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

Lithgow's opening narration tries to throw you off the scent of the cliches, and director Michael Caton-Jones (Scandal) does his best to avoid them or make them seem charmingly dated. But they're still there. [12 Oct 1990, p.22]

A slickly contrived studio product, as insincere as it is ineffectual. [12 Oct 1990, p.28]

Just another big dose of mindless violence. [06 Oct 1990, p.C5]

It's wry and stylish and perfectly cast, and only occasionally does it fall into the trap of taking itself as seriously as its characters sometimes do. [05 Oct 1990, p.26]

There's no emotional pay-off when the characters change under pressure. The audience never knows enough about them to care when they demonstrate bravery or resourcefulness, and there's no chemistry between the people who are supposed to be deeply attached to each other. [06 Oct 1990, p.C7]

Jane Campion's screen adaptation of New Zealand writer Janet Frame's memoirs is sometimes brilliant, and never less than good. [21 Jun 1991, p.21]

King of New York may have its moments. But with the standard in gangster films so high right now ("GoodFellas," "The Krays," "Miller's Crossing"), there's no real way to recommend it. [12 Jan 1991, p.C3]

So consistently unexciting, so monumentally unconvincing, so silly. [28 Sept 1990, p.22]

Mortality rather than morality has become the central theme, and McMurtry and Bogdanovich address it with rare grace and compassion. [28 Sep 1990, p.3]

The action scenes are exciting, and Hackman gives such a strong, detailed performance that he doesn't make you nostalgic for McGraw. Perhaps best of all, Hyams' remake communicates an efficient, B-movie flavor that makes you long for the days when an unpretentious second feature could steal the show. [21 Sep 1990, p.33]

Numerous fine performances carry the film, with Oldman's Jackie as the standout. [21 Sep 1990, p.24]

Death Warrant has two colors: dark red, dark blue. It has two moods: brooding and brutal. It makes prison look more attractive by adding fog machines and then filming everything in slow motion. [15 Sep 1990, p.C7]

The most entertaining portrait of a wildly talented, socially untamed filmmaker since The Bad and the Beautiful. [21 Sep 1990, p.28]

Linda Blair and Leslie Nielsen deserve better than the scattershot script for Repossessed, a desperate spoof of The Exorcist that generates perhaps two belly laughs, three well-earned smiles and about 287 groaners. [29 Sep 1990, p.B7]

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]

Hyperactive, incredibly gory, gratingly sentimental, The Killer is pure cinematic junk food for those who are into blood-and-guts highs.

James Foley's screen adaptation of Jim Thompson's 1955 novel has its flaws - it's a little too mannered for its own good - but Patric is close to perfection. [24 Aug 1990, p.22]

It has some great laughs and real screwball energy. It also has its heart in the right place, with Emilio Estevez's environmental concerns figuring prominently in the plot. [24 Aug 1990, p.28]

Magical, sinister and prankish, The Witches is a triumph.

It probably misses the point to complain that a movie about satanic possession gets a little ridiculous towards the end. But The Exorcist III is such a witty, chilling treat until its final sequences that the complaint stands. The problem may be that no explanation of the film's diabolical events can possibly be as convincing or scary as the events themselves. [20 Aug 1990, p.F10]

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]

Their performances lend the movie a touch of class, even if they can't make up for the superficial writing and Schumacher's anything-for-a-jolt direction.

While Mo' Better Blues is quite tolerable entertainment, it's skin-deep stuff, and not much of a stretch for the actors. [03 Aug 1990, p.3]

Handsomer and funnier than the original, Young Guns II is still a mediocre brat-pack western. It lacks the attention-getting novelty of the first film. [01 Aug 1990, p.E1]

Andrew Bergman's The Freshman is a charmed comedy, the kind of seemingly effortless movie in which everything falls neatly into place, as if ordained by nature.

Unfortunately, he's working from a cliche-choked, insensitive script, written by Gary Goldman (``Big Trouble in Little China'') and Chuck Pfaffer (``Dark Man''), that makes a point of stirring up old prejudices.

The first-time director, Frank Marshall, has said that he modeled the film on The Birds, and the structure of Arachnophobia does follow the pattern set up by Hitchcock. But it's definitely a Disney/Spielberg movie, smooth and neatly packaged and more interested in the gimmicks than the central enigma of Hitchcock's movie. [18 July 1990, p.E1]