Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 37%
| Speed Racer (2008) | "
To have a series of poses effectively substitute for battle in a live-action summer blockbuster film in this way is to... well, it's to take Godardian notions to places where even Godard might never have dreamed of taking them." Posted May 7, 2008 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 93%
| Iron Man (2008) | "
Seeing Downey and Bridges duel is one of the film's primary delights." Posted Apr 30, 2008 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 80%
| Standard Operating Procedure (2008) | "
Morris' method has a subliminal message -- it reminds you that he, as a filmmaker, is also manipulating this thing called 'reality.' It's his way of telling the viewer to never stop asking questions." Posted Apr 23, 2008 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 84%
| Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) | "
Yeah, it's pretty funny. And it's a pretty accurate depiction of a certain feature of male romantic humiliation. But it's also a little -- and this is one of my two misgivings about the movie -- expected." Posted Apr 16, 2008 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Rotten 49%
| My Blueberry Nights (2008) | "
One hopes that, having possibly purged his romanticized preconceptions about the U.S., Wong comes back sometime, gets comfortable with his setting, and forges a unique vision." Posted Apr 3, 2008 |
Rotten 0/4
| Rotten 20%
| Chapter 27 (2008) | "
Visually ugly, morally non-existent and a complete black hole in the departments of insight and wit, Chapter 27 is quite possibly the most godawful, irredeemable film to yet emerge in the 21st century." Posted Mar 27, 2008 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 93%
| Shotgun Stories (2007) | "
It's rare that a picture that deals with as much tragedy as this one also manages to convey as much warmth to its characters." Posted Mar 27, 2008 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 48%
| Run, Fat Boy, Run (2008) | "
[Director] David Schwimmer takes the sow's ear of a script given him by [Simon] Pegg and Michael Ian Black and deep-fries it into a burnt pork rind of a movie." Posted Mar 27, 2008 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 79%
| Chicago 10 (2008) | "
The material is incredibly compelling -- though trust me, it was even more compelling (and scary) as it was happening." Posted Mar 14, 2008 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 51%
| Funny Games (2008) | "
Throughout the picture, Haneke demonstrates an imperial hauteur that completely undercuts his already dubious point." Posted Mar 14, 2008 |
Fresh
| Rotten 27%
| Boarding Gate (2007) | "
[Boarding Gate] rocked me pretty hard." Posted Feb 29, 2008 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 67%
| The Duchess of Langeais (2008) | "
The latest film from master French director Jacques Rivette is a masterful, multilayered, sometimes enigmatic work of dark irony, an assured tragicomedy of manners and more." Posted Feb 20, 2008 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 65%
| Be Kind Rewind (2008) | "
A would-be heart-tugging, inspiring paean to the do-it-yourself ethic/aesthetic and its concomitant community-building powers, the latest film from visual lo-fi innovator Michel Gondry is slight and finally unconvincing, alas." Posted Feb 20, 2008 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 80%
| In Bruges (2008) | "
For all its very snappy dialogue and daringly crass humor, In Bruges aims to be about, in one character's words, "guilt and sins and hell and all that."" Posted Feb 8, 2008 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 22%
| The Eye (2008) | "
A tediously noisesome English-language remake of an Asian horror picture that wasn't any great shakes to begin with." Posted Feb 1, 2008 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 96%
| Persepolis (2007) | "
It is, as much as anything else, an expression of a personality, an insistence that the singular voice of a single heart has meaning and can speak meaningfully across cultural boundaries both real and created." Posted Jan 4, 2008 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 79%
| The Great Debaters (2007) | "
It's terrifically acted, pretty much a given with this cast." Posted Jan 4, 2008 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 79%
| Private Fears in Public Places (2007) | "
What makes Private Fears so extraordinary is not just how it completely upends the expectations that have come to seem inherent in such a structure, but how Resnais constantly pushes the boundaries of his, well, let's call it visual depiction." Posted Jan 4, 2008 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 91%
| There Will Be Blood (2007) | "
This film invaded my consciousness (literally -- I had a dream about it the first night I saw it, a very rare occurrence) and still has a tight, daunting grip on it." Posted Dec 26, 2007 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 89%
| The Savages (2007) | "
If any film comedy prior to The Savages so fully earns the characterization 'painfully funny,' I'd like to know about it." Posted Nov 28, 2007 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 86%
| Starting Out in the Evening (2007) | "
[Langella's] sometimes halting but always beautifully articulated line deliveries impeccably convey a man for whom words are, literally, everything, including a last line of defense." Posted Nov 21, 2007 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 36%
| Southland Tales (2007) | "
Every time [writer-director Richard] Kelly manages to build up a halfway decent head of comic froth...he blows it with some god-awful portent or "statement."" Posted Nov 14, 2007 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 82%
| Into the Wild (2007) | "
