Mike Clark

Jeff Bridges has enough demons in The Door in the Floor to jam a crowd scene, but the actor's sheer likability remains undiminished.

A rousing state-of-the-art cartoon capped by an aerial-combat climax that, to its credit, isn't anti-climactic. [2 July 1996, p.D1]

This isn't a movie to be taken too literally, given that a camera crew keeps on rolling in situations that would make even combat photographers bolt; as a result, the movie plays like one of those self-referential stunts that sometimes wow film festival audiences (as this one did). [24 Sept 1993, p.3D]

This movie is so much the opposite of uplifting that you think Gary Oldman ought to be in it. But it's honestly made, and its second half does linger in the memory.

SpongeBob barely rates as OK when compared with "The Incredibles."

Transforming Clouseau's perennial nemesis into a more urbane smoothie, Kevin Kline delivers like a pro.

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."

Consistently fun, and even sporadically powerful. [08 Dec 1989, p.3D]

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

The picture is solidly crafted, performed to the hilt and full of humor.

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]

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

A young-Turk poker player challenges an old pro the way pool shooter Paul Newman took on Jackie Gleason in The Hustler, though the result lacks its predecessor's depth. Carrying Kid is one of the best casts ever. [03 Jun 2005, p.7E]

Bites may have a bit more on its mind, but it never equals even the weakest scene in Cameron Crowe's "Singles". [18 Feb 1994, p.5D]

For a movie that generally delivers the goods while you're watching it, mild irritants abound. Arachnophobia is soft at the center, but at least it won't traumatize (and thus repel) the mass audience. [18 July 1990, p.1D]

Tim Robbins plays the working dad, and the movie misses him once he bails out early.

Though arguably not to the film's overall advantage, physical splendor is the overwhelming factor in this unintimidating film of John le Carre's best seller. [19 Dec 1990, p.4D]

It's a case of actors and strong writing coming together, and it's uncommon in contemporary movies.

Drollness on screen can sometimes be had cheaply, but a perfect cast is tougher to bankroll. Hal Hartley's new comedy has both - enough to defuse the smugness that seems to linger in its soul. [15 Aug 1991]

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

When it isn't funny, it's embarrassingly obvious - and it's almost never funny. [24 Dec 1990, p.1D]

As easy to enjoy as picking up a spare, and we don't mean a tire around the waist.

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."

Gives Dennis Quaid one of his best screen showcases.

Begins promisingly and entertains for a stretch because you think it's leading to something more than one of the movie year's flattest conclusions.

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

Emma is the peak of the recent Austen pack and a star-maker, too -- an antidote to a summer in which even good movies have subordinated writing and characters to special effects. [02 Aug 1996, Pg.01.D]

Mean Girls has the same fancifully dead-on tone as the 1995 high-school comedy "Clueless" without the sweetness because, hey, these snits are mean.

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]

Cold and cut to the bone, the film is a primer in screen virtuosity. Standard action film clichés, like a face getting hit with a chair, get turned inside out; both film and actors somehow manage to seem realistic and stylized at the same time. [21 Sept 1990, Life, p.6D]

It's fun to see somebody revive the amnesia genre - how long has it been? - but the conceit quickly grows irksome. Only Thompson, who manages to be appealing in both of her roles, will likely reap much from this DOA folly. [23 Aug 1991, Life, p.4D]

Victoria Tennant's iciness has been well-utilized on screen occasionally, but not this time. [8 Feb 1991, p.D4]

The movie Weaver has to carry has so many nagging imperfections that Academy Award attention looks like a long shot.

Even so, the film's incest theme seems more symbolic than literal in what is, at heart, a comedy about escaping the womb; throwaway gags are wicked enough throughout to keep the taboo plot twist from knocking this hit-and-miss black comedy off the track. [26 Jul 1994 Pg. 08.D]

Lumet remains a great director of actors, one of several reasons why this very iffy movie grabs you - up to a point. [27 Apr 1990, p.9D]

It's gratifying to see a comedy can have no redeeming social value yet be full of hearty laughs.

