The thrill, alas, is gone -- and Fellini seems to know it better than anyone. [11 Jun 1993, p.15]

Annaud shot in Vietnam, creating gorgeous, often exotic images. The compelling film is a journey to another world and time, seen from a unique and peculiar perspective. [23 Nov 1992, p.D05]

The film simply plods through an endless list of horror movie cliches and accumulating contrivances. For long-suffering viewers, Dr. Giggles evolves into Audience Yawns. [27 Oct 1992, p.D05]

Is ``Consenting Adults'' a joke? The question bobs to the surface like a dead catfish about halfway through the Alan J. Pakula suspense melodrama. A barely plausible but engaging premise collapses, crushing credibility like a mouse. [17 Oct 1992, p.C14]

It's difficult to imagine a better film adaptation of Maclean's work. [16 Oct 1992]

The writers keep the funny lines coming steadily, and Frears gets good work from all. [02 Oct 1992, p.17]

Viewers engulfed by the movie's intense romance and spectacular action could leave the theater exhausted. But it's a good ride: The Last of the Mohicans creates its own vibrant world, hurling audiences into it and allowing no relief from the excitement until the end. [25 Sep 1992, p.13]

``Blood'' seems to be sketches for a more comprehensible film which, alas, we will not see. [28 Sept 1992, p.C08]

Scott and Sedgwick are not really comedians, but they nicely impart their characters' rueful humor. [19 Sept 1992, p.C16]

You would think "The Day" might offer a grim, realistic sketch of the dangers of street life for runaways. In fact, the dangers look exciting and even stylish. Rocco gives the film a rich, complicated visual design, with consistently beautiful photography, no matter how grubby the setting is. [03 Nov 1992, p.D05]

Amusing but slow. [28 Aug 1992, p.AE17]

It just drones on and on, so repetitiously that you wonder if some of the reels have been shown twice. [7 Nov 1992]

Contrivances grow so outlandish as Cain grinds on that De Palma seems to be parodying himself. His intent is seldom humor, but Cain ends up being more inadvertent comedy than thriller. [07 Aug 1992, p.D01]

As a technical accomplishment it is extrely impressive. But as a work of entertainment, almost any 10 minutes of it are enough. [14 Jul 1992]

Universal Soldier is another goony banquet of violence composed almost entirely of leftovers. It's a Frankenstein-monster of a movie with parts of a dozen or more films stitched and stapled together to make one lurching melodrama. [11 July 1992, C10]

The film and characters aren't really down on men. They're in a desert. Almost everything that's good or useful is somewhere else. What is in the desert in ``Gas Food'' is a fractured family that is a great experience for the viewer. [9 Oct 1992, p.AE15]

Best Intentions should be engaging for those unfamiliar with Bergman -- and at three hours, it had better be engaging. To Bergman buffs, it is fascinating -- a lively, clever drama of opposites powerfully attracted. [14 Aug 1992, p.17]

Unbelievably, "Prelude To A Kiss" works. [10 Jul 1992, p.15]

It is thoughtful and well enough acted throughout. [03 Jul 1992]

it feels as if it is going extra innings, due partly to a present day prologue and epilogue. But the banter stays lively, humor never slumps.

There is a formulaic inevitability to the ferocious finale, but good writing and superb, intelligent acting keep the movie fresh and tense to the last moment. [27 June 1992, p.C08]

The tip-off that something different is afoot in Alien 3 comes right at the beginning. [22 May 1992, p.AE15]

One False Move is a small, nearly flawless gem of a film noir, a suspense drama that never lets up until the final credits. [17 July 1992, p.17]

There's only one direction for the movie to follow, and it heads there on a beeline. We could use some more information about Ivy, if we are going to take her seriously as a human. Instead, she's demonic and without history. That makes the enterprise resemble a comic book: a tale from the crypt, perhaps. [09 May 1992, p.C10]

This one has all the usual cliches. The serial killer. The strip joint scene. The bad-tempered superior. The villain that won't die. The graphic gore. Hauer plays a suspended cop, of course. To these it adds a fairly creative scene of Hauer and Duncan stalking and shooting at the beast in a morgue, plus very damp streets and a vision of the future that is bleaker than usual. [2 May 1992, p.C04]

