Mike Clark

I hated the original, but like this easygoing sequel. And unlike Home Alone, the filmmakers don't have to wreck real estate to earn some holiday- movie smiles. [21 Nov 1990, p.2D]

The five stories in The Five Senses flawlessly and even artfully create a unified mood.

Writer/director Frank LaLoggia's chiller about the dark underbelly of an idyllic small town is so effectively heartfelt yet also creepy that it's surprising he couldn't parlay it into more assignments.

Lean, mean and mordant black comedy.

Humphrey Bogart went out with one of the best swan songs a major star ever had in this anti-boxing screed, from a novel by On the Waterfront scripter Budd Schulberg. [12 Jul 2004]

Potty humor to spare. [26 July 1996, p. D4]

Don't underestimate the appeal of a heart-tugger that's this well mounted.

Contrived or not, this suspect premise is made acceptable by four perfect leads, as well as by other nicely modulated performances further down the cast. Boyle is as good as he's ever been, Lloyd perhaps the best he's been, and if Keaton is the star, he wisely blends in, as Jack Nicholson has always been willing to do. Which may be why, like Nicholson, Keaton just keeps getting better. [07 Apr 1989, p.1D]

Obviously armed with more gangster-of-love opportunities playing Pablo Picasso than he had playing Richard Nixon, Anthony Hopkins ends up opting here for wit over full-blooded passion, but it proves to be enough. [23 Sep 1996]

Though it seems even spottier today than it did in '68, Cassavetes' most acclaimed work rebounds impressively after a near-unbearable opening half-hour. [29 Mar 1996]

A Little Princess is the first of its progeny to blend brains with entertainment. This stylish sleeper easily outpaces the studio's starchy updates of "Black Beauty" and "The Secret Garden", and even betters Shirley Temple's 1939 take on Frances Hodgson Burnett's Princess perennial. [18 May 1995, 12D.]

Exceedingly well cast and assembled with flashy visuals and pacing by Harron, this period piece is diminished by its relative pointlessness.

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

The movie-calendar equivalent of last July's "Six Days, Seven Nights," this star-powered romance overcomes a shaky start to outpace that passable confection by several runaway laps.

The story's presentation is easy to take. And lot of this is because of Lathan, who is funny by not trying to be.

It's probably the weakest Alfred Hitchcock of the '50s. But that may be the greatest decade any director ever had, so this isn't the slam it seems. [28 Sep 2004]

Melissa Mathison, who wrote E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial and co-authored The Black Stallion script, isn't one to louse up a modern classic with overkill. [14 July 1995, p.1D]

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

Crystal is in top form, and if laughs are all you want, this movie has them.[7 June 1991, p.2D]

It has an elusive, haunting quality, but it's too long at 133 minutes, and there aren't many movies these days that get more involving as they progress.

Emmerich might have had a masterpiece, but he'll have to settle for what comes close to being a must-see movie today.

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

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

A cautionary tale very well-told.

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

Smith is looking more and more like a developing major talent, so it could be years until we get a handle on this movie's legacy. The film is not only defensible as a cute one-shot, but also as a positive sign for the future.

For the first time in years (even counting his excellent work in “Internal Affairs”), Richard Gere's acting gears aren't too obviously apparent; Julia Roberts, though the breadth of her emotional range remains in question, is beautiful and can act - a not-bad blueprint for continued employment. [23 Mar 1990, Life, p.4D]

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

Look out for everything, and listen, too, because Suspects is one of the most densely plotted mysteries in memory.

Richard LaGravenese's flashback script craftily tones down Waller's wind, adds a germane subplot and strengthens the novella's framing device. [02 Jun 1995, p.D1]

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]

Though Hour 2's heavy emphasis on physical and emotional confrontations stimulates dramatic momentum, this respectable superstar meeting is finally, of all things, ordinary. [26Mar1997 Pg04.D]

Compared with other films Costner has directed, Range isn't a folly like "The Postman," nor is it quite as over-elaborated as "Dances With Wolves."

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]

A film dealing fully with Hoffman's final years might have had a lot more punch.

A promising debut by young writer/director Jacob Estes, this story of a botched revenge plot still isn't likely to break out even in multiplex August dog days.

It won't be a waste of time to watch these people — on cable, and probably not too far in the future.

If it's conventional, it's also competent. Thanks to director Charles Stone III (of the famed "Whassuup?!" Budweiser spots), the clichés at least have a good beat.

The movie's success with viewers will depend on whether they think Vaughn is funny or tiresome.