White Palace, ultimately conventional, doesn't play like any spring chicken, either. [19 Oct 1990, p.4D]

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]

I.Q. is a limp period comedy essentially distinguished by two of its haircuts, with Meg Ryan sporting a pert peroxided trim and Walter Matthau decked out in a free-form Albert Einstein coiffure. Fortunately, in the latter case, Matthau is actually playing Albert Einstein. [22 Dec 1994, p.3D]

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]

At just 82 minutes, the film's welcome doesn't have time to wear out; especially amusing is the use of '50s pop ballads and some droll elementary-school classroom scenes. Randy Quaid and Mary Beth Hurt are as ''right'' as the indoor production design. [30 June 1989, p.3D]

With a little sex, some mystery, a little sex, an appealing title and a little sex, France's Swimming Pool has what it takes to become an art house audience magnet, especially amid the heat of summer.

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]

Has its moments - but far too many of them. It runs two hours and seems to end five times.

This movie has a little something, and part of it is subtext. Walken, who wants to use drug money to build hospitals, is embraced as a New York celebrity; this rings true. Plus, King reunites director Abel Ferrara and screenwriter Nicholas St. John of Fear City/Ms. .45 cultdom. [1 Oct 1990, p.5D]

The movie grows on you, lingers in the mind and may pick up a cult. Take away Heat and Dust, Howards End and The Remains of the Day, and it's as satisfying as any movie the filmmaking team's ever made. [18 Sep 1998, Pg.03.E]

Brosnan and Rush are a smooth fit, playing off each other like a snappy shirt and tie.

May be a spectacularly awful movie, but it's also spectacularly drenched in color, décor and other visual oh-la-la.

Jonathan Demme's Philadelphia labors ambitiously on two socially conscious fronts - relating the story of an AIDS-afflicted lawyer while exploring a much broader issue. Unlike almost any other Demme movie - it's a film where you feel the gears struggling to mesh. [22 Dec 1993, p.1D]

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

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]

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.

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

Time has marched on for the second ''best-picture'' Oscar winner, but this is still a seamy story about two Midwestern sisters (Bessie Love and Anita Page) singing, hoofing and (in Page's case) teasing their way to success. [24 Feb 1989, p.3D]

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]

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]

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 movie meanders without a rudimentary sense of the dramatic, yet it remains intermittently interesting thanks to a surprisingly voluminous cast of usual suspects from the world of independent cinema. [14 Aug 1996 Pg.09.D]

Knowing and original, Men's comedy never quite soars. Yet jump it does, and high enough. [27 Mar 1992, p.1D]

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]

There've been few screen moments more moving this year than Cruise's initial reaction to his brother's almost superhuman math prowess. [16 Dec 1988]

You still get Tim Curry in drag, young Susan Sarandon in her skimpies and an enthusiastic score. [16 Nov 1990, p.3D]

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]

A flop in its day despite France's rhapsodic reaction, but a movie I've always loved even before its knockout finale, which even detractors admit redeems a lot. [29 Jun 2007, p.10E]

Despite appealing performances and kinetic football scenes, the storytelling is mostly conventional.

This is the kind of movie in which even the sex scenes are soulless.

Disappointing. [6 Mar 1991, Life, p.9D]

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]

This is a movie to be knocked, chewed and gummed, but not dismissed. It's the first 2001 release I've rushed to see twice.

Though admittedly a minor delight, this is the only movie whose end credits identify the film's grip, then credit Martha Raye for Poli-grip, then define ''grip'' for millions who want to know just what a grip does. For such small favors, Gun 21/2 has the smell of box office. [28 June 1991, p.5D]

The relaxed and confident Crusade is the first Jones outing to benefit from actual characterizations. [24 May 1989, Life, p.1D]

Easy to tumble for. [9 February 1996, p.D4]

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]

But for an epic set up to trace two life stories, there's a lack of dramatic focus, and the leads fail to evince any particular chemistry as friends who come to have a deeper emotional connection. [31Dec1997 Pg.02.D]

There's so little action or suspense that this Cell isn't too likely to multiply itself into a sequel.

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

The material is so solid and Thornton so tailor-made that the movie almost gets by.

Mortal Thoughts is a mystery that any halfway-OK hack might turn into a halfway-OK movie by bagging all pretense to art and simply telling a story. But that isn't the style of Alan Rudolph, whose last space shot was Love at Large; the result is a quirky boo-boo I suspect is already halfway out of theaters. [19 Apr 1991, p.2D]

Isn't much, it's just lively enough to placate its limited audience to make it an easy choice over "Scooby-Doo's" stale Alpo.

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.

The filmmaker keeps upping the ante with surprises until the plot-twist beaut that concludes the picture - a shocker that, upon reflection, is probably the one ending that wouldn't have fallen a little flat.

