Secret isn't the usual romp, but it's Almodovar's most committed work in years. [7 Mar 1996]

This senior-class Cabaret is just a TV after-school special with a better soundtrack. [05 Mar 1993]

Feels as desperate and static as being trapped in a traffic jam.

As underwater adventure, Leviathan is so much like already forgotten DeepStar Six that they are crusted with the same brine. By the time they come to almost identical conclusions, you'll wish both were swimming with the fishies. [17 Mar 1989, p.4D]

Makes its point ham-fistedly and then devolves into a blood-spattered slasher movie. It also unashamedly cribs from more disturbing films like "Straw Dogs," "Funny Games" and "A Clockwork Orange."

The movie is something of a white elephant itself, a luxuriant, lumbering behemoth. It is pleasant, occasionally amusing - and often dull.

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]

Pleasant but not more than recycled jock piffle.

The best thing about Black Snake Moan, a song title, is the blues soundtrack. The movie is an absurdly jarring collection of archetypal characters in miserable circumstances with a resolution that feels forced and tacked on.

The Cutting Edge is a sharp-looking but rinky-dink rink romance that would earn 6.0's in compulsory cliches. [27 March 1992, p.4D]

Sure, take the young'uns. But don't be surprised if movie time turns into nap time. [6 July 1990]

A John Hughes movie is 15 minutes of material stretched into a 90-minute feature by a rec-room rack from the Karloff estate; the only question is whether the 15 have their comic compensations. Uncle Buck has a few, though they're typically compromised by the cut-and-paste nature of the rest. [16 Aug 1989, p.4D]

A romantic comedy has to woo an audience into taking a chance on love. While You Were Sleeping is that kind of sneaky charmer, more riveting than ribbit-ing. [21 Apr 1995, Pg.01.D]

While the sound design and spooky minimalist music add suspense, and CGI effects are duly sinister, a climactic strobe effect is more annoying than frightening.

The corny love story is all the more disappointing given the pedigree of the octogenarian actors.

Dull, dreary Answer Man raises this question: Why?

Performances, plot and pacing are as mechanical as the hard-wired cast.

The contrived insult comedy here feels old, borrowed and blue.

Tepidly tolerable to under-8s. [15 July 1994, p.5D]

Knoxville is functional only when the movie needs a bravura comic performance, but The Ringer is easy enough to take.

The longer the movie drones on, the queasier it gets. [6 June 1997, Life, p.3D]

Great movies are sometimes described as filet mignon or champagne, but this one is more like a pacifier.

Glimmers of a fascinating and lively period film surface and fade in the first half-hour of The Immigrant. What predominates is a dully morose, overheated and implausible story.

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

Does its share of teasing, but amounts to nothing serious.

It is a measure of the movie's lack of inspiration that William Shatner is the funniest thing in it.

A sentimental comedy about mental illness (complete with a sitcom family), wobbly Bob offers further evidence that Disney itself may be afflicted with encroaching schizophrenia. [17 May 1991]

As it is, this uneven movie is more a compilation of contemporary images and concerns peppered with derivative raucous scenarios, à la Judd Apatow movies, than an involving romantic comedy.