Peter Stack

Jumbled and stupid plot, bad acting and a few predictable gags that fall flat.

Though this film's considerable warmth derives from dalmatian puppies and other animals who take charge of their fates, Close steals the show.

The richness of characters make this movie shine. It's just that, somehow, a certain sense of fire is missing.

The Island of Dr. Moreau ought to have been a great film in these times of gene splicing and DNA research and all the moral, ethical and practical questions those developments raise. But director John Frankenheimer and screenwriters Richard Stanley and Ron Hutchinson's attempt to update Wells yields only a maddening mess of empty gestures.

Two If by Sea should have been titled "Two at Sea." It's adrift. Stars Sandra Bullock and Denis Leary have no chemistry together, and a perfectly good story is wasted on a really bad script.

The dragging pace is one of several agonizing defects in this bloated sci-fi action drama.

SubUrbia is depressing comedy -- the more so because director Richard Linklater's satirical picture of youthful alienation rings painfully true.

Goes downhill fast.

This wacky buddy road film... has a brilliant glow of intelligence behind the stupidness. It's easily the funniest movie of the year.

This British film also mocks the rave culture it celebrates, and it's charming in a way that is hip but surprisingly down to earth.

Muppet Treasure Island is an elaborate, juicy eyeful. The film is an impressive maze of visual scale and perspective that lets humans and puppets interact as a single species. The overall effect is a wonderful sense of the fantastical. But simplicity might have helped where the movie often stagnates with gimmicks.

Problem Child is a beautiful example of what junk entertainment can be with a smattering of brains behind it. While it hangs there as a monument to audience idiocy, it also lets you have a wallow in fun. You leave thinking there have been worse things on which to spend your time and money. [28 July 1990, p.C3]

Slick, glossy, overblown, implausible. [15 July 1988, Daily Notebook, p.E1]

Heart and Souls stands up beautifully as a heart- tugging testament to the importance of taking care of the sometimes complicated business of being a decent, loving person before some fateful bus crash robs you of the chance. [13 Aug 1993, p.C1]

Mulholland Falls is a provocative crime drama with a limp script and a forced feeling. But star Nick Nolte is a ticking time bomb as a brutal Los Angeles police detective with a hulking, gasping sense of pain and meanness. He gives the film an odd, askew tone that keeps it tough and alive.

It's not a great film, but Event Horizon produces an intense sense of visual involvement. The hallucinatory, almost 3-D-like scenes stick in the mind.

Glitters, but it's not pure gold.

For a big, floppy, silly movie that is in many ways the epitome of throwaway entertainment, Twins has its charms. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito make it seem they had so much fun making this flabby comedy that the fun becomes infectious.

Has a certain slow, mechanical quality.

Wonderful characters keep the movie from gagging on sweetness.

Violent, gritty and probably too intense for very young children, but for anybody between the ages, say, of 10 and 10, it's certain to be a crowd pleaser with fascinating dark tones and menacing undercurrents that are quite a contrast from Saturday cartoon fare. [30 Mar 1990, p.E1]

It's not always clear what this film is driving at, but Shiota makes the weirdness visually arresting.

It's not a deep film, but there is a certain poignancy in Luke's situation and in the earnestness with which the burly Sinbad approaches the boy. Simms has a warm style and lets Luke know he's not a nut for feeling the need to explore the world a bit.

Using documentary-style Super 16 film and staged cutaway interviews with friends and family, James and his photographer and co-producer, Peter Gilbert, fashioned a movie with an affecting, candid look.

Achieves a rare interweaving of the darkly poetical and raspy, cockeyed comedy.

It's the kind of movie you may approach with a show-me attitude, only to be won over to its hip sense of fun and a gentle humanity that lets you walk away with a glow. [1 Oct 1993, p.C1]

This thick, leaden production starring Bob Hoskins and Patricia Arquette - and an uncredited Robin Williams - has a sophomoric air, even though it faithfully follows the book.

Turning the comic game slightly on its ear and injecting it into a romantic Western setting, Maverick, inspired by the old TV show, plays its ace for all it's worth. Ace, in this case, is fun. [20 May 1994, p.C1]

It's a shame Arnold is stuck on the loudmouth clod schtick, because there are moments he's downright pleasant on screen. But in Carpool, these moments are kept to a minimum.

A spirited adventure with generous romantic and comic charms.

