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.

Inspired lunacy, Pee-wee's big adventure is one of the most inventive films in recent memory. This clever and wholly original work incorporates a wide variety of cinematic tools with a fresh and unique sense of style.

This forced comedy feels too long, although John Candy's unique manner sometimes overcomes Carl Reiner's flat direction.

Just more proof that special effects are worthless if there are no solid characters or story. My Science Project is formula filmmaking with no substance, style, or entertainment to be found in its unimpressive package.

While the characters are fairly offbeat and interesting, the film is weighed down by some tediously handled camp intrigue, political skullduggery, and $2 million worth of special effects.

Though Argento's plot is often confused and grotesque, he has a remarkably energetic visual style (mobile camera, slow-motion, careful lighting, creative editing) that is never boring.

It's hard to believe that the same man who wrote and directed one of the best horror films of the 1970s, The Hills Have Eyes, could have pulled the same duty on the sequel and come up with a film as shockingly bad as this.

A minor classic of the genre, this is a memorable addition to the vampire tradition in the horror film.

Naturally, Big Bird meets some intriguing people going East. Lots of cameos are here to delight parents who take the kids to see this movie.

Director Amy Heckerling is gentler than Harold Ramis was, and the result is a slightly more cohesive picture that is far less mean-spirited. Lighthearted fun, pretty scenery, lots of chuckles, a few guffaws, and a lilting score by Charles Fox all contribute to making this movie a pleasant surprise.

A reprehensible film that unashamedly steals ideas (if not entire scenes) from other works.

Despite its drawbacks as entertainment, it remains one of the best technical cartoon features ever produced by Disney.

Fans of the first two films in the series may be a bit dismayed by Day of the Dead's deemphasis of gory action in favor of characterization, but the need to exploit the horror of the situation has passed and the film works by concentrating instead on its implications and possible solution. The standard 1950s sci-fi/horror film conflict between science and the military is also resurrected here, with distinct political overtones.

Though obviously designed for the teenage market, Billie Jean should insult the intelligence of all but the most irredeemable mall rats.

What was a subtle farce when directed by Yves Robert in French becomes an overstated comedy here, with all the actors hamming it up to no end.

This is far from Makavejev's finest work (WR: MYSTERIES OF THE ORGANISM and SWEET MOVIE are much more challenging), but it is the film that has spread the director's political message to the widest audience.

The alien costumes are clever and show some real imagination in their design. Yet the filmmakers have forgotten a key element. Without an interesting story or characters, special effects aren't enough to sustain a feature film.

Between the gratuitous climaxes that seem to occur every 10 minutes, Kasdan parades a myriad of stereotypes before us and never develops them. In fact, he never really explores any of his characters but only provides them with enough motivation to justify the slaughter of dozens of people.

The Thunderdome sequence is an amazing display of imagination and technical skill, but the film falls apart with the climactic chase scene.

Sure, there are a few funny moments here and there with several obviously intended jokes, but director Richard Fleischer never milks the elements of self-parody for what they're worth.

The laughs are plentiful and the acting by Fox, Thompson, and Glover is superb. Robert Zemeckis's direction, like the technical contributions, is first-rate, and after an ambling start takes off into frenetic, non-stop fun.