Rotten 2/4
| N/A | Cooking with Stella (2010) | "
Meant to be a funny clash of cultures but, suddenly and with scant warning, it turns into a confused clamour of genres." Posted Mar 19, 2010 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 51%
| She's Out of My League (2010) | "
There are compensations, in Baruchel’s performance and in Eve’s too (now that’s an ingenue’s name)." Posted Mar 12, 2010 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 26%
| The Red Baron (2010) | "
His plane may be red, but the dialogue is purple." Posted Mar 12, 2010 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 16%
| Our Family Wedding (2010) | "
To anyone who has ever sparked up a TV set, let alone entered a movie theatre, all this is perfectly evident in the first five minutes." Posted Mar 12, 2010 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 52%
| Alice in Wonderland (2010) | "
The true three-dimensionality here is the old-fashioned kind -- Wasikowska’s fully rounded performance. Throughout the technical razzle-dazzle, we keep returning to the pallor of that face, the gravity in those eyes." Posted Mar 5, 2010 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 81%
| Ghost Writer (2010) | "
The result is a political thriller refreshingly long on grown-up dialogue yet lamentably shy on, well, thrills. This chatty thing does go on." Posted Mar 5, 2010 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 91%
| The Messenger (2009) | "
The bombshell is the news of a soldier’s death and the delivery of that message is the heart of this unsentimental, yet deeply moving, story." Posted Feb 26, 2010 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 72%
| The Crazies (2010) | "
The blood is certainly convincing these days, but it generally flows only in the safest and most inoffensive, uncontroversial directions." Posted Feb 26, 2010 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 100%
| The Most Dangerous Man in America (2009) | "
Efficiently wedding archival footage to contemporary interviews, co-directors Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith take a chronological approach to Ellsberg’s journey of courage." Posted Feb 19, 2010 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 89%
| Fish Tank (2010) | "
To the script’s credit, when the climax comes it feels inevitable yet surprising too -- that ideal combination." Posted Feb 19, 2010 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 67%
| Shutter Island (2010) | "
Sorry, but the late reward hardly justifies all that punishment." Posted Feb 19, 2010 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 18%
| Valentine's Day (2010) | "
The film may be set in L.A., but no scene lasts longer than a New York minute." Posted Feb 12, 2010 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 51%
| Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010) | "
Dutifully Potteresque it begins, and dutifully Potteresque it ends." Posted Feb 12, 2010 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 27%
| Dear John (2010) | "
C’mon, it’s the millennium, it’s the electronic age, where soldiers everywhere fight with one finger on the trigger of their gun and the other on the send button of their cell phone." Posted Feb 5, 2010 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 90%
| I Killed My Mother (2010) | "
A coming-of-age tale as ferociously raw as its teller -- the very young Xavier Dolan." Posted Feb 5, 2010 |
Rotten 2/4
| N/A | The Body (2010) | "
Weighty political and philosophic issues may well be buried somewhere in this Body. But it would take an electron microscope to find them." Posted Feb 1, 2010 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 63%
| Bliss (2007) | "
his is just unabashed melodrama, complete with mustachioed villain and wicked stepmother and wronged heroine and rescuing hero, all tied up in a love story sweet enough to make Hollywood blush." Posted Jan 29, 2010 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 17%
| When in Rome (2010) | "
In the case of When in Rome, oh to do what the Romans used to do: Toss the bloody thing to the lions." Posted Jan 29, 2010 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 83%
| The White Ribbon (2009) | "
The film, even while drawing us into its creepy web, also disappoints." Posted Jan 15, 2010 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 32%
| The Lovely Bones (2009) | "
Some books should stay between their covers, and The Lovely Bones may well be one of them." Posted Jan 15, 2010 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 45%
| The Book of Eli (2010) | "
Really, it's just another prophet-in-the-wilderness tale -- not nearly as bad as those trailers would suggest, yet neither will your soul run any risk of enlightenment." Posted Jan 15, 2010 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 67%
| Daybreakers (2010) | "
Daybreakers is more fun than foreboding; it's fright-lite, yet that's par for the bloody course in these busy apocalyptic days." Posted Jan 8, 2010 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 68%
| Youth in Revolt (2010) | "
Cera may be trapped in his unchanging persona, but no more than this picture is walled in by its sitcom conventions." Posted Jan 8, 2010 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 58%
| It's Complicated (2009) | "
Meyers does her job pretty well. She's a clever contriver, adept at adding a patina of apparent relevance, even a veneer of feminism, to situations that are otherwise bogus and artificial." Posted Dec 24, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 82%
| Avatar (2009) | "
Big money, big risk, pretty big reward. That's been his consistent pattern, and it's high time to give credit where credit is overdue: James Cameron delivers." Posted Dec 18, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 85%