Both leads and young Harris make Crooklyn an exasperating might-have-been, especially given the movie's surprisingly affecting wrap-up. There's no dearth of human feeling here, but a dearth of craft. [13 May 1994, p.8D]

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

This is a very bloody fantasy (reds do eke their way into the black-and-blues), but it's hard to think of another film with as many severed heads whose overall tone is so sweet.

Cult director Sam Raimi has come a long way since giving us killer tree limbs in whichever (I've repressed it) Evil Dead pic had them. With good leads and a few bucks, he's come up with a high-octane revenge piece mentionable in the same breath as its predecessors. [24 Aug. 1990]

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

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]

This also is the rare combat movie that deals substantially with mourning widows on the home front.

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

There isn't much Napoleonic grandeur in this Idaho-set high school comedy, which in spite of its most condescending instincts, does have its moments.

Robert De Niro is so good as a politically blacklisted filmmaker in Guilty by Suspicion that even his hair seems right. [15 Mar 1991, p.4D]

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]

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.

It sounds like fun, but this quasi-continuation of the Nightmare on Elm Street series is a half-hour too long, running 112 minutes when less than 90 would suffice. [14 Oct 1994, p.4D]

The recent model for this kind of surreal jazz-riff comedy is Doug Liman's 1999 "Go," a neo-classic. But you know already from the director (Dude, Where's My Car?'s Danny Leiner) if this movie is for you. Leiner has cornered the recent market on low-rent farces.

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

Canyon is similarly slick, though even more heavy-handed in hammering home its points. [26 Dec 1991]

Some caper movies build suspense, while others tweak the genre with tongue lancing cheek. But this lesbian caper pic (how's that for a rarefied subgenre?) often pulls off both feats in the same scene, even simultaneously. [04 Oct 1996 Pg.04.D]

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

The film has its moments as a mood piece.

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.

Inside Deep Throat, an NC-17 documentary that deftly chronicles the fallout -- with about 15 seconds of hard-core footage -- has some surprise credits.

Despite little dialogue, the story and screenplay were Oscar-nominated -- and, at 50, Wilde's physique is amazing for an actor who once played Chopin. [18 Jan 2008, p.4D]

Never enough goodies to keep the two-hour running time from seeming like three.

Rock actually rocks out as one of the year's most purely entertaining movies (just keep thinking: Bill Murray as a ventriloquist).

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]

A showcase for Vince Vaughn's rantings and Owen Wilson's standard but affable chum act.

Beauty is about two-thirds the serious-edged romp it would like to be, which still leaves a lot of room for tony fun.

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

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]

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.

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.

Usually, I'm as slow as the pacing of a movie in figuring out who's done it. If you can't solve this mystery with an hour to go (as I did), better call for a transfusion so a better type of blood will start flowing to your brain.

But it does mine Murphy's gifts, and the payoff is both nutty and funny. Sometimes even touching, too. [28Jun1996 Pg.01.D]

This is the kind of movie that has always polarized serious film folk, while the public usually elects to stay home and prune shrubs.

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.

Unfaithful doesn't push the melodrama the way "Attraction" did, but it lingers in the mind as much.

Hong Kong's China-born cult director makes his U.S. debut here, serving up so many briskly staged and edited action scenes that you'll wager Sam Peckinpah somehow figured in his gene pool. Forget grenades and assault weapons (though they're here, too); Target deals in bows and arrows, a serpent booby-trap and even one portly hero (Wilford Brimley) on horseback. All this and Brimley's Cajun accent, too. [20 Aug 1993, p.1D]

The movie tries to juggle motherly love sentiment with wanna-be snappy ripostes with a violent streak that extends to threatening a grade-schooler with blinding and busted kneecaps. [11 Oct 1996, Pg.03.D]

Even without the surprise of seeing Spader going for laughs and getting them, Secretary is just too original to be ignored.

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.

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

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

The flashbacks, functional at best, aren't really the problem. Interminable one-on-one dialogues between the two male leads are. [7 Apr 1995, p.03.D]

Dramatically, even a persuasive supporting cast gets Heaven only so far.

