Tomato 3.5/4 |
Hairspray (2007) |
"Could Adam Shankman be the unlikely savior of the movie musical?" |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 4/4 |
Half Nelson (2006) |
"The teacher treats his underprivileged students with good-humored respect; what's remarkable is that the filmmakers treat their characters -- and the audience -- with a similar lack of condescension." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato |
Hallelujah (1929) |
"A milestone on the road that led from Stepin Fetchit to Sidney Poitier to Spike Lee..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Halloween (2007) |
"Zombie's morally dubious earlier films showcased fun-loving, homicidal anti-heroes; but there's nothing jokey or campy about his approach to Myers, whose long hair and mask obsession suggest he may be a worst-case-scenario incarnation of Zombie himself." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Halloween II (2009) |
"Brutal and redundant but not without a certain ugly integrity, this gruesome sequel allows Zombie to continue to explore his idea that Michael Myers is a pathetic and tragically irredeemable product of childhood abuse..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Hamlet 2 (2008) |
"Constructed from leftovers." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Hancock (2008) |
"Fatally compromised (but) ambitious and clever... It reminds us of the way majority America treats black men in particular, with a humiliating mistrust that's never far behind the admiration expressed for those who 'earn' approval through their talents..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Hangover (2009) |
"If there's a problem with 'The Hangover' (and other films of its ilk), it's the at best ambivalent, at worst hostile relationship to women..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Hannah Montana The Movie (2009) |
"'If you guys don't mind, I'm gonna add a little hip-hop to this hoedown,' announces Miley, contributing a quote to the culture that needs to be sampled, pronto..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Hannibal Rising (2007) |
"When life hands you lemons, make a wild mushroom-and-human cheek brochette with meat carved from the decapitated head of the war criminal who ate your sister." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
The Happening (2008) |
"Shyamalan's ideas might have more impact in a half-hour 'Twilight Zone' episode, where they would be shorn of some of the pretensions that seem to be mandatory in the feature-length work of a one-time Best Director Oscar nominee." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 1/4 |
Happily N'Ever After (2007) |
"The only real laughs are supplied by the Seven Dwarfs, who are portrayed as hillbilly garden gnomes." |
John Beifuss |
Splat '2/4' |
Happy Endings (2005) |
"Like the pilot for a pretentious HBO 'dramedy' that expects us to contemplate its significance during the silences that broadcast television would fill with a laugh track." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Happy Feet (2006) |
"This odd combination of 'Moulin Rouge' and 'March of the Penguins' also functions as a weirdly scary 'first contact' science-fiction story with an earned eco-message, linking it to Miller's breakthrough movies, 'Mad Max' and 'The Road Warrior.'" |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Happy Here and Now (2002) |
"To make an inexact analogy, 'Happy Here and Now' is to New Orleans as 'Mystery Train' was to Memphis..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 4/4 |
Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) |
"Poppy is not a contradiction of but an artistic first cousin to Leigh's previous heroine, Vera Drake; both are open, fearless, unselfish and compassionate women, trying to craft the best life possible out of the potentially dreary material of existence." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Hard Candy (2005) |
"A calculated provocation with pretensions to public service value (think of the infamous 'molester' episode of 'Diff'rent Strokes')." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008) |
"The gross-out and gay-panic humor is overdone, but like its predecessor, the movie makes some cogent if clumsy points about racial identity." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) |
"Like Chris Columbus, Newell delivers what is essentially an illustrated condensation of Rowling's novel." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) |
"The British character actors intone their lines with the sincere and intense glee of cats sucking a songbird's bones..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) |
"The darkest J.K. Rowling adaptation yet, literally as well as thematically: Even a zooming broomstick ride along the Thames is shot as if through a pall of gloom." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) |
"As in "Princess" and "Mama," Cuaron explores the secret lives of young people forging identities in an adult world that alternately wants to ignore and to control them." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Hatchet (2007) |
"It's Itchy-and-Scratchy outlandish, not 'torture porn' scuzzy; it's a classic KISS concert, not a GG Allin bootleg." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
The Haunting in Connecticut (2009) |
"Never play hide-and-seek in a haunted house, unless you want to discover you're sharing your dumbwaiter hidey-hole with a ghostly charred corpse." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Head of State (2003) |
"The premise is pure Chris Rock but the execution isn't up to Martin Lawrence standards thanks to Rock's amateurish direction..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Heart of the Game (2006) |
