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]