If you plan to build an entire movie around a whining boor, his whining should have some accuracy or wit. His boorishness should at least suggest complexity, some motivation beyond the obvious. [09 Sep 1994, p.H32]

It not only feels like a transposed stage piece, it plays like a workshop performance that may not have found its final form. But the actors keep it lively and darkly funny, and the picture rarely feels stagey. [07 Oct 1994, p.D31]

Depp, who has never looked so angelic, is covering familiar ground here, playing another Gilbert Grape type who's involved with an older woman. [9 Sept 1994, p.H34]

You may not buy the plot of this gripping little movie about a 12-year-old Brooklyn drug runner who finds a novel way of escaping the crack ghetto. Too much depends on timing, luck and the myopia of adults who fail to pay enough attention to the boy. But the picture is so beautifully designed and dynamically performed that you'll probably feel inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt.

Arty slow motion, deliberately distorted photography and even bits of animation are tossed into the stew with the same abandon that Oliver Stone brought to the story Tarantino wrote for Natural Born Killers. But Avary's movie lacks the strong performances and quirky humor that made Reservoir Dogs more than just another low-budget exercise in excess. [09 Sep 1994, p.H29]

That this silly excuse for a movie knows it's silly isn't nearly enough to justify its waste of talent, time and money. Skip it and save yours. [26 Aug 1994, p.25]

Were expectations running too high for this "erotic thriller" from legendary director Richard Rush, who hasn't completed a movie in 14 years? Or is it really the full-blown fiasco it appears to be?

Cameos by Mel Brooks and Whoopi Goldberg add nothing, and there's not much of a storyline to stitch together the gags. [05 Aug 1994, p.E3]

Eat Drink Man Woman is so cleverly plotted, edited, scored, performed and photographed that the audience is frequently just as surprised as the characters, yet Lee and his co-writers plant just enough clues to keep you from feeling tricked. [05 Aug 1994, p.E22]

Rob Reiner's "North" is a modest, uneven satire about parents and children. It stars the ingratiating Elijah Wood and generates its share of laughs, but the film never moves beyond its obvious point: Kids deserve parents who aren't self-serving imbeciles. [22 Jul 1994, p.D25]

Perfectly harmless fluff. [15 July 1994, p.D28]

As written by David Koepp, this familiar and pokey plot respects the Shadow mythos while draining its vitality, until it becomes just another tiresome action flick and a further reminder that Jurassic Park, which Koepp co-wrote, was also a poorly written movie bolstered by awesome special effects. [01 Jul 1994, p.D3]

Making up in low-key charm for what it lacks in originality, Little Big League boosts its unlikely kids' fantasy with enough credibility to keep it involving and a positively infectious passion for the finer points of the national pastime. [29 Jun 1994, p.E5]

The picture is part slapstick comedy, part tearjerker, but the mixture rarely works, and sometimes it's actively irritating.

An ingenious mixture of themes from narrative sources as ancient and varied as Hamlet, the Old Testament and The Odyssey. [24 June 1994, p.D3]

For the most part the commerce of sequelizing yields only faint inspiration, and City Slickers II spends much of its time trying to conjure magic that's no longer there. [10 June 1994, p.E24]

Already nicknamed "This Is Spinal Rap," this clever fake-documentary should delight both those who love rap music and those who feel it's been given a free ride by music critics for far too long. [17 Jun 1994, p.E3]

With the kind of dignity rarely found in movies today, Bertolucci has tried - if only with mixed success - to address the things that really matter. [27 May 1994, p.D3]

By the time Donner crowds his climactic poker game with a bevy of veteran Western character actors, decades of movie tradition have been reduced to window dressing, and Maverick leaves you hungry for the real thing.

Although it is as harmless as its predecessor - and harmless should not be mistaken for a compliment - there is only one sad conclusion to be drawn from this kind of profiteering kiddie fodder: We owe our children better than this.

