Joffe does a good job of making a complex project comprehensible to a mass audience with no memory of World War II. Moreover, he infuses drama into an often cerebral project by highlighting the tensions among the characters. [20 Oct 1989, p.E13]

For fans of Monk's music, the film is a must-see. [20 Jan 1990, p.C09]

This remarkable film by Jane Campion has a distinctive photographic style perfect for this tale of a very odd family dominated by a corpulent and crazy daughter. [24 Feb 1990, p.C06]

Kickboxer is a film for the truly undiscriminating. It exists for one reason, to display the physique and kickboxing style of Jean-Claude Van Damme. Compared to Van Damme, Sylvester Stallone is Laurence Olivier and Chuck Norris is John Malkovich. [13 Sep 1989, p.C05]

About an hour after an engaging, suspenseful start, Millennium seems to thrash itself to bits. [26 Sep 1989, p.D04]

It's as beautifully acted throughout as it is photographed, and it has a quizzical tone somewhere between sociological documentary and farce. [22 Aug 1989]

For all the film's patness and lame predictability, Candy gives it a strange charm. He seems to be inherently funny, and his subtle weirdness, so useful on SCTV, is handy here as well. It helps make seeing Uncle Buck marginally worthwhile. [18 Aug 1989, p.E13]

Shrunk is a sometimes funny, occasionally clever comedy adventure. But the fun stuff consumes only about one-fourth of the film, nowhere near enough for a feature-length movie. [24 June 1989, p.C06]

The title notwithstanding, "Frontier" is unlikely to be the last in this series. Slow as it is, and disappointing as some of the special effects are, "Frontier" still has some effective humor. Things go just well enough to inspire hope that the level of "IV" can be reached again. [9 June 1989, p.F09]

Though this non-stop onslaught of nonsense and mayhem is not really worth watching, it is mildly impressive for Sutherland and Phillips. They act their hearts out, as if they thought they were in another movie that deserved a real effort. [05 Jun 1989, p.C05]

The second half of Pink Cadillac is almost like a perfunctory sequel to a better film. It is slow and aimless, and when it's finally over, the strung-out finale seems especially futile. [26 May 1989, p.F11]

The length and delay of the project is evident from Brian Eno's participation. He composed and produced the subtle, evocative musical score for the film. [31 March 1990, p.C08]

The message is troweled on far too thickly at the end, but up to then, Robinson raises legitimate issues with a lively, sardonic and inventive sense of humor. [15 Jul 1989, p.C08]

Languidly paced yet not at all slow, Chocolat is a last, lingering, affectionate look at a comfortable, convenient life that may have been more a mirage than a memory. [12 May 1989, p.I13]

The film seems thin, a set of vignettes about a fairly consistent set of characters. -- but only fairly consistent. [17 May 1989, p.B05]

The characters and their situations, while perfectly credible and funny on the simplest literal level, surely add up to something like a subtly farcical apocalyptic satire. [18 April 1989, p.D4]

Also, it is almost squeaky clean. It's rated PG, but without about four seconds of toilet humor and five seconds of bra ogling, Bill and Ted might have faced an insurmountable challenge: the dreaded G rating. [20 Feb 1989, p.D06]

A dull parade of violence, calculated sleaze and midlife angst. [08 Feb 1989, p.D05]

January Man has some amusing moments, and Mastrantonio manages to make her character interesting, but one can't forget that this cliche-packed, improbable script came from the author of Moonstruck. [16 Jan 1989, p.C06]

Schepisi and his cast rate great credit for making it seem so real. True stories don't always seem credible on film. Making this seem real and life-size is an accomplishment. [13 Nov 1988, p.F05]

They Live has such a clever idea, it's disappointing that scenarist Frank Armitage and director John Carpenter did so little with it. It's like a ``Twilight Zone'' tale inflated from 30 minutes to 90. Or like a film made from a rough draft. [9 Nov 1988, p.C06]

While the whole film is well-made, it has surprisingly few surprises. There are some small ones, but the plot and many details are predictable down to small details. [7 Oct 1988, p.F13]

The problem with Clara's Heart is that it grows increasingly sentimental and improbable. [16 Nov 1988, p.D05]

