Tomato 3.5/4 |
Jaan-E-Mann (2006) |
"Why every New Yorker has a British accent is a mystery, but the musical number built around Piya and Agastya's engagement is worth its weight in rupees." |
John Anderson |
Splat 2/4 |
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis (2007) |
"There is invaluable material here, but also a lack of context for the wonderfully outre footage." |
John Anderson |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Jackass: Number Two (2006) |
"One must admit, however grudgingly, that there's a kind of warped integrity in their compulsion to keep topping each wretched stunt -- sometimes within the same stunt." |
Gene Seymour |
Splat 2/4 |
The Jacket (2005) |
"One can't help but wonder how American soldiers in Iraq would respond to seeing their inescapable reality used as fodder for an escapist thriller in which the real enemy is bad hospital management." |
Jan Stuart |
Tomato |
Jails, Hospitals, and Hip Hop (2001) |
"A little too 'opened-up' for its own good, but worth seeing for Hoch's nervy characterizations." |
Jan Stuart |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
James' Journey to Jerusalem (2003) |
"Much of the charm of James is attributable to Siyabonga Melongisi Shibe, the absorbing South African actor who portrays the enchantingly guileless religious pilgrim of the title." |
John Anderson |
Splat 2.5/4 |
The Jane Austen Book Club (2007) |
"Surely you must know you're still better off reading Austen on your own." |
Gene Seymour |
Splat 2/4 |
Janice Beard 45 WPM (2002) |
"Walsh can't quite negotiate the many inconsistencies in Janice's behavior or compensate for them by sheer force of charm." |
Jan Stuart |
Tomato 3/4 |
Japanese Story (2004) |
"Time and space being relative, director Sue Brooks' characters are dwarfed by their environment, their moments made all the more fleeting, and precious, by the black hole of infinity lying at the edge of the screen." |
John Anderson |
Tomato 3/4 |
Jarhead (2005) |
"[A] sweltering and pristine portrait of one Marine's experience of the first Persian Gulf war." |
Jan Stuart |
Splat |
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) |
"A dumbfounding, cameo-peppered road comedy that demeans everyone associated with it." |
Jan Stuart |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Jay Z - Fade to Black (2004) |
"If you knew nothing else about rap, you'd know from watching him in action that the man knows what he's doing. And, when you can hear what his audience is shouting back, you feel the burn of his energy and breadth of his power." |
Gene Seymour |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
JCVD (2008) |
"Seagal, it's your turn." |
Rafer Guzman |
Tomato |
Jeepers Creepers (2001) |
"It's nice to walk out of a celluloid house of terror without feeling all cut up inside for a change." |
Gene Seymour |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003) |
"Some antic humor and socio-cultural observations, but it's basically a glossier, prettier version of your garden-variety slash fest." |
Gene Seymour |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Jennifer's Body (2009) |
"Last year, a ... horror flick called Teeth, about a ... girl who had incisors where she shouldn't, covered this territory with more creativity, complexity and humor. Jennifer's Body, for all its promise, could use some of that bite." |
Rafer Guzman |
Splat 1/4 |
Jersey Girl (2004) |
"Affleck may be a nice man, but he has a seemingly congenital inability to do anything convincingly, which is only made worse by Smith's apparent immunity to cloying sentiment." |
John Anderson |
Tomato 3/4 |
Jesus Camp (2006) |
"You don't have to be an extremist liberal to find any minute of Jesus Camp more frightening than the entirety of Village of the Damned." |
Jan Stuart |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Jet Lag (2003) |
"Director Daniele Thompson and her son/ co-screenwriter Christopher Thompson have trouble finding a comfortable balance between Hollywood homage and anti-Hollywood (as in French-intimate) comedy." |
Jan Stuart |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Jim Brown: All American (2002) |
"Only an epic documentary could get it all down, and Spike Lee's Jim Brown: All American at long last gives its subject a movie worthy of his talents." |
Gene Seymour |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Jiminy Glick in LaLaWood (2004) |
"There are only so many show-biz junkies in the known universe, and maybe they'll be the only ones who will find Jiminy Glick in La La Wood a font of endless giggles." |
Gene Seymour |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Jimmy Carter Man From Plains (2007) |
"As much a pungent dissection of American media malaise as it is a towering tribute to a deceptively low-burning leader." |
Jan Stuart |
Splat |
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001) |
"There's barely more invention in the animation than in the concept." |