The film does what it can to dramatize the bond, but Richter has a disproportionate acting load because his co-star's emoting is below the water line. Happily, he carries it. [16 Jul 1993 Pg. 08.D]

At least a more satisfying basketball saga than last year's "Coach Carter."

Jumbo budget and the same talent notwithstanding, the element of surprise is missing. And ghostbusters, it seems, need that every bit as much as their targets. [16 Jun 1989, p.1D]

Like it or not (it's hard to dislike), it's less a movie than a concept searching for one. [9 Dec 1988, p.6D]

Designed to be a date movie, Rules could have stronger male appeal than many comedies of its ilk.

The movie is so aggressively ingratiating that it's probably not to be fully trusted, yet it works suprisingly well on its own limited terms[14 May 1999, p. 8E]

Chayefsky's untempered windiness and direction (by Arthur Hiller) so impersonal that this D-day black comedy could just as well be an I Dream of Jeannie episode. [22 June 1990, p.3D]

Glorious picture-postcard photography. [10 July 1998, p.8E]

Ultimately, World comes down to two inherently appealing icons in an imperfect casting fit. Costner modifies his Louisiana accent from JFK, and again we're forced to accept it on good faith. He's never quite believable, but he is tolerable in a role that demands a star presence. [24 Nov 1993, p.4D]

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]

Though the journey ends on some fun notes after a sagging middle, Galaxy never fully breaks out.

A lot of this goes down surprisingly well, even if Panettiere, through no fault of her own, is saddled with phony precocious dialogue that makes her sound like an ancient sage.

Even at its best, Ride never survives its shaky opening hook.

Critics overpraised Stanley Kramer's doomsday drama in a year when they undervalued North by Northwest and Rio Bravo, and it's still dramatically mushy. [16 July 1993, p.3D]

In its own way, the film is as smugly self-satisfied preaching to its left-of-center converted as the more over-the-top speakers were at the recent Republican convention. [04 Sep 1992, p.5D]

[A] socially conscious sprawler... Sayles' latest never bores during its 21/4-hour unreeling. But neither does it soar, despite finessing a complex flashback narrative set in 1957 and present-day. [21 June 1996, p.3D]

Large budget notwithstanding, the movie is such a blip on the year's radar screen that it's tempting just to go with it for the ride. But this time, the old MIB label stands for Milder Isn't Better.

Ultimately, the movie doesn't make it, but there's enough going on to make it more arf than barf.

Enough low-grade laughs to entertain significantly more than some of the more prestigious year-end releases.

Greer Garson, in the same year as her Oscar-winning Mrs. Miniver role, shows good gams in a lively Scottish dance-hall number. And Harvest's seven Oscar nominations (including for picture, Colman and director Mervyn LeRoy) reflect the popularity the film has sustained for decades. [21 Jan 2005]

It's harmless, but bloodless - hardly a movie to get your juices jumping. [28 Aug 1992, p.5D]

The big surprise in Polanski's Oliver is the lack of a discernible personal stamp, especially from such a directorial master of the macabre.

Think of a B-grade "Bulworth" with lesser talents than A-listers Warren Beatty and Halle Berry.

Even at its best, Adaptation is one of the movie year's most esoteric outings -- more so than even Paul Thomas Anderson's far superior "Punch-drunk Love." Too smart to ignore but a little too smugly superior to like, this could be a movie that ends up slapping its target audience in the face by shooting itself in the foot.

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]

This is one glum outing, with occasional pings of wry wit and hearty chuckles.

Despite overlength, this acceptable outing has its moments, most of them in the second half. [17 Nov 1989]

Still, there are some funny surprises, from skewering overdone Christmas decorations to casting Chris Klein as a creep.

The payoff isn't worth the time invested, but at least the actor-turned-filmmaker underplays an inherently queasy project that could have been over the top.

Anwar is reasonably spunky, but she's not given much. The script fatally fumbles the exposition, serving up characters of zero rooting-interest. [09 Feb 1994, p.8D]

A few crude verbal exchanges nearly got Clerks an NC-17 rating; some (not all) of these provide some of the funniest moments in a film that's funny about 30% of the time. [24 Oct 1994]

Superficially gritty yet soullessly slick melodrama.

