Arm wrestling, truck driving, weird weight lifting, and tear jerking are the stuff of this predictable Sylvester Stallone vehicle in which he plays Lincoln Hawk, a trucker-cum-wrist twister whose son, Michael (David Mendenhall), has been kept from him by his devious, wealthy father-in-law (Robert Loggia).

Despite a few good moments here and there and a stunning performance by Gena Rowlands, Light of Day is an anemic drama with little to say.

Both Russell and Winger give solid performances, and the memory of the complex interplay between their ultimately not-so-very-different characters lingers long after the film has ended.

Director Arthur Penn uses every trick in the horror book to pull this one off, but nothing really works, including his accent on scary noises. Everything is forced, contrived, and not too neatly lifted from other classic doppelganger films.

Allen presents a host of anecdotes and remembrances of things past, but one wishes it could have been slightly more cohesive. One of the joys in this picture is the soundtrack of songs of the period that will delight anyone who lived in those radio days.

Outrageous Fortune is an effort on the part of Disney to prove it can distribute adult films, but it only shows that it has no real perception of what such pictures are all about.

A dismal affair that reeks of pretentious self-importance.

Writer-director Curtis Hanson is to be credited for procuring a clever story and offering nail-biting action sequences that build solid suspense. Guttenberg's boyish appearance initially seems wrong for his increasingly forceful role here, but it is exactly that quality that proves to make his unjudicious actions believable. The marvelous French actress Huppert is a standout as the cool, European beauty.

Writing, directing, and starring in WISDOM, Emilio Estevez was in over his head. It's a well-intentioned project that shows a certain promise and visual flair, but fails to come together as anything more than an expensive film-school thesis project.

Director Saks, who won a Tony for his stage direction, works in his typically fish-out-of-water fashion here, trying to put some air into a stagebound work, but much of the spontaneity of the theater version seems to have been supplanted by the mechanics of moviemaking. The acting by a very talented cast is generally quite good, even if Danner doesn't convince as an old-fashioned Jewish mother type. More of a nostalgic piece than a story, the film shows an attention to the specifics of the culture on display which has genuine if modest appeal.

Although an impressive technical achievement, the film itself is a rather overblown and overhyped affair--which, for all its expensive excess, fails to recapture the spirit of the original.

PLATOON is a shattering experience. Writer-director Stone, a Vietnam veteran, used his first-hand knowledge to create one of the most realistic war films ever made, one whose success lies in the mass of detail Stone brings to the screen, bombarding the senses with vivid sights and sounds that have the feel of actual experience.

In all fairness, there is a lot of camp value here. Fans of truly bad cinema couldn't ask for a sillier big-budget production--envisioned with the utmost seriousness.

The strengths and foibles of human beings are what this film--and all of Eastwood's directorial efforts--is all about, and his Tom Highway is one of the most vividly etched male characters seen onscreen in years.

A courageous and serious film that explores the limits of the mythic American virtues of persistence, inventiveness, and rugged individualism.

By far the silliest and most self-mocking of the series, with the interplay between Spock and Kirk veering somewhere between Hope and Crosby and Cheech and Chong, but also one of the most successful.

The acting is lame and the rehashed script is silly. The film drags on and on until its obvious and none-too-thrilling conclusion. This is a film to punish the kids with if their behavior grows intolerable.

The story is moving, and the animation includes some powerful images, although some of the early scenes depicting the suffering of the mice in Russia may be too frightening for younger viewers.

Director-writer Mike Marvin is obviously working out of his element, which consists of ski films and features with titles of things you eat or drink (Six Pack; Hot Dog--The Movie; and Hamburger). The best thing here are the cars, which have no dialog and just stand around looking fast. Sheen's is a specially built Dodge pace car that cost over $1.5 million.

Instead of the witty, intelligent script needed to pull off an interracial buddy story, however, the scenario for this film is an obvious lift from RAIDERS and a flat, uninteresting piece of writing, occasionally interspersed with embarrassingly sappy affirmations of friendship.

The film clearly functions as wish-fulfillment for the kind of people who are nostalgic about all-white basketball, leaving a nasty aftertaste.

An enjoyable, low-key film, Something Special! boasts some fine acting from its teenage cast.

The story line is as direct as can be, and little time is wasted with extraneous subplots. Very effective use is made of the location, a decaying old school building that would give anyone the creeps. Good performances by Scuddamore, Iannaccone, and veteran B-movie starlet Munro further enhance the film. The effects are rather good but not too gross, tending to be near-comic.

