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2.5/4
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Selena
(1997)
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Dana Harris
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Selena is a must-see for the singer's hardcore fans -- not that they'll need the encouragement. Jennifer Lopez captures the charm that transformed Selena from the kid who sang at county fairs to the chanteuse who filled the Houston Astrodome.
Posted Sep 05, 2023
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White Men Can't Jump
(1992)
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Bob Campbell
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The movie gets by on its gritty flavor, funky wit and boisterous personalities.
Posted Aug 31, 2023
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Speed
(1994)
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Bob Campbell
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Speed picks up the year's wildest and silliest suspense premise and runs with it. Runs? This hyperkinetic thriller puts pedal to the metal and blows the competition off the road.
Posted Aug 24, 2023
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Moscow on the Hudson
(1984)
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Richard Freedman
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It's rescued to a considerable extent by bravura acting.
Posted Aug 17, 2023
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Batman
(1989)
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Richard Freedman
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Nicholson is so superb here that he lifts the whole enterprise into the stratosphere of summer movies. As they say, he alone is worth the price of admission.
Posted Jul 25, 2023
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A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
(1987)
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Richard Freedman
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Freddie Fanciers may rest easy: Their hero, complete with burn scarred face, brown felt hat and stiletto fingers, is back in fine form.
Posted Jul 20, 2023
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3/4
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In the Mood for Love
(2000)
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Bob Campbell
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In the Mood for Love belongs to a small but not insignificant family of films. If no other medium is so triumphantly suited to action, it follows that no other medium can make inaction so dramatic.
Posted Jul 15, 2023
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Armageddon
(1998)
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Bob Campbell
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Armageddon is an effective stimulation machine rather than a good movie in any traditional sense. But good, bad -- what's the difference in this unearthly orbit?
Posted Jun 21, 2023
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Patriot Games
(1992)
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Bob Campbell
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This is Ford's show. His high-powered performance and Noyce's nimble direction raise these routine "Games" into a major league thriller.
Posted Jun 06, 2023
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The Color Purple
(1985)
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Richard Freedman
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Perhaps the finest thing about this fine but tendentious and episodic movie is the opportunities it gives some of the most glittering black talent in the country today to do their stuff.
Posted May 25, 2023
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Enemy Mine
(1985)
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Richard Freedman
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Like the all-too-aptly named Neverending Story, this is a leaden, constipated fantasy.
Posted May 25, 2023
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A Chorus Line
(1985)
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Richard Freedman
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On film, it has its own -- often glittering -- pleasures to offer, suggesting a less original All That Jazz merged with a less frenetic Fame.
Posted May 25, 2023
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An American Tail
(1986)
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Richard Freedman
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It's just a terrible idea, terribly executed.
Posted May 18, 2023
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Crossing Delancey
(1988)
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Richard Freedman
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Crossing Delancey is about real, identifiable people, acted to a by a highly talented cast. It bites off no more than it can chew: A small, but vividly alive and affectionately perceived world far from the usual confines of conventional Movieland.
Posted May 15, 2023
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Yentl
(1983)
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Richard Freedman
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Like many superstars who yearn to make their own movie vehicles, Streisand is sorely in need of another director to keep her ego within reasonable bounds. Not necessarily a better director -- just a different one.
Posted May 12, 2023
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3.5/4
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Raiders of the Lost Ark
(1981)
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Richard Freedman
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Raiders is not merely an accurate updating of those Saturday afternoon serials about archaeological derring-do in the lost cities of the world. Without ever descending to mere camp, it's also a genuinely witty tribute to a more innocent age of moviegoing.
Posted May 03, 2023
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Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
(1989)
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Richard Freedman
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For those who've already heard about the Holy Grail and know about Venice, Italy, there's the never-ceasing delight of watching Sean Connery treat his swashbuckling son as the overgrown Boy Scout he really is at heart.
Posted May 01, 2023
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Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(1984)
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Richard Freedman
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Spielberg and Lucas say they're giving us affectionate recreations of the old-style serials... But what they seem to forget is that with the awesome technology at their disposal the horrors they can serve up have become far too realistic to be much fun.
