Chungking Express is really a sly and perceptive examination of the effects of urban alienation on romance -- specifically in its scarily dense and overdeveloped setting of dazzling Hong Kong. Chungking Express meanders at times and occasionally annoys (you won't want to listen to California Dreaming ever again), but the movie is all of one mood, and it leaves you craving more. [29 Mar 1996, p.21G]

From this, we can safely assume that Schaeffer is a nag and a pest, though after two films we still have little proof that he's a capable director. [8 March 1996, p.7G]

Occasionally, Down Periscope floats but it isn't particularly see-worthy. [01 Mar 1996, p.3C]

Yes, the Muppets are back with a yo-ho-ho and a ship full of fun. Director Brian Henson transforms Robert Louis Stevenson's classic into a splashy spectacle with sword fights and flamboyant calypso numbers. [16 Feb 1996, p.6G]

City Hall is a labyrinth of a drama about big-city government that goes through many intricate plot machinations to reach its stunning conclusion: Politics is a very dirty business...It's not much of a revelation, and City Hall is not much of a movie. Sure, its backroom maneuverings and power ploys feel authentic (one of the screenwriters, Ken Lipper, was Ed Koch's deputy mayor), and there's undeniable momentum as the movie reveals, layer by layer, the depth of the corruption at the center of its mystery. But you can see City Hall's big "twist" coming a mile away, and the movie ends limply, without much payoff for patiently sticking with its convoluted storyline. [16 Feb 1996, p.5G]

You, too, will roll your eyes at the film's lazy script, which is littered with gags pilfered from earlier movies and cartoons. In one scene, a loose boulder goes crashing down on Spade and Farley's mountain retreat. Heck, even Wile E. Coyote knew better than to build his house on the side of a cliff. [5 Feb 1996, p.4C]

Mr. Holland's Opus is compulsively watchable: Eager to please and never very challenging, it's the kind of movie you might stumble across while channel surfing and watch to the end. Almost despite itself, the movie also manages to celebrate the heroism of the teaching profession with surprisingly moving power. If only it had done it with more grace and less schmaltz. [19 Jan 1996, p.4G]

If you're in the proper frame of mind -- namely, forgiving -- there's some fun to be had here, but you'll respect Don't Be a Menace's daring more than you will its humor. [15 Jan 1996, p.8C]

Eye For an Eye is a Charles Bronson revenge flick with Sally Field in the Bronson role: It's Death Wish Gidget , and it's ridiculous. [12 Jan 1996, p.6G]

There's terrific, spontaneous chemistry between Sandra Bullock and Denis Leary. Watching them bounce lines off each other is one of the biggest pleasures of Two If By Sea, a helter-skelter concoction that's part romantic comedy, part heist film and part New England travelogue...But Two If By Sea (which Leary also co-wrote) is a mess in the story department, with so many different elements competing for screen time, its stars' considerable charm ends up too diluted. [15 Jan 1996, p.5C]

For all its derring-do, Cutthroat Island is sluggish, flat, tiresome. Watching it is like being stuck on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride for an endless two hours. [22 Dec 1995, p.4G]

Gingerly paced and meditative, Shanghai Triad isn't as lyrical as some of Zhang's other films, but its hauntingly tragic ending and the bittersweet relationship at its core are as powerful as anything in this director's impressive body of work. [16 Feb 1996, p.7G]

Don't blame Ormond, who is being vigorously groomed to be the next Julia Roberts in the days before Lyle Lovett. On screen, the poised Brit already has broken the hearts of some of the biggest hunks in Hollywood, from Brad Pitt (Legends of the Fall ) to Sean Connery and Richard Gere (First Knight ). Sabrina probably won't be her breakout film -- it's just not good enough -- though she's charming enough as a beguiling ingenue. [15 Dec 1995, p.6G]

Wild Bill is handsomely mounted and nicely acted, but it's also strangely irrelevant, a big ho-hum of a movie. [01 Dec 1995, p.5G]

Director Agnieszka Holland (Europa, Europa) re-creates 19th-Century Paris beautifully, and poetry scholars might find the movie worthwhile strictly for its subject matter, but Total Eclipse comes off as a big downer that confuses dreariness with substance. [03 Nov 1995, p.6G]

The Doom Generation is Araki's boldest -- and best -- movie yet, his most blatantly offensive, his most sexually explicit and by far his bloodiest. [17 Nov 1995, p.6G]

A coming-of-age film you've seen before. [20 Oct 1995, p.8G]

For 2 1/2 hours, Strange Days swirls and blooms its way into your head, sounds and colors popping like fireworks, a stream of ideas flowing steadily beneath the dazzle. It's a light show for the mind, a kaleidoscope of exhilarating action, social commentary and post-modern science fiction -- yet when it's all over, you can't help but think, "Is that it?" [13 Oct 1995, p.5G]

Jade is the latest offering from sleazemeister screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (Basic Instinct, Sliver, Showgirls), and just as you'd expect, this movie has lots of sex, lots of violence, and little plausibility or wit. [13 Oct 1995, p.4G]

It's more interested in enlightening than entertaining, and Kidron seems to go out of her way to sap the life out of every scene. It's a horribly directed movie. [08 Sep 1995, p.5G]

The Prophecy suffers from an overall dreariness, a surprising lack of suspense and sloppy, rapid-fire editing. Despite Walken's alternately amusing and frightening performance, the low-budget movie becomes so tedious that, by the end, even a cameo by the Prince of Darkness fails to impress. [05 Sep 1995, p.5D]

The movie, touted as a modern Little Women, shows none of the feminist spirit or evergreen qualities of that film. Even in those cumbersome bonnets, the March clan seemed much more hip and self-assured. In comparison, The Baby-sitters Club feels like fodder for a new generation of Stepford wives. [18 Aug 1995, p.7G]

The enchanting A Walk in the Clouds glows in the luminous tones of a fondly remembered tale, like an old bit of nostalgia your grandfather might have recounted on a clear-skied summer night. It's sweet and decorous and familiar -- you'll be able to map out the plot 15 minutes into it -- but even that works in the movie's favor. It gives predictability a good name. [11 Aug 1995, p.5G]

Unlike much of Roberts' previous work, it's a movie about characters, not high concept, and it requires her to do more than make cute faces and flash her dazzling grin. [4 Aug 1995, p.4G]

Yes, it creaks. It creaks mightily. But The Net cheerfully plugs along, asking you to swallow one whopper after the next without burping. [28 July 1995, p.6G]

Disney is trumpeting that Operation Dumbo Drop is "inspired" by a true event. In fact, it is loosely based on a short story by a former Green Beret. But it still doesn't fly. [28 Jul 1995, p.7G]

Unlike Omri's plastic toys, The Indian in the Cupboard never comes to life. [14 July 1995, p.5G]

If the sounds of snapping forearms and ruptured jugular veins make your heart sing, then you won't want to miss Steven Seagal's latest gorefest -- Under Siege 2: Dark Territory. [17 July 1995, p.3C]