Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 68%
| Sherlock Holmes (2009) | "
While a fish rots from its head down, a film suffers from the screenplay up -- which is where Sherlock Homes stinks." Posted Dec 30, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 50%
| It's Complicated (2009) | "
Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin don't elevate this Nancy Meyers comedy as much as they save it from itself. It has all the earmarks of a door-slamming French sex farce, but without the messy subtitles." Posted Dec 23, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 89%
| Up in the Air (2009) | "
It's a lean and economical film about a lean and economical time. The only things it is rich in are empathy and compassion." Posted Dec 17, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 72%
| The Road (2009) | "
The concussive soundscape rumbles like thunder in the distance. And the film's episodic terseness is the poetry of cataclysm, in a language that needs no translation." Posted Dec 17, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 13%
| Did You Hear About the Morgans? (2009) | "
It's not great art, but it has a certain goofy effervescence, mostly thanks to Hugh Grant." Posted Dec 17, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 82%
| Me and Orson Welles (2009) | "
My favorite holiday meal is ham, not turkey. That might be why I find Me and Orson Welles so appetizing." Posted Dec 17, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 94%
| The Damned United (2009) | "
That Clough is still remembered enough to have a film made about him is no surprise. But that he is remembered fondly suggests memory is a dish best served cold." Posted Dec 10, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 76%
| Invictus (2009) | "
[It is] a tangible and rousing reminder of those rare and fleeting moments when things turn out for the best, and its optimism about finding common ground is contagious." Posted Dec 10, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Rotten 46%
| Everybody's Fine (2009) | "
Some well-observed details and a credible performance from Robert De Niro help make it feel genuine now and again before it collapses into simplistic and sentimental clichés." Posted Dec 3, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 87%
| The Baader Meinhof Complex (2009) | "
The 150-minute-long, Oscar-nominated foreign-language film, based on a 1987 book, has a rat-a-tat pace and a lurid, film noir quality that captures the chaos and hysteria of the era that bred and sustained them." Posted Dec 3, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 93%
| Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) | "
Anderson is a thematic and stylistic eccentric, whose meticulous and dazzling sense of artifice results in a fully realized world that travels at top speed and is miniature only in scale." Posted Nov 24, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 6%
| Old Dogs (2009) | "
Williams is encouraged to supercharge his silliness, Travolta plays straight man and the kids are relegated to background noise." Posted Nov 24, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 92%
| Precious: Based on the Novel PUSH by Sapphire (2009) | "
A gut-wrenching, heartbreaking and awe-inspiring pull-no-punches tale with pitch-perfect performances..." Posted Nov 19, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 28%
| The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) | "
While the teasing cliffhanger of an ending is intended to make fans hungry for more, the truth is the franchise is already running on fumes. Fans may care, but casual viewers won't." Posted Nov 19, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 39%
| 2012 (2009) | "
There are fates worse than death, and 2012 is one of them." Posted Nov 12, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 94%
| An Education (2009) | "
Scherfig and Hornby craft a portrait of an era whose innocence is overstated without resorting to sepia tinged nostalgia. The result is a snapshot of how we become who we become, as a vibrant and affectionate act of memory." Posted Nov 5, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Rotten 54%
| The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009) | "
It's all amusing and loopy, while also insincere and unfocused. The film mocks rigid militarism and faddish alternative movements both, but it offers few fresh observations about either." Posted Nov 5, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Rotten 55%
| Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009) | "
If you want realism, use actors. If you want animation, use your imagination. Sadly, imagination is missing from this technically impressive but emotionally inert film." Posted Nov 5, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 87%
| A Serious Man (2009) | "
A perfectly wrought, exquisitely calibrated and miniature-scaled portrait of a specific time and place and the changes they wrought, made by filmmakers who have their art down to a science." Posted Oct 22, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 73%
| Where the Wild Things Are (2009) | "
Children's literature is filled with loss, fear and sorrow, and we can only imagine how such stories pinball around a child's developing subconscious. And such concerns are the live-action film's speculative springboard." Posted Oct 15, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 72%
| The Boys Are Back (2009) | "
The boys are great, and the relationship between brothers who have been thrown together because they share the same absentee father is the film's truest, sweetest element." Posted Oct 8, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 74%
| Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) | "
Capitalism: A Love Story is a Michael Moore movie that Fox News viewers might like." Posted Oct 1, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 83%
| Whip It (2009) | "
Roller derby is more than women in fishnet stockings on roller skates. But Whip It isn't." Posted Oct 1, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Rotten 44%
| Jennifer's Body (2009) | "
