Splat 1/4 |
Alpha Dog (2007) |
"It is all so done and overdone, so regurgitated, so late-night TV and what-else-is-new-in-hell." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007) |
"It's a free-fall into total plastic. Kids deserve better. Alvin, Simon and Theodore deserve better. But 'tis the season to take what you get." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Amazing Grace (2007) |
"Often vulnerable, more often inspiring, Gruffudd's Wilberforce not only stirs curiosity but also quickens your conscience. As Fox notes eloquently, he was a great man. One does not have to be religious to believe he had amazing grace." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Angel-A (2007) |
"This Parisian fable is a talkathon, affecting a silly toughness, but the sights are good to see again." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theatres (2007) |
"The animation is pastiche but impudently inventive, with pop culture eating its furry tail after a long lick." |
David Elliott |
Splat 1/4 |
Are We Done Yet? (2007) |
"Puerile prop gags slapped in without development, an inane score, dud reactions, Steve Carr's dismal direction, a Magic Johnson phone-in cameo -- it adds up to the question that keeps arising, which is (yep) the title." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Arthur and the Invisibles (2007) |
"The story [Besson] co-wrote for Arthur is workable, even clever at times, but the visualization of the Minimoys and their crib is weird and almost aggressively off-putting -- like an episode of When CGI Attacks!" |
James Hebert |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Astronaut Farmer (2007) |
"This oddball has something beyond root-for-the-roots sentiments. Thornton, well into his own orbit, is very genuinely appealing as a guy who wires his big dream machine to a loose but glowing screw in his head. Rise up, farm bird." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 4/4 |
Atonement (2007) |
"Atonement, a triumph of adulthood, atones for a lot of shoddy stuff at the movies in 2007." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Avenue Montaigne (2007) |
"While a Feydeau farce fits well, and the salute to a Brancusi sculpture is sweet, Beethoven piano passages overload the souffle." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Accepted (2006) |
"The jokes are often sharp. Also, the scheme is appealing." |
David Elliott |
Splat 0/4 |
Adam & Steve (2006) |
"A clunky doofus, a comedy of meet-cutes and weak jokes." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3/4 |
Akeelah and the Bee (2006) |
"The movie is sweetly enjoyable, requiring only the ABCs of simple human identification." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2.5/4 |
All The King's Men (2006) |
"Lavish meandering provides more density than depth, for the one magnet of interest is Willie Stark." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3/4 |
American Dreamz (2006) |
"The topics of American Dreamz are very broad, but the targeting is often lasered." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
American Hardcore (2006) |
"You can come away feeling bruised and half-deaf." |
David Elliott |
Splat 1/4 |
Annapolis (2006) |
"Bulling ahead through hackneyed scene after hackneyed scene, it grinds out an hour and 48 minutes of nonstop cliche, never offering so much as a marginally clever line, never succumbing to an original thought, never veering from the rutted path." |
Arthur Salm |
Splat 1/4 |
Apocalypto (2006) |
"Apocalypto is a big load of sado." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Art School Confidential (2006) |
"The movie has no supportive theme or rhythm, nothing to bind its dotty patches together." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
ATL (2006) |
"But the story behind ATL (credited to Antwone Fisher, the onetime Navy man in San Diego who had a movie made about his life four years ago) for the most part feels genuine and resonant." |
James Hebert |
Tomato 3/4 |
After Innocence (2005) |
"Not a special pleader but is fairly special, because Sanders gives it the pressure of straight moral conviction." |
David Elliott |
Splat 1/4 |
Alone in the Dark (2005) |
"If you are alone in the dark with Alone in the Dark, be sure to bring chewing gum -- it will provide entertainment." |
David Elliott |
Splat 0/4 |
The Amityville Horror (2005) |
"When characters are this stupid in a story, it's either a comedy or an insult, for asking viewers to be just as stupid in response." |
David Elliott |
Splat 1/4 |
Are We There Yet? (2005) |
"The answer to Are We There Yet? is, yes, we are there -- in comedy hell." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Assault on Precinct 13 (2005) |
