Fresh B
| Fresh 83%
| Avatar (2009) | "
For all its flaws as art, Mr. Cameron has served up functional entertainment with a gigantic price tag." Posted Dec 18, 2009 |
Rotten D
| Rotten 12%
| Did You Hear About the Morgans? (2009) | "
...the uptown, house-hawking, vegetarian Meryl gets to flex Ms. Parker's typecast, cosmopolitan dependency act..." Posted Dec 18, 2009 |
Rotten C-
| Fresh 77%
| Invictus (2009) | "
...suspension of disbelief is strained to its limits by portentous dialogue which, in overuse, dilutes its potency." Posted Dec 11, 2009 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 91%
| Up in the Air (2009) | "
The consummate bachelor, Mr. Clooney reflects just enough comfort in his own skin without teetering into arrogance, quietly amused by life's idiosyncrasies." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 88%
| Red Cliff (2009) | "
The film's countless canned platitudes aside, an intriguing plot unfolds wherein intellect and brute strength play against one another..." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Fresh A+
| Fresh 86%
| Brokeback Mountain (2005) | "
Brokeback Mountain is ultimately about the paralysis of regret and how it fractures the lives of not just those afflicted by it, but everyone else around them." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
N/A | Fresh 90%
| District 9 (2009) | "
Neill Blomkamp and Sharlto Copley: District 9"
INTERVIEW Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
N/A | Fresh 73%
| More Than a Game (2009) | "
Kristopher Belman: More Than A Game"
INTERVIEW Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 83%
| Whip It (2009) | "
Whip It is a coming-of-age story told straight, devoid of trendy hipster sensibilities, yet aiming equally for entertainment as well as insight." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Rotten 57%
| The Invention of Lying (2009) | "
Mr. Gervais... has given us a static, crass Phil Connors to introduce the world to belief in the supernatural. Where are the Ghostbusters when you need them?" Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 88%
| Inglourious Basterds (2009) | "
Mr. Waltz's dynamic performance contrasts satirical and dramatic hues, effectively charismatic and repulsive at once." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Fresh A
| Fresh 77%
| The Informant! (2009) | "
Visual and narrative punchlines strike flawlessly like the absurdist humor of a Bugs Bunny cartoon..." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Rotten D
| Rotten 44%
| Jennifer's Body (2009) | "
Devil's Kettle might as well have been called Crock Pot." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Rotten C-
| Rotten 58%
| 9 (2009) | "
Entirely superfluous conversations and thoughts hinder what could have otherwise been a beautiful, somber existentialist film about a number of potential themes%u2014loss, survival, consciousness." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 63%
| Extract (2009) | "
...it's not quite as uninhibitedly ridiculous as The Hangover, the tacked-on moral lesson for which no apology is even attempted." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Rotten F
| Rotten 6%
| All About Steve (2009) | "
Were you thinking "deaf kids", "sinkhole"? No? I defy you to write a dumber screenplay." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Rotten C-
| Rotten 49%
| Taking Woodstock (2009) | "
Watch carefully as the film tries to ramrod too many themes, invoking split-screen technique, and see if you can identify how often self-indulgence is confused for enlightenment." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Rotten D
| Rotten 9%
| Post Grad (2009) | "
...a coming-of-age tableau that is neither inspirational nor uplifting." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Rotten 45%
| Shorts (2009) | "
...what poignancy is served injecting heavy messages about parenting... into a movie which glorifies the suburban existence, makes light of bullying, and gratuitously employs property destruction for comic effect?" Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Fresh A
| Fresh 90%
| District 9 (2009) | "
The film persuades us to look beneath the aliens' chitinous exterior, and slowly eats at us as the images of racism, subjugation and internment become familiar and prod our conscience." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Rotten D-
| N/A | The Goods (2000) | "
Did the studio put so little faith in this snowball of ineptitude that the filmmakers couldn't even afford a tripod?" Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Fresh C
| Fresh 75%
| Julie & Julia (2009) | "
Amy Adams is so meek she echoes Cynthia Nixon's waif servant in Forman's Amadeus. In fact, for a moment I thought she was Ms. Nixon, until I remembered that Amadeus was twenty-five years ago." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Rotten C-
| Rotten 14%
| The Ugly Truth (2009) | "
...there's no finesse or scarcity to lend impact to the vulgarity. It's handled with all the craftsmanship of an infant wielding an arc welder." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Rotten D+
| Fresh 86%
| 500 Days of Summer (2009) | "
The film revels in the hip witticisms that swim mostly inside a writer's head but never come forth in the real world with the timing and execution seen here." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Rotten C-
| Rotten 15%
| I Love You, Beth Cooper (2009) | "
The movie could have been much improved by slicing a few frames from each shot, and reining in Rust's weirdness just a bit%u2014so as to not contribute to the lumbering, hallucinogenic feel of his initial characterization." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Rotten D
| Rotten 45%
| Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) | "
When the story does get underway, the incident that sets it into motion seems thrown in%u2014precisely what you'd expect for the third installment in a series that was already tired by the second." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Fresh C
