Crisp craftsmanship has fashioned a great day at the movies from the worst day of Ralph Kramden's life. [10 Jun 1994 Pg. 01.D]

Warm, squishy and manipulative, like being slobbered on by a mongrel pup that's begging for more Snausages.[03 Jun 1994]

The latest stab at a gangsta-fied This Is Spinal Rap, is more raggedly low-budget than last year's CB4, but avoids that film's awkward mix of satire and salute. [07 Jun 1994, p.6D]

The transition from Hanna-Barbera animation to manic-barbaric live action falls flatter than a granite slab, from the first of many deadly stone-age wordplays - "Steven Spielrock Presents" - to the gross-out shots of dirty tootsies. [27 May 1994 Pg. 01.D]

Little Buddha is strange in the way that only Bernardo Bertolucci movies can be strange, and the strangest thing about it is the fact that Keanu Reeves isn't the strangest thing about it. [25 May 1994, p.5D]

Despite Mel Gibson wearing dude duds, Jodie Foster picking their inside pockets, and even James Garner for incalculable good will, the poker hand in the all-new Maverick is almost an empty house. [20 May 1994, p.1D]

Both leads and young Harris make Crooklyn an exasperating might-have-been, especially given the movie's surprisingly affecting wrap-up. There's no dearth of human feeling here, but a dearth of craft. [13 May 1994, p.8D]

The tone is consistent, but consistently uneventful. [06 May 1994]

In this second round of so-so kung-foolery, three brothers once again strain credibility and make sushi out of new foes. [06 May 1994, p.5D]

PCU is less a blatant ripoff of Animal House than a fond homage. This '90s update on campus life never reaches that landmark comedy's inspired heights (or depths, as it were) of anarchy. It also could use a waggle or two of John Belushi's bushily subversive eyebrows....But actor Hart Bochner's directing debut - aided by zippy camerawork - still offers a laugh-propelled good time while tweaking political correctness gone amok at Port Chester University (PCU). [29 Apr 1994, p.5D]

But those looking for enlightenment on this boring road trip better bring along a flashlight. The sex change merely allows Erika Eleniak, who won more respect from her critters as Elly May in The Beverly Hillbillies than she does from the male animals here, to doff her duds as often as she tries to escape. Running tampon gags are never a good sign. [26 Apr 1994, p.8D]

Yet another take on the human-as-prey-for-hunters theme seen most recently in last summer's Hard Target. [18 Apr 1994, p.3D]

With Serial Mom, the renegade director/writer kicks the nation smack in its collective groin, marvelously mocking the oh-so-current mania over crime figures and tabloid scandals. [13 Apr 1994, p.1D]

Once again, the anchor aboard this ship of fools is the drolly doltish Leslie Nielsen, who can deliver lines like "I like my sex the way I play basketball - one on one, with as little dribbling as possible" as if they were first-class mail. Let's hope Zucker and Co. quit while they are ahead. [18 Mar 1994, p.4D]

Ron Howard's The Paper starts out as a seductively overstuffed edition with breezy stories, a diverting layout, color-packed supplements and a strong editorial viewpoint. Eventually, it becomes more like the Jumble Puzzle on page 64G. [18 March 1994, p.4D]

There's no creepiness here - only creeping ennui, as the movie slips away. [24 Mar 1994, p.4D]

Director Hugh Wilson and co-writer Peter Torokvei allow this Driving Miss Daisy with attitude to fully steep, like a cup of fine tea spiked with lemon. [11Mar1994 Pg. 01.D]

Frigid soul or not, it's the most unforgettable supernatural comedy since Brazil. Could be it's time for the Coens to drop the pretense, and embrace sci-fi head on. [11 Mar 1994, p.4D]

It's a clever, multitiered affair built around the title rituals, frosted with delicious characterizations and tasty repartee. [11 March 1994, Life, p.4D]

Directed with care by Leon Ichaso and written by New Jack's Barry Michael Cooper, snazzy-looking Hill also covers familiar terrain. [25 Feb 1994, p.4D]

