Tomato 3.5/4 |
Caché (2005) |
"The mystery becomes multilayered and metaphysical, more about the untrustworthiness of our senses, our memories and our official histories than the mechanics of the plot." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Cadillac Records (2008) |
"The film has a certain low-budget charm (as a period piece, it recalls such Roger Corman productions as 'The Lady in Red'), but the performers deserve a more convincing showcase." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Calendar Girls (2003) |
"Despite the mischievous implications of its title, the film ultimately reaffirms the status quo with all the certitude of an episode of 'Mayberry RFD.'" |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Callas Forever (2004) |
"Zeffirelli's 'Carmen' looks more PBS than MGM, and this relative poverty helps explain why this sincere but bloodless film has taken three years to limp into theaters." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) |
"Effective when it exposes the immoral, even 'evil' excesses of an economic system that prizes profit above public welfare; less persuasive when it waxes nostalgic about the factory era of the mid-20th century..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 3/4 |
Capote (2005) |
"Suggests rather moralistically that Capote's cold-blooded behavior contributed to his artistic and physical decline, as if he could have been saved by Dr. Phil or a hug." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 4/4 |
Capturing the Friedmans (2003) |
"To some extent, the movie becomes an examination of a camera on its subjects, even when the subjects are in the privacy of their home and facing disaster..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Caramel (2008) |
"A formulaic sisters-are-doing-it-for-themselves (and doing each other's hair) ensemble drama in the manner of 'Beauty Shop,' elevated by the novelty of its Lebanese locations and Arabic cast..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Carandiru (2004) |
"More successful as an overslick prison-genre exploitation movie than as a vehicle of social protest..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Cars (2006) |
"Perhaps the movie's idyllic small town of Radiator Springs should have been depicted through stop-motion or traditional animation, to suggest the limits as well as the appeal of the so-called good old days." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Casa de los Babys (2003) |
"Sayles keeps crankin' 'em out: socially conscious, diversity-embracing ensemble pieces... This one is minor and sketchy..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Casanova (2005) |
"Enlivened by a few moments of boudoir slapstick that resemble a Benny Hill skit as produced by Merchant Ivory." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Casino Royale (2006) |
"Who wants to see Bond learn a lesson about ego, as if he were Greg Brady in his 'Johnny Bravo' phase?" |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Catch a Fire (2006) |
"Manages to feel dated despite the extreme relevance of the message that one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/5 |
Catwoman (2004) |
"A hairball on the soiled rug of the summer blockbuster schedule, gruesome enough to have been ejected from the esophagus of Bill the Cat..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 2/4 |
Cellular (2004) |
"A 'Sorry, Wrong Number' for the driving-while-talking generation..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Changeling (2008) |
"A true-crime story worthy of James Ellroy, but staged with somber exactitude..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato '2.5/4' |
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) |
"It's appropriate that Burton and Depp would reunite to resurrect Willy Wonka, who also found wealth and power by embracing rather than denying his eccentricity.