"The modern firepower is somehow less exciting than the smaller weaponry of 1976." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
After the Sunset (2004) |
"If Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief was the silk purse of travel brochure caper movies, After the Sunset is the pocket plastic disposable." |
David Elliott |
Tomato |
Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London (2004) |
"The menu of Saturday daytime entertainment is served a bit more sharply than by the last Spy Kids romp." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Alamo (2004) |
"Director and writer John Lee Hancock avoids most of the bombast and showy display of the 1960 John Wayne film." |
|
Splat 1/4 |
Alexander (2004) |
"A spectacular mess, with no real focus or driving force." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Alfie (2004) |
"What's it all about in 2004? Considerably less than in 1966, in the Michael Caine version." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Along Came Polly (2004) |
"It achieves the flavor of the commercially processed: blandly crass, inanely edgy, pointlessly bold." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) |
"The laughs arrive on stale crackers of the easy, breezy and familiar." |
David Elliott |
Splat 1/4 |
Around the Bend (2004) |
"Shamelessly sincere and shamefully contrived." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Against the Ropes (2003) |
"Kallen's interesting story has been pulped, if not pulverized, as a Rocky rouser." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Agent Cody Banks (2003) |
"[Muniz's] cute, was paid $2 million and should start pondering the career arc of Mickey Rooney." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3/4 |
Aileen: The Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003) |
"Wuornos became, by the old standards of stark morality, evil, but was undeniably a classic victim and victimizer. Thanks to Broomfield and others, she is a sleepless night that endures." |
David Elliott |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Alex and Emma (2003) |
"Hudson, a talent graced with special charm as Goldie Hawn's daughter, and the appealing if slightly dorky Wilson are stuck with material that feels immaterial. Almost nonexistent." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
All the Real Girls (2003) |
"This is a real deal about people of interest, and filmmaker Green is truly ripening." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3/4 |
Amandla: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony (2003) |
"Reliably rousing." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 4/4 |
American Splendor (2003) |
"A salute to the power of the urban eccentric to worm into a worthy life." |
David Elliott |
Splat 1.5/4 |
American Wedding (2003) |
"The thing is harmless." |
Arthur Salm |
Splat 2/4 |
And Now Ladies and Gentlemen (2003) |
"The fizz in this fez seems to be about three-fourths carbonated lemonade." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 4/4 |
Andy Goldsworthy - Rivers and Tides: Working With Time (2003) |
"Riedelsheimer captures this aspect of Goldsworthy's work and holds up a many-faceted mirror to its beauty. That is what ultimately makes the film so seductive." |
|
Splat 2/4 |
Anger Management (2003) |
"Filmed with rote banality in every gag setup and visual touch, Anger Management is not bad enough to make you angry, because inevitably the cast cooks some silly fun." |
David Elliott |
Splat 2/4 |
Anything Else (2003) |
"The craft glows but the movie creaks and fiddles, with situations created for gags rather than the other way around." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3/4 |
Assassination Tango (2003) |
"Watching a Robert Duvall performance has become like putting on a great, weathered pair of boots -- you know it will feel good and you will want to go the distance." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3/4 |
About a Boy (2002) |
"This is not major drama with major insights. But almost everyone in the film is suffering, and the laughs we get are not thoughtless." |
David Elliott |
Splat 1/4 |
About Schmidt (2002) |
"Payne has taken a giant of American acting and awakened a midget in him -- a miserable, grumpy bore who seems to deserve his pipsqueak destiny." |
David Elliott |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights (2002) |
"The Hanukkah spirit seems fried in pork." |
David Elliott |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Adaptation (2002) |
"Beyond the doubled Cage compulsion (good acting, even better tech work), the film has rich filler." |
David Elliott |
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