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A
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Boys on the Side
(1995)
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Steve Persall
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Goldberg, Barrymore and Parker make every moment count, to create a warm coalition of female independence... We're lucky to go along for the ride.
Posted Mar 14, 2023
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B+
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The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
(2005)
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Steve Persall
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Schmaltz is delivered with such sincerity by The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants that only the most jaded viewer wouldn't be moved. Usually that's me. Yet, there's something irresistible about Ken Kwapis' film.
Posted Mar 14, 2023
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Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
(1953)
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Lillian Blackstone
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Jane Russell is a standout, showing more talent than in any of her former pictures.
Posted Mar 08, 2023
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3/5
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9 to 5
(1980)
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Robert Alan Ross
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A dream team of comedy and charisma shines untarnished through the hazy plot of Nine to Five.
Posted Mar 03, 2023
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|
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Sayonara
(1957)
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Harrison Swain
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Extraordinary entertainment... should please every class of moviegoer.
Posted Mar 02, 2023
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4/5
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Thelma & Louise
(1991)
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Hal Lipper
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Although Thelma & Louise is as predictable as its testosterone-fueled predecessors, it has a boldness and boundlessness that make it a joy to watch.
Posted Feb 28, 2023
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C
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Godzilla
(1998)
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Steve Persall
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The new Godzilla is sleek and technically accomplished, but the movie proves just how dull efficiency can be.
Posted Feb 15, 2023
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A
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The Big Lebowski
(1998)
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Steve Persall
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The most original and blithely astonishing comedy to blaze across the screen since Raising Arizona.
Posted Jan 24, 2023
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A
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Eve's Bayou
(1997)
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Steve Persall
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One of Lemmons' smartest moves as a screenwriter is the avoidance of easy dramatic twists to propel the story. Eve's Bayou is foremost an unfolding multicharacter study, even if a character has only has a handful of screen minutes.
Posted Jan 10, 2023
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B
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Down in the Delta
(1998)
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Steve Persall
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Down in the Delta isn't a great movie, but it constantly touches your heart and involves you with its characters.
Posted Jan 04, 2023
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3/5
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A Dry White Season
(1989)
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Hal Lipper
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[Brando] is absolutely brilliant.
Posted Jan 04, 2023
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|
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The Lady Eve
(1941)
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Marion Aitchison
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A scintillating comedy dotted with piquant situations and clever lines and played against ultra-modish backgrounds, The Lady Eve proves a brilliant vehicle for the talents of Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda.
Posted Dec 29, 2022
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3/4
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Groundhog Day
(1993)
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Steve Persall
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Groundhog Day is the best vehicle for his brand of silly psychosis since Murray tangled with that pesky gopher in Caddyshack. It's a novel, fanciful comedy premise that sails over any shortcomings because it lets Murray be Murray.
Posted Dec 21, 2022
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A+
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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
(1937)
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Steve Persall
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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is one of the truly monumental cinematic accomplishments of all time.
Posted Dec 19, 2022
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1/4
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Beethoven
(1992)
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Hal Lipper
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If you have any desire to see Charles Grodin upstaged by a slobbering St. Bernard in the formulaic comedy Beethoven, then I suggest you rent Turner and Hooch and see Tom Hanks being slimed by his large canine partner instead.
Posted Nov 21, 2022
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C-
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Braveheart
(1995)
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Steve Persall
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No director should make a three-hour film with three suitable climaxes and make viewers wish that any of them were the end.
Posted Nov 17, 2022
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|
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Gentleman's Agreement
(1947)
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Lillian Blackstone
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Casting is perfect, from the mightiest roles to the smallest. No detail is omitted, and the plot, a close teamwork of love and problem, is so arresting it holds the audience spellbound.
Posted Nov 16, 2022
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|
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The Maltese Falcon
(1941)
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Marion Aitchison
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An exciting film that mingles mystery, crime, suspense and hard-boiled romance with excellent results.