Given its defiant adherence to cliche and avoidance of originality, Memories of Me should be boring, but the cast keeps it interesting, and many of the lines, fortunately, are amusing. [07 Oct 1988, p.F13]

Impressive and engrossing as it is, the reality alone is not what makes Salaam Bombay so compelling. Nair tells an interesting episodic story, and her leading lad is a natural actor. [05 Nov 1988, p.C06]

Crossing Delancey is the most delightful falling-in-love story since ``Moonstruck,'' which it faintly resembles. [30 Sep 1988, p.F13]

Individual scenes are OK for bogus suspense and special effects. The acting is as good as it has to be. But on the whole, the film feels like a 90-minute version of something that was many hours longer. [13 July 1988, p.D4]

Godfrey Reggio's Powaqqatsi is just like his Koyaanisqatsi, only different. Its dreamlike mix of forceful imagery and Philip Glass' surging, unique music is the same, but the dream is different, and Reggio uses different techniques to incarnate it. [08 Jul 1988, p.F13]

Tokyo Pop is an amiable, ambling film mixing travelogue, romantic comedy and musical documentary. [20 Apr 1988, p.C08]

It's moderately pleasant most of the time, mildly amusing now and then. Young Schlatter does a reasonable impersonation of Burns. But it's such a formula script that it would be just as predictable even without the first two films. [13 Apr 1988, p.C08]

It sounds like, maybe, a cute Saturday Night Live skit, but as a serious drama, or even as an adventure melodrama -- well, it has plenty of humor, all the wrong kind. [15 May 1988, p.B06]

Reinhold and Savage play off each other well, and Savage is impressively convincing as a 35-year-old trapped in his son's body. You've seen worse. And will again. [11 Mar 1988]

Despite the avoidance of fundamental surprise -- there are a few good ones along the way -- Shoot To Kill is still an OK suspense adventure. Director Roger Spottiswoode (Under Fire, The Best of Times) makes the most of the wild, sometimes vertical terrain, and the acting is fine. [15 Feb 1988, p.C04]

Candy Mountain is filmed offhandedly and is full of in-joke casting. It works far better than Alex Cox's pointless, bizarre ``Straight to Hell,'' a home movie with musicians. [01 Nov 1988, p.D06]

Empire of the Sun is such a grand, successful blend of epic filmmaking and personal drama, it's hard to believe Steven Spielberg made it. [11 Dec 1987, p.G15]

Director Claude Berri plays the story out steadily, beautifully and thrillingly. [25 Dec 1987, p.F20]

The great physical production of the film may engage some viewers who don't care that the apocalyptic foreground of the novel serves as part of an interesting backdrop for a melodrama. Those who enjoyed the novel should find the film's last five minutes positively nauseating. [9 Nov 1987, p.B09]

Those who don't go for horror films, period, won't go for this, but those who do will find this one of the more intelligent, better produced outings of late, with a good, continuing stream of sarcastic humor. [30 Oct 1987, p. E13]

One of the most important things about Baby Boom, aside from being amusing all the way through, is that Diane Keaton gets her first chance to carry a comedy all by herself. [28 Oct 1987, p.E06]

Like Father, Like Son is amusing, occasionally funny, and swift. [02 Oct 1987, p.E13]

Slowly, inexorably and fascinatingly, Jean de Florette glides to a seemingly inevitable ending -- and to scenes of the next installment. [14 Sep 1987, p.C05]

Rita, Sue and Bob Too, also adapted by a playwright (Andrea Dunbar) from her own work, is more an out-and-out raucous, raunchy comedy, although hardly a madcap, farcical romp. [03 Oct 1987, p.C08]

The film is funny, odd and real. [18 Sept 1987, p.E18]

Midler and Long are great together, and the dialogue is hilarious. [22 Nov 1987, p.11]

It's a safe bet that those who like the music will like the film, and those who don't would find it uncomfortable. But as a combination of historical homage, docudrama and concert film, it is well acted, well filmed and well mixed. [3 Dec 1987, p.E07]

In many respects, it's Kurosawa's most sumptuous film, a feast of color, motion and sound: Considering that its brethren include "Kagemusha," "The Seven Samurai" and "Dersu Uzala," the achievement is extraordinary. [01 Dec 2000, p.26]

Filled with wonderful performances, especially by Hedaya and Walsh, Blood Simple remains a tight, beautifully ugly, neo-noir classic.