A quite competent and energetic effort that uses live actors. [10 Apr 1992]

One suspects that [Verhoeven's] produced exactly the movie he wanted to produce: fast, cynical and profitable. Cha-ching. [20 Mar 1992, p.AE17]

It's not that Bogdanovich's movie doesn't have its laughs. It does. Frayn has a comic genius that is expansive -- he can pile one-liners, character humor and physical schtick on top of one another quickly and deftly. And the cast Bogdanovich has assembled, led by Michael Caine as the embattled director, is up to the demands. But a film version of a play about making a play? That's a step removed. It's a blanket that muffles the crispness of the play. A bridge too far. The mediation of the screen between us and the play about a play is unnecessary at best and a real bother at worst. [23 March 1992, p.C08]

A superb production of a so-so story. [10 Feb 1992, p.C05]

The last half hour is full of plot twists, turns and pretzel bends. They are imaginative, occasionally funny, and they make some surprises truly surprising. But in the process they leave the last flickering glimmer of credibility back around Minute No. 61. [8 Feb 1992, p.C06]

Juice is well done and sincere and the cast of newcomers is pretty good. As the story progresses, it leaves a realistic story and settings for routine chase melodrama. Its pacifist message is inarguable, but too obvious to be exciting. [17 Jan 1992, p.AE13]

Directed by Lili Fini Zanuck, Rush is well-acted, stylishly filmed and intense. Leigh is convincing as an accidental tourist on the road to ruin. [10 Jan 1992, p.20]

The special effects and stunts are marvelous, but director Geoff Murphy (``Young Guns II)'' gets only perfunctory acting. No room for nuance at a fast trot. Even the fastest pace gets monotonous when nothing else is happening. 'Round and 'round and 'round they go, getting nowhere but making great time. [20 Jan 1982, p.C06]

The narrative can be difficult to follow. But not to worry. The images, the language and the characters can pull you along. [19 June 1992, p.AE22]

JFK drags but is undeniably fascinating. [20 Dec 1991]

Hook is full of funny and engaging moments, but they are separated by too many moments that are neither. It should have been written to be shorter, perhaps a brisk 90 minutes instead of the 135-minute behemoth it is now. [13 Dec. 1991, p.AE08]

Like "Trek V," this would be merely an interesting episode on a TV series, but it would move faster. On the big screen, even with the snazzy ship, credibly sized crew and good special effects, it plods in spots. [6 Dec. 1991, p.15]

Beauty and the Beast is so funny, exciting and suspenseful that its obvious moral (appearance can mean nothing; it's what's inside that counts) is engaging rather than perfunctory. [22 Nov 1991, p.15]

The slightly overdone feeling of the photography, the archly evocative acting and Cliff Martinez's music also impart a sly sense of the absurd. Kafka recalls the old joke that reminds us that even paranoids have enemies. [12 Feb. 1992, p.C07]

The plot's very sparsity gives "Life" its own special suspense. It is rarely possible to guess where the film will be in the next 10 minutes, yet nothing in it is improbable. That is another reason why the upbeat finale works. For all of the film's quirks and absurdity, it never strains credulity. [27 Dec. 1991, p.13]

Despite some rough edges, Dogfight is a sweet, enjoyable match. [08 Nov 1991, p.AE15]

Dani's feelings are complex, as she reacts to life's new everyday bewilderments, and much of her reaction is wordless. Witherspoon and Mulligan make Dani's feelings eloquent. [16 Nov 1991, p.C10]

Roughness at least has a few good laughs in the formula. [30 Sept 1991, p.D08]

The action is fast, tough, energetic and extravagant. It is smoothly and stylishly made but more inscrutable than intended. [28 June 1989, p.D05

Johnson's misplaced serious approach to Marlboro gives this style-heavy romp a few engaging moments. Rourke, looking as if he has new dentures, seems to be playing Bruce Willis. That's aiming low. [27 Aug 1991, p.D06]

The faithful will appreciate [Hartley's] sharp, thoughtful dialogue, his sly humor and his utterly unpredictable plots. [06 Sep 1991]

Point Break is actually better than you would expect for about the first hour, then starts the long, slow slide into dumber and dumber dumbness. You can almost hear the IQ points dropping from the screen. [12 July 1991, p.E17]

