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2/4
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Alien Resurrection
(1997)
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Chris Riemenschneider
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It may be dazzling to the eyes and upsetting to the stomach, but the part of the body that an Alien movie is supposed to affect most -- the sweat glands -- barely even feel it.
Posted Aug 07, 2024
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2/4
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Alien 3
(1992)
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Michael MacCambridge
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In this film, there's not enough complexity or intrigue for [Sigourney Weaver] to work with. Instead, we get the slick self-indulgence of director David Fincher, a man who seems to think he invented the cinematic uses of backlighting and dry ice.
Posted Jul 31, 2024
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Aliens
(1986)
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Kevin Phinney
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Cameron's film is not going to eclipse Alien in terms of sheer fright value, but so far, it's the movie to beat for scariest film of 1986.
Posted Jul 30, 2024
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3/4
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When Harry Met Sally...
(1989)
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Patrick Taggart
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These people may be impossibly cute and glib at times, but of all the people on screen this summer, they may be the closest to anyone you know.
Posted Jul 03, 2024
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Jaws
(1975)
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Steve Hogner
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The film plays with the audience like toy sailboats in an unfathomable sea. Jaws scares us to the point of silent frenzy, but we love to be used cleverly this way.
Posted Jul 02, 2024
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Planet of the Apes
(1968)
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John Bustin
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The scripters of this new picture, though, aren't anywhere close to Jonathan Swift's league, and as a result, the film turns out to be a heavy-handed, often ludicrous piece whose undeniably valid message is quickly buried under the excesses of the story.
Posted May 01, 2024
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2/4
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Planet of the Apes
(2001)
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Chris Garcia
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Planet of the Apes is a dumb movie disguised as a smart one, a two-toned misfire that's as striking as it is silly and leaden as it is campy.
Posted May 01, 2024
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3/4
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Steel Magnolias
(1989)
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Patrick Taggart
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By name though, Steel Magnolias spells entertainment. This is one of those rare movies that looks classy without being showy.
Posted Apr 30, 2024
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Only Yesterday
(1933)
|
Statesman Staff
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The play is highly emotional and the role taken by Boles is handled with more than his usual skill while Margaret Sullavan, who makes her screen debut in the picture is distinctly a find.
Posted Apr 23, 2024
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2.5/5
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I Think I Do
(1997)
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Alison Macor
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Although the film frequently reveals its first-feature roots, it also unveils a few surprises. Whatever the movie's shortcomings, I Think I Do cheekily updates a beloved genre by rewiring its sexual politics.
Posted Apr 17, 2024
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Heavenly Bodies
(1985)
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Patrick Taggart
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Heavenly Bodies is a lot like Flashdance, but with a lot less credibility, a lot less character, and with nothing like the earlier movie's clear, crisp photography.
Posted Apr 15, 2024
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Jailhouse Rock
(1957)
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John Bustin
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If there's less music, there's a big bigger story -- a somewhat unfortunate situation since the Pelvis is still a lot handier with a song than with a script.
Posted Apr 12, 2024
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Spaceballs
(1987)
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Patrick Taggart
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In truth, Spaceballs is not so bad. Some of the insanity works, even when it reaches so far as to interrupt the movie... Brooks takes big risks, and thinks nothing of setting up a joke a half hour before the payoff.
Posted Apr 11, 2024
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4/4
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Little Women
(1994)
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Michael MacCambridge
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The new Little Women is a graceful portrayal of the spontaneous intimacy shared by four sisters and their mother.
Posted Apr 11, 2024
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The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings
(1976)
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Patrick Taggart
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The actors -- all of them from Jones and Williams to the smallest bit player -- execute their chores with great enthusiasm. One gets the idea that this was a fun film to make.
Posted Apr 11, 2024
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The Big Heat
(1953)
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John Bustin
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All the characters are pretty vivid, especially Gloria Grahame as the shady lady, and all benefit from situations stressing realism rather than the usual heroics. A really swift ride from start to finish.
Posted Apr 11, 2024
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Dog Day Afternoon
(1975)
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Patrick Taggart
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"Dog Day Afternoon" stands easily as one of the best Christmas premieres...
