Ted Mahar

This is one of the Duke's better Westerns. [14 Oct 2005, p.47]

Van Peebles seems just a bit more interested in how he has his say than what he has to say, but New Jack City could be the beginning of an interesting career. [8 Mar 1991, p.E13]

Thrilling. [22 Jan 1993, p.AE15]

Paul Reiser is fine as Emory's tense partner; so is Mercedes Ruehl as a good therapist. J.T. Walsh, always a mean guy, is good here as Emory's venal boss. [13 Apr 1990, p.R13]

One of the best political films of the last 20 years. [16 Oct 1988, p.06]

While the whole film is well-made, it has surprisingly few surprises. There are some small ones, but the plot and many details are predictable down to small details. [7 Oct 1988, p.F13]

What is appealing in Avalon is what is appealing in Levinson's best films, Diner, Tin Men and Rain Man. He creates relationships with texture. After a half-hour, the viewer feels part of the family, yet has an overview allowing a tolerance for the characters they don't always have for themselves. [19 Oct 1990, p.F04]

For fans of Monk's music, the film is a must-see. [20 Jan 1990, p.C09]

Not only did surviving vets get to see their World War II exploits (in the September 1944 Arnhem debacle) played out spectacularly for all the world to see, but several got to coach the actors playing them. [28 Dec 2001]

The historical details of costumes and settings are exemplary and the cast superb. Those best of times and worst of times must have looked much like this. [12 Jul 1996, p.39]

Garfield is customarily strong and energetic as a desperate guy on the edge. Famous for her work in tight sweaters and halters, Turner was no thespian. But the combination of Garfield and Garnett, or something, fired a performance from her that is, in its way, perfect. [05 Mar 1999]

One of the most important things about Baby Boom, aside from being amusing all the way through, is that Diane Keaton gets her first chance to carry a comedy all by herself. [28 Oct 1987, p.E06]

Slowly, inexorably and fascinatingly, Jean de Florette glides to a seemingly inevitable ending -- and to scenes of the next installment. [14 Sep 1987, p.C05]

This is decidedly not for everyone, but many consider it an offbeat classic. [03 Nov 2006, p.45]

Fonda's classic performance in a role he owned onstage and on film is a pleasure to watch. [22 Sep 2006, p.46]

The music is lively, loud, often powerful, sometimes raunchy, yet full of unexpected subtleties and nuances. The staging is frenetic but as perfect as the machines of the art can produce. This is first class music video.

while the conception of bear behavior is false and sentimental, the bears' performances are perfect, through a combination of training, staging and editing. [27 Oct 1989, p.F15]

Point Break is actually better than you would expect for about the first hour, then starts the long, slow slide into dumber and dumber dumbness. You can almost hear the IQ points dropping from the screen. [12 July 1991, p.E17]

White Hunter is an offbeat, thoughtful and amusing adventure. [21 Sep 1990, p.R13]

Amusing but slow. [28 Aug 1992, p.AE17]

Director Tony Richardson and Burton -- and Mary Ure, Claire Bloom and Edith Evans -- show what excitement could be created on paltry budgets in England in the late '50s and early '60s. [30 Sep 2001]

It's all done in perfect taste. Sturges' specialty was sophisticated films about largely unsophisticated characters, and his talent shines here. [28 Jul 1991, p.34]

Also, it is almost squeaky clean. It's rated PG, but without about four seconds of toilet humor and five seconds of bra ogling, Bill and Ted might have faced an insurmountable challenge: the dreaded G rating. [20 Feb 1989, p.D06]

Sidney Poitier and Lilia Skala make a fine odd couple in this whimsical drama of a wandering handyman who is persuaded to help a tiny community of German nuns build a convent in the American desert. [25 Dec 1992, p.AE05]

Here is another legendary case of actors following their characters' lead. [14 Feb 1997, p.36]

The play is hilarious, and Hawks enlivened it with his famous staccato direction. He gives no breaks for viewers to laugh without missing the next line. The brilliant dialogue comes so thick and fast that you almost have to tape the film to get it all. So, do. [31 Mar 2000]

This is grim and violent but well-acted, cleverly made and full of suspense. [14 Sep 1990, p.F16]

