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Boston Phoenix

Tomatometer-approved publication.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
North (1994) Jessica Garrison Like Rob Reiner's other films, North is intelligent, beautifully packaged, and full of wry humor... But it lacks a heart or a home.
Posted Jan 26, 2026  Edit critic review
Misery (1990) Peter Keough It’s a Fatal Attraction without the attraction, as flat in its thrills and fitful comedy as it is sour in its point of view,
Posted Jan 21, 2026  Edit critic review
The American President (1995) Gary Susman As an ensemble, these actors strike wonderful sparks. Their infectious energy suggests that public servants work so hard not because they're noble but because they've fallen in love with their jobs.
Posted Jan 21, 2026  Edit critic review
Bite the Bullet (1975) Christie Hefner There are moments that are brilliant and unforgettable.
Posted Jan 15, 2026  Edit critic review
Stand by Me (1986) Charles Taylor In Stand by Me, Reiner once again sets out to be sensitive and decent and inadvertently gets turned around.
Posted Jan 13, 2026  Edit critic review
The Sure Thing (1985) Henry Sheehan Besides ruining his climax, Reiner wastes his two lead performances.
Posted Jan 07, 2026  Edit critic review
The Princess Bride (1987) Owen Gleiberman The surprise is how slow Reiner's gait is, and how little he brings to this story. Written by the veteran screenwriter William Goldman, who adapted his own bestseller, the film has some charming scenes, but it's plodding and mediocre.
Posted Jan 07, 2026  Edit critic review
A Few Good Men (1992) Peter Keough A Few Good Men is as generic as its title, a standard, predictable courtroom drama sparked by a few clever bits, showy, mediocre performances by big stars, a resourceful sense of humor, and a fuzzy semblance of being meaningful.
Posted Jan 06, 2026  Edit critic review
Death Race 2000 (1975) Mike Baron Death Race 2000 seems like an over-long home movie made by a gang of precocious teenagers.
Posted Dec 22, 2025  Edit critic review
Hook (1991) Peter Keough The shabby, spiritless, lumbering hulk of this movie should be proof enough that childhood has ended for Spielberg, if not for his audience. Only the sham of innocence remains.
Posted Dec 19, 2025  Edit critic review
Christine (1983) Owen Gleiberman The movie is fun in a slick, predictable way -- it's old hat, but it's done with flash.
Posted Dec 17, 2025  Edit critic review
Big Top Pee-wee (1988) Jon Garelick For a couple of minutes, under the big top, it's almost as much fun as the Playhouse. Except that by then the movie is over.
Posted Dec 15, 2025  Edit critic review
True Lies (1994) Peter Keough True Lies has no pretensions; it's a blithe, superbly crafted piece of trash, a consumable adolescent male fantasy that has not a single dull moment for its entire two-and-a-half hour length.
Posted Dec 10, 2025  Edit critic review
The Abyss (1989) Peter Keough Special effects and movie conventions replace the untidy ambiguities of the human drama.
Posted Dec 09, 2025  Edit critic review
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) Gary Susman T2 retains most of the assets of T1: writer/director James Cameron's Wagnerian take on the action genre, a plot that doesn't insult your intelligence...great stunts and special effects, and a role uniquely suited to its star's limited acting ability.
Posted Dec 08, 2025  Edit critic review
The Terminator (1984) Owen Gleiberman Unfortunately, a perfectly cast Schwarzenegger is still a morose, beady-eyed, I-just-do-exactly-what-the-director-tells-me-to-do Schwarzenegger. Call me a deviant, but I like my heartless assassins to have a little personality.
Posted Dec 08, 2025  Edit critic review
The Wiz (1978) Stephen Schiff Sidney Lumet has concocted a film that jerks along from one grandiose set-piece to another, skipping the intimate, in-between moments that might have lent it all some rhythm, unity or momentum.
Posted Nov 18, 2025  Edit critic review
2/4
The Running Man (1987) Phoenix Staff Dawson does an enjoyably perverted twist on his Family Feud persona, but Arnold has nothing to do between action sequences, and after a while you begin to nod off.
Posted Nov 06, 2025  Edit critic review
Dracula (1979) Stephen Schiff Langella delivers a subtle, almost balletic performance whose mesmerizing precision makes much of the rest of the film look pretty overwrought.
Posted Oct 23, 2025  Edit critic review
Re-Animator (1985) Owen Gleiberman Re-Animator is poky and theatrical, but its over-deliberate pace is what makes it funny as well as disgusting.
Posted Oct 16, 2025  Edit critic review
Desert Hearts (1985) Charles Taylor The delightful surprise of Desert Hearts is that director Donna Deitch and screenwriter Natalie Cooper have shaken off the rhetoric and predictability of this [woman finding herself] subgenre to come up with a loose, funky romance.
Posted Oct 11, 2025  Edit critic review
My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) Owen Gleiberman My Beautiful Laundrette is about the slightly crazy mixture of optimism, fear, and family loyalty that binds a proud subculture, and also about how steely defiance can give way to the softer emotions of assimilation.
Posted Oct 10, 2025  Edit critic review
The Celluloid Closet (1995) Gary Susman Closet is impressive for the comprehensiveness of its decade-by-decade survey.
