Tomato 3/4 |
L'Enfant (2006) |
"The beauty of [Dardennes'] movies, much like Flannery O'Connor's stories, is that they think no one is beyond rescue." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 2/4 |
La Ley De Herodes (2000) |
"Yeah, OK, we know. Absolutely power corrupts absolutely. What else?" |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
La Moustache (2005) |
"It's a brief, simple film that never overreaches but, if you're into it, it raises fascinating questions about identity." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat |
La Vie En Rose (2007) |
"La Vie en Rose is lucky to have Cotillard to hold things together, because it is constantly threatening to implode." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Ladder 49 (2004) |
"The movie gets sloppy with most of its secondary characters... But, when it focuses on Phoenix, it has a frank, compelling story to tell." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 2/4 |
Ladies in Lavender (2005) |
"Weak tea served with stale biscuits." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
The Lady and the Duke (2002) |
"It finds its moviegoing pleasures in the tiny events that could make a person who has lived her life half-asleep suddenly wake up and take notice." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
Lady Chatterley (2006) |
"The nudity will put some off, but it's effective: The movie is not unlike a Merchant/Ivory-type film that acknowledges that folks from 100 years ago did, occasionally, take off their corsets." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Lady in the Water (2006) |
"Why should the gifted Shyamalan even waste his time trashing critics? His attitude should be: If they're too cynical to believe, it's their loss." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
Lady Vengeance (2005) |
"Park is a crazily confident filmmaker who crafts gorgeous images and whose transitions between scenes are breathtaking." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
Ladykillers (2004) |
"In Hanks' ornately, bizarrely funny performance, Dorr is one of the great Coen brothers-created characters, and if the movie he's in isn't as good, it often doesn't matter." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 1.5/4 |
The Lake House (2006) |
"The most expressive performer in the film is the house." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Lake of Fire (2007) |
"The astonishing feat of the documentary Lake of Fire is that it takes a topic about which everyone is always telling us what to think and manages to do justice to both sides. Or rather, all sides." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato |
Lakeboat (2001) |
"Not as sharp on characterizations as [Mamet's] later work, but it's essential viewing for admirers of his gutter-elegant dialogue." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 2/4 |
Lakeview Terrace (2008) |
"Subtlety is not the strong suit of Lakeview Terrace. In fact, it's a suit Lakeview Terrace hasn't even heard of." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 1/4 |
Land of the Lost (2009) |
"Land of the Lost seems more intent on being off-putting than being funny. Mission accomplished, I guess, but it's not entertaining. And whoever thought it would be must have been out of his gourd." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat |
Lantana (2001) |
"Characters and situations that are compelling on their own get shoved together in ways that feel forced and fake, as if there are only a dozen people in Sydney and they all know each other." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003) |
"Cradle isn't art, but it's exhilarating, funny and even a little romantic." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat |
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) |
"A surprisingly bland affair." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Lars And The Real Girl (2007) |
"Quietly moving." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
Lassie (2006) |
"Lassie has a fine cast, lots of calendar-pretty shots of Lassie in different seasons and a dog-owned-by-many-different-people plot borrowed from David Copperfield." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato |
The Last Castle (2001) |
"Predictability is part of the appeal of The Last Castle, which plays out like a heist movie." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
Last Chance Harvey (2008) |
"The result? Lots of entertaining chitchat." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 2/4 |
Last Days (2005) |
"Last Days has the blank, discombobulated feeling you get when you wake up in a hotel room and your brain hasn't kicked in and you're not sure where you are." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Last Holiday (2006) |
"This isn't the sort of movie that's meant to surprise, but it is a movie that gets better as it goes." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 2/4 |
The Last House on the Left (2009) |
"I was all set to give Iliadis credit for using extreme subject matter to ask smart questions about right, wrong and human nature. But then, he unleashes an unnecessary (albeit original) final scene that erases any doubt." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Last King of Scotland (2006) |
"Although Last King is faithful to the novel, it is superior in almost every way." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato |
The Last Kiss (2002) |
"Affectionately reminds us that, in any language, the huge stuff in life can usually be traced back to the little things." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 1/4 |
The Last Kiss (2006) |
"... occasionally stumbles onto something interesting." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 2/4 |
The Last Mimzy (2007) |
"[There's] a lot for two kids to handle, much less one kids' movie, and Mimzy's unsatisfyingly truncated ending doesn't even come close to pulling it all together." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 1.5/4 |
The Last Mistress (2008) |
"All of the characters are so elusive and thin there's nothing to grab our interest." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Last Orders (2002) |
"Schepisi does a beautiful job of negotiating the back-and-forth time structure, which never feels gimmicky or confusing because Last Orders is a movie about the way memories connect us." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 1/4 |
The Last Place on Earth (2002) |
"Movies this inane rarely get made, much less released." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
The Last Samurai (2003) |
"Zwick ... has crafted a handsome movie (it's set in the Land of the Rising Sun, but the sunsets aren't too shabby, either) with a classical structure and an involving story." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 2/4 |
The Last Sin Eater (2007) |
"The problem isn't Sin Eater's Christian theme -- in fact, the idea of a community shifting from paganism to Christianity is promising -- but that the movie can't find a way to integrate that theme into its story." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
The Last Winter (2007) |
"Last Winter does make good on its intriguing premise. And after a dandy beginning and a so-so middle, it delivers a knockout ending." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
Late Marriage (2001) |
"Whenever you think you've figured out Late Marriage, it throws you for a loop." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 2/4 |
Latter Days (2004) |
"The whole Mormon/gay thing would be plenty for one movie without also sticking in AIDS, the betrayal of friends and actors-trying- to-get-their- big-break." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Laurel Canyon (2003) |
"McDormand plays the exact opposite of her role in Almost Famous, and darned if she isn't just as terrific." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Laws of Attraction (2004) |
"The whole movie reminded me of a Halloween superhero cape: thin, flimsy and fake." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Layer Cake (2005) |
"Don't expect Layer Cake to add any new layers to the overstuffed genre of British gangster movies." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Le Petit Lieutenant (2006) |
"Still mourning the end of Helen Mirren in TV's Prime Suspect? You might want to give Le Petit Lieutenant a whirl." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) |
"A triumph of art direction." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
League of Ordinary Gentlemen (2005) |
"Gentlemen is distinguished by its extraordinary access to the players and tour operators." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
Leatherheads (2008) |
"Just when you think, 'Enough already on the sliding-in-the-mud jokes,' Leatherheads tosses up a great joke that is the cinematic equivalent of a Hail Mary pass that sends the home team to victory." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato |
Legally Blonde (2001) |
"Witherspoon ... gives a star-making, revelatory performance." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde (2003) |
"It's an ice cream soda of a movie, frothy and fun." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat |
The Legend of Bagger Vance (1999) |
"Why should we care about rich people exploiting the poor to save their fortunes during the Depression?" |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Legend of Suriyothai (2003) |
"Fun to watch for a variety of reasons." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 1/4 |
The Legend of Zorro (2005) |
"The Legend of Zorro is so stodgy and slow, it makes even an out-of-control steam engine seem like nothing more than a lot of hot air." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
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