Posted Apr 07, 2024
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Lady Sings the Blues
(1972)
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John Bustin
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A sorry mess of a story -- one of those hokey biopics... in which only the talent of Diana Ross stands out.
Posted Apr 05, 2024
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Close Encounters of the Third Kind
(1977)
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Patrick Taggart
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Happily for us, the movie lives up to its reputation of high praise. While only a little more ideologically substantial than say, Star Wars, "Close Encounters" is permeated with a sense of wondrousness.
Posted Apr 03, 2024
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Sabrina
(1954)
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John Bustin
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It's a slender little bit, all right, but it comes out as one of the most diverting things you've seen all season. An appealing hit.
Posted Mar 28, 2024
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2.5/4
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Seven
(1995)
|
Russell Smith
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Seven's creepy, sepia-toned atmospherics, though troweled on thick throughout, give this film an undeniable allure... Unfortunately, this virtuoso mood-making seems to have lulled screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker into laziness.
Posted Mar 28, 2024
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3/4
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Almost Famous
(2000)
|
Chris Garcia
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An optimist who ministers doughy affirmations instead of insight, Crowe had made a frustratingly minor film, whose superficial delights are plentiful and lasting rewards scarce.
Posted Mar 26, 2024
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The Searchers
(1956)
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John Bustin
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[John Ford] has taken an episodic but rather slim story and, with his well known talent for freshening up routine materials, has developed it into a sweeping sort of saga which might be labeled a Western in the grand manner.
Posted Mar 25, 2024
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Chinatown
(1974)
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Patrick Taggart
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For all the complication it never becomes tedious, however, and fine performances by Nicholson, Dunaway, John Huston and John Hillerman keep the action swift and smooth.
Posted Mar 08, 2024
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3/4
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The Shawshank Redemption
(1994)
|
Michael MacCambridge
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Darabont's screenplay is too expertly massaged for its own good, but the performances, particularly Freeman's authoritative portrayal, redeem much of the formula.
Posted Mar 04, 2024
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4/4
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Forrest Gump
(1994)
|
Michael MacCambridge
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What makes Forrest Gump a stunning triumph, a departure from the mediocre norm? A big reason is the way the film provides a fresh perspective on the familiar experience, through the eyes of its unforgettable protagonist.
Posted Mar 01, 2024
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4/4
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Pulp Fiction
(1994)
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Michael MacCambridge
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It's one of those rarefied cinematic achievements, along with Schindler's List and GoodFellas, that will show up on those inevitable best of the decade lists in a few years. But it's also more accessible and entertaining than either of those films.
Posted Feb 29, 2024
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3/4
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Four Weddings and a Funeral
(1994)
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Michael MacCambridge
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The film convincingly creates a group of people that we'd love spending time with, and Grant proves that he can carry a film with his bashful, unassuming handsomeness.
Posted Feb 28, 2024
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Dune
(1984)
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Patrick Taggart
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Here it is -- the most extraordinary visual spectacle yet before us in a movie theater -- and we are made to endure an acting style straight out of a '50s Bible epic, only worse.
Posted Feb 13, 2024
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4/5
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Amélie
(2001)
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Alison Macor
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Watching Amelie is like recapturing the giddiness of going to the boardwalk for the first time: The lights are dazzling, the rides are dizzying and the barkers beckon seductively with their promises of excitement and adventure.
Posted Feb 13, 2024
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3.5/4
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Quiz Show
(1994)
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Michael MacCambridge
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You can buy or not buy Redford's larger argument, but his execution of the specifics in the Van Doren case is astute and, at times, dazzling.
Posted Feb 12, 2024
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Quiz Show
(1994)
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Diane Holloway
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It's an entertaining film, artfully directed with a superb cast. The only problem... is that Quiz Show condemns a dishonest television program with a script that plays fast and loose with the facts.
Posted Feb 10, 2024
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Grease
(1978)
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Patrick Taggart
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Grease is ducktails, forgettable pop-rock music, leather jackets and hot cars.
Posted Feb 08, 2024
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Grease
(1978)
|
Statesman Staff
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The most successful musical ever was released 20 years ago and helped make stars of John Travolta and Australian singer Olivia Newton-John. The popularity of the movie hasn't waned.
