Tomato 3/4 |
W. (2008) |
"'SNL' impersonation, Greek tragedy, Freudian father-son psychoanalysis and stranger-than-Strangelove reality form the basis of Oliver Stone's surprisingly entertaining film..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
The Wackness (2008) |
"The loose plot feels imposed on the offbeat characters, and doesn't link the people and incidents together in any satisfying way." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Waist Deep (2006) |
"Marred by absurd plot digressions and choppy, sloppy and incoherent shaky-camera action sequences." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Waitress (2007) |
"Watching 'Waitress,' we can believe Shelly herself was a 'queen of kindness and goodness,' and we can be thankful she left us such a fine film." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007) |
"The latest from the Apatow comedy factory abandons the relative realism of 'Knocked Up' and 'Superbad' for Mad Magazine-esque, 'Airplane!'-style spoofery..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat '2.5/4' |
Walk on Water (2005) |
"Honorable but not particularly affecting..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Walk the Line (2005) |
"A sort of stealth musical that tells its story of heartache, longing, passion and fated love more effectively through song than script." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Walking Tall (2004) |
"A morally specious revenge fantasy for viewers frustrated by their own feelings of impotence in the face of crime, unruly children, and so on..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 4/4 |
WALL-E (2008) |
"Pixar's boldness has advanced with its achievements in special effects. The opening act of 'WALL-E' is as melancholy as the Ray Bradbury short story, 'There Will Come Soft Rains'..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato '3/4' |
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) |
"The film has the literal hands-on, homemade appearance of the whimsical gizmos that Wallace invents for his own cottage industries." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Wanted (2008) |
"Criticizing Timur Bekmambetov for overkill is like dismissing Alfred Hitchcock for being fat." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato '4/4' |
War of the Worlds (2005) |
"It may be no coincidence the president's poll numbers and the movie industry's ticket sales are both in a slump: Doom-and-gloom scenarios are playing out offscreen and on..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Watchmen (2009) |
"Comic books and movies both tell stories with pictures, but 'Watchmen' demonstrates that the animating spirit of a rich, fully realized graphic novel may be as hard to transfer to the screen as that of any other type of successful literary work." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Water (2006) |
"Both a high-minded glossy soap opera, in the tradition of a Darryl F. Zanuck forbidden-love potboiler like 'Island in the Sun,' and a fierce expose of the mistreatment of women encouraged by fundamentalist religious tradition..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (2007) |
"It doesn't condescend to kids; its themes and narrative structure are fairly sophisticated." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Wattstax (1973) |
"As Richard Pryor says, it's 'a soulful expression of the black experience'..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
We Are Marshall (2006) |
"The season's glossiest stand-up-and-cheer sit-down-and-cry movie experience." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
We Don't Live Here Anymore (2004) |
"A film for grown-ups in which actions have consequences and consequences aren't resolved with a lecture or a hug or a gun." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
We Own The Night (2007) |
"The work of a dedicated and intelligent filmmaker who knows and understands the turf that provides the detail for his stories and the inspiration for his art..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 4/4 |
Wendy and Lucy (2008) |
"I can't think of a more generous or humane filmmaker than Kelly Reichardt." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Whale Rider (2003) |
"Stripped of its exotic cultural context and New Zealand setting, it wouldn't differ much from an inspirational TV movie..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 1.5/4 |
What Just Happened (2008) |
"The Park City premiere in January probably echoed with appreciative, knowing chuckles. The local auditorium where the movie opens today, however, is probably just going to echo." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 1.5/4 |
What the Bleep Do We Know? (2004) |
"It's a cult film, all right, but not like 'Eraserhead': It's more like a cult film created for inductees into some New Age self-actualization movement..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Whatever Works (2009) |
"A spoonful of Melody St. Ann Celestine helps the misanthrophy go down." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
When a Stranger Calls (2006) |
"What to remake next? 'My Bloody Valentine' or 'Sorority House Massacre'?