Director Moshe Mizrahi (best known for his 1977 Oscar-winning feature, MADAME ROSA) fails to make much of the narrative's potentially fascinating time and place, other than throwing out a couple of token observations about British colonial rule.

With a screenplay from first-time screenwriter E. Max Frye and superior performances from his principal cast, Demme has created a unique and likable film.

The performances of Oldman and Webb, both stage-trained veterans, are simply astonishing. Sid and Nancy will certainly be tough going for viewers unfamiliar with the punk movement and unprepared for the extraordinary amount of cynicism, ignorance, anger, and self-abuse that went hand-in-hand with it, but the film's value lies in its honest, unflinching gaze at a social phenomenon.

An inconsistent and unsatisfying tale of amour fou and literary ambition.

One of the most downright sleazy major films in recent memory, 52 PICK-UP works mainly because of its vivid villains, who are more intriguing than the hero. Glover is superb as the totally amoral blackmailer who uses his superior intelligence to keep his dimmer comrades in check.

THE SACRIFICE is about a number of things, none obvious and none remaining wholly consistent from one viewing to the next; it is a poetic vision, filled with the symbolism peculiar to Tarkovsky's imagination. It is also a visually stunning, hauntingly beautiful, brilliant piece of art.

While an impressive production, THE MISSION tries to do so much that little is explored fully. Irons's character is really more an icon than a man, as is De Niro's. Perhaps most distressing is the fact that THE MISSION is yet another film made by Europeans or Americans that, while sympathetic to the plight of South American Indians, portrays them as an indistinguishable mass of childlike innocents just waiting to be exploited by outsiders.

There are some good moments in SOUL MAN, but Gross steals the picture; he has the best lines and makes the most of them.

A fairly clever sendup of both heavy-metal music and the paranoid parental-action groups that want it banned.

Although perhaps not as mind-blowing in its uniqueness as RE-ANIMATOR, this is definitely one of the best horror films of the 1980s.

One of Scorsese's most commercial undertakings, THE COLOR OF MONEY relinquishes none of his unique style and vision, using a swooping, gliding camera and countless trick shots to maximum impact.

The film features good acting from almost everyone, the one notable exception being the annoying Cage who adopts a grating constricted voice for the role.

The movie turns into a rather-dull mad-scientist romp. Craven's direction is nothing more than workmanlike, and it appears that out of sheer boredom he threw two nightmare sequences into the mix.

Despite this flaw, several dramatic lulls, and an aggressive determination to "sparkle," the film often makes for crackling good drama with plenty of leavening humor and magnificent performances by Hurt and newcomer Matlin.

Sadly, this inane vehicle was not worthy of the talents of the two great vets.

The film's fish-out-of-water story line is a film comedy standard; what makes the picture work so well is Hogan's cheerful, weatherbeaten appeal.

A little slow-moving but ultimately rewarding.

Director-writer Jarmusch's characters are insignificant antiheroes adrift in an America that is both sad and beautiful. Jarmusch has a powerful visual sense, but he is weaker in the realm of content. The jazzy relationship between Lurie and Waits never quite clicks. As a result Down By Law merely reiterates the ideas about people and American life that Jarmusch had already stated more richly in Stranger Than Paradise.

Director Peter Medak and screenwriter Leonard Michaels (working from his own novel) apparently tried to make a film like THE BIG CHILL for mature men, but the stagy result of their efforts will leave viewers cold. All of the characters are so broadly drawn that they become laughable, rather than interesting.

The strange thing about this film is that there are some interesting--albeit half-baked--ideas floating around in the script, and the direction shows some skill and style. However, the plot is ludicrous from start to finish, the characters one-dimensional, and the world-view simplistic.

While not very original or even very skillful, THRASHIN' (a skateboarding term for aggressive, gutsy skating) isn't nearly as bad as it sounds.

Penn and Madonna both do a fine job with their roles, the supporting roles are excellent, the direction is passable, the camera work and art direction are accomplished, and the script mindless and predictable. There's nothing to create outrage, and there's nothing to stimulate excitement, which is probably why there was no substantial interest in SHANGHAI SURPRISE.

Petersen is superb as the obsessive investigator who risks madness each time he takes on a case, and Tom Noonan is absolutely chilling as the psycho killer.

