Tomato 4/5 |
L.A. Confidential (1997) |
"Try to imagine this: a mainstream American movie, rife with violent and often murderous behavior, yet so densely plotted, so richly peopled, that you can't summarize it in a sentence." |
Richard Schickel |
Tomato |
L.A. Story (1991) |
"This is a very personal Martin project -- the sweet-souled, nonstop-funny testament of a native Angeleno. Sly and soulful, it's the comedy that dares to be dippy." |
|
Splat |
La Vie En Rose (2007) |
"[A] simple-minded, cheaply sentimental and unrelievedly lugubrious movie." |
Richard Schickel |
Splat |
Lady and the Tramp (1955) |
"Walt Disney has for so long parlayed gooey sentiment and stark horror into profitable cartoons that most moviegoers are apt to be more surprised than disappointed to discover that the combination somehow does not work this time." |
|
Tomato |
The Land That Time Forgot (1975) |
"Instant second childhood is guaranteed in less than 90 minutes." |
Jay Cocks |
Tomato |
The Last Emperor (1987) |
"It works astonishingly well." |
Richard Schickel |
Tomato |
The Last Picture Show (1971) |
"Director Peter Bogdanovich has seen Anarene, Texas, in the cinematic terms of 1951 -- the langorous dissolves, the strong chiaroscuro, the dialogue that starts with bickering and ends at confessional." |
Stefan Kanfer |
Tomato |
The Last Samurai (2003) |
"It's easy to stand back and wax ironic about The Last Samurai. But it's not all that difficult to succumb to its full-spirited romanticism either." |
Richard Schickel |
Splat |
Last Summer (1969) |
"Like their subjects, they too frequently mistake postures for performances and smartness for wisdom." |
|
Tomato |
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) |
"In an age of post-Christian facetiousness, Martin Scorsese's work daringly attempts to restore passion and melodrama to the Gospel story." |
|
Tomato |
Laura (1944) |
"A highly polished and debonair whodunit." |
|
Splat |
Law Abiding Citizen (2009) |
"Butler has the showier part, but his impersonation of the tragic hero is undercut by his weird resemblance to Soupy Sales." |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato |
Lawrence of Arabia (1962) |
"It is O'Toole who continually dominates the screen, and he dominates it with professional skill, Irish charm and smashing good looks." |
|
Tomato |
A League of Their Own (1992) |
"Energetic, full of goodwill and good feelings, it never quite attains the graceful nonchalance and self-confidence with which finely tuned athletes -- and comedies -- move and enchant us." |
Richard Schickel |
Tomato |
Leatherheads (2008) |
"Maybe the film loses a little steam as it rolls along, but it is still puffing and tooting as Clooney and Zellweger ride off into the sunset." |
Richard Schickel |
Tomato |
Leaving Las Vegas (1995) |
"We're not talking high, morally instructive tragedy here, just a hard lesson in postmodernist outlawry and its sad little anarchies." |
Richard Schickel |
Splat |
Legends of the Fall (1994) |
"Edward Zwick, the director, and Susan Shilliday and Bill Wittliff, the screenwriters, are under the impression that they are bringing forth a tragic epic, not a silly melodrama..." |
Richard Schickel |
Tomato |
Léon the Professional (1994) |
"The bonding of Mathilda and Leon may be among the strangest in the long, tiresome history of odd-couple movies." |
Richard Schickel |
Tomato |
Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man (2006) |
"Next to Cohen's castle of music, place this fetching little monument to the bard of rapturous bereavement." |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato |
Lethal Weapon (1987) |
"What a concept! Mad Max meets The Cosby Show |
Richard Schickel |
Tomato |
Lethal Weapon 3 (1992) |
"A cheerfully amoral movie that cannily caters to and satirizes our passion for cinematic violence." |
|
Splat |
Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) |
"Mindless, sadistic violence juxtaposed with rote sentimentality: this is how Hollywood has finally solved the family-values conundrum, the question of how to entertain the blood- and sex-starved masses and be morally proactive at the same time." |
|
Tomato |
Letters From Iwo Jima (2006) |
"...A unique, bifocal view of ground war -- the men who fight it, the propaganda attending it, the awful way it ends." |
|
Splat |
Licence to Kill (1989) |
"The Bond women are pallid mannequins, and so is the misused Dalton -- a moving target in a Savile Row suit. For every plausible reason, he looks as bored in his second Bond film as Sean Connery did in his sixth." |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato |
The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg (1999) |
"Sharing its subject's virtues, it is a lovely addition to the annals of the Greatest Generation." |
Richard Schickel |
Splat 1/5 |
Life Is Beautiful (1998) |