Despite one of Eastwood's more respectable directing jobs, we never sense the method to his madness - or even if it is madness. Nor can Jeff Fahey lick his own character's novelistic origins: the first-person narrator (and Trader script doctor) who by himself isn't too compelling. [14 Sep 1990, p.4D]

Forget Lassie and Flicka. Two years before Richard Zanuck and David Brown gave us a new kind of animal picture with Jaws, they produced a ssssssickie that gave character actor Strother Martin a rare lead. [22 Aug 2006, p.4D]

Despite many uproarious bits, it also must be called disappointing - but I'm still obliged to, uh, treat it tender. [28 Aug 1992, p.5D]

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]

The old seems old - but the result isn't unpleasant, and moviegoers just might go for it. [22 May 1992]

It's amusing, but also rather silly - offering still more evidence that Wenders seems to have seen a few hundred Hollywood genre pics too many. [30 Dec 1993, p.4D]

Visually impressive but woefully dumbed-down.

Allen's connective scenes are slack and barely functional, and even his asides lack bite.

The middling result, diverting while it lasts but too silly to recommend, is merely this week's funhouse action pic. [21 Jun 1996 Pg.01.D]

With so much covered superficially here, little is covered well. But the film moves fast, with the cafe becoming a viable - even vital - character. [30 Dec 1991, p.4D]

In lieu of a toga party, one scene treats us to an octogenarian fraternity member wrestling two topless townie lookers slathered in KY Gel. Hey, there's no stopping progress.

Even when the movie works, it's so much like having Daffy Duck assault your face that you want to buy a box set of elevator music for the calming drive home.

The movie falls short of achieving its apparent goal: being the "Raging Bull" of the art world.

The problem is the letdown you feel when these glorious morsels (film clips and soundtrack) end, and it's back to three morose schlumps.

There's at least one plot element too many here; let your own taste determine which one. Yet until it dissolves into conventional melodrama during a climactic fracas, this fast-paced story is never less than watchable.

It's the kind of material that is either going to make your day or not.

Two constants: good acting and an old-fashioned preachiness that backfires.

But this isn't Diceman's feat of clay. Instead, Ford Fairlane runs fairly well on high-octane silliness. [11 Jul 1990, p.4D]

We all know grossly moronic behavior can, in the right situation, generate hearty guilty-pleasure guffaws - at least until overkill wears out the welcome.

This dispensable comedy has a few unexpectedly loopy surprises, including an outlandishly gay detective (played by versatile actor William Fichtner), who loves the Ice Capades but loathes insurance fraud.

The satire is surprisingly tepid.

Poor Ben Stiller can't distill the darkness, slapstick and fantasy into a consistent directorial tone, but the leads' expert give-and-take make the movie far from unbearable. [14 June 1996, p.1D]

The movie has more on its mind than its delicate frame can handle, but Finney remains an actor of importance and prodigious charm. [27 Dec 1994]

At least this movie has flashes of humor, thought nearly all come courtesy of Newman. [12 February 1999, Life, p.8E]

co-directors Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro know their craft; of the films here, only Othello has a more trenchant visual style. [30 Apr 1992]

With danger in every woods, elevator and hospital corridor, Joel Schumacher's by-rote direction will likely give audiences what they want: slick, superficial escapism with casting punch - ironically, virtues associated with the current flop I Love Trouble. To its credit, The Client moves faster and adds suspense, but ultimately seems as negligible. [20 July 1994, p.1D]

Marc Rocco directs with a little more passion than one might expect from the perpetrator of 1989's dreadful Dream a Little Dream. Yet the ultimate result - respectable, but no big deal - is an odd mix of the sick and the slick. [11 Sep 1992, p.8D]

Annaud's epic might have worked better dramatically as a smaller, more focused picture. The best scenes simply involve Law and Harris playing sneaky professional games (less cat-and-mouse than cat-and-cat) with each other.

What the movie can't quite get over, no matter how hard the filmmakers try, is the story's built-in limitations.

Ron Howard's The Paper starts out as a seductively overstuffed edition with breezy stories, a diverting layout, color-packed supplements and a strong editorial viewpoint. Eventually, it becomes more like the Jumble Puzzle on page 64G. [18 March 1994, p.4D]

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]

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]

A case of smart and talented people trying to jam a Cold War square into a Gulf War circle. You can feel the chafing, to say nothing of the burden this capably crafted shrug has taken on.

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.

The film has its moments as a mood piece.

A movie just good enough to keep nurturing rooting interest as you watch it.

Thanks to fuzzy motivation, snicker-bait melodramatics and craters in logic, Calm quickly disintegrates into a might-have-been. [07 Apr 1989, p.6D]

Dolly lost a fortune and helped to all but kill the genre, yet this famed musical adaptation of Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker is more fun than its rep indicates. [15 Nov 2005, p.8D]

There's no real dazzle in Bedazzled.

