Jay Boyar

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Orlando Sentinel
For 264 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 52% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 46% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 0.7 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Jay Boyar's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 63
Highest review score: 100 Aladdin
Lowest review score: 0 Revenge
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 138 out of 264
  2. Mixed: 94 out of 264
  3. Negative: 32 out of 264
264 movie reviews
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    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Jay Boyar
    Patriot Games
    Harrison Ford - that most decent of decent men - helps to carry the new film on his broad shoulders. With his blunt, Everyman features and sympathetically furrowed brow, he comes off as such a solid, good guy that it's impossible not to care about his upstanding character.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 30 Jay Boyar
    Hot Shots!
    The main difference between Naked Gun 2 1/2 and Hot Shots! is that almost half the jokes in Naked Gun 2 1/2 were at least slightly funny while in Hot Shots! less than a fifth are any good at all. [2 Aug 1991, p.C5]
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Jay Boyar
    Three Amigos!
    Three Amigos will never get any prizes for excitement or originality, but if there were an award for friendliness, this movie would at least be in the running.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 25 Jay Boyar
    The 'Burbs
    The folks who made The 'burbs appear to be card-carrying members of the School of Non-Urban Humor. Basic to the philosophy of this school is the misapprehension that anything occurring outside city limits is intrinsically amusing.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Jay Boyar
    Soapdish
    Most of the time, Soapdish is fairly amusing in a zany, anything-goes kind of way. [31 May 1991, p.5]
    • Orlando Sentinel
      • Posted Jun 28, 2017
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Jay Boyar
    Sid and Nancy
    Sid & Nancy is an honorable try, but it could have been better had Cox found a way to imbue the movie with some of the sheer zaniness of his Repo Man.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 25 Jay Boyar
    The Exorcist III
    The Exorcist III isn't crudely exploitative so much as it's just unendurably pretentious. [24 Aug 1990, p.4]
    • Orlando Sentinel
    • 46 Metascore
    • 40 Jay Boyar
    Beaches
    This is the sort of picture in which people slap each other as they take their marriage vows, suddenly develop life-threatening diseases, and, again, have violent confrontations whenever there's a break in the action. Anything for a laugh, anything for a tear, and nothing much authentic.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Jay Boyar
    Maverick
    Movies like this one - with its spoofy jokes, vacant characters and indefensible plotting - do nothing to keep the western form alive. Deal me out of this con game.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 90 Jay Boyar
    Agnes of God
    The movie contains Jane Fonda's first big-screen appearance since On Golden Pond (1981); if she doesn't quite find a character in Martha, she is nonetheless riveting. Anne Bancroft, too, is impressive. Finally, though, it is Meg Tilly who makes the movie live. Her performance, which works on both realistic and symbolic levels, allows you to believe in the story.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 25 Jay Boyar
    RoboCop 2
    Instead of displaying the grim wit of RoboCop, RoboCop 2 is crude and punishing. [23 June 1990, p.E1]
    • Orlando Sentinel
    • 74 Metascore
    • 100 Jay Boyar
    The Hunchback of Notre Dame
    If The Hunchback of Notre Dame isn't for younger kids, it's an ambitious, often stirring film that's easy to recommend for just about anyone else. [21 June 1996, p.17]
    • Orlando Sentinel
    • 63 Metascore
    • 75 Jay Boyar
    Bad Influence
    Bad Influence has a somewhat effective screenplay, provided by newcomer David Koepp. The dialogue is much sharper in Bad Influence than it was in The Bedroom Window - although the new film's plot could have used more work. [09 Mar 1990, p.5]
    • Orlando Sentinel
    • 37 Metascore
    • 50 Jay Boyar
    Striptease
    If you get stuck at Striptease, my advice is to relax and try to enjoy its occasional pleasures.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 60 Jay Boyar
    The Clan of the Cave Bear
    Director Michael Chapman, an experienced cinematographer, is skilled in conveying ideas through pictures -- quite an advantage in a movie about people who aren't especially verbal. And Chapman's cinematographer, Jan De Bont, has a varied palette that responds to the visual demands of a world in transition.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Jay Boyar
    Under Siege
    Director Andrew Davis (Seagal's Above the Law) and screenwriter J.F. Lawton (Pretty Woman) handle the early scenes fairly well. As the villains are putting their plan into place, the plot is involving and the pacing brisk. It's only after the bad guys take over the ship that the film begins to degenerate. The staging falls apart almost immediately, and, before long, it's not clear exactly what is happening and where. [06 Nov 1992, p.24]
    • Orlando Sentinel
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Jay Boyar
    3 Men and a Baby
    As it turns out, the three men in Three Men and a Baby haven't got a clue about diapers -- or bottles or formula or anything concerning babies. They're bachelors -- New York yuppies -- who share a fantastic (and, undoubtedly, astronomically priced) apartment in Manhattan. How the lives of the threesome are changed by the new arrival is the crux of this good-natured comedy.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 60 Jay Boyar
    Regarding Henry
    The big problem is the script by 24-year-old Jeffrey Abrams (Taking Care of Business), which is clearly intended as a parable about how a self-centered overachiever and his disintegrating family are redeemed by suffering and sacrifice. What it's really about, however, is how those people are turned into a '50s sitcom family - complete with puppy dog, spunky adolescent, devoted mom and dim-but-well-meaning dad.