"The girls' theatrical ferocity, relative innocence and youthful earnestness is almost heartbreaking." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Heartbreak Kid (2007) |
"Needless to say, this remake's allusions to donkey sex, south-of-the-border piercings and the palliative power of urine are Farrelly innovations." |
John Beifuss |
Splat '2/4' |
Heights (2005) |
"Unlike such popular Merchant Ivory productions as 'A Room with a View,' this is contemporary to the point of cliche..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Hellboy (2004) |
"Succeeds as a supernatural special-effects free-for-all, a no-holds-barred monster throwdown and even a love story." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) |
"Del Toro's compositions are dense with effects and background creatures, and he clearly sympathizes with the misfits and monsters who are weary of humankind's greed and ecological destructiveness; yet the movie is light on its feet and generous of spirit." |
John Beifuss |
Splat '2/4' |
Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005) |
"I'm still eager for children's films that aren't supersized or edgy or flatulent. I just want them to be better than 'Herbie.'" |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Hero (2004) |
"The film transforms fighting and killing into something artful, balletic and even color-coordinated, but is somewhat weighted down by a self-conscious patina of quality..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008) |
"A generous, upbeat film that provides lively, unthreatening entertainment for young viewers..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat '2.5/4' |
High Tension (2005) |
"A humorless, even borderline pretentious exercise in sick scaremongering..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Hills Have Eyes (2006) |
"After being led into the sandy middle of nowhere by an arrogant but ill-prepared conservative, a Democrat pushed to the edge savagely skewers a desert terrorist during a skirmish in a village inhabited by the victims of an American military operation." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato '4/4' |
A History of Violence (2005) |
"A reminder that conventional action filmmakers are as untrustworthy as politicians who won't allow citizens to see the body bags produced by a war.
" |
John Beifuss |
Splat 1.5/4 |
The Hitcher (2007) |
"Considering the subject matter, for once it actually seems appropriate to judge a movie with this famous phrase: Thumbs down." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Hoax (2007) |
"What begins as almost a 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'-style buddy pic sadly devolves into the same old-same old about the dark designs of the men behind the curtain." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Hollywood Homicide (2003) |
"Like "Bull Durham," this is a shaggy-dog satire about seemingly casual but surprisingly vain men who define themselves by the professional games they play while treating life itself like a game." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Hollywoodland (2006) |
"A kryptonite cocktail knocked back with a teary-eyed wink by Diane Lane, who emerges as the tarnished trophy wife to beat for this year's Best Supporting Actress Oscar." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato |
The Holy Mountain (1926) |
"'Why is nature so beautiful to us?' a dancer (Leni Riefenstahl) asks; it's a question we still ponder, which is one reason the film continues to awe..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
A Home at the End of the World (2004) |
"It's a delight until the weirdly adult-like child grows up to be a childish adult: Farrell, wearing a caveman wig as a stud version of Chance the Gardener..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Home on the Range (2004) |
"The visual equivalent of the type of jokey, cowpokey, retro-Western Swing song that k.d. lang might record for a children's album... (And I mean that in a good way.)" |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Honey (2003) |
"An instant camp classic for those with fond memories of 'Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo' and 'Lambada, the Forbidden Dance.'" |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Honeydripper (2007) |
"With its cotton-field locations, diddley-bo props and scripted nods toward blues history and mythology, 'Honeydripper' somehow feels touristy rather than authentic -- as if it were a product of research rather than passion." |
John Beifuss |
Splat '2/4' |
Honeymooners (2005) |
"It doesn't fail because of its concept or casting; it fails because the film is as flat as the paper the script was printed on." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Hoodwinked (2006) |
"Sometimes funny but annoyingly self-conscious and opportunistic attempt to expand on the anachronistic fairy-tale comedy that energized the "Shrek" franchise.
" |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
The Host (2007) |
"When the toothy petals of its slimy flower mouth unfold to engulf an unlucky victim, the giant river monster in 'The Host' looks like something imagined by H.P. Lovecraft and painted by Georgia O'Keeffe." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Hostage (2005) |
"Snatches the sadistic content of a rabble-rousing exploitation film and stashes it within the overblown blockbuster pretensions of a Bruce Willis action vehicle..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Hostel (2006) |
"Intimations of Abu Ghraib and allusions to 'The Wicker Man' suggest Roth's intentions are honorable... The film isn't escapist; like 'Straw Dogs,' it demands that viewers respond to its violence.
" |
John Beifuss |
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