Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 92%
| Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) | "
The film earns its title's superlative and a hundred more." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 24, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 69%
| The Road (2009) | "
John Milton described hell as "darkness visible." That is the grim, mesmerizing world that director John Hillcoat creates here." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 24, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 85%
| Red Cliff (2009) | "
The compelling emotion that marks the best Woo movies is AWOL. The pacing is choppy, with most of the human moments lopped off. Is the Han emperor the good guy? Or should we cheer the rebellious opposition warlords? And what the heck is a viceroy?" — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 24, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 91%
| Precious: Based on the Novel PUSH by Sapphire (2009) | "
Despite the film's clear social conscience and sympathy for the community it portrays, Precious never panders for compassion." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 19, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 90%
| The Messenger (2009) | "
This is a poignant war movie, but it's also a buddy movie with a difference, one that's both funny and bleak." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 19, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 73%
| The Blind Side (2009) | "
Watching The Blind Side, I felt my emotions being stage-managed, but once or twice I got something in my eye." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 19, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 30%
| The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) | "
Kristen Stewart brings such raw vulnerability to the screen that she makes moping attractive." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 19, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 38%
| 2012 (2009) | "
Films of this sort are plotted shish kebab style: disaster, change of scenery, new disaster. But on the level of spectacle, 2012 is top-notch." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 12, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 87%
| Skin (2009) | "
It feels hurried, looks cheap, and works overtime to simplify a complex, flawed character into a noble, tragic heroine. The film speaks fluent cliché." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 12, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Rotten 49%
| Antichrist (2009) | "
To watch the Danish provocateur's new film is to experience unrelenting pain, shading into revulsion, while being inspired by his virtuoso command of the medium and sharp intelligence." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 12, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 59%
| Pirate Radio (2009) | "
Imagine the dullest moments from Almost Famous and the lamest bits from Animal House held together with clumsy Frankenstein stitching. Now punch yourself in the face. There you go." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 12, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 16%
| Gentlemen Broncos (2009) | "
A tedious and unfocused concoction involving science fiction, plagiarism and the nightgown industry." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 12, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 22%
| The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009) | "
It's as if writer/director Troy Duffy threw every idea he had at the wall, creating a very messy wall." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 12, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 55%
| Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009) | "
Favors thrill-ride effects that are more often the star than the servant of the story. It's like "Silent Night" played by Led Zeppelin." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 5, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 54%
| The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009) | "
The yarn unravels without ever identifying its satirical targets. Is it a lampoon of peace-and-love mysticism? A critique of militant war-for-profit privateers? Ultimately, it's a shapeless wad of goat cheese." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 5, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 85%
| Flame & Citron (2008) | "
To its credit, the film gives full weight to the confusion and ambivalence of war; the struggle for liberation from tyranny rarely looks so dubious." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 5, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 94%
| An Education (2009) | "
An Education is a vibrant portrait of England on the cusp of its postwar rebirth." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 29, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 29%
| The Canyon (2009) | "
Hint to newlyweds: Don't honeymoon in a primeval wilderness populated by diamondback rattlesnakes, aggressive wolves and alcoholic wilderness guides." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 29, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 94%
| Good Hair (2009) | "
Morgan Spurlock, look lively. Sacha Baron Cohen, watch your back. Chris Rock's bright, wisecracking exposé Good Hair is the mane event." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 22, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 38%
| Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009) | "
The film shuffles together episodes from the first three volumes of the 12-book Cirque saga, which may explain its rushed, patchy feel. It unfurls like a series of skits." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 22, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 70%
| Where the Wild Things Are (2009) | "
In an era glutted with sanitized, prefabricated, computer-generated kids' stuff, this is an experience of sophisticated cross-generational appeal. It digs deep into childhood's bright, manic exuberance and also its confusion and gloom." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 15, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 65%
| Coco Before Chanel (2009) | "
The film, although sumptuously produced, is a staid and conventional account of her early years." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 15, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 22%
| Law Abiding Citizen (2009) | "
The movie is not -- putting it courteously -- tightly constructed. The narrative shifts are jerky and the tone bounces around like a Jeep on a dirt road." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 15, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 73%
| More Than a Game (2009) | "
It's a resonant story about four boyhood friends, determination, sacrifice, overcoming obstacles and the mentor who guides them from rough beginnings to the national basketball championship. It's about victorious lives, not games." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 15, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 100%
