Mike Clark

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

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

Gere has never seemed more squirrelly.

[Olivier's] greatest Shakespearean movie. [27 Feb 2004]

Dead-carcass spinoff of Jay Ward's animated TV favorite.

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]

Almost nothing about Raising Helen rings very true, other than the camera's crush on Kate Hudson.

The movie goes wrong from the start.

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]

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]

A long-on-video 1993 release now restored to its original Cantonese with different music and more audio pop.

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

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]

Recalls the pumped-up energy of "Pump Up the Volume," as well as its casting prowess.

Bulletproof is both offensive and depressing, from its sociopathic mix of graphic violence and slapstick to its severe career blighting of the once-formidable Ernest Dickerson. [6 Sept 1996, p.3D]

That sound you hear is from jet engines gassing up, about to zoom Underclassman to DVD-ville.

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]

Albert Finney and Susannah York look impossibly young and attractive, and it's easy to see how Oscar nominations went to four supporting performers; Richardson's chosen style, a self-conscious amalgam of silent films and the French New Wave, somehow worked when it shouldn't have - and still does, to my amazement. [13 Mar 1992, p.3D]

The word on Rollerball is "troubled," though troubled is what you call a high school junior with 50 snakes under his bed. Catastrophe is more like it.

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.

Vanilla Ice was fairly amusing striking terror into Debbie Gibson when they were perversely cast as co-presenters on the last Grammy telecast. On the big screen, though, he all but exudes irreversible brain damage, as if he's taken too many noggin spills off a motorcycle. [25 Oct 1991, p.4D]