Fans, at least, should enjoy the realistic touches. The cast is full of real players, announcer Dick Vitale is obnoxious here, too, and that's really coach Bobby Knight in the big game vs. Indiana (though his tan betrays Chips' summer filming schedule). And though O'Neal can barely grunt dialogue, it's fun to watch the Orlando Magic superstar make Nolte look like David Cassidy whenever they share a frame. [18 Feb 1994, p.5D]

Bites may have a bit more on its mind, but it never equals even the weakest scene in Cameron Crowe's "Singles". [18 Feb 1994, p.5D]

As a director, Seagal isn't much on transition scenes. That would cut into the time devoted to knives slicing through heads. [21 Feb 1994, p.4D]

The first moral of the faithfully amoral remake of Sam Peckinpah's The Getaway is that Steve McQueen is irreplaceable. Second: Slavish faithfulness can be risky if the original is only middling Peckinpah to start. Third: Married co-stars sometimes reserve their sexual heat for off-camera Malibu mattresses. [11 Feb 1994, p.4D]

While the rubber-limbed Carrey may not yet be in the hyper-manic league of Jerry Lewis or Robin Williams, his psychotic energy goes a long way to make this plot-anemic comedy palatable. [04Feb1994 Pg. 07.D]

Especially strange: A gimmicky cameo by an actress who outclasses all previous goings-on.

Anwar is reasonably spunky, but she's not given much. The script fatally fumbles the exposition, serving up characters of zero rooting-interest. [09 Feb 1994, p.8D]

As a condescening moron who natters on non-stop in this simplistic comedy, Elliott doesn't just wear out his welcome, he nukes it. [14 Jan 1994]

Edited with whiplash intensity into 92 of the movie year's tightest minutes, Room is arguably the breeziest political documentary ever. [3 Nov 1993, p.7D]

But the film's emotional core is father-son reconciliation, and Pete Postlethwaite is very sympathetic as Dad. [29 Dec 1993 Pg. 01.D]

The film barely skims the grimmer realities of growing old - sickness, money problems, loneliness and death. Still, you couldn't think of two better Grinches to spend the holiday with than Lemmon and Matthau. [23 Dec 1993, p.5D]

Director George Cosmatos brings nothing new to this Wyatt Earp saga except leftover bullets from previous films Cobra and Rambo: First Blood Part II. [23 Dec 1993, p.5D]

Jonathan Demme's Philadelphia labors ambitiously on two socially conscious fronts - relating the story of an AIDS-afflicted lawyer while exploring a much broader issue. Unlike almost any other Demme movie - it's a film where you feel the gears struggling to mesh. [22 Dec 1993, p.1D]

It's amusing, but also rather silly - offering still more evidence that Wenders seems to have seen a few hundred Hollywood genre pics too many. [30 Dec 1993, p.4D]

Until its dopey coda, the film never all-out stumbles, but always exudes Pakula's trademark chilliness. [17 Dec 1993 Pg. 01.D]

With flawless precision, the movie flows seamlessly between a virtual newsreel approach (to chronicle senseless, arbitrary atrocities on the people) and a slightly more direct narrative technique that characterized the film's three dominant characters - each one cast to perfection. [15 Dec 1993]

Every movie year has one, and now it's Britain's Mike Leigh who's conjured up the professional reviewer's worst nightmare: the picture so original, well-acted and witty that it must be given its ample due - despite being heavy on components guaranteed to bum out all but the most frequent moviegoers. [23 Dec. 1993, p.5D]

Unfortunately, someone said "party on" to Wayne's World 2 and forgot to invite any new ideas to rival those that made WWI such a pinhead's delight. [10 Dec 1993, p.9D]

Geronimo: An American Legend offers both sides of the protracted battle between the U.S. Army and Chiricahua Apaches in 1885-86, which means that the film's most abject villains are Jason Patric's vacant performance and Matt Damon's droning voice-over. [10 Dec 1993, p.9D]

That Mrs. Doubtfire, a Tootsie Poppins for our times, misfires in the plausibility department and mis-aims its well-meaning if muddled messages about divorce doesn't matter. [24 Nov 1993 Pg. 01.D]

