Dave Kehr

Crass, shoddy and crudely exploitative of the public`s worst instincts, John Badham`s ''Bird on a Wire'' reflects just about everything that`s wrong with American movies right now. All it needs...

Though it`s based on an American book, written by an American screenwriter and filmed, at least partly, on location in New York with an entirely American cast, Uli Edel`s ''Last...

Awkwardly but not unendearingly, Gregg Champion`s ''Short Time'' struggles to blend the cop thriller and the feel-good psychodrama, coming up with something that resembles Dirty Harry in therapy. It`s not...

With a running time of 2 hours and 14 minutes, Sidney Lumet`s crime drama ''Q&A'' strains for an epic dimension, but even with dozens of characters and locations scattered from...

A filmmaker who lives on his own keyed-up emotions, as William Friedkin does, is going to have some down periods, and Friedkin`s current depressive slump has extended since ''Deal of...

''Miami Blues'' is a brilliant comeback by a filmmaker, George Armitage, who never should have been away. After developing a highly distinctive style in a series of low-budget films made...

Just like its 1981 predecessor, ''The Gods Must Be Crazy II'' comes on as sweet and innocent as can be while still toting all the ideological baggage of its country...

After the grace and high spirits of ''Hairspray,'' John Waters has returned to his old habits with ''Cry-Baby,'' a ragged, largely unfunny exercise in self-conscious low camp. Having earned his...

Most movies made from comic books are so eager to transform their characters into towering American myths-''Batman,'' ''Superman''-that they lose sight of the punky comic-book pleasures that made them fun...

It`s a shame that Garry Marshall`s crass ''Pretty Woman'' has appropriated the title of Roy Orbison`s classic song, which remains one of the most joyous expressions of redemption from despair...