Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 86%
| Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) | "
Like the late Klaus Kinski, who so often played crazies in Herzog's earlier movies, Cage is in your face all the way. Laughing maniacally, lying with no sign of a conscience, he pushes the character's frequent tantrums beyond over-the-top." — Seattle Times Posted Nov 25, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 73%
| The Blind Side (2009) | "
Except for a few crude exchanges,The Blind Side is almost as squeaky-clean as an old Disney movie. Unfortunately, it can also be just as cute and condescending." — Seattle Times Posted Nov 19, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 69%
| (Untitled) (2009) | "
The impenetrable gallery jargon is quite funny at first, and the brothers' twisted relationship is set up nicely, but the movie errs when it takes itself seriously." — Seattle Times Posted Nov 12, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 85%
| We Live in Public (2009) | "
We Live in Public is the kind of nonfiction film that seems to have been conceived to prove that truth is stranger than almost any fiction..." — Seattle Times Posted Nov 12, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 55%
| Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009) | "
Zemeckis' movie may lack the emotional impact of the 1951 British version of A Christmas Carol, starring Alastair Sim as a truly transformed and happy Scrooge. Nevertheless, it's a visual treat that respects and artfully enhances its source." — Seattle Times Posted Nov 5, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 73%
| Act of God (2009) | "
"It changed my way of looking at the world," says one of the survivors. That's not a bad description of the movie itself." — Seattle Times Posted Oct 29, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 95%
| Crude (2009) | "
If you ever had doubts about the impact that celebrities can have on such a David-and-Goliath struggle, Berlinger methodically removes them." — Seattle Times Posted Oct 23, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 73%
| American Violet (2009) | "
While it may be about as subtle as a swinging sledgehammer, it does leave its mark." — Seattle Times Posted Oct 15, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 75%
| Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) | "
The script gradually becomes an ambiguous mixture of hope and desperation; at times it feels almost bipartisan in its politics." — Seattle Times Posted Oct 1, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 71%
| Walt and El Grupo (2009) | "
[Thomas] may need more distance from the subject -- Walt & El Grupo could shed about 20 minutes -- but there's no questioning his sincerity or his instinct for revealing anecdotes." — Seattle Times Posted Sep 24, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 69%
| Paris (2009) | "
A pretty travelogue about mortality, Paris never quite lives up to what turns out to be a presumptuous title." — Seattle Times Posted Sep 24, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 88%
| Amreeka (2009) | "
For the most part, Dabis and her actors charm their way through this material, finding absurdist humor even in the darkest moments." — Seattle Times Posted Sep 24, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 96%
| Somers Town (2009) | "
Turgoose continues to convince as a kid whose personality wavers daily if not hourly, while Jagiello playfully suggests that Marek is becoming the perfect straight man." — Seattle Times Posted Sep 17, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 85%
| Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (2009) | "
If you ever thought a marshmallow might make a fine crispy torch, or you've wondered what it would be like to luxuriate in a Jell-O palace, or you've imagined a "snow day" with ice-cream snowballs, you'll find kindred spirits here." — Seattle Times Posted Sep 17, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 100%
| You, the Living (2009) | "
Essentially indescribable, You, the Living offers little help to anyone trying to get a handle on it in terms of a traditional narrative. But it can be quite funny if you're susceptible to Andersson's curious way of capturing the human comedy." — Seattle Times Posted Sep 10, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 86%
| The Baader Meinhof Complex (2009) | "
Impressive in its scale and momentum, it's the kind of action-packed political melodrama that generates more heat than light." — Seattle Times Posted Sep 10, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 96%
| Burma VJ (2009) | "
Narrated by a frightened journalist who trembles as he accumulates forbidden footage and provides a historical viewpoint, "Burma VJ" uses shocking video images and reconstructed scenes to create a coherent, mostly chronological account of what happened." — Seattle Times Posted Aug 27, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 88%
| Inglourious Basterds (2009) | "
Tarantino's wartime fantasies may leave history in the dust, but his movie is a surprisingly satisfying contribution to movies about the Holocaust." — Seattle Times Posted Aug 20, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 93%
| Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! (2009) | "
Not Quite Hollywood is jammed with well-preserved clips of the Aussie movies that started pushing the limits after censorship was essentially dropped in 1971." — Seattle Times Posted Aug 14, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 65%
| Adam (2009) | "
For much of its first hour, writer/director Max Mayer's Adam is one of the year's more endearing love stories." — Seattle Times Posted Aug 14, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 58%
| A Perfect Getaway (2009) | "
[Director] Twohy eventually paints himself into a corner with an explanation that's fatally far-fetched. By the end, you're convinced he'll try anything, no matter how illogical, to hold the audience's attention." — Seattle Times Posted Aug 6, 2009 |
Rotten 3/4
| Fresh 95%
| The Cove (2009) | "
For a generation that grew up with Flipper and The Day of the Dolphin, the tense, powerful new documentary, The Cove, is a horror movie." — Seattle Times Posted Aug 6, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 26%
| Shrink (2009) | "
The script by Thomas Moffett slickly satirizes the movie industry's fascination with vampires and special effects without being especially compelling or original." — Seattle Times Posted Jul 30, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 84%