Ultimately, World comes down to two inherently appealing icons in an imperfect casting fit. Costner modifies his Louisiana accent from JFK, and again we're forced to accept it on good faith. He's never quite believable, but he is tolerable in a role that demands a star presence. [24 Nov 1993, p.4D]

Dumas' perennial story demands stars of stature or wit - components missing from this candy-bar wrapper of a movie. [12 Nov 1993, p.4D]

Perhaps Look Who's Leaking Now would be more apropos: Dirty diapers are replaced by pooch puddles in this second sequel. [5 Nov 1993, p.4D]

Quaid's return to form is worth cheering. He helps make Flesh a watchable depressant. [05 Nov 1993, p.4D]

Director Dominic Sena appears more enamored of peeping-Tom camerawork than plot logic. [03 Sep 1993]

Campion's script is very well received, but the film finally makes it on cinematics: bleakly beautiful photography, haunting score, and good acting. [12 Nov 1993]

Fatally dreadful. This umpteenth parody flick of the year moves sooooooo slowly, it may be the first movie candidate for a pacemaker. The Naked Guns and the Hot Shots may not be Noel Coward cocktail parties. But those films toss out so many joke grenades, a few are bound to set off laughs. Not director Carl Reiner's latest. He takes the same five gags and grinds them into the ground like old cigarettes. Or allows each bit to drag on and on like the toilet paper that keeps sticking to femme fatale Sean Young's killer pumps. [29 Oct 1993, p.4D]

Mostly, this movie is what Burton does best, though some of composer Danny Elfman's ballads make even 75 minutes seem padded. Yet the zingier numbers (the opener especially) are terrific - befitting a movie with a literally wormy villain Oogie Boogie, a ghostly pet, Zero, and a mayor who's literally two-faced. So forget Monster Mash, this is a monster bas. [13 Oct 1993, p.1D]

If it's a spirit-lifter you want, Rudy is the perfect pep rally for your soul. [13 Oct 1993, p.8D]

Those who feel a kinship to this brand of corn, dig in. The rest should head for the hills. [15 Oct 1993, p.5D]

No movie this year has covered a larger canvas than director Chen Kaige's 2 1/2-hour spectacle. [29 Oct 1993, p.4D]

This definitive "life goes on" movie does what Altman does best: juggle 22 characters, deftly switch moods, and offer a comlex warts-and-all characters whose lives seem to extend beyond the screen. Few movies attempt this; Fewer succeed. [1 Oct 1993]

One hesitates to call David Cronenberg's movie of David Henry Hwang's Tony-winning play conventional or tame, but certainly it is zestless given a filmmaker whose last three outings have been "The Fly," "Dead Ringers" and "Naked Lunch." [01 Oct 1993]

You'll figure out just about everything that's going to happen in Cool Runnings, a congenial Disney comedy, quicker than an icicle melts in Kingston. [4 Oct 1993, p.4D]

The "Age of Innocence" oozes anthropological dazzle, but Dazed and Confused may some day rate its own Smithsonian showings for clinically re-creating the High School Experience 1976. [20 Sept 1993]

Freeman (no directing natural) gets acting help, and his film earns points for being told from the black perspective, but isn't even up to the modest standards of A Dry White Season, Cry Freedom or A World Apart. [24 Sept 1993, p10D]

Instead of ladling on the Scorsese sauce, Robert De Niro's Bronx accent is on semisweet nostalgia. He presents a domestic drama spiced with humor about a boy torn between his working-stiff dad (De Niro in fine regular-fella mode) and Chazz Palminteri's easy-money ways. De Niro doesn't let arty camera angles sub for good storytelling. And he draws memorable performances from two amazing young, new actors. [01 Oct 1993, p. 8D]

After watching Pfeiffer and Day-Lewis submerge molten 19th-century sparks here, it is now conceivable that Scorsese could make compelling cinema out of “Three Blind Mice.” [17 Sept 1993, Life, p.1D]

Some will lazily compare West to the ever-magnificent The Black Stallion, but just for starters, it hasn't the same exquisite outdoor photography. Instead, it's been shot in varying degrees of rust, with varying masses of grain floating around the image. [17 Sep 1993, p.4D]