It's got a cast that any Hollywood producer would envy, all doing good work as the various people touched by McCandless during his journey." Posted Sep 20, 2007 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 54%
| Across the Universe (2007) | "
Just when you think the movie can't possibly get more literal, more kitsch-infused, more mortifyingly soft-headed, it does." Posted Sep 14, 2007 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 19%
| The Invasion (2007) | "
The fourth film based on Jack Finney's novel The Body Snatchers and the worst of them all." Posted Aug 16, 2007 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 63%
| Death at a Funeral (2007) | "
Oz keeps all these balls in the air pretty deftly, and the cast tears into it. What gums things up is Craig's script." Posted Aug 14, 2007 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 76%
| Stardust (2007) | "
As Vaughan demonstrated with Layer Cake, he can shift so smoothly between goofy and gruesome that you don't feel a thing that he doesn't want you to." Posted Aug 9, 2007 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 93%
| The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) | "
Thrillers this effective are often called "tight," and it's true that this picture doesn't waste a second." Posted Aug 6, 2007 |
Rotten 0/4
| Rotten 8%
| I Know Who Killed Me (2007) | "
Risible, grotesque, and incoherent." Posted Jul 27, 2007 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 39%
| No Reservations (2007) | "
All involved, in fact, hit their marks on the way to the picture's warm, fuzzy, complacent denouement." Posted Jul 26, 2007 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 90%
| The Simpsons Movie (2007) | "
As refreshing a summer tonic as one could hope for." Posted Jul 26, 2007 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 91%
| Hairspray (2007) | "
Hairspray proves that summer movie fun needn't be witless and/or soulless." Posted Jul 16, 2007 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 77%
| Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) | "
For the most part this adaptation, scripted by Michael Goldenberg and directed by David Yates, a British television veteran, is a marvel of compression that moves along at a brisk pace without ever feeling rushed." Posted Jul 9, 2007 |
Fresh
| Fresh 78%
| 1408 (2007) | "
While 1408 is no classic, it is refreshing to see a horror picture that just wants to do its job rather than prove to its audience how ruthlessly nihilistic it is." Posted Jun 22, 2007 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 93%
| Sicko (2007) | "
This is a movie, not a position paper, and Moore aims to entertain as he informs." Posted Jun 21, 2007 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 17%
| Georgia Rule (2007) | "
If there was ever a film project that deserved sabotaging, this is it." Posted May 10, 2007 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 62%
| Spider-Man 3 (2007) | "
This is a movie that's content to be pretty good within its genre, with the main distinction of being much bigger than any of its competition." Posted Apr 30, 2007 |
Fresh 2.5/5
| Rotten 55%
| Vacancy (2007) | "
An economical (less than 90 minutes) and often brutally effective scare machine that sometimes, somehow, manages to feel less derivative than it is." Posted Apr 19, 2007 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 90%
| Hot Fuzz (2007) | "
Deeply nuts and exhaustingly hilarious." Posted Apr 17, 2007 |
Fresh 4/4
| Rotten 46%
| Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theatres (2007) | "
I am tempted to call Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters the most successful full-on surrealist film since Bunuel and Dali's 1930 L'Age d'Or." Posted Apr 12, 2007 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 85%
| The Hoax (2007) | "
By all means enjoy The Hoax -- it's smart fun. Just don't buy it." Posted Apr 4, 2007 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 82%
| Grindhouse (2007) | "
Exploitation cinema is combustible stuff that only highly trained professionals should be permitted to play with." Posted Apr 4, 2007 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 97%
| Killer of Sheep (1977) | "
Thirty years after its creation, Charles Burnett's debut feature still hits with the force of revelation." Posted Apr 1, 2007 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 69%
| Blades of Glory (2007) | "
Even the surprises aren't particularly surprising here. But the comic performers all deliver." Posted Mar 29, 2007 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 66%
| Meet the Robinsons (2007) | "
The fact is Meet the Robinsons is a mess -- a sometimes fun but mostly frustrating mess." Posted Mar 29, 2007 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 11%
| The Hills Have Eyes II (2007) | "
Rote and crass." Posted Mar 23, 2007 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 63%
| Reign Over Me (2007) | "
Reign Over Me is, among other things, a bracing demonstration that you can never judge a film by its premise." Posted Mar 22, 2007 |
Rotten 1.5/5
| Rotten 17%
| Dead Silence (2007) | "
While one might wish to commend Wan and company for making a horror pic that's less reliant on gore and gross sadism than the ones that they're normally associated are, what they're serving up as an alternative really lacks." Posted Mar 20, 2007 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 85%
| The Namesake (2007) | "
The Namesake is a thoroughly engaging, terrifically moving family story that's rich in beautifully observed and lovingly conveyed human detail." Posted Mar 7, 2007 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 92%
| The Host (2007) | "
What makes it so enjoyable is how much stuff it contains while never losing sight of its prime directive, which is to thrill and terrify." Posted Mar 6, 2007 |
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