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Philadelphia Inquirer

Tomatometer-approved publication.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
2/4
North (1994) Steven Rea An expensive-looking, Crayola-colored attempt to evoke a certain childlike spirit that, in fact, doesn't hit an emotional mark with either children or adults.
Posted Jan 23, 2026  Edit critic review
3.5/4
The American President (1995) Carrie Rickey As lobbyist Sydney Ellen Wade, Bening is so winning that it's hard to understand why the president's approval rating plummets when he starts dating her.
Posted Jan 22, 2026  Edit critic review
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Mildred Martin Well directed by Robert Wise, sensibly played by Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Billy Gray, Sam Jaffe and Hugh Marlow, The Day the Earth Stood Still is more believable than most of these shiver science shockers.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
Bite the Bullet (1975) Desmond Ryan The writing has a crisp, laconic wit and the acting ranges from professional to excellent.
Posted Jan 15, 2026  Edit critic review
The Magnificent Seven (1960) Mildred Martin Sturges' direction...is brilliant throughout.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
Gaslight (1944) Mildred Martin Villainy has seldom been seen to such monstrous advantages as the erstwhile romantic Mr. Boyer slowly, methodically, undertakes to drive his wife mad for his own grisly ends.
Posted Jan 13, 2026  Edit critic review
4/4
Stand by Me (1986) Carrie Rickey Stand by Me is a small, quiet film that walks tall and resonates long after.
Posted Jan 12, 2026  Edit critic review
Out of the Past (1947) Mildred Martin Even though you may not be sure who is being double-crossed or why, there's no reason for not getting a substantial melodramatic kick out of "Out of the Past."
Posted Jan 09, 2026  Edit critic review
Alice in Wonderland (1951) Marion Kelley If you wander down a rabbit hole into the land of make-believe and nibble on cookies not meant for humans, it [makes] little difference how the episodes are linked. The important characters are there, and they are amusing.
Posted Jan 09, 2026  Edit critic review
The Sure Thing (1985) Desmond Ryan The easygoing humor with which Reiner moves his film and the way he confounds his character's great expectations are both delightful and inevitable.
Posted Jan 08, 2026  Edit critic review
Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) Mildred Martin Though "Confessions of a Nazi Spy" is undoubtedly powerful anti-spy propaganda, one may find some comfort in the fact that the villains are so easily recognizable.
Posted Jan 03, 2026  Edit critic review
Death Race 2000 (1975) Al Haas My 15-year-old son accompanied me to this hardcore corn and summed it up rather nicely. "Some movies are so stupid they're funny. That thing was too stupid to be even stupid funny."
Posted Dec 22, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
Hook (1991) Desmond Ryan A film that's more than just something you can enjoy with the kids. You can talk to them about it afterward, and you may not have the last word.
Posted Dec 19, 2025  Edit critic review
4/5
Christine (1983) Rick Lyman It's a twisted, rock 'n' horror show, tense and demented.
Posted Dec 17, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
Big Top Pee-wee (1988) Carrie Rickey Big Top Pee-wee is a three-ring circus of a movie with roughly two worth watching.
Posted Dec 13, 2025  Edit critic review
2.5/4
True Lies (1994) Desmond Ryan The core trouble in True Lies is twofold, and the duality leads Cameron's screenplay into all sorts of improbable convolutions to connect the sagging middle with the more conventional elements at the beginning and the end.
Posted Dec 10, 2025  Edit critic review
4/4
The Abyss (1989) Desmond Ryan The Abyss is a genuine breakthrough.
Posted Dec 09, 2025  Edit critic review
1/4
The Terminator (1984) Desmond Ryan It continues nonstop in an orgy of mindless and utterly pointless violence whose garish slickness makes it the more offensive.
Posted Dec 08, 2025  Edit critic review
A Christmas Carol (1984) David Bianculli This umpteenth retelling of the Dickens tale works because everyone involved, from the supporting actors to the technical personnel, did his or her job faultlessly.
Posted Dec 04, 2025  Edit critic review
Peeper (1975) Desmond Ryan The comedy in the the film is clumsy and the mystery untrying. "Peeper" is barely worth a first glance.
Posted Nov 21, 2025  Edit critic review
Journey Back to Oz (1974) Desmond Ryan A charming, full-length animated cartoon for children that manages to be straightforward and freshly inventive at the same time.
Posted Nov 21, 2025  Edit critic review
The Wiz (1978) William B. Collins The weakness in Lumet's method lies in the clash that sometimes occurs between the real and the fanciful.
Posted Nov 17, 2025  Edit critic review
2/4
The Running Man (1987) Desmond Ryan Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest outing is a slick and lurid mixture of satire and sadism.
Posted Nov 06, 2025  Edit critic review
2/4
Predator 2 (1990) Desmond Ryan Predator 2 is high of tech and low of brow.
Posted Oct 31, 2025  Edit critic review
2/4
Predator (1987) Desmond Ryan This is a movie that is slick with blood and even slicker in its production values.
