Tomato 3/4 |
Adam (2009) |
"Adam and Beth are remarkably nice, likable characters, played by Dancy and Byrne without the tics and self-consciousness that more pretentious or perhaps less secure performers might have brought to the roles." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Adoration (2009) |
"As thoughtful, calculated, somber and cold as a heavily footnoted term paper..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Adventureland (2009) |
"Seems to be the first 'teen' comedy inspired by the recession, even if the downturn depicted here is the hard-times Reagan year of 1987..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Alexander the Last (2009) |
"With its self-conscious references to the artistic process and to art itself (in a scene that wouldn't be out of place in a Godard project, a character reads Poe's 'The Bells,' almost in its entirety), this is Swanberg's most moving and impressive film..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Aliens in the Attic (2009) |
"Amiable, kid-oriented slapstick..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 1/4 |
All About Steve (2009) |
"'I'm going to eat you like a mountain lion,' says the sex-starved Bullock as she attacks Cooper in his van, moments after meeting him, in one of several appalling scenes that represent director Phil Traill's idea of cute." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Amelia (2009) |
"Burns a lot of fuel over the idea that Earhart was not just a hero of the air but an original feminist -- an iconoclast in jodhpurs and a necktie whose addiction to the 'freedom' of flight was representative of womankind's yearning for independence..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
An Education (2009) |
"The message proves surprisingly conventional, but its delivery is entirely pleasurable." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Angels & Demons (2009) |
"How come there's never a self-flagellating albino killer monk around when you really want one?" |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Astro Boy (2009) |
"It may creep some people out -- parents more than children, no doubt." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Away We Go (2009) |
"This episodic kook's tour might have worked better as a novel; the dialogue wouldn't seem so arch if we were permitted to 'act' it in our heads, and the monologues would seem more natural on a printed page, where words are required to fill the blankness." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
American Teen (2008) |
"At first, it seems 'American Teen' might patronize its subjects, but in fact Burstein treats everyone with sympathy..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Anita O'Day - The Life Of A Jazz Singer (2008) |
"O'Day survived the rigors of what euphemistically might be called 'the jazz life.' Comments Bryant Gumble: 'Your personal experiences include rape, abortion, jail, heroin addiction...' Responds the unflappable O'Day: 'It's the way it went down, Bryant.'" |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Appaloosa (2008) |
"'Appaloosa' might be described as a routine Western, except that in the moviegoing culture of 2008, there's nothing routine about the pleasures of a well-made and entertaining Western." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Australia (2008) |
"Kitsch and cliche drive the story, but the faces and locations are stunning -- when the movie's over, you feel like you've been somewhere and seen something." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Across the Universe (2007) |
"The jump the shark moment: Weary soldiers tote the Statue of Liberty across a tabletop Vietnam to the strains of the 'She's So Heavy' chorus from 'Abbey Road.'" |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
After The Wedding (2007) |
"The odd cropping of the closeups is Bier's way of acknowleding that the slices of life we see onscreen can't begin to convey the complicated messiness of existence." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem (2007) |
"The Old School nondigital face-huggings and chest-burstings don't compensate for the Sci Fi network dialogue and story logic." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Alpha Dog (2007) |
"Sharon Stone's teary monologue near the end of the film might be more effective if she weren't buried inside a fat suit that makes her look like Jiminy Glick." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007) |
"Shockingly, the movie's easy to like -- an anti-Hannah Montana parable in which young performers discover they prefer the comfort and security of home to the high-pressure glitz of rock and roll stardom." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Amazing Grace (2007) |
"The rhetoric in the film is clearly intended to be relevant to the situation in the United States today... 'Our fear of an unknown enemy must not be allowed to erode our long-cherished liberties,' says a Wilberforce ally." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
American Gangster (2007) |
"May be the first underworld epic in which a drug kingpin lectures a subordinate about the significance of 'brand names' and 'trademark infringement' in the heroin trade..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Arctic Tale (2007) |
"More than once I found myself thinking: What a planet! Which means the movie did its job." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) |
"The hoods of the train robbers remind us of children's Halloween costumes, which adds to the impression that this is a movie populated by dead men too stubborn to give up the ghost." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Atonement (2007) |
