- |
The Break-Up (2006) |
"Vince Vaughn discusses the media attention surrounding The Break-Up and how he protected the film's cliche-defying sensibilities." |
Fred Topel |
Tomato |
The Break-Up (2006) |
"Vince Vaughn overreacting to Pictionary will certainly be on his highlight reel at the next awards show... The greatest comedy is found in the deepest truths, and when the truth hurts, the experience can touch the full spectrum of emotion." |
Fred Topel |
Splat |
Just My Luck (2006) |
"Could have been the Final Destination of comedies...Instead, they settle for generic slapstick." |
Fred Topel |
Tomato |
Keeping Up With The Steins (2006) |
">Keeping Up With the Steins is My Big Fat Jewish Rite of Passage... The best Jewish comedy since Annie Hall." |
Fred Topel |
Tomato |
Mission: Impossible III (2006) |
"Proves that J.J. Abrams is the best at the espionage action thriller genre. I'm just sad that this will solidify him as a film director. I want my fix every week." |
Fred Topel |
Tomato |
Poseidon (2006) |
"The most pure action/adventure romp since Batman Begins... makes Titanic look like a sailboat." |
Fred Topel |
- |
Superman Returns (2006) |
"The connections to the original series are subtle and wonderful. It's full of great gags, like the film is saying, "Yeah, we're Superman."" |
Fred Topel |
Tomato 3/4 |
2012 (2009) |
"As with "Independence Day," "2012" is what comes of hiring legitimate actors to hawk hokum. And "2012" certainly is all cheese on wry, but it's smart within its means as a palpable, if popcorn, lesson about parental and personal responsibility." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
An Education (2009) |
"Here, you see a family collectively come to appreciate the strength of a heart scarred over and the blossoming of a woman (and actress Carey Mulligan) who learns that pie-in-the-sky predictions for a future can sock even the most sensible among us." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 3/4 |
Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2009) |
"Let's be honest: Anvil is not metal's missing link, and "Anvil!" has been awfully overpraised. However, it's worth watching for the frequent moments of warm, humane heavy-metal comedy and the antagonistic push-and-pull of Canadian creative cousins." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Appaloosa (2008) |
"Viggo Mortensen's brilliantly cool performance engenders enough good will to see "Appaloosa" through its pokey meandering to an intriguingly philosophical conclusion: a look at modern outsourcing, capitalism and progress through a Western prism." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008) |
"It's a happy report that the preview's bark is far worse than the movie's bite. There is a Chihuahua brigade (fronted by Placido Domingo, no less), but thankfully no musical numbers. It's a modestly charming old-dog family film with few new tricks." |
Nick Rogers |
Splat 2/4 |
The Blind Side (2009) |
"Subtlety is horse-collared in John Lee Hancock's disappointingly Lifetime-ish sports film. It lacks the subtlety or nuance of his "The Rookie" and is borderline offensive in spots, but Sandra Bullock easily delivers her career's best performance." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Blindness (2008) |
"Fernando Meirelles replaces his usually heated human emotion with cold, clinical and repetitive case-study detachment. At least it's courageously uncompromising, and Meirelles gets perhaps the best work ever out of the overrated Julianne Moore." |
Nick Rogers |
Splat 2/4 |
Body of Lies (2008) |
"Just because Leonardo DiCaprio gets worked like a speed bag doesn't mean Ridley Scott isn't pulling the punches he usually packs. It's emotionless chaos that's more like "Collateral Damage," less a film weighing what collateral damage really means." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Bruno (2009) |
"What "Bruno" may lack in setup innovation, character conviction or "Borat's" inherent sweetness, it makes up for by pushing things beyond points of comfort or, in some cases, personal safety. Successfully uproarious in slaying social stratification." |
Nick Rogers |
Splat 2/4 |
Burn After Reading (2008) |
"The Coen Brothers should stop collaborating on comedies with George Clooney. None has worked, and none less so than this leaden spy game. At least Brad Pitt is the loosest he's cut in years, emerging as a potential go-to guy for future Coen comedies." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 3/4 |
Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) |
"Serving as an apogee of Michael Moore's decade-long thesis, "Capitalism" feels like it adds up to a sum greater than this part. If Moore's next decade is as fruitful as his last, America is doomed, but it's odd to see a lack of healthy skepticism." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 3/4 |
Changeling (2008) |
"Clint Eastwood occasionally works at cross-purposes against his film's best elements. (Please can the mournful guitar already.) But its polish comes from Angelina Jolie's performance, a burnished look, a macabre mood and icily chilling moments." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Choke (2008) |
