Fresh, virulently funny, with an eye on life that's as offbeat as the early Beatles movies, the talents behind the bizarre and irreverent Repo Man are a real discovery. [16 Nov 1986, p.5]

That rare comedy that is as completely entertaining now in its re-release...as it was back then.

Paul Newman plays a crackerjack demolition man; unfortunately, before even half of this meandering and soggy film is over, Newman, as co-writer, co-producer, director and co-star, has flattened everything in sight, audience included. [29 Nov 1987, p.5]

1984's "Rebel Without a Cause" copy Reckless has a tighter-than-usual Chris Columbus script, moodily colorful direction by James Foley, and good acting by Aidan Quinn, Daryl Hannah and Kenneth McMillan. [20 Jul 1986, p.5]

Gives new meaning to the phrase rat race. [15 Aug 2003, p.22]

Laugh-out-loud funny. [11 Dec 1997, p.F48]

Lynne Littman's unforgettable, uncompromising and understated Testament is quite simply the most powerful anti-nuclear dramatic film ever made and stars Jane Alexander, superb as a woman trying to hold her family together in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. [10 Aug 1986, p.4]

In a brash, beautiful, deeply American film, Kaufman has combined the resources and ingenuity of movie making with the freewheeling, damn-the-conventions style of of the New Journalism and come up with a generous, high-spirited look at the bravery and lunacy that was that era.

A good, rock 'em, shock 'em political thriller, done in the best imitation Costa-Gavras style by director Roger Spottiswoode. [08 Oct 1989, p.5]

While there is barely a story to tie it all together, The Mirror finds connections in the longings of Alexei. He longs to understand his past, his land, his family, his inspirations and fears, and that’s what the movie is able to convey in its abstract but persuasive way.

The Jedi return to us at last, older, wiser and frankly irresistible. Of all its many qualities, Return of the Jedi is fully satisfying, it gives honest value to all the hopes of its believers. With this last of the central "Star Wars" cycle, there is the sense of the closing of a circle, of leaving behind real friends. It is accomplished with a weight and a new maturity that seem entirely fitting, yet the movie has lost none of its sense of fun; it bursts with new inventiveness. With Jedi, George Lucas may have pulled off the first triple crown of motion pictures.

One of the more sophisticated of Disney's early '80s offerings; the direction by Jack Clayton ("The Innocents") is high-style, convulsively screamy. [16 Jun 1993, p.F8]

Unquestionalby it's an instant classic, probably the grisliest well-made movie ever. [26 May 1983]

A film of great human drama and emotion, Heart Like a Wheel never fails to inspire.

Luckily, there's a jagged spontaneity to Wild Style that goes with the scruffy street art and culture that it celebrates. [22 May 1998, p.F17]

The film has a hypnotic pull, drawing the viewer deeper and deeper into its enigmatic adventure by crafting a world all its own.

May be the best "new" American movie released this year.

Seeing E.T. again reminds us of how much we've remained the same, how gratified we still are by a film that connects so beautifully to our sense of wonder and joy. [2002 re-release]

A brisk, handsomely designed film in which its hardware, sturdy as it is, never overwhelms its humanity.

A true Golden Turkey starring Willie Aames and Phoebe Cates, who spend the movie in various stages of undress. This Blue Lagoon rip-off finds them playing two young people who find love at a desert oasis. [10 Feb 2000, p.F11]

A glorious, mostly lighthearted adventure celebrating the mythical freedom and excitement of the outlaw life in the Old West. [09 Feb 1986, p.4]

The most convincing war movie ever made.

Unfolding deftly under Asher's direction, Night Warning combines darkly outrageous humor with persuasive psychological validity. [12 Feb 2004, p.E14]

Time Bandits may be Gilliam’s most consistently entertaining movie, but it still displays his flaws as much as his strengths. It’s visually imaginative — on a smallish budget — filled with invention, but also rambling and all over the (literal) map.

Whether the arc of Marya’s fate feels overly engineered to you or not, Quartet retains its power to unsettle in its accumulation of cuts and bruises, the rare Merchant-Ivory-Jhabvala effort that mines a glamorized past not for nuanced dignity but for a kind of elegant, honest sordidness.

