I still liked Marshall's movie version of Frankie & Johnny for many of the same reasons I liked his Pretty Woman. Neither one is a big picture, nor particularly realistic, and yet despite their shortcomings - and there are plenty in each - I left the theater feeling good. I also left feeling guilty about feeling good. [17 Oct 1991, p.4E]

Wingfield's attempts to bring the movie to a smooth conclusion fail completely, and the weakness of the story undermines the smooth, careful direction of Robert Mulligan, a veteran with 40 years of movies like To Kill a Mockingbird to his credit. [15 Nov 1991, p.3G]

Thanks in great part to a couple of dozen wonderful soul songs from the 1960s, and a very engaging and talented group of young Dubliners, The Commitments is a thorough delight - warm, funny and deeply human. [13 Sep 1991, p.3F]

Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man is a terrible movie. For the first 20 minutes or so, it is so far over the top in its pseudo-mythic urban cowboy way that it is at least entertainingly terrible. [23 Aug 1991, p.3F]

The script could use a few more laughs, but all in all Doc Hollywood is a pleasant if unexceptional summer movie. [02 Aug 1991, p.3F]

Return to the Blue Lagoon is just a lamer rehash of the 1980 movie, which starred Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins. And that ''classic'' actually was just a remake of the 1949 Jean Simmons version. Except that in the latest sequel, there isn't even the dopey innocence that was present in the Shields-Atkins saga. It's just dopey. [06 Aug 1991, p.4D]

Brooks has his moments. His facial expressions and body language are often funny and his delivery usually impeccable. But as a director, he doesn't keep the pace even or achieve any semblance of balance between humor and poignancy. [27 July 1991, p.5D]

Point Break is a perfect example of the contemporary "B" movie. And, like a lot of the old B movies, those cheap thrillers of the 1940s and 1950s, Point Break has considerably more raw energy than almost all of the higher-priced products. [12 July 1991, p.3F]

The first five minutes of this law-enforcement spoof (subtitled ''The Smell of Fear'') are hilarious, as police Lt. Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) brings havoc to a White House dinner that features George and Barbara Bush. Although the movie slows down somewhat after that, there are enough giggles and bellylaughs along the way to make this summer comedy hard to resist. [28 June 1991, p.3F]

FOR ABOUT HALF its length, City Slickers is a close-to-perfect movie comedy...Crystal, Stern and Kirby are good comedians, but they fall apart when the script does. Only cinematographer Dean Semler (''Dances With Wolves'') has his vision, and the film looks great from start to finish.

The baby sitter isn't the only thing dead in this movie - the plot also suffered a massive coronary while being scripted. In fact, the only life breathed into Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead is the light comedic performance of Christina Applegate (Married . . . With Children), with an assist from Keith Coogan. [13 June 1991, p.6E]

WITH Jungle Fever, a shattering movie that focuses on interracial love andracial hatred but that also confronts a dozen other incendiary topics, Spike Lee confirms his position as the leading American director of his generation. [7 June 1991, p.3F]

Candy breaks out of his goofball mold and delivers a solid performance as a lonely Chicago cop who can't pull loose from his domineering mother. The major flaw in Only the Lonely is that the mother (Maureen O'Hara) is such a vicious, whining, manipulative bigot that it is hard to care about her when the inevitable turnabout comes, or see why Candy doesn't just pull out his service revolver and blow her away. [24 May 1991, p.3F]

The overt sexuality of Madonna's stage show, particularly the lengthy exercise in self-stimulation called Like a Virgin, as well as the sometimes startling bluntness of her talk, keeps the movie from being totally boring. But this kind of trash can only sustain itself for so long - for most of us, about as long as it takes to get through the line at a supermarket. [17 May 1991, p.3F]

Toy Soldiers is strictly formula writing, and rather ordinary formula at that, director Daniel Petrie Jr. gets generally good acting from the cast, and the script is guaranteed not to test them too much. [26 Apr 1991, p.3F]

The suspense trickles out of A Kiss Before Dying in the first 10 or 15 minutes, and the movie just lies there until the final 10 or 15 minutes. Writer-director James Dearden tries to inject life into the long, slow middle with blood, breasts and buttocks, but we never sense that any of these attributes belongs to actual breathing human beings. [26 Apr 1991, p.5F]

Stallone starring in a comedy? Absolutely. Furthermore, it's a terrific comedy. Oscar is a fast-moving, highly stylized, very entertaining farce that is played as a combination of comic opera (complete with numerous soundtrack references to The Barber of Seville) and Depression-era zany comedy. [26 Apr 1991, p.3F]

Director Alan Rudolph and writers William Reilly and Claude Kerven don't play fair with the audience. They stack the deck and then deal from the bottom, and the result is such a surprise that I felt let down, even angry. I don't mind not figuring out who the murderer is, but Rudolph should show the viewer a few things along the way to allow it to be figured out. [19 Apr 1991, p.3F]

Whaley has some ingenuous charm, and Connelly may have some skills, too. The script gives neither much opportunity. [2 Apr 1991, p.4D]

Guilty By Suspicion isn't easy, but it's a powerful and gripping story, and the fact that it's true makes it that much stronger during the action and slightly incredible afterward when considering the fact that it happened at all. [15 Mar 1991, p.3F]

Nothing But Trouble may be the stupidest movie ever made by anybody you ever heard of. [22 Feb 1991, p.3F]

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

The photography is gorgeous, the action is predictable but fairly exciting and young Ethan Hawke is winning in the lead role [26 Jan 1991, p.3D]

Not Without My Daughter, based on the true story of Betty Mahmoody, presents a strong picture of the struggle of a mother and daughter trying to leave Iran together. The film succeeds very well in creating suspense over their situation without coating it with undue sentimentality. [12 Jan 1991, p.5D]

Warlock is one of those awful movies that serves a purpose: On a rainy day it's a way to keep dry, and most of the film is so dark that it's easy to nod off during the duller parts. [06 Mar 1991, p.5E]

It's a brilliant film, written tightly enough so that practically every word is important. Add a large cast that blends into a perfect ensemble, plus direction that gives every shot some meaning, and you can't ask much more. [25 Jan 1991, p.3F]

The movie is going to make a lot of people mad, too - the ones who liked the book. If you missed Tom Wolfe's scathingly satirical best seller about the greedy society of the 1980s, you will probably find yourself bored by the tepid, badly miscast screen version. You may leave the theater a little confused as to why there was so much controversy during the filming of what turns out to be a silly, almost innocuous Hollywood farce. [21 Dec 1990, p.3F]

Winona Ryder, rather than Cher, is the real star of Mermaids, and her fine performance as a hormone-stunned teen-ager is the main reason to see this otherwise mildly entertaining, somewhat muddled comic melodrama. [14 Dec 1990, p.3F]