Tomato |
Baadasssss! (2004) |
"Mario has his dad down, and if the acting is often blatant, this does fit the original." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Babel (2006) |
"Long, belabored, terminally solemn despite some vigor, and numbingly sentimental under a tough surface, this is a serpentine coiling of three modestly connected and episodic stories." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Baby Mama (2008) |
"In the end, well, things are lot tidier than a toddler's room, but it's a lot like childbirth, too. You forget the bad parts and feel really good." |
Jane Clifford |
Splat |
The Bachelor (1999) |
"A painful journey." |
David Elliott |
Splat 1/4 |
Bad Boys II (2003) |
"Vulgar, brazen, crass, violent, stupid, juvenile, loud, long and pointless -- Bad Boys II is all that, plus a thin slice of entertaining." |
David Elliott |
Splat 1/4 |
Bad Company (2002) |
"It stars schticky Chris Rock and stolid Anthony Hopkins, who seem barely in the same movie. Their contrast is neither dramatic nor comic -- it's just a weird fizzle." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3/4 |
Bad News Bears (2005) |
"The spunkiness gets a bit crude but the team spirit remains, perennial as the crack of a bat on a summer day." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Bad Santa (2003) |
"Enjoy it, or avoid religiously." |
David Elliott |
Tomato |
Bait (2000) |
"A fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat, Saturday night kind of film -- one that's even, at times ... impressive." |
Nina Garin |
Splat 2/4 |
The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005) |
"Day-Lewis is a great actor, but his choices show a solemn earnestness that may be hurting his career (and talent?)." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3/4 |
Ballets Russes (2005) |
"Ballets Russes, fondly uniting interviews of aged ex-dancers with almost fairy-spun clips from their youth, is a peacock reunion beneath a chandelier." |
David Elliott |
Splat 1/4 |
Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002) |
"The movie may be called Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, but it could've been called Audience vs. Dozing Off." |
|
Splat |
Bamboozled (2000) |
"Suffers from overkill and a shortage of fertile ideas." |
David Elliott |
Tomato |
Band of Outsiders (1964) |
"Godard's pastiche genius was never livelier." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
The Band's Visit (2007) |
"The Band's Visit blends gentle comedy and softly aching pathos into a low-key, deeply affecting wonder, a sort of alternate-universe version of Aki Kaurismäki's raucous 1989 hoot Leningrad Cowboys Go America." |
Arthur Salm |
Splat |
Bandits (2001) |
"The movie is a bit of crime, a bit of romance, a bit of comedy and a whole lot of nearly nothing." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Banger Sisters (2002) |
"It is OK for a movie to be something of a sitcom apparatus, if the lines work, the humor has point and the actors are humanly engaged." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
The Bank (2002) |
"LaPaglia firmly anchors a slick, cynical thriller that relies too much on twists, computer screens and zap graphics." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Baran (2002) |
"The film has real grace, and it delivers the plight of Afghan women as well as any report filed from the war." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
The Barbarian Invasions (2003) |
"Arcand dearly likes his characters, but here's another movie cancer death nearly devoid of mess and stress, with available heroin and a lovably comforting sunset." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3/4 |
Barbershop (2002) |
"[Story] does a fine job of giving the audience the 'you are there' feel of being a patron in an African-American barbershop." |
Jerry McCormick |
Tomato |
Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004) |
"As long as it is simply being a barbershop, the gab has a razor-cut charm." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3/4 |
Barnyard: The Original Party Animals (2006) |
"If not exactly Orwell's Animal Farm, Barnyard has its levels of wit and significance." |
David Elliott |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Bartleby (2002) |
"If Melville is creatively a great whale, this film is canned tuna." |
David Elliott |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Basic (2003) |
"If this humid hullabaloo made sense, it still wouldn't matter. You can feel your shrug building irritably." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Basic Instinct 2 (2006) |
"Shaped by basic commercial instincts, with at least 17 distributors lined up to carve the yum pie in global release, this heavy-breather may prove Stone's last hurrah." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Batman Begins (2005) |
"Batman Begins storms along, with a few welcome catches of breath, though it has the climax overdose of the modern action whoppers." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 4/4 |
Battle of Algiers (1966) |
"Perhaps the finest political film of the 1960s." |
David Elliott |
Tomato |
The Battle of Shaker Heights (2003) |
"Even so flawed, it is remarkably engaging." |
David Elliott |
Splat |
Battlefield Earth (2000) |
"As it gets more loudly ludicrous, with destruction coming in vast waves, you don't think 'piece of cake' but 'piece of (oops).'" |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
The Baxter (2005) |
"What comes to mind are TV sitcom pilots full of strain, and the forlornly perky mechanisms of old Day & Hudson comedies." |
David Elliott |
Tomato |
The Beach (2000) |
"The scenery never loses Club Med magic, and DiCaprio remains a star even when almost eclipsed by bad dialogue." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Bear Cub (2004) |
"Director Luis Miguel Albaladejo has an essential, rather sweet earnestness, but we sense that he likes pushing touchy buttons." |
David Elliott |
Splat |
Beautiful (2000) |
"It has some humor and warmth, but would be nearly unendurable except for Driver." |
David Elliott |
Splat |
Beautiful Creatures (2001) |
"It has about it a gratuitously brutal air." |
Arthur Salm |
Splat 1/4 |
Because I Said So (2007) |
"With Keaton in devastating overdrive, Moore can barely exercise her own brand of ginchiness." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Becket (1964) |
"Peter Glenville's stage-plank direction creaks badly, but the acting still holds you." |
David Elliott |
Tomato |
Bedazzled (2000) |
"Brendan Fraser ... ably anchors this cheerful new take on the old, old theme." |
Arthur Salm |
Tomato |
Before Night Falls (2000) |
"Julian Schnabel, in a love poem translated into living flesh by Javier Bardem, has complimented an artistic hero by adding to his legacy." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 4/4 |
Before Sunset (2004) |
"By the end, you are either in love again or you never were." |
David Elliott |
Tomato |
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) |
"Old fox Lumet deals out some flash cutting and time frame back-and-forths that, if not the Tarantino tango, are fairly adventurous." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Before the Fall (2004) |
"Friedrich isn't particularly sharp, but Riemelt's wonderfully nuanced performance gives him intricate layers of feeling." |
Arthur Salm |
Splat |
Behind Enemy Lines (2001) |
"Former cameraman John Moore, now director, proves you can win total military support and spends piles of money and be a storming, braying, by-the-book hack." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Beijing Bicycle (2002) |
"The story has its redundancies, and the young actors, not very experienced, are sometimes inexpressive." |
David Elliott |
Tomato |
Being John Malkovich (1999) |
"Being J.M. pumps so much laughing gas of foolishness that I began to imagine that Malkovich started his rise not at the Steppenwolf Theater but at Chicago' s long-gone puppet theater, the Kungsholm." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3/4 |
Being Julia (2004) |
"It is a lush British showcase for Annette Bening, making the very most of it." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2.5/4 |
The Believer (2002) |
"Like a pack of dynamite sticks, built for controversy. The film is explosive, but a few of those sticks are wet." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3/4 |
Bend It Like Beckham (2003) |
"So compulsively 'winning' that it almost lost me, but then its punchy charms worked like a charm." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3/4 |
Beowulf (2007) |
"Director Robert Zemeckis moves things along lickety-split; for such a dark, heavy tale, lit by gray, diffuse far-northern skies and golden torchlight, the film is remarkably light on its feet." |
Arthur Salm |
Tomato |
Beyond the Mat (1999) |
"The film manages to put a pin on pro wrestling's harsh realities." |
James Hebert |
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