Splat |
Pale Rider (1985) |
"Pale Rider does nothing to disprove the wisdom that this genre is best left to the revival houses. A double feature of Shane and Eastwood's High Plains Drifter will do just fine, thanks." |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato |
Paranormal Activity (2009) |
"Beyond the viral ingenuity of the marketing, what's cool about PA is that it's not just a fun thrill ride; it's an instructive artistic experience." |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato |
The Parent Trap (1961) |
"Surprisingly, the film is delightful—mostly because of 15-year-old Hayley Mills, the blonde button nose who played the endearing delinquent in Tiger Bay." |
|
Tomato |
Parenthood (1989) |
"There is something brave and original about piling up most of our worst parental nightmares in one movie and then daring to make a midsummer comedy out of them. It really shouldn't work, but it does." |
Richard Schickel |
Splat |
Paris Blues (1961) |
"All it lacks is something to pull these parts into a sensible whole." |
|
Tomato |
Paris, Je T'aime (2007) |
"There seems to be something in Paris air or water that encourages compendium filmmaking -- multiple characters and multiple stories. Paris, Je T'Aime may be the grandest such work currently on view." |
Richard Schickel |
Splat |
Party Girl (1958) |
"Unfortunately, the picture's plot (good girl helps bad guy go straight) fits the mood like a concrete overshoe, and the more than generous serving of cheesecake is pretty soggy stuff." |
|
Tomato |
The Passion of the Christ (2004) |
"[Gibson] has made a serious, handsome, excruciating film that radiates total commitment." |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato |
Pat and Mike (1952) |
"One of the season's gayest comedies." |
|
Splat 2/5 |
Pearl Harbor (2001) |
"The net result of this mighty effort is perhaps predictable: near total inconsequence." |
Richard Schickel |
Tomato |
Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) |
"This prom-night balloon of a movie floats easily above the year's other exercises in '50s nostalgia. If you dare reach for it, it will land smartly in your heart." |
Richard Corliss |
Splat |
Pennies From Heaven (1981) |
"Perhaps this was not the project on which to lavish so many MGM millions. The BBC show was an enchanted cottage; this is the Las Vegas Grand Hotel." |
Richard Corliss |
Splat |
Perfect Stranger (2007) |
"The movie would perhaps like to say something serious about the ease with which modern communications allows us to be multiple personalities, but that effort is lost in ineptitude." |
Richard Schickel |
Tomato |
Persepolis (2007) |
"A funny, sometimes dark, always affecting story of surviving the worst through a sense of humor." |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato |
Personal Best (1982) |
"Personal Best is likable precisely because it is so unembarrassed." |
Richard Schickel |
Tomato |
Peter Pan (1953) |
"Ornamented with some bright and lilting tunes, it is a lively feature-length Technicolor excursion into a world that glows with an exhilarating charm and a gentle joyousness." |
|
Splat |
The Phantom of the Opera (1925) |
"Though Mr. Chaney wears a more grotesque make-up than ever, the film play seems only pretty good." |
|
Tomato |
The Philadelphia Story (1940) |
"In short, The Philadelphia Story lifts the daily drudge into a charming never-never land, with complete footnotes excusing its existence. And besides, it's a good, entertaining show." |
|
Tomato |
Pi (1997) |
"Aronofsky, who has parlayed this movie's Sundance success into two Hollywood deals, is that rare indie filmmaker who doesn't want to make hip romantic sitcoms. He's a genuine experimenter with a spooky visual style." |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato |
The Pianist (2002) |
"We admire this film for its harsh objectivity and refusal to seek our tears, our sympathies." |
Richard Schickel |
Tomato |
Pineapple Express (2008) |
"A comedy that brings a nicely deflating note of realism to action-film mayhem, as well as being one of the few drug movies you don't have to be high to enjoy." |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato |
Pinocchio (1940) |
"The charm, humor and loving care with which it treats its inanimate characters puts it in a class by itself." |
|
Splat |
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) |
