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 |
Adventureland (2009) |
"Deserving of Citizen Kane status in its insight, emotional depth, and yes, entertainment." |
Rob Humanick |
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 |
Aqua Teen Hunger Force - Vol. 6 (2008) |
"The season entire suggests a creation struggling to outdo itself and coming up short in the process." |
Rob Humanick |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 2.5/4 |
Crank High Voltage (2009) |
"Both exhilarating and exhausting, it falls just short of a fever pitch." |
Rob Humanick |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Dark Knight (2008) |
"The film itself evokes the collision of an unstoppable force with an immovable object." |
Rob Humanick |
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 |
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 |
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 3/4 |
Goodbye Solo (2009) |
"Fine performances all around act like vital organs within the body of Bahrani's resonant chamber piece." |
Rob Humanick |
Tomato 3/4 |
Gran Torino (2008) |
"Though far from his best, we're still lucky to have it." |
Rob Humanick |
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 |
Tomato 3/4 |
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) |
"If the first Hellboy was about the loss of our fathers and the mystery of where we come from, Hellboy II centers on where we are going, and what we do when the mantle passes." |
Rob Humanick |
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 |
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 |
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 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 |
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 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 |
Tomato |
Poseidon (2006) |
"The most pure action/adventure romp since Batman Begins... makes Titanic look like a sailboat." |
Fred Topel |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Pride and Glory (2008) |
"Relentlessly grim, appropriately abrasive and beautifully filmed, "Pride and Glory" recalls Sidney Lumet's heyday. It proves there's still meat left on the bones of bad-cop thrillers, but it wisely doesn't offer a Handi-Wipe after its final course." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Public Enemies (2009) |
"It's no "Heat." For skirting the lawman's story, call it "Warmth." Still, it bulks up, with Midwestern muscle, from a violent version of "The Aviator" into Mann's "Gangs of New York" - unwieldy and imperfect, but compelling, exciting and thoughtful." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 3/4 |
Quantum of Solace (2008) |
"Daniel Craig still dazzles, but it's all go-go-go - an efficient, mostly entertaining action-packed revenge coda to "Casino Royale" that nevertheless feels like tossed-off transition than tactile Bond. Let's just do this jittery journeyman bit once." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Quarantine (2008) |
"As the first-person POV conceit goes, it's not the nocturnal nightmare of "Cloverfield," but it's more compelling than the dog-eared "Diary of the Dead." It's stylish, and the sound design is superb, but it eventually gets too dumb to be very scary." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 4/4 |
Rachel Getting Married (2008) |
"The plot sounds like a downer, but it culminates in a dreamily exuberant wedding-and-reception scene. By examining the slow and incomplete, but true, power of pure rehabilitative strength and forgiveness, this is one of the very best films of 2008." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 4/4 |
A Serious Man (2009) |
"Yet another masterpiece from the Coen Brothers. Something like an existential Alfred Hitchcock movie crossed with Jewish spirituality, a touch of mysticism and the Coens' insistence that the rates of mortality and morality are rigidly intertwined." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
The Soloist (2009) |
""The Soloist" is not a film in which you anticipate Robert Downey Jr. will be twice doused in urine. Such are the territorial markings of Joe Wright, whose directorial quirks undermine moving moments and committed performances in this musical biopic." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
The Spirit (2008) |
"Certifiably, but agreeably, insane, "The Spirit" plays like "Dick Tracy" on brown acid. Dialogue is bleated, not spoken. Artifacts are used as snuggle blankets. And it's aggressively bizarre, but it's the definition of guilty-pleasure entertainment." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 3/4 |
Sunshine Cleaning (2009) |
"Megan Holley's script feels like it's been Sundance-workshopped to death. However, the cast - led by Amy Adams, Emily Blunt and Alan Arkin - establishes a vibrantly odd family bond that sustains "Sunshine Cleaning" through its dimmer portions." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Surrogates (2009) |
"An efficient, engaging B-movie parable that grapples with technology, civil liberties, terrorism, freewill and religious subtext all in 89 minutes. It's also a true rarity: A good movie in which usually bald Bruce Willis sports a full head of hair." |
Nick Rogers |
Tomato 3/4 |
Terminator Salvation (2009) |
"McG's tone is "Apocalypse Now" by way of Philip K. Dick, and the film packs a war-movie wallop to go with its sleek blockbuster sensibilities. Tough, fast and exhilarating, it's a worthy addition to the franchise even if Christian Bale is not." |
Nick Rogers |
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