Mississippi is full of good will, but it's not preachy, and its story of romance in an ethnic broth is fascinating when it's working right. [14 Feb 1992, p.5G]

Fried Green Tomatoes doesn't mean to be schizophrenic, really; it's a story within a story, and both are well-developed and wonderfully cast. It's just that the past is so much more captivating than the present that it makes you wish the memory movie could stand alone. [14 Jan 1992, p.C1]

Juice has a mind, a mood and a method of its own. And what it does wrong is overshadowed by a cast and a pace that make you sit up and take notice. [17 Jan 1992, p.G5]

The movie is long and sad, but it also seems small. You get the feeling that, like the lives of its protagonists, it could have been more. [11 Jan 1992, p.E1]

Freejack is among the most incoherent sci-fi action films we've seen in a while, despite the credentials of producer- screenwriter Ronald Shusett, who brought us Total Recall and Alien. [24 Jan 1992, p.G5]

Like all bad thrillers, and some very good ones, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle doesn't always make a whole lot of sense and seems to depend overmuch on coincidence, happenstance and shameless contrivance. But that doesn't matter. The Hand That Rocks the Cradle will scare the wits out of you anyway. Pick it apart later, when you're home safe and sound. You won't have the chance while the show's on. [10 Jan 1992, p.G5]

This is a story about the banality of evil, and it succeeds all too well -- these people are ordinary, and that's what makes them scary. Guncrazy is, finally, a romance, but not before it's tough as nails and terribly knowing. You won't forget it soon. [13 Feb 1993, p.E5]

Daughters of the Dust is as concerned with grand and universal emotions as it is with its "story." Daughters is an enlightening and sublimely lyrical film. [27 June 1992, p.E5]

Ihave it on good authority that Pat Conroy's The Prince of Tides is a wonderful book. People rave about it. But Barbra Streisand's lumbering, tearjerker adaptation gives little hint of that. This movie is long and full of pain, and it's driven by the most syrupy musical score I can recall. [25 Dec 1991, p.1]

JFK is staggering in its power. [20 Dec 1991, p.5]

If the idea was merely to make a high-gloss entertainment about the last days of mob glamour, Bugsy succeeds. But it leaves one final question unanswered: So what? [20 Dec 1991, p.G5]

The Last Boy Scout is a perfect example of what's wrong with Hollywood. The problem is the script, which is awful. [13 Dec 1991, p.G5]

Jarmusch is interesting, and funny, even when he's falling flat. And the real unifying agent here, Tom Waits' determinedly bouncy sound track, is full of perverse whimsy; it works a kind of magic on the film. It's a good thing. Night on Earth much needs the magic. [08 May 1992, p.G5]

Hook is shot through with Big Theme, and it's splashy- looking and big of heart, as you'd figure a Steven Spielberg take on Peter Pan would be. But it's not the mega-movie that combination seemed likely to inspire, either. It isn't magic. [11 Dec. 1991, p.D1]

The Undiscovered Country looks and feels more like a movie and less like a TV-family reunion. Still, the allegory is labored to say the least. [6 Dec. 1991, p.G5]

My Girl, nominally a story about a gently wacky family but actually a no-holds-barred assault on the tear ducts, is one of those movies you want to hate -- but I don't think it's possible. [27 Nov 1991, p.D1]

Beauty and the Beast is so funny, exciting and suspenseful that its obvious moral (appearance can mean nothing; it's what's inside that counts) is engaging rather than perfunctory. [22 Nov 1991, p.G11]

Uncle Fester, missing for 25 years, has mysteriously returned -- isn't enough to drive the picture. It's all one note, really. Lovely note. But just the one. [22 Nov 1991, p.G10]

The design of the film is breathtaking at times, veering from the jagged hyperbole of German expressionism to the drolleries of English comedy at its most daft, if not most broad. [7 Feb. 1992, p.G5]