Annaud shot in Vietnam, creating gorgeous, often exotic images. The compelling film is a journey to another world and time, seen from a unique and peculiar perspective. [23 Nov 1992, p.D05]

Family Business isn't really bad. It is thought-provoking throughout and has many fine moments. Unfortunately, most of those moments are in the first third. [18 Dec 1989, p.C05]

Crossing Delancey is the most delightful falling-in-love story since ``Moonstruck,'' which it faintly resembles. [30 Sep 1988, p.F13]

Midler and Long are great together, and the dialogue is hilarious. [22 Nov 1987, p.11]

This is still the one to see ...for Mifune's inimitable performance and Kurosawa's gorgeous black-and-white photography. [05 Jan 2001]

Impressive and engrossing as it is, the reality alone is not what makes Salaam Bombay so compelling. Nair tells an interesting episodic story, and her leading lad is a natural actor. [05 Nov 1988, p.C06]

The characters and their situations, while perfectly credible and funny on the simplest literal level, surely add up to something like a subtly farcical apocalyptic satire. [18 April 1989, p.D4]

Betsy's Wedding is a literate, nicely acted, thoughtful and mostly charming comedy with a little drama. Its intelligent wit will be familiar to Alda fans. [22 Jun 1990, p.F15]

It is full of the farcical, irresponsible, sometimes outrageous things kids can do -- especially in a raunchy comedy. At the same time, House Party is an uncompromising, un-footnoted slice of black American life. In a way it is like "The Godfather," so immersed in the ethnic world it depicts that it is almost a foreign film. [23 Mar 1990, p.R11]

Set entirely in a police station, the play shows both the drama and routine of police work. Kingsley made them all eloquent in a snappy-patter way. Kirk Douglas gives a powerhouse performance as the detective who is wound too tight for his own good. [26 Sep 1997, p.34]

Viewers engulfed by the movie's intense romance and spectacular action could leave the theater exhausted. But it's a good ride: The Last of the Mohicans creates its own vibrant world, hurling audiences into it and allowing no relief from the excitement until the end. [25 Sep 1992, p.13]

Scott and Sedgwick are not really comedians, but they nicely impart their characters' rueful humor. [19 Sept 1992, p.C16]

Rita, Sue and Bob Too, also adapted by a playwright (Andrea Dunbar) from her own work, is more an out-and-out raucous, raunchy comedy, although hardly a madcap, farcical romp. [03 Oct 1987, p.C08]

The film is whimsical and satirical but not totally a comedy. Despite the occasional Monty Python-esque jab at romantic history, the story of the central lovers is also poignant, a chronicle of bad choices and missed opportunities. [25 Jun 1999]

Beauty and the Beast is so funny, exciting and suspenseful that its obvious moral (appearance can mean nothing; it's what's inside that counts) is engaging rather than perfunctory. [22 Nov 1991, p.15]

Despite some rough edges, Dogfight is a sweet, enjoyable match. [08 Nov 1991, p.AE15]

The length and delay of the project is evident from Brian Eno's participation. He composed and produced the subtle, evocative musical score for the film. [31 March 1990, p.C08]

Clearly based on the Japanese film series about Zatoichi, the blind samurai, Blind Fury is also openly tongue-in-cheek. It is little but violence and gags, but the violence often is so cleverly and improbably staged that it's funny too. [19 Mar 1990, p.B08]

Candy Mountain is filmed offhandedly and is full of in-joke casting. It works far better than Alex Cox's pointless, bizarre ``Straight to Hell,'' a home movie with musicians. [01 Nov 1988, p.D06]

Henry Fonda's perplexity is palpable. [26 Jan 2001]

Always has the benefit of likable characters and actors. Dreyfuss, Hunter and Goodman are good. But several scenes seem needlessly slow, and the film as a whole would be better if it had been pared down from 120 to 90 minutes. At times it seems the title and the running time are one and the same. [22 Dec. 1989, p.R13]

It hasn't the flash and style of Fatal Attraction or Jagged Edge, but its contrived finale is better than those contrived finales. [21 Apr 1990, p.C08]

