What Chronicle critics had to say:
Howard the Duck: “Howard the Duck’ is a movie for bored 9-year-olds who have run out of ways to pester their mother until school resumes. Once kids see the movie, they’ll be anxious to get back to those algebra books, which may seem more lively than this plastic space toy devised by George Lucas with his left hand, as if he, too, was trying to kill time and didn’t have an idea in his head.”
— Gerald Nachman
Ishtar: “A clear case of the blind leading the blind can be made with ‘Ishtar,’ a $43 million misguided missile. … No one can blame a blind camel for not knowing the way to Mecca, but the question does arise as to how such a witty writer/director as Elaine May and two pros like Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman can mistake a mirage for a viable movie.”
— Judy Stone
Heaven’s Gate (1981 recut rerelease): “By improving ‘Heaven’s Gate,’ Michael Cimino has ruined any shot at posterity. Instead of allegedly being the Worst Turkey in All Eternity, it’s now just A Pretty Good Western, sure to be lost in the pages of history. As a $40-million, sixheaded freak, it may have made a mint for United Artists. As a nice respectable movie with one head, it’s probably had it. There’s a lot to be said for lavish awfulness.”
— Gerald Nachman
Cleopatra: “Those who have the courage to leave at the intermission will have seen a fascinating and admirable picture: they will only miss a few sequences of note, and they will have experienced a moving, witty and visually enthralling drama. If they stay until the end, they may find occasion to whine as it becomes tedious. … Joseph Mankiewicz … was unable to distill from history’s complications a pattern of sufficient dramatic strength to sustain its length.”
— Paine Knickerbocker, 1963 “Inclusion of the documentary (on the DVD) is a very canny decision. It puts the film in a fascinating context. The movie alone would not be as interesting or as much fun to watch. It is made up of long stretches of faux Shaw and Shakespeare interrupted by the spectacle to end all spectacles. It almost did, too. The off-screen drama was better. Exit Eddie Fisher. Enter Richard Burton.”