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.