Considering the major talents involved here, one would expect to find something more than a run-of-the-mill crime thriller. In a sense one does, for 8 MILLION WAYS TO DIE is a paralyzingly inept film.

Caustic, vivid, and without question the best major film about recent conflicts in Latin America.

Ultimately, LEGEND--a pet project of Scott's that took years to research, shoot, and edit--is done in by the director's ambition. What might have been a pleasantly innocuous children's story becomes an enormous, lumbering FX machine into which the actors, particularly a nervous Tom Cruise, seem to disappear.

Relentlessly grim, At Close Range offers a frightening glimpse at the dark side of American life and poses disturbing questions about family ties. Unfortunately, although director James Foley handles the performances with skill, he also indulges in too many flashy directorial pyrotechnics, muting the emotional impact.

A visually inventive and energetic pop musical.

Often funny, though just as often tasteless.

Though it is silly, sleazy, and graphically violent, The Toxic Avenger does hold a bit of warped charm for fans of this sort of thing.

One of the most enjoyable films of the summer, Critters harks back to the low-budget science fiction films of the 1950s and balances the thrills with heavy doses of humor.

Although the first hour of BAND OF THE HAND is fairly engrossing as we watch the rowdy, explosive teens slowly discover self-worth, respect for others, and teamwork under the stern guidance of Lang, the rest of the film dissolves into a teenage DIRTY DOZEN that seems to condone and encourage vigilantism. Major conceptual problems aside, BAND OF THE HAND does feature a solid performance by Lang.

Director Stephen Frears and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi have fashioned a wonderfully fresh examination of the political and racial climate of Margaret Thatcher's Britain.

It's hard to believe A Room With a View cost so little; the costumes and sets are dazzling and the acting is superb--from two-time Oscar-winner Smith to the smallest role, there's not a false note.

On paper it looks like a bad idea for a comedy, but on film it looks even worse.

Seltzer's characters are real; and Haim, Green, and Sheen play them wonderfully. As a result LUCAS is not just a film for teenagers but for anyone who has ever been a teenager.

Conner's screen debut is inauspicious--to put it kindly--in the quality of both his acting and the material chosen, and someone else is obviously doing his riding.

Clever enough; but, as is the case with all stalk-and-slash films, it becomes repetitive and boring very quickly.

While there is some imagination behind the destruction of the title abode, the film quickly grows into a tired repetition of one long joke.

Nudity and foul language make this off limits to children. Downright stupidity makes it off limits to adults.

Sure, the humor is witless and the gags are often inane, but, given the quality of its predecessors, POLICE ACADEMY 3: BACK IN TRAINING has the dubious honor of being the funniest of the series to date.

There is nothing original or especially interesting about this film, though in-jokes abound.

With its unpretentious moral tale of good and evil, CARE BEARS MOVIE II does a good job of meeting the needs and expectations of its target audience.

As poorly animated features go, this one ranks down there with the worst of them. The characters have no real personalities, and the whole thing is just too somber for its own good.

Working from a screenplay that drew on scriptwriter Fusco's experience as an itinerant young blues man, Hill and cinematographer Bailey perfectly capture the look and feel of the Mississippi Delta, heretofore little seen on film.

Though not without problems, Desert Hearts is a triumph for director Donna Deitch and an inspiration for any independent filmmaker.

TROUBLE IN MIND is offbeat, unique, and interesting, and for that alone it should be noted. It is a shame that none of the elements ever come together, so this film winds up being a beautiful, atmospheric mess.

While the script contains trite and unbelievable dialogue, the superbly convincing performances make up for these faults.

As so often happens in Hollywood, what is advertised as daring and provocative turns out to be glib, essentially tame, and largely soporific.

Feature debuts don't come much better than director Robert Harmon and screenwriter Eric Red's sleek, dream-like thriller about a naïve college boy who crosses paths with devil in the flesh after taking a wrong turn on some lost highway.