Neither Spader nor Amick can get past the generic nature of the characters they're playing, nor can they make up for Kazan's timid approach to their supposedly steamy love scenes. The nude Spader is so carefully draped and arranged that he could be posing for a soft-core parody, while Amick resorts to doing an impersonation of a haughty 1940s glamour queen. [6 May 1994, p.D31]

As funny as this movie sometimes is, it could've been much funnier, ironically enough, if it had taken itself more seriously. [29 Apr 1994, p.D34]

Earning instant shame as the worst film of the year so far, "Chasers" offers all the proof anyone will ever need that a theatrically released feature film can be just as bad - and far worse - than the most inanely boring garbage that passes for television these days. [23 Apr 1994]

While it has no real ambition beyond the standard tale of action-packed revenge, it's still pulsing with primitive energy and the thrill of the ultimate hunt. [16 Apr 1994, p.C5]

For all its contagious energy and surface authenticity, this early-Beatles docudrama comes off as the kind of biographical movie in which a group of unknowns appear to be all too aware that they're on the verge of international superstardom. [22 Apr 1994, p.D3]

Serial Mom isn't much of an ensemble piece. More so even than Waters' Divine pictures, it's a star vehicle. The other actors rarely get a chance to do much more than register stupidity, yet it works out because Turner so craftily tunes into Waters' rarefied wavelength. [15 Apr 1994, p.D3]

Twisty, terrific little thriller. [29 Apr 1994, p.D31]

You know what you're in for, and you get what you want (especially those die-hards who read ALL of the end credits), but you'll also get the feeling that you've seen it all before. [18 Mar 1994, p.D3]

With its dream cast and a burst of cinematic endorphins, The Paper is delivered on time, its headlines written large for enjoyable mass consumption. [25 March 1994, p.D3]

Polanski has created his funniest and possibly his cruelest movie: a thoroughly warped tale of sexual obsession that leaves its quartet of lust-driven characters with nowhere left to hide. [18 Mar 1994, p.D3]

Despite all the nudity, it's less erotic than Duigan's charming schoolkids romance "Flirting." If only "Sirens" could have been a little livelier, if only Duigan, Grant and Neill had gone too far. [11 March 1994, p.D26]

Between Leary, Davis, Spacey and Johns, director Ted Demme (nephew of Jonathan, and director of Leary's MTV spots) has captured lightning in a bottle, and The Ref has enough subtle and not-so-subtle interplay to make a repeat viewing worthwhile.

Just as there can be fresh angles on the old story, there is a growing number of urban-survival cliches that lose their dramatic impact as they grow tiresomely familiar. Sugar Hill is a virtual catalog of these cliches - a serious, well-meaning film that offers no new insight into the crises it professes to understand. [25 Feb 1994, p.D21]

As written by Ron Shelton - who with "The Best of Times," "Bull Durham" and "White Men Can't Jump" has turned the sports movie into his own cottage industry - a crowd-pleasing story has been crafted into a sharp indictment of modern sports as a business, in which victory isn't so much earned as it is bought. [18 Feb 1994, p.D3]

Childress has an ear for dialogue that rings true even when it's self-consciously movie-ish, and Ryder and Hawke bring crucial authenticity to their roles with effortless appeal. You'll find yourself wanting more of these characters than the movie gives you.

This fuzzily illustrated sermon is mostly an attempt to prove that the internal combustion engine is obsolete, and that oil companies everywhere are conspiring to wipe out alternative methods.

The Getaway gradually devolves into just another high-polish shoot'em-up between half-baked characters. Led by Baldwin, everyone's acting so cool they're prit'near frozen. [11 Feb 1994, p.D24]

Blank Check will get a few big laughs from kids, but that doesn't stop this vapid, morally bankrupt and wretchedly written Disney comedy from being genuinely disgusting. [11 Feb 1994, p.D28]

My Father the Hero can be enjoyed as a travelogue (cinematographer Daryn Okada makes the Bahamas look especially seductive) and as the blandest, most nonthreatening kind of date movie. [4 Feb 1994, p.D19]

But they all end up spinning their wheels under Deran Sarafian, whose action-movie credentials include Jean-Claude Van Damme's "Death Warrant." He tries to establish a tongue-in-cheek attitude that seems as borrowed and clueless as Stephen Sommers' script. [4 Feb 1994, p.D28]

As its title suggests, it plays not only on sight - with masterfully composed images that glisten with the timeless quality of memory - but smell, touch, taste and sound are all equally well utilized, to establish the kind of serenity that has become all but extinct in movies today. [04 Feb 1994, p.D3]

Car 54, Where are You? is an insult to the popular late-1950's TV show that inspired it.