| The Windmill Movie (2009) | "
Although the format will be familiar to fans of Tarnation and Capturing the Friedmans, the result comes closer to Fellini's autobiographical 8 ½." — Seattle Times Posted Jul 23, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 54%
| The Stoning of Soraya M. (2009) | "
The spoiler is in the title of The Stoning of Soraya M., a powerful, relentlessly brutal drama about Iranian capital punishment." — Seattle Times Posted Jul 16, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 85%
| Kabei: Our Mother (2009) | "
Partly because they're relatively rare, homefront movies usually offer a fresh perspective on the tragedies of World War II. That's the case once more with Kabei: Our Mother, a sad and stirring drama from the other side of the Pacific." — Seattle Times Posted Jul 10, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 94%
| Munyurangabo (2009) | "
It's the latest in a long and worthy line of low-budget, partly improvised neorealist movies that mix fiction with documentarylike qualities." — Seattle Times Posted Jun 26, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 33%
| The Last International Playboy (2009) | "
They're deeply uninteresting people, thanks to a trite and far-fetched script. There's very little the actors can do to make them credible." — Seattle Times Posted Jun 19, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 89%
| O'Horten (2009) | "
Thanks to the consistent deadpan tone that Hamer and Owe establish, it's oddly satisfying." — Seattle Times Posted Jun 19, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 81%
| Departures (2009) | "
Departures is such an elegant, beautifully mounted meditation on death, funeral customs and parent-child relations that you may find yourself sniffling and resisting simultaneously." — Seattle Times Posted Jun 5, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 25%
| Land of the Lost (2009) | "
It's hard to say what audience Silberling had in mind. For the kids, there's a steady parade of dinosaurs, time-travel adventures and absent-minded- professor jokes. But there are no kids to identify with." — Seattle Times Posted Jun 5, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 92%
| Drag Me To Hell (2009) | "
[The characters are] so innocuous, and they're played with so little verve, that you don't feel a strong identification when their lives are wrecked." — Seattle Times Posted May 28, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 73%
| Rudo and Cursi (2009) | "
Some of this is funny, thanks to the playful performances, but much of it just seems familiar and juvenile." — Seattle Times Posted May 22, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 32%
| Terminator Salvation (2009) | "
Too bad Schwarzenegger is otherwise occupied these days." — Seattle Times Posted May 20, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 91%
| Katyn (2007) | "
Has sweep and conviction and, most rewardingly, a long-overdue revelation of historical truth." — Seattle Times Posted May 14, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 86%
| Tyson (2009) | "
When Tyson finally admits defeat and announces retirement, it's those crinkly, hurting eyes you remember." — Seattle Times Posted May 14, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 94%
| Goodbye Solo (2009) | "
What began as something of a lark becomes increasingly grave, and the actors skillfully adjust to that change in tone." — Seattle Times Posted May 7, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 66%
| Is Anybody There? (2009) | "
Despite all the rough edges and predictable touches, the film becomes quite moving in its final act." — Seattle Times Posted Apr 30, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 86%
| Ice People (2009) | "
The director, Anne Aghion, likes to fill the screen with the kinds of lonely landscapes that David Lean once used to suggest another kind of desert." — Seattle Times Posted Apr 29, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 41%
| Fighting (2009) | "
Still, the biggest problem with ighting is that Fight Club (which was released 10 years ago) got there first. On almost every level -- pacing, humor, originality, the choreography of the fight scenes -- Fighting can't touch it." — Seattle Times Posted Apr 23, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 88%
| Sin Nombre (2009) | "
Tragic and gripping, Cary Fukunaga's Sin Nombre revitalizes a gang-warfare genre that had appeared to be played out lately." — Seattle Times Posted Apr 9, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 35%
| Alien Trespass (2009) | "
Bewildered? You won't be alone." — Seattle Times Posted Apr 2, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 92%
| Tokyo Sonata (2009) | "
A goofy and remarkably topical comedy-drama." — Seattle Times Posted Mar 26, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 33%
| Knowing (2009) | "
A little levity, applied at key moments, might have helped it make its points and lend plausibility to its characters." — Seattle Times Posted Mar 19, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 83%
| Beauty in Trouble (2008) | "
Beauty in Trouble uses another kind of catastrophe to reveal the true nature of its central characters." — Seattle Times Posted Mar 12, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Rotten 16%
| Crossing Over (2009) | "
Like too many Crash wannabes, Crossing Over gets an A for effort and a C-plus for execution." — Seattle Times Posted Mar 12, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| N/A | Rem Koolhaas: A Kind of Architect (2009) | "
Busy. Captivating." — Seattle Times Posted Mar 6, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 97%
| The Class (2008) | "
Cantet has created a deceptively simple film that gradually deconstructs a Hollywood genre." — Seattle Times Posted Feb 19, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 25%
| Friday the 13th (2009) | "
Everyone's working with a much bigger budget this time, but the end result is just as stupid and not as scary as the original." — Seattle Times Posted Feb 12, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 13%
| The Pink Panther 2 (2009) | "
Alas, the second time proves no charm for The Pink Panther 2, Steve Martin's latest flimsy attempt to resurrect Sellers' bumbling Inspector Clouseau for the 21st century." — Seattle Times Posted Feb 5, 2009 |
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