"Too smart-alecky to sell the redemptive shift Clark Gregg has written into the story. It's very different, and less pessimistic, than Chuck Palahniuk. Thankfully, there is Sam Rockwell's trusty scumminess and an abundance of skillfully morbid humor." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
City of Ember (2008) |
"It's smart and could be a heck of a wake-up call if it bothered to sound its alarm earlier and louder. There are magical, thrilling moments and a gem of a role for Martin Landau, but the film can feel sluggish and doesn't let Bill Murray cut loose." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Crank High Voltage (2009) |
"Waking up in the aftermath of a meth-lab explosion might be less disorienting than watching this. And if you think there's no room for more, Neveldine/Taylor are probably a weekend and a bag of crack-filled Pixie Stix away from proving you wrong." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Drag Me To Hell (2009) |
"Gleefully goosing the juice on this ride, Sam Raimi delivers his best film in more than a decade. The brothers Grimm would take pride in this cautionary fable flooded with formaldehyde, flies and more funky-denture action than seemingly possible." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Eagle Eye (2008) |
"To make barcodes scary, a thriller needs a pace faster than a busy self-scan checkout. Thankfully, there's no need for a price, or pulse, check on this furious, if exhausting, flat-world thriller that Thomas Friedman would appreciate." |
Nick Rogers |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Extract (2009) |
"A perfect title - all the essence and flavor of Mike Judge with very little of his substance. There's no trademark satirical vigor or vitriol - just a handful of good performances and inspired scenarios wasted on a treacly, halfhearted narrative." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 4/4 |
The Fall (2008) |
"Something like a Sir David Lean epic crossed with trippy offshoots of tall tales of Zorro, Ali Baba and Pecos Bill rolled into one, The Fall is a sun-kissed companion to Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth. A brilliant follow-up from Tarsem Singh." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Fast & Furious (2009) |
"One of the film's biggest laughs is showing title credits. Clearly, after a prologue in which thieves play chicken with a burning, tumbling oil tanker, the possibility exists this is a Steven Soderbergh experimental gamble. Dumb, fun & entertaining." |
Nick Rogers |
Splat 1/4 |
Four Christmases (2008) |
"The cringe comedy isn't contagious, but "Four Christmases" is, like a lingering virus, filled with nasty, violent side effects. Vaughn and Witherspoon have no spark. It's like rooting for Todd and Margo from "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation."" |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 3/4 |
Gamer (2009) |
"Were Stanley Kubrick and Russ Meyer alive and their minds merged "Being John Malkovich"-style, the clash of their ids and egos might yield "Gamer." It will make you feel putrid, but it's satire that's sadistic, salacious and audaciously entertaining." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
The Hangover (2009) |
"Just as a marriage is built on love and promises kept, so can a bromance. "The Hangover" honors and cherishes that idea in slickness and stealth, and will have audiences unsure of how to say Zach Galifianakis but certain he's a star." |
Nick Rogers |
Splat 2/4 |
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) |
"Radcliffe, Grint and Watson are great as always, but director David Yates' adherence to realism stifles J.K. Rowling's trickster-storytelling wiles. Yates' horrifically bad botching of big-ticket moments bodes poorly for the "Deathly Hallows" films." |
Nick Rogers |
Splat 2/4 |
The Haunting in Connecticut (2009) |
"After about the 35th boo scare in as many minutes, the unfailingly cheesy "The Haunting in Connecticut" joins a growing legion of 2009 films offering self-reflective commentary on their own crappiness: "We're bored," shouts a baby brother." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 3/4 |
I Love You, Man (2009) |
"This full-court press on the bromantic comedy idea works because the rock's been put in the hands of the perfectly paired Paul Rudd and Jason Segel. Thanks to friend chemistry better than most movies' lovers, the film never lets up on tenacious glee." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 4/4 |
The Informant! (2009) |
"Soderbergh knocks one out again. Jazzy, subtle and fearlessly funny, it's a towering film packed with tall tales that isn't entirely capricious. Matt Damon is wonderfully schlubby in this corporate spin on "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty."" |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 4/4 |
Inglourious Basterds (2009) |