Familiar stuff, but some major scares in the second half. [25 Oct 1991, p.F26]

The problem is that, even though a romance develops, Buddy himself changes almost not at all, which means the film leaves a sour aftertaste. [15 June 1986, p.SUN-6]

The Haunting of Julia is an instance of the perfect blending of role and performer, with Mia Farrow cast as a young woman who may be either the victim of a ghostly possession or slowly disintegrating into madness. [26 Aug 1990, p.4]

One of Peter Bogdanovich's most assured and ingratiating pictures, an unabashed romantic comedy of grace and sophistication featuring one of the most thoroughly likable groups of people seen on the screen in the '80s. [15 Apr 1990, p.5]

An appealing, bittersweet backwoods saga laced with plenty of country and western music. [22 June 1986, p.4]

Polyester isn’t quite up to the low standards of Pink Flamingos, but it’s still a worthy effort by Waters.

Inspired by a 1978 New West magazine article by David Barry, this fine little 1981 film suggests that continual participation in these races represents a refusal to grow up. Dennis Hopper is a long-ago racer desperate for a comeback; it's as if he's the same kid in Rebel Without a Cause, surviving those chicken runs in that film only to grow middle-aged without growing up. [18 Aug 1985, p.5]

Atlantic City is a sophisticated fairy tale, beautifully acted and beautiful to behold; it is as funny as it is touching.

This stunning, unjustly neglected 1981 release unfolds much like a Ross MacDonald Lew Archer mystery as it becomes a singularly devastating indictment of the plight of the neglected Vietnam veteran. [13 March 1988, p.2]

As rambling as a Keystone Kops comedy (which it resembles in many ways), it's slapstick to the max, and thus likely to be a bit tedious except to dedicated martial arts fans. [20 Dec 1993, p.F5]

One of the bloodiest and most beautiful reflections on atonement in the Scorsese canon... It is still one of cinema's most breathtaking films.

Taylor Hackford's 1980 debut feature The Idolmaker, inspired by the life of Bob Marcucci, discoverer and promoter of Fabian and others, has some gritty, satirical commentary on the pop music scene of decades past but is hampered by an ending that seems self-dramatizing fantasy made real. Ray Sharkey, however, is impressive in the title role. [11 Aug 1991, p.6]

David Lynch's superb and subtly ironic 1980 film reveals the shining humanity in a horribly disfigured--and horribly mistreated--young man who actually lived in England in the late 19th Century and was rescued by an enlightened Victorian physician.

An outstanding start to the fall season, reassuring in its quest for excellence and its deep concern for the family. It's a fine and touching piece of work for any season; in 1980, it is rain after drought. [21 Sept 1980, T1]

Standard grisly rampaging killer fare that marks a no-more-than-competent feature debut for director Armand Mastroianni, billed by MGM as an American cousin of the great Marcello. [17 Jan 1988, p.3]

In Scum, one of only three features he directed for the big screen, Clarke finds a bleak beauty in an institution devoted to controlling, yet also propagating, all manner of human ugliness.

Marvin's performance, much enhanced by "The Reconstruction," is a marvel.

A silly trifle about three housewives (Susan Saint James, Jessica Lange and Jane Curtin) who'd rather plan a shopping mall robbery to ease their dire financial straits than try to get a job. [04 May 1986, p.6]

Despite its cult status, Hollywood Knights is pretty much a guy flick with its share of bare-breasted females, cheerleaders without undies and crass jokes.

There are moments so visually stunning only a Kubrick could pull them off, yet the film is too grandiose to be the jolter that horror pictures are expected to be. Both those expecting significance from Kubrick and those merely looking for a good scare may be equally disappointed.

