Tomato 3.5/4 |
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2008) |
"Excruciating, ugly and very, very foreign. Sounds like the ideal candidate for the Palme D'Or." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
American Gangster (2007) |
"Say hello to my leetle M.B.A! It's the black Scarface. But American Gangster is an economic education with as many bullet points as bullets." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Appaloosa (2008) |
"When you're lookin for an Olde Time, pistol-wieldin', rootin', tootin' varmint, hire somebody other than Jeremy Irons. What is this--Bonanza Revisited?" |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3/4 |
Atonement (2007) |
"Belongs to the realm of theater--"Masterpiece Theater." A misdirected-letter movie? Really? In 2007?" |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3/4 |
Beowulf (2007) |
"Gather round the fire, for I will tell you a tale unlike any other. OK, it's like The Lord of the Rings retold with plastic dolls and a lot of wench jokes." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Body of Lies (2008) |
"Gets across a palpable sense of Iraq fatigue. Which is another way of saying it invites the audience to see the talking-Chihuahua picture instead." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3/4 |
Bolt (2008) |
"Essential to the proceedings is a fired-up hamster who believes the dog is the superhero he plays on 'the magic box' and is itching to help him: 'Ring, ring! Who is it? Destiny? I've been expecting your call.'" |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) |
"Another potent PowerBar of a movie, all protein and no fat. I sat there transfixed and chuckling with joy as Greengrass let. Her. Rip." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Changeling (2008) |
"Could have been made in 1938 with Bette Davis." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Charlie Wilson's War (2007) |
"Call it Afghanishtar. So strange that Democrats are shown killing Commies--not calling for sanctions against them or filing motions in the U.N." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3/4 |
Crank High Voltage (2009) |
"See this f%$&*ing movie, mate." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 4/4 |
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) |
"A new American classic." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Definitely, Maybe (2008) |
"This movie sparkles like diamonds." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
The Express (2008) |
"Just about good enough to be the 40th best episode of Friday Night Lights. Which has aired 39 episodes." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) |
"Writing and starring in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Jason Segel gets emotionally naked. He bares his soul. Also, he lets us see his schlong. As Steve Martin said, comedy is not pretty." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3/4 |
Frost/Nixon (2008) |
"A better title might have been, 'I interviewed an ex-president for 29 hours and all I got was two lousy sound bites.' Still, an incisive character study." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Funny Games (2008) |
"Rivals and probably tops the Ellen Page internet-predator film Hard Candy in disgusting, vile, vicious, incandescently brutal wickedness. So why did I love this evil film?" |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Ghost Town (2008) |
"Ricky Gervais is lethally funny talking to dead people in his big-screen debut as a leading man." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Gone Baby Gone (2007) |
"A bitterly sublime neo-noir: It's Beantown, Jake. Affleck has made us breathe the rot his characters were born to die in." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 4/4 |
Hairspray (2007) |
"Fellas, there are going to be a lot of little hotties at this movie. Here is an ideal place to catch them off-duty, their hair up in scrunchies. No, it won't turn you gay." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3/4 |
Hancock (2008) |
"His symbol is the eagle. He beats up on little Frenchmen. He is 'the only one of my kind,' the world's lone and lonely superpower. Hancock is a clever metaphor for America in the world." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
In Bruges (2008) |
"A cold little jolt of cruelty, which is more than most crime thrillers can offer." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
The Incredible Hulk (2008) |
"Iron Man is easily superior to The Incredible Hulk. Tony Stark's wit, his flair, the way everything comes easily to him and he makes the ladies purr, are all the opposite of what Bruce Banner brings to the party." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3/4 |
The International (2009) |
"The whole point of a nefarious institution is that it doesn't have to get its hands dirty. Who needs assassins when you have lobbyists?" |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 4/4 |
Into the Wild (2007) |