" |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Charlie Wilson's War (2007) |
"As a commentary on current events, it's unconvincing; but as a rollicking '"Dallas" set in Washington,' it's excellent." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003) |
"The director calls himself 'McG,' and the movie has been edited to fit the attention span of those who think words of more than three letters are boring..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Charlotte's Web (2006) |
"Earnest, effective and entertaining, although in no way an adequate substitute for the much richer experience of White's novel." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Cheri (2009) |
"The camera's gaze is so steady in the lengthy final shot that we can't help but notice the imperfections in even Pfeiffer's famously lovely aspect, especially when the only noise we hear on the soundtrack is the muffled but ruthless ticking of a clock." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Children of Huang Shi (2008) |
"Its anti-cynical faith in the value of altruism is encouraging." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 4/4 |
Children of Men (2006) |
"Utterly convincing in the density of its street-level detail and occasionally awe-inspiring in the bravado of its complicated action sequences..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Choke (2008) |
"It's faithful to a fault; like its source, it's overstuffed with ideas and incidents and colorful and often distasteful digressions." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 0/4 |
Christmas with the Kranks (2004) |
"A nightmare vision of a theist, conformist America... It's like 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers,' except we're expected to root for the pod people." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008) |
"Marred by the dull performance of the movie's pinup-ready title swashbuckler and the relative charmlessness of the English schoolchildren (the Hogwarts Sorting Hat would have kicked these kids to the curb)." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (2005) |
"The climactic clash of zoological and mythological combatants is the stuff of my childhood fantasies made digitally simulated flesh: It's like 'Doctor Dolittle' as reimagined by Robert E. Howard." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato '3.5/4' |
Cinderella Man (2005) |
"The specifics of past-due notices and hunger pains are as important to Howard's story as the prizefights and the period detail." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009) |
"A fun, energetic adventure with plenty of inoffensive ghoulish touches that should please kid and adult horror buffs alike." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
City of Ember (2008) |
"This Walden Media production has less in common with 'The Chronicles of Narnia' than with 'Z.P.G.' and 'THX-1138' and other environmentally conscious science-fiction films that end with inspiring images of the Earth's giver of life, the sun." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
City of God (2003) |
"...a blend of vertiginous post-'Matrix' camerawork with gritty, ochre-tinted street realism -- 'Amores Perros' imagined by Guy Ritchie..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
City of Men (2008) |
"Morelli's film is most effective at its most documentarian, when it focuses on street detail and the casual, everyday behavior of the people inside the desperate favelas." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
The Class (2008) |
"The classroom becomes symbolic of society as a whole: An incubator of problems as well as solutions, and a source of disaster and promise, hope and despair, affection and enmity..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
The Clearing (2004) |
"The audience ends up identifying with the privileged wine-drinker (Reford) and rooting against the underclass cereal-eater (Dafoe)..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Clerks II (2006) |
"'Today is the first day of the rest of our lives,' says Randal, but 'Clerks II' suggests withdrawal rather than momentum.
" |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Click (2006) |
"A film of its digital age: It's aware that the moviegoer sometimes reaches for a remote control device that isn't there, like an amputee experiencing the itch of a phantom limb.
" |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Closer (2004) |
"'Closer' apparently exists as a movie because the director admired the play, not because the play benefits from being 'opened up' for filming..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (2009) |
"Could be interpreted as a commentary on the potential perils of genetically engineered 'Frankenfood,' but this unpretentious movie doesn't sweat the message." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Cloverfield (2008) |
"Suggests the influence of YouTube and (inevitably) 9/11, but actually belongs to the old-fashioned exploitation tradition as it uses state-of-the-art effects and ballyhoo to update B-movie subject matter for a new audience." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Coco Before Chanel (2009) |
"'Coco Before Chanel'? Whose bright idea was that? Isn't that like 'Amelia Before Airplanes'? Or 'Frankenstein Before Med School'?" |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Coffee and Cigarettes (2004) |
"A caffeinated exercise in nonsequitur metaphysics..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Cold Mountain (2003) |
"A film of pretty pictures and clumsy exposition in which a Southern carpenter wailing away with a hammer comments, 'I call this nail ''Northern agression!'' '" |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Collateral (2004) |
"Visually, 'Collateral' locates the post-apocalypse landscape growing within a city still waiting for its apocalypse." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
The Collector (2009) |
"This ultra-sadistic, efficiently single-minded Grand Guignol endurance test plays like something cooked up by a clever 14-year-old devotee of Bloody-Disgusting.com." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 1.5/4 |
College Road Trip (2008) |
"The intended show-stopper: a singalong of 'Double Dutch Bus' with a busload of Japanese tourists." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Color of The Cross (2006) |
"Press releases are promoting the film as 'controversial' before the fact, but compared to such predecessors as 'Jesus Christ Superstar,' 'Godspell' and 'The Passion of the Christ,' 'Color' -- race issue aside -- unspools like a Sunday-school filmstrip." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Come Early Morning (2006) |
"A modest but not insignificant achievement: a movie that depicts smalltown Southerners without condescension, melodrama or caricature." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
The Company (2003) |
"Plays like a fly-on-the-wall documentary that wrapped production before anything interesting happened..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat '2.5/4' |
The Constant Gardener (2005) |
"Ultimately, it offers reassurance that the rat-infested system doesn't need to be smashed, only cleansed.
" |
John Beifuss |
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