The songs and a couple of strong performances are only good enough to make the film watchable, not exceptional.

In spite of its downbeat subjects, Drugstore Cowboy becomes a satisfying drama of redemption. [27 Oct 1989]

Director Stephan Elliott too easily buys into the drag queens' conception of themselves as valiant pursuers of illusion, without ever questioning the value of the illusion being pursued.

Husbands and Wives ultimately reveals itself as an extremely bitter film, with the kind of sour conviction that tries to pass itself off as wisdom. Allen knows how people talk and how they evade really talking. But his jaundiced vision -- as though he just found out that a marriage can't always be like the first month of dating when you're 17, and now he can't believe how crummy it all is -- just makes him seem naive. In the end his perception yields no insight. Old men like young women. Really? [18 Sept 1992, p.C1]

There's nothing about this thriller to prevent it from soon becoming enmeshed in the memory with others in which Michael Douglas wears a starched collar and grits his teeth.

But there's just enough comforting familiarity mixed with refreshing new characters to hold the casserole of a plot together.

Transcendence looks and sounds like a Christopher Nolan film that got attacked by malware.

Like most films in the genre, it's sweet, sincere and predictable.

Well made, but it's a talkfest that wears its stage origins on its sleeve.

At its best, Mermin -- who used an all-female crew -- conveys the sense of an entirely feminine world being created under the beauty school roof, and it's refreshing.

Feels a bit too much like six hours of movie packed into 113 minutes - imagine if New Line had made Peter Jackson cram the entirety of "Lord of the Rings" into one film.

Has an impressive cast and captures some of that era's fuzzy rebelliousness and humanism, but taken on its own the picture is finally thin stuff.

You might need the assistance of a time machine to find a child who is clamoring for a Mr. Peabody & Sherman feature film remake.

It could be a deeply provocative tale, but the director seems reluctant to probe behind his artful facade.

By showing so many examples of his art, the film attests to Giger’s real gift for startling images. But it’s hard not to see, in addition, elements of repetitive adolescent provocation.

The truly shocking thing about the new version is that it's not bloody awful.

This latest adaptation of the Charlotte Brontë novel is careful, respectful and even enjoyable, and yet dry, singularly humorless and played without the lavishness of spirit that makes sense of Gothic melodrama.

Somewhere along the line, someone seems to have thought this was ''Last Tango in Paris'' all over again. It ain't. [19 Aug 1994, p.C3]

The movie is a mess of bits and pieces that try to gel but don't. Still, it is stupidly fun.

Even if the idea of The Desperate Hour makes you uneasy, you will be engrossed by it.

If it were just a middling effort, The Master would be a lot less frustrating. But the latest from writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson has greatness in it - two extraordinary performances, intuitive and revealing photography and scene setting, and a distinct directorial sensibility that hovers between sobriety and satire. Yet all those virtues are undermined by a narrative that goes all but dead for the last hour.

It's entertainment, but mild entertainment.

First Date is a very ambitious independent film with a charming, casual attitude.

A better- than-average comedy that is raunchy and tasteless but ultimately funny from beginning to end.

The new Disneynature film lacks the fortuitous plot turns found in previous Disney documentaries, resulting in some awkward (and possibly deceptive) editing. But the movie has a strong protagonist and impressive footage, and the educational core is unsullied.

Someday, one hopes, Mulcahy will make his masterpiece blend of action and story. Until then, Highlander 2 will have to be considered a steppingstone. [01 Nov 1991, p.D7]

Clearly, this is not a film for everyone, but even though the routine gets highly repetitious, some of the heavy metal numbers are stirring.

Curiously enough plays like a 90-minute version of the old television show. That's not necessarily bad.