Splat C- |
Adam (2009) |
"...sanitized romantic comedy never cracks the surface of its delicate and complex subject." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato B- |
Adoration (2009) |
"As with all of Egoyan's films, "Adoration" is a forward-thinking exploratory work of cinema meant to invigorate audiences into social discussions beyond its narrative structure." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato B- |
Adventureland (2009) |
"Like the confused social period of the Reagan era that the story inhabits, "Adventureland" is an awkward comedy that makes you wish it were a lot better." |
Cole Smithey |
Splat D |
Adventures of Power (2009) |
"Writer/director/actor Ari Gold has made a competent student film that would graduate him from any film school with flying colors--that's to say, here is an example of a filmmaker who hasn't yet begun to find his own voice." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato B+ |
Afterschool (2009) |
"Antonio Campos's character study of a prep school social misfit named Robert (Ezra Miller) is an intimate psychological journey into a coded juvenile mindset." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato B |
The Age of Stupid (2009) |
"Educational and inventive, the documentary speaks with a strong editorial voice from a backward-looking vantage point. It's a narrative device that proves most effective." |
Cole Smithey |
Splat C+ |
Alien Trespass (2009) |
"What starts out as a promising retro comic spoof of '50s era sci-fi movies (think "It Came From Outer Space") digresses into a flat imitation of the mores and social ignorance it initially promises to skewer." |
Cole Smithey |
Splat D+ |
An American Affair (2009) |
"Even the famous M Street stairs from "The Exorcist" are out of place in the climax of this lightweight movie." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato B- |
American Casino (2009) |
"Essential viewing for understanding how banks systematically targeted low income groups in over-leveraged mortgage lending practices that led to a catastrophic economic collapse, "American Casino" is still a far from perfect documentary." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato C+ |
American Swing (2009) |
"An essential document to the rich history of New York, "American Swing" is too short sighted for the vision of its controversial subject." |
Cole Smithey |
Splat C |
Amreeka (2009) |
"Writer/director Cherien Dabis's Sundance Festival entry digresses from a gritty West Bank drama to a stagy middle-American melodrama." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato A |
An Education (2009) |
"...an absorbing character study and an evocative exploration of womanhood as embodied by the finest young actress [Carey Mulligan] to come along this year." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato B+ |
Angels & Demons (2009) |
"For all of the Catholic Church hullabaloo over Dan Brown's novels, Ron Howard's "Da Vinci Code" sequel is an exuberant cinematic adaptation that combines elements of horror, religious tradition, and high-tech suspense to give audiences a non-stop thrill r" |
Cole Smithey |
Splat C- |
The Answer Man (2009) |
"As part of the current season's spate of philosophical lifestyle pap movies like "Away We Go" and "$9.99," first-time-director (oh how I rue those words) John Hindman trips at every step." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato A |
Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2009) |
"You don't have to give two cents about Heavy Metal music to appreciate Sacha Gervasi's joyous and touching documentary about charismatic Canadian musicians Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner..." |
Cole Smithey |
Splat C |
Art & Copy (2009) |
"Professedly intended to reflect an Errol Morris "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control" type of documentary, Pray misses the mark by leaving his own editorial voice out to dry." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato A- |
As Seen Through These Eyes (2009) |
"Hilary Helstein offers a historically significant documentary reportage of Holocaust survivors who utilized art as their primary coping mechanism inside Hitler's concentration camps." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato B- |
Avatar (2009) |
""Avatar" may well be a perfect film to desensitize young audiences before they get the call-up." |
Cole Smithey |
Splat D |
Away We Go (2009) |
"The movie almost works as a cautionary tale about global overpopulation by imbecile parents, but even that would be a bridge too far for this pathetic navel rub that comes with the same sense of entitlement that it pretends to skewer." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato B |
Adam Resurrected (2008) |
""Slaughter House Five" meets "The Night Porter" in director Paul Schrader's energetic adaptation of Yoran Kaniuk's 1968 novel about former cabaret star Adam Stein (brilliantly played by Jeff Goldblum)." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato A |
Anita O'Day - The Life Of A Jazz Singer (2008) |
"You come away from the documentary impressed by a fiercely individualistic and beautiful woman who lived by her own rules with a fluid mastery of music that few musicians ever attain." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato B |
Appaloosa (2008) |
"Jeremy Irons is miscast as the film's politically driven baddie, but the easy rapport between Harris and Mortensen more than compensates for the minor misstep." |
Cole Smithey |
Splat C- |
Australia (2008) |
"Baz Lurhman never sets a consistent tone for movie. There's too much camp for the film to be taken as a serious drama, and the filmmaker flirts with outdated '30s era cinema conventions of a John Ford western like "Stagecoach."" |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato B |
Air Guitar Nation (2007) |
"Put aside all of your preconceptions of air guitar as a hobby of shamelessly untalented wanna-be guitar players, and step into the world of competitive air guitar." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato B |
Alpha Dog (2007) |