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

This isn't a polished work, but anyone who's ever spent time on the movie-making edge will recognize it as a true one. [28 Aug 1992, p.5D]

Overall, this is a tart little toughie - within its limitations. Like 1987's The Bedroom Window, also directed by Curtis Hanson, it admittedly pales next to suspense classics it recalls. Yet on its own terms, it's a hefty cut above the norm. [09 Mar 1990, p.1D]

Despite Mel Gibson wearing dude duds, Jodie Foster picking their inside pockets, and even James Garner for incalculable good will, the poker hand in the all-new Maverick is almost an empty house. [20 May 1994, p.1D]

An equitably rude comedy about abortion, brazen by definition but also fairly droll. It's probably too schematic to reward more than a single viewing, but as a provocative one-time surprise it may become a specialized sleeper. [13 December 1996, p.4D]

You have to love any movie in which Robert Mitchum sells trains in a toy store and Janet Leigh looks the greatest she ever did on screen this side of Jet Pilot. [19 Dec 2008, p.6E]

More than a quarter-century ago, Redford played a young CIA employee in "Three Days of the Condor." Someday, it will make a great living-room double bill with Spy Game -- the actor then and now.

Borderline amazing and borderline dull at the same time.

The script strives to turn Garcia into a nasty Gere alter ego, which may explain why both leads solemnly underplay it. Though Gere's contribution is welcome, two hard-ballers in shades may be one too many; on balance, it's the actresses (especially ever-solid Laurie Metcalf) who sustain interest. [12 Jan 1990, p.2D]

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]

Even if audiences can get by the tasteless shock title, it's tough to figure who will ever watch this movie - even when it's on cable.

Cross Ingmar Bergman's Persona with Roman Polanski's oeuvre and you get a workable mix ultimately sunk by standard slasher silliness. [14 Aug 1992, p.4D]

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.

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]

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

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

A largely irresistible puff piece.

Shouldn't be overrated, but it's the first film of the year - and it's mid-February already - capable of keeping a grown-up awake.

Anyone who pays to see it will certainly feel as if he has been clipped.

Director Joel Schumacher, whose pastel color schemes vitalized St. Elmo's Fire, gives this a sensual, at times even erotic, sheen. And a few subplot issues - single motherhood, runaway kids, midlife dating - hint that at least someone involved with this project intended to go after bigger game. [31 Jul 1987, p.4D]

Until it cools off some with a full half-hour remaining, Tequila Sunrise packs the solar heat the credits and premise promise. Yet a three-quarter success does a good Mel Gibson movie make - even if his co-stars steal it. [2 Dec 1988, p.1D]

Neither the actors nor their characters engender much affection.

There's evidence of his talent in some lyrical flying scenes, but the movie is so addled you'd think it was conceived by Michael J. Pollard, who shares a one-on-one scene with Lewis here (the mind boggles). [24 March 1995, p.3D]

Between Jackson's opining and De Niro's hopeless alibis when he messes up, Jackie is good for a bundle of bloody ho-ho-hos.

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]

Intelligent but not particularly involving.

Coy to a fault, the movie collapses under its own weight with 90 minutes to go, despite Robby Muller's impressive black-and-white photography, which puts the film on a higher artistic plane than other equally unbearable movies. [16 May 1996, Pg.06.D]

There's no creepiness here - only creeping ennui, as the movie slips away. [24 Mar 1994, p.4D]

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

This is 90 minutes of gags of the lowest order, yet Poirier occasionally injects them with more energy than anything in "Heartbreakers."

Viscerally juicy....The movie is effectively cast. [25 July 1997, p.D2]

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

Some will think this film silly; my guess is that Kaufman has himself an upscale cult movie, a la Women in Love or his own Unbearable Lightness. [05 Oct 1990, p.4D]

While this movie is sometimes overbaked, it is the first major studio release in a while to engross wall-to-wall.

Kilmer seems less dangerous than Morrison, but it's a blessing in the most uncompromising bio of a please- don't-move-next-door type since "Raging Bull." [01 Mar 1991]

Though dully directed and a bit prettified by Martin Ritt, James Wong Howe's outdoor Pennsylvania vistas often combine stirringly with Henry Mancini's score. [26 Jul 1996, p.3D]

Has less substance and depth than its title.

One can't underestimate the appeal of any movie constructed around Sean Connery's charm.