The plot gimmick not only makes the sequel unworthy of Highlander, it nearly destroys the charm of the original, which was its worldliness, the idea that these guys were chosen humans. [05 Nov 1991, p.C7]

The People Under the Stairs is about nooks, crannies and crevices, and there's allegory everywhere: comments on the horror of our cities, the Ron and Nancy-esque landlords. [07 Nov 1991, p.F7]

It's not a wonderful family, and the lives thus illuminated aren't sweet at all. But the movie is both things. In his sheer affinity for the human, Leigh approaches the great Jean Renoir. What fun to watch. [21 Feb. 1992, p.5]

The lead roles are played by Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer. They're the reasons this movie works. Despite itself. [11 Oct 1991, p.G5]

Homicide fails, finally. But its early success is so complete that the film is a must-see anyway. It changes the rules for cop movies. And when it is good, it is brilliant. [18 Oct 1991, p.7]

Ricochet would be utterly unremarkable (in the small universe of violent and atmospheric cop dramas that make no sense) were it not for the cast, which includes some A players. [07 Oct 1991, p.C1]

Necessary Roughness, a football comedy of unnecessary blandness, has the same problem as the Miami Dolphins: It dies in the second half. [3 Oct 1991, p.F4]

Though this sequel is not nearly as violent as Child's Play 2, it's every bit as vulgar and preposterous, funny despite itself and vicious, too. It is, in short, of interest only to those too young to see it. [31 Aug 1991, p.E4]

Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man is lightweight, small-screen stuff. It has some genuinely funny moments, especially in the comic repartee between Johnson and Rourke. These guys have a likable chemistry, and they might be worth teaming up again. Next time, let's hope they have a script. [26 Aug 1991, p.C3]

As for comic rhythm, director Nadia Tass has no clue. [10 Aug 1991, p.E1]

Though the fight sequences deliver the necessary kicks, Double Impact's script is a study in missed opportunities. [09 Aug 1991, p.G5]

So Doc Hollywood is warm and cuddly and not at all loathsome. It is much better suited to television than to the big screen, though it does serve to showcase Warner, who is attractive and engaging. And durn it all, you just can't hate it. [02 Aug 1991, p.G5]

Return to the Blue Lagoon? Why, exactly, would anyone want to? [05 Aug 1991, p.C3]

Thanks to the self-revealing insight of its subjects, and to the unobtrusive compassion of its director, it is unforgettable. [30 Aug 1991, p.G11]

The film just has no edge, that's all. Brooks lets it go maudlin in the first half-hour or so, and for the balance we're left wondering what ever happened to the guy who made Blazing Saddles. [29 July 1991, p.C1]

Point Break has some eye-catching visuals in its frenetic action sequences, but even the slow-mo surfing gets tedious. It's like being trapped in a soft-drink commercial. [12 July 1991, p.G5]

Only Nunn has enough charisma -- despite relying on a stereotype or two as Bradley -- to easily command attention whenever he's onscreen. If only he could have transferred some of that charisma to Ford -- and to Regarding Henry -- during the therapy sessions. [10 July 1991, p.D1]

Slacker is not always so purposefully creepy, but it's often as darkly funny; none of its characters is what you'd call normal, but the film's off-kilter view is such that they seem utterly in tune with their odd lives and odder times. [29 May 1992, p.5]

The film's vague recycling theme strikes me as a veiled admission of recycled ideas. Maybe Zucker should have been bold and called it The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Money. [29 June 1991, p.E1]

Reynolds, who directed the little-seen but brilliantly realized The Beast , makes the camera his plaything in Prince of Thieves. This makes the movie at times obnoxious -- he repeatedly jams the lens into the bad guys' faces -- but most of it is highly watchable. Reynolds captures the dark and dank stuff better than Tim Burton did in Batman , and the action sequences thrust and cut across the screen. [14 June 1991, p.G5]