Mostly avoids being cloying but flirts with being precious. Yet Boyle is enough of a stylist to make it all passable. It's one of those films for which fans and detractors can see the others' viewpoint.

Shots is intermittently funny - but never, even on its own terms, important. [31 July 1991, p.6D]

But when material is this fragile, virtually every scene is obligated to click for the result to become something special. Ultimately, this walking and talking comes perilously close to becoming a gab-fest treadmill. [26 Jul 1996, Pg.04.D]

Spotty and uneven, Wedding shouldn't even have the embarrassed guffaws it has, and it probably wouldn't were it not for a robust cast.

Even surly moviegoers may discover how pleasant it can be to actually like movie characters.

Fans of the stars should be satisfied. Those allergic to car chases, casual killings and the phrase "Oh, s - - -!" may suffer hives. [7 April 1995, 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.

With a half-dozen characters sorting out life's woes, the pacing is a couple of beats faster than languorous — just enough to sustain one's interest.

Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. is half-a-good movie, three-quarters of a good debut, and an even better showcase for its live-wire lead performer. Even so, a protracted, then pat, wrap-up saps much of the goodwill reflected by these promising components. [23 Mar 1993, p.10D]

Sharon Stone rides into a Western dust hole bent on revenge. Gene Hackman, virtually reprising his Unforgiven heavy, gives this goofy genre-bender some authenticity. [17 Feb 1995, p.4D]

Even with Burns' smoothest performance yet as a lead, Confidence is on a level with Steven Soderbergh's blah remake of "Ocean's Eleven." But because no one is expecting much, it seems a little better.

Frigid soul or not, it's the most unforgettable supernatural comedy since Brazil. Could be it's time for the Coens to drop the pretense, and embrace sci-fi head on. [11 Mar 1994, p.4D]

Engrossing up to a point, the movie ends up being another mild disappointment from a filmmaker who last put it all together with Passion Fish -- seven years and four movies ago. [04 Jun 1999]

Neeson is earnest, but this is a Foster we haven't seen before, a transformation that extends to her appearance. There's a showy aspect to her performance that raises my eyebrows, but it's a pretty good show. Better, to be sure, than the movie. [14 Dec 1994, p.1D]

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.

Though there must be a dozen U.S. presidents who have never had a documentary made about them, the late Tupac Shakur could rate his own section in video stores, placed between "music" and "action."

If Hairspray is clean and sweet, don't cry sellout. Taken as a pointed burlesque of a serious racial issue, this is what Spike Lee's School Daze should have been. It's also a PG (for "Pretty Darn Good'') simply on its own.

Marvin leavened his sociopathy with a hint of little boy naivete or innocence -- Gibson is merely a frequently funny thug. {5 February 1999, Life, p. 11E]

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

A fresh-slant Vietnam picture in which lead Tom Cruise achieves indisputable greatness, July is otherwise a "more often than not'' achievement. But though it's as full of itself as Stone's watchably windy Talk Radio, the film's roundhouse punches propel you into remote Mike Tyson-land when they connect. [20 Dec 1989, p.1D]

Colorful. [1 December 1995, p.D13]

Poison is better visually than verbally, though some dialogue in Episode 1 (a missing-kid parody called Hero) got hearty laughs from paying customers in my theater. What 'makes' this exercise, as far as it goes, is polished editing. [12 Apr 1991, p.2D]

The two m's in 8MM could stand for "messy melodrama." [26 February 1999, Life, p.5E]

There's a familiar feeling to the movie even beyond its twinkle-eyed martial arts melees.

Oliver Stone's Nixon humanizes a reviled but respected subject for over three hours - dynamically at times, but finally so solemnly that it becomes a grind-you-down dirge. The maker of Natural Born Killers actually concludes with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing Shenandoah - without irony. [20 Dec 1995, p.1D]

Thankfully, this time Eastwood flirts (and ogles) but stops just short of going completely over the top. [19 March 1999, Life, p.13E]

The first moral of the faithfully amoral remake of Sam Peckinpah's The Getaway is that Steve McQueen is irreplaceable. Second: Slavish faithfulness can be risky if the original is only middling Peckinpah to start. Third: Married co-stars sometimes reserve their sexual heat for off-camera Malibu mattresses. [11 Feb 1994, p.4D]

It's never enough of a grabber to keep the mind from wandering to the romance it apparently sparked.

