This Batman is a stunning achievement, especially through the incredible and unique visualization of director Tim Burton. The film may be disappointing to those expecting a campy cartoon, however, although the more dramatic stylization of this version is its strongest asset.

It's Costner's eye-on-the-ball exuberance that carries Dreams past its often mechanical aesthetic paces.

Say Anything is an easy film to like. Ex-rock journalist Cameron Crowe, known for two screenplays about teenagers caught up in the fast lane, has written and directed (for the first time) a surprisingly gentle comedy about teens that concerns itself with values and love.

Most of the laughs seem unintentional and come too late in the movie — after several reels of serious build-up — for the audience to adjust to its tongue-in-cheek qualities. Making a good horror-thriller, or even a good horror-comedy, is not child’s play, as this schizoid film all too unfortunately proves.

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.