[Goodman] is a quiet hoot, fancying himself as the last samurai in the battle against bugs. His performance takes the edge off the horror and makes ''Arachnophobia'' palatable for people of all ages.

The dexterity of the spiders as they merrily look for their prey is matched by the dexterity of Frank Marshall's direction in its nimbleness and sense of fun.

Frank Marshall's sophisticated feature directing debut never indulges in ultimate gross-out effects and carefully chooses both its victims and its means of depicting their dispatch.

It didn’t take off quite as expected -- I like to think it was primarily because of the studio’s major push to introduce a ridiculous new word ("Thrill-omedy!") to the cinematic language.