The Lookout boasts some very interesting, original performances. They make this noirish, bank-heist caper intriguing, but in some ways they actually work against making it believable.

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]

Vol. 2 isn't exactly disappointing, and like all of Tarantino's movies, I suspect it will improve with repeated viewings. But for now, Vol. 2 leaves you pondering what could have been.

The film isn't particularly original, but its dark mood, end-of-times landscape and unique characters will seem fresher to the young audience for which it's aiming than to jaded sci-fi veterans.

For all its tangle of characters and plot twists, Van Helsing isn't the slightest bit involving, and more than once (especially whenever Beckinsale is onscreen), it is unintentionally hilarious. But it's the rare kind of movie where the badness just adds to the fun.

Delicacy bears a slight whiff of Anthony Minghella's fantastic "Truly Madly Deeply," but while Minghella's film is a romantic comedy classic, Delicacy hovers just this side of memorable.

Bogs down in a deep muck of inevitability.

This new Brideshead Revisted, though imperfectly revised, is not entirely regrettable.

After starring in a string of heavy dramas, Andy Garcia lightens up and goes for the funny in City Island, a breezy comedy that fits the actor like a güayabera.

In a movie packed with broad humor, the best jokes are so small they're easy to overlook.

The music video tendency to make everything literal binds Prince's third film effort too tightly, and in all the wrong places. Rather than allowing the spacious set and the music and the interaction to communicate his boiling-energy concert persona, Prince spells out every little meaning, often plopping his songs into unnatural contexts just to make the grand statement. [20 Nov 1987, p.D5]

Unapologetically appalling, more disgusting than anything you've ever seen and moronic enough to make you wonder about that theory on the depletion of the gene pool. It is also so funny it will make you choke.

Minimalist, yes; post-modern self-conscious, to a fault. But giddy, fanciful and at times simply obvious. [21 Nov 1986, p.D10]

Trade's wake-up call needs to be heeded, but its missteps detract from its devastating message.

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]

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

For Romero fans, Monkey Shines may lack the graphic punch of his earlier work, but it's still a crafty piece of entertainment. [29 July 1988, p.C5]

Isn't exactly memorable, and as far as its prison setting goes, it has nothing on HBO's infinitely more brutal "Oz." But as late-summer time killers go, you could do worse.

A decent thriller made better by good performances and an intriguing setting.

The technically well-made movie simply can't replicate the live experience of a Cirque show, and at just over 90 minutes, Worlds Away still feels long.

Untamed Heart veers into the contrived and the schmaltzy too often to really work the way it wants to. But Tomei and Slater rise above the material. It's their characters, and their unique, touching relationship, that you'll remember. [15 Feb 1993, p.C3]

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]

And unlike other recent dramas such as "Rendition," the film never feels like it's preaching. Instead, it just urges: Whatever you believe, do something.

Its situation and its sight gags are marvelous, recalling the best of Spielberg's 1941. But like that movie, The Money Pit is disconnected; pieces seem missing, and subplots seem to have been abandoned in a rush. [28 Mar 1986, p.D5]

Dark, nasty fun that gets better when you play it over in your head. But the plot holes seem even larger in hindsight, too. Just tamp down those expectations, then tamp them down some more.

It's good work in aid of very little. Smithereens is often fascinating, but it is never satisfying. And by the end, when Wren seems about to be billed for her sins, it's hard to care much one way or another. [28 May 1983, p.D7]

The dialogue is sparse but well used -- it's refreshing to see a movie where people don't feel compelled to talk all the time.

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