Richard Linklater's ingenious social comedy is a tour de force, at least in a minor way. [25 Oct. 1991, p.19]

Snipes and Sciorra give fine matched performances. They make the impulse and the complex following relationship credible so that it matters what happens to these pawns in a game beyond their grasp. [7 June 1991, p.B06]

Lonely ends up being confused and repetitious. [27 May 1991, p.B08]

It is a strange, fascinating hybrid film, but it is Madonna's film, and she plays her role to the hilt. [17 May 1991, p.05]

It recalls a kind of French farce that assumes its audiences want to see the rich suffer. [18 May 1991]

The Boz is filling in the blank where the hero needs to be in a maelstrom of violent set pieces. [25 May 1991, p.C08]

Barkin's brilliance can't offset misdirected script for Switch. [11 May 1991, p.C08]

Coincidental plot puts kiss of death on apathetic film. [29 Apr 1991, p.D05]

Landis keep things moving smoothly as both a director and supervising editor. He too has an uncharacteristic light touch. The film is simply a happy surprise. [26 Apr 1991, p.R13]

Hoooooooooooo-hum. [19 Apr 1991, p.R13]

The sense of visual texture is vivid. The cast performs as openly and energetically as if they were making the film for a Western audience. [03 May 1991, p.21]

Van Peebles seems just a bit more interested in how he has his say than what he has to say, but New Jack City could be the beginning of an interesting career. [8 Mar 1991, p.E13]

As writer/director, he manages to make both Morrison and the period seem real without being self-conscious, an observed milieu rather than a film set. [01 Mar 1991]

Zeffirelli's Hamlet is lively, energetic and suspenseful. [18 Jan 1991]

A dull and hackneyed would-be thriller, it takes such elements as Satanism, time-travel and cross-country treasure-hunting and combines them to no effect whatsoever. [18 Jan 1991, p.R13]

Eating is probably the best date movie in years. It is replete with food for thought, and its ideas are sure to keep percolating for days. [17 May 1991, p.13]

The film is uncommonly evocative. [19 Dec 1990, p.D6]

What is appealing in Avalon is what is appealing in Levinson's best films, Diner, Tin Men and Rain Man. He creates relationships with texture. After a half-hour, the viewer feels part of the family, yet has an overview allowing a tolerance for the characters they don't always have for themselves. [19 Oct 1990, p.F04]

Memphis Belle is an ambitious, lavishly produced, terrific-looking adventure about a B-17 crew and its 25th and last mission in May 1943 at a crucial point in the bomber war. Unfortunately, the film is at war with itself. [12 Oct 1990, p.R04]

The film has a rich visual tone and a sparse narrative quality. [05 Oct 1990, p.E15]

For all its improbability and rigorous emotion, Desperate does have its moments of quiet suspense and tension. Cimino often gets good performances and does so here. But when it's all over, nothing really unexpected has happened, and it has taken a lot of unpleasant moments to get through the desperate hours. [11 Oct 1990, p.C09]

Pacific Heights is the latest sort-of-Hitchcock film and a pretty good one better than most of Hitchcock's post-``Psycho'' output. [28 Sept 1990, p.G11]

Texasville is replete with events and complications, but the same three or four seem to recycle themselves every 15 minutes for two hours. The film is already written off as a bomb, a sunbaked soap opera. Its often sly humor does not offset the sense of slow repetition. [12 Nov 1990, p.C07]

Considering that Margin is a familiar and predictable story, with options severely limited, it's a good, suspenseful adventure. [01 Oct 1990, p.D05]

White Hunter is an offbeat, thoughtful and amusing adventure. [21 Sep 1990, p.R13]

This is grim and violent but well-acted, cleverly made and full of suspense. [14 Sep 1990, p.F16]

Raimi does everything extravagantly and swiftly in Darkman. Instead of deriving from a particular comic book, he seems to be creating one -- or creating a film series. Or a TV series. Or two of the three. [24 Aug. 1990, p.R11]

Air America is a pretty good blend of action, drama and rough comedy, although the comedy and adventure come out on top. [13 Aug 1990]