It is a colorful tale in an exotic location, with excitingly staged action scenes, exotic desert locale and a richly colorful musical score by Jerry Goldsmith. It is also rich in satirical cynicism about international relations and political expediency. [09 Oct 1991, p.D07]

The writers keep the funny lines coming steadily, and Frears gets good work from all. [02 Oct 1992, p.17]

High and Low is more than a crime melodrama; it's a philosophical drama as well. [23 Nov 1988, p.D06]

The action is fast, tough, energetic and extravagant. It is smoothly and stylishly made but more inscrutable than intended. [28 June 1989, p.D05

The film is uncommonly evocative. [19 Dec 1990, p.D6]

Kennedy fills this with Western cliches, character actors and sprawling action. [09 Mar 2001]

Joffe does a good job of making a complex project comprehensible to a mass audience with no memory of World War II. Moreover, he infuses drama into an often cerebral project by highlighting the tensions among the characters. [20 Oct 1989, p.E13]

Landis keep things moving smoothly as both a director and supervising editor. He too has an uncharacteristic light touch. The film is simply a happy surprise. [26 Apr 1991, p.R13]

Snipes and Sciorra give fine matched performances. They make the impulse and the complex following relationship credible so that it matters what happens to these pawns in a game beyond their grasp. [7 June 1991, p.B06]

The film is funny, odd and real. [18 Sept 1987, p.E18]

This genuinely irreverent film is one of the few to dabble in theological humor. It's wicked, but only up to PG-level heresy and impiety. [03 Apr 1998, p.38]

Given its defiant adherence to cliche and avoidance of originality, Memories of Me should be boring, but the cast keeps it interesting, and many of the lines, fortunately, are amusing. [07 Oct 1988, p.F13]

Best Intentions should be engaging for those unfamiliar with Bergman -- and at three hours, it had better be engaging. To Bergman buffs, it is fascinating -- a lively, clever drama of opposites powerfully attracted. [14 Aug 1992, p.17]

Director Claude Berri plays the story out steadily, beautifully and thrillingly. [25 Dec 1987, p.F20]

This 1983 film is well-staged, well-acted and backed by a suitably nervous Jerry Goldsmith score. [25 Sep 1998, p.36]

it feels as if it is going extra innings, due partly to a present day prologue and epilogue. But the banter stays lively, humor never slumps.

Even without the eyeglasses that gave viewers a headache, this film is a classic because it is one of the earliest and best of the wailing-music-in-the-desert-after-the-UFO-has-landed genre. This movie is a cut above some of the truly awful, tacky aliens-behind-the-cactus space operas of that era, possibly because the script was adapted from a story by Ray Bradbury. [29 Nov 1987, p.11]

Lighting changes subtly from shot to shot within a scene to highlight a chin, a cheek, a profile, a shoulder -- whatever carries Von Sternberg's message. To sully this monochromatic beauty with electric colors would be a crime and a sin. [15 Aug 1990, p.E05]

Despite its familiarity, Tale is well-staged and well-acted. Richardson makes Kate a real person, and her tale is suspenseful to the end. [16 Mar 1990, p.R07]

Like "Trek V," this would be merely an interesting episode on a TV series, but it would move faster. On the big screen, even with the snazzy ship, credibly sized crew and good special effects, it plods in spots. [6 Dec. 1991, p.15]

Ladd's career had been declining and kept declining after Shane, but his minimalist, passive style was perfect for this character, a violent man who has grown thoughtful too late in life. This is his best work. [28 Apr 2000]

One False Move is a small, nearly flawless gem of a film noir, a suspense drama that never lets up until the final credits. [17 July 1992, p.17]

The plot's very sparsity gives "Life" its own special suspense. It is rarely possible to guess where the film will be in the next 10 minutes, yet nothing in it is improbable. That is another reason why the upbeat finale works. For all of the film's quirks and absurdity, it never strains credulity. [27 Dec. 1991, p.13]

This is padded a bit but still faithful and entertaining. [11 Dec 1992, p.AE15]

A superb production of a so-so story. [10 Feb 1992, p.C05]

