Coming to America is the filmic equivalent of using a Maserati to go to the corner grocery store — Murphy's colossal comic gifts and Landis' countercultural sensibilities are largely wasted, never pushed to the floor in this idling, curbed comedy.

Although one need not have graduated from a weekend screenwriting seminar to tell where the story is headed, Big is just plain funny and wonderfully goofy throughout. Again, while certainly not a new story or even a new theme, Big is done refreshingly well.

Driven by director Tim Burton (Pee Wee's Big Adventure) and his fanciful imagination, the film is colorful, delightfully deranged and endlessly inventive — a grand-scale funhouse that can be enjoyed by children of all ages.

Hughes' savvy notwithstanding, the appeal of Planes is due to Martin and Candy's comically controlled, ever-ingratiating performances.

While far too much of the film is staged discussion and smug political jousting, there is savage and lethal black irony.

Light and likable, with hearts unabashedly all over its sleeves, Roxanne is a winning romantic comedy whose appeal should cross age barriers and backgrounds — giving it an across-the-board promise.

Structurally, Predator is a classic behind-enemy-lines/buddy movies. Nothing much new, just well done.

Unfortunately, after a terrific, deliciously devious first hour, this sophisticated, comic sex battle soars out of control, blown by its own creative excesses.

Harry and the Hendersons is a disappointment.

A combination of exposé on Air Force experiments with chimpanzees and cuddly pet story, Project X should fly high as family entertainment.

The atmosphere, the buddy stuff and the flashy setting don't make up for the fact that the main story is too distanced throughout much of the movie. Further diluting the film's intensity is the scene structuring; far too often lame expository scenes serve to advance the plot or explain the backstory.

Cameron isn't as concerned with scares or atmosphere, the staples of traditional horror films, as he is with setting up difficult situations for his characters to get out of, leaving audiences deliciously on edge.

A disastrous send-up of James Bond movies that featured KISS' Gene Simmons as a cross-dressing villain. [15 Feb 2016]

At its best Ferris Bueller is a free-spirited romp, a devil-may-care respite from grueling dailiness.

Though the farce has some lively moments and Pisano’s expressive performance exudes a crude charm, the picture is uneven as a work of entertainment.

Despite the often skewed story, performances under Joel Schumacher's intelligent direction are spirited and on-the-mark, most notably that of Lowe as the caddish pretty boy and Moore as the frazzled coker. The other leads: Estevez, McCarthy, Sheedy, Winningham and Nelson all deserve plaudits for their credible contributions.

The action at the center of Chris Columbus' script occasionally falters and generally feels manufactured, but the kids go about their chores as if convinced that all their make-believe is true.

Admittedly, the storyline weaves all over the place, but no matter — Chase's performance and a plethora of daft and witty situations carry it past some structural rough spots.

Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon is a fun, frisky R&B/pop musical with touches of such recent hits as Purple Rain and The Karate Kid, but heavily sugar-coated with the glossy style of video music-movies like Flashdance and Footloose.

High school detention, most will attest, is a grim and dull experience. This film is not only about high school detention, it is similar to it. Audience members may feel like they've been sentenced, along with the five principals, to a day in the library, just sitting and doing nothing. While high schoolers will recognize some shrewd satiric hits in Breakfast Club, the film is tedious and unpredictable. Unless the nation's teachers decide to make it required viewing, this grueling Illinois-set presentation should be about as popular with teenage moviegoers as additional homework.

For all its cumbersome scope (realized on a shimmeringly large scale by Lawrence of Arabia cinematographer Freddie Francis), the film remains an intensely personal epic, Lynch's uncommon emphasis on characters rather than effects lending his exposition a rather remarkable lucidity.

The havoc makes for a genuine steel metal trap of a movie that may very well be the best picture of its kind since The Road Warrior.

It packs plenty of rabble-rousing ammunition, but its sloppy execution is unlikely to win any merit badges for marksmanship.