If it all sounds rather heady for a Disney movie, well, it is. And it is one of the curious delights of The Lion King that a moralistic patriarchal drama can be played out in a Darwinian setting and still emerge shining in a dream coat of Hollywood entertainment values. [24 June 1994, p.C1]

Beautiful in both its brevity and its vision of contemporary Indian culture, the film abounds in easygoing humor.

Dark City grabs your eyeballs and squeezes.

The movie, based on the novel by Simon Brett, tries very hard to make a statement about the feelings of a man who has struggled for years and suddenly finds himself over the hill, a shutout at work and at home. But the tale falters on Caine's character. [23 Mar 1990, p.E5]

Carax, with Pola X, has become a parody of himself with a self-indulgent, overreaching style that many viewers will find a struggle to watch -- provided they can contain their contempt for pretentiousness.

The new film Parenthood is a challenging, funny, affecting and mostly rewarding effort - like parenthood itself. It makes good use of a large ensemble cast led by Steve Martin as a man striving to be a good dad. [2 Aug 1989, p.E1]

This slight, predictable comedy has appealing moments.

Exceptional, powerful new documentary.

Director Ted Demme (with a terse script by Mike Armstrong) keeps it darkly funny while exposing raw nerves in a buildup to unexpected tragedy.

Zellweger has the most interesting new face in film, and she knows how to use silences to say what the heart wants to get across.

Swimming With Sharks, despite its attempt to be wicked and hiply fun, is ultimately just tiring as it pits people against one another.

The film's constrained style keeps the drama from reaching a full boil.

It's a stunning, delightful image adventure like nothing done before on the big screen.

A perfect vehicle for Robin Williams. He again plays the compassionate, manic clown that has been his main character throughout his movie career. And audiences love his wild end runs.

He Got Game seems to cheer for integrity, honesty and hard work while playing up its own cheap thrills.

Curiously mellow for a John Carpenter thriller, Village of the Damned, a full-color, cornball special-effects remake of the 1960 sci-fi favorite, is a trip to a village of the darned tedious.

A "nonstop thriller" that is also a nonstop dud. Underline the word "long" in the title.

Not every moment of the film is as potent as the book (which is noted for passages of passion and impassioned eloquence), but Cry, the Beloved Country overcomes its own limitations to become a glorious tribute to the workings of a faith that does not blind but opens up the human spirit.

Shyamalan's story is clearly autobiographical, and he imbued the tender tale with a wistful atmosphere as well as a kindly regard for parochial school, hitting some of the details just right.

It's a fizzle as as comedy. Still, the film has character.

Rush is amazing throughout this absorbing, provocative film.

Still, it's almost impossible to entirely wreck this great chestnut of Broadway and film. Thanks mostly to the terrific songs, the new version has transporting moments. [20 March 1999, Daily Notebook, p.B1]

Adults may have more fun watching this engaging film, which cleverly paints Hollywood as a treacherously duplicitous place even though it turns out some of the most joyous entertainments on earth.

Among Chan devotees, it achieved cult status.

The kind of little film you can get cozy with, laugh at in odd places even when nobody else is laughing - and yet people will not turn around to glower at you because they understand. [12 July 1989, Daily Datebook, p.E1]

A wildly funny sex farce that smartly combines big-time silliness with sophisticated wit.

Wicked fun with flickers of intelligence.

Stunning, odd, glorious, calm and sensationally absorbing.

An earthy, sexy mystery.

A sexy, moody comedy that plays like a dreamy comic novel.

This is not comfortable comedy.

One of the year's most fascinating flicks.... Brilliant performances by Jeff Daniels, Melanie Griffith and a newcomer named Ray Liotta give sparkle, and shadows, to Something Wild. [7 Nov 1986]

Father of the Bride Part II is too long, completely predictable and unabashedly immersed in a posh world that is totally out of reach of most people. It's a comfort to see that riches don't keep some guys from being dithering fools when it comes to life's fundamentals.

Chase is so dull in this film, he looks as if he's sleepwalking.

The most entertaining movie of the year. Funny and action-packed, it's also got that rare thing, heart.

Viewers may feel let down because the depth promised by the movie's visual artistry is never quite delivered.

Look Who's Talking plays baby-picture cute almost beyond the limits of the tolerable, but it has enough spark and intelligence to be a very likable, occasionally riotous romantic comedy. [13 Oct 1989, p.E1]

This moody film, set in muggy Memphis, exudes a dangerous veracity that's both exciting and poisonous.

