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Terry Lawson

Tomatometer-approved critic

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
North (1994) 12% 1.5/4 EDIT “Anyone older than North will be too busy wondering what Reiner found so interesting about this thin story to even pay much attention.” – Dayton Daily News Jan 24, 2026 Full Review Misery (1990) 87% 2/4 EDIT “Misery is undone by Reiner's refusal to make the movie about what the movie is about. It's one case of writer's block where the writer is not responsible.” – Dayton Daily News Jan 22, 2026 Full Review The American President (1995) 90% 3/4 EDIT “This would be a far better country if the soulful Martin Sheen really were its chief of staff, and Michael J. Fox has finally been given a film role that recognizes the qualities that made him a major television star.” – Detroit Free Press Jan 20, 2026 Full Review Stand by Me (1986) 88% EDIT “Stand By Me blatantly trades on our rosy recollections of an uncomplicated world. But it does it without the slick calculation found in such projects, and Reiner is careful not to infect it with any '80s cynicism. ” – Dayton Daily News Jan 13, 2026 Full Review The Sure Thing (1985) 84% EDIT “The Sure Thing lives up to its title. It's the sweetest, most positive little romance since -- dare I say -- Splash. ” – Dayton Daily News Jan 7, 2026 Full Review The Princess Bride (1987) 93% EDIT “Our involvement becomes very real. You have to believe in magic for magic to work may be a cliche, but like all the others incorporated into this lovely, beautifully-made movie, it remains the truth. ” – Dayton Daily News Jan 7, 2026 Full Review A Few Good Men (1992) 85% 3.5/4 EDIT “Like cable television's legal channels, it might pay lip service to being concerned with the workings of justice, but it's actually preoccupied with keeping us glued to our seats. At which it is remarkably successful...” – Dayton Daily News Jan 7, 2026 Full Review Hook (1991) 37% 2.5/4 EDIT “Spielberg hides a good movie underneath a thicket of themes and mechanizations. The result is a movie of great moments, but no great impact. We're impressed, but unmoved. Hook flies, but never soars. ” – Dayton Daily News Dec 19, 2025 Full Review Big Top Pee-wee (1988) 31% 1/4 EDIT “If the first movie was sublimely stupid, this one is just plain stupid, both in approach and realization. ” – Dayton Daily News Dec 11, 2025 Full Review The Abyss (1989) 76% 3.5/4 EDIT “For all of the elaborate craftsmanship, there is also an ethereal quality to The Abyss that does not seem contrived or manufactured. ” – Dayton Daily News Dec 10, 2025 Full Review True Lies (1994) 77% 3/4 EDIT “As a summer entertainment, True Lies doesn't deceive: It's large fun, and that's the truth. ” – Dayton Daily News Dec 9, 2025 Full Review Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) 91% 3/4 EDIT “But if Terminator 2 is somewhat mechanical and predictable, it is never boring or stupid in the way that most big budget action films have become. The Terminator may shoot at the knees, but the movie aims much higher.” – Dayton Daily News Dec 8, 2025 Full Review The Running Man (1987) 59% EDIT “The real attraction is watching Schwarzenegger dispatch these villains sans the guilt and remorse of mere mortals.” – Dayton Daily News Nov 6, 2025 Full Review Predator 2 (1990) 36% 3/4 EDIT “Despite an abundance of the excess we've come to expect from Silver's action extravaganzas, Predator 2 is a better movie than the original.” – Dayton Daily News Oct 31, 2025 Full Review Predator (1987) 64% EDIT “...director John McTiernan's only mission is to keep the film going until the climactic face-off between the world's most powerful man and the universe's most godawful thing, and it is there that Predator fails miserably.” – Dayton Daily News Oct 30, 2025 Full Review From Beyond (1986) 74% EDIT “Miles ahead of most of its competition in the gross-out horror genre, if only because director Gordon is such as funny fellow.” – Dayton Daily News Oct 20, 2025 Full Review Re-Animator (1985) 88% EDIT “I simply can't deny Re-Animator's raw power and ugly appeal.” – The Journal-Herald (Dayton, OH) Oct 16, 2025 Full Review Desert Hearts (1985) 77% EDIT “Desert Hearts is less about lesbianism than it is about possibilities, and that its story of awakening and awareness is one with which everyone can identify, regardless of sexual orientation. ” – Dayton Daily News Oct 12, 2025 Full Review My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) 95% EDIT “My Beautiful Laundrette is hardly ever pretty, but has its own peculiar beauty. Part of it is in its willingness to take chances, but a bigger part of it is its willingness to fail. ” – Dayton Daily News Oct 10, 2025 Full Review The Celluloid Closet (1995) 96% 3/4 EDIT “Closet pays proper respect to the groundbreaking films of the '60s and early '70s. ” – Detroit Free Press Oct 8, 2025 Full Review Boogie Nights (1997) 91% 4/4 EDIT “Boogie Nights is the bomb, that jolt of energy that keeps you going to last call, then sends you prowling for something to sustain the rush. Don't bother. Nearly any other movie after this is certain to seem limply soft-core.” – Detroit Free Press Sep 24, 2025 Full Review To Sleep With Anger (1990) 93% 3/4 EDIT “To Sleep With Anger's purposely plain tone and unadorned performances only enhance its unsettling tone.” – Dayton Daily News Sep 23, 2025 Full Review Night of the Living Dead (1990) 57% 2/4 EDIT “A perfectly functional, well-made horror film that sticks closely to the meat-and-bones format of the original, reviving all its characters and situations without recapturing very much of its urgency or unsettling appeal.” – Dayton Daily News Sep 17, 2025 Full Review Toy Story (1995) 100% 3/4 EDIT “[Its] so completely different from the traditional cel style it may initially seem disorienting or even off-putting. But as with all the best Disney films, we eventually give in to the fantasy techno-toy box fantasy that Toy Story creates” – Detroit Free Press Sep 9, 2025 Full Review The Return of the Living Dead (1985) 71% EDIT “It works precisely because it has no message, no moral, and no pretension to mass appeal. And one other thing: More brains.” – Dayton Daily News Aug 13, 2025 Full Review
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