" |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Where the Wild Things Are (2009) |
"The title isn't a question, but the movie provides an answer: Everywhere." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Whip It (2009) |
"Hip but not smart-aleck, the film is not afraid to wear its heart on its sleeve as an invisible accessory to the pads, helmet and embarrassing Barbie skates that propel its underage heroine to a new identity..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
White Chicks (2004) |
"Buried beneath prosthetic makeup, the Wayans brothers look like plastic surgery addicts or robot refugees from 'Heartbeeps.' The result is more creepy than funny." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
White Countess (2005) |
"The symbolism of the situation -- a blind diplomat trying, and once again failing, to stage-manage international harmony -- seems like something from a socially conscious play of the 1930s." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 1/4 |
White Noise (2005) |
"This so-called thriller modulates the eerie static buzz of an empty frequency into the cinematic equivalent of sleep apnea." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Whiteout (2009) |
"The misleading trailer suggests 'Nancy Drew vs. the Thing,' but this graphic-novel adaptation is more 'CSI: Antractica' -- a straight if occasionally gruesome murder mystery, boosted by the novelty of its sub-zero South Pole setting." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Who Killed The Electric Car? (2006) |
"In this context, the presence of President Bush -- the Professor Moriarty of the new wave of liberal docs -- is as depressingly predictable as a baby left in a car in August." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Who's Your Caddy? (2007) |
"Replays the same underdog outsiders-vs.-Establishment snobs scenario found in a million earlier stories about hillbillies in Beverly Hills, nerds on campus, Marx Brothers at the opera and so on." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Why We Fight (2006) |
"It's hard to imagine a politician today addressing the public in Eisenhower's un-condescending, non-simplistic and honest terms." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
The Wicker Man (2006) |
"A castration-anxiety companion piece to 'The Da Vinci Code,' only this time the 'suppression of the female' is responsible for a murderous island cult of goddess-worshipping honey harvesters..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 1.5/4 |
The Wild (2006) |
"The diverse animals are beautifully rendered, but this cliche-riddled Disney failure represents one too many trips to the CGI non-inkwell." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Wild Hogs (2007) |
"At one point, Tim Allen proclaims: 'I'm lame. I'm just lame -- admit it, I'm lame.' Tim, you're preaching to the choir." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato |
Wild in the Country (1961) |
"With its incestuous 'Peyton Place' plot, out-of-wedlock baby and Tennessee Williams hothouse atmosphere, this is Elvis's most adult movie..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato '3.5/4' |
Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill (2005) |
"Its sweet surprise ending may be the most satisfying movie moment of the year to date." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights - Hollywood to the Heartland (2008) |
"Vaughn seems to believe that bringing hundreds of F-bombs per night and such guest stars as 'the gay guy from "Wedding Crashers"' to the benighted masses that live between New York and Los Angeles is the domestic equivalent of a USO show." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Willard (2003) |
"...an utterly unnecessary remake of a movie that was always more fun to talk about than to watch." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato '3.5/4' |
William Eggleston In The Real World (2005) |
"At times, the cinema verite style suggests the 'psychic disarray, intimately observed' (Almereyda's words) of Eggleston's own 1970s video project, 'Stranded in Canton'...
" |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (2004) |
"The opening disclaimer suggests that 'intolerance of the Jews' is something the world has outgrown, rather than an attitude that continues to be exploited..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (2004) |
"In a jaw-dropping moment of product placement, the characters actually discuss the merits of the brand of potato chip they're eating..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 4/4 |
Winged Migration (2003) |
"Showcases the beauty and natural talents of a cast of thousands..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Winter Solstice (2005) |
"The filmmaker understands that quiet desperation is often more moving than noisy suffering." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Without A Paddle (2004) |
"Imagine you're watching 'Dizzy Detectives' and after Moe wallops Curly with a two-by-four, he delivers a treacly speech about how much he appreciates his friendship..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Wolf Creek (2005) |
"The darkest lump of coal ever dropped down a moviegoer's throat on Christmas Day, bought by the Weinsteins for $3.5 million. Next time, could we get a gift certificate instead?" |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Woman, Thou Art Loosed (2004) |
"Now, a movie, from the Pentecostal preacher whose line of 'Loosed' product includes a novel, a play, a traveling seminar, and the 'Woman, Thou Art Loosed Cookbook'..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
The Women (2008) |
"The movie's one-scene-too-many end sequence not only fudges the project's XX-chromosome exclusivity but, weirdly, offers a message that Henry VIII could endorse." |
John Beifuss |
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