| Rotten 47%
| My Sister's Keeper (2009) | "
The film has its flaws and swims in meticulously crafted schmaltz... yet also has well-conceived tender moments hiding in the fringes." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Rotten D+
| Rotten 15%
| Year One (2009) | "
The problem is not the historicity, or lack thereof, in a comedy, but the uneven pace of the humor." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Rotten D+
| Rotten 51%
| The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009) | "
This is either bad writing, bad direction, bad acting or a combination of the three." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 78%
| The Hangover (2009) | "
Question: What do Mike Tyson's tiger, a chicken, a horrible effeminate Chinese man stereotype naked in a car trunk, a stolen police car, a baby, a missing tooth and Phil Collins' music all have in common? Answer: Nothing..." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Rotten F+
| Rotten 10%
| My Life in Ruins (2009) | "
Leave it to Hollywood to take a bad idea and make it terrible." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 98%
| Up (2009) | "
...if you've ever wondered what kind of jokes dogs would tell if they could speak, here's your chance." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 100%
| Sita Sings the Blues (2008) | "
The story shifts effortlessly between the two-dimensional collage style of the narrator segments, the classical artistic design of the Rama-Sita story, the pencil sketch style of the modern story, and finally Hanshaw's musical numbers in a two-dimensional" Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Rotten D+
| Rotten 32%
| Terminator Salvation (2009) | "
...as fascinating as chewing styrofoam--with the occasional firecracker jammed in to make you chew faster." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 95%
| Star Trek (2009) | "
...the film will go down, and endearingly so, as the Brokeback Mountain of space operas... In all the cosmos, a fatherless human and a motherless Vulcan find in one another that which they had lost." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Rotten D
| Fresh 75%
| Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) | "
Mr. Moore's documentary fluctuates from lucid, cogent arguments, to cartoonish abstractions and conjectures--all the while, his lilting voice massaging our guilt reflex." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Rotten C-
| Rotten 21%
| Amelia (2009) | "
Watching Ms. Swank struggle to emote through carefully-patterned enunciation is an exercise in patience." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 94%
| Good Hair (2009) | "
Mr. Rock and Mr. Stilson don't beat you up with a tiresome polemic a-la Michael Moore. Never does he put himself at the center of the film, condescend to the audience, or insult his interview subjects regardless of their views..." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 94%
| The Damned United (2009) | "
THE DAMNED UNITED is an intriguing study in human ego, and its ability to interfere with sound management." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 44%
| The Box (2009) | "
...I walked into a Cameron Diaz film expecting to be treated to shlock, and concluded that I had just witnessed the rebirth of the classical sci-fi/thriller." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 89%
| Zombieland (2009) | "
The film involves such gratuitous, juicy spatter, Dexter Morgan would have a field day." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 73%
| Where the Wild Things Are (2009) | "
...a total collapse of coherent storytelling--disconnected scenes of running, jumping, throwing, thrashing, and destroying interspersed with languid stretches of navel gazing (read: moping)." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 87%
| A Serious Man (2009) | "
It's a funny film, but mostly to those who convince themselves that there's truth behind every facet of Larry's ludicrously-miserable existence." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 24%
| Law Abiding Citizen (2009) | "
On a side note, can you believe the Oscar-winning star of RAY made a crack about Helen Keller?" Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 54%
| The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009) | "
At best, it's an assembly line of disconnected gags that rely entirely on Mr. Clooney's sub-deadpans and Mr. McGregor's innocent mug working perpendicular to the jokes. At worst, it's a meditation on the greater absurdities of New Age beliefs and ideals." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 31%
| Ninja Assassin (2009) | "
As a viewer, your only task here is to watch, eat popcorn, and laugh, jump or shriek%u2014whichever works for you%u2014whenever you see heads roll, limbs fly or or hemoglobin spurting." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 39%
| 2012 (2009) | "
I'm curious, just a bit, about what goes on in the mind of Roland Emmerich. Does he know that he makes some of the best comedies ever written?" Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 71%
| The Blind Side (2009) | "
The black kid is the MacGuffin around which revolves the affected lives of white people." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 28%
| The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) | "
The entire film seems to consist of three thoughts, cycled ad nauseum: Don't leave me. I can't live without you. Make me a vampire." Posted Dec 6, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 62%
| Clerks II (2006) | "
The turning point is Dante's serious conversation with Becky about his future plans. From there, the movie finds its narrative center and becomes a real story about real people and, suddenly, you find you even care about Randal." Posted Jul 22, 2006 |
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