Brenda Fricker

"Rory O'Shea Was Here" is a shameless heart-tugger of considerable appeal that, like many movies that start off with much going for them, could have been so much better had its makers aimed higher.

"Masterminds" has "teen product" stamped all over its shiny surface. It boasts a 16-year-old hero who looks as if he just came from a Seattle mosh pit. He's also way cooler and a whole lot smarter than the grown-ups, all of whom, of course, don't understand him. Power-amped guitar-fills are used to patch the spaces between action sequences. And, as seems to be the case with every movie released this summer, it loves to squeeze your insides with high-concept--and highly implausible--action.

"A Man of No Importance" takes us to an early '60s Dublin neighborhood, where a jolly bus conductor, Alfie (Albert Finney) entertains his riders, regulars all, with impassioned recitations from his favorite author, Oscar Wilde.

"Do the Right Thing," Spike Lee's dramatic anatomy of an urban race riot, was named best picture of 1989 by the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. Saturday, and Lee was named best director. The film, which was a hit with critics but ignored by the jury at this year's Cannes Film Festival, also won awards for Danny Aiello for best supporting actor and for Bill Lee--Spike's father--for music.

If at first you chance to succeed, do it all over again. This, the battle plan of all Hollywood sequels, has rarely been followed with as much fanatical zeal as it has in "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York." Less a successor to the original "Home Alone" than a relentless attempt at exact duplication, this film tries ever so carefully to parallel its parent, and no wonder. "Home Alone" is the third-highest grossing film in motion picture history, a level of success no one was about to tamper with.

What's the real world like after you leave "Wayne's World"--especially if you're Wayne? That's a question Hollywood's been asking about the future of comedian Mike Myers. After all, the success of "Wayne's World,' which has already grossed more than $110 million, obviously put Myers--just like Eddie Murphy after "Beverly Hills Cop" in 1984--in a position to call his own shots. What's the real world like after you leave "Wayne's World"--especially if you're Wayne?

Here is a complete list of nominees for the 62nd annual Academy Awards announced Wednesday. Picture: "Born on the Fourth of July," "Dead Poets Society," "Driving Miss Daisy," "Field of Dreams," "My Left Foot." Actor: Kenneth Branagh, "Henry V"; Tom Cruise, "Born on the Fourth of July"; Daniel Day-Lewis, "My Left Foot"; Morgan Freeman, "Driving Miss Daisy"; Robin Williams, "Dead Poets Society."

F ollowing are The Times' recommendations for today's schedule of the American Film Institute International Film Festival, with commentary by the film reviewing staff. All screenings at Laemmle's Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset. Information: (213) 466-1767. Highly Recommended: "MY LEFT FOOT"(Ireland, 1989; director Jim Sheridan; 1:50 and 7 p.m.).

Moviegoers shelled out $25.3 million at the weekend box office to see a quartet of heroic, man-size, pizza-eating, surf jargon-spouting "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." The film paced an unusually active weekend at the movies that saw "Pretty Woman" outperform its first weekend in release and also saw business jump for Oscar winners "Driving Miss Daisy" and "My Left Foot." But the heroes of the box office were New Line Cinema's heroes on the half shell.