Often livens up stale material with disarming loopiness and zest.

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]

Lethal Weapon 2 is bang-bang and brain-dead in roughly equal measure. If there's an advantage this time out, it's that the film seems to play the action (and its lead character's psychoses) more for laughs. [7 Jul 1989, p.1D]

Tolerance for this movie will likely depend on tolerance for melodramatic, over-the-top finales, especially ones with otherworldly twists.

Not too many R-rated revenge pics depend on "Uptown Girls'" Dakota Fanning for the stronger scenes. Yet once the 10-year-old star exits the picture, Man on Fire starts blowing a lot of smoke.

Coach Torn adds to a palpably violent undertone by heaving wrenches at their heads and crotches, making The Three Stooges' poking and slapping look downright tame.

The movie's pleasures extend even to the visuals, which are more lustrous than in any other Altman movie.

No, it isn't the slick and unfocused "Anywhere but Here," where mom and daughter choose Beverly Hills. Instead, it's the more modest and in most cases preferable Tumbleweeds.

This is one of those moderately engrossing movies that seems to collapse all at once during the wrap-up, yet it's well-acted all around.

Untantalizingly reverent remake. [7 December 1998, p.4D]

Boorman's troubles usually come from going over the top (atop Exorcist II, there's always Zardoz). But this is one of his few misfires that almost anyone would call tepid.

Ali is no disgrace, but it's not much of a performer, especially considering that it is one of the few hyped year-end releases that coulda been a contender.

Happily, the two leads click throughout in a movie that's just good enough to engender curiosity over filmmaker Witcher's follow-up effort. [14 Mar 1997]

Linney remains a full-blooded character so memorable that she's worth watching - even in a less-than-memorable movie.

Mothers definitely get their due here: Birth mothers, adoptive mothers and mothers-to-be - with the only men in sight (save for one young fatality and one old eccentric) being those who wear flashy makeup and sport breasts

Sometimes uproarious but overly sentimental. [14 July 2003, p.1D]

Because snowboarding is younger than skateboarding and surfing, Descent lacks the poignancy of past surfer/skateboarder portraits that have shown participants reaching middle age.

Slap Happy. [16 February 1996, p.D4]

Despite dashes of droll dialogue from screenwriter Ted Griffin, the remake aims for cool but instead gets chilly.

Kidman gets kudos for giving the enterprise a touch of class, while the film gives the studio's library a rare pedigreed addition.

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

It's for people who have always wanted to see Willie Nelson ("Uncle Jesse") lob Molotov cocktails on a freeway and smoke weed with Joe Don Baker, who plays Georgia's governor.

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]

John Singleton's bizarre but viewable Boyz N the Hood follow-up is surprisingly gooey going. [23 Jul 1993]

While Garcia looks around for something to do, the film is making a lot of Hoffman's comic shtick. It's funny, and sometimes very funny, but ultimately as distracting as Chevy Chase's unbilled casting as Davis' boss. [02 Oct 1992, p.1D]

Heathers was such a black-comic revelation that Pump Up the Volume comes as a double surprise. What were the odds, particularly this early in his career, that Christian Slater would end up starring in two of the best high school movies ever? [22 Aug 1990, p.4D]

Worth stumbling into on cable not all that far into next year.

Susan Sarandon has never looked better in her 29-year screen career than she does here.

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.

Though a tacked-on fisticuffs finale has its charms, it rather contradicts the preceding. Mere subtleties are beyond Stallone and returning Rocky I director John G. Avildsen. [16 Nov 1990, p.4D]

Thanks to a disproportionately superior second hour, Fat Man and Little Boy improves on its historically valid, but commercially suicidal, title. It is not, however, even the screen's second best chronicle of atomic bomb development in wartime Los Alamos, N.M. [20 Oct 1989, p.4D]

Borderline amazing and borderline dull at the same time.

The beauty here is in the set-up, which offers Hugh Grant a role to match his star-making turn in "Four Weddings and a Funeral."

Intelligent but exasperating, its monotonous tone will wear down even viewers who started out in its corner. [27 Dec 1996]

Things move fast enough to make it a movie to enjoy and then forget.

Director David Fincher shovels on more gloom than even the serial killer genre can sustain in the murkily moody, but self-defeating, Seven.

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]

Friedkin's latest is good for a few jolts, but also too many unintentional yuks. [27 Apr 1990, p.1D]

Spacey's brazen casting isn't as beyond the pale as it ought to be. In fact, it's hard to imagine this strange and only occasionally successful movie without him.

