ROTTEN TOMATOES: Joe Williams

JOE WILLIAMS

Agrees with the Tomatometer 77% of the time.

Biography: I am the film critic for the daily St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Favorites: It's a Wonderful Life, Quadrophenia, Lost in America, The Graduate, Days of Heaven, The Heartbreak Kid, Apocalypse Now, Gangs of New York, Love with the Proper Stranger, The Party, Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, Memento, Waking Life, Amelie

Publications: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Total Reviews: 193
Total QuickRatings: 24

Location: St. Louis, MO

LISTING OF ALL REVIEWS & ARTICLES

# a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Results for All Genres

Showing 1 - 50 of 193

Previous | Next

Rating	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date (default)

Fresh 2.5/4	Fresh 86%	Flame & Citron (2008)	" *While it may not be a smorgasbord of red herrings and red meat, Flame and Citron* is often chilling.**" Posted Dec 17, 2009
Rotten 1.5/4	Rotten 10%	Did You Hear About the Morgans? (2009)	" Did You Hear About the Morgans? has no room for surprises." Posted Dec 17, 2009
Fresh 2.5/4	Fresh 84%	Me and Orson Welles (2009)	" *The most resonant voice belongs to Welles, or rather to McKay, who uncannily channels the charm, ego and flim-flammery of the man who would soon move to Hollywood to direct and star in Citizen Kane.*" Posted Dec 17, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 82%	Avatar (2009)	" For video gamers and fun-seeking geeks, those puny objections will be flattened beneath the titanic technical achievement." Posted Dec 17, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 90%	Up in the Air (2009)	" Now arriving at the main terminal is the movie of the year." Posted Dec 10, 2009
Rotten	Fresh 83%	The Princess and the Frog (2009)	" It's a worthy cause and an honorable film, the first full-length Disney cartoon with an African-American heroine. But without a strong story, it's a case of one step forward and two steps back." Posted Dec 10, 2009
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 88%	Red Cliff (2009)	" Woo has re-embraced his Chinese roots with brutal commitment." Posted Dec 10, 2009
Fresh 3/4	Rotten 21%	Oh My God (2009)	" *At its best, Oh My God* strikes a long-forgotten chord that seems to sing: All you need is love. (And Ringo Starr shows up to underscore the point.)**" Posted Dec 10, 2009
Fresh 3.5/4	Fresh 77%	Invictus (2009)	" On its face, this is your basic redemption-through-sports story. What makes it special is Eastwood's ability to artfully and concisely tell a story, and Morgan Freeman's wonderfully understated turn as South African President Nelson Mandela." Posted Dec 10, 2009
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 95%	The Maid (2009)	" It's tough and unsentimental, with a documentary aesthetic that belies the craft of the calibrated tension." Posted Dec 3, 2009
Fresh 2.5/4	Rotten 28%	Serious Moonlight (2009)	" *The formulaic shortcomings of Serious Moonlight* are redeemed by the glow of a group tribute to a fallen friend.**" Posted Dec 3, 2009
Fresh 2.5/4	Rotten 46%	Everybody's Fine (2009)	" *What's finest about Everybody's Fine* is to watch a good fella groping hopefully toward old age.**" Posted Dec 3, 2009
Rotten 2.5/4	Fresh 72%	The Road (2009)	" The Road has the signposts of an important film, but it lacks the diversions of an inviting trip." Posted Nov 24, 2009
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 90%	The Messenger (2009)	" This film doesn't take political sides -- and it's all the more heartbreaking because of its restraint." Posted Nov 24, 2009
Rotten 2.5/4	Fresh 81%	The Horse Boy (2009)	" It's because the premise is so intriguing and the drama is so compelling that the result is so confounding." Posted Nov 24, 2009
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 94%	The Damned United (2009)	" Two things that the British know that most Americans don't: Michael Sheen is the best actor in the English-speaking world; and soccer is the only football that matters." Posted Nov 24, 2009
Rotten 1.5/4	Rotten 31%	Ninja Assassin (2009)	" This amateurish action flick is so lacking in personality or punch, it ought to be titled "V for Video Store Discount Bin."" Posted Nov 24, 2009
Rotten 1.5/4	Rotten 5%	Old Dogs (2009)	" A cheesy chew-toy of a comedy about reluctant fatherhood." Posted Nov 24, 2009
Fresh 2.5/4	Fresh 60%	Pirate Radio (2009)	" *Even as it spirals into disaster-flick absurdity, Pirate Radio* isn't trying to cause a big sensation, it's just peddling instant gratification.**" Posted Nov 11, 2009
Fresh 4/4	Fresh 94%	An Education (2009)	" The combination of a literate script, an adroit cast and an economical style is simple addition that achieves an alchemical feat: the best film of the year." Posted Nov 11, 2009
Fresh 2.5/4	Rotten 39%	2012 (2009)	" *Guilty pleasures don't come guiltier than 2012.*" Posted Nov 11, 2009
Fresh 3/4	Rotten 54%	The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)	" *The closer you look at The Men Who Stare at Goats, the better you see that its shaggy coat is covering some pointed truths.*" Posted Nov 5, 2009
Rotten 2.5/4	Fresh 65%	Coco Before Chanel (2009)	" *The thread connecting the ambitious girl to the acclaimed woman is enough to make us wish for a sequel titled Chanel No. 2.*" Posted Nov 5, 2009
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 74%	Five Minutes of Heaven (2009)	" A director whose breakthrough was the story of a madman's last stand has exceeded that feat with the story of an angry man's next step." Posted Nov 5, 2009
Rotten 2/4	Rotten 55%	Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009)	" It's eerie rather than wondrous." Posted Nov 5, 2009