Shepherd and O'Neal have six Peter Bogdanovich films between them- but criss-cross for the first time here under Emile Ardolino's (Dirty Dancing) comatose direction. They're pleasing (as are their co-leads) but don't quite deliver the salvage job a good cast performed on Mystic Pizza. [10 March 1989, p.5D]

Though borderline nauseating at times, Cook is never a bummer - nor is it quite up to its cinematic prowess. It will be best remembered for its challenge to de facto censorship - also the kind of visual flair that makes even shaggy-dog preciousness seem important. [6 Apr 1990, p.4D]

Salvaged by its rally, Reloaded seems less tired than "X2," its current sequel rival. But since its creators have said it's only half of a movie, we won't really know until The Matrix Revolutions arrives Nov. 5 whether this chunk is fizzle or sizzle.

One would be hard-pressed to name another submarine movie that lingers so little in the memory two days after seeing it.

The movie establishes good will (or even great will) in the initial scenes because it's so gorgeous, but the rest is such a slog.

Sky High gets Kurt Russell back to his retro Disney roots, and he's still in good enough shape at age 54 to wear a supernatural hunk's cape.

The definitive time capsule of mid-'60s swinging London. [05 Dec 2003]

Despite implied fidelity, we might as well be watching William Shakespeare's The Cable Guy. Yet the film's skewed stylistic flourishes capture enough of the original's spirit to provoke more respect than rejection. [01Nov1996, Pg. 01.D]

A faithful, technically brilliant, but also dramatically malnourished film of J.G. Ballard's popular World War II novel. [08 Dec 1987]

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]

Pace and performances dominate, with popped salutes going to Keifer Sutherland, Kevin Pollack, Kevin Bacon and especially Nicholson's smiling barracuda. [11 Dec 1992]

Shyamalan's style is so exaggerated, with its long pauses and exacting rhythms of sound- vs.- silence, that it easily can engender eye-rolling and snickers.

Has its moments -- and almost as many subplots.

Nothing but attitude.

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]

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.

The generally faithful script is by Anne Rice herself, the director is "The Crying Game"'s Neil Jordan, and both seem true to themselves and as true as they can be to artistic and visceral expectations. [11Nov1994 Pg. 01.D]

If you end up cursing, try not to forget The Abyss' spectacular oil-rig collapse, a killer chase scene, two fine leads, and one Oscar-worthy "creature'' special effect midway through. Do forget the rest - unless you really dig Casper, the Friendly Ghost. [9 Aug 1989, Life, p.1D]

Only slightly more slick and slightly less edgy than past John Grisham adaptations.

The Chamber merits some respect for daring to be gloomy, for facing the capital punishment issue head-on and for the quality of Gene Hackman's performance. [11 October 1996, p.1D]

Teamed again after Midnight Cowboy, writer Waldo Salt and director John Schlesinger make a costly flop of Nathanael West's great novella about underbelly '30s Hollywood. Karen Black is just OK as craven screen wannabe Fay Greener, but, along with M*A*S*H, this is Donald Sutherland's greatest lead (as a dweeb named Homer Simpson). [08 Jun 2004]

A minor delight but a delight just the same.

Director Taylor Hackford is so enthusiastic reminiscing on an alternate soundtrack that he almost convinces you that this diminutive cult movie is better than it is. [27 Dec 1996]

The movie isn't without style, but the material can't remotely sustain 100 minutes.

Though John Travolta and Christian Slater don boxing gloves to open the dippy but zippy Broken Arrow, the real slugfest in director John Woo's elaborately mounted action pic is between content and style. Call it a draw, and call the movie's content a Speed derivative. [9 Feb 1996, p.1D]

City loses some bearings in its second half, becoming a ragged collection of punchy action scenes. Big deal. It's also one of the most enjoyably ragged examples of fuzz vs. scuz since 1972's Across 110th Street. [8 Mar 1991, p.2D]

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

Dealing tangentially with Las Vegas gambling's formative years (lots of matte work here of mountains in the desert), this crackling melodrama was inspired by Bugsy Siegel's relationship with Virginia Hill. [17 Jul 2005]

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]

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

Talk about the limitations of using the four-star rating system to assess a movie both glorious and dreadful, with the dreadful components glorious as well in their own bent way. [23 Feb 1996, p.1D]

A movie that only a father could love -- father being the late John Cassavetes, credited with Lovely's script. [29 Aug 1997]

This is a blueprint for mainstream moviegoing, but be forewarned that the finale is surprisingly down-and-dirty. In this case, though, the violence blisteringly redeems what has been a merely OK thriller. [8Nov1996 Pg.01.D]

Under Capricorn is still stigmatized by its terrible reviews and whopping financial losses, but with one of Ingrid Bergman's best performances, a grabber setting (1831 Sydney) and Technicolor cinematography by the era's greatest color specialist (The Red Shoes' Jack Cardiff), a lot of current movies should be as lacking. [27 Jun 2003]

The casting falters on every level compared with Queens.

