Power Rangers maintains the essence of its origins in that it’s rather pleasantly bonkers. It errs on the side of goofy rather than gritty, and that’s to its favor.

The best that can be said of this campy but witless time-travel thriller is that it's acted with some authority. [12 Jan 1991, p.C7]

Sequelitis has Vaughn in its grip. The follow-up to his 2014 hyperviolent, boundlessly inventive spy-movie sendup gives the impression it’s trying a little too hard to surpass its predecessor.

Though Dough is often in danger of running off the rails with improbable and unnecessary plot twists, it is always essentially entertaining and warm in its observations of hope rekindled through simple relationships.

Its theme of white man as savior of black Africans is, to say the least, highly anachronistic in these days and times.

Kidnap has a tossed-together sameness to it, like a salad made up only of tired lettuce.

Monster-movie fans will certainly get their money’s worth in this one.

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

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]

Mostly Next Goal Wins just plods along, agreeable and familiar and instantly forgettable.

We can see everything that Manhattan Night has in store from a mile off. Every step of the way it’s predictable. And that predictability makes it tedious.

Mortal Engines hasn’t much in the way of originality, other than its rolling city, to distinguish it from other, better post-apocalyptic tales.

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]

The script resembles an especially anemic Afterschool Special. [12 Oct 1990, p.22]

Despite excellent performances all around, that balance is off in this follow-up, which has more characters but is less character-driven.

Barney's Great Adventure may be a magical journey of emotion for the little ones, it's rather a puzzlement for uninitiated adults. [03 Apr 1998, p.G9]

Many decisions...make “Batman v Superman” a joyless slog.

A supernatural thriller that would like to be the new Exorcist, this hapless film has a promising villain and a sympathetic hero, but their confrontations are mostly anti-climactic. [02 Sep 1995, p.F3]

The story has its possibilities, but inauthentic detail and uncertain directorial tone undermine it. [18 Jan 1991, p.23]

I found myself admiring The Bronze for its stalwart refusal to soften Hope, and for Rauch’s carefully detailed performance.... But admiring isn’t quite the same as liking. This film is a comedy wrapped in barbed wire; approach with caution.

You watch hoping that the always-splendid Condon, an Oscar nominee last year for “The Banshees of Inisherin,” is getting a really good paycheck, and wondering why writer/director Bryce McGuire saw fit to expand his very effective four-minute 2014 film “Night Swim” into this soggy mess. Don’t go in the water, indeed.

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]

Hunter Killer grabs the audience by the throat and speeds ahead while disbelief wallows helplessly in its bubbly wake.

Fans of Crystal and Williams certainly will enjoy the pairing, but this is far from their most inspired work.

The Angry Birds Movie is unnecessary but cute, like a bonnet on a cat — and there are certainly worse recommendations than that.

Most of the picture plays like a collection of action-movie cliches, much like the facetious catalogue that Timothy M. Gray recently compiled in Variety under the heading "Blueprints for blockbusters: Let's go, c'mon!" [2 Aug 1996]

The “Dragon Tattoo” series continues with “Spider’s Web,” but it seems as though the franchise is running out of gas and fresh ideas.

The fun of this movie — aside from the glorious and very velvet-forward costumes, by Ellen Mirojnick — is the performances of the two Hollywood pros at its center, both perfectly cast.

Forster gets decent performances from Lively and Clarke, but the overall impression “All I See” leaves is of a picture that fails to live up to its filmmaker’s ambitions.

McTiernan may have no peers when it comes to action thrillers. But in this character-propelled story, he sorely needs a lighter touch. [07 Feb 1992, p.24]

Director Malcolm D. Lee, whose previous movie, 2017’s raucous “Girls Trip,” gave Haddish her star-making breakout role, does her no favors here. In this mess of a movie, her performance is merely adequate. She, and the audience, deserve better.

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.

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]

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]

When everything’s clicking, there are moments of real beauty and introspection to be found here.

The politics of 1980s are certainly due for an examination in American film. But True Colors isn't it. [19 Apr 1991, p.27]

Bell can sculpt a funny moment to polished realization, but deprive it of oxygen at the same time. It’s not until late in the film’s third act that a different feeling emerges, a looser hand that provides room for characters to be more warm and human than pieces in a constricted design.

This isn’t a bright tale of Winehouse’s rise to stardom. It’s a tragic story of a once-in-a-generation talent gone too soon.

Phoenix goes off the rails in the second half when Kinberg piles fight scene atop CG-enhanced fight scene, backed by Hans Zimmer’s oppressive pounding score, until the picture devolves into a chaotic mess.

