Splat 2.5/4 |
The Painted Veil (2006) |
"Veil blends politics and romance only a bit less clumsily than The White Countess, another movie about pre-war China that came to grief." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Tomato 4/4 |
Pan's Labyrinth (2006) |
"Mexican writer-director Guillermo del Toro couches his allegory about fascism in a tale as cruelly fascinating as any from the Brothers Grimm." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Tomato 3/4 |
Panic Room (2002) |
"Defies logic, the laws of physics and almost anyone's willingness to believe in it. But darned if it doesn't also keep us riveted to our seats." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Tomato 3/4 |
Paper Clips (2004) |
"[A] heartfelt, if rather repetitive, documentary." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
The Passion of the Christ (2004) |
"Gibson has made an extraordinary, focused movie with blinders on, showing mostly one color -- blood-red -- from the full Christian spectrum." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Splat |
Patch Adams (1998) |
"If you can suspend disbelief at every odds-defying incident and mind-blowing improbability, the inspirational message may work on you like magic. If not, the film falls flat as a 60-second souffle." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Splat |
Payback (1999) |
"Pointless!" |
Lawrence Toppman |
Splat |
Paycheck (2003) |
"The first third builds up suspense through dialogue, plotting, ambiguity. Then Woo apparently recalls that he's expected to fill pictures with chases, explosions and 'stylish' trademarks." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Splat |
Pearl Harbor (2001) |
"When the smoke clears from the rockets' red glare and bombs bursting in air, we're left with a love triangle that drags on from here to eternity." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Splat 2/4 |
Penelope (2008) |
"There are usually good reasons why a movie gets shelved for more than a year, however well-acted it may be and however well-meaning its message. Many are on view in Penelope." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Splat 1.5/4 |
The Perfect Man (2005) |
"I know you're not going to believe this, but love is the result!" |
Lawrence Toppman |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) |
"Most horror movies try to show us the man inside the monster. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer shows us a man who is all monster, whose colossal amorality makes him a potential Messiah or menace to humanity." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Splat |
Personal Velocity (2002) |
"Unless you're the sort of person who loves the fiction found in The New Yorker and smaller literary magazines, you'd better avoid Personal Velocity." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Tomato 3/4 |
Peter Pan (2003) |
"Isaacs tops the cast (even Richard Briers' delightful Smee) as an imperious, ironic, murderous, bitter and lonely Hook." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Tomato 3/4 |
Phone Booth (2003) |
"Schumacher tightens the screws for just long enough -- 80 minutes, including credits - to provide a bundle of fast thrills." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Tomato |
The Pianist (2002) |
"This really is one man's story: We feel the cold and deprivation he feels, see the misery and cruelty he sees, and that's what makes the experience memorable." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Pineapple Express (2008) |
"The movie's a crazy quilt of pot jokes, sarcastic put-downs and pop culture references both obvious and obscure." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Pink Panther (2006) |
"The writers and director Shawn Levy also misunderstand comic math: In their world, something that's funny once will be four times as funny if it's repeated over and over and over. Actually, the inverse is true." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Tomato 3/4 |
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) |
"It's more entertaining than the muddled middle of the trilogy. It rounds off the narrative in a satisfying way that eluded Shrek and Spider-Man." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) |
"It gives fans what they want - then more of what they want, and more, and more, until gluttony becomes force-feeding." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Tomato |
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) |
"A film that dares to be smart, reasonably complicated and scary while swashing its buckles." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Tomato |
Planet of the Apes (2001) |
"Let the gray matter rest and enjoy what may be the best two hours of nonsense you'll see this year." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Splat |
Play it to the Bone (1999) |
"Play it to the Bone is a punch-drunk lightweight." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Tomato |
Pleasantville (1998) |
"A rarity!" |
Lawrence Toppman |
Tomato |
The Pledge (2001) |
"Seamlessly unsettling storytelling." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Splat 2/4 |
Poseidon (2006) |
"The special effects, with one painful exception, hold up beautifully. But the people have no personalities, the story is unconvincing, and the whole movie is as shallow as the puddle left on a flat roof by a 20-minute shower." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Splat |
Practical Magic (1998) |
"The film creaked to a halt like a 1956 Buick running on fumes!" |
Lawrence Toppman |
Tomato 4/4 |
The Prestige (2006) |
"The twistiest thriller since Memento." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Tomato |
The Price of Milk (2001) |
"The fairy tale ... works more often than not." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Tomato 3/4 |
Priceless (2008) |
"The comedy, which verges on farce from time to time, also has the smilingly cynical approach to romance that we identify with the French." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Tomato 3/4 |
Pride (2007) |
"The heart of the film is the maturing of the swimmers, and there the movie never falters." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Pride and Prejudice (2005) |
"There's nothing wrong with the current version that trimming and less devotion to the romance-novel mystique couldn't cure." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Splat |
The Prince of Egypt (1998) |
"Turns out to be another handsome, formulaic changing of the palace guard." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
The Princess and the Frog (2009) |
"Few films can simultaneously celebrate the future and the past of animation, but this one does." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Tomato 4/4 |
Prisoner of Paradise (2004) |
"Directors Malcolm Clarke and Stuart Sender tell this story dispassionately, letting it evoke pity without asking us to see Gerron as a hero." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Splat 2/4 |
The Producers (2005) |
"Susan Stroman, who directed and choreographed the Broadway show, has shot the movie as if it were the show ..." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Splat 2/4 |
The Promise (2005) |
"[Chen Kaige] reaches for big ideas about destiny and free will, but those remain philosophical abstractions. (And by the end, the film contradicts itself.)" |
Lawrence Toppman |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Punch-Drunk Love (2002) |
"Self-indulgent filmmaking at its ugliest, despite a complex performance by Adam Sandler." |
Lawrence Toppman |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) |
"The most touching drama of this not-very-touching holiday movie season." |
Lawrence Toppman |
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