| A Single Man (2009) | "
Colin Firth isn't the only reason to see A Single Man, but he's certainly the best." Posted Dec 11, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 45%
| Everybody's Fine (2009) | "
If nothing else (and there ain't much else), Everybody's Fine does prove one thing: Even an actor with the gifts of Robert De Niro can't make bland interesting." Posted Dec 4, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 90%
| Up in the Air (2009) | "
Reitman possesses a flair for off-kilter scenarios, and he's in fine form again, taking his triangulated principals -- Ryan, Alex, Keener -- out of their comfort zones and into a more complicated geometry." Posted Dec 4, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 93%
| Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) | "
The tale may be Dahl's, but there's a whole new wag to it -- this is decidedly, weirdly and, at best, wonderfully a Wes Anderson movie." Posted Nov 25, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 86%
| Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) | "
Add director Werner Herzog to the mix, a guy who knows a thing or a hundred about obsessive protagonists, and we're in for quite the ride -- wild and weird and blackly comic." Posted Nov 20, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 22%
| Planet 51 (2009) | "
With nowhere to go except toward that incongruous moral, the story is getting thin on the ground, obliging director Jorge Blanco to pad with the usual plush stuffing -- bland action and busy edits." Posted Nov 20, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| N/A | Love & Savagery (2009) | "
The pair struggle to embody characters who tend to seem like scripted abstractions and clashing symbols. That is, they struggle until the climax, when something wonderful happens." Posted Nov 13, 2009 |
Fresh 2/4
| N/A | Prom Night in Mississippi (2010) | "
Mainly the film is obliged to circle around the absent centre of the conflict, the dark heart of the very issue under scrutiny. Consequently, like a skinny boy in an oversized tux, it has to pad." Posted Nov 13, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 39%
| 2012 (2009) | "
As always in Emmerich's rollicking Armageddons, the cannon speaks with an expensive bang, while the fodder gets afforded nary a whimper." Posted Nov 13, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 55%
| Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009) | "
There's a lot of dark magic in this Dickensian Yuletide." Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| N/A | Inside Hana's Suitcase (2009) | "
What always feels genuine, movingly so, are the faces of the school children caught up in their account of the unforgotten past." Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 18%
| The Fourth Kind (2009) | "
The mission here is to demonstrate how, in this explosive age of dubious information, cynicism can be quickly trumped by gullibility." Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| N/A | Three Blind Mice (2009) | "
We've seen how they run. Now see if we care." Posted Oct 30, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 73%
| More Than a Game (2009) | "
Really, it's just an extension of the LeBron James brand, released to coincide with a book on the same subject and designed to explore the star's humble roots even while further buffing his galactic glitter." Posted Oct 30, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 77%
| Bronson (2009) | "
Bronson is one of those “based on a true story” dramatizations where the theatrically staged drama only gets in the way of the more interesting truth." Posted Oct 30, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 20%
| Amelia (2009) | "
Seldom has a bio's style clashed so deafeningly with its content." Posted Oct 23, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 14%
| Stan Helsing (2009) | "
How do you make fun of boredom without being boring? Well, that's a tall task requiring lots of smarts and even more artistry." Posted Oct 23, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 25%
| Law Abiding Citizen (2009) | "
This strikes me as narrative cheating, but you may play the critical game by more relaxed rules." Posted Oct 16, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 94%
| The Damned United (2009) | "
Like a skill player who just can't score, The Damned United is all dazzle and no finish and, ultimately, damned frustrating." Posted Oct 16, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| N/A | Haeundae (2009) | "
When all is screamed and done, disaster's mimicry is only competent at best." Posted Oct 9, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 11%
| Couples Retreat (2009) | "
There are also scenes, the disjointed kind that wander off aimlessly in the vague hope of finding a movie, not to mention a laugh." Posted Oct 9, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 81%
| Unmistaken Child (2009) | "
This documentary is only partly a story of the chosen one; mainly, and more intriguingly, it's a chronicle of the choosing one, of the nervous young monk charged with the job of leading the search party." Posted Oct 2, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 64%
| Coco Before Chanel (2009) | "
Director Anne Fontaine is at her strongest when she's aiding and abetting Chanel's all-seeing gaze." Posted Oct 2, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 89%
| Zombieland (2009) | "
At a brisk 80 minutes, the flick isn't a minute too short. Better yet, for those with a sweet fang for confections, it's far more charming than chilling and way more funny than frightening." Posted Oct 2, 2009 |
