Tomato 4/5 |
The Savages (2007) |
"While writer-director Tamara Jenkins (Slums of Beverly Hills) lets things get a little mushy towards the end, the film brilliantly portrays a difficult family moment made even more complicated by her characters' overweening narcissism." |
Alonso Duralde |
Tomato 3/5 |
The Secret Life of Bees (2008) |
"At its best, Secret Life of Bees feels like an American spin on the wonderful Dutch Oscar-winner Antonia's Line, about a utopian matriarchal society that stands apart from a world in chaos." |
Alonso Duralde |
Splat 2/5 |
Semi-Pro (2008) |
"No more can filmmakers get instant laughs with Pong, ascots, eight-tracks and lava lamps. It's just no longer funny. And for 95 percent of its running time, neither is Semi-Pro." |
Alonso Duralde |
Tomato 5/5 |
A Serious Man (2009) |
"If Philip Roth and Franz Kafka sat down to write an adaptation of the Book of Job, the result might be something like A Serious Man." |
Alonso Duralde |
Splat 2/5 |
Seven Pounds (2008) |
"Director Gabriele Muccino seems to think he's in Ingmar Bergman territory, but he's actually made the longest, most dour episode of My Name is Earl imaginable." |
Alonso Duralde |
Tomato 5/5 |
Sex and the City - The Movie (2008) |
"... as comfortable and as decadent as sitting on the sofa with a big bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough." |
Alonso Duralde |
Splat 1/5 |
Shoot 'Em Up (2007) |
"Say what you will about Bugs Bunny, at least he never needed a backstory." |
Alonso Duralde |
Tomato 4/5 |
Shorts (2009) |
"Rodriguez never lets things get too noisy or chaotic to follow, and he wraps everything up in a satisfying resolution that even slips in a stealth moral or two." |
Alonso Duralde |
Splat |
Simpatico (1999) |
"Is it that the director hates these women, or that Shepard simply can't write a good one?" |
Stephen Whitty |
Tomato 3/5 |
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (2008) |
"[T]his sequel to the 2005 sleeper hit feels like the Teen People version of an old Hollywood "women's picture," the sort of vehicle that kept Joan Blondell and Ann Sothern busy before and during World War II." |
Alonso Duralde |
Splat 2/5 |
Sleuth (2007) |
"Pinter's pauses, and the dour air of so much of the interplay, just don't fit on a story that's this slight." |
Alonso Duralde |
Tomato 5/5 |
Slumdog Millionaire (2008) |
"Once Slumdog launches into its final act, you'll get that pang that comes with the last chapter of a great book you wish you weren't about to finish." |
Alonso Duralde |
Tomato |
Small Time Crooks (2000) |
"Funny and nostalgic in a complex way." |
Bob Campbell |
Splat 2/5 |
Smart People (2008) |
"And since, like 99 percent of all other Sundance-type indies, Smart People is shot in the dreariest grays possible ... the movie's not much to look at, either." |
Alonso Duralde |
Splat 2/5 |
The Soloist (2009) |
"The Soloist keeps skirting the gassy clichés of the uplifting triumph-of-the-underdog movie before ultimately surrendering to soppy sentimentality." |
Alonso Duralde |
Splat 1/5 |
Soul Men (2008) |
"The plot outline for Soul Men could fit comfortably on a single note card, with room left over for a grocery list and a few phone numbers." |
Alonso Duralde |
Splat 1/5 |
Space Chimps (2008) |
"If the massive profits of Disney and Pixar's animated work is what inspired rival studios to get in on that action, why is no one else aping those studios when it comes to good writing and inspired characterization?" |
Alonso Duralde |
Splat 2/5 |
Speed Racer (2008) |
"Imagine someone pouring hot, melted Starburst candies into your corneas, and you just begin to approximate the experience of Speed Racer, an ice-cream headache of a movie ..." |
Alonso Duralde |
Tomato 4/5 |
The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008) |
"Spiderwick Chronicles provides lots of thrills and chills -- so much so that it may be too scary for younger viewers -- but it works best when it implies instead of showing." |
Alonso Duralde |
Tomato 5/5 |
Star Trek (2009) |
"It's exciting, moving, hilarious, action-packed, sexy and suspenseful -- in short, exactly what big, fun summer popcorn movies are supposed to be and yet so rarely are." |
Alonso Duralde |
Tomato 4/5 |
State of Play (2009) |
"State of Play starts out like an All the President's Men wannabe, but the story eventually begins very cleverly twisting upon itself in a way that never feels like a cheat or an insult to the audience's intelligence." |
Alonso Duralde |
Tomato 3/5 |
Step Brothers (2008) |
"While your tolerance for Step Brothers will rely upon your willingness to find moronic behavior and potty-mouthed dialogue funny, I must admit that the film had me laughing consistently almost the entire way through." |
Alonso Duralde |
Tomato 4/5 |
Stop-Loss (2008) |
"But whatever you think about the Iraq war and the people who are fighting in it, you'll be shaken up and moved by Stop-Loss." |
Alonso Duralde |
Tomato |
The Story of Us (1999) |
"Hugely enjoyable." |
Joe Leydon |
Splat 1/5 |
Strange Wilderness (2008) |
"February may be too early to start thinking about year-end lists, but frankly, I'll be shocked if I see 10 movies in 2008 that are worse than Strange Wilderness." |
Alonso Duralde |
Splat 2/5 |
The Strangers (2008) |
"The Strangers is one of those inane fright fests that relies upon the victimizers being omniscient and omnipresent while the victims are complete morons." |
Alonso Duralde |
Splat 1/5 |
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009) |
"I can't remember the last time I watched an actor fail to walk into a room convincingly, but Chris Klein does it. Look for a YouTube montage of his Street Fighter performance to pop up any day now." |
Alonso Duralde |
Splat |
Street Kings (2008) |
"The film is mainly a showcase for shouting." |
Alonso Duralde |
Tomato |
Stuart Little (1999) |
"Stuart Little gives good squeak." |
David Elliott |
Splat |
Summer of Sam (1999) |
"A furious muddle of a movie that seems at once overcrowded and underwritten." |
Joe Leydon |
Splat 2/5 |
Sunshine Cleaning (2009) |
"The performances are all amiable and sympathetic enough, but Sunshine Cleaning is nothing if not the Ghost of Sundance Past." |
Alonso Duralde |
Tomato 4/5 |
Surrogates (2009) |
"Director Jonathan Mostow makes the proceedings such fun that you're willing to forfeit the smart satire this might have been for the trashy adventure flick that it is." |
Alonso Duralde |
Tomato 5/5 |
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) |
"Sweeney Todd ranks among this year's most intense, haunting, and startling films; the fact that it also features great songs by Stephen Sondheim is just gravy on the meat pie." |
Alonso Duralde |
Splat 1/5 |
Swing Vote (2008) |
"As for the political commentary ... it's as toothless as a Disney Channel movie." |
Alonso Duralde |
Tomato 5/5 |
Synecdoche, New York (2008) |
"It's the best American film of 2008 to date, and probably of 2007 and 2006 as well." |
Alonso Duralde |
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