Sensitive and highly visual, this Albert Magnoli-directed film is an accomplished and sophisticated example of storytelling. Even those who aren’t Prince fans are likely to be captivated by its energy, enamored with its simple, often poignant storyline.

Revenge of the Nerds is primarily the story of outcasts getting their just rewards, and that is always a satisfying movie ingredient. Nonetheless, this scattergun, often scatological film is filled with extensive racial stereotypes, which may offend some moviegoers.

Although it reunites the comic talents of director Ivan Reitman, writer Harold Ramis and star Bill Murray, the team responsible for the Meatballs phenomenon, their style here is far more laid-back and relaxed. There are still plenty of laughs, but not of the frantic sledgehammer variety.

Splash, the story of a lovelorn bachelor who falls in love with a mermaid, deserves high marks both for technical verisimilitude and artistic merit.

Rarely has a film made a historic accomplishment seem so vivid and personal.

A picture that clearly aspires for more ends up with considerably less.

Unfortunately, it conveys the sense that the machinery has already started to wear down, and the inventiveness to wear thin. To be sure, the film abounds in action. Some new peril besets Luke Skywalker, Han Solo or the Princess Leia almost too regularly every 10 minutes. But there's a kind of desperation about it, a feeling that Lucas and co-writer Lawrence Kasdan are simply trying to figure out what they can do next to amuse the kiddies. The stuff of legend that inspired and elevated the earlier episodes has here been replaced largely by the stuff of comic books.

Writer B.J. Nelson has skillfully combined plot elements and situations which draw from the best of Westerns and anti-Establishment cop films.

Heart is an often enthralling film of determination, heartbreak and triumph.

Unbelievably crass. And extremely funny.

The director's touch of class is consistently present, but it may be a case of the wrong man for the job, since overall film plays unevenly, with a cliche and detached ambiance that robs the plotline of what passion it might have whipped up.

The chemistry between Hawn and Burt Reynolds is sublime in Norman Jewison's underappreciated gem, written by Valerie Curtin and Barry Levinson and loosely based on their relationship.

Blade Runner is a cold, bold, bizarre and mesmerizing futuristic detective thriller that unites the British-born director of Alien with new box-office dynamo Harrison Ford for results that are as impressive as any film that's exploded through a projector so far this year.

An enticingly nasty little crime film in which all pleasures go sour before they can be enjoyed, it is ripe for rediscovery in Rialto's fine restoration, and will be many Americans' first encounter with star Patrick Dewaere, whose funny, bracingly strange turn here was among his last.

Steven Spielberg has done it again. He has created another instant American classic.

It has got an intriguing premise, an effective cast, and it has been expertly mounted.

It's the thrills that keep it moving.

De Niro, however, is brilliant and his performance should be a leading contender in this year's Oscar competition.

To attempt a critical evaluation of Orion's new Caddyshack is a little like describing the esthetic qualities of an outhouse.

The humor is an ingenious concoction of satire, spoof, burlesque, slapstick, raunchy dialogue and low-comedy sight gags. The jokes are directed at sex, politics, religion and almost everything else. The level of humor is not always consistent, but the filmmakers have thrown almost everything in with a shotgun approach and the routines work more often than not.

While Empire doesn't quite measure up to Star Wars in the freshness and originality of its script, and the plethora of space operas that has been jamming the screens ever since Star Wars has somewhat lessened the novelty of city-sized ships sailing the stratosphere, nevertheless this 20th Century-Fox release remains a rattling good entertainment, a worthy successor to the original — and far and away the best of its kind since Star Wars itself.

Gruesome violence, in which throats are slashed and heads are split open in realistic detail, is the sum content of Friday the 13th, a sick and sickening low budget feature that is being released by Paramount. It’s blatant exploitation of the lowest order.

Hal Ashby's direction is perfect in realizing the offbeat humor and gentle satire of the piece.

