Fresh
| Fresh 60%
| Nijinsky: The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky (2002) | "
A gift to anyone who loves both dance and cinema" Posted Feb 3, 2003 |
Fresh
| Rotten 53%
| Invincible (2002) | "
Even if Invincible is not quite the career peak that The Pianist is for Roman Polanski, it demonstrates that Werner Herzog can still leave us with a sense of wonder at the diverse, marvelously twisted shapes history has taken." Posted Feb 3, 2003 |
Rotten
| Rotten 8%
| Darkness Falls (2003) | "
Darkness Falls is a sorrowful testament to just how little in the way of talent, thought or even concept is needed for a movie to get made these days." Posted Feb 3, 2003 |
Fresh
| Rotten 47%
| Final Destination 2 (2003) | "
It skillfully accomplishes the horror genre's most basic goal: scaring the hell out of you." Posted Feb 3, 2003 |
Fresh
| Fresh 92%
| Talk to Her (2002) | "
The most beguiling amalgamation yet of Almodóvar's pet themes." Posted Feb 3, 2003 |
Fresh
| Fresh 75%
| Orphan of Anyang (2002) | "
Every single scene conveys a significant and concise narrative development, yet does so in an unassuming, patient fashion that emphasizes detail." Posted Jan 23, 2003 |
Fresh
| Fresh 78%
| Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) | "
The evil twin of A Beautiful Mind: take out the false life-affirming tone and moral clarity from Howard's movie, add some nasty humour and you get box-office poison." Posted Jan 23, 2003 |
Rotten
| Rotten 27%
| Analyze That (2002) | "
The stupid title alone reeks of an astonishing level of laziness on the part of the film's creative team." Posted Jan 19, 2003 |
Rotten
| Fresh 65%
| My Wife is an Actress (2002) | "
Attal's hang-ups surrounding infidelity are so old-fashioned and, dare I say, outdated, it's a wonder that he couldn't have brought something fresher to the proceedings simply by accident." Posted Jan 19, 2003 |
Fresh
| Fresh 96%
| The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) | "
For attaining a sense of sheer, unadulterated awe, it's difficult to imagine many films that could satisfy cinemagoers quite as resoundingly as Peter Jackson's mammoth adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy." Posted Jan 19, 2003 |
Rotten
| Rotten 37%
| Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) | "
Instead of contriving a climactic hero's death for the beloved-major- character-who-shall- remain-nameless, why not invite some genuine spontaneity into the film by having the evil aliens' laser guns actually hit something for once?" Posted Jan 19, 2003 |
Fresh
| Fresh 76%
| Gangs of New York (2002) | "
It brings a brute freshness to the Hollywood epic and confirms Scorsese's abilities as a master storyteller, a director capable of managing both scale and precision, spectacle and depth." Posted Jan 19, 2003 |
Rotten
| Fresh 87%
| Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) | "
Despite the grand drama inherent in its narrative, the film pulls back from investing much energy into imparting upon us the gravity of what we are watching." Posted Jan 19, 2003 |
Fresh
| Fresh 96%
| Catch Me If You Can (2002) | "
The film glides through its well-structured script, letting the audience coast along with it and allowing the performers to stay loose and limber. And that's what's wonderful about Catch Me If You Can—it's a chase picture that's all about the perfo" Posted Jan 19, 2003 |
Fresh
| Fresh 78%
| Antwone Fisher (2002) | "
Antwone Fisher certainly does the trick of making us care about its protagonist and celebrate his victories but, with few exceptions, it rarely stoops to cheap manipulation or corny conventions to do it." Posted Jan 19, 2003 |
Fresh
| Fresh 87%
| Chicago (2002) | "
Where Moulin Rouge was all cinema trickery and no guts, Rob Marshall has found a perfect balance of the two. Chicago is absolutely visceral." Posted Jan 19, 2003 |
Fresh
| Fresh 85%
| About Schmidt (2002) | "
Payne pokes fun of these people and these places because they're what he knows best. And, to my eye, he's also not above finding redeeming virtues in every last one of them." Posted Jan 19, 2003 |
Fresh
| Fresh 96%
| Werckmeister Harmonies (2001) | "
Perhaps Tarr's greatest gift is his merciless sense of cinematic economy and an ambiguity that springs not from some intellectual conceit but from the sheer honesty of his gaze." Posted Jan 19, 2003 |
Fresh
| Fresh 91%
| Adaptation (2002) | "
Try as you might to scrutinize the ethics of Kaufman's approach, somehow it all comes together to create a very compelling, sensitive, intelligent and almost cohesive piece of film entertainment." Posted Jan 19, 2003 |
Fresh
| Rotten 38%
| Pumpkin (2002) | "
Pumpkin is a movie that resists categorization, that manages wit, intelligence, audacity and pointed social commentary while still entertaining us with a terrifically bizarre combination of soapy, ultra-stylized satire and blackly comic fairytale." Posted Jan 19, 2003 |
Fresh
| Fresh 83%
| Narc (2002) | "
Narc may not be an exceptional cop film but it is a solid one, a tragedy of pervasive corruption in which honour is no more beneficial than deceit." Posted Jan 19, 2003 |
Rotten
| Fresh 81%
| The Hours (2002) | "
If you really want to understand what this story is really all about, you're far better served by the source material." Posted Jan 19, 2003 |
Rotten
| Rotten 26%
| Formula 51 (2002) | "
One of those movies that assumes we’re all quite comfortable rooting for hitmen, thieves and dope peddlers (corrupt cops, on the other hand, are the scum of the earth)." Posted Oct 17, 2002 |
