FOR ABOUT a half-hour, Troop Beverly Hills brings a lot of funny situations and funny lines. Then it's time to finish the popcorn and settle down for a nap. [24 March 1989, p.3F]

FLETCH LIVES is significantly funnier than the original ''Fletch,'' probably because it takes itself just a a little bit more seriously...While there are one-liners aplenty, there also is at least the hint of a real mystery. And this time, Chevy Chase seems to have broken loose from the Burt Reynolds syndrome, which involves trying to get laughs with a bad line by making a funny face. [22 March 1989, p.4F]

For a while in the middle, as tentacles began snaking through the ship, the shock value is considerable. But director George P. Cosmatos lets the suspense slide away in ridiculous dialogue and confusing action. By the end, the movie is terrible rather than terrifying. [17 Mar 1989, p.3F]

If you are willing to forgive it a lot -- and on a sunny, winter-spring day, my capacity for forgiveness was immense -- Chances Are can be an entertaining little trifle. [17 March 1989, p.3F]

Dream a Little Dream is so murky and convoluted that it just comes off as being tired. [10 March 1989, p.3F]

Painfully dumb. [21 Feb 1989, p.5D]

There is nothing in Walas' directorial style to raise the movie above the level of a routine gross-out horror movie. Good makeup, though. [19 Feb 1989, p.14H]

It's a breezy piece of fluff that moves along rapidly and has a few good twists, the kind of comedy that would have been called a summer movie not too many years ago. It also has Paulina Porizkova, who adds a lot of charm, a winning smile and an adequate delivery in a role that is so implausible as to be ridiculous. But if you look at the actress and don't try to make sense of her actions or her lines, that's enough suspension of disbelief to make Her Alib' almost work. [3 Feb 1989, p.3G]

A so-so comedy that slows down considerably after the first half-hour and tries to hide its dull stretches by giving us lingering shots of the cute kid. [30 Jan 1989, p.6D]

A very unsettling black comedy....although by the end, you might feel as if you have been assaulted by a combination of ''Blue Velvet'' and ''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.'' This is a very impressive directorial debut for Bob Balaban, working from a chilling (and eventually cutting and slashing) script by Christopher Hawthorne. [28 Apr 1989, p.6F]

Director Graeme Clifford keeps the action going lickity-split and created a film worth a quick look. [17 Jan 1989, p.5D]

This time, the results are only fair. [13 Jan 1989, p.5G]

Kevin Kline roars through The January Man as a character who is a mirror image of the one he played in A Fish Called Wanda. This time, he's uncommonly bright but still marches to a very different drummer. But while Wanda was bright and slick and very funny, January is as leaden as the month, and not very funny. [13 Jan 1989, p.5G]

It's a fascinating look under some of the rocks that dot the current landscape... A gripping - sometimes frightening - motion picture. [13 Jan 1989, p.3G]

Beaches is worth seeing simply for the production number in which Midler puts her bosom to good use, and watching the buck-toothed, flamingo-haired Mayim Bialik perform as Midler at 11 is so realistic one wonders if magic mirrors have been used.[15 Jan 1989, p.6C]

THE LAIR of the White Worm is an extremely silly and rather bloody movie. If you are willing to accept it as a tacky spoof of tacky horror movies, you should find it funny - at times, downright hilarious. [3 Feb 1989, p.3G]

The world Nair shows us is, on the whole, an unpleasant one, but there is never any sense of false melodrama or of the camera selecting only shocking or hopeless images. And as a whole, the film documents how difficult it is to defeat the human spirit. [24 Mar 1989, p.3F]

I found Davies' rehashed experiences to range from boring to depressing, and felt that the two devices mentioned above were not sufficient to raise it to the level where art transcends experience. [29 Sep 1989, p.3F]

The dialogue is ridiculous, the plot is silly, and the acting is cartoonish. But I'll hand this to Italian horror director Lucio Fulci: He knows how to put on a show for those dead set on seeing a violent, gory, bloody, zombie-infested midnight-flick type of a movie. [03 Jul 1998, p.E3]

Littman avoids excess, just as she does throughout this gripping, moving, terribly unpleasant--and yet valuable--motion pictures. [25 Nov 1983, p.5E]

Even more than its predecessors in the "Star Wars" series, Return of the Jedi is about incredible special effects and astonishingly effective costumes and makeup. The characters and dialogue get lost somewhere between the bug-eyed monsters and the exploding spaceships, but it is all so much fun it probably really does not matter a whole lot.