Well acted by an ensemble that leans toward equality for all, Mile carries its long running time extremely well.

The movie is what it is, a deadeningly literal look at ozone spiritualists and s-&-m purveyors (possibly one and the same) who toss some very spirited pool parties. A better title than the current marquee anonymity might be Naked Brunch. [16 Sept 1994, p.5D]

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]

Has added virtually nothing to two cinema genres with their own prodigious histories: ensemble and black.

Given its complete lack of suspense, eroticism, ensemble acting, and other mere tangibles, Paul Schrader's The Comfort of Strangers (with a Harold Pinter script) is destined to wind up lacking even a modest theatrical run. [29 Mar 1991, p.5D]

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.

This time, Lee fails to do the right thing, but he may have come up with a cult film. And compared to too much of this summer's sludge, that's almost mo' better enough. [03 Aug 1990]

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

Except for a nifty climactic biker attack on the Mississippi statehouse, you've seen the rest. You won't however, see Boz on screen for long. A Stone face, yes - but not a great one. [21 May 1991, p.4D]

Lumet (who also wrote the script) seems to feed on lousy cop-precinct furniture, political showboating and confrontations between street-savvy adversaries played by synergic actors. [16May1997 Pg.01.D]

Dickerson's direction seems more assured as Juice progresses, but by then, the film has become less a dilemma movie than a melodramatically conventional revenge piece. [17 Jan 1992, p.4D]

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.

As far as acting goes, neither Olsen is ready for Euripides' Medea, yet each projects well enough in their shared big scene.

Filmmakers of Bernardo Bertolucci's magnitude don't often take on sexual coming-of-age movies, but judging from the pleasures of Stealing Beauty, maybe more of them should. [14 Jun 1996 Pg.04.D]

What we get is a tweaked variation on the litany of men-disguised-as-women comedies: "Some Like It Hot" and "Tootsie," just for starters. Obviously, this sassy farce sounds recycled and certainly appears to be in the coming attraction. Yet it's also funnier than expected in ways you wouldn't expect.

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

The ambitious State of Grace is full of imposing moments, several of them among the screen's most violent since the heyday of Sam Peckinpah. [14 Sep 1990, p.4D]

Both female roles are unexpectedly meaty, so much so that the film loses something once the far more lively Stone is dispatched. Hour one (more satirical) is better all around, though the falloff isn't fatal. [1 June 1990, Life, p.2D]

This is the most enjoyable film of its type in recent memory.

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

Though not exactly dynamic, the movie offers insights into a specific culture. Ashley Rowe's photography is exquisite, and Driver has never been better. [14 Aug 1998]

Point Break points up inherent limitations in the "star" rating system. Its purely visceral material (surf sounds, skydiving stunt work, a tough indoor shootout midway through) are first-rate. As for the tangibles that matter even more (script, acting, directorial control, credible relationships between characters), Break defies belief. Dramatically, it rivals the lowest surf yet this year. [12 July 1991, p.4D]

This cliche primer is a bit more than bearable - even when it's literally and figuratively off the track. It's no Cocktail, but it's no Dom Perignon, either. [27 Jun 1990, p.1D]

This is one of those movies in which a strong ending might have made all the difference...But the wrap-up is unsatisfying, with too many questions unanswered.

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]

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

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

Alas, what you've heard about Sofia Coppola (as Michael's daughter) is true; she swallows words and speaks “valley girl.'' What a difference Winona Ryder would have made. [24 Dec 1990, Life, p.1D]

A sentimental comedy about mental illness (complete with a sitcom family), wobbly Bob offers further evidence that Disney itself may be afflicted with encroaching schizophrenia. [17 May 1991]

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]

The No. 1 thing Only the Strong Survive will have to survive is being overshadowed by "Standing in the Shadows of Motown." Less focused than last fall's slam-dunk Funk remembrance, Survive is a more modest soul review.