    • Orlando Sentinel
    • 51 Metascore
    • 25 Jay Boyar
    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
    Children will undoubtedly enjoy the ninja flick a lot more than their parents will, and it probably won't even give most kids nightmares. But couldn't a steady diet of this sort of thing help to desensitize very young children to real violence? If so, that's awful - not awesome - dudes.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 75 Jay Boyar
    Mermaids
    The better you remember 1963, the better your chances of liking Mermaids. It's not so much a movie as it is a time capsule. The fun is in seeing what gets pulled out next. [14 Dec 1990, p.8]
    • Orlando Sentinel
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Jay Boyar
    Red Rock West
    Red Rock West is not, in any sense, groundbreaking. When you come right down to it, all Red Rock West really has going for it is its enormous entertainment value. But, hey, that's plenty. [14 Oct 1994, p.31]
    • Orlando Sentinel
    • 73 Metascore
    • 90 Jay Boyar
    What's Eating Gilbert Grape
    What's pleasantly surprising about Gilbert Grape is that director Lasse Hallstrom generally maneuvers quite deftly around his self-created obstacles. In its gently ironic, unforced way, his movie manages to be both uplifting and funny, with the laughs never really being at anyone's expense. [4 March 1994, p.17]
    • Orlando Sentinel
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Jay Boyar
    Bottle Rocket
    In Bottle Rocket, the small scale and vague amateurishness (especially in the performances) are themselves rather endearing. They seem to go along with the screwed-up characters, as does the loosely structured plot.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Jay Boyar
    My Cousin Vinny
    My Cousin Vinny is a hoot.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Jay Boyar
    Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
    Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer isn't entirely successful, but it's admirable nonetheless. The film is an honest and disturbing attempt to come to grips with the sort of modern horror that we must - more urgently every day - try to understand.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 100 Jay Boyar
    The Lion King
    This is getting a little monotonous, but yes, it's another instant classic. [24 June 1994, p.17]
    • Orlando Sentinel
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Jay Boyar
    A Brief History of Time
    The film doesn't go deeply enough into Hawking's theories to really explain them, and it doesn't go deeply enough into Hawking's life to impart anything but a sketchy understanding of the man. Still, considering the almost impenetrable subject matter, it's remarkable that Morris has gotten as far as he has.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 63 Jay Boyar
    A Perfect World
    Though A Perfect World may deserve to be attacked for its casual pacing and occasional clumsy staging, and for one or two less-than-fabulous performances, the darn thing kind of grew on me. [24 Nov 1993, p.E2]
    • Orlando Sentinel
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Jay Boyar
    Dave
    The comedy - it's too cautious, really, to be called a satire - just sort of tap-dances along, hitting all the usual marks without ever straining too hard.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 80 Jay Boyar
    Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
    Except for the political implications of the addition of Freeman's character (which he brings off gracefully) and some revisionism about the nobility of the crusades (which, in my opinion, is long overdue), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is just an adventure movie - which is basically what I like about it. The second half is stronger than the first because it's swifter and more action-packed. Robin's feats of derring-do are always (as Costner might put it) neat - the more improbable, the better.
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