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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
2.5/5
North (1994) Jeff Simon It may appeal to those under 12, but everyone else is going to have a tough time quelling impatience.
Posted Jan 24, 2026  Edit critic review
4.5/5
The American President (1995) Jeff Simon [The] script has the brilliant patina of plausibility unless you examine it a little... Hang all that stuff. Who cares? Reality is a few blocks down the road in a much tougher neighborhood. This is fantasyland, and it works out just fine.
Posted Jan 22, 2026  Edit critic review
Misery (1990) Robbie-Ann McPherson It is compelling but not gripping, and good but not spectacular.
Posted Jan 22, 2026  Edit critic review
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Jacqueline Taylor Through Klaatu, the film speaks against the rush of fear and violence in a place of reason, and describes a world which has outgrown wars and has "freedom for more profitable activities."
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
3.5/4
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) Jeff Simon Your jaw drops at the massive and wild spectacle in front of you and your brain bursts with admiration for the craft and audacity of it. As for your heart, that's another matter.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
Stand by Me (1986) Janet Kidd Wil Wheaton is a natural at his role as Gordie, playing the character with more ease and honesty than many of his older colleagues.
Posted Jan 13, 2026  Edit critic review
4/4
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) Jeff Simon The adventure is grand, the company is a tonic and the vistas and sights from beginning to end are glorious. A rather wonderful movie, as people will find out in massive droves very soon.
Posted Jan 13, 2026  Edit critic review
Gaslight (1944) Ethel Hoffman The pictorial effect is thus enriched, but the claustrophobic feeling of inescapable malignancy which was achieved by the play with its setting in a single drawing room is lessened somewhat by the film's broader treatment.
Posted Jan 13, 2026  Edit critic review
A Place in the Sun (1951) Mary Nash The story, based on an actual New York State murder case in 1906, is completely believable in its presentation as a drama of today, and it is far more than a mere murder play, with its skillfully handled social implications and behavior motivations.
Posted Jan 13, 2026  Edit critic review
The Sure Thing (1985) Jeff Simon The Sure Thing is a sure thing of a movie. But as this movie knows, when you've experienced the real thing, a sure thing ins't enough.
Posted Jan 07, 2026  Edit critic review
The Princess Bride (1987) Jeff Simon Just when you get all uneasy about all the amiable silliness, low-pressure cleverness and narrative confection, someone like Billy Crystal will come along... You just can't remain suspicious anymore. Why fight it? You have to try too hard to resist it.
Posted Jan 07, 2026  Edit critic review
3.5/5
A Few Good Men (1992) Jeff Simon ...Rob Reiner's extravagantly ballyhooed "A Few Good Men" has one thing that movies are supposed to be all about - first rate actors flinging vivid, well-crafted , transparently theatrical words all over the place.
Posted Jan 07, 2026  Edit critic review
Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) Ardis Smith "The Confessions of a Nazi Spy" has two masterly touches. They are in the good temper of the Robinson character and other American officials and in the pervading feeling that the Reich ideology is incredible to the general run of Americans.
Posted Dec 31, 2025  Edit critic review
Death Race 2000 (1975) John Dwyer It's pretty short for a principal feature, and also kind of dumb and wittily extravagant at the same time.
Posted Dec 21, 2025  Edit critic review
4/5
Hook (1991) Jeff Simon For all of its subversive wit and sentimental poignancy, it's clear evidence that Spielberg's Fantasy Fountain of Youth is beginning to run a wee bit dry.
Posted Dec 19, 2025  Edit critic review
Christine (1983) Jeff Simon It's a movie so stupendously moronic that's almost lovable.
Posted Dec 16, 2025  Edit critic review
Big Top Pee-wee (1988) Dorothy Keenan "Big Top Pee-wee" promises something for children and adults, but is unfortunately a disappointment for the entire audience.
Posted Dec 11, 2025  Edit critic review
The Abyss (1989) Jeff Simon It's a big, occasionally exciting, visually arresting mess.
Posted Dec 10, 2025  Edit critic review
3.5/4
True Lies (1994) Jeff Simon You can't be unaffected by the awesome technological display of it all. You never doubt for a second that it's a winner and that it's all for you.
Posted Dec 09, 2025  Edit critic review
4/5
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) Jeff Simon ...the movie is everything that its fans could have wanted - a big, bashing, boisterous action spectacle merrily devoted to the demolition of property and mortification of the flesh.
Posted Dec 08, 2025  Edit critic review
The Terminator (1984) Terry Doran Good stuff. Most of the audience I sat with had 17-inch biceps and they loved it. I loved it.
Posted Dec 08, 2025  Edit critic review
A Christmas Carol (1984) Alan Pergament The performances of Woodward and Finley as ghosts are so wonderfully ostentatious that they almost steal the spotlight from Scott's Scrooge.
Posted Nov 26, 2025  Edit critic review
Peeper (1975) Anthony Bannon Fun if you prefer unmenacing action with a touch of dumb humor.
Posted Nov 22, 2025  Edit critic review
Journey Back to Oz (1974) John Dwyer The animation is awkward and the design downright crude.
Posted Nov 21, 2025  Edit critic review
The Wiz (1978) Jeff Simon What's wrong with "The Wiz" is that it's just as often laughable as it is happy and funny.
