It takes a particularly ham-fisted filmmaker to transform a fascinating and historically significant story into something as formulaic as 42.

The slapstick would put Curly and Moe to shame. The raunch is crude as often as it is clever.

It’s an all-star swing that doesn’t totally connect, and is not even the most interesting variation on a theme here. Fortunately, the movie’s fresh-faced protagonist is likable enough to forgive its bumps and bruises.

Soapdish is forever blowing comic bubbles. Most burst in mid-flight. But a few, thanks to the talents of stars Sally Field and Kevin Kline, work up into a laughable lather. [31 May 1991, p.4D]

Conjuring films are best when tapping into the Warrens’ work and making it feel all too real to audiences, and in that regard, “The Devil” tries to shake things up but ventures too far from that freaky norm.

Great Balls of Fire! doesn't shake your nerves or rattle your brain; at times, though, it gets on your nerves. Even so, it's a just-tolerable junk-food chronicle of the brief era when Jerry Lee Lewis threatened to heist Elvis' ''King'' crown. [30 June 1989, p.5D]

McConaughey will never be an actor who lets you into his soul, but he's credible as a good ole boy.

Of all things, this movie has the same problem "Ghostbusters 2" had, which is this: You can't take bigger-than-life screen types and toss them into everyday, regular-folk situations.

Director Peter Berg's frenetic style heightens tension and a sense of disorientation. But some will find its chaotic quality dizzying and off-putting.

Give it plenty of points for brutal honesty. But This is 40 could have used more laughs.

Harold Ramis frequently keeps slapstick, human comedy and surreal elements jelling. [13 Apr 1995, p.6D]

Intelligent but not particularly involving.

Director Alan Rudolph has certainly done his part, leading a colorful parade of Jazz Age editors, essayists and playwrights in arguably one too many directions - easily surpassing The Moderns, his '20s-expatriate companion piece. [25 Nov 1994, p.4D]

A few scenes in World's Greatest Dad may qualify it as the most uncomfortable and unsettling movie to sit through of any this year.

Downbeat but humanistic, Maggie is the rare zombie tale that's less about the appetites of the walking dead and more about their complicated emotions.

Director Jack Clayton's gloomy adaptation of Ray Bradbury's short story was an odd choice for Disney in its straighter-arrow days, and the film flopped even after several scenes were reshot long after principal photography was completed. Yet this odd horror-Americana mix about a supernatural traveling carnival has a cult, plus two aptly cast antagonist leads in Jason Robards and Jonathan Pryce. [04 Oct 1996]

Since Michael Caine's charm, energy and abilities have managed to survive so many cheesy movies, it's heartening to note that A Shock to the System is a slice or two tastier than usual. [23 Mar 1990, p.4D]

Two-character movies are notoriously difficult to sustain, even when benefiting, as here, from one of those late-inning plot twists that casts the movie in a slightly different light. [09 Sep 1994, p.8D]

This is an amusing vehicle for Gibson. At least this time, the bird doesn't fall off the wire. [10 Aug 1990]

Cadillac Man has a shabby transmission, but a decent wax job - or maybe it's the other way around. In any event, it's a vaguely amiss near-miss, despite the inspired teaming of Robin Williams and Tim Robbins. [18 May 1990, p.4D]

High-grade B flick about illegal street racing among gangs in Los Angeles applies the brakes only for the bare minimum of plot injection.

For a swoon-fest aimed at tweens, 17 Again has a lot going for it.

The foot-stomping, hand-clapping, ear-electrifying soundtrack, courtesy of such pros as B.B. King and Eric Clapton plus newcomers like Erykah Badu, in Blues Brothers 2000 (# # 1/2 out of four) rectifies many a movie-making sin in this near-Xerox sequel to the 1980 Saturday Night Live-spun hit starring Dan Aykroyd and the late John Belushi. [06 Feb 1998]

This film highlights some of the best, and raunchiest, of his humor.

Some of James Wong Howe's photography is lovely, compensating for the rear-projected fish. [12 Jul 1996]

Peter is as adequate as the Harry Potter movies are, though you never sense in either case that kids are being bitten with the permanent movie-loving bug.

When it's good, Friends With Benefits is quite good - especially as it skewers rom-com clichés.

Though Maclean's bedrock prose is perfection in print, the film may be another case (like actor Redford's "The Great Gatsby") in which text defies translation. [09 Oct 1992]