Susan Wloszczyna

Little Boxes doesn’t manage to summon as much unique insight into prejudice as screenwriter Annie Howell and director Ron Meyer probably expected to achieve. But what keeps their movie watchable is that Lynskey, Ellis and Jackson are completely believable as a loving family unit.

It is just plain fun to observe Frost as Bruce while he happily shimmies and shakes his way to regaining his once-renown "feet of flames."

At a certain point, Bean goes beyond awful to surreally awful, like the rug Burt Reynolds sports in a cameo. The last-ditch plunge into pathos does nothing to redeem the feeling. Let's hope no sequel is in the offing. The only thing worse than Bean would be a hill of Beans. [07Nov1997 Pg08.D]

Goldie Hawn and Steve Martin make Housesitter worth sitting through. While no Hepburn and Tracy, the pair still transform this overly contrived screwball romp into an inspired game of charades. [12 July 1992, p.4D]

Branagh, the actor, comes through unscathed. Branagh, the director, not so much.

Goldberg has her best role in a while, especially when she twitches and grunts her way into phony trances. Poor Demi, though, cries enough tears to drench a small drought-stricken state. [13 July 1990, Life, p.4D]

It's so predictable, you can set your watch to when the bulimic will sneak away to the bathroom.

It could be worse.

But for all the fancy-schmancy effects (budget: $90 million-plus), the vision of a hypercongested metropolis is not much more sophisticated than an episode of "The Jetsons." [9 May 1997]

Isn't always perfect. But it fills an empty spot in the hearts of girls of all ages who have been pining all summer for a movie like this.

Directed by Tony Scott (Top Gun) with his usual testosterone-injected verve, Scout is never boring but hardly edifying. With a nod to the '90s, the formula does digress to allow the pals to expose their emotional wounds to each other. [13 Dec 1991, p.4D]

What Atlantis gains in chills and thrills, it loses in pure emotion.

And the matter-of-fact portrayal of a bi-racial relationship is presented just as it should be — unremarked upon.

A plodding, play-it-safe rendition of "The Family Feud."

Hits its silly stride early and never shifts into a higher gear.

Ultimately hollow as director Bertrand Bonello keeps his subject somewhat emotionally at bay, the movie is also at times quite addictive — much like Opium, the controversial name of Saint Laurent’s famous scent. As a diversion, it isn’t exactly good for you but it does provide entertainment.

Based on the days and especially nights of Venice's 16th century courtesan Veronica Franco, this alternately dull, lively, sexy and silly costumer lightens the locks of brunette Braveheart dish Catherine McCormack. [27 Feb 1998]

Clumsily conflates our country’s racist genocide of Native Americans with the era’s marginalizing of women and their lack of rights.

These guys still know how to not just hold our attention but grab it, even if their current film needs them more than they need it.

Truth be told, Joel and Ethan's game is a little off, inconsistent and at times just plain incoherent. But they roll enough solid laughs and eye-tickling camera tricks to satisfy. [6 March 1998]

Ryder's commitment is impressive. If her movie only had her courage.

With admirable techno-savvy, the film upgrades the paranoia-propelled thriller and downloads it into the '90s. Reminiscent of a slew of films, including The Pelican Brief and The Fugitive, The Net - ploddingly directed by Irwin Winkler - is frustratingly average in almost every other respect, however. [28 July 1995, p.5D]

But Live From New York! is required viewing only if the network’s own 3½-hour marathon salute to four decades of skit hilarity earlier this year was not enough of a retrospective for you.

Mulroney is a drip with not a milliliter of chemistry with either woman. Roberts doesn't really seem to care about him so much as the fact that life is passing her by. Though, that may be the point.

Thank the wizardry of Jim Henson's Creature Shop, well-choreographed martial-arts fights and sharp direction by video whiz Steve Barron (he did Michael Jackson's Billie Jean) for keeping these comic-book heroes from going amok like Howard the Duck. [30 Mar 1990, p.1D]

What starts as a bright and bouncy time-waster that at least borrows from the best of its genre-defining ilk -- "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", "Clueless", "Carrie", "The Breakfast Club" -- eventually stumbles into sappy message-movie territory. [29 Jan 1999, p. 09E]

If Nancy Meyers ever decided to dabble in gothic romance, it probably would turn out to be something like The Face of Love.

This is one Road whose gold apparently got paved over.