An emotionally honest low-ebber that builds to a satisfying wrap-up.

This twisted romance possesses the soul and edgy atmosphere of an independent film but not quite the conviction.

The pitch of the script, written by director Mark Herman, isn't perfect. But these earthy blokes are an engaging lot, the soot of the earth, with an admirably wry view of their bleak situations. [23May1997 Pg 03.D]

Even the nasty zingers here seem tiresomely windy. [16May1997 Pg 02.D]

Lumet (who also wrote the script) seems to feed on lousy cop-precinct furniture, political showboating and confrontations between street-savvy adversaries played by synergic actors. [16May1997 Pg.01.D]

But for all the fancy-schmancy effects (budget: $90 million-plus), the vision of a hypercongested metropolis is not much more sophisticated than an episode of "The Jetsons." [9 May 1997]

No masterpiece but undeniably heavy on laughs, the movie is put over by the buffed, lubricated dynamics of two leads who substantially transcend what is otherwise a borderline tepid dose of family values. [9 May 1997, p.13D]

His (Myers) affection for the era and its gaudy, bawdy movies inject this bit of fluff with giddy energy.

Breakdown exploits so many traditional thriller situations that any suspense fan vet can easily devote a hand to counting off the predecessors it plunders. [02May1997 Pg 12.D]

Uneven but also unflaggingly lively, the movie presents F. Murray Abraham as a corseted and bewigged Stalin in expository bits whose broadness recalls the Billy Wilder-scripted Soviet satires ("Ninotchka" and "One, Two, Three") without being as funny. [16 May 1997, Pg.02.D]

Isn't smart enough to cut it as the ultimate blond joke. [25 April 1997, p. 4D]

The kind of quirky, character-driven comedy they don't make much anymore.

An enjoyably cast, superbly shot, jolt-generating device...It isn't art, but it'll crush your bones.

Has its moments - but far too many of them. It runs two hours and seems to end five times.

It settles for the recycled emotions of the past despite the fact "Schindler's List" has forever made such treatment shamefully passe. [18Apr1997 Pg.03.D]

For all its inconsistencies, this is Smith's most provocative outing yet and certainly the toughest to forget.

Inventing the Abbotts would be a lot more fun were it a trashy Troy Donahue-Diane McBain vehicle ground out by Warner Bros. in 1960, the year this hormonally motivated high school-college romance mercifully concludes. [4 April 1997, p. 4D]

Rodman is more fun to watch here than either co-star, given his array of earrings and nose rings, plus hair that changes color more frequently than the first lady changes her do.

Though Hour 2's heavy emphasis on physical and emotional confrontations stimulates dramatic momentum, this respectable superstar meeting is finally, of all things, ordinary. [26Mar1997 Pg04.D]

Crash seems incredibly prescient, yet rather naive. The film is a stunning document of our alienated civilization, all the more compelling with its dolorous, almost liturgical tones.

Happily, the two leads click throughout in a movie that's just good enough to engender curiosity over filmmaker Witcher's follow-up effort. [14 Mar 1997]

For all his talent, Martin Short has been consistently snakebitten in his choice of movies, a streak now extended by Disney's Jungle2 Jungle. Worse, this laugh-numbing venom has been transfused to co-star Tim Allen, until now a consistently successful big bwana in movies and bookstores and on TV. [07 Mar 1997, p.4D]

Pacino cans the showboating bluster and gives a gently nuanced portrait of a simple man in decline.

We accept the sincerity and altruistic motives of the aging loner he (Philip Baker Hall) portrays in this consciously spare Nevada-set sleeper. [13 March 1997, p. 8D]

However, anyone seeking a good time that involves wit and logic will consider the film a definite wrong number. [26Feb1997 Pg 03.D]

It's as disturbing a movie as you are likely to witness this year. [21Feb1997 Pg.04.D]

Eastwood gutsily stages the extended opening slowly and methodically... [But u]nintentional yuks litter an otherwise somber political thriller adapted from David Baldacci's novel.

Hurried, harried. [14 February 1997, pg.D4]