The fight scenes, full of swordplay and gunfire, are choppily edited and somehow lackadaisical. It’s as though Schwentke was operating from a checklist of expected action-movie clichés and hurries through them all.

M. Night Shyamalan has crafted a very effective creepshow with Glass.

If “golden retriever voiced by Kevin Costner” rings any alarm bells for you, steer clear.

There’s actually quite a bit to enjoy here, not least of which is Black and Rudd’s funny chemistry, some amusing sight gags involving that enormous CGI snake (who has a diva’s sense of timing), the term “snake funeral” and a rather sweet message about following your dreams. It’s all very, very silly.

It’s fun to spend time with these performers, but you wish they were invited to a better party.

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]

Ultimately, despite Nanjiani’s best efforts, it’s a disposable fast-car summer movie, neither terrible or good, for those biding their time before the next “Fast & Furious” installment.

Do I think we need more reheated IP that uses our collective nostalgia as catnip to cover up the fact that we didn’t actually care that much about the original film? Nah, of course not. But if you’re gonna make it, make it well, make it fun and make it stand on its own two narrative feet. This update pulls that off, and with a bloody high body count to boot.

What rescues “Diaries” and its grimy, cracked-glass look is its firm grip on Stephen’s incremental awareness that he and his misery are not the center of the universe.

Director Caple Jr. takes his time allowing Ramos and Fishback to develop their characters as they fight being marginalized and dismissed in ‘90s New York. They’re no mere cardboard characters but rather fully dimensional individuals, a rarity in “Transformers” movies.

Despite promising elements of mixed-genre thrills, the film is finally the underwhelming sum of too many plot devices.

Humongous undersea cities, enormous herds of aquatic creatures and a superabundance of monsters are laid before the viewer. The goal: Make people go, “Wow!” Pardon me, but the overall effect is more like, “eh.”

Stone Cold may be the morally bankrupt nadir of what is so far one of Hollywood's worst years. [17 May 1991, p.3]

The chase, chase, chase pace is tiring, not least because it’s not clear who many of these people are and what agendas they’re following. Mixed-up confusion is the result.

In the end, Captain America: Brave New World is enjoyable enough for what it is: a proper introduction of Sam as Captain America. Unfortunately, it’s a rather bumpy flight along the way.

Slick, chummy and with a palatable message - Don't work too hard - Taking Care of Business is easy to swallow and just as easy to forget. [17 Aug 1990, p.24]

Daddy’s Home is a movie with a one-joke premise: Will Ferrell, he’s a pincushion of punishment. Make him screech. Watch him squirm.

xXx: Return of Xander Cage is the movie equivalent of cotton candy: all empty calories. Excessive consumption of this product is likely to give a body the queasies.

The Great Wall defies any expectations — it’s absolutely bonkers wild.

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]

The romance falls dismally flat - Hannah and Moore often appear in the same frame, but there's nothing going on between them. [12 Apr 1990, p.F6]

Jungle 2 Jungle is better than expected, yet not quite good enough. [07 Mar 1997, p.F1]

The disappointment of Breaking In is the wasted potential — there are a few plot setups that could have been further fleshed out or brought back around (why was her father being investigated by the DA?) and Union isn’t given enough opportunity to truly display her charms. This thriller could have really used some room to breathe.

The more this new Haunting tries to impress with its state-of-the-art techniques, the more it recalls how much Wise accomplished with eerie lighting effects and mysterious noises on the soundtrack. [23 July 1999, p.F1]

With her wonderfully expressive face, Clarke carries the picture, navigating her character’s gradual transformation with grace and conviction.

Kershner never succeeds in creating anything more than a well-done carbon copy, self-consciously recycling themes and visual ideas from the first film while adding very little that he can call his own. If you've seen Verhoeven's RoboCop, there's no compelling reason to rush out and catch this talented imitation. [22 June 1990, p.22]

As Walton, D.B. Sweeney recalls Richard Dreyfuss's UFO-obsessed family man in Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He's a sweet, semi-looney dreamer who all but invites the aliens to take him, and his performance is the most appealing thing about the picture. [12 Mar 1993, p.3]

A deeply uninspired sequel to last year’s surprise (and surprisingly sweet) hit “Bad Moms,” this movie was made in a hurry and it shows.

In trying to do too much, Halloween Kills ends up doing nothing at all, other than tarnishing this franchise’s good name.

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]

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]

The Coen brothers’ section, derived from a script they sent to Clooney in the late 1990s, is much more impactful, with Damon giving a performance that renders his character downright chilling and Jupe doing heart-rending work as a child emotionally buffeted by the grievously flawed behavior of the adults who are supposed to love and protect him.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” lumbers on for more than two hours, weighed down with oversized elephants, excessively populated action sequences, and weirdly sudden occurrence of slow motion, as if the film is yawning.

