With its superbly cast leads, including a well-selected Alex Datcher as a feisty stewardess who wins Cutter's heart with her heroics, Passenger 57 soars beyond its simple generic dimension. [06 Nov 1992]

This trying-to-please-everyone Jennifer 8 is likely to disappoint viewers on every level, from the cerebrals who enjoy a brainy, cop-and-killer psychological duel to the clunkheads who savor a bloody, bump-in-the-night, mechanical scarefest. [5 Nov 1992]

The film makes effective use of the Vietnamese locations and the languid, somewhat decayed environment lends its own atmosphere of sensuality. [16 Sept 1992]

Dr. Giggles may not be first in its class, but you'll get your money's worth. [26 Oct 1992]

There's a new bogeyman in town, and he makes all other pretenders to the terror throne look like a bunch of cuddly Disney characters.

Good direction takes on a bad script and the script wins. [16 Oct 1992]

Writer-director Quentin Tarantino is one lethal storyteller. Reservoir Dogs, even for those of us with weak stomachs, is a masterful story setup, aided and abetted by all those colorful guys in on the thing.

David Mamet’s harsh, hard-talking drama about shady, desperate real estate salesmen makes for an actors’ showcase with a surprisingly conventional whodunit backdrop in the movie version of Glengarry Glen Ross.

The story, the acting, the cinematography are all so potent that they overwhelm us in the best way possible. The violence is brutal and graphic, yet compelling. [23 Sep 1992]

While vampirologists at the priciest film schools may someday offer thick tomes on the mythical traditions of Joe and Marie's civic quest, Innocent Blood is, at its story marrow, your basic kill-the-monster-before-it-devours-the-city yarn. Screenwriter Michael Wolk's straightforward scenario is flecked with outrageous snatches of humor, which Landis expertly milks to the hilt. While he demonstrated a splendid ability to blend tones and rhythms in "An American Werewolf in London," Landis goes straight for the jugular here -- Innocent Blood is a horror-comedic onslaught. Even its romance is a rampage. [25 Sept 1992]

A pleasant mix of quiet comedy and sweet romance born of a sharp eye for contemporary mores. [10 Sept 1992]

Carlo Di Palma's intense, smashing, claustrophobic cinematography is terrific: Jarring, moving, and hitting all the hard angles of Upper East Side Manhattan, Di Palma frames a tight picture of woe. As ever, Woody Allen's smear on himself is appropriately smudged with telling musical notes: Cole Porter's "What Is This Thing Called Love" and Mahler's "Symphony No. 9 in D" sound the agony. [26 Aug 1992]

Smartly conceived by the team behind WarGames and carried by Phil Alden Robinson’s jazzy yet suspenseful direction, Sneakers has aged better than the gimongous computer mainframes that Redford and his geek squad try their best to crack.

Credit to co-writer and director Marc Rocco for the film's consistently high-level performances. Mulroney and Boyle scrounge up all the right emotions and insecurities in their street couple portrayals, while Astin is particularly terrific as a pathetic, downsliding junkie. [14 Jan 1992]

Skillfully juxtaposing private revelations with public documents, co-directors Berlinger and Sinofsky have created a mesmerizing portrait of the American justice system and revealed an insight into this country's nature -- throughout, there is the feeling that people take care of one another, and neither laws nor outsiders can quell inherent qualities of decency. [02 May 1994]

David Lynch probably should have let Laura Palmer stay dead. Twin Peaks -- Fire Walk With Me, a feature film prequel to the much-discussed, much-admired TV series by Lynch, is a wearing experience that apparently intrigued the director as little as it inspired him.[28 Aug 1992]

Likely to be popular among kids, as well as the aforementioned slugs, Stay Tuned is an amiable, end-of-summer, lite refreshment making good fun of suboobia. [17 Aug 1992]

Like a shooter whose skill allows him to take careful aim with a rifle rather than going for the easy splatter of a buckshot, director Eastwood's big picture is suredly calibrated: He points your eye to the tiniest specs, the most telling and powerful parts of this moral panorama.

Eventually things play out a bit too thin, but Mistress is insightful entertainment that should be seen by anyone interested in the fascinating underbelly of Hollywood deal making. [07 Aug 1992]

It's a bad memory trip through the wasteland of movies past, swamped with bonehead dialogue, stock parts, cookie-cutter romance and gunked to the gills with generic techno-drool. [8 July 1992]

An unflinching portrait of the harsh life this family of three ekes out, Gas, Food, Lodging is a warm-spirited testament to female strength. Screenwriter-director Allison Anders' skilled adaptation of Richard Peck's novel "Don't Look and It Won't Hurt" is a taut, off-road depiction of American life. [3 Feb 1982]

Opening with superbly creepy, character-driven suspense filmmaking, Unlawful Entry closes with a succession of shock scenes that look like they were lifted from a slasher film. In between, however, there are enough hard-edged, efficiently mounted thrills and plot twists to keep thrill lovers engrossed. [22 June 1992]

Yuzna appears to be searching for jokes in every scene. The high-key lighting and bright sets also seem geared to comedy. But since he lacks a true comic script, he comes up with mostly dead air. [28 Feb 1992]

While director David Fincher drills out some perfunctory, generic scares -- not counting Weaver's buzzcut -- Alien 3 is amazingly dull and humdrum. [20 May 1992]

Director Carl Franklin has cranked up an unnervingly tight-triggered film. Screenwriters Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson's scenario never relents from the out-of-control nature of the trio's bad acts. [7 May 1992]

Director Bill Duke vents his rage on L.A. with Deep Cover, a graphic and powerful anti-drug drama.

The slapstick is classic-level stuff, the kind of domino-effect precision that is lost in most of today's clumsy farces.

Smartly spreading his story beyond the end lines of the basketball court, writer-director Shelton has knocked down a sparkling, slice-of-life Americana story. As rough and shiny as chain nets on a sweltering summer day, White Men Can't Jump is a poetic, rag-tag triumph.