Tomato 2/4 |
Adam (2009) |
"Were it not for the fine engaging performances of both Dancy and Byrne, Adam would be sickly sweet." |
Jennie Punter |
Tomato 3/4 |
Adoration (2009) |
"Once again, Egoyan has created a film that descends from ideas rather than experience, driven by theme rather than character, and he does both very well." |
Kate Taylor |
Tomato 3/4 |
Adoration (2009) |
"Though the plot borders on the abstruse, it's also the director's best film in a decade." |
Liam Lacey |
Tomato 3/4 |
Adrift in Tokyo (2009) |
"Beautifully shot, Adrift in Tokyo offers an enchanting, revelatory ground-level experience of the city." |
Jennie Punter |
Tomato 3/4 |
Adventureland (2009) |
"[Director Mottola] coaxes a set of uniformly credible performances from his ensemble cast, and makes effective use of a soundtrack that's as eclectic as the characters." |
Rick Groen |
Tomato 3/4 |
All About Steve (2009) |
"Bullock, easing into her mid-40s with box-office mojo intact, remains the star attraction as the annoyingly endearing Mary. You simply can't imagine another actor of her stature pulling it off." |
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Tomato 2.5/4 |
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2009) |
"Director Jonathan Levine's film displays an intelligence lacking in most teen slasher pics." |
Mark Medley |
Splat 2/4 |
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009) |
"Every time an adult ended up in traction or broke wind, the three-year-olds in the audience were freshly ecstatic." |
Liam Lacey |
Splat 2/4 |
Amelia (2009) |
"Seldom has a bio's style clashed so deafeningly with its content." |
Rick Groen |
Tomato 3/4 |
Amreeka (2009) |
"A feel-good comedy about a Palestinian mother who moves to rural Illinois with her teenaged son, Amreeka is a kind of stealth political film that confronts issues of ethnic tension and American xenophobia." |
Liam Lacey |
Tomato 4/4 |
An Education (2009) |
"An Education is, as the title suggests, about Jenny exploring her own desires and shortfalls, and it's too smart a film for easy answers." |
Liam Lacey |
Splat 2/4 |
Angels & Demons (2009) |
"Though complete redemption of Brown's fiction may not be possible, Howard's new film at least represents an upgrade from a mortal to a venal movie sin." |
Liam Lacey |
Splat 2/4 |
Antichrist (2009) |
"The trouble is that Antichrist feels progressively symptomatic of a director losing heart." |
Liam Lacey |
Tomato 3/4 |
Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2009) |
"Anvil: The True Story of Anvil is only 80 minutes long, but it packs a lifetime worth of drama, setbacks and especially friendship into its brief running time." |
Liam Lacey |
Splat 2/4 |
Astro Boy (2009) |
"Astro Boy definitely sets himself up for a sequel, and the overall scenario is ripe to explore many current issues. But let's hope the creators trade in the well-used parts for some fresh material." |
Jennie Punter |
Tomato 3/4 |
At the Edge of the World (2009) |
"The result is an epic tale of hunter and hunted: a Moby-Dick for the environmental age." |
Fiona Morrow |
Tomato 3/4 |
Avatar (2009) |
"Big money, big risk, pretty big reward. That's been his consistent pattern, and it's high time to give credit where credit is overdue: James Cameron delivers." |
Rick Groen |
Tomato 3/4 |
Away We Go (2009) |
"Krasinski and Rudolph make a convincing, uncertain young couple, a bit smarter than the usual slacker set." |
Liam Lacey |
Splat 2/4 |
All Together Now (2008) |
"All Together Now, like most "making of" documentaries, is just another well-oiled cog in the publicity machine." |
Rick Groen |
Tomato 3/4 |
Amal (2008) |
"Most of the actors invest their characters with enough warmth to render them fully human." |
Jason Anderson |
Splat 2.5/4 |
American Teen (2008) |
"The doc seems a bit imitative itself, aping the slick manners of its poor cousin on the small screen -- reality TV." |
Rick Groen |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Appaloosa (2008) |
"The top-heavy plot takes over, and the picture makes a beeline back to tepid convention." |
Rick Groen |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins (2008) |
"There's something about Beecroft, with her softly whispering voice and her pre-Raphaelite air, that keeps bringing us back and drawing us in." |
Rick Groen |
Splat 2/4 |
Australia (2008) |
"Australia is so damnably eager to please that it feels like being pinned down by a giant overfriendly dingo and having your face licked for about three hours: theoretically endearing but, honestly, kind of gross." |
