A thriller that grabs you even before the ironies of its plot kick in is a thriller you don't want to miss. No Way Out is that sort of movie, a thriller that's thrilling throughout.

Dalton shows a serious side that's been missing from the role since Sean Connery's earliest 007 days.

Superman IV is cinematic kryptonite. Not only could it kill the Superman series, it might also leave filmgoers feeling weak.

Abetter title for Jaws The Revenge would be Jaws The Refund. A refund is what a lot of people who go to see this picture will demand. This Time It's Personal, the tag line for the new film's ad campaign, doesn't seem quite right either. This Time It's Terrible would have been more accurate.

Crude, adolescent and not very funny.

One triumph of The Untouchables is the way its operatic style accommodates larger-than-life performances.

The triumph of this bleak, unsettling picture is that, no matter how grim it gets, it's far too involving for you to turn away.

In the final analysis, the action-picture mechanics of the film are too limiting. No Mercy barely has a subject, much less a theme. Yet moments from the picture linger in the mind. If you don't leave the theater satisfied, you may at least be moved.

Sid & Nancy is an honorable try, but it could have been better had Cox found a way to imbue the movie with some of the sheer zaniness of his Repo Man.

Paul Newman could win an Oscar for his strong, complex performance in The Color of Money. His Eddie Felson, so quick-witted and seemingly imperturbable in the early scenes, eventually drops his foxy pose to reveal some of the raw vulnerability of his Hustler days.

There's another, more important reason why Stand By Me isn't for kids. Its perspective is that of a knowing adult, which is to say that though the film is frequently affectionate and funny, it contains a drop too much condescension to be entirely successful.

Backhanded compliments are pretty much the only ones The Boy Who Could Fly deserves. The subjects, here, are childhood and illness: topics that otherwise tough-minded people are inclined to approach with uncharacteristic sentimentality. But though the film is both sappy and cliched, it's not as sappy or cliched as might be expected. All things considered, it could have been a lot worse.

In Howard the Duck, the special effects -- and the Muppety duck jokes -- command so much attention that it's easy to overlook the movie makers' clever narrative touches. It's rather fitting, for example, that Howard is shown to be almost as much of a misfit on the duck world as he is on Earth. And there's a sometimes-touching, sometimes-hilarious Fay Wray-King Kong relationship established between Howard and a sexy, baby-faced rock singer named Beverly (Lea Thompson). The main reason the relationship is so intriguing is that Thompson always keeps you guessing about her character's true feelings for the cantankerous bird. It's hard to fault the tongue-in-bill high spirits of a movie like Howard the Duck.

There's no mistaking Flight of the Navigator for a really first-rate children's picture like, say, The Black Stallion. But Flight of the Navigator is an enjoyable film that encourages kids to use their heads. Unlike those children's movies that spoon-feed their audiences, this film keeps setting up challenging situations that young moviegoers must think through.

Aliens is one of the most intensely shocking films to open in ages: Even if you think you've got the stamina for cinematic suspense, you may find yourself out in the lobby, midway, catching your breath. This film is also the best monster movie of the year and the best picture of any kind to open so far this summer. Put it another way: Aliens is the Jaws of the '80s.

Club Paradise isn't particularly offensive, but it isn't especially funny, either. And all that's holding it together is Williams' amiable performance and the music, most of which was written by Cliff, who also performs it.

In Under the Cherry Moon, the self-styled auteur is obviously aiming for a romantic tragedy with occasional lighthearted moments. What he ends up with, however, is purest camp.

The idea behind Ruthless People is just about irresistible. Much of the fun of this comedy is in watching what happens as virtually everyone in the movie tries to double-cross or otherwise take advantage of everyone else.

Director Ivan Reitman isn't an especially careful moviemaker, though this latest film is structurally superior to such previous efforts as Ghostbusters, Stripes and Meatballs. He's still got a lot to learn about giving dramatic points the proper weight, and his visual sense is shaky. But for all his shortcomings, Reitman seems to have something that other, more elegant directors lack: the ability to get stars to go a little crazy. The enjoyment we get from the goofy performances in his movies is something rather rare.

The most jarring casting mistake (even more jarring than the miscasting of Dangerfield) involves Keith Gordon, who plays Thornton's son. Gordon, who has shown himself to be an intense and quirky actor in such films as Christine and Dressed to Kill, is a smoldering presence in what ought to be a light, comic role. His psycho-killer eyes just don't fit here.

A simple equation, perhaps, but when it comes to comedy, simpler is frequently funnier. This formula has already worked beautifully in France, where the movie has broken all box-office records and has won three Cesars (the French equivalent of the Oscar) including one for best picture.

Movie could use a little of the tight plotting and clarity that made The Hit so effective. But perhaps the new film's diffuse nature is the price of its ambitiousness. Besides, in many ways My Beautiful Laundrette is a beauty.

A typical mad slasher movie, except the slashers are not mad, not even human. They are robots that were supposed to provide security at a shopping mall. But, as usual, their targets are a group of brainless teen-agers. [01 Aug 1991, p.I1]

There probably isn't anyone working in movies today who could have done more with this material than writer-director Paul Mazursky does. In Down and Out, he finds humor in those contemporary issues about which most people haven't quite resolved their feelings. This can lead him into dangerous territory: AIDS, anorexia, homosexuality and even "We Are the World" all figure in Down and Out's unusual comedy. [21 Nov 1999, p.60]

Director Michael Chapman, an experienced cinematographer, is skilled in conveying ideas through pictures -- quite an advantage in a movie about people who aren't especially verbal. And Chapman's cinematographer, Jan De Bont, has a varied palette that responds to the visual demands of a world in transition.

Quite simply, Ran is a great, nightmarish motion picture.

This good and gentle film, directed by Sydney Pollack (Tootsie), might have been fashioned to make the most of Streep's natural qualities of independence, humor and sophistication (bordering on snobbishness) and her exciting suggestion of untrustworthiness.

The film is a slugger that keeps hitting you with one obvious image after another. Funny thing, though: Obviousness is sometimes effective. If Rocky IV doesn't kill you, it'll conquer you.