David Newman

The movie version of "Scooby-Doo" has been hanging like a threat over the happy childhood memories of my funky '70s TV-watching habits. Like so much other pop-culture--"Star Wars," "Josie and the Pussycats," "Rocky & Bullwinkle"--would the cool crime...

2 stars (out of 4) Success and longevity can eventually turn any movie star's frowns into smiles--even if the frowns are what made them famous. Ice Cube, one-time hard-case rapper and hip-hop revolutionary of NWA, shows his warm, kid-friendly side in...

In "The Secret Lives of Dentists" Alan Rudolph sketches a portrait of a seemingly idyllic marriage with briskness, economy, wit and grace. The film is essentially an extended vignette, as the couple deals with an unexpected but mundane crisis, and one...

Friday November 21, 1997      In the topsy-turvy world of feature animation, the best news about "Anastasia" would be bad news anywhere else. Every aspect of what's on the screen, from attractive lovers to campy villains and too cute animal sidekicks, is...

"Duplex" is a mildly diverting dark comedy, directed with amiable mischievousness by Danny DeVito and starring an appealing Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore. Its drawback is that it's a one-joke affair, leading to a repetitiousness that makes the film...

Friday April 9, 1999      It's taken some years, but Drew Barrymore's career has finally come full circle. After she became America's moppet sweetheart in 1982's "E.T.," the actress' work and image took a series of hairpin turns, but now, with "Never...

Friday August 13, 1999      People bring out the best in Eddie Murphy: the more of them he plays on screen, the drop-dead funnier he becomes.      While Murphy doesn't turn into an entire family in "Bowfinger" as he did in "The Nutty Professor," he is...

Friday August 13, 1999      The first 20 minutes of "Brokedown Palace" promises an exciting and suspenseful adventure. Two lifelong friends, Alice (Claire Danes) and Darlene (Kate Beckinsale), in a small Midwestern town, are graduating from high school...

Every now and then, palace intrigue can be fun, and there can be no more glorious setting for schemers and adventurers than Versailles, home of France's absolute monarchs, the increasingly profligate Bourbons, toppled at last in 1793 by the French...

Friday April 28, 2000      The 1994 movie "The Flintstones" was such a dreary affair that it's hard to get excited about a new film based on that 1960s cartoon classic. The earlier movie re-created signature scenes from the television series while...

Friday July 28, 2000      "Nutty Professor II: The Klumps" is all Eddie, all the time. When the cast list appears at the end of this benighted sequel, the active Mr. Murphy is credited with eight roles. While this surely has its advantages (fewer star...

Friday October 20, 2000      Selling your soul to the devil is not just a figure of speech, it happens in the movie business all the time. In fact, it seems to have happened with "Bedazzled," a film about just such a transaction.      Inspired by the...