"The rat-a-tat-tat of a typewriter strafes the soundtrack repeatedly to remind us of the power of storytelling and to suggest that words can hit like bullets." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Avenue Montaigne (2007) |
"Something like 'Love Actually,' in Gallic." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Away From Her (2007) |
"Probes those two impossible and sometimes incompatible organs -- the human heart and the human brain -- with a scientist's curiosity and a poet's empathy." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
A Scanner Darkly (2006) |
"Casting Reeves was a minor stroke of genius: Arctor could be the mundane identity that Neo discovers after his adventures in un-reality -- the hangover after the epic trip of 'The Matrix.'" |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Accepted (2006) |
"A 'teen' movie that operates at a higher level of wit and energy than most of the so-called adult comedies now onscreen..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Akeelah and the Bee (2006) |
"An 11-year-old word wizard from the inner city longs for a little r-e-s-p-e-c-t, as Aretha Franklin sings in pop music's most famous spelling test. We know she'll get it; what's remarkable is that writer-director Doug Atchison earns our respect as well." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
All The King's Men (2006) |
"Zaillian indulges his actors and himself, wasting time on showboating interludes and pretty pictures that halt rather than drive the narrative." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
American Hardcore (2006) |
"The hit-and-run effect sometimes suggests a documentary equivalent to slam dancing, but without the bruises." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
An American Haunting (2006) |
"The impact of the old-school effects is negated by Solomon's all too contemporary stylistic overkill: Sourceless but loud 'scary' noises accompany jump cuts and whip pans, and the camera usually appears more agitated than the Bells..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
The Ant Bully (2006) |
"The ant community resembles an ideal socialist collective as imagined by H. Rider Haggard." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Apocalypto (2006) |
"The premise of Cornel Wilde's 'The Naked Prey,' the jungle savagery of a 1980s Italian cannibal film and the sadomasochistic martyr-complex obsessions that apparently churn like a ball of snakes inside Mel Gibson's head are all here..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Art School Confidential (2006) |
"...a sort of John Hughes revamp of Fritz Lang's 'Scarlet Street' (another film in which sexual desire leads a struggling painter down a path of death and stolen artistic identity)." |
John Beifuss |
Splat '2/4' |
Adventures of Sharkboy and Lava Girl in 3-D (2005) |
"The computer-generated settings have a Photoshop feel; you can almost hear the mouse clicks." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Aeon Flux (2005) |
"The bright, retro-futuristic Pop Art production design matches the 1970s 'THX-1138' values of a story that suggests freedom can be found within the natural world that lies outside our technological cocoons." |
John Beifuss |
Splat '2/4' |
Apres Vous (2005) |
"Unfolds with the light and civilized touch that Americans associate with French farce, but it's as contrived as any Hollywood comedy." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Are We There Yet? (2005) |
"The evolution of Ice Cube from 'AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted' to America's Most Cuddly continues." |
John Beifuss |
Splat '2.5/4' |
The Aristocrats (2005) |
"Choppy editing sabotages the viewer's ability to appreciate the comic's performance, thus undermining what is arguably the movie's chief reason for being." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Ask the Dust (2005) |
"Fante's novel comes to the screen as if dipped in butterscotch: Its abrasive surface has been coated with a golden, sticky glow." |
John Beifuss |
Splat '2.5/4' |
Asylum (2005) |
"A sort of perverse update of an overwrought Barbara Stanwyck-Bette Davis melodrama..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
The Alamo (2004) |
"'The Alamo' is forgettable, with the exception of Billy Bob Thornton's performance as a Davy Crockett who deserves a movie of his own..." |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Alexander (2004) |
"Could be the neo-con film of the year, as Alexander's armies march through the East 'to free the people of the world...'" |
John Beifuss |
Splat 2/4 |
Alien vs. Predator (2004) |
"In an early scene, a television is tuned to 'Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.' That represents the first and last witty moment in the film." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Along Came Polly (2004) |
"Ben Stiller: the Edwin Booth in our contemporary theater of acute embarrassment and gross-out humiliation..." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid (2004) |
"A scary, fun, fast and efficient B-movie that crushes such bloated would-be blockbusters as 'Van Helsing' and 'AVP' in its CGI coils." |
John Beifuss |
Tomato 3/4 |
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) |
"No plot, no so-called redeeming social value and no desire to pluck the hearstrings, which is why it's superior to 'Elf.'" |
John Beifuss |
Splat 1/4 |
Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera (2004) |
"The Phantom calls himself a 'loathsome gargoyle,' but, unmasked, he looks more like a guy with a bad sunburn, or maybe a seafood allergy." |
John Beifuss |
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