Posted Nov 18, 2025  Edit critic review
The Running Man (1987) Jeff Simon "The Running Man" is terrific.
Posted Nov 06, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
Predator 2 (1990) Robbie-Ann McPherson In spite of the uneventful storyline, the script is full of little gems here and there about life in 1997 L.A.
Posted Oct 31, 2025  Edit critic review
Predator (1987) Jeff Simon ...a Schwarzenegger film of spectacular stupidity for two-thirds of way. In the final third, it's spectacular.
Posted Oct 30, 2025  Edit critic review
Rebel Without a Cause (1955) Ed Kowalewski While "Rebel Without a Cause" is not intended as a horror movie, it will make your flesh creep just the same.
Posted Oct 23, 2025  Edit critic review
Dracula (1979) Jeff Simon This "Dracula" has some effective moments in the last half-hour, but up to then it's a mock-Victorian mess with intermittently sumptuous photography by Gilbert Taylor.
Posted Oct 21, 2025  Edit critic review
Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) Jeff Simon The images, the feral angst of Kinski, the canals of Delft where it was filmed and the atmosphere remain to haunt until the startling and truly terrifying finale.
Posted Oct 21, 2025  Edit critic review
Born Yesterday (1950) Mary Nash The movie, closely following the stage pattern, is forceful, witty, hilariously amusing film fare.
Posted Oct 13, 2025  Edit critic review
Desert Hearts (1985) Jeff Simon [It's] offset by a humorlessness that is absolute.
Posted Oct 12, 2025  Edit critic review
4.5/5
The Celluloid Closet (1995) Jeff Simon You're going to learn important things from Celluloid Closet -- about the hunger of gays to see some on-screen representation of gay life, even if it's a bad one; about the way homosexuals in the film world have encoded their experiences for straights.
Posted Oct 08, 2025  Edit critic review
Tron (1982) Jeff Simon Yes, "Tron" needed better music, sharper acting and well-limned dialogue. But what there is, is a feast for the hungry and avid imagination.
Posted Oct 05, 2025  Edit critic review
3.5/5
Casper (1995) Jeff Simon It's very familiarly and comfortably in Spielberg's quasi-religious mode, but altogether tender and convincing in its whimsy.
Posted Sep 29, 2025  Edit critic review
Hard Times (1975) Terry Doran A good part of the reason for its success is the skill and talent of writer-director Walter Hill.
Posted Sep 25, 2025  Edit critic review
4.5/5
Boogie Nights (1997) Jeff Simon Boogie Nights is the film, I think, that will define 1997. It's not only that good but it's that audacious and that brilliant about the most difficult and most commanding subject that we know these days -- sex.
Posted Sep 24, 2025  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Spider-Man (2002) Jeff Simon It's the triumph of the movie Spider-Man that they cast Tobey Maguire in the lead.
Posted Sep 24, 2025  Edit critic review
3.5/5
To Sleep With Anger (1990) Jeff Simon Burnett isn't exactly a proficient director but he knows things about American black life most white American directors just don't know and makes rare and uncommonly sly jokes about them.
Posted Sep 23, 2025  Edit critic review
To Sleep With Anger (1990) Carl Allen Director and writer Charles Burnett has done a great job of showing how cajoling and unobtrusive evil can be.
Posted Sep 23, 2025  Edit critic review
3/5
Night of the Living Dead (1990) Jeff Simon I especially liked the change in the original traumatized heroine. No more catatonia this time.
Posted Sep 18, 2025  Edit critic review
4/4
Toy Story (1995) Melinda Miller The creative minds at Pixar mixed full computer animation with old-fashioned fantasy and with writing that is downright smart, for the best family movie so far of the 1995 holiday season.
Posted Sep 09, 2025  Edit critic review
4/4
This Is Spinal Tap (1984) Lauri Githens A masterpiece of deadpan delivery.
Posted Sep 09, 2025  Edit critic review
This Is Spinal Tap (1984) Jeff Simon "This Is Spinal Tap" goes beyond sublimely nasty satire to become strangely touching at the same time that it's wildly funny.
Posted Sep 09, 2025  Edit critic review
Darkman (1990) Robbie-Ann McPherson This is not a thought-provoking film; it is a spare-no-exspense, beautiful gross-out journey into the Hitchcock-inspired world of film noir adventure.
Posted Aug 25, 2025  Edit critic review
4/4
Requiem for a Dream (2000) Jeff Simon Darren Aronofsky's "Requiem for a Dream" is, I'd argue, the gutsiest, most powerful and brilliant film ever made about addiction in America.
Posted Aug 20, 2025  Edit critic review
2.5/5
Mortal Kombat (1995) Ronald Ehmke Things could be worse, much worse. As it is, Mortal Kombat has not one but two strong female characters in a genre where powerful women are almost nonexistent.
Posted Aug 19, 2025  Edit critic review
Pumpkinhead (1988) Buzz McClain Pumpkinhead is pretty creepy. Too bad the script is so trite.
Posted Aug 13, 2025  Edit critic review
High and Low (1963) Ardis Smith It is all very tricky and blood-and-thunder; likewise, great fun.
Posted Aug 13, 2025  Edit critic review
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