Splat 2/4 |
Race to Witch Mountain (2009) |
"AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig are fine, but this 'X Files' for small fry has about as much heft as a bubble of swamp gas." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Rachel Getting Married (2008) |
"It's no coincidence that Hathaway's character arrives at her pregnant sister's wedding 'nine months clean,' a gestation period that has given birth to -- what?" |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Racing Stripes (2005) |
"A tolerable but derivative combination of 'Babe,' 'National Velvet' and 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,' with recycled life lessons and poop jokes..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Raising Victor Vargas (2003) |
"Charming and disarming..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Rambo (2008) |
"Like America, it's both excited by and ashamed of its bloodlust." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Randy and the Mob (2007) |
"The influences of a strange outside world rub up against -- and sometimes abrade -- Southern tradition and a good ol' boy's increasingly fragile sense of self in this dry, gentle, sometimes silly and sometimes very funny comedy." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 4/4 |
Ratatouille (2007) |
"Brad Bird makes cartoons, yet I don't think there's a filmmaker anywhere with more respect for his audience." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Ray (2004) |
"Reductive and simplistic, but whenever Foxx opens his mouth to sing and the voice of Ray Charles comes out, the film is a pleasure..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
The Reader (2008) |
"'The Reader' suggests -- what? That Nazis might have been nicer if they'd spent more time reading instead of burning books?" |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
The Reaping (2007) |
"The film may be ridiculous, but give me a river of blood, a rain of frogs, a plague of flies and a storm of locusts, and I'm a relatively content moviegoer." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
The Reckoning (2004) |
"Collapses under the weight of unlikely melodrama and over-pretty visual flourishes..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Red Cliff (2009) |
"It reminded me of a Road Runner cartoon. The battlefield violence is essentially repetitious, but Woo -- the auteur as Wile E. Coyote -- introduces gimmicks ('the tortoise formation'), tricks and variations to keep things interesting." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato '2.5/4' |
Red Eye (2005) |
"Reminds us that moviegoers and air travelers both pack themselves into tight rows of padded seats where they may experience turbulence and even white-knuckled terror..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Red Lights (2004) |
"A compelling addition to the long tradition of artful French film adaptations of works of mystery and suspense literature." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Redbelt (2008) |
"Among its other virtues, the film reminds us that Chiwetel Ejiofor is one of the most comfortable, consistently convincing and undervalued actors in movies today." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Rent (2005) |
"'Rent' has come to the screen too late to have any real impact..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Reprise (2008) |
"I realized the movie had lost me when it occurred to me that after spending many minutes with Phillip and Erik, I had no interest in reading any novel that either of them might have written." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Rescue Dawn (2007) |
"It would be interesting to pair this well-reviewed 'art' film with 'Make Them Die Slowly' or another of the usually reviled Italian jungle-atrocity movies that covered similar ground, literally (dense tropical forest) and incidentally." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) |
"Okay, it ain't Shakespeare, not to mention Romero; but did we really need a scene in which a cop BUNGEE-JUMPS from a helicopter, both guns blazing?" |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) |
"On its own action/horror terms, this is the most successful 'threequel' of the year, if only because it actually improves on its silly predecessors." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Respiro (2003) |
"Like David Gordon Green's 'George Washington,' it examines the rituals of children and the oddities of families with fresh eyes." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Revolutionary Road (2008) |
"If the film seems obvious compared to the novel, it captures Yates' idea that the young, even naive, Frank and April are play actors in their own lives..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Riding Giants (2004) |
"Well-made, but those who aren't ready to zen out in Surf City can find documentaries that are just as worthwhile on The History Channel or Animal Planet." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 1/4 |
Righteous Kill (2008) |
"It took 40 years, but Robert De Niro finally has made a movie that enables him to utter this line: "Rambo the skateboard pimp was my tenth kill."" |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
The Ring Two (2005) |
"Horror movies have long exploited the anxieties associated with birth and child-rearing, but 'The Ring Two' may be the first to credit its hauntings to postpartum depression." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato '3.5/4' |
Rize (2005) |
"The footage makes you giddy, blasting you with the visual equivalent of laughing gas." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Road (2009) |
"A very fine film that somehow manages to attain only a fraction of the heart-rending power of its grim source." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Robots (2005) |
"A Transformer of a kids' movie that reconfigures itself into a literal depiction of the idea that Big Money wants to throw the old, rusty and broken onto the scrap heap." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
RocknRolla (2008) |
"A patchwork of set pieces, held together by a hip soundtrack." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Rocky Balboa (2006) |
"The movie -- like its hero -- suffers from a bad case of calcium on the joints." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato '3/4' |
Roll Bounce (2005) |
"Dialogue allusions to the Cosby Kids and 'What's Happening!!' are played for laughs, but they're apt: This is family-friendly youth fare" |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Roman de Gare (2008) |
"Provides one of the year's more memorable movie moments: a simple shot of a barn, overlaid with both the soothing crooning of a Gilbert Becaud pop song and the terrified squeals of a hog being slaughtered." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Rory O'Shea Was Here (2005) |
"Randle Patrick McMurphy in a motorized wheelchair." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Rosenstrasse (2004) |
"Has the never-ending wave of less-than-essential Holocaust movies begun to reduce the most horrific episode of the 20th Century to the level of just another genre?" |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Rudo and Cursi (2009) |
"The charismatic stars make this film pretty much a delight..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
The Ruins (2008) |
"Stripped of the novel's kudzu-like excess, the story loses its timeless, nightmarish, existential power and becomes another cautionary tale in which beautiful and privileged post-9/11 young people learn the world is no longer safe for Americans." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Run, Fat Boy, Run (2008) |
"Overcomes its occasional stumbles, thanks almost entirely to the charm of its cast..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
The Rundown (2003) |
"The fights almost make up for the excessively juvenile humor and a portrayal of Brazil that's as ridiculous as the depictions of Africa in old Tarzan movies." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Rush Hour 3 (2007) |
"Less Abbott & Costello than Cheney & Rove; how else to explain the 'humor' in a movie that gleefully promotes the ugly in the phrase 'ugly American'?" |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
RV (2006) |
"Surprisingly palatable family comedy..." |
John Beifuss |
IGN RSS Feeds