Golan barely touches on the fundamental conflicts that created the situation there and simply offers a pack of wild-eyed, swarthy Arabs preying on passive, middle-aged Jews represented by the likes of Winters, Balsam, Bishop, and Kazan. Such horrors do happen, but they do not have to be presented as a cartoon.

QUICKSILVER isn't a movie. It's actually a series of rock videos occasionally interrupted by a slight dalliance with story progression. The premise is wholly fabricated, the style is pure MTV, and the characters are all pressed from Hollywood cliche cutters.

Silly but not always funny, WILDCATS relies too much on Hawn's familiar screen persona, getting little mileage from the actress' "serious" moments, yet it manages to provide more than a chuckle or two.

The action sequences are well staged and the twists and turns of the convoluted plot will keep viewers guessing. A competent and unpretentious entertainment.

Despite Trevor Nunn's direction, this gorgeously photographed travesty of history doesn't omit a single cliche of the costume genre and feels even longer than its 142-minute running time. Fans of RSC-style scenery-chewing will not, however, be disappointed.

Allen has infused it with wit, a superb cast and his usual "the best direction is the least direction" style.

Youngblood is little more than a star vehicle for Lowe, who handles the role well enough.

Although Russell and Williams have good rapport, Williams' unique improvisational talents are restricted by the script (save for the hilarious training sequence), and the film suffers for it.

The diverse elements of the plot are fairly complicated, but Lumet is a strong director who knows how to effectively weave these components together. Gere, in one of his better performances, is the all-important connecting factor. The secondary roles are well cast, with Washington and Learned giving the most assured characterizations.

A howl from start to finish.

No guns, no violence, no nudity--just a caring story that will wet the driest eye and warm the coldest heart. Every single role is perfectly cast and perfectly played, and Horton Foote's script is a marvel of economy.

This could have been a sweet, charming little romantic comedy, but it is ruined by excessive vulgarity and gratuitous nudity.

Yet another totally absurd bout of macho wish fulfillment for those frustrated by the American government and military's inability to deal effectively with terrorism, Iron Eagle is actually more outlandish than most.

The action in this superlative film is relentless and gripping from beginning to end.

The special effects, supervised by director John Buechler, who was the effects man on GHOULIES, are pretty poor, essentially slimy rubber creatures with a limited amount of movement and the seams from their molds clearly visible.

The cinematic adaptation of the novel, however, is so laughably awful that Auel later sued the producers for creating such an inaccurate work.

Although his film biography features beautiful production design and more than 1,400 costumes, it is unfortunately perfunctory, flat, and predictable.

Director Cokliss directs in a workmanlike manner, but his action scenes are unimaginatively handled and lack pizzazz. Luckily, his cast is almost strong enough to make up for it.

Unforgivably bad, painfully unfunny, and downright stupid, HEAD OFFICE tries to do to the corporate world what AIRPLANE did to the airlines. A needle in a haystack would be easier to find than a laugh in this film--which is surprising, considering that the cast includes such names as DeVito, Moranis, Novello, Doyle-Murray, and Shawn.

The film makes a noble attempt to present history in a realistic, nonheroic light, but Hudson is done in by a dull script and some ludicrous (curiously unrealistic) casting (Pacino as a Scot, Sutherland as a Brit, and Kinski as an American).

Stands separate from the rest, in a pantheon, a true cinematic masterwork of sight, sound, intelligence, and most importantly--passion.

One of the largest wastes of money ever. More than $33 million was spent on this futuristic version of THE DEFIANT ONES or HELL IN THE PACIFIC, both infinitely superior films. The basic flaw is that its premise is older than your great-grandfather's hat.

To make up for the lack of real story here, director Sydney Pollack shoots endless travelogue footage in soft light and pleasing colors. The movie is not drama and far from a compelling romance.

Blindingly obtuse, excessively morose, the film is nevertheless dazzling in its inventive and massive sets and spectacular in its techniques...A powerful work that is both bleakly funny and breathtakingly assured.