Sarah Jessica Parker contributes next to nothing as a work/sack partner who ends up imperiled by a sadist fixated on Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs. The director/co-writer is Rowdy Herrington, who has now surpassed what was his most ludicrous claim to fame: Putting Brian Dennehy into a boxing ring with teen James Marshall in Gladiator. [17 Sept 1993, p.4D]

These gun-crazy, lust-loopy kids on the run are irresistible in the best crime rush since “GoodFellas.” [10 Sept 1993]

Mostly engrossing and always worthy of respect, it still hasn't quite the big-movie sweep to make it a tell-the-world experience. [8 Sept 1993, p.1D]

Even if the script delivered, the film would frankly be overwhelmed by the volume of noteriety that has attended it. [3 Sept 1993]

Even by King-movie standards (and there are none lower), the misanthropy, grotesque humor, and all-out ugliness is itself in maximum overdrive. [27 Aug 1993, p.3D]

What Edwards doesn't bring to the party is an entertaining story. Something about a princess abducted by evil Robert Davi, who has done some great movie bad guys, but seems uninterested here. Benigni deserves another chance to strut the stuff that has made him a box-office phenom in Italy. [31 Aug 1993, p.5D]

To Gibson's credit, Face's essential hokiness doesn't sink in until later. Let's hope, though, the Mel Man has flushed this scarface stuff out of his system. [25 Aug 1993, p.3D]

Fury, I Am a Fugitive, Wild Boys of the Road and Emperor of the North come immediately to mind as definitive Depression movies. This little gem, which may get overlooked, deserves to be on the same list. [20 August 1993, p.5D]

Hong Kong's China-born cult director makes his U.S. debut here, serving up so many briskly staged and edited action scenes that you'll wager Sam Peckinpah somehow figured in his gene pool. Forget grenades and assault weapons (though they're here, too); Target deals in bows and arrows, a serpent booby-trap and even one portly hero (Wilford Brimley) on horseback. All this and Brimley's Cajun accent, too. [20 Aug 1993, p.1D]

Manhattan Murder Mystery may be lightweight Woody, but it's also a mile-wide grin with a surprisingly satisfying mystery angle. [18 Aug 1993, p.1D]

The garden, an Edenic metaphor that gives the story its fertile power, should be as much of a living character as Maggie Smith's wonderfully brusque housekeeper - but isn't. As a result, everything that follows feels anti-climatic. Even if the plot plods a bit, there are pleasures to be plucked, especially in the performances of the children. [13 Aug 1993, p.4D]

Its rewards may not be eternal, but Heart and Souls will likely satisfy those who love their chuckles choked with tears. [13 Aug 1993, p.4D]

Despite the unsexy title, it's one unusually well told. [11 Aug 1993, p.1D]

Fans of HBO's comically explicit Tales From the Crypt will know what to expect. If not quite up to Crypt's snuff, Bags is still a gas. [06 Aug 1993, p.3D]

There isn't much depth to The Fugitive, but you'll never know it (or care). In addition to a spectacular train/bus smashup and an exciting sewer chase, there's one of the funniest public confrontations since Cary Grant broke up the art auction in North by Northwest. Result: Warner Bros. has what it had last August with Unforgiven - a commercial movie with real class. [6 Aug 1993, p.1D]

Like many frugally financed movies, director Ang Lee's charmer depends on characterizations, not flamboyant technique. [19 Aug 1993, p.4D]

Snipes seems lost. A key player in the novel by virtue of his first-person narration, Snipes' character - now third-person - is all but a non-person. Mostly, he reacts Watson-style to Connery's Sherlock Holmes musings; an attempt to incorporate Snipes' street buddies into a car chase is the film's weakest scene. [30 July 1993, p.1D]

This is a comedy far funnier in its throwaway asides and extraneous bits. [30 July 1993, p.5D]

Instead of the inspired Brooks of Young Frankenstein, we get the middling Brooks of Spaceballs, in which you can see nearly every joke hovering like the Goodyear blimp. [28 July 1993, p.8D]

