Splat 2/4 |
The Da Vinci Code (2006) |
"DVC is a freakish book and a lavishly ludicrous film, a bouncing mass of high-priced gas given some stability by culture-tour settings (even Isaac Newton's tomb and, of course, the Mona Lisa) and by Hanks' solid, sensible presence." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Daddy Day Care (2003) |
"The movie, which has a stern warning against sugar-based cereals, is sugared cereal." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
The Dancer Upstairs (2003) |
"Wonderfully located but sometimes remote film." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002) |
"This is the best American movie about troubled teens since 1998's Whatever." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Danny Deckchair (2004) |
"Nicely shot, quaintly romantic, it is tuned to the Australian taste in matey malarkey." |
David Elliott |
Splat 1/4 |
Daredevil (2003) |
"When Hollywood bakes a pulp pastry like Daredevil, the dough that rises isn't simply the budget. You can feel your mind becoming a sponge cake, so porous that air whistles through it like wind." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Dark Blue (2003) |
"Russell is campaigning to get back into acting shape after such goof-arounds as 3000 Miles to Graceland and Escape From L.A. But shoving him through the grinder of cop cliches, then giving him a Frank Capra climax, invites defeat." |
David Elliott |
Tomato |
Dark Blue World (2001) |
"Fitzgerald is a fine bit of Brit, the men are truly men, England shines, the sky is streaked with courage. And attention is owed." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
The Dark Knight (2008) |
"The Dark Knight is ahead of the curve, dense and demanding, an art film on a grand scale. It won't make you smile, but it will make you ponder this mesmerizing experience." |
Lee Grant |
Splat 1/4 |
Darkness Falls (2003) |
"The 'story' has editing in place of atmosphere, noise in place of subtlety." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Dave Chappelle's Block Party (2006) |
"Block Party itself doesn't kill, exactly, but its charms are enough to disarm." |
James Hebert |
Splat 1/4 |
The Day After Tomorrow (2004) |
"The Day After Tomorrow has pretty good special effects and the body heat of pure kitsch." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Days of Glory (2006) |
"We can pretty well guess some coming deaths, but the combat for a tiny Alsatian town is vividly done." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3/4 |
De La Calle (2003) |
"If you care about how Mexican poverty degrades and yet also deepens Mexican beauty, it is one to see." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3/4 |
De-Lovely (2004) |
"It's fun to see moderns like Elvis Costello, Natalie Cole, Diana Krall and Alanis Morissette 'doing' Porter." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Dear Frankie (2005) |
"This is a confident first feature by Auerbach, if a bit rushed in resolution." |
David Elliott |
Splat 1/4 |
Death to Smoochy (2002) |
"The result is a gaudy bag of stale candy, something from a Halloween that died." |
David Elliott |
Splat |
Deep Blue Sea (1999) |
"Sharks for Dummies!" |
James Hebert |
Tomato 4/4 |
Deep Sea (IMAX) (2006) |
"The Halls have taken an artistic leap beyond their masterful Coral Reef Adventure (2003), stripping away much of the narrative thread and allowing the film to drift to and fro on currents of sheer beauty." |
Arthur Salm |
Splat 2/4 |
Deja Vu (2006) |
"At least N'Orleans got production dollars from this film. What do we get? Lack of originality that starts with the title, used for feature films in 1985, 1988 and 1997." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Deliver Us From Evil (2006) |
"The movie is a litany of victims and a chilling indictment." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Demonlover (2003) |
"The movie seems to cannibalize itself and go stupid." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
The Departed (2006) |
"Crime stories have become incredibly generic, and though this is not a pit like Miami Vice, some bursts of good staging and imagery only serve to remind us that Scorsese is a streak gambler who can get stuck with the wrong hand." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Derailed (2005) |
"Mikael Hafstrom's film is rancid pulp that dares to invoke family values and use a sick child for sympathy." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Derrida (2002) |
