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Newark Star-Ledger

Tomatometer-approved publication.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
1/4
North (1994) Bob Campbell Movie people like to describe failure as "a learning experience." Rob Reiner's "North" should be worth a Ph.D. at least.
Posted Jan 24, 2026  Edit critic review
3/4
The American President (1995) Bob Campbell The story may seem simple, but the filmmakers' showbiz sophistication shouldn't be underestimated.
Posted Jan 22, 2026  Edit critic review
Southern Comfort (1981) Richard Freedman It is a taut, occasionally gruesome, account of inadequate men in the grip of overwhelming panic against a background of awesome natural indifference to their plight.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
Take This Job and Shove It (1981) Richard Freedman "Take This Job And Shove it" is that rarity among Hollywood productions: A picture about how blue-collar workers really live.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
Witchboard (1986) Richard Freedman Lethargically directed by Kevin S. Tenney, who also wrote the screenplay, "Witchboard" proves you don't need to drink decaffeinated coffee to sleep like a baby -- from frame one on.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
2/4
Near Dark (1987) Richard Freedman A stylish but silly vampire epic.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
0/4
Like Father, Like Son (1987) Richard Freedman The comic potentialities raised by this premise are thoroughly exploited in about three minutes.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
2.5/4
Frantic (1988) Richard Freedman There are so many good things in "Frantic" that one feels irritated the movie as a whole isn't better than it is.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
3/4
Suspect (1987) Richard Freedman "Suspect" is a thoroughly enjoyable example of an overworked genre.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
2/4
Anguish (1987) Richard Freedman "Anguish" is just what we needed to wile the rest of the winter away: a slasher movie with metaphysical pretensions.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
Sylvia (1985) Richard Freedman Pleasantly informative, if dramatically rather dim.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
Pirates (1986) Richard Freedman Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of Maa lox for "Pirates," the sorriest movie ever to fly the Jolly Roger.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
Gallipoli (1981) Richard Freedman It maintains interest throughout, without ever being a particularly gripping, dramatic experience.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
Stakeout (1987) Richard Freedman The liveliest buddy movie -- police division -- in years.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
2/4
Moving (1988) Richard Freedman While Pryor is perfectly adequate in the role, it hardly does justice to his talents, which here are largely confined to rolling his eyes in mute agony.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
2/4
For Keeps (1988) Richard Freedman The result is essentially the pilot for a sentimentally sweet TV sitcom machine-tooled for the current craze of baby-boom movies.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) John McDowell Although the movie contains several awkwardly contrived situations, it stacks up as first-rate entertainment, with a near-documentary flavor at times.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
Big Trouble (1986) Richard Freedman What starts out as a merry enough jape soon runs out of steam and becomes painfully labored.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
The Monster Squad (1987) Richard Freedman Severed from the stories and atmosphere that first gave them birth, the monsters only get in each other's way and are rendered completely ineffective.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
North Shore (1987) Richard Freedman "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 Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
3/4
Barfly (1987) Richard Freedman [Mickey Rourke] gives a bravura performance.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
1/4
Overboard (1987) Richard Freedman Merely sour and sadistic.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
Man on Fire (1987) Richard Freedman As lush and lavish as the scenery surrounding Italy's Lake Como, where much of the film takes place, "Man on Fire" is nonetheless a lethargic bore.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
Spaceballs (1987) Richard Freedman With his incomparably vulgar Borsht Belt sense of humor, leave it to Mel Brooks to kid the pants off such adolescent cosmic debris as the "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" epics in "Spaceballs."
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
Roxanne (1987) Richard Freedman 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 Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
The Big Easy (1986) Richard Freedman 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 Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
2/4
The Sicilian (1987) Richard Freedman "The Sicilian" comes perilously close to Cimino's epic disaster "Heaven's Gate."
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
3/4
Less Than Zero (1987) Richard Freedman The film "Less Than Zero" actually makes you care a bit about its three central characters.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
Murphy's Law (1986) Richard Freedman [Murphy's Law] boasts neither the sheer, giddy firepower of the last "Death Wish" movie, nor a situation of its own likely to engage the attention of anyone not a wholly committed Bronson addict.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
Legend (1985) Richard Freedman Mythology reduced to the level of an MTV extravaganza is about all that "Legend," an over-produced, under-conceived trip to fairyland by Ridley Scott, has to offer.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
1/4
Ghost Dad (1990) Richard Freedman Even under the direction of so distinguished and experienced a movie man as Sidney Poitier, "Ghost Dad" simply doesn't shape up as a really professional entertainment.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
3/4
The Last Emperor (1987) Richard Freedman 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 Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
Steele Justice (1987) Richard Freedman Who needs a" Rambo" spoof when "Rambo" so successfully spoofed itself?
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
1/4
Aloha Summer (1988) Richard Freedman "Aloha Summer" remains at heart a sappy beach movie that misses out on only one cliche of the genre: Nobody gleefully announces, in English, Japanese or Hawaiian: "Surf's up!"
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
House Party (1990) Richard Freedman One's enjoyment of House Party, I suspect, will be largely dictated by one's tolerance of teenage energy. Because there's not much else going on in this amiable, but overlong and under-plotted movie.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
2/4
Cry Baby (1990) Richard Freedman Often it's just either pointless or tiresomely campy.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
2/4
I Love You to Death (1990) Richard Freedman All this makes for some rather labored black comedy in which the stars seem to be having more fun acting out of character than the audience will have watching them.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
The Bedroom Window (1987) Richard Freedman The profound moral of "The Bedroom Window" is: Don't have an affair with your boss' wife, because she might witness a crime from a place where she isn't supposed to be. You could get fired that way.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
3/4
The Fourth Protocol (1987) Richard Freedman Caine, as always, is a joy to watch, whether grimly tracking his man, telling off his supercilious boss, or, sloshed on New Year's Eve, blowing a wall safe in a posh London pad.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
2/4
Max Dugan Returns (1983) Richard Freedman The charm of this Neil Simon fable wears very thin though repetition.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
Shag (1988) Richard Freedman [Shag] is such frothy, featherweight summer fun.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
1.5/4
Music Box (1989) Richard Freedman [It] breathes a bit when Mueller-Stahl is on screen, but the rest of the time the ponderous "Music Box" is buried beneath mountains of standard courtoom-melodrama cliches.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
First Blood (1982) Richard Freedman 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 Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
The Sender (1982) Richard Freedman A pretty taut shocker.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
Blind Date (1987) Richard Freedman As Edwards well understand, the perfect farcical situation creates mayhem in staid, highly structured social situations.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
Prettykill (1987) Richard Freedman [A] labored, congested exploitation flick.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
Benji the Hunted (1987) Richard Freedman It's perfect for snoozing to if Benji's soundless adventures begin to pall, as they may for post-nine-year-olds.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
Outrageous Fortune (1987) Richard Freedman Lavishly funny and entertaining.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Bright Lights, Big City (1988) Richard Freedman "Bright Lights, Big City" is the real thing.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
2.5/4
Plain Clothes (1988) Richard Freedman One thing Martha Coolidge knows, apart from how to make drolly unpretentious youth comedies, is what American high-school education is really about.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
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