Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck might want to talk to their agents about looking for better material.

Adults expecting intellectual stimulation better skip this one. Not that the Philippe Muyl film is devoid of charm; it oozes it. The story is as predictable as a hot summer in South Florida.

There's also something to be said for a movie that's content with telling a simple yarn, and telling it well.

The film likewise lurches here and there, but for the most part its aim is true. Action accelerates nicely, a series of pointless cuts to parallel action in Moscow and London provides a false but convincing sense of urgency, and not until the final moments do the filmmakers run out of steam. They have an answer for that, too, in the film's coda. [28 Aug 1987, p.D5]

Shortbus is, first and foremost, an experiment -- an accessible, audience-friendly movie about love and sex in which the screen doesn't fade to black once the actors start taking off their clothes.

Neeson is always compelling, even in a movie as ridiculous as The Grey.

Fast Food Nation would have benefited from a longer running time -- the movie often feels like it's missing big chunks of plot -- but Linklater's cautionary message gets through.

Serial Mom is one of the most consistently funny films in years, moving from one hilarious set piece to another just when you're sure it has nowhere left to go. [15 Apr 1994, p.G5]

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]

Yes, the Naked Gun series is showing its age, resorting to spoofs that have been done countless times before (there's a long, mostly unfunny parody of prison movies) or sketches that simply don't work (like a lame Thelma and Louise takeoff.) This type of rapid-fire, joke-a-second comedy is on the verge of cliche -- imitations like Fatal Instinct, National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon, and the Hot Shots! series have turned what was fresh and rollicking into a formidable challenge. Audiences have grown used to this style of stupid humor, so if a movie is going to employ the Airplane! format, the jokes have to be funny. [18 Mar 1994, p.G5]

One of the most searing experiences to be had at the movies this year.

This noisy, formulaic film turns out to be immediately forgettable, except for the parts that are so ridiculous they leave you shaking your head in wonder hours later.

The tug of war for Caterina's political soul is left open-ended, and her relationship with her difficult father is resolved with a plot twist that feels completely out of character. Caterina deserved better.

It may not get top billing, but glorious music is the star of Songcatcher, an intriguing and often lovely film.

Comes off curiously flat.

In chronicling Sutcliffe's story, Backbeat smashingly re- creates the Beatles' embryonic years. [04 Feb 1994, p.G19]

Sweet, amusing little film.

Hard Target is pretty much a bust from every conceivable aspect, except the visual -- it looks terrific, and one sequence, a shoot-out on the streets of New Orleans between Van Damme and a progressively larger number of bad guys, comes close to capturing the trademark frenzied, exhilarating feel of Woo's previous work. [20 Aug 1993, p.5]

Flowers is a quiet, eloquent movie about big, overwhelming emotions, and the constant presence of its eponymous plants, in all kinds of colors and shapes, is a metaphor for the ways in which we respond to what life throws at us, be it a sudden trauma, a perpetual state of melancholy or an unexpected opportunity for romance. Some people blossom and bloom; others wither and give up.

Douglas' performance is surprisingly dull, and he has a script to match (by Diane Thomas). Moral: Remaking Raiders is harder than it looks. [04 Apr 1984, p.B6]

It is a comic love note, a bouquet with a squirt-bulb, a joyful romance in which the message seems to be: Laugh all you want, pal, just don't go home alone. [24 Dec 1982, p.D2]

The characters in Secretary never feel the least bit human. Their quirks, sexual and otherwise, are all on the surface. Inside, where it counts, nobody's home.

Everything in Drumline engages, from its likable cast to its breathtaking finale. Only the most jaded viewers won't be cheering by the end.

While the story starts tying up its loose ends nicely, as the end approaches, the film turns flat. It's a disappointment.

The more preposterous Out of Time gets, the more enjoyable the movie becomes.

It's big, exciting, ambitious, and it makes you cry in all the right places.

For a low-brow, psycho-on-the-loose-in-paradise thriller, A Perfect Getaway is surprisingly entertaining.

A breath of fresh air in this musty spring movie season.