Posted Feb 01, 2024
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3/5
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Mean Girls
(2004)
|
Omar L. Gallaga
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With its sharp social critique and Fey's broad-ranging styles of humor, Mean Girls transcends the current glut of Cinderella teen films. It's a film that will make older viewers remember their own high school days, and all the traumas that entails.
Posted Jan 03, 2024
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The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
(1982)
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Patrick Taggart
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Beyond the superficial prettiness, director Colin Higgins has to be congratulated for his effectiveness at handling that trickiest of problems in film musicals -- the moment at which a character bursts into song.
Posted Dec 31, 2023
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3/4
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The Last of the Mohicans
(1992)
|
Michael MacCambridge
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The crackling pace of The Last of the Mohicans proves Mann's ability as an action director, and underscores the fact that heroism translates from any period.
Posted Dec 15, 2023
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2.5/5
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Home Alone
(1990)
|
Michael MacCambridge
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Home Alone is still worth seeing, for Hughes' inventive set-ups, his emotionally evocative conclusions and his frequently insightful looks at WASPish middle America.
Posted Nov 28, 2023
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The Duellists
(1977)
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Patrick Taggart
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Audiences are advised to look elsewhere for gum-popping escapism. But as a realization of serious literature, one would be hard pressed to find a better model.
Posted Nov 20, 2023
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The Legend of Billie Jean
(1985)
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Patrick Taggart
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The Legend of Billie Jean is by no means a dreadful movie -- it is far too earnest for that -- but it is one that suffers from an acute case of simple-mindedness.
Posted Nov 17, 2023
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Cocoon
(1985)
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Patrick Taggart
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It's a spare-parts movie, really, with huge debts owed to E.T., Starman, and the Spielberg segment of Twilight Zone, the Movie. It's too easy to get a handle on this picture.
Posted Nov 12, 2023
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4/5
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Flags of Our Fathers
(2006)
|
John DeFore
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Hayes, as portrayed movingly by Adam Beach, is the film's soul.
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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Little Big Man
(1970)
|
John Bustin
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A film of considerable merit, certainly, but a number of other flaws that keep it from being the super-Western saga that it might have hoped to be or could have been... You come away feeling a little as if you'd just seen Macbeth played for laughs.
Posted Nov 10, 2023
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State Fair
(1933)
|
Statesman Staff
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It is a good story; it has half a dozen of the best-known screen stars in excellent roles; it has romance that is not mushy and plenty of natural and unforced comedy.
Posted Nov 09, 2023
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3/4
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Smoke Signals
(1998)
|
Jeanne Claire van Ryzin
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Earthy and grounded in reality, Smoke Signals never once loses its original, wry sense of humor as it reveals an honest and complete v portrait of contemporary American Indian life.
Posted Nov 08, 2023
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4/4
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Atanarjuat the Fast Runner
(2001)
|
Chris Garcia
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Serious human drama unfurls with the plainly stated immediacy of Italian neo-realism, Satyajit Ray's classic Apu Trilogy, and the new Iranian cinema. Like those films,"Runner" finds grandeur in its quietude and intimacy in its spaciousness.
Posted Nov 08, 2023
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The Last Picture Show
(1971)
|
John Bustin
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It's quite a remarkable film, in virtually every way, created by a young New York director, whose feeling for filmmaking obviously runs both deep and strong, and a young Texas author with equally keen feelings for his land.
Posted Oct 26, 2023
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3/4
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Goodfellas
(1990)
|
Michael MacCambridge
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While the men of GoodFellas have chosen their destiny, the slow descent of Karen into an emotionally battered, cocaine-addicted wife is the film's most absorbing subplot, as well as its most powerful performance.
Posted Oct 18, 2023
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Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
(1974)
|
Steve Hogner
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Ms. Burstyn is an actress of resource who burst on screen in The Last Picture Show. In this film, she not only fulfills the promise displayed in that earlier work but has placed herself as one of the most formidable talents now working in American film.
Posted Oct 12, 2023
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Raging Bull
(1980)
|
Patrick Taggart
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Scorsese's vision is operatic. His style of filmmaking, which turned so many heads in 1973 with Mean Streets, his first widely-promoted film, is full of large gestures. His characters don't so much make speeches as sign arias.
Posted Oct 10, 2023
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