Fresh 2.5/4	Fresh 70%	Chelsea on the Rocks (2009)	" It's a cheap, vicarious high to hear these unidentified denizens reminisce about the orgies and overdoses that seem to have been included with the rent." Posted Oct 29, 2009
Rotten 2.5/4	Fresh 82%	Earth Days (2009)	" Honoring the heroes of the environmental movement is clearly appropriate, but getting mired in nostalgia is a dirty shame." Posted Oct 29, 2009
Fresh 2.5/4	Rotten 41%	New York, I Love You (2009)	" Because so many of the segments are about young lovers, the standouts involve people past their prime." Posted Oct 29, 2009
Fresh 3/4	Rotten 48%	Astro Boy (2009)	" *Cobbled together from trusty old parts, Astro Boy* manages to stand on its own feet.**" Posted Oct 21, 2009
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 96%	Herb & Dorothy (2009)	" The movie gives us an eyeful, but the unexamined irony is that the nice old couple can�t sell the rest of us on why it�s good." Posted Oct 21, 2009
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 71%	Walt and El Grupo (2009)	" While skimming over the troubled waters of impending war and ongoing labor unrest, it�s both a vicarious vacation and a crash course in animation." Posted Oct 21, 2009
Rotten 2.5/4	Rotten 37%	Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009)	" When Weitz and writer Brian Helgeland try to drape a plot over the colorful characters, the movie goes fuzzy." Posted Oct 21, 2009
Fresh 2.5/4	Rotten 21%	Amelia (2009)	" *Although Amelia* is too conventionally constructed to attain the heights of Martin Scorsese's "The Aviator," the cinematography and Depression-era props are splendid. Swank, of course, is too.**" Posted Oct 21, 2009
Fresh 3/4	N/A	Rocaterrania (2009)	" lustrator Renaldo Kuhler is still alive and lucid, so while this fascinating documentary is picturesque, it could have done more to fill in the blanks." Posted Oct 19, 2009
Rotten 2.5/4	Fresh 73%	Where the Wild Things Are (2009)	" To their credit, the creative team has retained the handmade look and unruly spirit of Maurice Sendak's bedtime fable; to their discredit, they haven't added enough narrative or emotional dimension to make it an effective movie." Posted Oct 14, 2009
Fresh 3.5/4	Fresh 100%	Still Walking (2009)	" Still Walking is a miniaturist's masterpiece, the ebb and flow of familial love distilled to its essence." Posted Oct 14, 2009
Fresh 2.5/4	Fresh 73%	More Than a Game (2009)	" You'd be hard-pressed to find a better documentary about on-court dynamics and off-court camaraderie; but as journalism, it's less than thorough." Posted Oct 14, 2009
Rotten 1/4	Rotten 24%	Law Abiding Citizen (2009)	" The big problem with the movie isn't the violence, or the message about coddling criminals, or the two lead actors, although they've never been worse. It's the utter implausibility." Posted Oct 14, 2009
Rotten 2/4	Rotten 12%	Couples Retreat (2009)	" The capable cast is stuck in a movie that's rated PG-13, with flabby, middle-age pacing." Posted Oct 7, 2009
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 89%	No Impact Man (2009)	" This poignant, provocative documentary reduces the green movement to human scale -- and magnifies the size of mountain it's trying to climb." Posted Sep 30, 2009
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 84%	The Windmill Movie (2009)	" *Late in this meandering film, Rogers' romantic infidelities and the onset of illness add some much-needed dynamics, but even when it's just shooting the breeze, The Windmill Movie* is captivating.**" Posted Sep 30, 2009
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 89%	Zombieland (2009)	" The secret in this case is the jokes, which are ferocious. Marrying a monster flick with an adolescent romance has produced a merry mutant." Posted Sep 30, 2009
Rotten 2.5/4	Fresh 75%	Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)	" The lack of a factual backbone will be catnip for conservatives who attack everything that Moore does, regardless of the validity of his arguments." Posted Sep 30, 2009
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 83%	Whip It (2009)	" What Barrymore brings is good-natured, girl-powered subversion, a sense of when to flaunt clich�s and when to flip them over the rails." Posted Sep 30, 2009
Rotten 2.5/4	Rotten 57%	The Invention of Lying (2009)	" The Invention of Lying is an ambitious attempt to smash the wedding cake and eat it, too; but to say it succeeds would be stretching the truth." Posted Sep 30, 2009
Rotten 2/4	Rotten 32%	The Burning Plain (2009)	" Initially, the puzzle structure and a pair of Oscar-winning actresses distract us from the dark vacuum at the center of this enterprise, but when it implodes, it doesn't reverberate." Posted Sep 25, 2009
Fresh 3.5/4	Fresh 87%	Big Fan (2009)	" In his first starring role, Oswalt, a stand-up comedian whose trademark persona is part comic-book geek and part frat-house hedonist, inhabits a character who is both painfully familiar and poignantly alone." Posted Sep 25, 2009
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 85%	Bright Star (2009)	" What animates this dramatically constrained film are the lively words and the vitality of nature. An image of butterflies blooming in a bedroom is Keats' worldview in miniature." Posted Sep 25, 2009
Fresh 3.5/4	Fresh 67%	Beer Wars (2009)	" For those who are keeping the American dream alive, this spirited documentary raises a toast." Posted Sep 25, 2009
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 100%	Afghan Star (2009)	" *Of all the films to come out of the conflict, Afghan Star* is the most provocative, because its message that people are essentially the same is a dubious, double-edge sword.**" Posted Sep 17, 2009

