There's this box, and if you have the box, you can have the world, and there's this bad guy who may have found the box, and he also had this boy's parents killed, and the boy's brother sent away, and so the boy has to find his brother and find …
In this, as in Brazil before it, Terry Gilliam has again turned what would be a tale of wonder into a tale of wampum, and has managed at the same time to wrest maximum sympathy from the kibitzing Press. That may well be a more astounding trick than any of …
Insufferably hip piece of science fiction. The hero, an American-Japanese crossbreed, as his name would indicate, is a world-renowned neurosurgeon, part-time rock-and-roll musician, and, in his first screen adventure, explorer of the Eighth Dimension (i.e., inner space; i.e., the empty space inside solid matter). No wonder he is already celebrated …
The reputation of the Mark Twain novel is not so unimpugnable that it can afford an ally such as the Disney studio: stress on the affected folksiness and sentimentality (underscored by the Aaron Coplandisms of composer Bill Conti). With Elijah Wood, Courtney B. Vance, and Jason Robards; written and directed …
We already knew that Jay Ward's Rocky and His Friends was the hip kids' show of the Sixties. Now we know that screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan and director Des McAnuff knew it, too. But knowing it and being it are two different things. The mumbo-jumbo that permits the three inept villains …
The daydream superheroes of a bullied grade-schooler come to life, pull him out of the classroom, fly him to Planet Drool (Where Kids Rule), ride the Train of Thought to the Land of Milk and Cookies, take a Banana-Split Boat down the Steam of Consciousness, and so on. Didactic kiddie …
Notwithstanding some larger deficiencies, the quality of individual gags is reasonably high -- high-spirited, high-strung. There are several larger deficiencies to withstand, however. Gene Wilder, who seems understandably hard-pressed by the multiple chores of acting, writing, and directing, tends to chase after the closest laugh; and the plot and characters, …
Three of the Franco-Belgian comic-book yarns by Hergé are smoothly poured into a pretty, motion-capture animation by Steven Spielberg. Short on real cartooning, long on quaintness, short on story, long on hectic action, it is for unimaginative boys 7 to 12. For the rest of us, it is a kind …
Directorial miscasting: Martin Scorsese moves from the agitated, violent, profane turf of Mean Streets and Raging Bull into the genteel neighborhood of Edith Wharton, of "fine literature," and of the Manhattan haut monde of the 1870s. He answers the opening bell in his customary Smoking Joe fashion: rushing in, reeling …
Some above-average pet tricks, involving a golden retriever and a basketball, buried deep in Disney clichés of athletic underdoggism and triumph. More half-hearted than usual (which is maybe to say quarter-hearted), and the slapstick is torture. With Michael Jeter, Kevin Zegers, Wendy Makkena; directed by Charles Martin Smith.
A takeoff (peculiarly appropriate term in this context, although the implication of getting off the ground makes it a misnomer after all) on the Airport series of disaster films. Several flashbacks allow it to take off on other tacks as well, and indeed it seems constitutionally unable to remain on …
People who enjoyed the predecessor seem to be disappointed in the sequel. People who did not enjoy the predecessor will have difficulty telling much difference. But because fidelity, not originality, is the goal this time (a new writer and director, Ken Finkleman, has taken over for the Kentucky Fried Theater …
This movie begins in the realm of the ridiculous (the airborne pleasure palace borrows several ideas in first-class travel accommodations from The Big Bus, and the audience is expected to go ga-ga over them), and it follows a course even sillier than the forerunners in the Airport series (the attempted …
Fast-talking basketball scout travels to deepest Africa to recruit a blue-chip beanpole, gets involved in local politics, precipitates a basketball war, grows as a human being, triumphs as a sportsman, gets his man, gets promoted -- the feel-good prescription. With Kevin Bacon and Charles Gitonga Maina; directed by Paul Michael …