Meandering and inert. Yet as an etching of an emotion and a vehicle for Costner, the movie makes a case for itself.

Credit to Hart, though, for trying to make every scene, comic or sentimental, as strong as he can. He reads each line that’s supposed to be funny as if it is, locates Sonny’s emotional truth no matter how ridiculous the scene is, and never lets his signature energy sag.

Encino Man is so puerile and sophomoric that, by comparison, ''Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' is ''Our Town,'' and ''Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure'' is ''Gulliver's Travels.'' For that matter, Pauly Shore makes Wayne and Garth, the two cable TV rec-room rockers of ''Wayne's World'' fame, seem like they belong at the Algonquin Hotel round table. [22 May 1992, p.D3]

Well acted, well crafted and might have been a truly searing drama if it weren't so simplistic, pat and predictable.

The movie's onslaught of psychobabble is the annoyance most likely to ruin your evening. Imagine getting stuck on a ski lift with Dr. Phil for nearly two hours.

What's completely baffling is that everyone in the film thinks Nomi is one heck of a dancer, even though her one move -- throwing her arms out stiffly -- is straight out of "Dr. Strangelove."

Decidedly lowbrow.

The plot movement feels very much like an unpleasant formality, shoved forward by tiresome devices.

It's the most tension-producing movie out there right now -- in the best way, it's almost unbearable.

It's forgettable matinee fodder.

Gods of Egypt is an epic — an epic disaster.

Turns into one long wallow.

It plays like a string of cliches linked together to form a movie with not a single moment of surprise or originality.

Lame, haphazard teen comedy.

If London were a comedy, it just might work. Instead, it's a dead-serious marathon of angst from cool kids old enough to know they're mouthing cliches.

An old formula made fresh.

This movie is so horrible that it actually spends some time in "so bad it's good" territory, before getting significantly worse.

Lacks the clever twists and turns that made the original such fun. The sequel has exactly one twist, and it's not very clever.

So inept it's almost entertaining.

But Congo leads to nothing but a fierce battle with the gray gorillas, a kind of guns vs. fangs scene; and a convenient and incongruous volcano eruption that looks as artificial as a video game.

This noir mystery is murkier than it needs to be, through no fault of Stallone's.

A stink bomb of a movie.

The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, is a stiff, guaranteed to disappoint just about everybody, except those rooting against him. [11 Jul 1990, p.E1]

If you came to see two pretty girls in wedding dresses wrestle, you won't be disappointed.

It's so low it scrapes through the barrel and deep into the earth's core. It's the lowest piece of garbage to hit screens in months.

Dirty Work was directed by Bob Saget, who always seemed slightly embarrassed by his enormous success as the host of America's Funniest Home Videos. Now he's got something else to be slightly embarrassed about.

Women had to struggle for years to launch their own basketball league; it's a shame that the first movie to address their success is a drag comedy, and a lousy one at that.

Has a shameless B-movie exuberance.