As Double-0 agents are being targeted for assassination, Bond (Timothy Dalton) exists in the extrication of a duplicitous KGB agent (Jeroen Krabbe) claiming to have damning information on a highly respected Russian General, leaving 007 and the agent's victimized girlfriend (Maryam d'Abo) on a hazardous tour of Prague, Tangiers, and Afghanistan. The Living Daylights introduced Timothy Dalton in his short run as a more serious minded, humorless Bond, these attributes being mostly in his favor. The plotting is more realistic (at least comparatively) and the stuntwork is exciting, especially the opening (incidentally, the film bears my favorite title in the series. The only thing lacking is strong villain (or any centralized villain at all really).

*** out of ****

Two unemployed, drug addled, alcoholic actors (Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann), living in complete filth and squalor in a London flat in the late 60s retreat to an uncle's countryside manor where they are dogged by the weather, the locals, and an unexpected visit from their forward, flamboyant provider (Richard Griffiths). Bruce Robinson's drawn from real life black comedy is hilarious and humanized with great performances all around, especially Griffiths as Withnail's ostentatious Uncle Monty.

*** 1/2 out of ****

A commando (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and his highly skilled Special Ops team coordinates with the CIA on a sketchy rescue mission in a Central American jungle and finds themselves targeted by an otherworldly, extrasensory killing machine. Predator is campy fun and generally well made by director John McTiernan but the storyline, which essentially amounts to Alien in the Jungle, is awfully scant, the effects are cheesy, and the final protracted showdown is unsatisfying.
** 1/2 out of ****

In a near-futuristic version of a crime infested, urban decayed Detroit (which only seems marginally better than the real city) a cop killer (Kurtwood Smith) runs rampant and police threaten to strike as the corporation that controls the police union implements its latest weapon, a recently eradicated officer (Peter Weller) regenerated into the form of an indomitable, metallic, law enforcing agent who doesn't fully lose his human components and seeks revenge on those who bumped him off. Crude, sleazy, and ultraviolent, Paul Verhoeven's Robocop isn't even a fun kind of camp with the entertainment value quickly wearing off.

** out of ****

Following the grisly murder/suicide of acclaimed but short-lived bawdy playwright Joe Orton (Gary Oldman) by his unstable boyfriend (Alfred Molina), new light is shed on the relationship and unthinkable crime when poured over by a biographer (Wallace Shawn) and Orton's cynical agent (Vanessa Redgrave). With a brilliant, humorous, and sordid screenplay (which grows a little wearisome near the end), Stephen Frears' Prick Up Your Ears strives for authenticity and benefits greatly from superlative performances by Oldman and Molina.

*** 1/2 out of ****

A young French boy yearns for home while at his forested Catholic boarding school that seems a world apart from the ongoing war and the German occupation, and befriends a similarly lonely and gifted Jewish student, one of several whom the Brothers are hiding from the authorities. Drawn from director Louis Malle's own personal experience, Au Revoir Les Enfants has that feeling of acute authenticity while being told by a seasoned maestro. Funny, poignant, and sad with great youth performances and many memorable, beautifully photographed sequences.

**** out of ****

At a weekend home in Vermont, a love square develops between a despondent woman (Mia Farrow), her older, lonesome neighbor (Denholm Elliot), her lover (Sam Waterston), and her married best friend (Dianne Wiest) while the presence of her over-the-top mother (Elaine Strich) drums up those old familiar familiar feelings. Woody Allen's September tends towards soapy melodrama, some of which really doesn't come off but is very funny in bits (Strich in particular) and, at its center, it is a pleasure to watch a talented casts convey Woody's usual ideas and themes.

*** 1/2 out of ****

At his aunts' annual Feast of the Epiphany Party, lecturer Gabriel Conroy (Donal McCann) toasts and addresses the revelers while being confronted with uneasy realities, including the unsettling revelation stirred by his wife Greta's (Angelica Huston) sudden memory of a deceased lover. In his last film of a lengthy, robust career, John Huston's The Dead is reflective and evocative, made with an acute eye for detail, and (in a screenplay by his son Tony) faithful to James Joyce's short story to a tee, especially the beautiful and starkly captured final passage. Angelica (also kin to the director) and McCann are superb.

*** 1/2 out of ****

A middle aged narrator relates stories of Brooklyn upbringing, his neurotic family, summers at the boardwalk, and the urban myths surrounding the radio personalities whose programs him and his friends obsessively followed. Told in a series of vignettes, Woody Allen's Radio Days is warm, nostalgic, and sporadically funny. Though not quite coming together as a cohesive whole, it is assisted by the period detail and music, great sets, and a fine extended cast.

*** out of ****

A superstitious widow (Cher) living in Brooklyn with her parents (Olympia Dukasis, Vincent Gardenia) is about to remarry a baker (Danny Aiello) when she falls for his raving younger brother (Nicolas Cage). Norman Jewison’s Moonstruck is beloved by many despite being schmaltzy, stereotypical, and awkward (which is probably a large part of its appeal). Cher and Dukakis are excellent and Cage, Gardenia, and Aiello are amusing in support.