Awkwafina and Cena, who gamely tolerate everything this movie throws at them, deserve better. Would somebody please make them a smart rom-com, soon?

Performances are lively, the story is incredibly stupid - and if you've seen one fight you've seen them all. Van Damme should market his next film as offbeat comedy - go for the laughs he'd get from the art-house crowd. [11 Jan 1991, p.26]

Once again, Philip Glass composes one of his insistent scores -- and again the effect is pretentious, considering the circumstances. Director Bill Condon has a sense of style but a heavy hand with actors -- you can all but hear them telling themselves to hit their marks and punch out their lines. [17 Mar 1995, p.H28]

Once it gets going, Black Adam feels like a continuous closed loop of destruction where the moments of mayhem blend darn near seamlessly one into the other. And those special effects look incredibly cheesy.

The first half of Hardware has it all - sly camerawork, eerie score, nasty sense of humor, genuine tension. For 40 minutes it feels as if it could follow in the steps of Blade Runner, Alien" or Road Warrior. Unfortunately, that leaves the second half: a Japanese monster-movie homage that's a fiasco. [14 Sep 1990, p.22]

Nobody’s behavior here resembles that of an actual person, and the directing is often awkward.

“The Last Dance” brings nothing new to the series. In fact, it brings less than the previous two movies

In the end, The Rookie winds up looking like a poor relation of Lethal Weapon or Tango & Cash. And that's mighty poor. [07 Dec 1990, p.29]

As terrible as it is — and make no mistake, Moonfall is epically awful — it is also undeniably entertaining. A guilty pleasure, if you will. See it on the biggest screen you can. It’s a, er, riot.

The picture is like an onion. There are layers here, and beneath them more layers. Peeling them back with surgical skill, director Alexandre Aja reveals complicated family dynamics.

The irony of it all is that "Stay Tuned" is itself a TV show, filled with razzle-dazzle, but unfolding with the wispy depth of a sit-com. That makes the casting of TV veterans Ritter and Dawber totally appropriate (and lends the physically hilarious Ritter a good-natured dig at "Three's Company"), but Parker and Jennewein don't capitalize on the potential of their ideas. The nuggets are there ("don't watch so much television" is the basic extent of the message), but if taken more seriously, "Stay Tuned" might've been a funny and deeply affecting film. Instead it's just funny . . . which is OK. [15 Aug 1992, p.C3]

Long before the final battle, the movie runs out of steam. At two hours, it's just too long. But taken as a guilty pleasure, it's tolerable. [19 Apr 1996]

It manages to combine the least appealing qualities of several previous Hughes productions - the obnoxiousness of the central character in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," the tedium of the teen-age confessionals in "The Breakfast Club," the gimmicky plotting of "Home Alone." And it has nothing fresh to add in terms of casting, storyline or the kinds of comic insights about suburban life that sustain Hughes' best scripts. [30 March 1991, p.C5]

Steven Seagal should go into a seven-year coma more often. It suits his acting ability. A coma is what happens to him in Hard To Kill, his latest hard-to-swallow and dull-to-sit-through formula vigilante movie. [10 Feb 1990, p.C7]

The funniest element of what vaguely gestures toward dark comedy is how poorly written this story about writers is.

Blackboard Jungle created this genre (and most of its cliches) more than 40 years ago. 187 doesn't add much more than outrage and resignation. [30 Jul 1997]

Passengers turns out to be a very strange journey indeed; here’s hoping these two team up again, in something more worthy of them.

A soggy thriller in which every scene, even a daytime one early on at the newspaper where Lo works, seems to take place in ominously blue darkness.

The main monster communicates in noises that sound like belches. Appropriate for a picture that’s the equivalent of a cinematic burp: gassy and inconsequential.

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]

Rodriguez does just enough to keep things mildly interesting.

Within this uncertain world, Lopéz-Gallego relishes such noir staples as fatalistic shadows, eruptive mayhem and terse, ironic dialogue. But he and his cinematographer, Jose David Montero, also carve out fresh visual territory.

In the cast, only Isaac makes a vivid impression, in a swaggery, relaxed turn that seems to imply that he’s in on the joke, or at least having a good time.

Nowhere to Run isn't the worst of its kind - it's just painfully uninspired. Perhaps that partially accounts for Van Damme's apparent disinterest. With one expression at his command, it's surprising that he actually musters three distinct acting styles: concrete, steel, and petrified wood. [15 Jan 1993, p.18]

"Metro" could easily have been subtitled "Beverly Hills Cop 4."

It just feels like a pretty idea that didn’t get fully developed; an origin story that we didn’t need.