Tomato |
Saraband (2005) |
"Worth watching, even if it feels a bit musty and mothballed. Consider Saraband a footnote to Bergman's brilliant career." |
Sean Burns |
Tomato |
Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic (2005) |
"An HBO special dragged kicking and screaming to (barely) feature length, it's a riot... but probably shouldn't be in theaters.
" |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
Savage Grace (2008) |
"Kalin and Moore have done such a fine job creating this monster, you'll be inclined to forgive them for never quite figuring out what to do with her." |
Sean Burns |
Tomato |
The Savages (2007) |
"Grimly funny and brazenly unsentimental, it has an ordinary, humdrum grit often missing even from indie movies." |
Sean Burns |
Tomato |
Saved! (2004) |
"...a little easy but appreciated nonetheless. What would Jesus do? I think he'd give it a 'B.'
" |
Sean Burns |
Tomato |
The Science of Sleep (2006) |
"This is a sometimes brilliant, occasionally infuriating, visually astonishing extravaganza of embarrassing self-pity." |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
The Sea Inside (2004) |
"The only sad thing in this alleged tearjerker is watching singular talents like Bardem and Amenábar sucking up to the middlebrow Motorcycle Diaries crowd." |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
Seabiscuit (2003) |
"...wastes an inordinate amount of time skimming around pointless crap. (There isn't an honest-to-God 'scene' for almost an hour.) A great movie is buried in here somewhere." |
Sean Burns |
Tomato |
The Secret Lives of Dentists (2003) |
"I wasn't sure whether I wanted to laugh out loud or scream my lungs out. But don't be afraid of the film. Be afraid of the conversations you'll have on the ride home." |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
Separate Lies (2005) |
"If movies have taught us anything, it's that adultery is never more dreary than when the British are doing it. Especially when they're rich." |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
Séraphine (2008) |
"Here's one that feels like homework." |
Sean Burns |
Tomato |
Serenity (2005) |
"Although watching the movie feels like tuning into a TV program just in time for the series finale --which, um, it sort of is-- this Serenity is decent stuff.
" |
Sean Burns |
Tomato |
A Serious Man (2009) |
"Grappling with massive cosmic mysteries on a deceptively mundane stage, it's a film about the silence of God, seething with profound existential panic... viewed through the hilariously cracked prism of everyday suburban minutiae." |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
Seven Pounds (2008) |
"And then there's also much ado about an allegedly poisonous computer-generated jellyfish." |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
Shall We Dance? (2004) |
"A sweet, well-meaning pass at a story that just doesn't translate --you're gonna get stuck watching it with your mom or your girlfriend every time it shows up on TNT.
" |
Sean Burns |
Tomato |
Shattered Glass (2003) |
"The season's unlikeliest nail-biter -- think of it as an upside-down, black-sheep cousin to Catch Me if You Can.
" |
Sean Burns |
Tomato |
Shaun of the Dead (2004) |
"...a film in which all the sad compromises of adulthood are symbolized by a pressing need to lop off your undead neighbor's rotting head with a cricket bat. Nicely done." |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
She Hate Me (2004) |
"The kind of extravagantly bad movie only a genius could make, She Hate Me feels like an embarrassingly public nervous breakdown.
" |
Sean Burns |
Tomato |
Shine a Light (2008) |
"Smiling self-mockery plays a big part, and if the movie is actually about anything, it's about aging gracefully into a cuddly caricature of your former self." |
Sean Burns |
Tomato |
Shoot 'Em Up (2007) |
"Completely retarded and totally awesome..." |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
Shooter (2007) |
"The character's laughable name be damned, Wahlberg's a smart enough actor not to swagger through the role." |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
Shopgirl (2005) |
"Watching Shopgirl is like seeing a hushed, two-character chamber piece, but then this other jerk keeps popping up and making fart noises with his armpit. Bad form." |
Sean Burns |
- |
Shortbus (2006) |
"We're All On The Bus: An Interview With John Cameron Mitchell" |
Sean Burns |
Tomato |
Shortbus (2006) |
"...the largest and most impressive organ on display in Shortbus is the movie's heart." |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
Showtime (2002) |
"...such an egregious enough example of color-blind, tone-deaf incoherence that it warrants mention even amid the madding crowd of Bruckheimer debacles." |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
Sicko (2007) |
"In another lifetime, Michael Moore and George W. Bush probably would have been great friends." |
Sean Burns |
Tomato |
Sideways (2004) |
"Payne is the only young filmmaker tackling the gloom of modern mediocrity, and his Sideways is the richest and most rewarding American comedy since Wonder Boys." |
Sean Burns |
Tomato |
Signs (2002) |
"Yet no matter how unsatisfying the sci-fi denouement, Signs' title bout remains stark raving Mel vs. the Lord Almighty God. And it's a close one." |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
Silver City (2004) |
"Man, it's tough sitting through a satire made by somebody with no sense of humor -- welcome to Talking Points: The Movie." |
Sean Burns |
Tomato |
Sin City (2005) |
"Probably the cheapest, most juvenile and awesomest movie ever, it's a young, dumb and full-of-come fantasy/noir, fanboy nirvana extravaganza.