It’s comic-book material, but it has been brought to the screen with imagination and a delightful sense of tongue-in-cheek humor. Daniel Haller’s direction is perfectly in tune with the lighthearted script and he progresses the action with an infectious spirit.

For me, The Deer Hunter is THE great American film of 1978. I realize that we still have a few major releases yet to come, like Superman, but I can't imagine anything more timely, more important, more uncompromising than this Universal-EMI production.

Unquestionably, there is a good story here — as Universal itself demonstrated some years ago in Seven Bridges to Cross. But Friedkin has failed to tell it.

Carpenter creates excellent tension throughout and he avoids excessive blood and gore in the murder sequences. The violent actions are mostly implied more than graphically depicted, which serves to heighten the effect.

Battlestar Galactica is a poor man's version of Star Wars — poor in every detail, including writing, pacing, characterization and, above all, imagination.

Hooper has all the action that fans of this genre could ask for, plus a whole lot more.

While we can readily identify these characters, we can't identify with them simply because Hill never bothers to tell us what makes them tick.

The visuals here...are never less than stunning in their impact, yet always seem well within the realm of possibility. It is also to Spielberg's credit, however, that despite all of this visual opulence, his actors are never dwarfed.

While the joke wears thin very quickly, there are a number of amusing sequences, which are combined with some exciting road action to provide a mildly entertaining — and totally mindless — film.

Lucas combines excellent comedy and drama and progresses it with exciting action on tremendously effective space battles. Likeable heroes on noble missions and despicable villains capable of the most dastardly deeds are all wrapped up in some of the most spectacular special effects ever to illuminate a motion picture screen. The result is spellbinding and totally captivating on all levels.

The movie falls short of greatness, but it compares more than favorably not only with the usual concert film (good as a few of them are) but also with the current love stories on film.

On paper, neither character may seem terribly appealing, but on the screen they steal your heart away, but completely...Not only did that last reel include some of the most wildly exciting fight footage ever put on the screen, but it also provided an emotionally gratifying capstone to a picture that is truly an ode to the human spirit.

Whatever its flaws, Network is a picture that can stand on its own. And does.

One has the impression that Goldman realized you can push a good thing just so far, or that audiences will follow reportorial plotting just so long.

Beneath the mild verbal shocks lay an excellent screenplay handled by real talent.

With One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Forman takes his rightful place as one of our most creative young directors. His casting is inspired, his sense of milieu is assured, and he could probably wring Academy Award performances from a stone.

Perhaps the most perfectly constructed horror story in our time.

More than in any previous Altman movie, we are made to feel the pathos and vulnerability of those impoverished souls he draws so well.

It is good-natured, lowbrow, backlot, hit-or-miss humor, but with no cumulative effect beyond its succession of hard-worked jokes. More theatrical than cinematic in its conception, this group effort relies on the improvisation of its performers.

It is neither a very happy or driving picture. But it is intellectually daring and marks an important breakthrough in the growing up of the Hollywood film.

Brooks' fast-paced direction is a masterpiece of comedy detail, filled with delightful and perfectly timed sight gags.

Laurents' screenplay has a shocking sense of character truth, and The Way We Were says things that no one else has dared to say in a major Hollywood movie.

If director John Hancock's work is sometimes atmospherically colorless, he pulls scenes together that seem to be going nowhere and acquits himself most notably with the performers.

Bruce Lee's last movie is the only one that gives him the star treatment he deserved. His charismatic presence is remarkable in Enter the Dragon, and it's a shame he didn't have the chance to become the great, unique star he seemed destined to be.

The ingeniously structured screenplay by Katz, Huyck and Lucas offers up a load of wonderful characters who whirl about in ducktail haircuts and shirtwaist dresses, lost in the obscenity of American culture. Thanks to some of the most spirited, daffy dialogue since Lubitsch, their sweetness is deliriously funny. No matter how high the dramatic stakes become, the movie never loses its sense of humor, and although it has a lot to say, it's gloriously free of pretensions.