The film as a whole is simply an interesting and amusing mess. [10 Aug 1990]

Problem Child has moments, or perhaps instants, of misanthropic satire. There also are stroboscopically brief flashes of psychological irony or cleverness. [30 July 1990, p.D8]

The first hour of Die Hard 2 is pretty good, despite consistent improbability. It's the second half, with its consistent impossibility, that looks like "Tom 'n' Jerry" or "Roadrunner." [6 July 1990, p.E3]

Betsy's Wedding is a literate, nicely acted, thoughtful and mostly charming comedy with a little drama. Its intelligent wit will be familiar to Alda fans. [22 Jun 1990, p.F15]

Written by Charlie Haas, Gremlins 2 is more clever than Gremlins, and Dante seems to move everything at a much quicker pace here. Perhaps because things are pretty predictable, Dante lingers on little. Much dialogue will be lost to audience laughter. [15 Jun 1990, p.R15]

The air stuff, aided by 10 Army and National Guard units, is super-duper and excitingly filmed. The ground stuff is choppy and perfunctory. Jones is good, Young is OK, and Cage looks distracted for most of the film. [02 Jun 1990, p.C08]

Lumet's films are always well-acted. Q & A is no exception. And the story has more than enough rich, lively characters to go around. [27 Apr 1990, p.R13]

Spaced Invaders is a cute comedy-- cuter and funnier than you might expect. [02 May 1990, p.E07]

It hasn't the flash and style of Fatal Attraction or Jagged Edge, but its contrived finale is better than those contrived finales. [21 Apr 1990, p.C08]

Paul Reiser is fine as Emory's tense partner; so is Mercedes Ruehl as a good therapist. J.T. Walsh, always a mean guy, is good here as Emory's venal boss. [13 Apr 1990, p.R13]

As before, Uys succeeds in creating uncomplicated, largely visual comedy through clever contrivance in a simple landscape that is somehow full of surprises. [13 Apr 1990, p.R13]

The film nicely maintains its tone, somewhere between satire and farce. [07 Apr 1990]

Clearly based on the Japanese film series about Zatoichi, the blind samurai, Blind Fury is also openly tongue-in-cheek. It is little but violence and gags, but the violence often is so cleverly and improbably staged that it's funny too. [19 Mar 1990, p.B08]

It is full of the farcical, irresponsible, sometimes outrageous things kids can do -- especially in a raunchy comedy. At the same time, House Party is an uncompromising, un-footnoted slice of black American life. In a way it is like "The Godfather," so immersed in the ethnic world it depicts that it is almost a foreign film. [23 Mar 1990, p.R11]

Despite its familiarity, Tale is well-staged and well-acted. Richardson makes Kate a real person, and her tale is suspenseful to the end. [16 Mar 1990, p.R07]

It's depressing to see attractive performers like Alley and Larroquette work so hard to such little effect on their vacations from TV. [16 Feb 1990, p.G14]

Directed and co-written by Ron Underwood, Tremors maintains a good, steady tongue-in-cheek tone while working nicely as a suspense thriller. [22 Jan 1990, p.D5]

Sidewalk Stories is nobly intended and has many moments of humor and ingenuity. But it's ultimately a sermon with a point so general as to be almost meaningless. And it sure ruins the fun. [25 Nov 1989, p.C08]

All this pain and growth occurs in a story whose plot elements turn over so rapidly that it's hard to track them. One furiously violent episode follows another, each seeming to step on the heels of the one ahead. [29 Dec 1989, p.F09]

Always has the benefit of likable characters and actors. Dreyfuss, Hunter and Goodman are good. But several scenes seem needlessly slow, and the film as a whole would be better if it had been pared down from 120 to 90 minutes. At times it seems the title and the running time are one and the same. [22 Dec. 1989, p.R13]

Freeman and Tandy are the whole film, and their interplay is marvelous to watch and hear. [12 Jan. 1990, p.G7]

Family Business isn't really bad. It is thought-provoking throughout and has many fine moments. Unfortunately, most of those moments are in the first third. [18 Dec 1989, p.C05]

Dad is something of a sitcom soap opera in which tragic and desperate things happen, and the participants can always snap out a one-liner for the occasion.[28 Oct 1989, p.C08]