Rotten
| Fresh 68%
| Red Dragon (2002) | "
A well-made but centreless horror show." Posted Oct 10, 2002 |
Rotten
| Rotten 44%
| The Rules of Attraction (2002) | "
The thought of watching this film with an audience full of teenagers fixating on its body humour and reinforcement of stereotypes (of which they’ll get plenty) fills me with revulsion." Posted Oct 10, 2002 |
Fresh
| Rotten 20%
| Knockaround Guys (2002) | "
While certainly no revelation, Knockaround Guys isn’t anywhere near as lousy as the hype would have you believe." Posted Oct 10, 2002 |
Fresh
| Fresh 78%
| 8 Women (2002) | "
A sly blend of Douglas Sirk melodrama and Jacques Demy musical; a playfully reconfigured crackerjack murder mystery as thoroughly engrossing as it is lovingly contrived." Posted Oct 10, 2002 |
Rotten
| Fresh 71%
| The Lady and the Duke (2002) | "
Rohmer's novel, exhilarating and elegant work with painted scenery and digital equipment is a revelation. But this work is stuck in a film in which the foreground action is sleep-inducing by comparison." Posted Oct 3, 2002 |
Fresh
| Rotten 48%
| Eight Legged Freaks (2002) | "
It's actually kinda scary. Scary in a really, really dumb way, but scary!" Posted Oct 1, 2002 |
Rotten
| Fresh 82%
| Road to Perdition (2002) | "
Scorsese at his best makes gangster films that are equally lovely but also relentlessly brutal and brutally intelligent; Perdition, meanwhile, reads more like Driving Miss Daisy than GoodFellas." Posted Oct 1, 2002 |
Rotten
| Fresh 61%
| K-19: The Widowmaker (2002) | "
K-19 exploits our substantial collective fear of nuclear holocaust to generate cheap Hollywood tension." Posted Sep 30, 2002 |
Fresh
| Fresh 85%
| Lovely & Amazing (2002) | "
Transcends the 'chick flick' label with a touch so light and smart it never has to bother trying to win over your sympathies to either sex." Posted Sep 30, 2002 |
Rotten
| Rotten 54%
| Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) | "
Myers never knows when to let a gag die; thus, we’re subjected to one mind-numbingly lengthy riff on poo and pee jokes after another." Posted Sep 30, 2002 |
Fresh
| Fresh 75%
| Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002) | "
Just about the surest bet for an all-around good time at the movies this summer." Posted Sep 30, 2002 |
Fresh
| Fresh 74%
| Signs (2002) | "
Shyamalan’s got to be the best Hollywood suspense director since Brian de Palma." Posted Sep 30, 2002 |
Rotten
| Rotten 54%
| Blood Work (2002) | "
Eastwood doesn’t do much to spice up Blood Work, but you can’t fault his sturdy filmmaking style any more than you could a plumber who stops your pipes from leaking." Posted Sep 30, 2002 |
Fresh
| Rotten 48%
| XXX (2002) | "
It all sounds absurd, but in its best moments, XXX is infused with an authority that’s rare in action movies." Posted Sep 30, 2002 |
Fresh
| Fresh 64%
| Possession (2002) | "
Neil LaBute’s most mature movie yet, the work of a moralist coming to terms with a world of blurred morals." Posted Sep 30, 2002 |
Rotten
| Rotten 6%
| The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002) | "
What happened with Pluto Nash? How did it ever get made?" Posted Sep 30, 2002 |
Rotten
| Fresh 62%
| Blue Crush (2002) | "
It’s inoffensive, cheerful, built to inspire the young people, set to an unending soundtrack of beach party pop numbers and aside from its remarkable camerawork and awesome scenery, it’s about as exciting as a sunburn." Posted Sep 30, 2002 |
Fresh
| Fresh 82%
| The Good Girl (2002) | "
Something in this film sticks to you more than you think it will while you’re watching it. And I think that something is the superb, jarringly resonant central performance by Jennifer Aniston." Posted Sep 30, 2002 |
Fresh
| Fresh 82%
| One Hour Photo (2002) | "
One Hour Photo may seem disappointing in its generalities, but it’s the little nuances that perhaps had to escape from director Mark Romanek’s self-conscious scrutiny to happen, that finally get under your skin." Posted Sep 30, 2002 |
Fresh
| Rotten 49%
| Undisputed (2002) | "
Writer/director Walter Hill is in his hypermasculine element here, once again able to inject some real vitality and even art into a pulpy concept that, in many other hands would be completely forgettable." Posted Sep 30, 2002 |
Rotten
| Rotten 8%
| Stealing Harvard (2002) | "
It isn’t that Stealing Harvard is a horrible movie—if only it were that grand a failure! It’s just that it’s so not-at-all-good. And I expect much more from a talent as outstanding as director Bruce McCulloch." Posted Sep 30, 2002 |
Fresh
| Rotten 48%
| City by the Sea (2002) | "
For me, acting rarely makes or breaks a movie, but there’s so much heart invested in the characters at the centre of this film that I found myself captivated, for just a while, by the troubles of those people up on the screen." Posted Sep 30, 2002 |
Rotten
| Rotten 0%
| Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002) | "
One of the dumbest, least entertaining films I’ve seen this year." Posted Sep 30, 2002 |
Rotten
| Rotten 41%
| The Four Feathers (2002) | "
Like a carefully shaped gem with an unmistakable flaw in its centre, The Four Feathers can’t help but seem compromised in every way no matter what angle you view it from." Posted Sep 30, 2002 |
Rotten
| Rotten 22%
| The Tuxedo (2002) | "
Taken as a whole, The Tuxedo doesn’t add up to a whole lot." Posted Sep 30, 2002 |
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