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]

The movie doesn't really earn its big, overwrought finale, and after it's over it appears quite full of holes. But it's a handsome curiosity. [31 Aug 1990, p.G5]

Estevez is a self-important performer and his cockiness mutes most of the movie's laughs. If not for Sheen, a much more appealing comic actor than his brother, Men at Work would hardly be palatable. [29 Aug 1990, p.D5]

Exorcist III is as gory, convoluted -- and deafening -- as any Nightmare on Elm Street sequel. [21 Aug 1990, p.C4]

Because of James Belushi, Taking Care of Business is bearable. Even funny. [17 Aug 1990, p.G5]

Lee is better at topical parody than he is at intimate character drama, at least so far. Another is that movies about jazz are never very good, and Spike Lee, talented as he is, couldn't do much to change that. [03 Aug 1990, p. G5]

Young Guns II looks good, and offers -- for those in its audience who, against all odds, might care -- a mildly interesting theory on what really happened to Billy the Kid. And if this is what it takes to keep the Western alive, if not yet prospering, ride on, Guns, ride on. [01 Aug 1990, p.D1]

There are jokes in this story of a 7-year-old adoptee from Heck, but most of them are funny despite the clumsiness of their telling. The rest aren't funny at all. [1 Aug 1990, p.D7]

It's a movie of surpassing flatness, all surface, all monotone. Pace? It's as if the director, Alan J. Pakula, had dialed in half speed on the first day of shooting and never checked the throttle again. [27 July 1990, p.G5]

The Freshman isn't big at all, but it's no bauble, and it's no genre piece. It's quite unhinged, in fact -- the film seems continuously on the verge of spinning off into madness. It never does, which is kind of too bad. But it's never dull, and it's never cute, and it's not at all what Brando thought it was. [27 July 1990, p.G5]

Navy Seals is all action, no talk, and it never slows down enough to let you see how dumb it is. But the sudden lack of enemies in a world gone crazily, treacherously peaceful is a problem for Hollywood. [20 July 1990, p.G5]