Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 91%
| Precious: Based on the Novel PUSH by Sapphire (2009) | "
For a movie steeped in grimy realism, it unfolds in an unusually impressionistic fashion, with artful cinematic transitions and a loose brand of storytelling that emphasizes little moments as much as it does big revelations." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Nov 24, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 30%
| The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) | "
The number one killer is that it's two hours and 10 minutes long and the plot recycles itself over and over again." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Nov 23, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 38%
| 2012 (2009) | "
...two hours and forty minutes of the same action scene recycled over and over again..." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Nov 16, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 54%
| The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009) | "
Even if you haven't seen a movie about psychic Jedi warriors in the U.S. Army who kill goats with their mind, you may come out of [this film] thinking that you've seen a lot of it before." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Nov 9, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 70%
| Where the Wild Things Are (2009) | "
Anybody that says this isn't a kids' film is misunderstanding the point. This movie gets at the heart of what it's like to be a kid...one of the best films of the year." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Oct 19, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 83%
| Paranormal Activity (2009) | "
There is a certain amount of suspension of disbelief ... that you must accept in order for the movie to work for you." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Oct 11, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 56%
| The Invention of Lying (2009) | "
I'll bemoan the ending forever (or until they change it on DVD), but right now I'm still wondering how a movie with this radical a subtext got made at all." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Oct 11, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 89%
| Zombieland (2009) | "
While not as clever as Shaun or as scary as parts of Dawn, this horror comedy does pull off a minor coup in its genre%u2014it successfully uses a zombie apocalypse as the setting for a romantic comedy/family picture." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Oct 11, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 82%
| Whip It (2009) | "
The marvel of Whip It is that Barrymore's freewheeling spirit is infectious, even when her direction borders on sloppiness and the script skirts with cliché." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Oct 11, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 75%
| Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) | "
[It] may be a bit scattershot and employ familiar tricks, [but it's both] a challenging and personal movie." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Sep 29, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 76%
| The Informant! (2009) | "
Soderbergh seems like he's trying too hard to spell out the outrageousness of the story, [but as]the absurdities pile up...his brassy stylistic choices become less annoying." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Sep 23, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 63%
| Extract (2009) | "
It seems that Judge is a little embarrassed by his script, which he shouldn't be. His direction of the movie, however, doesn't match the absurdity of the situations Joel finds himself in." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Sep 14, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 26%
| The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard (2009) | "
Piven is saddled with a lame backstory about a former partner's tragic death, something about a lost son, a thoroughly forced romantic subplot, and a series of awful and increasingly desperate stabs at raunchy humor." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Aug 18, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 90%
| District 9 (2009) | "
[It] does what really good science fiction does and makes you think about the world you live in. It also does what mainstream crowd-pleasing sci-fi does and entertains with well-designed action scenes and classic Hollywood tropes." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Aug 18, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 87%
| 500 Days of Summer (2009) | "
[It] does what other romantic comedies can never seem to do convincingly: It celebrates those special little moments that two people can share together, whether [they] end up creating a substantial and long-lasting relationship or not." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Aug 5, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 98%
| The Hurt Locker (2009) | "
[It is] one of those movies where the story arc just kind of sneaks up on you when you're not looking. It's a lot like the situation that its principal characters find themselves in every day." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Jul 28, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Fresh 83%
| Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) | "
If the series is supposed to mature and be about becoming an adult, [screenwriter] Kloves would be smart to start treating the viewer like one." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Jul 16, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 67%
| Bruno (2009) | "
Sacha Baron Cohen is the most fearless comedian around. Culturally, he is pushing people forward kicking and screaming." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Jul 13, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 47%
| Whatever Works (2009) | "
[It] goes from burned-out Allen motif to a mannered dinner theater production in little less than 10 minutes. And it stays there." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Jul 6, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 98%
| Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2009) | "
Presents likeable characters, puts them in tough situations, and illuminates their souls with humor and sincerity. It just so happens that the two men who populate this story used to wear leather S&M gear onstage and play guitars with dildos." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Jun 30, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 15%
| Year One (2009) | "
Post-modern awareness is mixed with an ancient setting, but the humor still manages to be prehistoric. If you've always wanted to see smart comedians revert to grade school hi-jinks for cheap laughs, then this is the movie for you." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Jun 29, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 19%
| Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) | "
It didn't take itself seriously...a huge blockbuster on the kind of scale I expected, and it didn't offend me like Wolverine or Terminator Salvation." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Jun 29, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 73%
| Rudo and Cursi (2009) | "
Carlos Cuaron has directed a typical rise-and-fall picture. Granted, it has loads of local flavor and two appealing leads, but it adds little to the genre and is too melodramatic to rise above." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Jun 12, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 78%
| The Hangover (2009) | "
Great casting benefits the movie hugely, as does a premise centered around the mystery of what happened, but its choppy editing does it no favors." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Jun 9, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 25%