In the old days -- when Hollywood knew how to make funny movies, and knew how to make cheap, sentimental potboilers, and knew the difference between the two -- City Slickers would have kept Laurel and Hardy busy for maybe 80 minutes. This version lasts nearly two hours, and the filler is all man-meets-cow, man-loses-cow. [7 June 1991, p.G-5]

Applegate is fun to watch; I'll bet she can act, though nothing here tests her. Stephen Herek may even be able to direct. But on this evidence, who could tell? [08 June 1991, p.E5]

Spike Lee is one of a handful of great filmmakers working in mainstream movies today, and he has a moral vision that is pure and simply uplifting. See his movie. See it often. [7 June 1991, p.G5]

I found it to be extremely annoying, childish and simple-minded. [24 May 1991, p.G11]

The script is by Chris Columbus (Home Alone), who also directed, and it's as lazy as it is maudlin. [24 May 1991, p.G13]

The Madonna that Keshishian has caught on film is as interesting for her ambition -- love me , desire me -- as any other quality. [17 May 1991, p.G5]

Nothing here for the time capsule, make no mistake. But the Boz seems to have found a calling. [21 May 1991, p.C1]

The film rarely makes any sense, and the climactic confrontation is incomprehensible. [10 May 1991, p.G5]

Barkin's performance is deranged and wonderful. You won't see anything else like it at the movies for a long, long time -- at least until Edwards returns to the gender-swapping theme. When he does, perhaps he'll make it funnier. [10 May 1991, p.G5]

Director Daniel Petrie Jr. does a journeyman job, though he lets the air out of the thing at the end. [26 Apr 1991, p.G5]

A Kiss Before Dying is nothing if not devious. But it's also a textbook example of incompetent direction. [29 Apr 1991, p.C5]

Oscar, the new Stallone vehicle, is dreadful for an hour or so, then merely bad. By the time it's bearable, the picture is almost over. And by the time it's over, no regrets. [26 Apr 1991, p.G5]

I wish it ended better, but Mortal Thoughts is easily the most interesting movie of the year to date. And it's a throwback to that time at the movies when a single murder was a big deal. Run, don't walk. [19 Apr 1991, p.G5]

The film works as contemporary fable, cautionary tale and perversely driven love story all at once. There's a gratifyingly wide streak of humanism running through it. And there's that "chemistry." Malkovich and MacDowell, bubble, bubble. Yes, indeed. [26 Apr 1991, p.G11]

The new Steven Seagal film is, of course, almost unbelievably stupid and vile, but there's something else going on as well this time. Something new. Something . . . tedious. [16 Apr 1991, p.C5]

Haynes is clearly gifted; his film is certainly troubling. But it's also wickedly funny in spots and deft with its lampoon in others. Watch this guy. [06 Sep 1991, p.G10]

Brooks as Brooks is the funniest observer of contemporary mores in Hollywood. Brooks behaving himself, as in Defending Your Life, is just another clever fellow. [05 Apr 1991, p.G5]

Schrader, one of this country's most literate filmmakers, can be a show-off, and there are times in The Comfort of Strangers when we're more aware of style than story -- this piece is impeccably tailored, and it looks awfully good even when it isn't making sense. [17 May 1991, p.G11]

Even if it were not physically beautiful -- and Ju Dou is as enthralling to look at as any Chinese film the festival has shown -- it would hold you: Its love story is as compelling as its politics, though not nearly so tragic. [05 Feb 1991, p.D8]

Turtles II is unabashedly a kids' movie -- lighter on the colors, freer with its wisecracks, less vicious in its violence. [22 Mar 1991, p.G5]

De Niro is solid in a role that requires little more than righteous indignation. The stretch, however, is by Sam Wanamaker in the role of a Los Angeles attorney who specializes in getting his Hollywood clients out of trouble by feeding them names to inform on. Wanamaker himself did 10 years in exile in England rather than answer a congressional subpoena after publicly defending the Hollywood Ten among other witch-hunt victims. The film is worth seeing if only for a look at him in this role -- these days, when the word hero is tossed about with something approaching desperation, Wanamaker gives us a glimpse of the real thing. Maybe he should have directed this one. [15 Mar 1991, p.G5]

