Splat 2/4 |
Ma Mere (2005) |
"Glazed-over looks, naked flesh, inane philosophizing, and sand dunes announce that we’re in Antonioni-land, circa Zabriskie Point." |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 3/4 |
Mad Hot Ballroom (2005) |
"Though Agrelo blunts the competitive drama by visually excluding the opposition, the kids’ talent and infectious spirit carries the day for Mad Hot Ballroom." |
Peter Canavese |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Madagascar (2005) |
"I see no compelling reason to begrudge the kiddies of this mostly amiable timewaster, but this one's hardly destined to join the crowded top shelf of animated winners." |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 3/4 |
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008) |
"Energetic, fast-paced, and pumped full of zany humor...sure to entertain the younguns and be fairly painless for their guardians. [Blu-ray]" |
Peter Canavese |
Splat 2/4 |
Made of Honor (2008) |
"Not much distinguishes this determinedly average Hollywood outing, but it can claim Sydney Pollack's final performance and Patrick Dempsey's first big-screen starring role since his career second-wind..." |
Peter Canavese |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Major League (1989) |
"A meat and potatoes '80s movie, that maybe doesn't 'taste great,' but at least is 'less filling.' [Blu-ray]" |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 3/4 |
Mamma Mia! (2008) |
"Complete fluff, and proud of it...Once you adjust your senses, however, you're bound to submit to this vacation of a movie." |
Peter Canavese |
Splat 2/4 |
The Man (2005) |
"I bow to the Buddha nature of Jackson and Levy....the average moviegoer in me can see the entertainment value in The Man. Just not $9 bucks worth." |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 3/4 |
A Man Named Pearl (2008) |
"One of those hidden treasures of the art house that it's your duty to seek out." |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Man On Wire (2008) |
"Engrossing...rich and visually well-documented telling of a fascinating story." |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Man Who Copied (2005) |
"An unconventional romance...a complex crime movie, and a jaunty comedy...few will leave this stylish, adventurous film wanting for entertainment." |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) |
"A diverting but typically silly Roger Moore entry in the Bond canon. [Blu-ray]" |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 3/4 |
Man With The Screaming Brain (2005) |
"Cranial scars; a robot in a yellow jumpsuit; gypsy thugs; catfights; Ted Raimi doing hip-hop; a mauve, tasseled Vespa; and a salad bar....C’mon: you know you want it." |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 3/4 |
Mana: Beyond Belief (2006) |
"The medium is also the message: the film itself has mana, offering "a gateway into a whole realm of knowledge," material and spiritual." |
Peter Canavese |
Splat 2.5/4 |
The Manchurian Candidate (2004) |
"An "A" for effort...Still, the frayed plot strands of the 2004 Manchurian Candidate make it a lame duck to Frankenheimer's first-term thriller." |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 3/4 |
March of the Penguins (2005) |
"This G-rated charmer will make a guiltless and educational outing for parents of grade-schoolers...even if it does tenaciously anthropomorphize the cute, wee wobblers." |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Margaret Cho - Assassin (2005) |
"Soft in the middle, and none of Cho’s stories here take on an epic scope....[Yet] the comedienne remains endearingly naughty." |
Peter Canavese |
- |
Margot at the Wedding (2007) |
"Noah Baumbach: 'Margot doesn't come there to wreck anything. She comes there because she loves her sister and wants to support her. She just can't help herself once she sees what the situation is.'" |
Peter Canavese |
- |
Margot at the Wedding (2007) |
"Jennifer Jason Leigh: 'One of the big ones was Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon...it made a huge impression on me.'" |
Peter Canavese |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Marie Antoinette (2006) |
"Once she makes the sound feminist point that it wasn't easy being a girl in 1768, Coppola proves intellectually taxed." |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Marley & Me (2008) |
"Even dog skeptics might be surprised how deftly Marley & Me adapts newspaper columnist John Grogan's book...into the equivalent of a kid's movie for adults. [Blu-ray]" |
Peter Canavese |
Splat 2/4 |
Martian Child (2007) |
"Though it panders shamelessly, it's not entirely unwelcome in a time when the PG movie is an endangered species. [DVD review included.]" |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 3/4 |
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) |
"Branagh's ambitious take succeeds as a cautionary tale about true monstrosity: hubris and man's inhumanity to man. But one man's operatic style is another man's unintentionally comical excess, and...Frankenstein certainly tempts fate... [Blu-ray]" |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Matador (2005) |
"Writer-director Richard Shepard speeds through the hairpin turns of a pure-comedy 'what if?' premise....as quirkily suspenseful as it is ticklish." |
Peter Canavese |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Match Point (2005) |
"Amounts to little more than an austere and extremely prolonged episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents." |