By contrast, other Hornby screen adaptations are "About a Boy" and "High Fidelity"- superb comedies both and, in Fidelity's case, a treatise on male obsession with far more depth and even more laughs.

More amusing than a lot of expensive Hollywood comedies [26 February 1999, Life, p.5E]

Except for its muddier than necessary photography, there aren't any surprises, which probably won't matter to the target audience.

Catch offers mild fun but never as much as its animated '60s-retro opening credits portend. They're the cutest of the year.

Excesses or not, I'm rabid to see this again. [10 Mar 1989, p.1D]

Director Richard Rush, who later made the classic The Stunt Man, overindulges the arty bike footage. But this is certainly an artifact of an age, photographed by Leslie (later Laszlo) Kovacs, who became one of Hollywood's best cinematographers. [02 Jan 2004, p.4E]

Roll Bounce rates a friendly nod. If it doesn't exactly kick out the jams, it does move them around a little bit.

Full of love, Spaceballs is full of laughs; after 13 years of screen disappointments, Brooks has almost delivered another Young Frankenstein. May the box office be with it. [24 Jun 1987, p.1D]

This being Irving, the story straddles the sweet and the creepy.

Pro orchestrator that he is, Altman at least gives the illusion of a three-ring circus, but he's working third-rate material without a net. [23 Dec 1994, p.10D]

Individually, the episodes aren't much, but it's impressive that Jarmusch even pulled off the logistics. [01 May 1992, p.7D]

It's only a mild Disney package, despite a dose of Donald Duck dyspepsia. [18 July 1997, p.3D]

Though he's highly irresponsible, this Alfie is not quite a calculating heel, which makes the material go down easier while blunting the point.

If She-Devil is (at best) ragged, it's also a must for Streep fans. [8 Dec 1989, p.1D]

This very brave bio is an imposing disappointment, just like Cobb. [02 Dec 1994, p.2D]

The movie is shrewd by giving the bulk of its piggish dialogue to Alexander, an actor incapable of projecting genuine cruelty on screen.

The early going -- say, an hour -- is spent in a fatigued daze. A few powerful jabs eventually punch things up.

James Coburn plays father in what may be the best performance of his career. [30 December 1998, Life, p.3D]

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

Though the plot ends up taking some potentially compelling twists, its telling always feels manipulative.

Ivan Passer directs with the kind of objective integrity that's rare today, but the script doesn't jell. [14 July 1989, p.3D]

There are some notable oddballs in the filmmaking debut of performance artist Miranda July, whose lead performance in this Sundance winner for "originality" is the most appealing thing about it.

Director Iain Softley employs intriguing camera angles to heighten some of the suspense. It's too bad the movie goes over the top and falls apart in the last third.

A daring movie in today's current climate - one likely to be remembered at year's end. [18 Oct 1989]

The story doesn't exactly startle with surprises and has a tendency to hammer and rehammer its points.

Seeing this movie won't get you into MIT, but it's passable fun.

Because De Niro's performance is aptly ''Scorsese-aggressive'' while Crystal effectively underplays, one can easily sit through this bottom-line disappointment with a smile painted on, waiting for belly laughs that rarely come. [5 Mar 1999]

Things will not be a big concession-stand movie because the floating heart is our introduction to a cottage industry we hope won't catch on. It is dirtier than pretty, yet Frears finds beauty in the telling.

For such a clumsy and (I'll bet) likely-to-be-panned comedy, Her Alibi has its moments - more, certainly, than its painfully silly trailer suggests. [3 Feb 1989, p.4D]

Fortunately, Games' finale is lively enough to keep viewers from cursing on the way out; there's a monsoon, a speedboat chase, a fire, explosion, the usual. Yet does it really exceed action genre expectations? Not really. Even enthusiasts may exit Red October's sequel feeling a little blue. [5 June 1992, p.4D]

Crisp craftsmanship has fashioned a great day at the movies from the worst day of Ralph Kramden's life. [10 Jun 1994 Pg. 01.D]

If anything, Grant seems to be getting funnier, and he now has the ability to elevate material the way another Grant -- Cary -- did.

An unusual walk down the aisle.

Only a smattering of the potential is realized in this tolerable disappointment, which is so unworthy of getting angry about that it will still become a knee-jerk hit.

Has its moments -- and almost as many subplots.

