Director Charles Haid (who played Andy Renko on ``Hill Street Blues'') and the crew have come up with the right amount of ingredients for another appealing Disney action-adventure movie, predictable though it may be. [14 Jan 1994, p.13]

Pennebaker, a veteran documentarian who has filmed concerts (``Monterey Pop''), Bob Dylan on tour (``Don't Look Back'') and political showdowns (``Crisis,'' about the battle between John F. Kennedy and George Wallace over desegregation at the University of Alabama), works in purist cinema-verite style. Camera and sound record what happens, the film is edited, music is added, and that's it. There's no Voice of God narrator, and not much in the way of context. When this technique really works, it can be as raw as life. When the filmmakers aren't so lucky, it comes off as sketchy, focused more on sensations than information. [6 Feb 1994, p.B01]

There are moments of exceptional sweetness in Faraway, So Close, and Jurgen Jurges' photography is fine, though not as indelible as Henri Alekan's work in "Wings of Desire." But the film feels both too long and too truncated, with plot twists left dangling in the wind. [04 Feb 1994, p.15]

This apocalyptic vision of London-as-Hell is a far cry from Leigh's earlier work, the relatively gentle social comedies, High Hopes and Life Is Sweet. But, working with the actors in his usual improvisatory style, Leigh dares to drop into depths he has never before explored. With its aura of horror and hopelessness, Naked is a very brave work. If you can take it, it's a film you won't soon forget. [28 Jan. 1994, p.AE13]

All in all, Geronimo is a well-intentioned disappointment; the film chronicles the struggle not of the Apaches, but of the filmmakers. [13 Dec 1993, p.D05]

Maybe that Hollywood thinks young moviegoers will settle for something not too special -- and so that's all they're going to get. [12 Nov 1993, p.AE15]

Ruby in Paradise has small flaws. But it also has enough small pleasures to make it a warm-hearted, well-intentioned alternative to noisier Hollywood fare. [11 Nov 1993, p.B08]

As a picturesque mood piece, Flesh and Bone is haunting and effective. As a movie, though, it doesn't quite get to where it wants to go. [05 Nov 1993, p.AE17]

What director Chen Kaige and his superb cast give us are larger-than-life passions, betrayals, and sacrifices, unfolding before the canvas of history. [29 Oct 1993, p.AE15]

Director David Cronenberg has made a movie about a man who apparently needs to get his eyes checked. [08 Oct 1993]

The film features some fine performances and explores an intriguing set of themes, but it fails to ever take life, causing its laudable message to fall on deadened ears. [12 Oct 1993, p.C1]

Despite buoying our hopes that it might be a new-fangled sports film, ``The Program'' devolves into a doltish drama about Triumph Over Adversity, all but forsaking the pure, thrilling bloodlust of its early moments. [24 Sept 1993, p.AE16]

Thanks to this flabbergasting howler of a sequence, Striking Distance becomes that rare thing: a movie so bad it's actually pretty good. [17 Sept 1993, p.AE17]

Woo's camera is easily the star of the film -- poring over Van Damme's cheekbones and chest (and groovy new locks) in an effort to make an epic character of him, caressing shotgun barrels and split lips, expanding and contracting time like Silly Putty. [20 Aug 1993, p.AE17]

Allen's newest film is his best artistic work in years. [20 Aug 1993, p.AE17]

But director Underwood seems more interested in the schmaltz then the comedy. His career is following a downward line from the enjoyably funky creature-feature ``Tremors'' to the funny-but-corny ``City Slickers'' to this all-out sugar cube. [13 Aug 1993, p.AE15]

All the characters are treated with respect and affection, even at their most comical and deluded, but Lee knows how to stop just short of overplaying the emotional scenes. [27 Aug 1993, p.AE13]

Just when it seems like Axe Murderer is headed to the gas chamber reserved for bad comedies, something amazing happens: It gets funny. [30 July 1993, p.AE15]

An ambitious but shapeless mix of road movie, romance and critique of black male-female relationships. [23 Jul 1993]

The handful of laughs is overwhelmed by a dull assemblage of chase scenes (one involving a huge dog and an orange tabby), tilted camera angles and dangling plot threads. [23 July 1993, p.AE17]

A good comedy contains at least one of two vital ingredients: sharp, swift writing or terrific comic shtick by the actors. Unfortunately, Hocus Pocus -- like most Hollywood comedies these days -- has neither. That doesn't mean it's a terrible movie. It's not, though it loses focus and momentum two-thirds of the way through and limps home with unsurprising special effects. It's just not all that funny. [16 July 1993, p.17]

The movie's message -- repression is bad, self-expression is good -- is amiable, and Shore's androgynous appearance and mannerisms are more subversive stuff than the usual fish-out-of-water formula offers. But director Steve Rash can do nothing with the feeble comedy bits. [2 July 1993, p.15]

For all its cleverness and moments of power, What's Love Got to Do With It is missing more than the question mark at the end of the title. [18 Jun 1993, p.18]

Of course, expecting Super Mario Bros. -- a live-action version of the kid-addictive Nintendo game -- to be a complex experience is like looking for Pauly Shore to win appointment to the Supreme Court. Plenty of talented people obviously worked hard on Super Mario Bros. to create something they hope will seem imaginative. But they're all trying to breathe life into a marketing decision. [31 May 1993, p.B04]

An intermittently engaging and confused blend of biopic, chop-socky, dopey mysticism and, oddest of all, melodramatic weepie, is no ``JFK.''[7 May 1993, p.AE15]

But despite its audacious sexuality, Tokyo Decadence isn't really honest about its pornography -- or its politics. The sex scenes are more about the twisted uses of power than they are about erotica. And like a movie that purports to be anti-violent but racks up a dougle-digit body count to make its point, the film relies too much on sexual excess to make a persuasive argument against it. Its pretensions fail to conceal the emptiness at the heart of Murakami's vision. [30 July 1993, p.AE23]

How truly, madly, deeply mediocre is Indian Summer, the comedy-drama about adults returning to summer camp, released by Disney's Touchstone Pictures? So mediocre it makes the 1966 Disney scouts-in-the-woods comedy ``Follow Me, Boys'' look good. [26 Apr 1993, p.D05]

Badham, a journeyman director prone to coughing up hairballs such as ``The Hard Way'' and ``Bird on a Wire,'' does unexpectedly well with the supporting cast. He actually wrests a good performance out of Anne Bancroft, as a veteran operative who trains Maggie in feminine wiles and etiquette. Improving on Jeanne Moreau in the original, Bancroft is a fierce combination of society hostess and drill sergeant. [23 March 1993, p.D06]