The big-screen reissue offers a rare chance to admire the marvelous production details. [2002 Director's Cut]

The music is lively, loud, often powerful, sometimes raunchy, yet full of unexpected subtleties and nuances. The staging is frenetic but as perfect as the machines of the art can produce. This is first class music video.

Most memorable for its startling color scheme, all sepia-toned monochrome with occasional stabs of icy blue. [23 Mar 2001]

This 1983 film is well-staged, well-acted and backed by a suitably nervous Jerry Goldsmith score. [25 Sep 1998, p.36]

Starring Linda Blair and the late Tamara Dobson, it's the ultimate women-in-prison movie and a landmark of exploitation cinema. [02 Oct 2009]

It's a fascinating look into what Spielberg truly loves, but it's not so much a masterpiece as a nice milestone. [2002 re-release]

The film is so-so, but producer/writer Bob Kaufman, flush with the success of Love at First Bite said High Cost was the forerunner of a new way of life. [04 Aug 1991, p.34]

As far as a coherent, hilarious story line, as well as sheer blasphemous glee, you can't do much better than "Life of Brian."

One of the best political films of the last 20 years. [16 Oct 1988, p.06]

This edition -- clean and tight as Scott would have it -- presents a strong case for Alien as both the greatest horror film and the greatest science-fiction film ever made.

Now that cinema technology has made a live-action "The Lord of the Rings" possible, these versions are likely to be displaced. They'll retain a nostalgic charm, though, especially for those to whom they were the first peek into the fantastic world of Middle Earth. [24 Aug 2001]

With his customary sensitivity, director Bert I. Gordon ripped off Them! as well as his own Amazing Colossal Man. Nutty as it all is, it takes a sudden lurch into deeper nuttiness at the end. [09 Aug 1996, p.37]

Not only did surviving vets get to see their World War II exploits (in the September 1944 Arnhem debacle) played out spectacularly for all the world to see, but several got to coach the actors playing them. [28 Dec 2001]

The term “iconic” is often overused, but in the case of Brian De Palma’s 1976 horror film “Carrie,” it’s justified. The image of Sissy Spacek doused in blood at the prom is unmistakable and regularly referenced in other scary movies and parodies. [28 Feb 2014, p.R06]

There's an inherent contradiction at the film's core: this sexually explicit motion picture, seemingly made by and for altered consciousnesses, is all about how an innocent newcomer falls prey to gin, sex, and television.

The film is whimsical and satirical but not totally a comedy. Despite the occasional Monty Python-esque jab at romantic history, the story of the central lovers is also poignant, a chronicle of bad choices and missed opportunities. [25 Jun 1999]

The Killer Elite is possibly Bloody Sam's worst film, and the martial-arts-themed actioner is must-see material only for the director's completists, despite a cast that includes James Caan and Robert Duvall. [17 Jun 2005, p.43]

It is a colorful tale in an exotic location, with excitingly staged action scenes, exotic desert locale and a richly colorful musical score by Jerry Goldsmith. It is also rich in satirical cynicism about international relations and political expediency. [09 Oct 1991, p.D07]

Schlesinger's adaptation of Nathaniel West's classic novella, the Hollywood of the 1930s is decidedly as ruinous for its denizens as the Hollywood of the 1970s. [28 Jul 2000]

Sheer bliss for Monty Python freaks who either have never seen the anarchistic, absurdist and hilarious trials and tribulations of King Arthur and his knights depicted on the big screen or haven't for more than 20 years. From the Knights who say "Ni!" to the killer bunny, the picture stands the test of time. [17 Aug 2001]

This is Mel Brooks' finest hour. [28 Jan 2005, p.11]

Tobe Hooper's 1974 masterpiece took the slasher flick to a freakier, nastier place and even today has the ability to mess with one's mind. Artfully documentarylike and shot under conditions that produced genuinely traumatized performances, the original "Massacre" eschews cheap thrills and attacks the psyche.