Yet the film's most serious flaw (next to a newly concocted fizz-out ending) is that it's not sinister enough. [30 Jun 1993 Pg. 01.D]

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]

Give Anderson credit for at least sustaining a mood. This is the kind of all-or-nothing movie in which a filmmaker probably can't waver from his tone.

Here's Jackie Chan playing twins separated at birth, though not as separated as English is from the actors' lip movements in this silly, speedy, wretched dubbed action goof. [16 April 1999, Life, p.8E]

The longer the movie goes, the more its 133 minutes prove wearing. The story tries to develop a love angle between Jackman and Janssen, but it doesn't begin to take. And the finale is particularly weak.

Nolte has his moments and is the reason to see the film, but he won't quite be the fait accompli shoo-in once Tides' Oscar panhandling begins. [24 Dec 1991, p.1D]

The movie keeps you mildly interested all the way up to an elaborately staged final scene, yet it might give viewers the same queasy fooling-with-the-Holocaust feeling some felt for Roberto Benigni's "Life Is Beautiful."

The movie keeps you watching and, at times, even gripped for more than an hour. But, at the end, it leaves us feeling detached and underwhelmed.

With major stars, a name director and grown-up subject matter, this middling drama is less a movie to recommend with vigor than to covet on general principles.

Valmont, to my surprise, isn't the best movie of Choderlos de Laclos' novel. Blame overripe material, as well as Forman's benign approach to an essentially nasty yarn. [17 Nov 1989]

Kafka is in glorious black and white, except for an extended color sequence near the end that recalls the visual transition in "The Wizard of Oz." The comparison is even more apropos: This middling pigmentary stunt has a lot of smoke and mirrors, a lot of mood, and too much put-on wizardry at its center. [4 Dec. 1991, p.5D]

Imagine viewing Men in Black through the fog of a brain-embalming hangover and you won't have to buy a ticket to this piece of space junk. [12 Feb 1999, p.8E]

Garnering a chuckle or two, but no more, are Donal Logue from "The Tao of Steve" (now there's a comedy) -- and, as a desperate magnet for both the slacker and "dude" demographics, Jon Heder from Napoleon Dynamite.

Neither Price nor director Harold Becker can decide whether they're after a conventional mystery or a trenchant sexual-psychological study a la Last Tango in Paris. Like so many current movies, Love falters in the pay-off; despite lots of bull's-eye moments in the early going, it seems vaguely silly. [15 Sep 1989, p.4D]

The lark-ish Perfect Score is on the high side of the time-killer it sounds like.

Moviegoers accustomed to Hollywood action probably won't find this contemplative adventure so appealing.

Jewel is more like an acting zircon because she just can't project, but at least she looks the part, and her novelty value isn't unwelcome.

The result may prove to be too much for even cult horror nuts. This complete 121-minute "director's cut" is tough to follow, so you can see why home viewers were mystified by the early '80s Vestron tape that cut nearly 40 minutes out of the movie and scrambled the order of scenes. [2 June 2000, p.10E]

It's to these Angels' credit that they, like the movie, are at least intermittent fun.

Its premise is so promising that you long for more than Arteta's low-key approach can deliver.

The 15-minute squall is spectacular and the movie's partial redeemer - the minimum you'd hope for in a movie called White Squall, don't you think? [02 Feb 1996]

It wallows queasily in its high-tech violence and is woefully anti-climactic; if you think director Kathryn Bigelow doesn't know when to quit, just think back to her sky-diving folly Point Break. The audio-visual ka-boom here befits James Cameron's producing-writing co-credits, but little else justifies Days' prime Saturday-Sunday slot in the New York Film Festival. [6 Oct 1995, p.4D]

Until its roaring-semis climax, there is no genuine excitement here. Only 133 characteristically overlong minutes of painlessly watchable bubble bath. [14 July 1989, p.1D]

At 120 minutes, Colors is one of the longest cop dramas in movie history, and all the clichés are packed into the second hour. It fades in the stretch - and so may too many moviegoers. [15 Apr 1988]

Fans, at least, should enjoy the realistic touches. The cast is full of real players, announcer Dick Vitale is obnoxious here, too, and that's really coach Bobby Knight in the big game vs. Indiana (though his tan betrays Chips' summer filming schedule). And though O'Neal can barely grunt dialogue, it's fun to watch the Orlando Magic superstar make Nolte look like David Cassidy whenever they share a frame. [18 Feb 1994, p.5D]

A half-funny, half-ugly comedy about underworld ineptitude. [5 Mar 1999]

While compellingly watchable, it's as overheated as Cage-the-actor's 1991 soft-core (and direct-to-video) "Zandalee," also set in New Orleans.