Posted Apr 17, 2023
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2.5/4
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Boys on the Side
(1995)
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Bob Campbell
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Boys on the Side is more enjoyable than it has any right to be. Three smashing all-stops-out performances by Mary-Louise Parker, Whoopi Goldberg and Drew Barrymore endow this shameless ’90s tearjerker with a rowdy, bittersweet charm.
Posted Mar 14, 2023
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Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland
(1992)
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Bob Campbell
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Something like an art movie for kindergartners. The weakly paced Little Nemo is probably too gentle and fanciful for TV-primed action-crazed older kids, but it is a pleasant magic carpet ride for younger children and dreamy adults.
Posted Mar 07, 2023
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3/4
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Thelma & Louise
(1991)
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Richard Freedman
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The woman's buddy movie and the road movie meet with generally uproarious results in Thelma & Louise, which will have the additional merit of making a certain type of male squirm in his seat somewhat.
Posted Mar 02, 2023
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The Deer Hunter
(1978)
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Richard Freedman
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It is a flawed but important movie, both as a work of art and for what it has to tell us about ourselves.
Posted Aug 30, 2022
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3/4
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The Land Before Time
(1988)
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Richard Freedman
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The Land Before Time is a cartoon to be seen with the heart.
Posted Aug 23, 2022
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3.5/4
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Creepshow
(1982)
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Richard Freedman
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It's lots of fun, really, for kids and grownups alike. It should also make the nation’s exterminators rich.
Posted Aug 09, 2022
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Kramer vs. Kramer
(1979)
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Richard Freedman
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Hoffman gives one of his finest performances to date as a man' both harried and loving. But the real triumph of Kramer vs. Kramer is Meryl Streep in a role that could easily be unsympathetic, but with sheer acting virtuosity she makes humanly appealing.
Posted Aug 04, 2022
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4/4
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Rain Man
(1988)
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Richard Freedman
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Dustin Hoffman not only is our finest actor; he's never appeared in a stupid movie. In Rain Man he has his finest role to date, making it quite simply the best movie of the year.
Posted Aug 03, 2022
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Terms of Endearment
(1983)
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Richard Freedman
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Intelligently written and superbly acted, Terms of Endearment is a glorious soap opera. But it's still a soap opera.
Posted Jul 20, 2022
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Gandhi
(1982)
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Richard Freedman
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Majestic and deeply moving, Gandhi is one of those rare films that are both a moral obligation and a pure pleasure to see.
Posted Jul 19, 2022
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Summer School
(1987)
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Richard Freedman
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Desperately unoriginal and unfunny.
Posted Aug 16, 2021
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La Bamba
(1987)
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Richard Freedman
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La Bamba is the sort of simple stolidly chronological, reverent biopic you rarely see these days. It does its job of appealing to an undemanding teen-age audience efficiently, if not quite as inspiringly as it thinks.
Posted Aug 10, 2021
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The Swarm
(1978)
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Richard Freedman
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[It's] a movie without a smidgeon of redeeming social esthetic or entertainment value: The Swarm manages to be both cruel to older actors by holding their failing techniques up to ridicule and to be at least subconsciously bigoted.
Posted Aug 05, 2021
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El Norte
(1983)
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Richard Freedman
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Expressionist, too, is the use of music in what is in many ways a film of operatic emotional dimensions.
Posted Aug 03, 2021
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3/4
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The Apple
(1998)
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Bob Campbell
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Mixing documentary observation with unforced re-enactments, The Apple offhandedly exposes the deepest rifts in [Iranian] society and, despite digressions and imperfections, marks a fine debut.
Posted Mar 31, 2021
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4/4
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The Joy Luck Club
(1993)
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Bob Campbell
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Every few years, an American movie comes along so full of life and so rich in honest emotion that it sweeps away everything in its path. The Joy Luck Club is one of those rare, irresistible film experiences. It's almost unbelievably good.