A sentimental film that works because of its unsentimental moments--in particular, its sometimes embarassingly honest portrayal of what interests boys and how they talk about it. Reiner elicits some excellent performances from his young cast (River Phoenix is a standout) and Kiefer Sutherland is memorable as a menacing teen hood.

Hooper took the easy path and went for out-and-out gore, rather than making a carefully constructed horror film. The film feels as if Hooper himself has nothing but contempt for the original and went out of his way to tear it down.

A clever debut film from writer-director Fred Dekker that combines science fiction, horror, and comedy into a fairly entertaining package.

Loaded with ridiculous scenes, silly dialog, and gratuitous violence and nudity, REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS tries very hard to exploit the genre while poking fun at it at the same time. The only problem here is that little is funny.

Originally an off-Broadway play, EXTREMITIES projects the powerful rancor of the play, but the film also retains some deadening theatricality that doesn't work on screen.

As a remake, The Fly transcends the original, taking it in new directions and exploring its underutilized potential.

The movie is flat, often pushy, and has none of the bubbling joy of the SCTV sketches that Candy and Levy illuminated with their presence. Set pieces are tossed in every few minutes in a vain reach for laughter; but under director Lester's sloppy hand, there is very little to laugh at.

This is a strikingly original story about human feelings.

Holland fills this film with so many throwaway gags that it is impossible to communicate the outright zaniness. Every scene contains dozens of jokes, some that work and some that don't, but they keep coming so fast and furious that the duds are easily forgotten. Strung together on the flimsiest of plots, Holland's film works as well as it does because he stocks it with several likably eccentric characters. While certainly not for all tastes, it's refreshing teenage fare, and underlying its cartoony insouciance is a welcome touch of innocence.

Although the film's small budget and tight shooting schedule (lensed in 15 days on Super 16mm) is betrayed by sloppy editing, unpolished sound and an occasional flat performance, particularly Johns in the lead role, She's Gotta Have It still bursts with the energy and technical command that have quickly established Lee as a major force in American cinema.

Director Edwards confused humor with speed; so the pace is 150 mph, but there is no time to laugh even if there were any reason to.

The film has some excellent sight gags, some old jokes, and two winning performances from Dreyfuss and Landsberg, who could very well be a comedy team to reckon with, if their next pictures are handled better by the distributor.

There are a couple of mildly amusing moments, but overall Howard the Duck is a monumental waste of time.

Not a particularly original or insightful film of its kind, and marred slightly by the whining of Cramer in the lead role, this is nevertheless enjoyable fare for kids.

Besides the humor and the technical savvy, the biggest difference between this film and the five before it is that the characters are actually allowed to live long enough for the audience to develop some sort of empathy with them. Some of these teenagers are downright likable, and we don't want to see them get killed. That element, more than any other, was the real breakthrough in the series.

STEWARDESS SCHOOL runs down the plot trail like a checklist, making sure each expected scene is in its proper slot. It's never funny, merely sophomoric and dull.

MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE doesn't work on any level. As a comedy it's obvious and asinine, as a horror film it's simply not scary, and as an action film it's a bore.

The film is based on the Ephron novel detailing her marital break-up with journalist Carl Bernstein; but although the book had a distinctive bite, the film is a colorless adaptation.

The script gives Hall and the other cast members so many foolish things to say and do that the viewer is left wishing that they would all kill each other early on and save us the pain of having to watch the rest of the film.

An innocuous comedy chiller, HAUNTED HONEYMOON isn't very chilling and, worse yet, isn't very funny.

Like all of Leigh's films and plays, it was devised though improvisational exercises in which the actors created characters based on someone they knew. As such, it is a mixture of flawlessly played ensemble scenes and brief, often wordless moments.

A nonstop, high-tech, souped-up war movie, with gung ho marines blasting special-effects creatures, and a genuinely convincing, exciting action heroine.

The plot is simple, allowing Polanski great freedom to play with his characters and to give his audience rousing fight scenes. Although the film is a bit slow and talky in spots, it fills the long-ignored gap in Hollywood-style swashbuckling pictures.

The movie is a succession of shticks--which, when they succeed, are very funny. Unfortunately, not all of them succeed.

Written and directed in a campy, tongue-in-cheek style, it's a loving homage to those wild imports from Hong Kong--kung-fu movies.