This Paul Mazursky film is not a comedy but is full of humor -- and suspense about how Tonto is going to fit into and come out of the surprises along the way. [30 May 2003]

Alexandre Dumas pere's 1844 novel has been filmed more than four dozen times, but this lavish and hilarious rendition is the pinnacle. [21 Sep 2007, p.38]

Thirty-five years later, Rene Laloux's surreal animated film remains a singular psychedelic experience. For the uninitiated, think Yellow Submarine but way more arty, trippy and funky. Highly recommended.

Lee Marvin does the best acting of his life as Hickey, the usual life of the party who shows up this year sober and intent on ridding his drunken pals of their "pipe dreams." [04 Apr 2003]

Director Donald Siegel of ``Dirty Harry'' fame produces a suspenseful, fast-paced suspenser, film, providing numerous offbeat twists and turns along the way. [08 Nov 1996, p.37]

Kidder's performance as Danielle is a highlight, creating a childlike woman who is beguilingly naive yet obviously fraught with peril. [22 Sep 2000]

Kennedy fills this with Western cliches, character actors and sprawling action. [09 Mar 2001]

Trafic is a relative trifle but nevertheless delightful.

It’s one of those wonderfully depressing 1970s films that perfectly captures the era’s malaise. [29 Apr 2016, p.R19]

It’s considered the first of Ozu’s string of late-career masterpieces, which makes it a must-see for any fan of cinema. [10 Jun 2016]

This is decidedly not for everyone, but many consider it an offbeat classic. [03 Nov 2006, p.45]

It's not a question of Lucas' right to revamp his own work -- the movie simply was much better without these absurd additions.

Movies don't get any more real than this.

Thirty-five years since its debut, The Conformist is still a stunning, challenging, transporting film.

In this loose adaptation of Sheridan LeFanu's Carmilla, Ingrid Pitt became a Hammer favorite as a lesbian vampire. This has a few nude scenes and Cushing; something for everyone. [22 Aug 1977, p.38]

Avoiding the hyperbole and condescension that sometimes make it easy for ideological foes to dismiss the likes of Oliver Stone or Michael Moore, Costa-Gavras relies on the sterling performances of his actors (including Irene Papas as Montand's widow), and was rewarded with a pair of Oscar nominations.

Robert Redford makes a convincing member of the U.S. Olympic Ski Team in this exciting and thoughtful Michael Ritchie film about the sacrifices and compromises made -- or not made -- for a chance at a moment's glory. [26 Feb 1999]

With much dialogue coming from the Charles Portis novel, this is an exceptionally clever and eloquent Western with surprising levity among the mayhem. [01 Jun 2007, p.34]

Easygoing James Garner, befuddled Jack Elam, feisty Joan Hackett and townsfolk resist land baron Walter Brennan in a reprise of his "Clementine" role. [09 Mar 2001]

This film put Cassavetes on the cinematic map, even though at 90 minutes, it was 4.5 hours short of Cassavetes' intended version, which exists now only in published script form. [19 Sep 1997, p.36]

By today's standards the sexuality is fairly discreet, the color cinematography is brilliant and the sense of absurdity marks this as one of Meyer's bust, er, best, efforts. [22 Oct 2004, p.39]

Leonard Whiting, 17, and Olivia Hussey, 16, look right: tender and beautiful. And, as carefully coached, filmed and edited, they perform creditably. [09 Apr 1999]

Slow, contrived and monotonously grim. [18 Aug 2006, p.45]

This genuinely irreverent film is one of the few to dabble in theological humor. It's wicked, but only up to PG-level heresy and impiety. [03 Apr 1998, p.38]

This film is the first to deal with Earp's obsession to kill all Clanton gang survivors after the shootout. Garner is not ideally cast here. [20 Oct 2000]

The film is one of the great portraits of the artist as impossibly gifted young snot. [31 Dec 1999]

Orson Welles brings Shakespeare’s Falstaff to life in this passionate, ramshackle adaptation that draws on five different plays for its dialogue. Plagued by a low budget and other production snafus, it was initially disregarded but now ranks as one of Welles’ finest achievements. [04 Mar 2016, p.R22]

One of the most alluring and bizarre shapes that Godard's itchy search for truth and meaning took in those heady long-ago days. In comparison, most Hollywood movies are like tiddlywinks.

Godard's 1964 dreamy yet cynical masterwork holds up as a both remarkably sad and thrilling comment on living life as if in a movie. [07 Dec 2001]