"I was exhilarated--and devastated." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3/4 |
Iron Man (2008) |
"Visual sizzle, top actors and a witty script, yet it could have been so much better if only it didn't try to cobble together a pacifist warrior." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 4/4 |
Irreconcilable Differences (1984) |
"There is a marvelous balance in that we have an equal rooting interest in each of the main characters. It isn't a mere satire." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Kingdom (2007) |
"The Kingdom is the anti-Syriana: yes, it says, the Middle East is very, very complicated, but Americans have solved tougher problems, thanks very much." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
La Vie En Rose (2007) |
"Pursued, caught and devoured by the past, [Piaf] nearly shouts the lyric, "Je me fous du passé!": I don't give a damn about the past." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 4/4 |
Man On Wire (2008) |
"A giddy dream, a suspenser, a harrowing surreal comedy of the possible--like Dog Day Afternoon told by Amelie." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 4/4 |
Margot at the Wedding (2007) |
"In paying homage to Eric Rohmer, the master of bourgeois moral dilemmas, Noah Baumbach has in many ways improved on perfection." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3/4 |
Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) |
"I was hoping Monsters Vs. Aliens would turn out to be a documentary about the Trial Lawyers Association against the Taliban. Maybe both sides would get wiped out?" |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 4/4 |
No Country for Old Men (2007) |
"A dust-bowl Pulp Fiction, the movie is bloody, suspenseful, unnerving and, not incidentally, hilarious. The best Coen Bros. drama, without the twitchy mannerisms of Fargo." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3/4 |
Observe and Report (2009) |
"Reminded me of the work of Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 4/4 |
Ratatouille (2007) |
"I would have loved to have been present during the pitch meeting for "Ratatouille." "It's, um, a little bit 'Willard,' a little bit 'Like Water for Chocolate'"!...The greatest rat movie and the greatest food movie ever made." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Rocket Science (2007) |
"A frightening memorandum from a dismal and mysterious dungeon: high school." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3/4 |
Role Models (2008) |
"Good fun for males in the mental age bracket of 14-22, which is most males." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3/4 |
Sex and the City - The Movie (2008) |
"To its credit, though, the movie turns Carrie's value system, which equates "the two Ls--Labels and Love," to its advantage, and in the second half the movie achieves a nice balance between comedy and drama." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3/4 |
Starter For 10 (2007) |
"Up there with early John Cusack films such as "The Sure Thing" and "Better Off Dead."" |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 4/4 |
Superbad (2007) |
"American Graffiti, Sixteen Candles and Dazed and Confused, bow to your new master. It super freaking rocks." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
There Will Be Blood (2007) |
"It is the despair about lacking family that destroys Daniel Plainview." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
There Will Be Blood (2007) |
"A macabre joke: suppose Capitalism and Evangelism climbed down an inky black hole together? Which one would emerge?" |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Tropic Thunder (2008) |
"Half showbiz satire, half action movie, half broad comedy and all Tom Cruise." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3/4 |
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007) |
"Hey, bay-buh! There's a whole lot of funny goin' on in Walk Hard. It's got sex and drugs and Elvis and giraffes and Members Only jackets." |
Kyle Smith |
Tomato 3/4 |
You Don't Mess With The Zohan (2008) |
"If "Munich" is the disease, the Zohan is the cure. Some hard little grains of truth make this Sandler's funniest movie since "The Waterboy."" |
Kyle Smith |
Splat 2/4 |
300 (2007) |
"Hey,I only called it a Hitler recruitment video, fellas." |
Kyle Smith |
Splat 2/4 |
Cloverfield (2008) |
"A combination of unpleasantness and stupidity that would be difficult to match, unless you were stuck in bed with the shingles while being forced to watch The Ghost Whisperer." |
Kyle Smith |
Splat 2/4 |
Evan Almighty (2007) |
"And God looked out onto the teeming plains and and He saw that there were many suckers who dwelt upon the land who did lust to spend their shekels upon bird-poop jokes." |
Kyle Smith |
Splat 0.5/4 |
Fool's Gold (2008) |
"Ought to come with a warning sign posted in the lobby: no shirt, no shoes, no laughs." |
Kyle Smith |
Splat 1/4 |
Get Smart (2008) |
"The Aughties equivalent of the Dan Aykroyd/Tom Hanks stab at Dragnet." |
Kyle Smith |
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