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Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Tomatometer-approved publication.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
Bite the Bullet (1975) Pierre Bowman It is in a class by itself. A big, exciting, exquisite movie that does just about everything a movie can do.
Posted Jan 15, 2026  Edit critic review
A Place in the Sun (1951) Buck Henshaw [The film's] direction has been handled with the subtlety and simplicity which is usually found only in the best foreign films rarely in Hollywood.
Posted Jan 13, 2026  Edit critic review
Out of the Past (1947) Honolulu Star-Bulletin Staff Fine fare for those who like underworld drama and emotional exercise.
Posted Jan 09, 2026  Edit critic review
Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) J.B. Peck America's menace from within -- nazi espionage -- is vividly depicted in the bold treatment of Confessions of a Nazi Spy.
Posted Jan 06, 2026  Edit critic review
2.5/4
Christine (1983) Burl Burlingame Director John Carpenter has put it together with a great deal of tongue-in-fender wit and a kind of visual verve somewhere between "Rebel Without a Cause" and "The Exorcist."
Posted Dec 16, 2025  Edit critic review
3.5/4
The Abyss (1989) Burl Burlingame It simply has Hollywood's myth-makers and magic-techs working on all cylinders, doing the best they're capable of, creating an enormous, stunning entertainment that will color your view of the world for a long time to come.
Posted Dec 10, 2025  Edit critic review
2.5/4
From Beyond (1986) Honolulu Star-Bulletin Staff Tongue-in-cheek horror movie with more gore than laughs.
Posted Oct 20, 2025  Edit critic review
Hard Times (1975) Pierre Bowman The picture is painfully slow.
Posted Sep 26, 2025  Edit critic review
0/4
The Return of the Living Dead (1985) Honolulu Star-Bulletin Staff Juvenile parody of the George A. Romero horror flicks, which generally do a pretty good job of parodying themselves.
Posted Aug 13, 2025  Edit critic review
Superman III (1983) Burl Burlingame It mainly works because of Christopher Reeve's entirely charming portrayal of the Man of Steel.
Posted Jul 08, 2025  Edit critic review
2/4
Supergirl (1984) Burl Burlingame Director Jeannot Szwarc seems to have handled everything over the telephone and the movies lurches when it should be revving up. It has no rhythm.
Posted Jun 27, 2025  Edit critic review
2.5/4
Jurassic Park III (2001) Scott Vogel Sadly, by the time you're emotionally and intellectually capable of appreciating these movies, you've simply outgrown them, as the latest installment amply demonstrates.
Posted Jun 25, 2025  Edit critic review
3/4
Starman (1984) Burl Burlingame Director John Carpenter keeps "Starman" on a cool visual level that fans the growing heat between the two main characters.
Posted May 13, 2025  Edit critic review
2.5/4
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) Honolulu Star-Bulletin Staff George Lucas should seriously think of handing over the director duties to someone else for Episode III. All of this digital effect dazzle can't even spark his weak work with actors.
Posted Apr 23, 2025  Edit critic review
Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York (1975) Pierre Bowman Miss Berlin... displays that rarest of screen qualities: A sturdy, work-a-day physical presence that projects vulnerability and intelligence.
Posted Apr 09, 2025  Edit critic review
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Phil Mayer It is beautiful. Arguing about what it means could cause fist fights. And it is very much worth seeing.
Posted Apr 09, 2025  Edit critic review
Rancho Deluxe (1975) Pierre Bowman The picture's an authentic original.
Posted Mar 27, 2025  Edit critic review
Tommy (1975) Pierre Bowman There are brilliant performances, the wickedly clever direction and tone from Russell, that fantastic sound, and that final message: Go and watch the sun set.
Posted Mar 19, 2025  Edit critic review
Barry Lyndon (1975) Pierre Bowman This story has been told and retold, perhaps as often as stories have been told by men. But seldom has the story been told in such a cloak of visual beauty and with such subtle and canny artistic force.
Posted Feb 25, 2025  Edit critic review
4/4
The Breakfast Club (1985) Burl Burlingame Starts out as a typical teen farce and winds up a catalytic examination of life's unfair paths. Hughes doesn't make a misstep, even when the movie careens dangerously close to the cliches of teen-age angst.
Posted Feb 14, 2025  Edit critic review
Shampoo (1975) Honolulu Star-Bulletin Staff While the movie's principal appeal is the incongruity of a hairdresser as sex symbol, it is, for the most part, entertaining.
Posted Feb 10, 2025  Edit critic review
The Mother and the Whore (1973) Janos Gereben It is a thoroughly European work, thoughtful, realistic, sophisticated, without any compromise for effect or condescension to the audience with eye-catching action or simplified explanations.
Posted Sep 24, 2024  Edit critic review
The Conversation (1974) Janos Gereben Coppola is relentless, chilling, uncompromising -- and somewhat muddled... But, once again, the three-dimensional reality potential of the celluloid breaks through and, mostly through Hackman's bravura performance, the audience is spellbound.
Posted Sep 24, 2024  Edit critic review
The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings (1976) Pierre Bowman The script is a little fuzzy, the plot is a little corny. but Bingo Long is simply irresistible for its high spirits. The picture has three terrific things going for It: Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor and James Earl Jones.
Posted Apr 11, 2024  Edit critic review
Lady Sings the Blues (1972) Pierre Bowman The kind of movie that makes your blood race with excitement.
