Tomato |
13B (2009) |
"A rare example of a flat-out Indian horror movie [that] borrows liberally from The Amityville Horror playbook and familiar Asian horror tropes, but the haunted soap opera is a new wrinkle." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Alien Trespass (2009) |
"If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, It Came From Outer Space should be blushing like a schoolgirl, because this deadpan recreation of 1950s sci-fi movies is a tribute to its low-budget, high minded charms." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Carmen and Geoffrey (2009) |
"It's a shame the film isn't more artful, but an imperfect look at [the] accomplished, unpretentious [dancer/choreographers Carmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder] is better than none at all." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Chandni Chowk to China (2009) |
"An energetic, if uneven, movie masala whose ingredients include broad comedy, fists of fury, dark family secrets and musical numbers." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Coraline (2009) |
"Coraline is meant for children. But it's neither infantile nor condescending. It has a moral... without being preachy or sanctimonious, bypasses the cynical formula that makes so many animated features so headache-inducing." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat |
Delhi-6 (2009) |
"Though admirably serious and ambitious, this fish-out-of-water comedy-drama ... is a jumbled collection of moments that range from the touching to the tedious." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
District 9 (2009) |
"District 9 is a bracing breath of fresh air [that] wears its influences well, integrating them into a well thought-out drama about what it means to be human ... a drama with big guns, car chases and exploding cars." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Donkey Punch (2009) |
"Very Bad Things meets Knife in the Water in ... [this] thriller about not-so-bright young things trying to cover up a nasty accident." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Duplicity (2009) |
"Tony Gilroy's dryly jaunty, globetrotting, spy-vs.-spy romp is ... just good enough to make you wish it were better." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat |
Eulogy for a Vampire (2009) |
"The gay-themed Eulogy for a Vampire is dead serious about its mix of eroticism and horror, but the more serious it tries to be, the campier it becomes." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) |
"A sly, witty and utterly enchanting adaptation of Roald Dahl's mordantly whimsical book about a thoroughly domesticated gentleman fox who pines for days when the world respected his wildness." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat |
Friday the 13th (2009) |
"Call this go-round "Friday the Umpteenth" and be done with it." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) |
"The impending magical apocalypse and the agonies of young love get equal time in this fantasy with its roots planted firmly in the realm of real human relationships and experience." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
I Sell the Dead (2009) |
"A fresh, darkly funny blend of crime [graverobbing, to be precise] and supernatural hijinks ... that delivers an offbeat but carefully balanced mix of shocks, homages and uneasy chuckles." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Inglourious Basterds (2009) |
"A delirious pastiche of WWII movie tropes via the naughty Nazi pictures that flooded Italy in The Night Porter's wake ... Tarantino knows exactly how vulgar it is to spin pulp entertainment from the iconography of mass murderers, and how bracingly" |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Invictus (2009) |
"A modest, self-effacing movie about extraordinary events that chronicles one battle in Nelson Mandela's war against the past that threaten to destroy post-apartheid South Africa before it can find its feet." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat |
Knowing (2009) |
""Front-loaded with a pervasive sense of unease ... but once the plot's wheels start grinding in earnest, [it] follows that runaway subway train off the rails."" |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat |
The Lovely Bones (2009) |
"The story shuttles back and forth between a placid 1970s suburbia and an afterlife that looks disconcerting like the cover of a Yes album; both are bloodless, all look and no vitality." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Luck by Chance (2009) |
"Poised somewhere between an outright art movie and a mainstream Indian feature, [this] behind-the-scene look at the hopes and shattered dreams of aspiring Mumbai movie stars could as easily have been called "What Price Bollywood?" or "Run, Vikram, Run."" |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat |
Miss March (2009) |
"A pathetic excuse for a comedy [that's] actually ... a feature-length effort to reposition Playboy's brand of squeaky-clean titillation as relevant to young men weaned on internet porn." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat |
Munde U.K. De (2009) |
"This fish-out-of-water comedy about two UK-raised young men of Punjabi descent summering in India with one youth's aging grandfather is overlong and painfully cliched." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
New York (2009) |
"Kabir Khan uses thriller conventions to address such issues as the suspension of civil liberties and the [US] government's ever-expanding power to harass, detain and deny due process to detainees." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Notorious (2009) |
"A big, bad bundle of biopic cliches, a glitzy whitewash filled with wince-inducing dialogue and propelled by a smug, from-beyond-the-grave voiceover." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Paranormal Activity (2009) |
"A campfire story for the cyber generation, a bogey tale wrapped in time codes and misplaced faith in the power of technology to banish ghosties, ghoulies and long-leggedy beasties." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat |
Push (2009) |