John Singleton's bizarre but viewable Boyz N the Hood follow-up is surprisingly gooey going. [23 Jul 1993]

What once was spontaneous and clever now has the stench (in Conehead-speak) of rotten chicken embryos. [23 July 1993, p.5D]

This too-belated reprise from the same filmmaking duo isn't any model, but it ought to amuse fans of the original. [23 July 1993, p.5D]

The film does what it can to dramatize the bond, but Richter has a disproportionate acting load because his co-star's emoting is below the water line. Happily, he carries it. [16 Jul 1993 Pg. 08.D]

One should approach Hocus Pocus as if it were one of those households that plunk toothbrushes instead of Snickers into your goody bag. Skip it.

In the tautly terrific thriller In the Line of Fire , Clint Eastwood toys with his own grizzled-vet screen image like a frisky kitten with a yarn ball. [09 Jul 1993 Pg. 01.D]

After gagging on this second helping, all we can say is, Bernie, rest in peace already. [12 July 1993, p.4D]

Well, maybe some of the performances are more serviceable than all-out spirited, but this is certainly not true of the two crucial ones. As soldier Benedick and his spat-match Beatrice, director Branagh and Oscar-winner Thompson (sporting an attractive tan) are all anyone could wish for. If the classiest married couple in movies today can't make the Bard multiplex-accessible, it'll be time for Tom and Roseanne to suit up for Macbeth. [7 May 1993, p.4D]

Yet the film's most serious flaw (next to a newly concocted fizz-out ending) is that it's not sinister enough. [30 Jun 1993 Pg. 01.D]

Yet, when it all clicks, Ephron is able to make the familiar sparkle anew. [25 Jun 1993 Pg. 01.D]

Oscar-nominated Angela Bassett suffers and flaunts the dresses in this smashingly performed Tina Turner bio - a rock-feminist manifesto that also earned Laurence Fishburne a nomination for humanizing Ike Turner, the Svengali-husband and Menace II Tina with a wandering Ikette eye. Brian Gibson, who directed HBO's as-good The Josephine Baker Story, rarely exceeds the parameters of a competent TV movie; numbers get truncated, and there's minimal period detail over a 1958-83 time span. Yet in a movie inevitably made or broken by its leads, the nominations were justified. [25 Mar 1994, p.3D]

Don't blame an aptly chosen cast headed by cute newcomer Mason Gamble, but this film isn't for viewers old enough to fantasize about chaining Barney the dinosaur to a freeway U-Haul. Its mental-age cutoff point is maybe Pampers-plus-5; grown-ups are cautioned to bring along alternate entertainment - even a Walkman tape of old Dennis Day ballads. [25 June 1993, p.2D]

This movie-within-a-movie action-comedy spoof is a too long, too loud tease as it toys with the Schwarzen-dude's well-toned cinematic image. [18 Jun 1993, p.1D]

Spielberg's must-see is so wondrous at depicting things that go crunch in the night that its human characterizations and pokey exposition seem astonishingly halfhearted… On a "people" level, Park isn't “Jaws,” but on a jolt level - oh, yes, it is. [11 June 1993, Life, p.1D]

After a tense, terrific, stomach-turning opening that may have moviegoing acrophobes recalling Vertigo, the film soon becomes the latest screen variation on cat-and-Mighty Mouse. [28May1993 Pg.04.D]

A delightfully robust fable about two passions that matter (sex and food). [17 May 1993, p.4D]

All the Drano in the world couldn't fix what's clogging the works in Super Mario Bros. [1 June 1993, p.6D]

An unusually knowing movie from filmmakers of any age, both in its coldly clinical viewpoint and assured filmmaking style that even puts fresh spin on a routine police interrogation. [26 May 1993, Life, p.8D]

Stone is competent, if not commanding; as neighbor lovers, she and Baldwin have less chemistry than the Taster's Choice coffee couple. [21 May 1993, p.1D]

While Van Peebles' ambitions are epic-size, his results, sad to say, are less so. This is one messy Western omelet - highly edible but overscrambled. [14 May 1993, p.3D]