This is a deceptively low-key movie with emotions visibly raw. Tomei (and Slater, too) give it the heart it sorely needs. [12 Feb 1993, p.8D]

The movie runs just 80 minutes, but it's enough time for doldrums to set in when nifty special effects and funny verbal exchanges are out grabbing a smoke. [19 Feb 1993, Life, p.5D]

The First Wives Club has a femme casting coup for the ages, and sometimes it only takes the right performers interacting to give sprightly fluff indispensable showmanship. [20 Sep 1996 Pg.01.D]

Compelling and provocative -- though not memorable.

Even the nasty zingers here seem tiresomely windy. [16May1997 Pg 02.D]

Despite haunting moments in this fabricated fling between a headstrong Native American and an English sea captain, the film isn't as chirpy or majestic as recent Disney fare. [16Jun1995 Pg. 01.D]

There is enough mirthful good will generated to justify even another sequel. May we suggest: "License to Shag," "You Only Shag Twice" or "Thundershag."

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.

Bill re-establishes that Tarantino ranks with "Boogie Nights'" Paul Thomas Anderson as one of the few Hollywood filmmakers of the past 25 years with the stuff to win a lifetime achievement award.

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

Stylish, brisk but lacking in human dimension despite an attractive cast. [22 May 1996, p. D1]

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.

Overall, this Dead is zippier than 1995's retake on "Village of the Damned" and somewhat less junky than the recent remake of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

It isn't an unabashed movie-movie like the chest-thumping "Braveheart" or a cool, clinical semi-documentary like "The Battle of Algiers". There are elements of both here and they just don't dance. [11 Oct 1996, Pg.03.D]

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]

An intimate three-hour epic adapted less from Frank's diary than the Broadway version. [06 Feb 2004, p.6E]

Fanning and Russell make this watchable family entertainment, if not necessarily at today's prices.

After a tense, terrific, stomach-turning opening that may have moviegoing acrophobes recalling Vertigo, the film soon becomes the latest screen variation on cat-and-Mighty Mouse. [28May1993 Pg.04.D]

In just three months, Wincer has gone from one of the worst IMAX movies ever (The Young Black Stallion) to one of the best. This time, and in all ways, he has more horsepower.

This is impressive on costuming and hunk fronts (with Billy Dee Williams the key factor in both), while Diana Ross is better than OK in a performance whose Oscar nomination was probably a fait accompli. Otherwise, this lumpy 2 1/2-hour biopic of Billie Holiday hasn't improved since it was critically drubbed -- four other nominations or not -- as one of the most ponderous of all showbiz chronicles. [11 Nov 2005]

For much of its length, the premise seems less wilted than you'd guess. This is because, for one thing, Mendes gives as good as she gets.

Philandering pilot Cliff Robertson overprotects sister Jane Fonda's virginity in a comedy as queasily dated as Ask Any Girl, Shirley MacLaine's 1959 office politics primer. It probably rates a few points for skewering the sexual double standard, and the era's New York locales are still as attractive as Mel Torme's title tune. [04 Oct 1996]

An overlong guilty pleasure. [12 Oct 1990, Life, 4D]

What we're left with is solid if not exceptional, though it's good to see Mendes expanding as a filmmaker.

There is cinematic art, and there's a good evening out; this is the latter. [15 Mar 1991]

Hoffman stores the plane fuel in his house and even enjoys sniffing it. The movie might be a lot more fun as a suspense pic were he to take on a roommate who chained-smoked.

Though the music is helping market the movie, it's really an omnipresent backdrop to the two intersecting stories. Audibly and visibly, Kansas City nearly equals Ed Wood for period verisimilitude. Yet it's also character-driven, in particular by the women stars. [16 Aug 1996, p.4D]

The focus is limited to Young's longtime Crazy Horse colleagues -- in other words, forget Buffalo Springfield or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young -- but even on this level, there's a lot of rambling and disinclination to answer questions. A substantial number of viewers will likely be ground down, and certainly there's nothing here to make Young's 1979 concert film, Rust Never Sleeps, an obsolete view. [07 Oct 1997, p.3D]

Disclosure should slickly satisfy people who like movies about advanced computers, topical themes, hardball attorney mind games, office politics, sex and sweet revenge. [9 Dec 1994, p.1D]

Bout No. 2 is among the best closed-quarters screen fights ever, as good as (and longer than) Frank Sinatra vs. Henry Silva in The Manchurian Candidate. And Hannah does more for an eyepatch than anyone since the late Israeli defense minister Moshe Dayan.