Extreme Measures has disturbing moments, and poignant ones, too. It plays a good game of paranoia with its unlikely hero. Once the story gets past Luthan's implausible firing on trumped-up drug charges, it places him alone in a hostile world. Relying only on a determination to solve the medical puzzle, he goes on a desperate expedition into the bowels of the subway system. It's a grim, scary sequence, and Grant seems a million miles away from his stammering comedic style -- an extreme that is surprisingly engaging.

Eric Idle--a royal among sillies--turns in a wonderfully wacky performance.

A gorgeously rendered and gritty film version of the classic adventure story by Jack London. It is a must-see for anyone with an interest in outdoor adventures, particularly as invented by Jack London. [18 Jan 1991, p.E3]

It's both amazing and depressing how much talent goes to waste in the lame adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s 1973 absurdist novel.

The Cable Guy doesn't know when to pull the plug. Much of the film plays like a personal boob tube with Carrey trapped inside, determined to act his way out in a mugging freak show. He's a disturbing mixture of psychopath and pathetically misguided lonely soul.

Does have a certain classy charm because of its upscale setting. One could wait for the video.

Could have used more dramatic energy, maybe at the expense of some of that gorgeous scenery.

Kiss of Death was directed by Barbet Schroeder ("Single White Female") in the fashion of a creepily smirking cat toying with a particularly appealing mouse.

It has the simple charm of being mindless fun with nary a worry that there are several pockets of lame gags or far-fetched comedy bits that refuse to register on the giggle meter. [16 Feb 1990, p.E3]

Want a believable plot or acting? Forget it. But if you just want knockout images, unabashed eye candy and a riveting look at a complex world that seems both real and fake at the same time, "Hackers'' is one of the most intriguing movies of the year.

Pathetic yet stupidly entertaining for several minutes of its interminable running time, 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain makes half its cast look like retreads and half like fresh ponies desperately karate-kicking a dud script to see if it has any signs of life.

Drawn with the big-headed, big- eyed appeal that has made the TV show hot among the diaper crowd, the film has a satirical edge that won't be lost on adults but retains a sense of innocence and a joyful toddler's outlook.

A rare spectacle on the big screen.

Carrey goes boldly where no funnyman has ventured before, and it's simply amazing to watch him do it.

A deftly layered drama.

It takes a while for this powerful, funny movie to grab you, but once you get hooked, it feels like you're swimming in a wonderful stream of humanity, bathed in intimacy, romance and, not a little bit, delicious fun. Fried Green Tomatoes is as likely as any film around to carry your heart away and leave you with a wonderful glow. [27 Dec 1991, p.D1]

Vampire in Brooklyn is neither funny nor frightening and comes up a tedious middle-road hybrid from veteran scaremeister Wes Craven, who directed.

The new comedy is screechingly inane and skitters in nine directions at once.

(Driver) is stuck in a mess of a movie that suffers from awkward writing, a plot with major disconnects in plausibility, an annoyingly screechy kid character and cheesy production values.

What is astonishing about this movie is how all the elements are so deftly mixed - the technology of real sets and people interwoven with the cartoon world, and yet Zemeckis hardly sacrifices a beat in laying out a curlicuing '40s-style thriller. [22 June 1988]

A sappy, muddled production that misses the jarring tone of the autobiographical book by Susanna Kaysen on which it is based.

An overstuffed, underfed numbskull movie.

Has unusual visual vitality in a John Cassavetes vein. For the adventurous, it's worth checking out.

An extraordinary entertainment that personalizes the world of insects and other invertebrates and leaves audiences with an itching conviction of the poetry of nature.

Delightfully comic - and the funniest moments are rich in meaning - A Man of No Importance is laced with memorable scenes.

The all-time great talking-pig movie, a lovely, intelligent gem of G-rated entertainment that is also rib-tickling funny.

Schlock, but amusing schlock.

A mixed bag concocted with an almost willful aim to be quaint and a little arty, but one with small wonders poking through its soft, somewhat plain fabric. [06 May 1994]

Quickly assumes an appealing mockumentary style.

Viewers expecting rip-roaring, chandelier- swinging swordplay adventure are likely to be disappointed by the measured tone and portentous verbal interplay.