Posted Apr 05, 2024  Edit critic review
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Pierre Bowman "Close Encounters" surmounts its hackneyed plot and abandons the importance of actors and roles and speaks nonverbally of things that are universal and mystical, of things that touch the primal, nonrational parts of human beings.
Posted Apr 03, 2024  Edit critic review
Chinatown (1974) Pierre Bowman A sensationalized potboiler with a plot and action worthy of such novelists as Grace Metalious, Harold Robbins or -- heaven forbid -- Jacqueline Susann. This combination of elements makes Chinatown an unsettling, but never boring, picture.
Posted Mar 08, 2024  Edit critic review
Dune (1984) Burl Burlingame There's no rationale for behavior, which makes us care nothing for the characters. They mouth policy statements, not dialogue.
Posted Feb 14, 2024  Edit critic review
3/4
Amélie (2001) Scott Vogel It's a delirious funhouse of a movie that's an unrepentant crowd pleaser, and one that French tourism officials probably welcomed with open arms.
Posted Feb 13, 2024  Edit critic review
Grease (1978) Pierre Bowman In the pap of plot and songs, Grease cloaks itself in ersatz trappings of innocence and naïveté. It is actually a demented serving of soft-headed adult fantasy.
Posted Feb 08, 2024  Edit critic review
Little Big Man (1970) Ben Wood What makes this message picture succeed is its comedy, which Hoffman and the fine supporting cast handle so well. Penn makes us laugh instead of cry, even though blood runs like water.
Posted Nov 10, 2023  Edit critic review
4/4
Y tu mamá también (2001) Gary Chun What could've been a pretentious cinematic treatise on sex and politics in Mexico is instead an astute and genuine film. Give credit to Cuarón's screenplay, cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, and especially a trio of excellent lead actors.
Posted Sep 09, 2023  Edit critic review
3/5
Moscow on the Hudson (1984) Burl Burlingame It's one in which romance and simple respect for your fellow man are the overriding forces, and politics is something that recedes into the background, like wallpaper, or clouds on the horizon.
Posted Aug 21, 2023  Edit critic review
Fiddler on the Roof (1971) Pierre Bowman Fiddler on the Roof is a triumph as a screen musical, resplendent visually, gloriously mellifluous, joyous, moving and filled with great characters and fine acting... However, it does not duplicate the poignance "Fiddler" achieved as a stage musical.
Posted May 16, 2023  Edit critic review
2.5/4
Yentl (1983) Burl Burlingame The movie obviously appealed to Streisand's own sense of Jewishness, and her need to express it. It's too bad that the movie lacks the punch of reality -- her lovingly detailed shtetl exists in a historical vacuum.
Posted May 12, 2023  Edit critic review
The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933) J.B. Peck The Bitter Tea of General Yen is, in our opinion, a picture worth seeing.
Posted Apr 24, 2023  Edit critic review
3.5/4
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) Burl Burlingame Through the grandiose tackiness and sheer, juggernaut weight of it, there runs a thoughtful thread. The movie seems to be a parable of the cost of adulthood.
Posted Apr 18, 2023  Edit critic review
The Black Pirate (1926) Clifford Gessler Advantage has been adroitly taken of the opportunities for sea and shipboard pictures, which are enhanced by a use of subdued color that is vastly more effective than the artificial... hues of earlier efforts at colored movies.
Posted Mar 23, 2023  Edit critic review
The Devil Horse (1926) Clifford Gessler The Devil Horse is a better picture than previous Rex films, and very entertaining. It is a clean sort of show, one that children, if not too young, will enjoy, though perhaps some parents would say it contains a bit too much homicide.
Posted Mar 21, 2023  Edit critic review
Flower Drum Song (1961) Phil Mayer Miyoshi Umeki and her great song, "A Hundred Million Miracles," are the best reasons to see Flower Drum Song.
Posted Mar 17, 2023  Edit critic review
El Cid (1961) Phil Mayer A beautifully filmed, often very exciting saga.
Posted Mar 17, 2023  Edit critic review
Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) Austin Faricy There is an adequate amount of romance to conclude the story neatly, but the big thing in this engrossing movie is the sight and the sound and the wondering what's going to happen next. The incredible was never more vivid.
Posted Mar 16, 2023  Edit critic review
Seven Samurai (1954) Austin Faricy As usual in a Kurosawa epic, the film is deliberate about getting started, but once the battle is joined, all is breakneck fury.
Posted Mar 16, 2023  Edit critic review
Porgy and Bess (1959) Austin Faricy The production, lavish in the extreme, backs up the music visually, and the performances all first rate back it up dramatically.
Posted Mar 16, 2023  Edit critic review
The Last War (1962) Dick Gima The last several minutes constitute, so far as I'm concerned, the most convincing -- and realistic -- presentation of the horrors of war I've ever seen on the screen.
Posted Mar 16, 2023  Edit critic review
Odd Obsession (1959) Dick Gima It's a nearly perfect film version of Tanizaki's best-selling novel ably directed by Kon Ichikawa.
Posted Mar 16, 2023  Edit critic review
The Giant of Marathon (1959) Phil Mayer The Giant of Marathon gets a little gory near the end of the big battle scene but is pretty good stuff otherwise.
Posted Mar 16, 2023  Edit critic review
Maid in Paris (1956) Phil Mayer Maid in Paris is very French, unpretentious and entertaining.
Posted Mar 16, 2023  Edit critic review
The Hidden Fortress (1958) Austin Faricy Akira Kurosawa, director of Rashomon, has an eye for epic sweep and somber mood, but neither is quite suitable here.
Posted Mar 16, 2023  Edit critic review
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