It is expansive but more tightly time-framed in terms of plot. I wish it were a handful of minutes shorter, but this is my single caveat about another richly imaginative, engrossing and spectacular motion picture from the redoubtable George Lucas. [18 May 1980]

A striking Western but empty as it is elegant. [25 Jan 1987, p.5]

It's the story of a rich girl (Linda Blair) who runs away to enter a disco roller-skating contest with a poor boy (Jim Bray). Along the way, they hook up with other skaters to keep the mob from taking over their favorite roller rink. It's as dumb as it sounds. [09 Dec 1993, p.F2]

What you see is what you respond to, and what you see is a unique cultural phenomenon, and a film that for all its visual splendors falls well short of its aspirations.

What’s attractive about revisiting The Europeans now is how it’s more indie-flavored, its pleasurable finery and delicate ironies — even the filmic stiltedness — befitting a novel whose lightness of tone James himself recognized when he subtitled it “A Sketch.”

No disrespect to Bela Lugosi, but Klaus Kinski delivers a mesmerizing performance as the original vampire in Werner Herzog's hypnotic adaptation of the horror classic. [16 Feb 2014, p.D1]

Some may find parts of Yanks slow going. The lengthy film would have benefited from additional editing. Nevertheless, it is an emotionally and visually compelling work that will not be easily forgotten.

The credible, appealing relationship that develops between Bronson and Ireland gives this 1979 film its substance. [11 Aug 1991, p.6]

The more things change, the more we have to laugh if we are to have a prayer of remaining sane, and the Pythons are the best possible step in that direction.

Despite its seriousness, the film is also among the funniest sports movies ever made. [01 Feb 2009, p.E4]

Twenty-four years later -- digitally spruced up, with some scenes shaved and others padded with previously cut material -- Scott's film still shreds nerves.

As the film's linchpin, Falk comes across as a crummy, low-life Pied Piper with a stupefyingly irresistible charm. [18 Aug 1985, p.5]

Made in 1979, The China Syndrome proved to be one of the most prophetic films ever made, having been released shortly before the Three Mile Island catastrophe. At once a fervent anti-nuclear protest and an edge-of-the-seat thriller. [27 Nov 1988]

An undervalued 1978 thriller with an ingenious script by Curtis Hanson. [23 Feb 2001, p.18]

L’Innocente is the kind of opulent, passionate drama that risks folly to attain the sublime. Giannini and Antonelli are equal to the challenge while O’Neill, who looks ravishing, provides a dispassionate counterpoint.

Hopkins is quite good as the timid ventriloquist-magician, but the film suffers with the addition of an awkward subplot involving an unhappily married woman (Ann-Margret). [25 Apr 2006, p.E2]

Handsome but overly studied. [09 Mar 1986, p.5]

Jeanne Dielman belongs to the rare class of films capable of transforming the world around you, though it requires the kind of patience and dedication that can be hard to come by at home. [23 Aug 2009, p.D10]

The performances remain delectable, the multiple murders startlingly bloody -- even the ones that are presented purely hypothetically. [02 Nov 2018, p.E4]

Scott gets strong performances from his supporting cast and is able to salvage the movie through the alchemy of the striking visuals. [13 Feb 1992, p.13]

It is a warm celebration, positive and pleasurable. The humor is folksy and slapstick rather than cerebral, as if to confirm that our encounter is with a populist vehicle.

Even in the full-length Italian version, 1900 is too emotionally extravagant ever to be considered a masterpiece. Rather, it’s a monumental achievement like such original and impassioned but scarcely flawless screen epics as D. W. Griffith’s Intolerance, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and Abel Gance’s Napoleon.

Taut, unsettling tale. One of the seminal horror films of the 1970s. [29 Oct 2003, p.E5]

With a traditional structure combined with daring flash forwards and a modern soundtrack, Ceddo is powerful and uncompromising.