It's doubtful that any variation on Finney's story could be called definitive. There's an inexhaustible supply of targets; we could have a new one every year or so. But this one certainly has its creepy moments. [18 Feb 1994, p.D3]

Given the time-tested durability of a decent boy-and-his-dog adventure, Iron Will can't steer too far off course. [14 Jan 1994, p.D20]

This is a movie about a process, not about who should be president or why. On that level, it's informative, smart and surprisingly entertaining - the best thing of its kind since Robert Altman covered the 1988 presidential follies with his mostly fictional "Tanner '88." [7 Jan 1994, p.D22]

The real criminals here are writers William Davies and William Osborne (obviously pseudonyms for Beavis and Butt-head), who have concocted a derivative, imbecilic anything-goes premise serving only to provide random opportunities for the CGI wizards to strut their stuff. [31 Dec 1993, p.C14]

Unfortunately, director George P. Cosmatos, who took over when Jarre was fired as director, emphasizes action over character. [25 Dec 1993, p.C2]

Indeed, if it didn't rely so much on brawls and shootouts to interrupt a serviceable story line, this might have been a noteworthy screen addition to the Batman legacy. But the requisite outbursts of action are only secondary to the movie's nearly fatal shortcoming: the animation itself. [28 Dec 1993, p.E1]

Trimmed from 164 to 140 minutes after playing the international festival circuit, "Faraway, So Close!" is not without its enticing qualities, and if nothing else it will provoke some interesting coffehouse discussion. But when held to the light of its predecessor, one can't help but think it's pointlessly redundant. [23 Dec 1993, p.E5]

In a severe, uncompromising manner that none of his previous films has approached, Spielberg has captured the terror of the Nazi reign as well as the determination and resourcefulness of those who resisted. He has created one of the most shocking movies yet made about the Holocaust (there were several walkouts at the screening I attended) and one of the most inspiring.

If you can find a handful of funny, original gags and TV-inspired in-jokes in this second compendium of now overly familiar Wayne-speak witticisms, consider your 100 minutes time well spent. [10 Dec 1993, p.G3]

Pathetically uninspired. [10 Dec 1993, p.G3]

Patric gives the character dignity and righteousness, but he and the narrator end up drowning the finale in noble speeches. [10 Dec 1993, p.G30]

A resonant moral conundrum tripling as a wry social satire and an armchair mystery, Six Degrees of Separation has been transferred to the screen with intelligence and panache, if some initial disorientation in the jumpy opening sequences. [22 Dec 1993, p.E3]

Breezy, good-hearted Irish comedy. [17 Dec 1993, p.H3]

Despite a slightly relaxed first hour and forgivably minimal lapses in credibility, debut screenwriter John Lee Hancock has crafted an ultimately satisfying study of fate and circumstance that is worthy of its superstar showcase. [24 Nov 1993, p.E1]

It's hard to enjoy the same joke told a hundred times over. After so many gags about the burial of live cats or putting baby Pubert on a guillotine, it's clear that the movie has little else on its mind. It's enough to make Charles Addams turn in his . . . well, you get the idea. [19 Nov 1993, p.D3]

It's not enough to say that the Ernest movies are aimed at very young children. They are aimed at very young, very stupid children, and their unfortunate parents should steer them toward more edifying entertainment. [12 Nov 1993, p.D24]

They've simply turned the book into an anything-goes burlesque with such a contemporary flavor that even 1990s street slang is permissible. [12 Nov 1993, p.D27]

RoboCop 3 is junk food, but it's tasty none the less. [05 Nov 1993, p.D37]

The sad fact is, this 90-minutecharade - like almost every movie ever made that features "Silent Night" on the soundtrack - will be showing up on late-night television every Christmas Eve into the next century. Talk about your nightmares before Christmas. [5 Nov 1993, p.D32]