Gene Seymour |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Jindabyne (2007) |
"For all its roiling tensions, Jindabyne is an oddly antiseptic, even repressed, experience." |
Jan Stuart |
Splat |
Joe Dirt (2001) |
"Dirt's cup runneth over with excrement, fornicating animals and that perennial favorite of Hollywood comedy, homophobic slurs." |
Jan Stuart |
Splat |
Joe Somebody (2001) |
"A formula comedy as affable and ineffectual as its hero." |
Jan Stuart |
Tomato 3/4 |
Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten (2007) |
"[Director Temple's] documentary can be quite clear-eyed, especially when exploring Strummer's lesser-known years before and after The Clash. As Strummer attempts to define and redefine himself, he seems human but still heroic." |
Rafer Guzman |
Splat 2/4 |
John Q (2002) |
"Philosophically, intellectually and logistically a mess." |
John Anderson |
Splat 1.5/4 |
John Tucker Must Die (2006) |
"If one is interested in seeing everything that's wrong with movies today -- from cynical marketing to the creative poverty of contemporary screenwriting -- Tucker provides one-stop shopping." |
John Anderson |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Johnny English (2003) |
"[A] lazily ingratiating spy spoof." |
Gene Seymour |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Johnson Family Vacation (2004) |
"[Doesn't have] anything on its tiny mind besides cheap laughs." |
Gene Seymour |
Tomato 3/4 |
Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie (2002) |
"You and your kids could do worse. You and your kids probably have done worse." |
Gene Seymour |
Splat 2/4 |
Jonas Brothers - The Concert Experience (2009) |
"Only for die-hard members of Team Jonas." |
Glenn Gamboa |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (2006) |
"With such a wealth of documented footage and firsthand testimony, it is unconscionable that Nelson should leave us with more questions dangling than answered." |
Jan Stuart |
Splat 2/4 |
Joshua (2007) |
"All of this goes down very, very slowly. Joshua aspires to be a kind of Rosemary's Baby's Older Brother by way of Gaslight, but it lacks the dynamism and atmosphere of either of those inspirations." |
Jan Stuart |
Tomato |
Josie and the Pussycats (2001) |
"Juicy, fruity, cunningly subversive." |
Gene Seymour |
Tomato 3/4 |
Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008) |
"Journey may be an utterly weightless movie, but in the end it floats rather nicely." |
Rafer Guzman |
Tomato |
Joy Ride (2001) |
"A genuine thriller, guaranteed to whiten knuckles, grind enamel and render armrests into scrap." |
John Anderson |
Splat |
Julie & Julia (2009) |
"Meryl Streep, as Child, is this film's butter; everything else is garnish." |
Rafer Guzman |
Tomato |
Jump Tomorrow (2001) |
"A backward-gazing romantic comedy with the freshly minted feel of today." |
Jan Stuart |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Jumper (2008) |
"It presumes, with misguided cynicism, that Rice's oafish choices reflect the smoldering fantasies of any average guy who might wish to jump himself out of an unforgiving, single-parent household in Ann Arbor, Mich." |
Jan Stuart |
Tomato 4/4 |
Junebug (2005) |
"For all its specificity, we come away feeling as if we've walked in the shoes of all of these people at different points in our lives." |
Jan Stuart |
Tomato |
Jung (War) in the Land of the Mujaheddin (2001) |
"Vendemmiati, Lazzaretti and Petitto ... attain an astounding access to Afghan places, people and sound." |
John Anderson |
Splat 2/4 |
Jungle Book 2 (2003) |
"Feels a little dispiriting in the manner of a high school reunion where everyone is dancing to the same old songs and looking a little worse for wear." |
Jan Stuart |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Juno (2007) |
"A movie already reputed to be hipper than tomorrow night, Jason Reitman's follow-up to Thank You for Smoking is actually sweet, romantic and irony-free." |
John Anderson |
Splat |
Jurassic Park III (2001) |
"Plays out the way you'd expect, perfunctorily, obligingly, without much enthusiasm and with very little terror." |
John Anderson |
Splat 2/4 |
Just a Kiss (2002) |
"You're too conscious of the effort it takes to be this spontaneous." |
John Anderson |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Just Friends (2005) |
"Just Friends is funnier the sillier it gets, perhaps hitting a crescendo during the slap fights between the brothers, who begin beating each other with regularity, as if they'd never stopped." |
John Anderson |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Just Married (2003) |
"The reality that Just Married reaffirms is not that of life, but of the glossy dumbness of what passes for comedy in big-studio circles." |
Jan Stuart |
Splat 0.5/4 |
Just My Luck (2006) |
"Her every faux pas comes across as rank humiliation and it can only be entertaining for sadistic mall rats who get their jollies seeing Miss Budding Superstar wallow in grime and slip on soap." |
Gene Seymour |
IGN RSS Feeds