"With a dream cast of the youngest and brightest actors of the day, Cassavetes creates a movie that feels like you're watching an apathetic group of kids riding down a progressively steeper incline in an unmanned vehicle." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato B+ |
American Gangster (2007) |
"Perfectly entertaining and suspenseful." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato B |
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theatres (2007) |
"Aqua Teen Hunger Force," the movie is a juiced-up revelry of irreverence and sarcasm that defies description." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato A- |
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) |
"Casey Affleck gives an outstanding performance that proves him to be a character actor of immense creativity, clarity and composure." |
Cole Smithey |
Splat C |
The Astronaut Farmer (2007) |
"Stuck between an idealized '60s era idea of liberty and our post-9/11 clampdown under Big Brother, "The Astronaut Farmer" is a high concept movie that never bothers to bridge its essential gap of sanity and reason." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato A |
Atonement (2007) |
"James McAvoy Talks About Atonement
'Playing with styles is something that I try to do with every film.'" |
Cole Smithey |
Splat D |
August Rush (2007) |
"A perfect example of everything wrong about Hollywood films, "August Rush" is an obstinately perverse, hammy piece of instant-gratification cinema that weeps from the screen as so much emotional sludge." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato B |
Avenue Montaigne (2007) |
"This richly layered slice-of-ideal-Parsian-life confection wafts with the smell of fresh croissants and Coco Chanel." |
Cole Smithey |
Splat D+ |
Awake (2007) |
"Go see Awake fully-caffeinated with a bunch of friends willing to yell back at the screen and cheer for Lena Olin whenever she appears. It's the right way to enjoy such an unintentionally camp piece of crap." |
Cole Smithey |
Splat C+ |
Away From Her (2007) |
"Strong performances from the inimitable Julie Christie and the lesser known Gordon Pinset can't compensate for the overly-sentimental reasoning behind a husband's inability to make peace with his wife's Alzheimer's disease." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato B- |
A Scanner Darkly (2006) |
"Richard Linklater sticks to the narrative flow of Philip K. Dick's novel without embellishing it with current sociopolitical realities that the book foreshadowed." |
Cole Smithey |
Splat C |
Accepted (2006) |
""Accepted" falls short of mining "National Lampoon's Animal House" brand of humor because it doesn't relate the relationships of its characters to their kooky behaviors." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato B- |
Akeelah and the Bee (2006) |
""Akeelah And The Bee" is a movie that parents should be happy to let their kids go see on their own; they just might start reading the dictionary." |
Cole Smithey |
Splat D |
All The King's Men (2006) |
""All the King's Men" is a grand scale embarrassment." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato B- |
America: Freedom To Fascism (2006) |
""America: Freedom To Fascism" captures America's current gloom and doom zeitgeist with plenty of controversial ideas to send any dinner party into a shouting match." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato B+ |
American Cannibal - The Documentary (2006) |
""American Cannibal" is a fast-paced satire about the state reality television that builds its humor on its depiction of the limits our current reality TV craze." |
Cole Smithey |
Splat D |
American Dreamz (2006) |
"Writer/Director Paul Wietz ("In Good Company") tries his hand at creating a topical satire of our current American social-political crisis and comes up far short of capturing the brutal climate of a country running on the fumes of its dismembered civil ri" |
Cole Smithey |
Splat C- |
American Hardcore (2006) |
"For a documentary ostensibly about the history of the hardcore punk music movement that reigned in America during the '80s, director Paul Rachman and writer Steven Blush indefensibly omit the genre's most talented and high-profile band (The Dead Kennedys)" |
Cole Smithey |
Splat C- |
An American Haunting (2006) |
"The frights are few and the moment of horrific revelation is a big letdown in writer/director Courtney Solomon's cinematic treatment of Brent Monahan's novel "The Bell Witch: An American Haunting."" |
Cole Smithey |
Splat D+ |
Annapolis (2006) |
"Character development and narrative substance are absent in this wispy movie about beefcake and getting a knack for teamwork in an oppressive atmosphere." |
Cole Smithey |
Splat C |
Apocalypto (2006) |
"Mel Gibson follows up "The Passion of the Christ," his entrée into directing schlock B-move horror films with high production values, with an even more gory study into bodily torture and death." |
Cole Smithey |
Splat C |
Art School Confidential (2006) |
"Director Terry Zwigoff presents a scathing satire of art school student existence but derails the movie, about a talented young artist (well-played by Max Minghella), with an artificial sub-plot about a campus serial killer." |
Cole Smithey |
Splat D |
ATL (2006) |
"Amateur camera work and conspicuous plotting reduce the film's regional sensibilities to sleep-inducing pap." |
Cole Smithey |
Tomato B |
A/K/A Tommy Chong (2005) |
"Josh Gilbert's curt documentary about the arrest and conviction of comedian and former bong-maker Tommy Chong reveals the federal sting operation that put Tommy Chong in a state penitentiary for nine months for shipping glass bongs to Pennsylvania." |
Cole Smithey |
Splat C |
Adventures of Sharkboy and Lava Girl in 3-D (2005) |
"Robert Rodriquez continues in the vein of his "Spy Kids" films with another visually frenetic kiddie crowd-pleaser that will leave adult chaperons exiting the cinema nursing headaches." |
Cole Smithey |
Splat C- |
Aeon Flux (2005) |
"Even Theron's sexy catsuit acrobatics can't prevent boredom from setting in as the film's unimaginative production design and dull dialogue take precedence." |
Cole Smithey |
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