Dragon: The Story of Bruce Lee is therefore one of those rarities, a biography as entertaining as it is informative. [7 May 1993, p.6]

Imagine a stuffy Merchant Ivory production blended with muted Michael Crichton sci-fi and you have Never Let Me Go, at least as it plays on screen.

Batman is perfect summertime fare. Its secret is levity hidden in a dark and troubled soul.. [23 June 1989, p.6]

Unstoppable isn't unwatchable, but it is a letdown after "Speed" and some of the Speed-on-a-(fill in the blank with a vehicle) flicks that followed. Forget missing Hopper; even Keanu Reeves might make this movie more entertaining.

The stories might work better separately as uninterrupted short films. Combined, they lack cohesion but suggest that Coppola has a fine framing eye and ability to guide actors to good work.

Lion can't avoid seeming lesser in the second half after Davis' mesmeric first but it's solid storytelling nonetheless. Bring the Kleenex.

The Little Hours is less than the sum of its many comedy parts but some of those many are hilarious.

King's book isn't hallowed literature, just a little vicious fun, if 1,100 pages can be considered little. This is the spooky, overlong movie It deserves and It deserves that sequel. Float on.

Let's face it: Caine could do a lambada movie and it'd be worth seeing. His work in the new suspense thriller A Shock to the System carries us past the movie's bad direction and muddled script. [24 Mar 1990, p.2D]

A contrived finish only serves to resolve the dangling threads of a story that ought to end with a huge laugh, not a self-conscious giggle. [7 Aug 1987, p.1D]

The Avengers is as brawny and lamebrainy as any comic book movie deserves to be, capped by a 40-minute assault pummeling senses as few action sequences ever have.

Hamm makes for a compelling guide, Bogart-weary and mind racing, assessing each situation with a readable face for the camera. Beirut won’t make him a bigger movie star, but more interesting actors are tough to find.

Chronicle is so clever about the absurd, and so much fun to watch, that I'm almost disappointed the ending doesn't leave room for a sequel.

On film, Into the Woods feels tighter, the tone more cohesive.

It is brilliant and spectacular to a superlative degree with scenes that are nothing less than astonishing in their magnificence. [16 Apr 1936, p.2]

Like its predecessor, Gremlins 2 is a fun, roller-coaster ride of fiendish pranks and spilled gremlin innards. [15 Jun 1990, p.6]

Parker makes an assured feature filmmaking debut, with poetic imagery and powerful narrative.

Like Hi and Ed, Raising Arizona has a few problems. The repeated slapstick chases and fights are a little wearisome, and the final showdown between Hi and the biker is badly overdrawn, and gratuitously violent in the DePalma- Cronenberg style. Still, there is something appealing about a film that lists "baby wrangler" among the credits. And little T. J. Kuhn is liable to start a "critter boom" all by his lonesome. [10 Apr 1987, p.1D]

Like Lone Survivor and Deepwater Horizon before, Patriots Day is a brawny procedural, more than the exploitation flick it could be. Berg and Wahlberg's commitment to details beyond death and destruction feels like a calling.

While The Hidden never manages to meld Aliens with Blue Velvet - that appears to be Hunt's intention. It has a kinky charm that fuels it full throttle throughout. [30 Oct 1987, p.5D]

I expected, even wanted to cry at The Fault in Our Stars, or at least choke up a little. Yet the transparent eagerness of this movie to break hearts, through means not entirely justifying that end, always pulled me back.

This movie embraces everything that should make it lousy, calling out itself for aping the source's bad ideas then flipping the script with meta precision.

Liman handles the spy stuff with Bourne-again flair, especially the opener when Valerie proves her mettle during an assignment to secure a snitch.

Rocker John Mellencamp's attempt at making an honest little movie about the tribulations of a country star who tries to go home again doesn't just fall from grace. It falls flat on its, er, face. [17 Apr 1992, p.15]

The problem isn't entirely Lehane's script... It's the way Belgian director Michael R. Roskam, making his English language debut, is so visually uninspired by all this meanness.

Wright is an insanely funny filmmaker (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) yet only the front half of that description carries over to Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

A League of Their Own is a grand-slam comic drama. Superbly written, acted and directed. [1 July 1992, p.1D]

Like its predecessors, A Dry White Season is too reserved to effectively depict the hell of South Africa. Its most powerful moments occur in the courtroom, in jail cells and morgues filled with dead black children when its starched white protagonist is safely off-screen. [06 Oct 1989, p.6]