Ted Mahar

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]

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

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

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]

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.

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]

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

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]

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]

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]

It's a safe bet that those who like the music will like the film, and those who don't would find it uncomfortable. But as a combination of historical homage, docudrama and concert film, it is well acted, well filmed and well mixed. [3 Dec 1987, p.E07]

Juice is well done and sincere and the cast of newcomers is pretty good. As the story progresses, it leaves a realistic story and settings for routine chase melodrama. Its pacifist message is inarguable, but too obvious to be exciting. [17 Jan 1992, p.AE13]

The message is troweled on far too thickly at the end, but up to then, Robinson raises legitimate issues with a lively, sardonic and inventive sense of humor. [15 Jul 1989, p.C08]

Memphis Belle is an ambitious, lavishly produced, terrific-looking adventure about a B-17 crew and its 25th and last mission in May 1943 at a crucial point in the bomber war. Unfortunately, the film is at war with itself. [12 Oct 1990, p.R04]

Loaded is draggy and repetitious in spots. But consider its task -- poking fun at a genre that is more than half comedy to begin with. And the remainder is so silly that restaging it is lampoon enough. [6 Feb 1993, p.C07]

Problem Child has moments, or perhaps instants, of misanthropic satire. There also are stroboscopically brief flashes of psychological irony or cleverness. [30 July 1990, p.D8]

Tokyo Pop is an amiable, ambling film mixing travelogue, romantic comedy and musical documentary. [20 Apr 1988, p.C08]

In this loose adaptation of Sheridan LeFanu's Carmilla, Ingrid Pitt became a Hammer favorite as a lesbian vampire. This has a few nude scenes and Cushing; something for everyone. [22 Aug 1977, p.38]

The film seems thin, a set of vignettes about a fairly consistent set of characters. -- but only fairly consistent. [17 May 1989, p.B05]

You would think "The Day" might offer a grim, realistic sketch of the dangers of street life for runaways. In fact, the dangers look exciting and even stylish. Rocco gives the film a rich, complicated visual design, with consistently beautiful photography, no matter how grubby the setting is. [03 Nov 1992, p.D05]

Despite the avoidance of fundamental surprise -- there are a few good ones along the way -- Shoot To Kill is still an OK suspense adventure. Director Roger Spottiswoode (Under Fire, The Best of Times) makes the most of the wild, sometimes vertical terrain, and the acting is fine. [15 Feb 1988, p.C04]

The problem with Clara's Heart is that it grows increasingly sentimental and improbable. [16 Nov 1988, p.D05]

Shrunk is a sometimes funny, occasionally clever comedy adventure. But the fun stuff consumes only about one-fourth of the film, nowhere near enough for a feature-length movie. [24 June 1989, p.C06]

Barkin's brilliance can't offset misdirected script for Switch. [11 May 1991, p.C08]

``Blood'' seems to be sketches for a more comprehensible film which, alas, we will not see. [28 Sept 1992, p.C08]

Hoooooooooooo-hum. [19 Apr 1991, p.R13]

The last half hour is full of plot twists, turns and pretzel bends. They are imaginative, occasionally funny, and they make some surprises truly surprising. But in the process they leave the last flickering glimmer of credibility back around Minute No. 61. [8 Feb 1992, p.C06]

For all its improbability and rigorous emotion, Desperate does have its moments of quiet suspense and tension. Cimino often gets good performances and does so here. But when it's all over, nothing really unexpected has happened, and it has taken a lot of unpleasant moments to get through the desperate hours. [11 Oct 1990, p.C09]

Lonely ends up being confused and repetitious. [27 May 1991, p.B08]

For all the film's patness and lame predictability, Candy gives it a strange charm. He seems to be inherently funny, and his subtle weirdness, so useful on SCTV, is handy here as well. It helps make seeing Uncle Buck marginally worthwhile. [18 Aug 1989, p.E13]

Vincente Minnelli's 1949 film is patently made on the MGM lot, and Van Heflin makes cloddish country doctor Monsieur Bovary a bit too pleasant. And Emma Bovary's grotesque death is tidied up. Still, the film conveys the story and Emma's naive romantic thralls. [13 Jun 2004]

Sidewalk Stories is nobly intended and has many moments of humor and ingenuity. But it's ultimately a sermon with a point so general as to be almost meaningless. And it sure ruins the fun. [25 Nov 1989, p.C08]

The film is so-so, but producer/writer Bob Kaufman, flush with the success of Love at First Bite said High Cost was the forerunner of a new way of life. [04 Aug 1991, p.34]