Peter Canavese |
Splat 2/4 |
Maximum Risk (1996) |
"The energetic action isn't quite enough to overcome an undernourished story. [Blu-Ray]" |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Me and Orson Welles (2009) |
"Without McKay, Me and Orson Welles would be unthinkable as a film; with him, Linklater's delightful celebration of the arts turns out to be one of the season's most surprising gifts." |
Peter Canavese |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) |
"How bearable you'll find [the film] has everything to do with your tolerance for stylized indie poetry, played mostly in a quirky, anesthetized deadpan." |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 3/4 |
Mean Creek (2004) |
"Estes's film casts prismatic light on the persistent issues of bullying, youth violence, and their mortal and emotional consequences." |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 3/4 |
Mean Girls (2004) |
"Like Heathers with the edges filed down a bit...the kind of smooth, clever (and rare) entertainment that critics and audiences can all enjoy, guilt-free. [Blu-ray]" |
Peter Canavese |
Splat 2/4 |
Meet Dave (2008) |
"Eddie, it's time to start thinking big again." |
Peter Canavese |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Meet the Fockers (2004) |
"DeNiro is pretty much the only reason to see Meet the Fockers...[betrays] creative exhaustion." |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 3/4 |
Melinda and Melinda (2005) |
"For all its failings...[has] enough thoughtfulness, creative energy, and comedic idiosyncracy to outpace any five modern comedies, much less two." |
Peter Canavese |
Splat 2/4 |
Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) |
"A bloated melodrama more interested in poses than inner lives (according to some Japanese-culture-vultures, it gets the poses wrong, too)." |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
The Memory of a Killer (2005) |
"The sympathy toward the obvious evil of a contract killer never flies...Still, the clever central gimmick and a streak of sly humor lift [the] film, just barely, a cut above." |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999) |
"Jovovich brings an intensity to the role well-matched to Besson's stylistic energy, though this comic-bookish take on Jeanne D'Arc won't be winning any historical-society awards. [Blu-ray]" |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Michael Clayton (2007) |
"A straight-ahead suspense melodrama, complete with villain and a climax with satisfyingly clean lines. But Gilroy constantly elevates the material with surprise gifts. [Blu-Ray review]" |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 3/4 |
Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009) |
"A hall-of-mirrors investigation of extraordinary talent, emotionally stunted personality, a performer's process, and the cruel mistress of celebrity...but it also serves as a powerful performance version of a last will and testament." |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 3/4 |
Midnight Express (1978) |
"Strong stuff indeed...swells proportional sight and sound subjectively to convey Hayes' nightmarish experience but also hypes up a story that probably doesn't need the help. [Blu-ray]" |
Peter Canavese |
- |
A Mighty Heart (2007) |
"Michael Winterbottom: 'I think, um, someone staged it. But it wasn't us...he did say all this on camera in front of the biggest possible audience you could have...maybe he could have found a quieter moment.'" |
Peter Canavese |
Splat 2.5/4 |
A Mighty Heart (2007) |
"A docudramatic TV movie at heart, and there's something unseemly about the film's inherently predictable build to Pearl's climactic grief." |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Milk (2008) |
"That Milk is merely excellent and not transcendent should not obscure its importance to popular culture..." |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Million Dollar Baby (2004) |
"Million Dollar Baby makes the line between subtle and obvious seem finer than it is, and delivers its one-two punches Old-Hollywood-style." |
Peter Canavese |
- |
Millions (2005) |
"Danny Boyle on Millions and Career Highlights" |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 3/4 |
Millions (2005) |
"Boyle's energetic pace and typically creative visuals suit the film's fanciful brushes with magic realism." |
Peter Canavese |
Splat 2/4 |
Mindhunters (2005) |
""At the end of the day, building a better mousetrap is just mechanics." Within that comment is the philosophy of director Renny Harlin...you'd best lower your expectations." |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 3/4 |
Miracle (2004) |
"Miracle capitalizes on its understanding of team dynamics: the bonding of pain and gain alike, the ownership of integrity over ego, the satisfaction of communal accomplishment. [Blu-ray]" |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Miracle at St. Anna (2008) |
"Problematic as a narrative...[but] Lee's simply too smart and talented to make a dismissible film. [Blu-ray]" |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 4/4 |
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944) |
"Stands out for its sheer audacity of subject matter and its sustained emotional-roller-coaster effect: it's quite possibly the most high-strung movie ever made." |
Peter Canavese |
Tomato 5/5 |
Mishima - A Life in Four Chapters (1985) |
No article available. |
Peter Canavese |
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