Tomato 3/4 |
Adam (2009) |
"As an effort to understand a person whose behavior seems inexplicable, Adam is a big success." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Adoration (2009) |
"When all is revealed at the end, it becomes obvious Egoyan has cheated audiences with a batch of fake clues and false paths." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
Adventureland (2009) |
"I liked Adventureland a lot." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Alien Trespass (2009) |
"Alien Trespass is an intriguing experiment, and I admire its craftsmanship." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 2.5/4 |
All About Steve (2009) |
"Amounts to one compelling character surrounded by a bunch of stuff that's not so great." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 2/4 |
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009) |
"It's mildly amusing and the climax is pretty exciting but, all in all, I'm not sure the Squeakquel was strictly necessary." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 1/4 |
Amelia (2009) |
"Dear Hilary Swank: We've seen your spunky act. Do you have anything else? Signed, Everyone." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
An Education (2009) |
"Simultaneously an education and a thrill." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 2/4 |
Angels & Demons (2009) |
"A clunky movie with awful dialogue and a more-convoluted-than-it-needs-to-be plot." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Antichrist (2009) |
"I like movies that elicit complicated responses, and "Antichrist" -- which is beautiful, ugly, insightful, crude and lyrical, sometimes all at once -- blew me away." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2009) |
"There is something beautiful about people who dream big -- and something foolish. Anvil! The Story of Anvil gets at both." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 2/4 |
Astro Boy (2009) |
"For at least half of its length, it's an Astro Bore." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
Avatar (2009) |
"Avatar is suspenseful, thrilling and much too long." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
Away We Go (2009) |
"Away We Go is marred by the smugness that muddies novels, but its two appealing leads are more than enough to redeem it." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 0/4 |
All Roads Lead Home (2008) |
"Earnest, well-meaning and dreadful." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
American Teen (2008) |
"American Teen does its job: It invites us into the lives of people we wouldn't ordinarily meet or, maybe, care about." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Anita O'Day - The Life Of A Jazz Singer (2008) |
"Even if you're not nuts about the music in Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer, I bet you'll fall for the musician." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 2/4 |
Another Gay Sequel (2008) |
"Even if you care, it'll be out on video soon." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Appaloosa (2008) |
"It's deliberately paced, but this non-Western-fan loved it." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Australia (2008) |
"As ridiculous as Australia often is, it's also ridiculously entertaining." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Across the Universe (2007) |
"Think of it as more like a video installation at a gallery than a movie." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 2/4 |
African Adventure: Safari in the Okavango (2007) |
"For some reason, the credits specifically depict all of the key white members of the filmmaking team but none of the anonymous natives who ferried them around and showed them what to shoot." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 1.5/4 |
After The Wedding (2007) |
"Just when we start to find these people interesting and credible, the plot tosses us something we don't believe for a minute." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Alpha Dog (2007) |
"Alpha Dog operates without outrage -- not because the behavior of the people in the movie isn't horrifying but because the movie knows it is much too late to save those bouncing, happy kids we glimpsed in the opening seconds." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 2/4 |
Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007) |
"You could do worse." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Amateurs (2007) |
"The chief virtue of Amateurs is that it gives many talented people (Valerie Perrine, Judy Greer, Lauren Graham, Tim Blake Nelson) a scene or two in which to shine." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 2/4 |
Amazing Grace (2007) |
"How could Michael Apted, who directed those towering pillars of truth the 7 Up documentaries, make a movie as bogus as Amazing Grace?" |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 2/4 |
American Gangster (2007) |
"[Ridley Scott] wants to make a Godfather-style epic, and he doesn't have the horses -- or the story -- to pull it off." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
Angel-A (2007) |
"Angel-A drops by most of the touristy Parisian hot spots and, shot in the glorious black-and-white of Henri Cartier-Bresson, makes them all look spectacular and gritty at the same time." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 1/4 |
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theatres (2007) |
"The movie version of Aqua offers pretty much the same surreal, gross, half-baked antics as the TV version, and that's just not enough." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Are We Done Yet? (2007) |
"There is something almost revolutionary about the way it and a couple of other recent movies (including this week's Firehouse Dog) are attempting to bring back the sort of live-action family films that Disney used to churn out in the '70s." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 2/4 |
Arthur and the Invisibles (2007) |
"The adventure turns out to be a drag. When Arthur goes on a ruby hunt, the movie shifts to animation, and he meets the Minimoys, fairy creatures who look like those troll dolls that become inexplicably popular every 20 years." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) |
"It's one of the year's most confident, visually arresting films, but it requires patience." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Astronaut Farmer (2007) |
"In a way, the whole movie is like a dream. Opening with a sunrise and closing with a sunset, the Polish brothers' Astronaut Farmer is a beautiful movie dedicated to a simple idea that they push to its light-years-away extreme: Family comes first." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Atonement (2007) |
"It's a stunner that does justice to a great book." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
August Rush (2007) |
"Most of the time, the material is quietly, subtly perfect." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Awake (2007) |
"I'm sure if I saw Awake again, I'd find plot holes you could drive a monster truck through but, on first viewing, I thought it was slick, goofy entertainment." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 4/4 |
Away From Her (2007) |
"Away From Her is a film of piercing clarity, one that knocks you out over and over again with its beauty and generosity." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
A Scanner Darkly (2006) |
"Here are my thoughts over the course of the trippy A Scanner Darkly: Intriguing. Good. Yes. Huh? Nope. Nope. Oh, OK." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Accepted (2006) |
"Accepted's best asset is its cast." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
Adam & Steve (2006) |
"Like the Duran Duran videos it worships, Adam & Steve is so retro it's fresh." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
Al Franken: God Spoke (2006) |
"A portrait of a passionate, witty, occasionally thin-skinned man." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker (2006) |
"Unlike many movies aimed at this demographic, Stormbreaker gives young audiences credit for taste and wit." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat |
All The King's Men (2006) |
"You sense this could be a good movie and that the people involved were the right people but that they have come up way short." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat |
American Dreamz (2006) |
"Even when Dreamz was clicking, I couldn't help wondering what a more ruthless filmmaker like Alexander Payne (Election) or even Christopher Guest (Waiting for Guffman) might have done with this material." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
American Hardcore (2006) |
"The movie is hazy about dates and names but bracing in its depiction of young people who made music because they loved it, not because they thought it would make them rich or famous." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
Annapolis (2006) |
"Despite the lack of originality in Annapolis, it is dandy entertainment." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
The Ant Bully (2006) |
"A computer-animated gem as ingenious as a children's book you don't mind reading aloud again and again." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Tomato 3/4 |
Apocalypto (2006) |
"Apocalypto recovers from its excesses quickly, with Gibson crafting a shock-and-awe ending that is one of the year's best." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
Splat 1/4 |
The Architect (2006) |
"The movie doesn't so much tell a story as scream its messages at us in a series of awkward scenes that test the actors' ability to make fake-o dialogue seem like something an actual person might say." |
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) |
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