Tomato 2.5/4 |
The Machinist (2004) |
"The film is admirably atmospheric but it ultimately loses its nerve and is revealed as just another comforting lesson in redemption." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato '3/4' |
Mad Hot Ballroom (2005) |
"At its least inspired, it's like a dramatized newspaper feature story; at its best, it offers an unscripted slice of inner-city life..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 5/5 |
Mad Max (1979) |
No article available. |
John Beifuss |
Tomato '3/4' |
Madagascar (2005) |
"Ultimately earns my endorsement through the efforts of an Ali G-voiced lemur who dances the robot and a crack team of espionage-agent penguins." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008) |
"Among the Looney Tuniest of recent computer-animated features -- the anatomy-distorting slapstick, wacky wordplay and surreal throwaway gags are nonstop." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Madea's Family Reunion (2006) |
"It's interesting that nobody ever connects the dots between Madea's frequent corporal punishment of children (which is presented as instructive comedy) and the abusive grownups who function as Perry's villains." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
The Magdalene Sisters (2003) |
"Something like a 'Masterpiece Theatre' retread of an old Roger Corman women-in-prison flick..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Mail Order Wife (2005) |
"The filmmakers maintain the illusion of low-budget cinema verite to the extent that audiences may be unsure whether to laugh or shudder..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Mamma Mia! (2008) |
"Shot on location in Greece, but the way Meryl Streep tears through the scenery, you'd think she was in a giant reptile suit on the back lot at Toho." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
A Man Apart (2003) |
"It's not awful, but it's not worth missing an episode of 'American Idol,' 'Hangin' with Mr. Cooper' or the popular 'Operation Iraqi Freedom.'" |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
A Man Named Pearl (2008) |
"Topiary folk artist and chainsaw-wielding 'plant whisperer' Pearl Fryar seems like a wonderful man, but the directors never justify the feature-length treatment they give to a story that easily would have fit into a Sunday morning Charles Kuralt segment." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Man on the Train (2003) |
"Watching Hallyday's Lee Van Cleef-esque mien, one longs for the return of the Spaghetti Western..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Man On Wire (2008) |
"A model of documentary storytelling, 'Man on Wire' is as gripping and suspenseful as a good heist film..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato |
The Man Who Laughs (1928) |
"An expressionistic masterpiece of spooky, fairy tale Poe-meets-Perrault imagery..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
The Man Without a Past (2003) |
"As in the films of Charlie Chaplin, 'Past' presents the downcast and needy as human beings of worth, humor and dignity..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 1/4 |
Management (2009) |
"The latest misfire to make 'indie' a dirty word." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
The Manchurian Candidate (2004) |
"Viewers may feel as if they're watching a dramatization of 'Fahrenheit 9/11' ..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Manderlay (2006) |
"Picks at the painful sores of America's racial legacy while withholding the brotherhood-of-man epiphanies that made the Oscar-validated 'Crash' a healing experience for many moviegoers...
" |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Margot at the Wedding (2007) |
"Like Margot herself, the film is contrived and self-conscious and perhaps not entirely aware of its alienating effect; yet beneath the clever surface squirms something damaged and real." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Maria Full of Grace (2004) |
"The documentary-like detail and lack of sensationalism allows us to make our own judgments and to make connections between the drug trade and the legitimate business world." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Marie Antoinette (2006) |
"Let them eat cake? Sofia Coppola feeds it to us in spoonfuls -- pink, sugary, decadent. The entire film seems to have been squeezed onto the screen from a confectioner's pastry bag..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Marley & Me (2008) |
"Directed with admirable sensitivity and spot-on populist instincts..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Married Life (2008) |
"Dramatizes the notion that a person's 'burden of conscience' is not an innate reality but a malleable construct, motivated by narcissism." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Masked and Anonymous (2003) |
"Could just as well be titled 'Masters of War' or 'Tombstone Blues' or 'Everything Is Broken.' At every cut in the action, you expect a gray flannel dwarf to scream..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
The Matador (2005) |
"Pierce Brosnan's 'facilitator of fatalities' is a great character, but the story that houses him is as ersatz as the recording of 'In the Wee Small Hours' the assassin plays on the businessman's turntable (that's not Sinatra singing)." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Match Point (2005) |
"Not really a return to form but an advance: a stylish work of gliding camera movements, cunningly framed shots and seamless edits that marks one of the few times Allen's interest in pictures has equaled his facility with words.