We're subjected to 80 minutes of butt- kicking -- most of it contrived and flatly staged -- in Speakman's embarrassing debut, The Perfect Weapon. [19 Mar 1991, p.C5]

In New Jack City, director Mario Van Peebles seems determined to show that he can make a movie as shallow and violent as any white Hollywood hack. No problem: He did it. [8 Mar 1991, p.G12]

Nothing but Trouble used to be called Valkenvania, which gives you an idea of the filmmakers' instincts: From the obscure they moved to the generic. The movie is something of both, and not much fun on either count. [19 Feb 1991, p.C8]

Basically, it's an inversion of an already proven formula, a kind of Fatal Attraction's Revenge, with every bit of business save the parboiled rabbit, and you can see the ending coming up Main Street. [08 Feb 1991, p.G5]

Even though this is a boy's adventure story with all the traits, White Fang reaches higher to deal with larger values -- loyalty, friendship, perseverance, love. It's my grudging suspicion that White Fang will still speak more strongly to the men and boys who see it, but it's nonetheless an enthralling enough film to engage the whole family, and indeed, that is a tribute to it. [24 Jan 1991, p.G1]

Not Without My Daughter ultimately does what it's supposed to do. It makes us care, it keeps us interested (mostly), but it rarely delivers more -- despite what the producers might think. [11 Jan 1991, p.G13]

Alice is certainly handsome to look at, and as usual Allen's camera is placed impeccably -- if he's overrated as a screenwriter, Woody Allen has yet to receive his due as a director. Still, what's wrong with Alice is in the script, and Allen wrote that, too. [25 Jan 1991, p.G5]

It still stinks...It's just a miss. [21 Dec 1990, p.13]

Being allowed to film in Russia was a blessing and a curse -- Schepisi weighs down the film with endless pans and traveling shots of neoclassical and Russian baroque architecture. All those buildings, monuments and squares. [21 Dec 1990, p.G5]

Though Mermaids moves in familiar circles, it tells its story (which is as much about mom's coming of age as the kids') in a nice mix of daft comedy and dramatic set pieces. It's a kind of Terms of Endearment without the tearjerking. [14 Dec 1990, p.G5]

The Rookie groans loudly and often under the load of its cliches. [07 Dec 1990, p.G11]

In Rappeneau's hands -- and in his choice of the face of Gerard Depardieu as Cyrano -- self-hatred, not a nose, ultimately becomes Cyrano's nemesis. Nothing in the middle of Depardieu's beautiful face -- no protuberance, no scar, no blemish -- could destroy the nobility and honesty of his eyes. [21 Dec 1990, p.G11]

In some ways, Misery is the ultimate writer's inside joke -- the author as slave to a single, maniacal editor. This is not a great film, but it's good enough to invest the word deadline with a whole new meaning. [30 Nov 1990, p.G5]

Jaglom isn't the first to suggest that food is at least as powerful as sex when it comes to enhancing life, or screwing it up. But he's the first to bring his giddy blend of documentary and farce to bear on the subject. Mmm-mmm, good. [08 Feb 1991, p.G12]

There's not a dull moment in the thing, and it's dumb as dirt. But who can resist? It's the ultimate guilty pleasure, the kind of movie that in years to come, when they're chronicling the decline of our culture, will turn up as an exhibit. [23 Nov 1990, p.G5]

Mostly, though, the movie is a hack sitcom romance in which the big question is how long it will take Tom Selleck to confess his love for Nancy Travis, Mary's mom. [21 Nov 1990, p.D1]

The Rescuers Down Under is a cartoon ode to adventure movies -- at once suspenseful and silly. [16 Nov 1990, p.G11]