| Still Walking (2009) | "
Still Walking strikes an extraordinary balance between the moment-to-moment pleasure of life and the inevitable regret that accompanies time's passing." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 15, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 88%
| Amreeka (2009) | "
Director Cherien Dabis' debut feature is a surprising, humorous, moving and very human story about a Palestinian family's emigration to Illinois on the eve of the Iraq war." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 15, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 100%
| Le Samourai (1967) | "
Delon's inscrutable presence adds to an unnerving atmosphere of anticipation. You feel that something bad could come crashing into the frame at any second. And you would be right." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 8, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 83%
| Paranormal Activity (2009) | "
Without financing, stars or more than a couple of special effects, first-time writer/director Olen Peli has made a diabolically effective essay in irrational horror." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 8, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 72%
| The Boys Are Back (2009) | "
Has there been a better film about single fatherhood than The Boys Are Back? None that I recall." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 8, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 12%
| Couples Retreat (2009) | "
Couples Retreat is a pleasant, undemanding, middle-of-the-road comedy, and really, were you expecting anything else?" — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 8, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 86%
| A Serious Man (2009) | "
Man plans, God laughs, and so do the Coen brothers." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 1, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 82%
| Whip It (2009) | "
Scene for scene and beat for beat, this roller derby crowd-pleaser crackles with joy and jubilation." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 1, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 56%
| The Invention of Lying (2009) | "
Sublimely funny, slyly satirical and deliberately designed to upset Aunt Prissy, The Invention of Lying weaves quite a wicked web." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 1, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 75%
| Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) | "
With Capitalism: A Love Story, Michael Moore delivers his liveliest, most radical film to date." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 1, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 28%
| Fame (2009) | "
The picture is fitfully effective, but the story disappears in the editing bay. The movie has about as much heft as watching jesters and fire eaters at a village fair." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Sep 25, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 31%
| The Burning Plain (2009) | "
The film is strikingly photographed and intensely acted, but the tone is overwrought melodrama." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Sep 25, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 76%
| The Informant! (2009) | "
The film's casting is spot on. Damon is delightful playing someone who is a terrible actor. Wearing a ghastly muffin-shaped hairdo, an ill-advised mustache and 30 extra pounds around his waist, he's hardly recognizable as lethal Jason Bourne." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Sep 17, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 45%
| Jennifer's Body (2009) | "
It's a serviceable premise, but the execution fails on almost every level." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Sep 17, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 72%
| I Sell the Dead (2009) | "
The budget was clearly minuscule, but writer/director Glenn McQuaid's deft dialogue, strong characters and clever plotting attracted some impressive acting talent." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Sep 17, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 96%
| The Beaches of Agnes (2009) | "
When was the last time you saw a world-renowned director converse with a cartoon cat or dress as a potato?" — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Sep 17, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 18%
| Love Happens (2009) | "
A harmless time-waster that could have been more." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Sep 17, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Fresh 84%
| Captain Abu Raed (2008) | "
Gentle, humanistic and suffocatingly sentimental." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Sep 16, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 56%
| 9 (2009) | "
Exquisite visuals aside, 9 plays like a sock monkey version of Doom." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Sep 8, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 63%
| Extract (2009) | "
Bateman suffers under an ever-mounting pile of indignities with strained patience. Most viewers will probably view the fitfully amusing movie the same way." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Sep 3, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 6%
| All About Steve (2009) | "
While Bullock is often cast as the kook you want to hug, here she is a nut you want to run away from." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Sep 3, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 70%
| My One and Only (2009) | "
My One and Only is like a tale told by a first-rate raconteur, its twists and turns all the more intriguing because it's all true -- more or less." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Sep 3, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| N/A | Into Temptation (2009) | "
Into Temptation is a haunting, carefully crafted movie about a woman with mile-wide rips in her soul and the flawed priest who aims to save her." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Aug 27, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 75%
| Cold Souls (2009) | "
Peppered with ingenious twists of imagination, Cold Souls walks a tightrope between intellectual slapstick and edgy social commentary." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Aug 27, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 93%
| Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg (2009) | "
Aviva Kempner's documentary Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg is a delightful introduction to Berg, who began writing and performing skits at her father's resort hotel in the Catskill Mountains, then studied drama at Columbia University." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Aug 27, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Rotten 49%
| Taking Woodstock (2009) | "
Taking Woodstock has fine moments and an enjoyable vibe, but it never develops a coherent point of view." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Aug 27, 2009 |
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