They Live has such a clever idea, it's disappointing that scenarist Frank Armitage and director John Carpenter did so little with it. It's like a ``Twilight Zone'' tale inflated from 30 minutes to 90. Or like a film made from a rough draft. [9 Nov 1988, p.C06]

Like Father, Like Son is amusing, occasionally funny, and swift. [02 Oct 1987, p.E13]

Slow, contrived and monotonously grim. [18 Aug 2006, p.45]

Is ``Consenting Adults'' a joke? The question bobs to the surface like a dead catfish about halfway through the Alan J. Pakula suspense melodrama. A barely plausible but engaging premise collapses, crushing credibility like a mouse. [17 Oct 1992, p.C14]

Contrivances grow so outlandish as Cain grinds on that De Palma seems to be parodying himself. His intent is seldom humor, but Cain ends up being more inadvertent comedy than thriller. [07 Aug 1992, p.D01]

With his customary sensitivity, director Bert I. Gordon ripped off Them! as well as his own Amazing Colossal Man. Nutty as it all is, it takes a sudden lurch into deeper nuttiness at the end. [09 Aug 1996, p.37]

The special effects and stunts are marvelous, but director Geoff Murphy (``Young Guns II)'' gets only perfunctory acting. No room for nuance at a fast trot. Even the fastest pace gets monotonous when nothing else is happening. 'Round and 'round and 'round they go, getting nowhere but making great time. [20 Jan 1982, p.C06]

Kickboxer is a film for the truly undiscriminating. It exists for one reason, to display the physique and kickboxing style of Jean-Claude Van Damme. Compared to Van Damme, Sylvester Stallone is Laurence Olivier and Chuck Norris is John Malkovich. [13 Sep 1989, p.C05]

Snipes, a better actor than Bruce Willis or Steven Seagal, is nevertheless not as effective here, a lack for which three screenwriters and director Kevin Hooks must share blame. The latter have packed in every cliche they could, ruthlessly jettisoning any original ideas. [10 Nov 1992, p.G06]

The second half of Pink Cadillac is almost like a perfunctory sequel to a better film. It is slow and aimless, and when it's finally over, the strung-out finale seems especially futile. [26 May 1989, p.F11]

January Man has some amusing moments, and Mastrantonio manages to make her character interesting, but one can't forget that this cliche-packed, improbable script came from the author of Moonstruck. [16 Jan 1989, p.C06]

The air stuff, aided by 10 Army and National Guard units, is super-duper and excitingly filmed. The ground stuff is choppy and perfunctory. Jones is good, Young is OK, and Cage looks distracted for most of the film. [02 Jun 1990, p.C08]

The great physical production of the film may engage some viewers who don't care that the apocalyptic foreground of the novel serves as part of an interesting backdrop for a melodrama. Those who enjoyed the novel should find the film's last five minutes positively nauseating. [9 Nov 1987, p.B09]

Johnson's misplaced serious approach to Marlboro gives this style-heavy romp a few engaging moments. Rourke, looking as if he has new dentures, seems to be playing Bruce Willis. That's aiming low. [27 Aug 1991, p.D06]

It's moderately pleasant most of the time, mildly amusing now and then. Young Schlatter does a reasonable impersonation of Burns. But it's such a formula script that it would be just as predictable even without the first two films. [13 Apr 1988, p.C08]

Though this non-stop onslaught of nonsense and mayhem is not really worth watching, it is mildly impressive for Sutherland and Phillips. They act their hearts out, as if they thought they were in another movie that deserved a real effort. [05 Jun 1989, p.C05]

The Boz is filling in the blank where the hero needs to be in a maelstrom of violent set pieces. [25 May 1991, p.C08]

About an hour after an engaging, suspenseful start, Millennium seems to thrash itself to bits. [26 Sep 1989, p.D04]

Coincidental plot puts kiss of death on apathetic film. [29 Apr 1991, p.D05]

Universal Soldier is another goony banquet of violence composed almost entirely of leftovers. It's a Frankenstein-monster of a movie with parts of a dozen or more films stitched and stapled together to make one lurching melodrama. [11 July 1992, C10]

It sounds like, maybe, a cute Saturday Night Live skit, but as a serious drama, or even as an adventure melodrama -- well, it has plenty of humor, all the wrong kind. [15 May 1988, p.B06]

The film simply plods through an endless list of horror movie cliches and accumulating contrivances. For long-suffering viewers, Dr. Giggles evolves into Audience Yawns. [27 Oct 1992, p.D05]

It's depressing to see attractive performers like Alley and Larroquette work so hard to such little effect on their vacations from TV. [16 Feb 1990, p.G14]