Misery 1990

Dave Kehr, Chicago Tribune: Like any good work of popular culture, Rob Reiner's film of Stephen King's best-selling book Misery functions on more than one level. Read more

Desmond Ryan, Philadelphia Inquirer: Bates turns Wilkes into the nastiest nurse to reach the screen since Louise Fletcher tormented Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Read more

Vincent Canby, New York Times: Misery is a blunt instrument that fractures the kneecaps more often than it tickles the funnybone. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: A skillfully pared-down (if psychologically thin) horror thriller. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Kathy Bates has a gift for playing cheerily hostile, paranoid misfits. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It is a good story, a natural, and it grabs us. Read more

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: Popular moviemaking -- elegantly economical, artlessly artful -- doesn't get much better than this. Read more

Colette Maude, Time Out: Reiner captures just the right level of physical tension, but for the most part wisely emphasises the mental duels. Terrific. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: Bates has a field day with her role, creating a quirky, memorable object of hate. Read more

Rita Kempley, Washington Post: A weak handshake of a movie, it is slightly repellent -- hardly gripping, much less knuckle-whitening. Read more