Splat 2/4 |
P.S. (2004) |
"Can't seem to make up its mind whether it's a romantic comedy, a drama or a psychological thriller and settles for being an odd -- and unbelievable -- hybrid of all three." |
Moira MacDonald |
Splat 2/4 |
P.S. I Love You (2007) |
"The talented Swank is slumming a bit here, but she could -- and has -- done worse." |
Moira MacDonald |
Splat 1/4 |
P2 (2007) |
"P2 may be bad enough to become some other type of classic than the holiday kind." |
Mark Rahner |
Splat .5/4 |
The Pacifier (2005) |
"The concept that sort of worked for Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes a cringe-inducing misfire for Vin Diesel in this sloppy mess of a family film that's neither cute nor funny." |
Ted Fry |
Tomato 3/4 |
Paid in Full (2002) |
"This familiar rise-and-fall tale is long on glamour and short on larger moralistic consequences, though it's told with sharp ears and eyes for the tenor of the times." |
Ted Fry |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
The Painted Veil (2006) |
"A thoughtful and beautifully mounted story for grown-ups, The Painted Veil brings the quiet pleasures of a fine novel, showing us that the world's complicated geography is no match for the terrain of the human heart." |
Moira MacDonald |
Splat 1/4 |
Palindromes (2005) |
"It's just shock for shock's sake. It doesn't linger in the imagination the way, say, David Lynch's shocking content often does; rather, you just want it to go away." |
Moira MacDonald |
Tomato 4/4 |
Pan's Labyrinth (2006) |
"The dark violence of the film (parents, note: Pan's Labyrinth is not for children) is leavened by its invention -- by the way it pushes the limits of reality and fantasy, each world overlapping with the other." |
Moira MacDonald |
- |
Panic (2000) |
Click here to see the review. |
Moira MacDonald |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Panic Room (2002) |
"It's a triumph of technical filmmaking; as a story, it's got ice in its heart." |
Moira MacDonald |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Paper Clips (2004) |
"It's a remarkable story, and well worth seeing, particularly for its handful of genuinely affecting moments." |
Mary Brennan |
Splat 2/4 |
Paper Heart (2009) |
"Fact and fiction intermingle in Paper Heart, but discovering where the line is drawn is the tricky part." |
Tom Keogh |
Tomato 3/4 |
Paprika (2007) |
"What keeps the picture percolating is the stream of hallucinatory images, both nightmarish and oddly alluring, that Kon conjures." |
John Hartl |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Paradise Now (2005) |
"Asks the big questions and answers quite a few of them, although its ending is tantalizingly ambiguous." |
John Hartl |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Paranoid Park (2008) |
"Gus Van Sant's capper to a trilogy of experiments in elliptical narrative and lyrical structure is a masterful triumph of art, craft and empathy for the complicatedness of being a real teenager." |
Ted Fry |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Paranormal Activity (2009) |
"After the disturbing experience of squirming through this astonishing movie, you'll be wide awake with lights blazing and may never want to sleep again." |
Ted Fry |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Paris (2009) |
"A pretty travelogue about mortality, Paris never quite lives up to what turns out to be a presumptuous title." |
John Hartl |
Tomato 3/4 |
Paris 36 (2008) |
"Paris 36 is perhaps overlong for what it is, and it's certainly feather-light, but it gives its watcher an uncomplicated pleasure; like looking through a faded scrapbook, filled with memories once bright." |
Moira MacDonald |
Tomato 3/4 |
Paris, Je T'aime (2007) |
"The best is saved for last: Payne's 14th arrondissement takes its time to create a Parisian epiphany that both pokes fun at an American tourist (Margo Martindale) and finds grace in her acceptance of a fragile moment of transcendence." |
John Hartl |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Party Monster (2003) |
"We begin the film not knowing what brought Michael and James together. We end, after a too-long 98 minutes, precisely the same way." |
Moira MacDonald |
Tomato 4/4 |
The Passenger (1975) |
"A movie with which one can grow old, in the same sense that one can see great productions of Hamlet at 15 and 40 and 70 years of age, measuring the relative depth of one's experience of life and the world against its mature vision." |
Tom Keogh |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Passing Poston (2008) |
"In the moving documentary Passing Poston, 'hell' is the word most consistently used by surviving Japanese Americans forcibly interned during World War II." |
Tom Keogh |
Splat 2/4 |
The Passion of the Christ (2004) |
"Gibson ultimately seems to be preaching to the choir, rejecting standard storytelling conventions such as introducing his characters, assuming his audience already knows everything he's about to tell us." |
Moira MacDonald |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Passionada (2003) |
"It's dappled with small pleasures." |
Moira MacDonald |
Splat 1/4 |
Pathfinder (2007) |
