Ted Mahar

Lumet's films are always well-acted. Q & A is no exception. And the story has more than enough rich, lively characters to go around. [27 Apr 1990, p.R13]

Pacific Heights is the latest sort-of-Hitchcock film and a pretty good one better than most of Hitchcock's post-``Psycho'' output. [28 Sept 1990, p.G11]

As before, Uys succeeds in creating uncomplicated, largely visual comedy through clever contrivance in a simple landscape that is somehow full of surprises. [13 Apr 1990, p.R13]

The film has a rich visual tone and a sparse narrative quality. [05 Oct 1990, p.E15]

The sense of visual texture is vivid. The cast performs as openly and energetically as if they were making the film for a Western audience. [03 May 1991, p.21]

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.

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

This film is the first to deal with Earp's obsession to kill all Clanton gang survivors after the shootout. Garner is not ideally cast here. [20 Oct 2000]

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]

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]

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]