Spielberg lacks his usual intuitive affinity for his story material; consequently the film is a bit clunky at times. There are some unfortunate slapstick comic relief sequences and a few of the characterizations are also much too broad and cartoonish.

Easily one of the most gimmicky films of all time, Clue must be the only movie in history to be adapted from a popular board game.

The action here is virtually nonstop and the special effects are often astounding: good and bad guys battle atop speeding trains and the lovers dangle perilously over cliffs and ride through stampeding desert tribes. But THE JEWEL OF THE NILE is missing the faux-innocent tone and consistent narrative invention that made ROMANCING THE STONE work.

Director Attenborough's film version has a couple of pleasant numbers which serve as oases amidst the dullness.

Landis' direction is indulgent, to say the least, with big landscapes, big crashes, big hardware, and big gags filling the screen. What he forgets is character development, that all-important factor that must exist for comedy to work well.

FOOL FOR LOVE is a great play, and the performances from the cast are solid--especially Stanton's and Shepard's--but as a film the whole thing seems rather contrived and stiff.

Whereas the first half of the movie concentrates nicely on the developing friendship between the young Holmes and Watson, the storm of roller-coaster thrills and Industrial Light and Magic special effects soon takes over, blowing the nicely drawn characters away.

Rocky IV is a far cry from the delights (both large and small) of its illustrious original.

The major problem with White Nights is that it tries to be so many things at once that it fails to be much of anything other than a vehicle to watch two of the best dancers around strut and tap their stuff.

It waffles constantly, and we never know if the creators are for or against gambling.

SMOOTH TALK is trying to talk to a 1980s generation by using 1960s dialog. Faithfully adapted from a 1970 Joyce Carol Oates short story, the film's attitudes are better suited to that era than to the present. Dern (daughter of Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd), however, is the one element that makes SMOOTH TALK.

This attempt to combine elements of vampire lore with the limited format of the teen sex comedy is a monstrous movie all right, a frighteningly awful horror comedy.

Russell is likable considering the inane nature of the film, but Dinome, a former model making his feature debut, is all teeth and moussed hair.

Though filled with strong performances from all the principals, THAT WAS THEN...THIS IS NOW is thin material. We watch as Estevez's tortured character tries to come to grips with adult emotions and responsibilities, but we never really get a handle on what is inside him. Screenwriter-actor Estevez fails to provide any insight. What is refreshing about the film is that the teenagers seem real, with a keen sense of detail in the portrayal of their environment.

The best that can be said of this lame comedy is that it will make you run to the video store to rent Brooks' YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN.

A deadpan satire of the espionage film that explores the accepted logic forming the basis of the genre. Although not as interesting as some of Penn's other genre experiments, TARGET is worth seeing if only for the inspired teaming of Hackman and Dillon.

It's a film that deals with natural emotions and commonplace decisions creating uncommon situations. Bud Yorkin's direction is also top-notch.

SUBWAY is DIVA with no brains--a film of all style and little substance. Ah, but what style!

The direction is lackluster, and the film is padded with a number of useless scenes.

A worthy successor to the original movie, NIGHTMARE PART 2 is surprisingly optimistic and moral. The power of love and kindness wins out over evil and violence--something not often seen in modern horror films.

An astonishing, brilliantly edited car chase--with pursuer and pursued speeding the wrong way along the LA Freeway--is one of many pleasures in this darkly stylish crime film, director William Friedkin's best effort since "The Exorcist."

Not much acting is on display, the dialog is simplistic, the story is superficial, and the direction is faceless, but true fans won't care. Others have been warned.

A major-league splatterfest, RE-ANIMATOR has a number of horrifying moments, made even more macabre by the grisly humor evident in almost every unforgettable scene (the most memorable and bizarre being the sex scene with a cadaver's detached head).

