As the movie moves through its murder mystery mode and begins racking up political points, Hank becomes a stand-in for all those Americans bewildered and beleaguered by the war. He becomes a Symbol.

She (Weisz) accomplishes the near-impossible here: She humanizes a Gothic conceit and, in so doing, turns stage blood into real blood.

Married to the Mob isn't for all tastes. But for cinematic thrills and spills, it's quite a ride.

It would be a lot better if it didn't lean exclusively on bone-crunching action for its climactic thrills, and the story continues long after its ideas have started to sag. [29 June 1989, Arts, p.10]

Kevin Kline gives a tremendously likable performance as the ersatz president, and Sigourney Weaver brings charm and elegance to the role of First Lady who's as ignorant of the switcheroo as the rest of the country.

While the story has few surprises, parts of it are amusing and the performances are convincing.

The style is slick, the action is suspenseful, and despite the explicitness of the sex scenes, the message is against extramarital affairs.

Though a tad lightweight, Tim Robbins's comedy cuts through Hollywood political blather.

What he forgot to ask Woody [Allen] for was the keen insight into middle-class folkways that marks the best Allen pictures. [28 July 1989, Arts, p.10]

It's a ridiculous story, and the screenplay (by Phil Alden Robinson) stuffs it with low jokes and bathroom humor. Yet a number of scenes are sly as well as silly, and director Carl Reiner knows when to inject a little pathos for a change of pace. He also uses touches of jazz that lend a gentle rhythm the movie would otherwise lack. [25 Sep 1984, p.23]

Iceman is often engaging and sometimes exciting, but despite its jumpy cross-cutting between the technological and natural worlds, it never crosses into the magical realm it reaches for so earnestly. [17 May 1984, p.27]

The show provides a prodigious number of giggles, and it's so short (well under 90 minutes) that you'll have plenty of time to rent the original This Island Earth and test out wisecracks of your own.

Bogosian's performance is one of the film's weaker links, however; he misses the full-bodied intensity his character demands.

Far from the movie of the year, the first installment of the long-awaited Lord of the Rings trilogy is an all-around disappointment.

This is Hollywood's most mature treatment of the '50s-nostalgia theme so far, and the most accurate.

The best things about Never Been Kissed are its colorful camera work and funny dialogue.

Some viewers may welcome the drama's lack of resolution as an honest response to the mysteries of adolescence, while others may consider it a moral cop-out. [10 March 1986, p.33]

Deathtrap falls short of the classic potential it would obviously like to have. Still, it's a jaunty entertainment, by and large.

The new remake has several strikes against it: self-indulgent dialogue, uneven performances, stupid shock effects, and a paranoid view of space exploration. It's also about 20 minutes too long. Yet it packs a strong wallop about half the time, if you see it as a child's-eye-view story that taps directly into preteen fears and fantasies.

For all its flaws, this is as personal a movie as we've seen all year from a director in the commercial mainstream. I respect it, and I'll be thinking about it for a long time. [23 April 1981, p.19]

There's not much freshness to the plot, about a young woman who has a love affair when her husband sails off to fight World War II. But director Jonathan Demme shows the same keen interest in Americana that sparked his fine Melvin and Howard, and while some story details are murky or unconvincing, his probing lens captures delicate nuances of atmosphere and performance. [03 May 1984, p.29]

Parts of the film are flatly directed...It certainly keeps the audience guessing, though, and few movies explode so many stereotypes. [31 Dec 1992]

The comedy has moments of great humor and terrific visual appeal. It's a solid achievement for Joel Coen, who directed; Ethan Coen, who produced; Sam Raimi, who wrote the screenplay with the brothers. [25 Mar 1994, p.A]

It's best when the carefully chosen cast throws itself into developing characters and building their relationships. When pure storytelling takes over after an hour or so, the picture becomes less original and engaging.

Less pretentious and more gripping than the overrated sequel, ''The Road Warrior,'' but viciously violent and awfully shallow.

Striking photography, period detail, screen-filling crowd scenes, and veteran composer Morricone's score make this one worth seeing, but the sheer nastiness of the town's people drags it down.

Smoothly directed by Kevin Costner, who also gives a sensitive performance in the leading role. The screenplay is often trite, however, and there's no reason for the picture's three-hour length. [9 Nov 1990, Arts, p.12]

The movie's basic message is that lying and conniving are perfectly all right - as long as you're a swell person inside, like the pert character we're watching here. Working Girl is a fun movie in many ways - don't get me wrong. [25 Jan 1989, Arts, p.11]