Fanboys get to drool over haughty, come-hither Megan Fox, playing the oversexed and undead title character. And fangirls get a feminist version of a genre that typically is made in the image of a male fantasy." Posted Sep 17, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Fresh 63%
| Extract (2009) | "
The threads running through Extract are less actual ideas than loose screws rattling around aimlessly." Posted Sep 3, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 88%
| Inglourious Basterds (2009) | "
Whatever Inglourious Basterds lacks as a satisfying whole, it makes up for in the sum total of its assertive parts." Posted Aug 21, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 38%
| The Time Traveler's Wife (2009) | "
The story's fantastic elements are left poorly explained, and the romantic elements are left unexplored; the result is tepid on both counts." Posted Aug 13, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 90%
| District 9 (2009) | "
The result is like a two-stage booster rocket, propelled by a tricky structure, deft style and original scenario before settling into the sort of orbit any fanboy could recognize and appreciate." Posted Aug 13, 2009 |
Rotten 3/4
| Fresh 75%
| Julie & Julia (2009) | "
Elevating the mediocre simply by one's presence is probably the definition of star power, and Streep makes good material better and marginal material worth watching." Posted Aug 7, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 81%
| Departures (2009) | "
A compassionate and wry character study of a man who, finding himself at a crossroads, is reborn through death." Posted Jul 31, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 97%
| The Hurt Locker (2009) | "
If The Hurt Locker doesn't capture what it's like to serve or live in Iraq, no film ever will." Posted Jul 24, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 86%
| 500 Days of Summer (2009) | "
(500) Days of Summer is clever, thoughtful and well-acted, and it manages to refresh a genre grown stale through repetition." Posted Jul 24, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 83%
| Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) | "
Hogwarts now resembles just another English boarding school, and the childlike wonder that marked previous entries in the series has been replaced by a real-world sense of responsibility and looming consequence." Posted Jul 15, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 89%
| Moon (2009) | "
In much the same way we take for granted the fact that science drives our lives in countless and invisible ways, Moon takes a satisfyingly pragmatic approach to the extraordinary." Posted Jul 9, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 67%
| Bruno (2009) | "
Whether you believe Brüno is the caustic comedy of a political prankster or the rude humor of a smart-aleck, it's hard to deny that there is a subversive intelligence at work." Posted Jul 9, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 47%
| Whatever Works (2009) | "
It is a once-more-into-the-void cosmic shrug of the shoulders by a man whose films, almost more than any other American director's, reflect his world view." Posted Jul 3, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 67%
| Public Enemies (2009) | "
This account is true as far as it goes. It just doesn't go far enough." Posted Jul 1, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 73%
| Rudo and Cursi (2009) | "
While the likable film has a vivid sense of place and a tongue-in-cheek sensibility, the visual and storytelling styles of the younger and elder Cuaron are nothing alike." Posted Jun 5, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 10%
| My Life in Ruins (2009) | "
Actress Nia Vardalos traipses through the same ethnic minefield that she did in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but with less explosive results." Posted Jun 5, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 77%
| The Hangover (2009) | "
It is a situation comedy dressed in narrative clothing, and the story it tells is less amusing than the high-concept premise." Posted Jun 5, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 98%
| Up (2009) | "
While Up achieves liftoff and even soars, it encounters enough turbulence to result in a bumpy flight." Posted May 28, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 85%
| Tyson (2009) | "
Stage-managed acts of public apology are de rigueur for penitent celebrities and athletes, but few lay it on the line like Tyson does here." Posted May 21, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Rotten 31%
| Terminator Salvation (2009) | "
Viscerally intense and marginally entertaining while being narratively incomprehensible and simplistic." Posted May 21, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 93%
| Sugar (2009) | "
It is a gently persuasive, bittersweet run around the base paths in the game of life." Posted May 14, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 36%
| Angels & Demons (2009) | "
Like The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons is a smoke-and-mirrors shadow play of half-truths, a synthesis of pseudo-history and pseudo-science. But this time, the Apollo 13 director achieves liftoff." Posted May 14, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 94%
| Star Trek (2009) | "
The result is not a great film, but it is great fun." Posted May 7, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 37%
| X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) | "
Despite a 150-year-old backstory that dates to before the Civil War and runs through subsequent conflicts, the title is never fulfilled." Posted May 7, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 98%
| Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2009) | "
Anvil's plight would be funny if it weren't true. Its extent is intimately examined in a film that makes you uncomfortable because it is true." Posted Apr 30, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 59%
| Paris 36 (2008) | "
Paris 36 is a quaint trifle, re-creating an era and its atmosphere with nostalgia and affection." Posted Apr 30, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 55%
| The Soloist (2009) | "
The result feels manipulative and superficial." Posted Apr 23, 2009 |
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