Despite a couple of drawbacks, The Empire Strikes Back is an immense amount of fun — big and splashy and breathtaking in its display of cinematic genius by a huge group of marvelously talented people.

This Robert Altman film offers a good look at the life of a professional gambler. [15 Mar 2005, p.E1]

With all due respect to Poitier as a dramatic actor, "Buck and the Preacher" is as bad a Western as many of the routine white-made Westerns. Its only redeeming feature is Belafonte, who steals the picture from the stone-faced Poitier with an engaging clever comic performance of the likable scraggly bearded rapscallion. [05 May 1972, p.51]

A B comedy so forgettable that although I know I saw it, I was equally sure that Fred MacMurray was in it. (He wasn't.) But over time, movies - particularly Disney comedies - tend to acquire a hazy, nostalgic charm. [10 Nov 1995]

Film classic about a doctor and his efforts to break through to a young boy (Jean-Pierre Cargol) who has grown up in the woods. [15 Feb 2009, p.F6]

In the early scenes, Cambridge brilliantly conveys Gerber's obnoxiousness while making him sympathetic. Later, Cambridge imbues the character with a blend of outrage and pride that's breathtaking. [31 Jul 2008, p.8]

Director John Boorman (Deliverance, Hope and Glory) stretched the limits of 1960s cinematic storytelling with his nonlinear plot construction, experimental camera angles and psychedelic flashbacks. While some of it seems a bit trite by today's standards, it was rather innovative at the time. [05 Jul 2005, p.D1]

Simultaneously enigmatic and painfully direct, melodramatic yet subtle, playful yet tragic, Au Hasard Balthazar is a deeply moving portrait of the sins and mercies of mankind as seen and suffered by an ass. [30 Jul 2004, p.E03]

The film is interesting, although it does become a bit monotonous in its endless shots of the seedy side of Paris. [23 Nov 1962, p.48]

Without question. Vertigo is one of the best movies ever made by one of the best directors. [Restored version; 7 Dec 1996, p.41]

Former TV director Sidney Lumet's solid success is achieved without even once resorting to flashbacks or other standard procedures of the film trade. The secret rests in spirited dialogue, realistic setting and, of course, the excellent cast of outstanding character actors that make up the jury. [21 Apr 1957, p.106]

Not many science-fiction films can accurately be described as poignant, especially those from the kitschy 1950s. But The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) definitely qualifies. [26 Jun 2008, p.4]

This slice of life is heartening because of its humanity; utter honesty doesn't have to be depressing. [12 Aug 1955, p.3D]

The latest in pseudo-scientific horror films, Them!... displays some ingenuity and imagination and is guaranteed to raise a fright wig on every head for the first half, anyway. [18 Jun 1954, p.2D]

Wilder consistently infused his films with wit and intelligence, offering comedy in his dramas and drama in his comedies. And Stalag 17 is a shining example. [28 Mar 2006, p.E1]

Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder, the smart writer-director-producer team, have cast a sardonic eye on Hollywood and come up with a picture of it that is not pretty, but is certainly fascinating. [25 Aug 1950, p.2D]

Greene's wonderful dialogue, often oddly contradictory, adds to that tantalizing sense of imbalance. [5 Aug 1999, p.G3]

The dialogue still sparkles, but the story is a bit weaker than the previous editions. [02 Aug 2005, p.E1]

It's shocking that Grant wasn't even nominated for an Oscar. [1 March 2005, p.E01]

Like those other one-in-a-million films (E.T., for example), Fantasia is truly entertainment for kids of all ages. [31 Oct 1991, p.4E]

A slight step down from the first two, but still very good. [02 Aug 2005, p.E1]

A one-of-a-kind concoction. [1 June 1989, p.4E]

Almost as good as the first film, it has James Stewart in one of his earliest roles. [02 Aug 2005, p.E1]

It is, as it stands, a lavish creation. [13 Apr 1936, p.3C]