One sits through Ladder halfway engrossed, though always with a sense that its impending punchline will render the preceding an industrial- strength put-on. Then again, there are people out there who thought Ghost was profound. [2 Nov 1990, p.6D]

A few mildly crude gags help PG-Jam avoid the dreaded G-rating, but this is a kids' pic all the way. Even at its least inspired, it reduces next week's video release of Shaquille O'Neal's Kazaam to even more of a non-event than it was. [15 Nov 1996, p.1D]

Within a certain narrow range, Hartnett shows some comic flair -- though not enough to carry the picture over its considerable rough spots.

The cumbersome wrap-up, which follows a four-year narrative gap, seems too fanciful and bogs down what has been a stronger second hour.

For a big-screen disposable, Doom has a few jolts, a few good laughs and an attractive female lead to whom you want to say, "What's a nice girl like you doing on a Mars like this?"

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

It's fun to talk about...but the price you pay is enduring its excesses and pummeled-home thematic points.

Whereas last year's exemplary "Sexy Beast" seemed to revitalize the British gangster movie, this equally brutal outing merely sustains it -- though with occasional twists that do linger in the memory.

Cry-Baby is more polished than Waters' Hairspray, but the script's lack of focus makes it a lesser film. And though some of the numbers are inspired, their non-stop frequency is as exhausting as the rest. [6 Apr 1990, p.4D]

Were the material not so thin, it would be even more fun than it is seeing Fiennes get to be loose on screen for once. He's pleasant, but we never feel this guy could get elected. Whenever he smiles, Fiennes brings to mind the title of Disney's deluxe new DVD: "The Complete Goofy."

The casting falters on every level compared with Queens.

Great Balls of Fire! doesn't shake your nerves or rattle your brain; at times, though, it gets on your nerves. Even so, it's a just-tolerable junk-food chronicle of the brief era when Jerry Lee Lewis threatened to heist Elvis' ''King'' crown. [30 June 1989, p.5D]

McConaughey will never be an actor who lets you into his soul, but he's credible as a good ole boy.

Of all things, this movie has the same problem "Ghostbusters 2" had, which is this: You can't take bigger-than-life screen types and toss them into everyday, regular-folk situations.

Harold Ramis frequently keeps slapstick, human comedy and surreal elements jelling. [13 Apr 1995, p.6D]

Intelligent but not particularly involving.

Director Alan Rudolph has certainly done his part, leading a colorful parade of Jazz Age editors, essayists and playwrights in arguably one too many directions - easily surpassing The Moderns, his '20s-expatriate companion piece. [25 Nov 1994, p.4D]

Director Jack Clayton's gloomy adaptation of Ray Bradbury's short story was an odd choice for Disney in its straighter-arrow days, and the film flopped even after several scenes were reshot long after principal photography was completed. Yet this odd horror-Americana mix about a supernatural traveling carnival has a cult, plus two aptly cast antagonist leads in Jason Robards and Jonathan Pryce. [04 Oct 1996]

Since Michael Caine's charm, energy and abilities have managed to survive so many cheesy movies, it's heartening to note that A Shock to the System is a slice or two tastier than usual. [23 Mar 1990, p.4D]

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 is an amusing vehicle for Gibson. At least this time, the bird doesn't fall off the wire. [10 Aug 1990]

Cadillac Man has a shabby transmission, but a decent wax job - or maybe it's the other way around. In any event, it's a vaguely amiss near-miss, despite the inspired teaming of Robin Williams and Tim Robbins. [18 May 1990, p.4D]

Some of James Wong Howe's photography is lovely, compensating for the rear-projected fish. [12 Jul 1996]

Peter is as adequate as the Harry Potter movies are, though you never sense in either case that kids are being bitten with the permanent movie-loving bug.

Though Maclean's bedrock prose is perfection in print, the film may be another case (like actor Redford's "The Great Gatsby") in which text defies translation. [09 Oct 1992]

If the script were half as witty as its production design and Danny Elfman's score, the film might be a classic; instead, it recalls the “Beetlejuice” half that doesn't have Keaton. [7 Dec 1990, Life, p.4D]

What works in a quirky foreign film can look silly with expansive Hollywood treatment. Crowe is smart enough to know this, so it's baffling he chose Vanilla over richer cinematic tastes.

More than anything, The Grifters isn't dramatically shot; black-and-white would have made a huge difference. [5 Dec 1990]