"Between the unwieldy load of back story and the painfully underdeveloped characters, this infelicitous combination of Jumper, X-Men and TV's Heroes manages to be dull and exhausting at the same time." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year (2009) |
"A surprisingly sharp workplace comedy whose concerns should resonate with oppressed worker-bees everywhere. After all, who hasn't at one time or another been forced to weigh ideals against paying the electric bill?" |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat |
The Skeptic (2009) |
"This old-fashioned psychological ghost story ... repeatedly compels supposedly mature and intelligent people to do preposterous things in order to keep the plot moving." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Star Trek (2009) |
"Is the new Star Trek movie perfect? Absolutely not. But I went in an original Trek fan ... and came out feeling oddly elated, grateful for the things that worked and secure in the belief that the rough spots will work themselves out in the a" |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
State of Play (2009) |
"When the newspaper thriller's obituary is written, State of Play may well be cited as the genre's last gasp." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Surveillance (2009) |
"A taut, nihilistic, exercise in heartland desolation, and unlike most films whose success is predicated on an 11th-hour twist, it plays 100% fair: The truth is out there from the beginning, if you're willing to see it." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat |
Taken (2009) |
"A bizarre mix of sentimentality and bone-cracking violence, this Hardcore/Not Without My Daughter hybrid pits a determined father against the thuggish Albanian sex traffickers who kidnapped daddy's little girl as she vacationed in Paris.<" |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat |
Terminator Salvation (2009) |
"The trouble with Terminator: Salvation ... [is that] there's a yawning void where its emotional center should be." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat |
The Uninvited (2009) |
"It's hard to believe it took two directors, British brothers Charles and Thomas Guard, and three screenwriters to make this vapid remake of... [the] insidiously unnerving A Tale of Two Sisters/Janghwa, Hongryeon (2003)." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Up in the Air (2009) |
"Hugely entertaining .... Reitman can turn bitter, unpalatable material into mainstream movies without stripping away all the bite" |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Watchmen (2009) |
"A first-rate adaptation of Moore and Gibbons' densely imagined, alternate pop culture history of the world, a dazzling, dystopian fable with a deeply dark heart." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) |
"Upscale casting goes a long way towards elevating the pulpy material ... [but while] Wolverine tries hard, it never transcends its origins." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Australia (2008) |
"Recalls the old-fashioned, golden-age Hollywood movie-movies that wrapped forbidden desire, aching heartbreak, personal tragedy, war, adventure and breathtaking thrills in a glittering overlay of movie-star glamor." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Bad Biology (2008) |
"Veteran director Frank Henenlotter's first film in 16 years is a lewd, rude tale of sex and the city, and it's a blast." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Ballerina (2008) |
"Not as perceptive as Etoiles or as ... entertaining as Ballets Russes, [but] still a glimpse into a priviledged, ruthlessly demanding world few outsiders ever get to see." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat |
Changeling (2008) |
"It's a strangely arid piece of filmmaking, handsome, respectful, unsensational and thoroughly lifeless." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Cthulhu (2008) |
"Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth looms largest in this offbeat film's influences, and while it can't be called faithful ... it does have an authentically doom-haunted atmosphere." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Deadgirl (2008) |
"A pitiless look at the worst aspects of teenage male horndog-dom ... if there weren't some poisonous kernel of truth in its grotesque, testosterone-poisoned "what if?" premise, no-one would be squirming." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008) |
"One hell of a heart-wrenchingly sad, blisteringly angry, profoundly heartfelt movie that dares you to walk away with a shrug and a glib quip." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Dostana (2008) |
"Cross I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry with the all-but forgotten 1970s farce The Gay Deceivers, then dress it up with elaborate musical sequences: Et voila!" |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat |
Doubt (2008) |
"The cast['s]... collective efforts go a long way to mitigating Shanley's pedestrian grasp of film language." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat |
Four Christmases (2008) |
"For all of its snarky holiday/family bashing, Four Christmases wimps out in the third act and reaffirms all the traditional values it affects to mock." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Frost/Nixon (2008) |
"Peter Morgan's play about the behind-the-scenes research, negotiation and fundraising that produced the Frost-Nixon interviews may not sound like natural-born movie material...But the talk is choice, and the film... is mesmerizing." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Gran Torino (2008) |
"The kind of movie Don Siegel and Sam Fuller used to make, a blunt but perceptive slice of American discontent filtered through the prism of B-movie conventions." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat |
Last Chance Harvey (2008) |
"Without [Emma] Thompson's valiant efforts, Last Chance Harvey would be too dismal for cable; with them it's simply a trifle." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato |
Let the Right One In (2008) |
"A chilling coming-of-age story in which a miserable adolescent strikes up a friendship with a vampire girl who appears to be own his age but has, she says, been 12 "for a very long time."" |
Maitland McDonagh |
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