If The Prince of Tides has a saving grace, it's the acting. In what is probably the most subdued role of her life, Streisand is remarkably graceful and charming: This woman who has so often been accused of self-infatuation hands much of the movie over to her co-stars.

JFK is a limp, semi-coherent, boring movie. [20 Dec 1991, p.21]

Working from a smart, sassy script by James Toback (The Pick-Up Artist, The Big Bang), director Barry Levinson (Rain Man) has fashioned an elegant adult entertainment that is, by turns, dramatic, funny and sexy. It's also a movie with too many loose ends and undeveloped themes, but Levinson's knack for smoothing out unruly material serves him well in this case.

The screenplay may have too many holes in it, but it gets a merit badge for the cleverness of its sarcastic dialogue, much of which is unprintable here. [13 Dec 1991, p.20]

It's a lot of fun to watch - over two hours of thrills, spills, elaborate sets and special effects, all tied together by a pleasingly varied (and lighter than usual) musical score by John Williams.

This latest Star Trek is a well-plotted, well-acted and consistently exciting addition to the popular movie series. [6 Dec. 1991, p.21]

Most of the names in My Girl are meant to seem a little peculiar. In fact, everything in My Girl is meant to seem a little peculiar. Which, I would say, is the problem with the movie. When eccentricity becomes as insistent as it does here, it's not really eccentricity any more, it's affectation. My Girl, which opens today, is a festival of affectation. [27 Nov 1991, p.E1]

Much as I like Beauty and the Beast, I think I would have preferred it if its dark parts had even been darker. The brooding beast is a fascinating character to consider, and his fearsome battle with a vicious pack of wolves is one of the most powerful scenes in the movie.

One reason that this movie works as well as it does is that everyone takes everything completely seriously. The world of the Addams family may be amusing to us, but to them it's just life. [22 Nov 1991, p.16]

If, finally, Kafka doesn't add up to enough, it at least demonstrates that Soderbergh has a visual facility to go along with the narrative talent he showed in "sex, lies, and videotape." [21 Feb. 1992, p.17]

It's a measure of Leigh's sensitivity that the big scene arises naturally, never threatening the delicate fabric of the narrative... And not only has Leigh grown as a storyteller, he appears to have acquired exactly the right amount of filmmaking technique to tell his story.

Frankie & Johnny is no big deal, but it has plenty of laughs and it's appealingly romantic. The movie is a collection of small, trivial things that add up to something that is, while not important, at least entertaining. [11 Oct 1991, p.22]

Ricochet is the sort of super-violent exploitation picture that I'm often inclined to dismiss out-of-hand. So I have to admit to being surprised that I didn't find it repellent. As a matter of fact, parts of the movie are nightmarishly fascinating - and I don't mean that as a put-down. [07 Oct 1991, p.D1]

If director Robert Mulligan (To Kill a Mockingbird) and first-time screenwriter Jenny Wingfield often lay it on a little thick, they also manage to express some surprisingly authentic feelings. [22 Nov 1991, p.22]

The whole movie, in fact, is one big blooper.

Indian Runner, for all its faults, is only half-bad. For an hour or so, the movie may get to you on a scene-by-scene basis. [06 Dec 1991, p.24]

There are so many terrific small moments to discover in The Commitments that there's no danger of ever growing bored. [14 Sep 1991, p.E1]

This souped-up exploitation flick is a little like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - if Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had been set in the near future (1996) and produced by morons. [23 Aug 1991, p.6]

All things considered, Pure Luck exists somewhere in that vast middle ground of the cinema - the not-badlands. Watching this film won't make you feel as if you've won the lottery, but at least you won't feel like your pen is leaking. [09 Aug 1991, p.8]

Doc Hollywood is the rare film that actually improves as it develops. What begins as an all-too-standard fish-out-of-water comedy eventually grows into something more. [02 Aug 1991, p.4]

A dull-witted variation on the themes of the original Blue Lagoon, in which two young people (played by Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins) were stranded on a tropical island.

For the most part, Life Stinks is about as far from art - or even simple entertainment - as you can get. And if I may be forgiven a small joke that's as true as it is obvious, most of the time Life Stinks stinks. [30 July 1991, p.E1]

For an hour or so, Bigelow (Near Dark, Blue Steel) gets by on that great eye of hers. But about halfway, Point Break breaks down. The plot, which has been unimpressive but not irritating, becomes maddeningly implausible. And the performances, which had been generally engaging, lose their edge.

The big problem is the script by 24-year-old Jeffrey Abrams (Taking Care of Business), which is clearly intended as a parable about how a self-centered overachiever and his disintegrating family are redeemed by suffering and sacrifice. What it's really about, however, is how those people are turned into a '50s sitcom family - complete with puppy dog, spunky adolescent, devoted mom and dim-but-well-meaning dad.

The action in Terminator 2 is edited for maximum suspense, and much of it is mounted on such a grand scale that little in movie history comes close. (Scenes in last summer's Die Hard 2 did, but they lacked the finesse of the new film).

Actually, the rating fits. The movie isn't quite enough fun to qualify for the "average" category, yet not quite lame enough to deserve to be called "poor." [28 June 1991, p.6]

Except for the political implications of the addition of Freeman's character (which he brings off gracefully) and some revisionism about the nobility of the crusades (which, in my opinion, is long overdue), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is just an adventure movie - which is basically what I like about it. The second half is stronger than the first because it's swifter and more action-packed. Robin's feats of derring-do are always (as Costner might put it) neat - the more improbable, the better.

You may see a better movie this summer, but I doubt you'll see a funnier one. [7 June 1991, p.8]