Posted Oct 08, 2025  Edit critic review
Casper (1995) Gary Susman Screenwriters Sherri Stoner and Deanna Oliver and director Brad Silberling are all TV veterans and film rookies; none of them is as creative as Tim Burton, yet they’ve overloaded the movie with detail that will leave kids in the dust.
Posted Oct 03, 2025  Edit critic review
Tron (1982) Stephen Schiff TRON is new and unprecedented, but it's also one of the most boring movies of the year.
Posted Oct 02, 2025  Edit critic review
Hard Times (1975) Mike Baron As pure action, Hard Times is enjoyable. But between the fisticuffs the script leaves the actors floundering in a relative vacuum meant to connote profundity.
Posted Sep 25, 2025  Edit critic review
To Sleep With Anger (1990) Peter Keough Subtly structured, metaphorically elegant, shrewdly balanced, and richly performed, To Sleep with Anger is [Charles Burnett's] masterpiece.
Posted Sep 25, 2025  Edit critic review
Night of the Living Dead (1990) Robin Dougherty A watchable B-movie, whose one real real grace is that it puts some feminist juice into the passive heroine of the original, the remake will inspire no new thrills in horror audiences.
Posted Sep 18, 2025  Edit critic review
Toy Story (1995) Charles Taylor It's consistently entertaining, and I had a good time watching it.
Posted Sep 09, 2025  Edit critic review
4/4
This Is Spinal Tap (1984) Phoenix Staff An ingenious and exhilarating movie comedy.
Posted Sep 09, 2025  Edit critic review
This Is Spinal Tap (1984) Owen Gleiberman The cast members aren't just doing smart impersonations of rock-and-roll archetypes. They actually become these characters, and the rollicking ease of their performances is the key to the movie's success.
Posted Sep 09, 2025  Edit critic review
Darkman (1990) Robin Dougherty Darkman is a lyrical and stylish tale.
Posted Aug 27, 2025  Edit critic review
Pumpkinhead (1988) Les Daniels [Winston] shows real flair; but his own effects crew and a script that chickens out rob his debut of its full impact.
Posted Aug 13, 2025  Edit critic review
Cooley High (1975) Ken Emerson The plot wobbles, time poses a problem, and too many characters are left dangling.
Posted Aug 13, 2025  Edit critic review
High and Low (1963) Charles Taylor The pleasure of High and Low is in feeling your mind work as every action leads to another action, each in turn opening up new complexities. Yet the movie never seems like a cerebral exercise: it offers a great filmmaker in peak control.
Posted Aug 13, 2025  Edit critic review
Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) Carolyn Clay The film is funniest at the beginning.
Posted Jul 30, 2025  Edit critic review
Waterworld (1995) Peter Keough The film might well destroy what little remains of the ozone layer of restraint and flood the industry with staggeringly budgeted trifles.
Posted Jul 28, 2025  Edit critic review
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) Owen Gleiberman Its creators, Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and David Zucker, have taken their brand of hit-and-run conceptual humor to a new, refined pitch.
Posted Jul 24, 2025  Edit critic review
The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991) Robin Dougherty Natch, the plot takes a backseat to the series of brilliant conceptual jokes, all as exuberantly funny as you might have hoped and only slightly less astonishing in the wake of the first film.
Posted Jul 22, 2025  Edit critic review
Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994) Peter Keough ...Naked Gun 33-1/3 exceeds its two predecessors in its layering of asinine, diabolically clever gags, its parodying of countless films and film genres, and its relentless lampooning of macho idiocy.
Posted Jul 17, 2025  Edit critic review
DuckTales, the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp (1990) Gary Susman This theme-park ride-to-be plunders such Spielberg thrill machines as Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T.
Posted Jul 17, 2025  Edit critic review
Red Rock West (1993) Peter Keough Red Rock West doesn't break any new ground, but it is a supremely confident, blackly comic, oddly humane addition to the noir genre.
Posted Jul 16, 2025  Edit critic review
Explorers (1985) Michael Sragow Show-biz jokes and movie magic blend in a junk-food casserole that's surprisingly tasty and nutritious.
Posted Jul 10, 2025  Edit critic review
Superman: The Movie (1978) Stephen Schiff We put our money down because we wanted to "believe." For the most part, however, we do -- despite the cheap effects and too-quiet flying.
Posted Jul 08, 2025  Edit critic review
Superman III (1983) David Edelstein Movies that start in the muck and end in the muck don’t leave you feeling this lost.
Posted Jul 07, 2025  Edit critic review
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) Steve Vineberg The face-off between our hero and Luthor's super-baby is a dud.
Posted Jul 03, 2025  Edit critic review
Jurassic Park (1993) Peter Keough To survive, [blockbuster movies] need some evolutionary breakthrough. For better or worse, Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Jurassic Park is that breakthrough. It's the most spectacular special-effects movie ever made.
Posted Jul 01, 2025  Edit critic review
Supergirl (1984) Gregory Solman Supergirl seems less a Superman movie or a DC comic than a misguided Disney send-up.
Posted Jun 28, 2025  Edit critic review
Superman II (1980) Stephen Schiff ...much of its charm lies in its comic-book-ness: the simplicity of the fights and stunts, the unified crowd reactions -...all these give Superman II something that Richard Donner couldn't give the first movie.
Posted Jun 25, 2025  Edit critic review
Day of the Dead (1985) Owen Gleiberman The tensions escalate in predictable ways, but the mood is relentless.
Posted Jun 25, 2025  Edit critic review
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