"Not so much thought out as strung together -- colorful incident upon colorful incident, but without logic, gathering suspense or any attempt to establish emotional connections between audience and actors." |
Richard Schickel |
Splat |
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) |
"In every other way -- as adventure yarn or as satire on that form or merely as an enjoyable entertainment featuring a wonderfully sly and subtle actor -- it is not merely a loser. It is a disaster." |
Richard Schickel |
Tomato |
Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) |
"It is, of course, always a pleasure to watch Martin's steam-gauge face register his rising internal pressures and to witness his exquisitely expressed blowoffs. But Candy offers even more insinuating delights." |
Richard Schickel |
Tomato |
Play Misty for Me (1971) |
"Eastwood displays a vigorous talent for sequences of violence and tension. He has obviously seen Psycho and Repulsion more than once, but those are excellent texts and he has learned his lessons passing well." |
Jay Cocks |
Tomato |
Pocahontas (1995) |
"[A] handsome, deeply felt, even more deeply reverent animated musical." |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato 4.5/5 |
Pollock (2000) |
"A harrowing film, impossible to 'like' in any conventional way, hypnotically impossible to turn away from." |
Richard Schickel |
Tomato |
Pollyanna (1960) |
"Pollyanna emerges on the wide screen as the best live-actor movie Disney has ever made: a Niagara of drivel and a masterpiece of smarm." |
|
Tomato |
Ponyo (2009) |
"When you see Ponyo -- and you must -- be prepared for a movie that doesn't abide by Hollywood rules. This is a tale for children (yes, of all ages) who are ready to be coaxed into another world through simple words and luscious pictures." |
Richard Corliss |
Splat |
A Prairie Home Companion (2006) |
"Streep's work aside, you can pretty much get all that's worth having out of the film by skipping it entirely and buying the soundtrack album." |
Richard Schickel |
Tomato |
The Prestige (2006) |
"For all the film's murky misdirections, it is very enjoyable." |
Richard Schickel |
Splat |
Pretty Woman (1990) |
"This is old-fashioned, assembly-line moviemaking without the old panache." |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato |
The Pride of the Yankees (1942) |
"The best part of Pride of the Yankees is its grade-A love story." |
|
Splat |
The Prince of Egypt (1998) |
"The film lacks creative exuberance, any side pockets of joy." |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato |
The Princess and the Frog (2009) |
"A start-to-finish delight." |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato |
The Prisoner Or: How I Planned To Kill Tony Blair (2007) |
"A modestly mounted, but curiously poignant little documentary which somehow -- quietly, devastatingly -- shows and tells you more than you may perhaps want to know about the dehumanization implicit in the mighty, blighted Iraqi adventure." |
Richard Schickel |
Tomato |
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009) |
"Pippa should be a career changer. Wright Penn's cards are finally on the table, and it looks like a full house." |
Mary F. Pols |
Tomato |
The Producers (1968) |
"The Producers has many things going for it -- notably a wild, ad-lib energy that explodes in a series of sight gags and punch lines." |
|
Tomato |
The Producers (2005) |
"A good time is had by all, and the spirit is infectious." |
|
Splat |
Psycho (1960) |
"Director Hitchcock bears down too heavily in this one, and the delicate illusion of reality necessary for a creak-and-shriek movie becomes, instead, a spectacle of stomach-churning horror." |
|
Splat |
Public Enemies (2009) |
"All this docudrama grit allows for precious little dramatic juice." |
Richard Corliss |
Tomato |
Pumping Iron (1977) |
"A very good film, beautifully shot and edited, intelligently structured and -- to risk what will surely seem at first a highly inappropriate term -- charming." |
Richard Schickel |
Splat |
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) |
"You have to wonder why director Gabriele Muccino chose to dramatize the poor man's plight by having him run constantly through the streets of San Francisco. What ever became of quiet desperation?" |
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