| Land of the Lost (2009) | "
Caught in an unfunny netherworld between kid-oriented mainstream summer entertainment and a cheap-looking green-screened sort of surreality, it might have been a watchable, no, bearable movie had it just embraced one or the other fully." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Jun 9, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 98%
| Up (2009) | "
Pixar delivers [another] piece of expertly-rendered, artful entertainment...that doesn't pander to kids and that families will still adore." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Jun 4, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 92%
| Drag Me To Hell (2009) | "
...walks a narrow path between campiness, sincerity, and sudden bursts of shock and 'aaaah'!" — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Jun 4, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 64%
| The Brothers Bloom (2009) | "
It's as much about society's need for a well-told story as it is about an emotional connection between its characters. This sincerity is ultimately what lifts the picture above many of its predecessors." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted May 29, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 32%
| Terminator Salvation (2009) | "
I'm fed up with this series. This is not the way to start [a new trilogy]." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted May 26, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 88%
| Sin Nombre (2009) | "
What makes it unique among films that cover similar subject matter is the restrained acting and richness of its visual sense." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted May 21, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 36%
| Angels & Demons (2009) | "
It's not his prose that makes Brown's novels such page-turners, it's that mix of thrilling conflict and old-world mystery. Take out the backstory and you basically have an empty episode of "24."" — Scene-Stealers.com Posted May 19, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 95%
| Star Trek (2009) | "
... has a lot of humor but is very serious about its premise ... about as good as Hollywood blockbusters get." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted May 11, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 36%
| X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) | "
Having an origin story takes the mystery out of the character, but neutering his inner conflict in favor of inconsequential fight scenes is an ill-conceived mishandling of him from beginning to end." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted May 4, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 14%
| The Informers (2009) | "
The Informers becomes that rare movie that is so tedious it dares you to keep watching." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Apr 28, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 84%
| State of Play (2009) | "
It's as much a funeral procession for a dying art as it is a celebration of its ideals." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Apr 21, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 50%
| Observe and Report (2009) | "
Hill is finding his own voice as an original comedic filmmaker, however spotty he may be." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Apr 14, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 88%
| Adventureland (2009) | "
It captures perfectly that feeling of weightlessness just before impending adulthood. At once a personal and generational film, it also carries a poetic kind of melancholy that's unique to movies of its kind, save for maybe Say Anything or Dazed" — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Apr 7, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 72%
| Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) | "
With a title like Monsters Vs. Aliens, [it] tells you exactly what it's going to be. Yet so did Snakes on a Plane, and somehow that movie managed to disappoint as well." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Mar 31, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 83%
| Two Lovers (2009) | "
It's almost always either night or at least dusk, and Gray's heartsick main character seems to suck in the darkness like oxygen." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Mar 27, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 82%
| I Love You, Man (2009) | "
Even with a typical script, Jason Segel and especially Paul Rudd can carry it to a very funny level." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Mar 23, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 64%
| Watchmen (2009) | "
The movie is so uneven that it sometimes it feels like parody or a gaudy recreation just minutes after achieving some kind of true cinematic bliss." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Mar 9, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 98%
| Let the Right One In (2008) | "
Vast amounts of empty space take up the formalistic widescreen compositions ... Then there are the sounds: a heartbeat, sniffling, breathing. All these things bring the audience closer to the characters and help make our experience theirs." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Feb 11, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Fresh 79%
| Gran Torino (2008) | "
I understand that Eastwood meant well, and it is interesting to fill up a tried-and-true movie formula with this much frank racism in order to make it different, but Gran Torino is just a well-intentioned mess." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Feb 11, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 98%
| The Wrestler (2008) | "
gripping, realistic ... Mickey Rourke brings everything he has to it, and it's perfect for him ... if the violence hurts you, that means Aronofsky's doing his job." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Feb 11, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 68%
| Revolutionary Road (2008) | "
[Solid] performances took me over some of the bumps of the movie." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Feb 11, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 56%
| Defiance (2008) | "
[Defiance] stuffs everything into a tired formula, robs the story of its inherent drama, and makes it dull. [It's] absent of any surprises or subtle characterization." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Feb 11, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 88%
| Coraline (2009) | "
An interesting comment on parent-child relationships ... there's a certain amount of mystery ... and disappointment to [one's] parents." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Feb 11, 2009 |
Rotten .5/4
| Rotten 21%
| The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) | "
What, in 1951, was a scary Cold War-era warning about the misuse of atomic energy has now become a vague and infantile pro-green special-effects showcase (even the CGI is unimaginative and looks like a swirly, soft-focus nightmare) with one entire suspens" — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Dec 26, 2008 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 15%
| The Spirit (2008) | "
Movies that exist in their own overheated genre-iffic world are not easy to swallow for a lot of audiences. The sheer joy with which Miller approaches this material, though, is infectious, and The Spirit grew on me even as it confounded me." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Dec 26, 2008 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 91%
| Frost/Nixon (2008) | "
While I normally don't complain too much about facts getting distorted in movies for better drama, Howard's format inherently seems like it's trying to pass itself off as reality, and that really bugged me." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Dec 26, 2008 |
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