Now that we no longer expect the world from any of them, the movie is an amusing 88-minute trifle with Beatty in a gigolo mustache and Nicholson with Art Garfunkel curls. [05 Jun 1998]

To see someone even attempt bittersweet treatment of this subject is surprising, but to largely pull it off is a major feat.

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]

Hard Candy, a highly original psychological thriller/revenge fantasy, can be bitterly hard to take and uncomfortably intense, but it's well worth consuming.

Unwed John Malkovich and Andie MacDowell are living on what amounts to room-service charity in a posh London hotel, waiting for his cocoa crop investment to bankroll their spiralling bill. Neither lead plays a very bearable character, and the pathetic maid (destitute and hearing-impaired) is too obviously conceived as their counterpoint. It's good to see MacDowell loosening up (a little) after her alarmingly stilted dialogue delivery in deadly, dreadful Green Card. But that's all. Sleeping Beauty never awakens from its monotonal slumber. [12 Apr 1991, p.2D]

Often a cinematic marvel and often the year's most pungent movie medicine, Beloved always feels as if it's carrying the world's weight, and maybe it is. [16 October 1998, p. 7E]

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

Though this saga would be terrific to read about, it is dicey screen material that only a genius should touch. With no genius in sight, K-19 might be headed for meltdown.

Hunt is coldly clinical rather than emotionally resonant; so is the measured ensemble work of a super cast. [2 Mar 1990, Life, p.1D]

Grimly claustrophobic movies can make viewers put up a shield, yet Tim Blake Nelson (who directed O) invests this unusual Holocaust drama with dramatic intensity that in no way cheapens its subject matter.

Put to the sequel litmus test, queasily spectacular Vengeance would only rate a footnote without a strong original to exploit - or a protracted telephone-terrorist subplot to steal from Dirty Harry 1. [19May1995 Pg.01.D]

The star interplay and anachronisms recapture some of the surreal spirit of the Crosby-Hope Road movies, and the end-credit outtakes are funny enough to sustain that getting-hoary device for at least one more picture.

A movie of moments whose ultimate legacy may be to get Carrey out of formula comedies forever.

Has enough tasty bait to satisfy an array of moviegoers: Burton fans, Albert Finney fans, fans of tall tales well spun by experts and fans of movies that don't look like any other.

At its weakest, Miss Firecracker seems as calculated as Henley's co-scripted True Stories; laughs, though, are a great equalizer. Director Thomas Schlamme's outdoor location work gives an extra boost in the final (and superior) third - enough to give this oddity snap, crackle and pop, if not quite the ultimate ka-bam. [28 Apr 1989, p.4D]

Thunderheart, which concerns tragic in-fighting between factions of the Oglala Sioux, lands with a sound that duplicates the name of the Indian chief who harassed Howdy Doody in less ethnically sensitive times. Thunderthud. The movie is so dramatically stillborn that it may be unfair to single out Val Kilmer, but that is Kilmer's name atop an acting lineup that includes Sam Shepard, Fred Ward and Graham Greene (Dances With Wolves). [3 Apr 1992, p.8D]

Victor Mature became a star in the 1940 original, which was simply called One Million, B.C. Happy New Year, Vic, but nothing in your version can compete with a blond Raquel Welch -- she wearing the latest '60s open-navel cavewoman garb here [27 Dec 1996, p.3D]

Geronimo: An American Legend offers both sides of the protracted battle between the U.S. Army and Chiricahua Apaches in 1885-86, which means that the film's most abject villains are Jason Patric's vacant performance and Matt Damon's droning voice-over. [10 Dec 1993, p.9D]

Buried under an avalanche of action. (1996 June 7, pg. D1)

The movie is more compelling than exciting with one exception: the kind of rocket blast-off sequence for which IMAX screens were seemingly invented.

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]

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

The presence of "Election's" Chris Klein as the male contingent's most sensitive member only emphasizes how much smarter that high school comedy was.

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

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]

Sexy, snotty, vulnerable and above all contentious, she's (Winslet) the catalyst in a movie that creates more man-woman electricity than any other movie this year.

Imagine: a pseudo-intellectual baseball fantasy loaded up, like a spitter, with seductive sentiment. You can distrust the mix, but still like the movie - and I do. [21 Apr 1989, Life, p.D1]

An unusual walk down the aisle.

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]

A 2 1/2-hour movie with halves that don't quite mesh, it still gives Al Pacino a role that's a perfect fit. [23 Dec 1992 Pg. 01.D]