"Sentimentality is a kind of fascism too, robbing us of judgment and moral acuity, and it needs to be resisted. Life Is Beautiful is a good place to start." |
Richard Schickel |
Tomato |
The Life of Emile Zola (1937) |
"Last week Warner Brothers released a movie which is probably the outstanding prestige picture of the season. It is also one of the best shows." |
|
Tomato |
Lilo & Stitch (2002) |
"It's a bright, engaging bauble with half a dozen Elvis Presley songs for Mom and Dad, and just enough sass -- Stitch sticks his tongue into his nose and eats his snot -- to keep the tweeners giggling." |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato |
The Lion King (1994) |
"Winning and gorgeous." |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato |
Little Children (2006) |
"Director and co-writer Todd Field establishes some very nontraditional premises, both stylistic and emotional, that give his film -- based on a novel by Tom Perrotta, who collaborated on the screenplay -- a creepy, hypnotic edge." |
Richard Schickel |
Tomato |
The Little Mermaid (1989) |
"You could wish upon a star and not conjure up a more joyous animated movie than this graceful retelling of the Hans Christian Andersen tale." |
|
Tomato |
Little Miss Sunshine (2006) |
"It comes closer to the truth about the way people really live -- on the edge of fantasy-driven desperation -- than our sanctimonies permit us to think." |
Richard Schickel |
Tomato |
Little Shop of Horrors (1986) |
"You can try not liking this adaptation of the Off-Broadway musical hit -- it has no polish and a pushy way with a gag -- but the movie sneaks up on you, about as subtly as Audrey II." |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato |
Little Women (1994) |
"Director Gillian Armstrong and writer Robin Swicord have fashioned an entrancing film from this distinctly unfashionable classic." |
Richard Schickel |
Splat |
Live and Let Die (1973) |
"Setting aside an allright speedboat spectacular over land and water, the film is both perfunctory and predictable -- leaving the mind free to wander into the question of its overall taste. Or lack of it." |
Richard Schickel |
Tomato |
The Living Daylights (1987) |
"This Bond is as fast on his feet as with his wits; an ironic scowl creases his face; he's battle ready yet war-weary." |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato |
The Long, Hot Summer (1958) |
"Newman's performance as Ben Quick, before the script blunts it, is as mean and keen as a cackle-edge scythe." |
|
Tomato |
The Longest Yard (1974) |
"What saves it, aside from good performances by Burt Reynolds and a thundering herd of supporting grotesques, is, of all things, a tough, tiny nut of valid social criticism." |
Richard Schickel |
Splat |
Lookin' to Get Out (1982) |
"The picture is a sloppy mess that stumbles toward oblivion like a drunk on a losing streak." |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato 5/5 |
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) |
"An excellent film and a ripping yarn of a movie." |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato |
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) |
"The film event of the millennium." |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato |
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) |
"A thrilling work of film craft." |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato |
Lost in Translation (2003) |
"Lost in Translation revels in contradictions. It's a comedy about melancholy, a romance without consummation, a travelogue that rarely hits the road." |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato |
The Lost Weekend (1945) |
"Director Billy Wilder's technique of photographing Third Avenue in the grey morning sunlight with a concealed camera to keep the crowds from being self-conscious gives this sequence the shock of reality." |
|
Tomato |
Love at First Bite (1979) |
"The production's genially tatty air enhances its anarchical mood and encourages one to go with its goofy yet often shrewd comic flow." |
Richard Schickel |
Splat |
The Love Bug (1969) |
"The Love Bug is surely the first film in which the actors...are so meticulously insipid that a car can handily steal the show." |
|
Splat |
Love Happens (2009) |
"Love never happens in this movie, but at least there's some liking here and there." |
Mary F. Pols |
Tomato |
Love Story (1970) |
"Ryan O'Neal gives the character of the neon scion a warmth and vulnerability entirely missing from the bestseller." |
|
Tomato |
The Lovely Bones (2009) |
"When else has the obscenity of child murder been the cause of such gravity and grace?" |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato |
Lucky # Slevin (2006) |
"[The film] sometimes sidles toward pretension but never succumbs to it." |
Richard Schickel |
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