Posted Oct 31, 2025  Edit critic review
Dracula (1979) Desmond Ryan Whatever Langella, who makes a magnetically urbane Dracula, has added to the legend is immediately subtracted in Badham's direction.
Posted Oct 21, 2025  Edit critic review
1/5
Re-Animator (1985) Rick Lyman Re-Animator is another example of what happens when a movie that leaves nothing to the imagination is made by people who don't have any.
Posted Oct 16, 2025  Edit critic review
Born Yesterday (1950) Mildred Martin The great beauty of Miss Holliday's performance, on screen as on stage, is that for all its flamboyance it deftly ducks caricature.
Posted Oct 13, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
Desert Hearts (1985) Carrie Rickey A stylish, low-key comedy of Eros.
Posted Oct 13, 2025  Edit critic review
4/4
My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) Desmond Ryan Frears did not make the easy film: Instead, he took Hanif Kureishi's ingeniously structured script and turned it into a vision of Margaret Thatcher's England that is scathing, unsparing and hilarious.
Posted Oct 10, 2025  Edit critic review
Stephen King's It (1990) Jonathan Storm They say that getting there is half the fun. With Stephen King's It, getting there is all the fun.
Posted Oct 09, 2025  Edit critic review
The Celluloid Closet (1995) Carrie Rickey One of The Celluloid Closet's many revelations is that as long as there have been films, there have been homosexuals on film.
Posted Oct 08, 2025  Edit critic review
2.5/4
Casper (1995) Desmond Ryan Ricci makes all this far more palatable than it should be. She is surely helped by the dismal level shared by most allegedly more adult afterlife fantasies.
Posted Oct 03, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
Tron (1982) Desmond Ryan There is more flash than substance to Tron, and that is a pity since the film could have had both.
Posted Oct 01, 2025  Edit critic review
Hard Times (1975) Desmond Ryan It pulls its punches.
Posted Sep 26, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
To Sleep With Anger (1990) Carrie Rickey Despite its subject matter and title, To Sleep With Anger has a sardonic, comic edge.
Posted Sep 25, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
Boogie Nights (1997) Carrie Rickey The oddness of this film that literally jumps with talent and energy is that it engages the audience without ever involving us.
Posted Sep 24, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
Hard Eight (1996) Desmond Ryan Carrying the main load of this stylish directing debut from Paul Thomas Anderson are Philip Baker Hall and John C. Reilly. It's counter-casting, and it pays off handsomely.
Posted Sep 22, 2025  Edit critic review
1/4
Night of the Living Dead (1990) Desmond Ryan Most remakes are merely redundant; this one is a grave error.
Posted Sep 18, 2025  Edit critic review
4/4
Toy Story (1995) Steven Rea With songs from Randy Newman and a screenplay full of cheeky wit, Toy Story has none of the syrupy sentiment that undermines so many family films.
Posted Sep 10, 2025  Edit critic review
4/5
This Is Spinal Tap (1984) Ken Tucker A witty, intricate, loud and lewd satire of the rock world.
Posted Sep 09, 2025  Edit critic review
2/4
Darkman (1990) Carrie Rickey Raimi's visceral camera work is engaging for about five minutes. It might be engaging throughout were it in the service of a coherent plot.
Posted Aug 26, 2025  Edit critic review
Cooley High (1975) Desmond Ryan Ponderous developments of plot push the film into an abrupt change of mood from low comedy to overbearing and mawkish sentiment.
Posted Aug 15, 2025  Edit critic review
High and Low (1963) Henry T. Murdock The McBain story was originally called "King's Ransom," and it is followed with great fidelity by Kurosawa plus a few screen embellishments which are potent and unobtrusive at the same time.
Posted Aug 13, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
High and Low (1963) Carrie Rickey In the compelling High and Low, everything has two meanings. It's a film about the psychology of greed and it's a police thriller hurtling as fast as the Tokyo-Kyoto bullet train.
Posted Aug 13, 2025  Edit critic review
1/4
The Return of the Living Dead (1985) Desmond Ryan The acting is so bad that it’s hard in most scenes to tell the walking dead from the supposedly living, and as an attempt to mimic horror with humor, O’Bannon’s film is as hilarious as an autopsy.
Posted Aug 13, 2025  Edit critic review
The War of the Worlds (1953) Mildred Martin Gaudily dressed in Technicolor, directed with all stops out by Byron Haskin, The War of the Worlds has been equipped by Barre Lyndon with a script Wells would probably be only too anxious to disown were he still around.
Posted Aug 06, 2025  Edit critic review
3/5
Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) Rick Lyman Burton and Reubens invest the movie with a nice cinematic sense of playfulness.
Posted Jul 30, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
Waterworld (1995) Desmond Ryan As a movie, it is a vision of the sea in its vastness that is well worth seeing.
Posted Jul 28, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991) Carrie Rickey How funny is it? I'm snickering too hard to answer. Not only does David Zucker's preposterously silly film stoop to new comic lows to get you to laugh, it even does the limbo. And cha-chas, too. With arms akimbo and legs splayed.
Posted Jul 23, 2025  Edit critic review
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