BETTER OFF DEAD possesses a fairly strong cast, some good gags, and a quirky sense of humor, but it suffers from the stereotyped characters and familiar situations that plague most movies about teenagers. What is refreshing about BETTER OFF DEAD is a deemphasis on sex and drugs. Unfortunately, only about half of the many jokes and gags in the film are actually funny.

A dismal and woefully inept werewolf picture.

Though compelling, well crafted, and well acted, SWEET DREAMS will probably be a disappointment for Patsy Cline fans.

An above-average thriller, offering a fresh hero based on "The Destroyer" series of novels (at least 120 of which are currently available).

Though not as good as Terminator, the film has a better-than-usual script for this sort of thing and shows a lot of humor. Schwarzenegger isn't especially good as an actor, but his presence is impressive, and he is beginning to show some style, if not much substance. For action fans, one of the picks of the litter for the year.

It's slick, romantic, funny (Close has a great rapport with her beer-guzzling, foul-mouthed mentor, Robert Loggia), intriguing, and filled with excellent performances.

This compelling and horrifying study of random violence seldom lives up to its promise, but it still packs a powerful wallop.

A numbingly stupid actioner, Invasion U.S.A. has one of the most laughable villains ever committed to film.

Excellent cinematography on the road and particularly good camerawork for the dismal gray 1930s Chicago settings. Salenger is wonderful, and so is the wolf.

Though the plot has some annoying holes, the dialogue and the performances are excellent.

Mishima's most stunning aspect is the visual style employed in the dramatizations of the novels. With colorful, theatrical sets by famed Japanese designer Eiko Ishioka, the sequences are quite unique and impressive in their own right, and the entire film is photographed beautifully by John Bailey.

Director Joan Freeman, who cowrote the screenplay with her husband, Robert Alden, shows a remarkable talent for capturing the sights and sounds of this seamy world. Freeman works a gritty realism into the formula story, creating an always-fascinating tale from an ugly subject.

A sporadically funny spoof of aliens-from-outer-space films that begins to run out of fresh ideas after the first 30 minutes.

A wickedly funny black comedy that follows the increasingly bizarre series of events that befall hapless word-processer Griffin Dunne after he ventures out of his apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and goes downtown in search of carnal pleasures.

STAND ALONE is a repulsive, hate-filled effort that blasphemies the true meaning of patriotism.

Ridiculous scripting and frequently comical budget limitations make this film a mostly awful trip to Bruce Lee Land, though the fight scenes, choreographed by Mike Stone, a karate champion and former partner of Chuck Norris, are spectacular and not as silly as the usual Hong Kong product. For fans of the genre only.

The battle scenes are impressive, though underpopulated, and the camerawork is fluid.

Based on screenwriter Susan Isaacs' first novel, the film is nearly undone by Frank Perry's lazy direction. Good performances from the entire cast, especially Sarandon, save the movie.

The dialogue tries to give Godzilla some higher meaning, but it doesn't know what it wants that to be.

Hanks is excellent and has a way with funny lines that marks him as one of the better droll comic actors, if given the right material. Here, writers Ken Levine and David Isaacs have provided the actors with solid jokes.

The whole thing is played for laughs, with a pseudohip sense of humor satirizing everything from suburban punks to the military, while delivering a few legitimate chills.

THE BRIDE must be commended for its attempt to tell two parallel stories, but unfortunately the halves do not balance, resulting in a picture in which the lead characters (Sting and Beals) become secondary to the supporting ones (Brown and Rappaport).

Disjointed and underdeveloped. John Badham's direction is equally uninspired, though the climactic race, shot on location during the Coors International Bicycle Classic, is filmed with an abundance of breathtaking helicopter shots that capture the beautiful scenery.

Director Michael Cimino turned YEAR OF THE DRAGON, an engrossing novel by Robert Daley, into a confused, overlong, preachy, and at times downright annoying crime epic with a wholly unsympathetic main character played by the totally miscast Mickey Rourke.