Posted Nov 11, 2022
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|
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Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
(1939)
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Marion Aitchison
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Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is bang-up entertainment -- if we were one to scatter around stars we'd give it four of them. It is swiftly paced and bright with humor to balance its more serious implications.
Posted Nov 09, 2022
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The Shop Around the Corner
(1940)
|
St. Petersburg/Tampa Bay Times Staff
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A continental comedy with none too strong a story James Stewart, Frank Morgan and Margaret Sullavan made the lives of ordinary shop clerks in Buda pest seem vital and rather important.
Posted Nov 07, 2022
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Stalag 17
(1953)
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Lillian Blackstone
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Though its setting is grim, [Stalag 17] rises above its unhappy circumstances to become one of the funniest comedy-melodramas of the year.
Posted Nov 05, 2022
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5/5
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Dances With Wolves
(1990)
|
Tom Zucco
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This is an extraordinary movie -- a boundless, wonderfully told story that wraps its arms around you and doesn't let go.
Posted Nov 02, 2022
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The President's Mystery
(1936)
|
St. Petersburg/Tampa Bay Times Staff
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The idea for the story Is most novel, the acting is splendid and the plot moves with a speedy tempo. There is plenty of action throughout and a lot of suspense, but not too much mystery.
Posted Oct 25, 2022
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The Thief of Bagdad
(1924)
|
St. Petersburg/Tampa Bay Times Staff
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It is almost three hours of art which defies a syllable of adverse criticism.
Posted Oct 21, 2022
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|
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Salem's Lot
(2004)
|
Eric Deggans
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I call it King's Disease: the consistent inability of TV and movie projects to capture the creepy grandeur of horror novelist Stephen King's best work.
Posted Oct 14, 2022
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|
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The Bird With the Crystal Plumage
(1970)
|
Eric Atkins
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Enough to make you clutch your partner in sheer delightful fright.
Posted Sep 26, 2022
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2/5
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Carnival of Souls
(1962)
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Hal Lipper
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There's no gore and only minimal chills. The movie could bore, rather than, scare you to death.
Posted Sep 24, 2022
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B-
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Addams Family Values
(1993)
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Steve Persall
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This time, Sonnenfeld doesn't bury the jokes in exposition about characters we already know... What was missing before was an interesting storyline, which screenwriter Paul Rudnick concocts with diabolical humor.
Posted Sep 22, 2022
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The Defiant Ones
(1958)
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Harrison Swain
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On the basis of its personalities, its story and the manner of its telling, The Defiant Ones is superior drama. But beyond this there are depths to be plumbed by individual reaction to an eloquent film.
Posted Sep 20, 2022
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House on Haunted Hill
(1959)
|
David C. Vincent
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It's so spooky, even spooks are spooked.
Posted Sep 20, 2022
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A Man for All Seasons
(1966)
|
Eric Atkins
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A Man for All Seasons in not only the best picture of the year, with an Academy Award to prove it, but it deserves to go down as one of the classics of our time.
Posted Sep 07, 2022
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4/4
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The Deer Hunter
(1978)
|
Roy Peter Clark
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The Deer Hunter is splendid, at times glorious filmmaking.
Posted Aug 30, 2022
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3/4
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Annie Hall
(1977)
|
Dorothy Smiljanich
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It is not as funny as Love and Death nor as poignant as Play It Again, Sam, but Woody still manages to reduce all of life down to a resigned sigh.
Posted Aug 25, 2022
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5/5
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Platoon
(1986)
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Hal Lipper
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Platoon is welcomed catharsis. It's a brilliantly executed adventure that sears the soul: one that ends on a note of optimism, a shattering emotional high. Platoon is everything an infantryman's movie should be.
Posted Aug 23, 2022
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2/4
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Oliver & Company
(1988)
|
Russell Stamets
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Ho-hum animation, ordinary characters and a plot that included the kidnapping and the terrorizing of a little girl leave one wondering if Disney can create even the slightest bit of its old magic.