"The official Pathfinder Web site is far more interesting than the movie itself, and you'll get better history lessons from the Vikings of Minnesota." |
Jeff Shannon |
Tomato |
The Patriot (2000) |
"It boldly asks what you'd be willing to sacrifice to gain that freedom. And what more could you ask from a Fourth of July movie?" |
John Hartl |
Splat 2/4 |
Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009) |
"It's just not particularly funny. That Segway, alas, only goes so far." |
Moira MacDonald |
Tomato 3/4 |
Pauline and Paulette (2002) |
"It's rare to find a film to which the adjective 'gentle' applies, but the word perfectly describes Pauline & Paulette." |
Moira MacDonald |
Splat |
Pay It Forward (2000) |
"Hard-hearted critic that I am, I even found tears welling up near the end. But it's dishonest in its execution, and a tad dull after a promising beginning." |
Erik Lundegaard |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Paycheck (2003) |
"As a genius running for his life, Affleck's got the intensity of a frat brother racing to return a keg before he loses the deposit." |
Mark Rahner |
Tomato 3/4 |
Peaceful Warrior (2006) |
"A kind of religious experience, an altered reality where the lines blur between hallucination and clarity, fact and fancy." |
Tom Keogh |
Splat |
Pearl Harbor (2001) |
"Aside from the big bombs, Pearl Harbor is a dud." |
John Zebrowski |
Tomato 3/4 |
Penelope (2008) |
"Sweet as gingerbread, Penelope deserves to find an audience; those with a taste for happily-ever-afters should look for it, before it too-quickly disappears." |
Moira MacDonald |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
The Perfect Crime (2005) |
"An astute satire on the boundlessness of unchecked sexual fetishism and power." |
Tom Keogh |
Splat 2/4 |
A Perfect Getaway (2009) |
"[Director] Twohy eventually paints himself into a corner with an explanation that's fatally far-fetched. By the end, you're convinced he'll try anything, no matter how illogical, to hold the audience's attention." |
John Hartl |
Splat 2/4 |
The Perfect Holiday (2007) |
"The Perfect Holiday, as many a holiday movie before it, meticulously goes through the motions, but never quite finds the magic of the season." |
Moira MacDonald |
Splat 2/4 |
The Perfect Man (2005) |
"Duff, while a sparkly screen presence, needs to break out of her saccharine rut and head for an indie script." |
Emily Russin |
- |
A Perfect Murder (1998) |
Click here to see the review. |
Moira MacDonald |
Splat 1/4 |
The Perfect Score (2004) |
"Kids facing the SAT in real life may appreciate this movie, if only because it'll make them feel so much smarter than these characters. For the rest of us, it flunks." |
Moira MacDonald |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Perfect Stranger (2007) |
"Reportedly, several endings were filmed; perhaps some of them make more sense than this one." |
Moira MacDonald |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) |
"Tykwer, best known for the ultramodern chase movie Run Lola Run, would seem an unusual choice for a period film, but he infuses the sometimes stately story with vigor; though well past two and a half hours, it never feels long." |
Moira MacDonald |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Persepolis (2007) |
"If anything, the tonal simplicity of the film lends itself to graphic wit, a rich array of emotional experience and an austere impression of Iran as a place where ordinary fun, as Satrapi remembers it, could get a young person in trouble." |
Tom Keogh |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Personal Velocity (2002) |
"Those wondering if movies still have power to shock need only watch the first few minutes of Rebecca Miller's lovely, free-swinging film Personal Velocity." |
Moira MacDonald |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Pete Seeger - The Power of Song (2007) |
"If you've never heard of Pete Seeger or if you've known him all your life, see this film. Walking out, you might just be ready to put the world together." |
Ted Fry |
Tomato 3/4 |
Peter Pan (2003) |
"Little children may find it a bit scary ... but it's a warmhearted and often magical adventure." |
Moira MacDonald |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Phoebe In Wonderland (2009) |
"The screenplay is unusual in its reliance on children for many of the scenes, and its understanding of the drama in the heart of a troubled 9-year-old." |
Moira MacDonald |
Splat 2/4 |
Phone Booth (2003) |
"It's cinematic flash, tarted up with gritty gray-blue lighting and gimmicky photography." |
Moira MacDonald |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Photographer, His Wife, Her Lover (2006) |
"There's a good film noir to be made from this morass of human foibles, but British documentarian Paul Yule has the advantage of nonfictional context." |
Jeff Shannon |
Tomato 4/4 |
The Pianist (2002) |
"The Pianist is a devastating story of survival, and a tribute to the redemptive powers of art." |
Moira MacDonald |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Piano Teacher (2002) |
"Is like The Graduate remade by David Lynch; it's no picnic to watch, but you can't look away." |
Moira MacDonald |
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