"The film is an intriguingly superficial view of a famously deep man." |
David Elliott |
Splat |
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999) |
"Attend enough movies and you begin to pick up clues. 'Directed by Akira Kurosawa,' for example, means something. 'Starring Rob Schneider' means something else." |
David Elliott |
Splat |
Deuces Wild (2002) |
"The movie is like Scorsese's Mean Streets redone by someone who ignored it in favor of old 'juvenile delinquent' paperbacks with titles like Leather Warriors and Switchblade Sexpot." |
David Elliott |
Splat 1.5/4 |
The Devil Wears Prada (2006) |
"A flat comedy that pretends to cluck its tongue at gloss and glitz and the surface tension of lives attuned only to appearances, then spends most of its time drooling over them." |
Arthur Salm |
Tomato 3/4 |
Diamond Men (2001) |
"Cohen serves his actors smartly, and though the film has no artistic weight, it has the craft of a story firmly committed to good characters." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005) |
"The quality of mercy is a little strained." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Die Another Day (2002) |
"Die Another Day has cute amusements, but seems to die every few minutes." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3/4 |
Die Hard 4: Live Free or Die Hard (2007) |
"In this fourth film, there's a zip to the dialogue and a lift to the storytelling that recalls the spark of the original '88 Die Hard." |
James Hebert |
Splat 2/4 |
Diggers (2007) |
"No doubt there was hope for a manlier, brinier My Big Fat Greek Wedding. But that had better food -- and better jokes." |
David Elliott |
Tomato |
Dinosaur (2000) |
"In its lumbering, sometimes bloody way, it's some trip." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 4/4 |
Dirty Pretty Things (2003) |
"The film is awfully good at the chess of life, and its driven moves are topped by sentiment that is not only forgivable but entirely earned." |
David Elliott |
Splat 1.5/4 |
A Dirty Shame (2004) |
"The NC-17 rating on John Waters' A Dirty Shame must have a double meaning -- 'not clean enough for those under 17' and 'not clever enough for those over 17.'" |
David Elliott |
Tomato |
The Dish (2001) |
"Long on wry humor, gentle whimsy and fond feeling for history." |
David Elliott |
Splat |
Disney's The Kid (2000) |
"The latest from Disney qualifies as a true family film: Both parents and kids will squirm." |
Arthur Salm |
Tomato 3/4 |
District B13 (2006) |
"District B13 is so busy kicking glass (that's a euphemism) that you want fragments to keep on flying." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Disturbia (2007) |
"If you're going to remake (or salute) a Hitchcock classic, it's fine to start off like Disturbia. It is not fine to end up like Disturbia." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3/4 |
Diva (1981) |
"Had Wile E. Coyote chased Jean-Luc Godard, the result might have been Diva." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Divine Intervention (2003) |
"Don't try for Buster Keaton deadpan effects unless you have Buster Keaton." |
David Elliott |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002) |
"Gothic-lite claptrap in the service of feel-good histrionics." |
Arthur Salm |
Splat 2/4 |
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) |
"It would be inhuman not to empathize with the actual man's plight, but the movie is a sophisticated prod, pushing us inside its own Bauby." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Le Divorce (2003) |
"True, we will always have Paris. But preferably not this way." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Dogtown and Z-Boys (2002) |
"An account that's as raw and colorful as the misfits it mythologizes." |
James Hebert |
Splat 1/4 |
Dogville (2003) |
"Dogville is most depressing because Trier promises two more, for his American trilogy. Lars, enough already." |
David Elliott |
Tomato |
Domestic Disturbance (2001) |
"It's rather fun to be involved by this plotboiler, harder to be convinced." |
David Elliott |
Splat 0/4 |
Domino (2005) |
"This is a classically bad movie, much worse than the one almost everyone excoriated in 2003, Gigli." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Don't Come Knocking (2006) |
"Don't Come Knocking lacks Harry Dean Stanton and the astonishing emotional trajectory of Paris, Texas (1984), but it reunites Wim Wenders and writer Sam Shepard in a raw, airy West." |
David Elliott |
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