"Hitler is introduced in a cape like a comic-book villain, so moral relativism clearly isn't part of the plan. With its intentionally brash rewriting of history, Inglourious Basterds is what Quentin Tarantino's back-half of Grindhouse should've been." |
Nick Rogers |
Splat 2/4 |
The Invention of Lying (2009) |
""The Invention of Lying" is like "Groundhog Day," although not in the way it intends to be. Watching the film feels like you're reliving the same lame scenes over and over, powerless to change what happens in this profoundly disappointing comedy." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 3/4 |
It Might Get Loud (2009) |
"Academically picking apart artistic processes tends to pull all passion out of the pursuit. However, "Loud" evenhandedly showcases three musicians striving and struggling as much to expand a signature sound as they did when it was initially inked." |
Nick Rogers |
Splat .5/4 |
Knowing (2009) |
"An anticlimactic, idiotic leap into low-end Shyamalan-ian insanity with a touch of moderate fundamentalism. Nicolas Cage's performance is deserving of another YouTube ode to awfulness, and only disaster scenes elevate it above straight-to-DVD status." |
Nick Rogers |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Land of the Lost (2009) |
"Better than "Bewitched," if only for its straightforwardness. Then again, even Nora Ephron didn't turn Will Ferrell into a colonoscopic agent for a dinosaur. Depending on if you like him, that may be a comic equivalent to the Berlin Wall's collapse." |
Nick Rogers |
Splat .5/4 |
Law Abiding Citizen (2009) |
"F. Gary Gray draws up some nifty car explosions, but he delivered a more exciting, thoughtful and better-acted system-challenging movie 11 years ago with "The Negotiator." This is immeasurably dumb sludge masquerading as rage against the machine." |
Nick Rogers |
Splat 2/4 |
Management (2009) |
"A completely uproarious one-liner about Joe Strummer is still no reason to watch "Management." Had it stuck with insights on loners inadvertently backing themselves into emotional corners, rather than going for wackiness, it might have worked." |
Nick Rogers |
Splat 2/4 |
The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009) |
"There's a lament for perverting the purity of essence in enlightenment to military-complex exploitation. Like the film's test goats, it's been de-bleated and, given the pithy talk of Jedi warriors, this is not the political satire you're looking for." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Miracle at St. Anna (2008) |
"Lee shows a knack for combat scenes and both the brutality and brotherhood of man. Opportunism, barbarism and hope mix in the most piercing, cathartic scenes. But his grudge match with Clint Eastwood weighs too heavily, and it's an ambitious mess." |
Nick Rogers |
Splat 2/4 |
Miss March (2009) |
"At its best, this lewder, cruder spin on last year's "Sex Drive" has a disarmingly daffy shaggy-dog touch a la "Half-Baked" or "The Brothers Solomon." But by the time a woman enjoys champagne spiked with dog urine, "Miss March" is all turn-offs." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 3/4 |
Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) |
"Inked more by its influences than originality, "Monsters" gets exhaustive with its rapid-fire references. That said, if this works as a shiny primer to one day introduce children to classic sci-fi, satire, fantasy and anime, well, more power to it." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 3/4 |
Moon (2009) |
"Sam Rockwell's work is a light on the dark side of "Moon." It's not that the man behind the curtain isn't worth attention, it's that he's just not as interesting. It's predictably plotted, but unpredictably mournful and elegiac a la Philip K. Dick." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
My Name is Bruce (2008) |
""My Name is Bruce" won't give you sugar, baby. Not on its budget. But Splenda works fine as a substitute for this Kool-Aid, which Campbell knows fans will happily drink. A little bit of purposefully lousy filmmaking winds up going a long way." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008) |
""Before Sunrise" for the Stereogum set. It's easy to get swept up in this romance thanks to vibrant nocturnal cinematography, realistic dialogue Diablo Cody can't hang with and solid acting. If she's smart, Kat Dennings may be the next Diane Keaton." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 3/4 |
Orphan (2009) |
"David Johnson's script plays fair with red herrings before a devilish denouement with all the torque of a good twist. Esther doesn't just want to topple the Colemans' house of cards. She wants to torch it, and "Orphan" is gruesome, gripping material." |
Nick Rogers |
Splat 2/4 |
Outlander (2009) |
"A mead hall party feels like a Iron Age version of "Cheers," right down to the "Norm!" greeting for one character. It's one of many leaden diversions from what should be a lean, economical, brutal B-movie of aliens, Vikings and alternate timelines." |
Nick Rogers |
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