Fresh B+
| Fresh 93%
| Crazy Heart (2009) | "
Crazy Heart could use more rough edges, but while it’s a little too sentimental and tidy, Bridges’ humane, deeply empathetic lead performance makes it easy to root for one man’s redemption." Posted Dec 17, 2009 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 85%
| A Single Man (2009) | "
A Single Man proves a film can look and feel like a 99-minute perfume commercial and still register as a poignant meditation on grief, memory, and loss." Posted Dec 10, 2009 |
Rotten C-
| Rotten 46%
| Everybody's Fine (2009) | "
Even more than the remake that it is, Everybody’s Fine plays like a homogenized, Hallmark Channel version of About Schmidt, with all the rough edges shaved off." Posted Dec 3, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Rotten 31%
| Ninja Assassin (2009) | "
If Ninja Assassin boasted sexual content equivalent to its level of violence, it would be rated NC-17 and repulse even the most dedicated perverts" Posted Nov 24, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Fresh 84%
| Me and Orson Welles (2009) | "
A terminally bland coming-of-age story about a pretty young man with the world’s most awesome after-school job." Posted Nov 24, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Rotten 42%
| Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon (2009) | "
Ten9Eight will induce shivers of excitement in free-market proponents who get off on watching ambitious, money-minded young people pull themselves up by their bootstraps and set out to become future titans of industry." Posted Nov 12, 2009 |
Rotten D
| Fresh 61%
| The End of Poverty? (2009) | "
The End Of Poverty? offers simplistic answers to many of the most pressing questions of our time." Posted Nov 12, 2009 |
Rotten C+
| Fresh 94%
| The Wedding Song (2009) | "
The bond between Brocheré and Borval is more physical than verbal; they often seem on the verge of a deep, soulful lip-lock, but since neither character is developed satisfactorily, it’s hard to develop a rooting interest in...their friendship." Posted Oct 29, 2009 |
Rotten C+
| Fresh 80%
| Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009) | "
At best, it angrily demands to be rechristened This Is It! Too often, however, an incredulous This Is It? seems more apt." Posted Oct 28, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 82%
| Black Dynamite (2009) | "
Sanders delights in the amateurishness of blaxploitation, from clunky exposition to shootouts that violate all rules of continuity and perspective to a visible boom mic, which spends so much time onscreen that it practically deserves its own credit." Posted Oct 15, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 82%
| Paranormal Activity (2009) | "
At best, Paranormal Activity makes the banal and commonplace deeply unsettling." Posted Oct 8, 2009 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 94%
| An Education (2009) | "
An Education shares with Hornby’s best work trenchant insight into the way smart, hyper-verbal young people let the music, films, books, and art they love define themselves as they figure out who they are and what they want to be." Posted Oct 8, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 94%
| Good Hair (2009) | "
In chronicling the permutations of black hair, the filmmaker ends up making a breezy statement on the universality of narcissism." Posted Oct 8, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Fresh 80%
| Yes Men Fix the World (2009) | "
Given the duo’s withering take on capitalism, it’s ironic that their stumbling second feature feels throughout like an infomercial for a shtick whose expiration date is rapidly approaching." Posted Oct 8, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 89%
| Zombieland (2009) | "
The four protagonists aren’t about to let something as minor as the complete breakdown of society get in the way of having a good time, and their fun proves infectious." Posted Oct 1, 2009 |
Rotten D+
| Rotten 27%
| Pandorum (2009) | "
Quaid and Foster spend far too much time trying to figure out what’s going on, but audiences are liable to respond only with a dispirited “Who cares?”" Posted Sep 27, 2009 |
Rotten C+
| Fresh 72%
| The Boys Are Back (2009) | "
In spite of the fine lead performance, Back is a grey, unedifying slog from grief and hopelessness to parental semi-competence." Posted Sep 25, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 67%
| Paris (2009) | "
Agreeable but highly forgettable." Posted Sep 18, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 100%
| Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2009) | "
Dangerous Man does a serviceable job of mapping out the particulars of his struggle, but the definitive cinematic version of his too-strange-for-fiction story has yet to be made." Posted Sep 16, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 62%
| Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself (2009) | "
Perry plugs into the primal power of gospel, blues, soul, and the black church in ways that make Bad far more affecting than it has any right to be." Posted Sep 11, 2009 |
Rotten F
| Rotten 6%
| All About Steve (2009) | "
It’s a celebration of brazen nonconformity centered on an insufferable flibbertigibbet who makes the worst case for nonconformity imaginable." Posted Sep 3, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 84%
| The September Issue (2009) | "
A fascinating, frustrating documentary." Posted Aug 27, 2009 |
Rotten D+
| Rotten 17%
| The Marc Pease Experience (2009) | "
Louiso’s misfiring comedy feels less like a comic feast than a thrown-together assemblage of haphazardly nuked leftovers." Posted Aug 27, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Rotten 58%
| Art & Copy (2009) | "
Art & Copy is mightily diverting, for those who don’t mind being sold a slick bill of goods." Posted Aug 20, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 85%
| World's Greatest Dad (2009) | "
[A] savagely funny, unexpectedly touching exploration of the human need to idealize and romanticize the dead." Posted Aug 20, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 80%
| Bandslam (2009) | "