The Krays is painted with such broad strokes, and the characters are so full of hot air, that the movie sags in the middle, ending up a mildly entertaining mixture of psychobabble and rat-a-tat-tat. [09 Nov 1990, p.G10]

In the hands of director John Lafia, who uses many tricks of the genre (none of them his own), this is all less horrifying than it sounds, and a good deal funnier. [09 Nov 1990, p.G5]

The plot -- Day trying to take over all the clubs -- is meaningless and the ending almost pathetic. But that's not the reason to watch Graffiti Bridge. It's the music, the set, the colors and the musical numbers that make this movie memorable. [07 Nov 1990, p.C5]

White Palace is formula stuff, but it succeeds on the strength of performances, a clever script and thoughtful direction by Luis Mandoki. [19 Oct 1990, p.G11]

Deadly dull and as wooden as a hitching post, Quigley is set in the Australian outback where the mercury often tops 100 degrees, but there's no heat in this movie, no spark of ingenuity or life. [20 Oct 1990, p.E4]

Very few moviemakers, I think, could have done the thing quite this well. At the end of Avalon, which is more than two hours long and does not move quickly, the extended and fractious immigrant Krichinsky family has bloomed into fabulous life, the characters deep and rich. [19 Oct 1990, p.G5]

It has been a while since we had a good, human movie about a war we could all agree on. In that, Memphis Belle is right on target. [12 Oct 1990, p.G5]

Mr. Destiny wouldn't be all bad if it made some variation on the recipe, but it's too generic and predictable -- and too blandly acted -- to be engaging. The magic's gone. It's like sucking on a Tootsie Pop for two hours and never tasting the fudgy center. [12 Oct 1990, p.G5]

The actor who used his Aikido moves to snap bad guys' forearms in Above the Law and Hard to Kill devises gorier ways to dispose of scum. But he does it all with such an obnoxious sense of higher purpose that we get the feeling he's not in on the fun. [09 Oct 1990, p.C5]

One thing it's not, despite the several lesbian love scenes that earned the film its NC-17, nee X, is "steamy." Nor is it provocative or even, Kaufman's best intentions notwithstanding, particularly erotic. It's a handsome bore. [05 Oct 1990, p.G5]

Campion tells this longish story with a reverent touch and a painterly eye, tipping over into artiness only occasionally. [20 Sep 1991, p.G5]

Be warned: King of New York is trash, but it's trash with an attitude. [25 Oct 1990, p.11]

Schlesinger works at the story's dark heart -- the stranger within -- with elegance and a fearsome wit. It's one of those movies that starts scaring you even before anything has happened, and it's a treat. [28 Sept 1990, p.G5]

From time to time, the film is funny in a cheap sort of way. The rest of it's like the characters -- older than you'd think, older than it has to be. [28 Sep 1990, p.G5]

This little melodrama is nicely put together and thoroughly entertaining. Plus, the scenery's great. Remember when that was enough? [26 Sep 1990, p.D3]

Penn and Oldman booze and brawl and fight a losing battle. Their worst enemy, alas, is their director's self-indulgence. [05 Oct 1990, p.G5]

Director Deran Sarafian and cinematographer Russell Carpenter give Death Warrant a great gloomy feel and know how how to use extreme close-ups as effective eye candy. But candy is about all we get. [18 Sep 1990, p.C3]

White Hunter, Black Heart looks good, but it's as humorless as Eastwood himself increasingly appears to be. [21 Sep 1990, p.G5]

It's one of those movies made by hard-core techies, meticulous about the "period" details and utterly neglectful of pretty much everything else, including such nuances as plain old plot. [15 Sep 1990, p.E6]

See The Killer for its sheer, gushing exuberance -- if you think you can take it. [26 Apr 1991, p.13]

There's just not much going on here once the plot finds its stride. It's goofy, and it's mean, but Darkman isn't nearly enough of either. [24 Aug. 1990, p.5]