Fitfully, someone will say or do something very funny, but much of the time passes in a rather laborious way. This movie should have been a lot better than it is. [27 Nov 1994, p.9C]

The special effects remain good, but the jokes are creaky, the sentiments are forced and the pop-historical lessons are obligatory.

This movie, which was made by an animation studio in Spain, isn't trying to make a social statement; it speaks in the international language of lightweight comedy.

Mars Needs Moms is dark for a Disney movie.

It's moderately entertaining until about halfway through, when it gets totally out of control. [16 Mar 1990, p.3F]

Ronald Bass' predictable screenplay gives Roberts no brains at all, which is an injustice. [08 Feb 1991, p.3F]

The so-so film isn't nearly as good as any of the movies that may have inspired it, or even its own knockout trailer.

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 medical drama that pays lip service to the healing power of music but never finds the rhythm.

Taking Care of Business gives little but doesn't take much away, either. It's not a film where you fret about whether everything is going to work out, and you know all the dangling strings are going to be tied in fancy bows by the end. [22 Aug 1990, p.5E]

The Big Year puts the focus on people who aren't inherently interesting - or funny.

Offbeat and unpredictable, Demolition takes a wrecking ball to audience expectations.

Starved of sufficient comedy or drama, The Age of Adaline is a pipsqueak.

Minions is product, pure and simple. Little kids will love it, but grown-ups will feel like they’re being held hostage in a Fisher-Price test laboratory.

The most grievous sins here are sins of omission.

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]

This halftime walk is more like a long slog.

Hot Tub Time Machine isn't a good movie, but like a bubbling bath it keeps pounding at us until our resistance wears down.

Lovely to look at, and Vikander does nothing to derail her inevitable ascension to the A-list. But as a story, it evokes a word that no battlefield nurse would ever apply to her experiences: sterile.

Working from a screenplay that he co-wrote with McCarthy, director Ben Falcone (who happens to be her husband) keeps things moving but without much of a spark.

Only when there’s an opportunity to blow things up does Fuqua seem fully engaged. Another Western bites the dust.

One can’t help but feel that the man himself — grill and all — is so much more fascinating than this rote representation.

The setting and offbeat tone may remind some viewers of another recent comedy, but whereas “The Descendants” was a substantive meal, Aloha is a pu pu platter.

Has a welcome message of personal growth and racial tolerance. And it's ably made, with evocative Memphis locations. But in the final sermon, it proffers some plot twists that are supposed to be miraculous but may strike a doubting Thomas as lame.

Despite a solid cast and a few interesting visual moments, Surviving the Game is just a routine action picture. [21 Apr 1994, p.5G]

This convoluted tale of a U.S. Treasury agent (Wesley Snipes) looking for the rats who killed one of his partners simmers along fairly well for about 45 minutes and then gets all lukewarm and fuzzy. [21 Apr 1993, p.6F]

Although it has a great look and offers a few thrills, the animated film 9 is one of this year's biggest disappointments.

In getting so many of the Midwestern details wrong, worldly director Bahrani (“Chop Shop”) teaches an inadvertent lesson to aspiring filmmakers who want to follow his footsteps to the festival circuit: Grow where you’re planted.