Ozu uses his austere style to express warmth, occasional humor and and a spirit of reconciliation; as usual, his repeated shots of people crossing a corridor suggest the passage through life. [19 Jan 1990, p.F10]

The year’s most razzle-dazzling family movie, an exuberant and technically astonishing space adventure in which the galactic tomorrows of Flash Gordon are the setting for conflicts and events that carry the suspiciously but splendidly familiar ring of yesterday’s westerns, as well as yesterday’s Flash Gordon serials. [22 May 1977]

These are so good, and so winningly narrated by Sebastian Cabot, that you can't not be delighted. [05 July 1996, p.F1]

A luminous, ambitious but only fitfully alive adaptation (by Harold Pinter) of F. Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished Hollywood novel. Robert De Niro is wonderful as the extraordinarily complex, subtle and perceptive Monroe Stahr, whom Fitzgerald based on Irving Thalberg. [01 Oct 1989, p.7]

In the highly suspenseful 1976 Two-Minute Warning, directed with terrific energy and control by Larry Peerce, a football game takes on a subtly symbolic aspect as the cops pursue a mad sniper on the loose in a packed football stadium. [05 Jun 1988, p.2]

A dazzlingly imaginative work with awesome production values and special effects that bear comparison to those of "2001."

The strongest asset is the film's setting, a splendid re-creation of Buffalo Bill's famous tent show. [26 Feb 1989, p.4]

Narrator-hosts Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly offer more than routine continuity with their timeless class and superb timing in their first film appearance together since the 1946 Ziegfeld Follies. [26 Jun 1992, p.F22]

Though some of the chase sequences aren't bad, it's pretty silly. [27 Jun 2002, p.22]

James Goldman's script is razor-sharp, treating all characters, major and minor, with intelligence and compassion. The movie is shot in subdued hues, making the film more of a motion painting than picture. It is quite simply a film that must be seen -- and once seen, treasured. [29 Jul 1994, p.21]

An exceptional film that makes for the perfect home-video experience: It gets better upon repeated viewings. [03 June 1990, p.77]

Another indictment of pervasive corruption and perhaps Sembene's most celebrated film, it was heavily censored in Senegal on its release in 1974 and it is not difficult to see why. [01 Jan 1995, p.30]

The best possible face that can be put on things is that Big and Little Edie (the mother died two years after the film was released, the daughter is still living) made an unconscious, unsavory, mutually advantageous bargain with the filmmakers: Make us famous and we'll return the favor. In retrospect it's clear that both parties lived up to their parts; only the audience got shortchanged. [14 Aug 1998, p.F20]

It's got the smoothest, glossiest finish imaginable, but something inside it doesn't jell. [15 July 1988, p.26]

While I have no doubt that Jaws will make a bloody fortune for Universal and producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown, it is a coarse-grained and exploitive work which depends on excess for its impact. Ashore it is a bore, awkwardly staged and lumpily written.

Long before David Lynch mined the seedy underbelly of small-town life for the film "Blue Velvet" and the TV series "Twin Peaks," Michael Ritchie directed Smile, one of the smartest, most-biting satires on the glossy veneer of middle-class America ever put on film. [18 Oct 1990, p.7]

There's vivid period atmosphere and similarly vibrant performances from a cast headed by Karen Black and Donald Sutherland. [24 Mar 1985, p.5]

Has a sense of humor that is intellectual, even academic, at heart.

A stunning, stylish detective mystery in the classic Raymond Chandler/Ross Macdonald mold. [02 Sep 1990, p.72]

Private and odd, archly dreamy and intimate, A Bigger Splash remains one of the more uniquely hypnotic movies about the connection between presented life and pulsating art.

This film has qualities of feeling and insight that set it apart from most movies about cantankerous coots. [18 Jun 1995, p.6]

An odd, one-of-a-kind little film that features an involving plot by Anthony Shaffer and a performance by Christopher Lee that the iconic actor declares is his best. It also features paganism. Lots and lots of paganism.

You have to love a movie where a car gets title billing. [30 Nov 2000, p.F16]

A hysterical farce about a Sicilian laborer (beagle-eyed Giancarlo Giannini) who gets himself in political and sexual trouble. [31 Jul 1997, p.F39]

Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell and Captain Kronos -- Vampire Hunter, were made during the studio's waning years and neither is on par with Hammer's best films produced in the late '50s and early '60s. [29 Oct 2003, p.E5]

The heart of The Conversation’s appeal, then and now, is the way it combines an exceptional character study, a thriller plot and an ability to superbly convey the unease of a society where blanket surveillance is getting to be the norm.