Like a less oppressively hip Juno, Bandslam captures the way young people too smart and pop-culture-savvy for their own good let the music and movies they love define them during adolescence’s crucible of humiliation and self-doubt." Posted Aug 13, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 0%
| Killing Me Softly (2002) | "
As Graham attempts to uncover the truth about his past, the film grows increasingly convoluted, leading to a twist ending that will come as a surprise only to those who've never seen a Shannon Tweed movie." Posted Aug 3, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 0%
| Simon Sez (1999) | "
Dennis Rodman may be a great rebounder, but as a pop-culture icon, he's a one-trick pony." Posted Aug 3, 2009 |
Fresh C+
| Fresh 65%
| Adam (2009) | "
The film is afflicted with a fatal case of the cutes: It’s never an encouraging sign when The Little Prince, that eternal touchstone of precious perma-children, emerges as a major motif for a romantic drama." Posted Jul 30, 2009 |
Rotten C-
| Rotten 31%
| The Answer Man (2009) | "
The Answer Man combines the worst of both worlds: It offers the ugly digital video, negligible production values, and manufactured grit of a Sundance loser with the pandering formula, sentiment, and romantic-comedy clichés of Hollywood pap." Posted Jul 23, 2009 |
Rotten C-
| Rotten 26%
| Shrink (2009) | "
It soon becomes apparent that Shrink is exactly like virtually all [Spacey's] post-American Beauty vehicles: flashy, phony, nakedly melodramatic, and full of big actorly moments disconnected from real life." Posted Jul 23, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 84%
| Soul Power (2009) | "
Soul Power works fabulously as both a concert film and a time capsule of a time and place when gods of black masculinity joined forces to make an international statement of togetherness." Posted Jul 9, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 67%
| Bruno (2009) | "
Cohen no longer has freshness and novelty on his side, but he’s retained the power to shock, offend, provoke, unsettle, and most importantly, entertain a jaded, desensitized public." Posted Jul 9, 2009 |
Rotten F
| Rotten 16%
| I Hate Valentine's Day (2009) | "
An unspeakable nadir in the career of its writer-director-star, My Big Fat Greek Wedding’s Nia Vardalos." Posted Jul 3, 2009 |
Rotten C-
| Rotten 55%
| Surveillance (2009) | "
Surveillance suggests 'Jennifer Lynchian' should be used for films that aspire to David’s moody, idiosyncratic genius and fall woefully short." Posted Jul 3, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 86%
| Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love (2009) | "
Love looks and sounds great, but in depicting N’Dour as a lofty symbol for music’s power to bridge worlds and inspire, it sometimes loses sight of the man." Posted Jun 25, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 96%
| Food, Inc. (2009) | "
It’s entertaining and fast-moving enough to make audiences intermittently forget they’re consuming cinematic health food." Posted Jun 11, 2009 |
Rotten D
| Rotten 51%
| The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009) | "
John Travolta’s wildly successful post-comeback crusade to become synonymous with crap continues with The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3, Tony Scott’s bracingly awful remake/desecration of the classic ‘70s thriller." Posted Jun 11, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 89%
| O'Horten (2009) | "
Powered by lush cinematography, a moody score, and Owe’s subtly majestic lead performance, O’Horten oscillates confidently between the mundane and the rapturously beautiful." Posted Jun 4, 2009 |
Rotten C-
| Rotten 10%
| My Life in Ruins (2009) | "
A quasi-sequel to My Big Fat Greek Wedding that shamelessly recycles the sitcom-and-schmaltz formula of Vardalos’ breakthrough hit." Posted Jun 4, 2009 |
Rotten C-
| Rotten 18%
| Dance Flick (2009) | "
Only in the Wayans-brothers universe would “surprisingly not terrible” almost qualify as a ringing endorsement." Posted May 22, 2009 |
Rotten C+
| Rotten 45%
| Management (2009) | "
A film that flaunts its contempt for plausibility and psychological realism, but damned if Zahn doesn’t almost sell the scene and the movie with his naïve, wide-eyed slacker charm." Posted May 14, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Rotten 22%
| Next Day Air (2009) | "
A very pleasant surprise, Next Day Air is the rare crime comedy that does justice to both sides of the equation." Posted May 7, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 76%
| Outrage (2009) | "
After a relatively dry beginning, the film builds in passion and intensity until attaining a stirring cumulative power." Posted May 7, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 73%
| Rudo and Cursi (2009) | "
Bernal gives his flashy would-be pop star a daft, wide-eyed innocence and it’s great to see Bernal and Luna together again, but Cuarón nearly ruins a wonderful comedy by turning it into a much less distinguished drama." Posted May 7, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 64%
| The Merry Gentleman (2009) | "
Gentleman is a screamingly quiet film distinguished by a haunting score and terrific lead performances." Posted Apr 30, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 85%
| Tyson (2009) | "
Tyson can be brutal with himself, but Toback’s fawning documentary lets him off easy." Posted Apr 23, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 91%
| Every Little Step (2009) | "
It’s a huge improvement over the Attenborough film; given the film’s non-fiction roots, it seems poetically apt that a documentary take is much more satisfying and engaging than the Hollywood treatment." Posted Apr 16, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 79%
| In a Dream (2009) | "
What’s onscreen is vivid and compelling, but the film only seems to tell part of the story." Posted Apr 9, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Rotten 44%
| Hannah Montana The Movie (2009) | "
Has there ever been a more critic-proof film than Hannah Montana? Montana is targeted with laser precision at an audience barely old enough to read, let alone pay attention to what laptop-toting wretches have to say about its aesthetic shortcomings." Posted Apr 9, 2009 |
IGN RSS Feeds