Conjures up a terrifying vision of the future that is made all the more urgent by today's inflationary food prices and fast approaching energy crisis.

A gloriously inspired tribute to Hollywood that never loses sight of what Los Angeles has become.

Redford, who dominates the picture, has never been more assured or appealing.

Director Francis Ford Coppola, with a strong assist from cameraman Gordon Willis, has done an extraordinary job of capturing period and place.

Norman Jewison's Fiddler on the Roof is a lavish, carefully made, splendidly designed musical film. It demonstrates once again that ample amounts of time and money, intelligently employed, can indeed buy perfection.

If Shaft were indeed a hard-hitting, fast-paced, action-packed detective thriller, as it was meant to be, then it would be an acceptable entertainment. But it isn't.

It is an unsatisfying film because we know no more about the people at the end than we did at the beginning, in fact, very little at all.

Memorable images. Immemorable film.

It is the closest the sound film has come to recapturing the genius of the silent movie chase comedy.

It is fresh and spontaneous, plausible at its most logically improbable, thanks to Altman's superior direction, Lardner's script, the fine selection of actors and to an omnipresent camera under director of photography Harold E. Stine and operator Bill Mendenhall.

It is a great film and will be an exceptionally popular and profitable one.

Easy Rider is very likely the clearest and most disturbing presentation of the angry estrangement of American youth to be brought to the screen.

It is simply one of the most exciting and intelligent action films in years, probably the best good-cop film we can expect to encounter.

It is a flashy, undemanding technical achievement, enhanced by the marquee power of Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway.

Planet of the Apes is that rare film that will transcend all age and social groupings.

It is, as promised, "a majestic visual experience," quite unlike any film we have ever seen...These details are merely a means employed by Kubrick and his distinguished screenplay collaborator Arthur C. Clarke, to provoke the more limitless imaginings of the mind, to assault the viewer with tantalizing enigmas to force exploration of that personal universe in relation to time and space, meaning and potential.

A brutally funny look at contemporary youth, encrusted with status symbols and guilt for gilt rejecting the weights of privilege to rail against the tides of society they would rather reject than succumb to, rather question than attend to. Both tuned and attuned to its subject and on target for most of its course, this second film from director Nichols will benefit from enthusiastic word of mouth, winning a large audience and corresponding profits from both sides of the 30 year demarcation line.

Gene Hackman, as the older brother who literally takes the back seat to Beatty, is just about perfect, while Estelle [Parsons] creates a richly detailed characterization as his petty wife, a preacher’s daughter.

A gripping and suspenseful murder mystery that effects a feeling of greater importance by its veneer of social significance and the illusion of depth in its use of racial color.

It is overlong, uneven and frequently obscure, but will succeed by virtue of its sustained action, even though what it attempts to say, if anything, remains elusive.

The Fortune Cookie is Billy Wilder's best picture since The Apartment, his funniest since Some Like It Hot.

Although for much of the way it tinkles along with the innocent merriment of a carousel, it dips into reality for its climax, and makes a valid and indelible impression.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is an instant film classic, and Warner Bros. deserves the highest credit for making it a movie without compromise.

Doctor Zhivago is more than a masterful motion picture; it is a life experience.

The 20th-Fox release will be one of the movies' all-time hits, one of the all-time great pictures. It restores your faith in movies. If you sit quietly and let it take, it may also restore your faith in humanity. It does this with infectious wit, with consistent gaiety, with simple and realistic spirituality, with romance of heartbreak and heartmend. This is set against the most beautiful scenery you have seen in your life. The Sound of Music is quite a picture.

The picture is exquisite, extraordinary, a unique gem of filmmaking.

Baleful and brilliant, Dr. Strangelove; Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, will outrage a predictable percentage of the population and enthrall an even greater percentage.