In its attempts to deal with her character's aimlessness and inability to discover a satisfying code of behavior ("Are there any real reasons for living right anyway?"), the script is sometimes thoughtful, sometimes banal and schoolgirlish. [12 Nov 1993, p.D16]

Although his plot is subtly contrived, Kloves stays true to his characters by daring to evolve Flesh and Bone into a genuine tragedy (i.e. a downer) resembling the brooding early-1970s dramas that defied commercial convention. [05 Nov 1993, p.D3]

Even if you're judging by quantity, not quality, Fatal Instinct is merely comatose on arrival. [29 Oct 1993, p.D31]

Visually a macabre knockout, this 75-minute fantasy boasts some of the wittiest, most vigorous stop-motion animation effects in the history of the process.

Unlike "The Program," the other current football movie which pales in comparison, Rudy (which spans 1972-'75) is uncompromisingly truthful to its story and characters. Graced with Anspaugh's respect for authenticity, there's not a false note from anyone in the well-chosen cast, which includes Ned Beatty as Rudy's dad, whose disapproval of Rudy's dream is a cautious act of love; Charles S. Dutton as the stadium groundskeeper who offers quiet support; and Jason Miller ("The Exorcist") as legendary coach Ara Parseghian, who rewards Rudy's tenacity with a place on the varsity practice squad.

What you've got here is nothing more (or less) than a smartly recast 90-minute episode of the old show, and that, as longtime fans of the Hillbillies will tell you, can be more fun than a swim in the ce-ment pond. [15 Oct 1993, p.D18]

Judgment Night is almost completely lacking in conviction and originality. But Leary does a fair Dennis Hopper imitation, Gooding does his best with an insulting role, and the ending is witty enough not to give us the undying villain it leads us to expect. [15 Oct 1993, p.D27]

The movie's larger-than-life tone is mostly justified by the quality of the performances and the theatricality of the settings. [29 Oct 1993, p.D24]

Mr. Nanny is certainly harmless, even though Hogan acts as if he's stumbled onto the set of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. But only the most gullible 4-year-old will get a rise from the lifeless direction of co-writer Michael Gottlieb, whose earlier Mannequin provided a similar dose of moviegoing torture. [09 Oct 1993, p.C3]

Unfortunately, the script is so hopelessly superficial that very little of this registers. It's the work of Eric Roth, who wrote the unspeakable Billy Crystal comedy, "Memories of Me," and Michael Cristofer, a playwright whose most prominent previous screen credit was the disastrous "Bonfire of the Vanities."

The most enjoyable mainstream comedy since "Sister Act." It's slim, it's superficial and it hedges every commercial bet in the book. But for some reason, none of this prevents it from being a whole lotta fun. [1 Oct 1993, p.D16]

It may not add up in the end, but it's fun while it lasts. [01 Oct 1993, p.D14]

Despite the anti-greed message, too much of For Love or Mone" is reminiscent of Fox's glib 1980s vehicles, especially "The Secret of My Success" and the TV series "Family Ties." Reportedly he's trying to break free of this syndrome, but at this point he needs a vehicle that would spell that out clearly. Too often this one plays like "For Love and Money." [1 Oct 1993, p.D18]

Good intentions are famous for paving the road to hell, but more often they just lead to well-meaning tedium.

The plot is so filled with inconsistencies and lapses in logic, especially during the desperate concluding reels, that it's difficult to take seriously its proposition that some people are born evil. [24 Sep 1993, p.D12]

Only Omar Epps ("Juice") locates substance in his role as the freshman underachiever who must fight for his starting position, but even he's in service to the uninspired "Program." If someone wanted to make a good, exciting, serious film about the ups and downs of college football, why didn't they just make a documentary about the Huskies? [24 Sept 1983, p.D19]

None of this makes Into the West genuinely unique, or even lastingly memorable, but by refusing to sugar-coat its story or characters the way so many family films do, this is a welcomed adventure that offers enchantment without blinding children to life's difficult passages. [17 Sep 1993, p.D3]

The finished film is graceful, gripping and more accessible than several of Scorsese's contemporary New York movies. Scorsese has created a model adaptation that manages to be both remarkably faithful to its source and more audience-friendly than the Merchant/Ivory movies to which it will be compared. [17 Sept 1993, p.D3]

Striking Distance wants to be a whodunit, a buddy movie, a serial-killer thriller, a romantic drama, a story about one honest cop fighting a corrupt department - and the ultimate car-and-boat chase movie. It is all of these, and so much less. [17 Sept 1993, p.D16]

As these things go, this is a painless and breezily amusing variation on the theme.

