Kline, Joan Allen and Sigourney Weaver trudging through ice both emotional and literal -- an omnipresent metaphor but not one unduly sledgehammered. [26 September 1997, pg. 1 D}

It's fairly solid fun, though, without breaking any new ground, just as January's remake of "Assault on Precinct 13" was.

This is a building-block movie: Its stand-out excellence becomes apparent only gradually.

It's likely to be overrated by some and underrated by others, and both contingents will be wrong. One can't, however, overrate the performances, with auntie ruling the roost in more ways than one. [29 Mar 1996, p.4D]

Beguiling Victoriana. [18 July 1997, p.4D]

For all its inconsistencies, this is Smith's most provocative outing yet and certainly the toughest to forget.

Even in the classiest movie summer of the decade, Mob is destined to demand respect for Pfeiffer. [19 Aug 1988]

So original that it'll be years before a major filmmaker attempts another one. We're talking black-belt cult-movie status here. [30 Mar 1988]

Girls isn't fabulous, but you do feel its characters really have connected.

The film is an impressive effort, yet often a trying one.

This cult movie for the ages suggests a Twilight Zone episode taken to gruesome extremes. [09 May 1997, p.3D]

It has been said that no one sees a movie for the sets, yet an exception might be made here for Horizon's visually staggering production design -- truly an event itself. The story, though, is such a transparent variation on the Alien ouevre that your tolerance may hinge on how much you can shrug this off. [15Aug1997 Pg03.D]

There's more terror than entertainment here, though. I've seen a lot of movies in my life I couldn't wait to see end; this may be the first good one.

Damon convincingly matches Williams recrimination for recrimination in this portrayal of mutual tough love, even with the latter giving what may be the best performance of his career.

The finale, which utilizes vintage home movies to show us the real people we've just seen portrayed, packs a wallop. [19 February 1999, Life, p.13E]

Despite Thurman's unlikely role, she's rather appealing with De Niro, but the De Niro-Murray chemistry isn't convincing. Murray, a breeze in Groundhog Day, seems tensed up here; the film, long on the shelf and with long-shot cult potential, brings no discredit upon its makers, but no glory either. [5 Mar 1993, p.5D]

Thing's opening hour is fast-paced, though not fast enough to obscure the reality that "American Graffiti" and "Diner" had sharper writing and certainly more psychological depth. [04 Oct 1996, Pg.01.D]

A worthy companion to Towne's underrated 1982 portrait of female runners (Personal Best), Limits may face a similar challenge attracting mass moviegoers, which was certainly the case of the barely released Prefontaine. [11 Sep 1998]

Mike Nichols may never direct another ground-breaking movie, but even with bit performers he is still Mike Midas. Leads and lesser players alike have pointed things to say in this solid, not great, entertainment; if you think this is a movie for you - it probably is. [12 Sep 1990, p.1D]

Cameron Crowe's Singles is such an unabashed joy that some viewers may find themselves blinking. Can a ''twentysomething'' comedy so modestly conceived offer up captivating memories for days? It can, it does, and it figures. [18 Sept 1992, p.5D]

The movie wouldn't be imaginable without its commanding star. Nicholson is in virtually every scene underplaying to great effect

It's a sweet tale, but the movie's real subject is Zhang, the camera's muse that the lens adores.

The film, technically deft, is about as erotic as Mona Lisa on a hardwood floor or on a water bed. [23 Dec 1992, p.8D]

Glum and preachy.

The warden implores the prisoners to relinquish their weapons, and out of the cells come flying a zillion blades of all sizes. In a Mel Brooks movie, this bit would be funny. Here, it sums up the chilling situation in five seconds.

Shake it all up and you get Collateral, a movie with only one conceivable flaw: its disinclination to break new ground, though no one held that against "The Fugitive" more than a decade of Augusts ago.

Lee captures the despair, self-delusion, occasional terror and frequent humor of a praised and popular novel, aided by the potent acting his direction virtually guarantees. [13 Sep 1995, p.01.D]

The film is more interesting around the edges than down the middle, but even the edges aren't that sharp. [17 Feb 1989, p.6D]

Manhattan Murder Mystery may be lightweight Woody, but it's also a mile-wide grin with a surprisingly satisfying mystery angle. [18 Aug 1993, p.1D]

Half-factual, half-fanciful and all funny, this labor of love is also unexpectedly touching. [28 September 1994, Life, p.5D]

Two-character movies are notoriously difficult to sustain, even when benefiting, as here, from one of those late-inning plot twists that casts the movie in a slightly different light. [09 Sep 1994, p.8D]

This movie doesn't make you think you are watching art. It's closer to a high-end TV movie with lots of familiar faces.