Results for All Genres

Showing 1 - 50 of 193

Previous | Next

Sort by Rating:
Sort results by this critic's rating. This option is only available for critics with a rating system (4 star, letter grade, 1-10, etc.)
Sort by T-meter:
Sort results by the Tomatometer (percentage of critics recommending a certain movie)

A	I'm Not ThereOffsite
4/4	Trouble the WaterOffsite
A-	Fast Food NationOffsite
3.5/4	500 Days of SummerOffsite
B+	RatatouilleOffsite
3/4	In the LoopOffsite
B	Alice's HouseOffsite
2.5/4	Burn After ReadingOffsite
B-	Spider-Man 3Offsite
2/4	The Ugly TruthOffsite
1.5/4	Old DogsOffsite
C-	DeceptionOffsite
1/4	Super CapersOffsite

4/4	An EducationOffsite
4/4	Cherry BlossomsOffsite
A	Man On WireOffsite
4/4	Trouble the WaterOffsite
A	The Diving Bell and the ButterflyOffsite
A	I'm Not ThereOffsite
A	I'm Not ThereOffsite
A	The QueenOffsite
A	Borat: Cultural Learnings of America...Offsite
A	Brokeback MountainOffsite

D	V For VendettaOffsite
1/4	Law Abiding CitizenOffsite
1/4	I Love You, Beth CooperOffsite
1/4	Super CapersOffsite

JOE WILLIAMS

LISTING OF ALL REVIEWS & ARTICLES

Sort by Rating:

Sort by T-meter:

Best to Worst Sampling

Best Reviewed

Worst Reviewed

Sponsored Links