" |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Matchstick Men (2003) |
"Those who anticipate the twist ending are likely to leave the theater feeling conned themselves.." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
The Matrix Reloaded (2003) |
"The low point occurs when the unwashed masses of Zion celebrate Neo's return with what appears to be the previously unknown Dirty Dancing rave sequence from 'One Million Years B.C.'" |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
The Matrix Revolutions (2003) |
"Owes more to 'The War of the Worlds' than the war of ideas that made the first 'Matrix' stand out..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato '3/4' |
Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) |
"A terrarium of a movie, characterized by many charmed moments..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Mean Creek (2004) |
"Not quite convincing, but Estes deserves credit for asking us to sympathize with the type of obnoxious bully most movies offer up as a deserving target of 'payback.'" |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Meet the Fockers (2004) |
"A comic clash of stereotypical Red State and Blue State culture, but with a wish-fulfillment Hollywood ending in which 'Fockerization' triumphs..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Meet the Robinsons (2007) |
"Something like a Douglas Adams yarn for kids with ADD..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) |
"Only occasionally does the camp classic struggling to free itself from the constricting kimonos and white pancake makeup of 'Geisha' claw its way to the surface." |
John Beifuss |
Splat '2/4' |
The Memory of a Killer (2005) |
"A sort of 'CSI: Antwerp' episode from a director who seems to be auditioning for the next Jason Bourne adventure." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009) |
"Not the acerbic, Strangelovian satire one might expect but a pleasant, good-natured film that adopts the happy hippy vibe of Bridges' far-out Vietnam vet..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Merry Gentleman (2009) |
"A nice little independent film built around Kelly Macdonald's sweet personality and charming Scottish accent as surely as if it were a star vehicle developed for a contract player during the golden age of the Hollywood studio system." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (2004) |
"The band's literal Dr. Phil even develops a 'Metallica Mission Statement' that asks the musicians to become 'healers of ourselves' -- a far cry from 'Kill 'Em All.'" |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Miami Vice (2006) |
"The action begins immediately, without even a title credit, and the movie ends abruptly and almost arbitrarily, as if we have witnessed an almost literal slice of life, snipped off at either end by a pair of editor's shears. Life -- and crime -- goes on." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Michael Clayton (2007) |
"The film is stealthy, like its characters; it creeps up on you." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009) |
"Reveals a 'King of Pop' whose talent was undiminished by whatever private demons contributed to his shocking death at the age of 50." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
The Midnight Meat Train (2008) |
"More interesting than most of the torture-porn or Asian-inspired thrillers that make it to theaters these days, but its tired combination of incongruously pretty fashion-mag photography and outrageously gruesome digital effects is dead on arrival." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
A Mighty Heart (2007) |
"The steely-eyed seriousness of the enterprise -- the refusal to coddle moviegoers with warm characters or even attractive cinematography -- is alienating." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
A Mighty Wind (2003) |
"The most memorable moment is not a gag but a kiss, which -- surprisingly -- proves to be as sweet, moving and heartbreaking as any smooch seen onscreen in ages." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Milk (2008) |
"An object lesson for filmmakers who need proof that features with heavy themes about events of historic significance can be personal and accessible, intimate and entertaining." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 4/4 |
Million Dollar Baby (2004) |
"After Freeman refers to a place that exists "somewhere between nowhere and goodbye," we realize he's identified the dark space inhabited by all the film's characters." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Millions (2005) |
"As a stylist, Boyle is something of an action painter, throwing images on the canvas of the screen and seeing what sticks." |
John Beifuss |
Splat '2/4' |
MirrorMask (2005) |
"A wonder of imaginative design and a failure of imaginative storytelling; after 101 minutes of this, you feel like a starving man being taunted with a Faberge egg." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Mirrors (2008) |
"The ground zero for ghosts here is a burned-out luxury New York department store, making this yet another thriller with post-9/11 associations." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008) |
"This flat-footed screwball period piece is aimed at the 'art house' crowd, which means it must take itself seriously, which means it must stop dead in its tracks to address the waste of war, and so on..." |
John Beifuss |
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