The second leads are far more interesting: Belushi brings a brash, hearty presence to the film, while Perkins is wonderfully acerbic. Their scenes together are the movie's best.

Adding to the excitement of Psycho III is Perkins' willingness to take chances with his style and material.

The engaging characters play out the action against elegantly designed backgrounds. The story is genuinely exciting, a well-told tale that is entertaining to both children and adults without compromising the expectations of either group. The voices are perfectly cast, particulary Price as the evil Ratigan.

As a director Prince doesn't show even a rudimentary sense of visual style, and his acting skills equal what his direction calls for. The whole film plays exactly for what it is, one long essay in ego massaging.

Labyrinth packs enough surprises to captivate an audience of children and provides enough wisecracking to keep adults laughing.

Everyone in the movie seems to have a comic moment, because the laughs are piled on top of each other. Call it rude, crude, and lewd, but you also have to call it very funny.

Hines and Crystal succeed in creating a new buddy team that ranks with the likes of Robert Redford and Paul Newman.

Macchio, for his part, is an obviously intelligent actor with terrific instincts. Still, this movie leaves a bit to be desired: much of the movie seems recycled, and there is precious little subtlety in the villains' characterizations. The film is also about 15 minutes too long, with far too many convenient plot devices.

Although the on-screen rapport between Redford and Winger is a delight, the film itself is less than that. The script by TOP GUN writers Cash and Epps is muddled and unconvincing.

The plot is suitably slight, allowing plenty of room for the barrage of jokes that roll off Dangerfield's tongue. The result is unsophisticated, unilluminating, unambitious, and hilarious.

This exciting, if conventional, teen thriller effectively makes its points about the dangers of the nuclear age. It features a fine performance from Lithgow as the brilliant yet troubled scientist, and writer-director Marshall Brickman does a nice job of emphasizing human values.

MONA LISA is a detailed, thoughtful film that sensitively explores the emotions within its seedy, exploitative milieu.

There's no point to any of this other than simply having fun. It's like a comic book come to life, complete with colorful villains, mindless violence, nifty gadgets, sparse logic, and some wonderfully silly dialog.

The story and pacing of this offbeat comedy wear thin after the first 20 minutes.

John Irvin's direction is rudimentary for an action film and adds little excitement to the proceedings. There's not much suspense, with good guys and bad guys clearly drawn, and the final shootout is all too routine.

Plagued by cliched characters, ridiculous situations, and a bombastic John williams score, SPACECAMP is just not a very good movie. All the stock shuttle footage or good looking special effects proffered can't disguise its tired treatment of well-worn ideas. SPACECAMP is just a conglomeration of overworked notions, coupled with a wholly unmemorable ensemble.

All the tongue-in-cheek humor, film-buff jokes, and special effects in the world can't save this mess.

The story is treacly sweet, told in a simplistic animation style that has lamentably become an industry standard. Kids will enjoy the events, however, and parents might be mildly amused by the cast of famous voices. But at close to an hour and a half, MY LITTLE PONY pushes the limits of a younger child's attention span.

Although the film fails at a number of levels, most acutely in never making us care much about any of the characters or their problems, it possesses a loopy charm that makes it a pleasure to watch.

Director Cassavetes here applies his remarkable talent for social observation in a light-comedy context and creates one of the strangest, and in many ways most frustrating, screen comedies in recent years.

There's not an original thought in sight — the story is Evil Dead in a movie theater — and it doesn't pay to give much thought to the self-referential implications of the story: The demons and their gross-out antics are the main event.

Every aspect of this film is reprehensible. Stallone's character is an empty hulk; the few attempts to provide us with little insights into his character are downright laughable.

Although an improvement thematically over the first film (the childlike awe of the original has been replaced by a very adult fear of impotence), Poltergeist II is terribly disjointed and dramatically unfulfilling.

What TOP GUN contributes to the genre is an increased emphasis on military hardware and an almost homoerotic attraction for male bodies, mostly sweaty ones.

The plot line is as simple as they come, and Badham's direction is as mechanical as his star. The human actors are secondary, for the real star of the show is Number 5. He's really pretty charming, though his unusual antics aren't enough to carry a feature-length motion picture.

A deliciously bad reworking of The Karate Kid, with just a touch of Rocky IV tossed in.

Nelson wanders through this film like a zombie, and Sheedy, an actress who can manage an occasional burst of talent, is simply bad here. The film's only saving grace is the musical score by Cooder.