Ultimately, however, the film belongs to Turner and Quaid, whose obvious pleasure extends to Shaw and especially Tucci, who after playing really nasty villains for years reveals some heretofore unknown comedic flair.

Lambert's utter lack of facial or vocal expression makes him a good low-grade hero, but it's the fine supporting cast and especially Gordon regular Jeffrey Combs ("Re-Animator") who steal the show. As a burnout case who rallies for the film's disappointing climax - where a lot of clone robots get "blowed up real good" - Combs provides the perfect reminder that this is enjoyable trash, but trash that's been recycled with care. [4 Sept 1993, p.C5]

If it weren't for a delicious performance by Max Von Sydow as the suavely genteel Satan incarnate, Needful Things would be merely another Stephen King novel turned into trash for indiscriminate moviegoers. [27 Aug 1993, p.D12]

After a sprightly credits sequence in which the animated Pink Panther takes over conducting duties for Henry Mancini, while helping Bobby McFerrin doodle with the Panther theme Mancini composed 30 years ago, it's mostly downhill. It's been 10 years since the last Panther installment, yet Edwards seems exhausted.

Watching Phoenix in his last film, I couldn't help thinking of James Dean's final performance, as the cranky loner, Jett Rink, in "Giant." [12 Nov 1993, p.D3]

Alda brings admirable dimension to his small role, and once again Huston proves that she could read one word of dialogue and assume full command of the screen. [20 Aug 1993, p.D14]

One might have hoped for some semblance of vitality and ingenuity in this, Jason's ninth and final solo killing spree, but it's a retread to its rotten core. [14 Aug 1993, p.C3]

While Holland may not have imbued the garden with the enchantment so evident in the book, she has sublimely captured the beauty of the garden itself. It offers a simple but overwhelming connection to the kind of paradise we must look harder to find.

At times, Heart and Souls seems seriously interested in the kinds of ideas explored in "The Bridge of San Luis Rey," Thornton Wilder's fascinating attempt to account for why five people happened to meet their deaths in the same seemingly random circumstances. But any pretensions along those lines are quickly drowned by the cutesy special effects and Marc Shaiman's shamelessly overwrought score. [13 Aug 1993, p.D14]

The film is little more than a well-oiled machine that serves a strictly limited function, but like a precision timepiece, it is a thing to marvel at, even under close scrutiny.

A comedy of great charm and generosity, Ang Lee's "The Wedding Banquet" is the freshest, happiest surprise of the movie year. [06 Aug 1993, p.D16]

Kaufman can't raise the script far above the pulp material on which it's based, but it's a more intelligent adaptation than this summer's blockbuster movie of Crichton's "Jurassic Park." It's also a more interesting consideration of racial-cultural conflicts than such major-studio gaffes as "Mr. Baseball" and "Falling Down." [30 July 1993, p.D3]

If nothing else, this offbeat comedy delivers a handful of satisfying laughs and proves that four-year "Saturday Night Live" veteran Mike Myers can safely escape his "Wayne's World" alter ego. [30 July 1993, p.D12]

With his inspiration trapped in a time warp two decades old, Brooks' humor reminds you of the annoying uncle who would repeat ancient jokes at family gatherings. You smile politely, but you wish he'd just go away. [28 July 1993, p.E5]

Director Steve Barron guides the mayhem with controlled abandon, and the script contains just enough simplistic plot to give the 88-minute comedy an adequate foundation. [23 July 1993]

Had the movie surrounding this easygoing trio been more memorable, the possibility of "Yet Another Stakeout" might actually be appealing.

Hocus Pocus remains a delightful family comedy, spooky but never scary as it romps its merry way through the graveyard. Here's hoping it doesn't bomb.