Posted Aug 18, 2022
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2/4
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The Land Before Time
(1988)
|
Peter Smith
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This tale of prehistoric cuteness is mostly dreadfully slow when it is not being overbearingly cloying. Bluth has done much better work in the past and certainly will again. This isn't it.
Posted Aug 18, 2022
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2/4
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Creepshow
(1982)
|
Karl Vick
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Writer Stephen King and director George Romero have tried hard to quite literally transfer a 1950s horror comic to the large screen. They seem to have done most things right. Yet the result is no page-turner.
Posted Aug 09, 2022
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|
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The Sting
(1973)
|
Dorothy Smiljanich
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The sort of film about which old-timers say "They don't make 'em like that anymore." It's the sort that is content to be entertaining (no mean feat in itself) and not determined to be the biggest, bloodiest, sexiest, fastest film making the rounds.
Posted Aug 08, 2022
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3/4
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Kramer vs. Kramer
(1979)
|
Robert Alan Ross
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The movie owes its artistic success to several attributes: Fine performances, flawless direction by Robert Benton and a script that wrenches the heart without insulting the mind.
Posted Aug 04, 2022
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4/4
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Rain Man
(1988)
|
Hal Lipper
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Here is a picture that deals honestly and dispassionately with autism, with greed and with mankind's inability to communicate on a multitude of levels. It is a rarity, indeed.
Posted Aug 03, 2022
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|
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The Life of Emile Zola
(1937)
|
Marion Aitchison
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It is a markedly superior picture, presented with dignity and skill.
Posted Aug 03, 2022
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4/5
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The Last Emperor
(1987)
|
Thomas Harrison
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They approached this project lovingly, and the results are dazzling at times. The problem is, The Last Emperor doesn't soar like the loonier sequences in Lawrence of Arabia; and it gives us a curiously passive hero in Pu Yi.
Posted Aug 01, 2022
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How Green Was My Valley
(1941)
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Lillian Blackstone
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How Green Was My Valley is as poignantly beautiful as any picture you ever will see.
Posted Jul 26, 2022
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4/5
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Terms of Endearment
(1983)
|
Tom Sabulis
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Deep down, it has a soap opera's heart, but the acting elevates it and seems to make the picture better than it should be. The performers revel in the unpredictability of their characters, and the picture never stands still long enough to ask questions.
Posted Jul 20, 2022
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Gandhi
(1982)
|
Tom Sabulis
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Educational? Yes. Uplifting? Undoubtedly. But what actually makes Gandhi a king-sized entertainment is the splendid pacing and its ability to keep an audience interested and seat-bound throughout its long duration.
Posted Jul 19, 2022
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4/4
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Ordinary People
(1980)
|
Robert Alan Ross
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Just as Kramer vs. Kramer dominated last year's crop of realistic dramas, so does Ordinary People stand out as the most sensitive, provocative domestic story of 1980.
Posted Jul 12, 2022
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2/4
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Scanners
(1981)
|
Robert Alan Ross
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For young moviegoers... Scanners offers the preferred mixture of fright, mystery and silly science. One can only wonder, though, when audiences will stop patronizing gory movies simply because they "take them someplace they have never been before."
Posted Jun 16, 2022
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3/4
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Tess
(1979)
|
Robert Alan Ross
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A slow, stately three hours long, loaded with lingering closeups and misty landscapes, Tess is not to be enjoyed from the edge of one's seat. This is a film to lean back and savor at its own pace.
Posted Jun 16, 2022
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Buck and the Preacher
(1972)
|
J. Oliver Prescott
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An exciting action western that often builds a sweaty gun-battle tension and interest under Poitier's skillful direction.
Posted May 26, 2022
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2/5
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The Last Starfighter
(1984)
|
Tom Sabulis
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The Last Starfighter is more than just an egregious ripoff of Star Wars, it's a Hollywood clinic in blown chances and missed opportunities.
Posted Apr 26, 2022
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