** ½ out of ****

When the coal miners of a small West Virginia town decide to strike, union forces and the mining company come to an explosive and violent head in this patchwork recreation of real life events from 1920. John Sayles' Matewan is a thoughtful, powerful, meditative, and humanistic pro-labor portrait enhanced even further by the stunning Haskell Wexler photography and a profusion of supporting performances, headlined by Chris Cooper, David Strathairn, and James Earl Jones.
*** 1/2 out of ****

 Vincente Minnelli's Lust for Life, Paul Cox's Vincent and Robert Altman's Vincent and Theo are three films that all take the same basic story--the passion and madness of the renowned and beleaguered Dutch master and his relationship to his devoted art dealing brother--present them from different angles, and ultimately serve as extraordinary complements of each other. Lust for Life features considerable access to Van Gogh's paintings, often shown in widescreen closeup, and also the forceful and controlled performance from Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn's memorable, Oscar winning turn as the tortured artist's mentor Paul Gauguin. Cox's film is a documentary which presents footage of Van Gogh's supposed tumultuous journey, much of which is set in the idyllic South of France, and features John Hurt, ideally cast, reading Vincent's poetically revealing letters to his brother Theo. Altman's film stays true to its title devoting just about as much time to the less heralded Van Gogh sibling, has a dark tone and tempo meshed with the director's usual offbeat approach, and contains a snarlingly manic and remarkable performance from Tim Roth as Vincent and an equally well realized one from Paul Rhys as his counterpart.

A successful, recently published, somewhat uptight Chicago psychiatrist (Lindsay Crouse) heads to the other side of tracks to confront a low-rent bookie (Joe Mantenga) in hopes that he will relinquish a despondent client's penny-ante gambling debt. Instead she becomes enamored with the swindler and begins to learn the art of the small con. David Mamet's directorial debut is a brilliant, tough-talking, cold-hearted con movie whose many angles make it always prime to revisit over and over again. Mantenga gives an excellent performance while deftly spinning the tongue twisting dialogue and Crouse is also brilliant (something I didn't see my first time through) in a subtle, nuanced performance.

A resourceful British boy (Christian Bale) living with his family in Shanghai at the start of World War II, becomes separated from his family during the Japanese invasion and struggles for survival, first on the streets then in a POW camp, while holding on to his love of planes and remaining somewhat aloof about his dire situation. From a book by J.G. Ballard who drew on similar personal childhood circumstances, Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun is visually among the best films he's ever made and features a focused, remarkably aware performance from a young Bale and nice support from John Malkovich who plays a sordid black marketeer. That being said, it is overlong by a third, narratively dense, and grows more frustratingly inaccessable as the film progresses, never allowing the viewer to understand what's going on in its youthful protagonist's head.

A fiery and talented network news producer out of D.C. becomes attracted to the handsome new anchor who is the embodiment everything she detests about nightly news, much to the chagrin of her friend and reporter who secretly carries a flame for her. James L. Brooks' "Broadcast News" endearingly cynical portrait the watering down and cheapening of our on air news programs. Much like "Network" with less venom, it is prophetic in the way it sees the trajectory of our television journalism (watching the news stories presented in this film, I couldn't believe how literate they were!) Brooks' wonderful script is anchored (no pun intended, hahaha) by three magnificent performances from three distinguished types. Holly Hunter stands at the center of the film in an incredibly realized depiction as the wound-up producer (I'd hate to call her adorable and take anything away from the performance but she is). William Hurt is equally great as the charismatic, self-admitted dope, and Albert Brooks is just fantastic as a brilliant but photogenically challenged reporter. Jack Nicholson also makes a welcome and hysterical cameo as the national news anchor. In a film full of many great ones I wanted to mention two which stand out: One is where Hurt is called to read the news on whim and we see the inner workings of the studio as Hunter delivers his lines via earpiece, some of which come through Brooks over the phone. The other is a speech delivered by Brooks to Hunter where he tries to stall her from meeting Hurt deriding him as the devil while declaring his undying love for her. I don't know if I've ever seen a film that manages to be so enchanting and loving, while so succinctly conveying its cynical message.

Two angels sit atop of Berlin, where they take in the thoughts of the many walking below. They also walk among them, offering reassurance or maybe some kind of intangible presence. One of the angels expresses a desire to feel human emotions or even experience the basic human senses. When he meets a young trapeze artist, he decides to trade in eternity in order to spend the rest of his life with her. Wim Wenders ethereal film is a magnetic film experience, really unlike any other I've ever had. This isn't really a plot driven film, we just intake what the angels do, as we hear the ramblings of the the citizens of Berlin. In addition to meeting the angels and the circus girl, we also meet Peteir Falk playing himself as he is filming a Holocaust movie and discusses how he himself used to be an angel and can sense the presence around him. The film is gloriously shot as well, both in class black and white and beautiful color. The great German actor Bruno Ganz is wonderful as the angel Damiel who trades in his wings and walks the streets in a pimp suit with not a nickel in his pocket and a huge smile across his face. Wings of Desire is a true original that defies standard cinema and provides a truly unique film going experience.