Godfrey Reggio's Powaqqatsi is just like his Koyaanisqatsi, only different. Its dreamlike mix of forceful imagery and Philip Glass' surging, unique music is the same, but the dream is different, and Reggio uses different techniques to incarnate it. [08 Jul 1988, p.F13]

Written by Charlie Haas, Gremlins 2 is more clever than Gremlins, and Dante seems to move everything at a much quicker pace here. Perhaps because things are pretty predictable, Dante lingers on little. Much dialogue will be lost to audience laughter. [15 Jun 1990, p.R15]

The big-screen reissue offers a rare chance to admire the marvelous production details. [2002 Director's Cut]

It is a strange, fascinating hybrid film, but it is Madonna's film, and she plays her role to the hilt. [17 May 1991, p.05]

Languidly paced yet not at all slow, Chocolat is a last, lingering, affectionate look at a comfortable, convenient life that may have been more a mirage than a memory. [12 May 1989, p.I13]

With much dialogue coming from the Charles Portis novel, this is an exceptionally clever and eloquent Western with surprising levity among the mayhem. [01 Jun 2007, p.34]

The film and characters aren't really down on men. They're in a desert. Almost everything that's good or useful is somewhere else. What is in the desert in ``Gas Food'' is a fractured family that is a great experience for the viewer. [9 Oct 1992, p.AE15]

This one wraps up with a melodramatic finale that doesn't really deal with the issues raised earlier. Nevertheless, until then, it is an intelligently written, well-acted film that deals sensitively with the disorientation of guys who find adapting to peace as difficult in its way as adapting to war had been. [13 Mar 1988, p.06]

Dani's feelings are complex, as she reacts to life's new everyday bewilderments, and much of her reaction is wordless. Witherspoon and Mulligan make Dani's feelings eloquent. [16 Nov 1991, p.C10]

What Alive does show is engrossing, a virtually unique experience re-created thrillingly and surely as faithfully as we can stand. [15 Jan 1993, p.13]

Dad is something of a sitcom soap opera in which tragic and desperate things happen, and the participants can always snap out a one-liner for the occasion.[28 Oct 1989, p.C08]

Hook is full of funny and engaging moments, but they are separated by too many moments that are neither. It should have been written to be shorter, perhaps a brisk 90 minutes instead of the 135-minute behemoth it is now. [13 Dec. 1991, p.AE08]

It's difficult to imagine a better film adaptation of Maclean's work. [16 Oct 1992]

This was the first major film to depict a benign extraterrestrial visiting Earth since the postwar flying saucer phenomenon began in June 1947. Few alien visitation films have surpassed it for suspense, narrative economy, acting and a just plain good story. [09 Apr 2004]

Empire of the Sun is such a grand, successful blend of epic filmmaking and personal drama, it's hard to believe Steven Spielberg made it. [11 Dec 1987, p.G15]

There is a formulaic inevitability to the ferocious finale, but good writing and superb, intelligent acting keep the movie fresh and tense to the last moment. [27 June 1992, p.C08]

Directed and co-written by Ron Underwood, Tremors maintains a good, steady tongue-in-cheek tone while working nicely as a suspense thriller. [22 Jan 1990, p.D5]

Texasville is replete with events and complications, but the same three or four seem to recycle themselves every 15 minutes for two hours. The film is already written off as a bomb, a sunbaked soap opera. Its often sly humor does not offset the sense of slow repetition. [12 Nov 1990, p.C07]

All this pain and growth occurs in a story whose plot elements turn over so rapidly that it's hard to track them. One furiously violent episode follows another, each seeming to step on the heels of the one ahead. [29 Dec 1989, p.F09]

Robert Redford makes a convincing member of the U.S. Olympic Ski Team in this exciting and thoughtful Michael Ritchie film about the sacrifices and compromises made -- or not made -- for a chance at a moment's glory. [26 Feb 1999]

Richard Linklater's ingenious social comedy is a tour de force, at least in a minor way. [25 Oct. 1991, p.19]

If there is a drive-in classic, this is it. [04 Jun 1999]

Roughness at least has a few good laughs in the formula. [30 Sept 1991, p.D08]

Spaced Invaders is a cute comedy-- cuter and funnier than you might expect. [02 May 1990, p.E07]