Posted Dec 17, 2020
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1/4
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Howard the Duck
(1986)
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Richard Freedman
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Mostly this is a noisy, abrasive, and supremely tasteless regression to the worst aspects of infantalism-as-big-business.
Posted Dec 14, 2020
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Max Dugan Returns
(1983)
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Richard Freedman
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Ultimately, watching Max Dugan Returns is like being assaulted by one street corner Santa Clause after another.
Posted May 13, 2020
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Gallipoli
(1981)
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Richard Freedman
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It maintains interest throughout, without ever being a particularly gripping, dramatic experience.
Posted May 13, 2020
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2/4
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First Blood
(1982)
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Richard Freedman
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Considerably "less thoughtful than, say, Coming Home on a similar subject, First Blood so revels In sadism that Its high-minded pretenses are quickly washed away in blood -- first, last and always.
Posted May 12, 2020
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2/4
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Action Jackson
(1988)
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Richard Freedman
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[ Weathers] shows here what one had long suspected from his Rocky debut: an attractive personality with more than enough charisma to fill the screen in a worthier film than this.
Posted Nov 15, 2019
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The Fly
(1986)
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Richard Freedman
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With a small but top-notch cast, it's not only a credible love story but a morality tale that goes far beyond the familiar '50s bromide that there are some things God didn't intend us to know.
Posted Nov 15, 2019
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1/4
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The Sicilian
(1987)
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Richard Freedman
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A wallow in bloodshed, cliches and grandiose effects coming from no discernible causes.
Posted Nov 15, 2019
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4/4
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The Untouchables
(1987)
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Richard Freedman
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It's a beautifully controlled film, as well as an intensely exciting and enjoyable one. Although De Niro and Connery easily walk away with the acting honors, the less flamboyant performance of Costner is perhaps the most admirable in the film.
Posted Nov 15, 2019
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3.5/4
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The Last Emperor
(1987)
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Richard Freedman
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As a resplendently gorgeous historical pageant of China in the 20th century, The Last Emperor is, visually at least, the most beautiful movie in years. But as an involving human drama about Pu Yi... it doggedly refuses to come to much dramatic life.
Posted Nov 15, 2019
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3/4
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The Big Easy
(1986)
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Richard Freedman
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There is nothing easy about its own attitude, which is moral without being censorious.... with actors as engaging as Barkin and Quaid to say nothing of the ever-reliable Beatty the process is a delight to watch.
Posted Nov 15, 2019
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Big Trouble
(1986)
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Richard Freedman
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What starts out as a merry enough romp soon runs out of steam and becomes painfully labored.
Posted Nov 15, 2019
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2.5/4
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Frantic
(1988)
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Richard Freedman
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There are so many good things in Frantic that one feels irritated the movie as a whole isn't better than it is. It's certainly miles better than Polanski's most recent effort, the disastrous Pirates, but not as good as it should be.
Posted Nov 15, 2019
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1/4
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The Squeeze
(1987)
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Richard Freedman
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The Squeeze is the kind of insufferably dull and derivative self-styled "comedy caper" doomed to play for about a week in movie theaters and then be instantly relegated to in-flight limbo.
Posted Nov 15, 2019
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North Shore
(1987)
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Richard Freedman
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North Shore keeps threatening to expire from sheer brainlessness. But then along comes an evening vista that shows how Sunset Beach got its name, or a crash of waves that looks like a living Hokusai, and you realize summer is still very much with us.
Posted Nov 15, 2019
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The Manhattan Project
(1986)
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Richard Freedman
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Marshall Brickman's The Manhattan Project is also about the development of a nuclear device, but it's a lot of fun and perhaps the most exciting movie of the summer season so far.
Posted Nov 15, 2019
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2.5/4
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Roxanne
(1987)
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Richard Freedman
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Martin is very funny in the role, and most ingenious about finding modern equivalents for the various bits of business in the original play. Yet the nagging question remains: Why?
Posted Nov 15, 2019
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