Lee's film is nicely crafted, and offers an up-to-date take on Taiwan's rapidly evolving culture. But as a comedy it's distressingly short on laughs - gentle satire is more what you'll find here - and may seem too reminiscent of a number of other recent Asian features to seem satisfying except to insatiable foodies. [19 Aug 1994, p.L28]

Director Rob Reiner hits a career low at the helm of "North," a charmless comedy-fantasy starring Elijah Wood as a disgruntled 11-year-old. [22 Jul 1994, p.L29]

Sarandon offers a lovely performance as the brash but starkly vulnerable Love, while Jones delivers a slickly entertaining portrait of a legal eagle who's more like a vulture. [22 July 1994, p.L28]

Designed to lead viewers on a latter-day vision quest, "Little Buddha" instead offers only mystical mumbo-jumbo. And poorly plotted mumbo-jumbo, at that. [27 May 1994, p.L32]

All of Demme's headliners are quite adequate, with Davis - a wonderful comedienne as well as a dramatic actress of stature - emerging as the film's principal delight. They make The Ref a briskly enjoyable affair that would have been even better if it had retained more of its diabolical edge. [18 Mar 1994, p.L24]

Cooper's writing can be overwrought at times; a few of his scenes don't come off as he'd evidently hoped. And Ichaso's direction has a tendency to get fussy. Yet overall Sugar Hill is an ably realized drama, well worth seeing for its candid and sympathetic insights into the mindsets of African-American men. [04 Mar 1994, p.L27]

A needlessly complex narrative design makes for hard-to-follow viewing, though the photography here has a satisfyingly sinister look to it. Kudos to Mark Isham for his bittersweet, jazz-inflected score, and to Oldman for his latest snapshot of a damned soul. [11 March 1994, p.L25]

While hardly the sensation its hype promises, the D.A. PennebakerChris Hegedus documentary The War Room offers some droll glimpses behind the scenes at the workings of the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign and its twin masterminds, Cajun firebrand James Carville and cucumber-cool George Stephanopoulos. [4 Feb 1994, p.L26]

Mike Leigh's awesomely overpraised Naked is that one-in-a-hundred mediocre movie that contains a genuinely compelling performance. [4 Mar. 1994, p.L27]

Those who like their swashbucklers to resemble, say, the farces of Jim Abrahams and the brothers Zucker, will be in good hands with David Loughery's obvious sight gags and anachronistically "hip" repartee. The only real wit in sight is supplied by Curry, who does what he can to give viewers some respite from the picture's relentlessly giddy brand of schmaltz. [12 Nov 1993, p.L25]

The cutesy comedy "Look Who's Talking" has now spawned a second sequel, and it's even smarmier than the last two outings in this increasingly unbearable series. [9 Nov 1993, p.C10]

One other problem. Parodying movies like "Basic" and "Attraction" is an inherently dicey proposition. After all, such oversexed morality tales are practically parody themselves. [2 Nov 1993, p.C10]

Hollywood has made, over the years, some pretty silly films about mental illness, but "Mr. Jones" - the story of a romance between a deeply disturbed patient and his psychiatrist - surely ranks with the looniest. [12 Oct 1993, p.E8]

While Bopha's belatedly tragic story is an affecting one - and is made all the more poignant by strong performances by Woodard and Eziashi - it will not seem entirely fresh to movie-goers weaned on such superior cinematic treatments of the subject as Chris Menges' "A World Apart" and Euzhan Palcy's "A Dry White Season." [29 Oct 1993, p.L25]

Pigskin fans will doubtless cheer "The Program," a new melodrama set in the high-stress world of collegiate athletics, but while this David S. Ward feature pretends to address many of the most troubling aspects of high-stakes college football, it winds up ducking just about every issue it tackles. [28 Sept 1993, p.C7]

Not much sets director (and co-writer) Rowdy Herrington's suspenser apart from other run-of-the-mill efforts in this genre, though a number of supporting players acquit themselves well. And the story's resolution has the ring of unpleasant truth to it. Willis is by now so familiar with characters like the perennially grungy Hardy that he can portray them in his sleep - and at times seems to be doing just that - while Sarah Jessica Parker makes for a fairly lackluster romantic sidekick. [22 Sept 1993, p.E10]

Daytime serial star Shane McDermott and "cha-ching" man Seth Green vie to create the most annoying teen screen personality this side of Pauly Shore in "Airborne," a high-velocity skating movie that remains hopelessly earthbound. [22 Sept 1993, p.E10]

Nothing about the outcome of "Fortress" will surprise anyone, but getting to that point entails some nerve-racking excitement and even a few laughs. A raft of top-flight special effects add visual and conceptual interest to the proceedings - that Gordon wisely limits to 90 minutes - while an actor named Jeffrey Combs (in the role of a gonzo computer whiz named D-Day) does a crackerjack job in support. [10 Sept 1993, p.L22]

It's a genial and mostly well-crafted picture, if hardly one that breaks new ground. [27 Aug 1993, p.L21]

This is, on balance, a diverting little picture, but it could - and should - have been downright hilarious. [13 Aug 1993, p.L21]

Imagine a funnier, more thoughtful, more bittersweet version of "Green Card" and you'll have a pretty good description of a Chinese-American comedy called "The Wedding Banquet." [27 Aug 1993, p.L20]

This offbeat comedy-horror flick about a young man with a terminal fear of commitment turns out to be a modestly funny affair. [30 July 1993, p.L27]

Utterly atrocious. It returns Andrew McCarthy, the world's most pretentious actor under 30, to the farcical lead for which he's ill-equipped, trashes a slew of West Indian religious traditions, and manages to find only one really catchy tune - Arrow's soca-syncopated "Dancin' Mood" - in a soundtrack that ought to have sizzled. [15 July 1993, p.E9]

Rash's movie is forgettable, the smarmy Shore being just as hard to take as the sophomoric one. So if you're not a fan, consider waiting for Son-In-Law to slouch its way into a dollar house. [2 July 1993, p.L22]

Life with Mikey is seldom the stuff of belly laughs. But Vidal is a minor find as the cheeky street urchin, Cyndi Lauper contributes off-the-wall support as the Chapmans' ditzy secretary, and Fox's low-key presence is as amiable as ever. [4 June 1993, p.L21]

As one who could by no stretch of the imagination be called a video junkie, I was prepared to take an instant dislike to the big- screen version of Nintendo's wildly popular Super Mario Bros. Instead, I mildly enjoyed it. [9 June 1993, p.E7]

Dragon is guilty of simplifying the raw material of Lee's life for melodramatic as well as martial-arts purposes - and isn't always convincing in the process. Still, headliner Jason Scott Lee does a fine job of suggesting the charisma, grace and sheer explosive force of Bruce Lee's personality, as well as his drive to master self-awareness as well as self-defense. [11 May 1993, p.D7]

An underwhelming cop yarn - a suspense tale whose occasionally arresting characters are far more satisfying than its workaday plot. [20 Apr 1993, p.D7]