" |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
Sketches of Frank Gehry (2006) |
"The movie turned out about as well as you might expect from something that dares to open with a frank declaration of the director's incompetence and lack of insight." |
Sean Burns |
Tomato |
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) |
"The must-see summer blockbuster of 1939, it's the new Far From Heaven -- only this time for nerds instead of gay guys." |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
A Slipping Down Life (2004) |
"Well, I guess it's better than Van Helsing... slightly." |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
Smokin' Aces (2007) |
"The worst movie of 1998." |
Sean Burns |
Tomato |
Snakes on a Plane (2006) |
"Briskly paced and crassly entertaining, it's a happy, crappy B-Movie that delivers exactly what it promises. (Yes, that means snakes -- plenty of them. On a plane, no less.)" |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
Snatch (2001) |
"...showoff filmmaking that blatantly ignores the needs of story and character in favor of whatever happens to look 'cool.'" |
Sean Burns |
Tomato |
Snow Angels (2008) |
"This wonderfully distinctive filmmaker is suffering growing pains, trying to wrestle his meandering, oddball sensibilities into the requirements of conventional genre forms." |
Sean Burns |
- |
Snow Angels (2008) |
"Seeing Green: An Interview With David Gordon Green" |
Sean Burns |
Tomato |
Solaris (2002) |
"An earnest film of grand ideas and even grander ambitions... it's easy to foresee chuckleheads lining up in droves to take turns pissing all over this one." |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
The Soloist (2009) |
"A well-acted, finely crafted movie that has everything going for it... except a reason to exist." |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
Soul Power (2009) |
"A footnote to a masterpiece." |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
A Sound of Thunder (2005) |
"Lobotomized from a Ray Bradbury short story, A Sound of Thunder stars Edward Burns as a scientist (insert raucous laughter here)..." |
Sean Burns |
Tomato |
Spartan (2004) |
"...in this case the pulp has been so hard-boiled, winnowed down and leather-treated, there's nothing left on-screen but muscle.
" |
Sean Burns |
Tomato |
Spider-Man 2 (2004) |
"We've at last come to a point when the most well-rounded, psychologically complex character on any movie screen in town happens to wear spandex tights and swing from webs." |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
Spider-Man 3 (2007) |
"Raimi makes just about every wrong move in the sequel playbook, substituting scope and scale for the warmth and wit that made those two previous pictures so memorable. In this case, more is less." |
Sean Burns |
Tomato |
Spy Game (2001) |
"Like the best Tony Scott films, Spy Game simultaneously questions and celebrates outmoded codes of masculine professionalism." |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
Stage Beauty (2004) |
"Kudos for at least working Claire Danes' glaringly limited abilities into the storyline. Now if they could only do something about the sophomoric script and nasty mysogyny..." |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
Standard Operating Procedure (2008) |
"Each successive Morris picture seems to grow glossier and more vague, pushing further into abstraction and incessant macro-lens close-ups of ham-fisted recurring symbols. There's also really annoying music." |
Sean Burns |
Tomato |
Star Trek (2009) |
"More than any Trek project in decades, this one conjures the camaraderie, the easy humor and most important the swagger we associate with headstrong Jim Kirk and his logical, pointy-eared pal." |
Sean Burns |
Splat |
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) |
"My precious new Star Wars movie is a lumbering, wheezy drag..." |
Sean Burns |
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