Liam Lacey |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Across the Universe (2007) |
"Yes, this is tour de force stuff, and yet, just like a good pop tune, the premise is all boy-meets-girl simplicity." |
Rick Groen |
Splat 2.5/4 |
After The Wedding (2007) |
"At two hours, After the Wedding stretches out family flux too thinly and waits too long to reveal the final, devastating secret that we already know." |
Jennie Punter |
- |
The Age of Ignorance (2007) |
Click here to see the review. |
|
Tomato 3/4 |
Air Guitar Nation (2007) |
"It's no small feat to film a documentary like this with the right balance of reverence for the craft of air guitar and good, old-fashioned shooting at an easy target, but Lipsitz pulls it off." |
Liz Clayton |
Splat 1/4 |
Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem (2007) |
"That the first of many rote 'chest-burster' shots occurs 15 seconds into the movie is but one indication of the latest instalment's poverty of fresh shocks and rank air of desperation." |
Jason Anderson |
Splat 2/4 |
All Hat (2007) |
"There is no getting around that the film is as dry as an unpaved country road." |
Stephen Cole |
Tomato 3/4 |
Alpha Dog (2007) |
"Alpha Dog is a commanding ensemble piece." |
Stephen Cole |
Splat 2/4 |
Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007) |
"By the end of the movie, even the Chipmunks' youngest fans will find themselves wishing that Alvin and the boys would get back to where they once belonged: a tree." |
Stephen Cole |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Amazing Grace (2007) |
"So much to admire and so little to amaze." |
Rick Groen |
Tomato 3/4 |
American Gangster (2007) |
"As an entertaining cops-and-crook procedural -- it's not half-bad, jacked up by strong performances, a couple of bravura action scenes and a generous attention to period detail." |
Liam Lacey |
Splat 1.5/4 |
American Venus (2007) |
"As a filmmaker with a gift for social satire, Sweeney isn't at his best focusing almost exclusively on one character." |
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Splat 1/4 |
Angel-A (2007) |
"Feels like a mash-up of It's a Wonderful Life and Xanadu, without the wholesome sweetness of the first and the campy excesses of the second." |
Kamal Al-Solaylee |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Arctic Tale (2007) |
"Nevertheless, Arctic Tale is a kid-friendly, non-preachy window on the north as a place of wonder and a harbinger of change -- and I'll take Queen Latifah's warm voice over Al Gore's drone any day." |
Jennie Punter |
Splat 1/4 |
Are We Done Yet? (2007) |
"Careers are funny, unpredictable things, and Ice Cube wouldn't be the first charismatic, threatening entertainer to don a chastity belt for a safe ride in Hollywood. Think Elvis Presley or Eddie Murphy." |
Stephen Cole |
Splat 2/4 |
Arthur and the Invisibles (2007) |
"Arthur and the Invisibles may be a tale for children, but it's got the bad habits of a profligate adult -- the thing borrows shamelessly from its betters and then pretends to be self-sustaining." |
Rick Groen |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) |
"A long, ambitious, fitfully rewarding movie." |
Liam Lacey |
Splat 2/4 |
The Astronaut Farmer (2007) |
"You keep waiting for the other shoe to drop: When will the irony start? The twist is there isn't one. The Astronaut Farmer starts out looking like a parody of wholesome inspirational fare and then gets ever-more sincere and outlandish." |
Liam Lacey |
Tomato 3/4 |
Atonement (2007) |
"There's much to admire about this adaptation of the Ian McEwan novel, enough that its occasional faltering can be easily forgiven." |
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Splat 1/4 |
August Rush (2007) |
"It's hard to believe in the magical power of music to heal and connect lost souls when the tunes are lame." |
Jennie Punter |
Tomato 3/4 |
Avenue Montaigne (2007) |
"The movie is as airy as a spun-sugar dessert, but Thompson's observations on the artistic life are both affectionate and knowing: Beauty and wealth, though inevitably compelling, are appreciated as means to humane ends, not goals in themselves." |
Liam Lacey |
Splat 2/4 |
Awake (2007) |
"With a couple of more drafts to mend the plot holes and restructure the middle act, Awake could have been saved." |
Liam Lacey |
Tomato 4/4 |
Away From Her (2007) |
"Sarah Polley is that rare flower, a genuine Canadian star. She's well-regarded everywhere yet chooses to live and work at home. Naturally her first feature as a writer-director has garnered scrutiny. The news is all good." |
|
Splat 2.5/4 |
A Scanner Darkly (2006) |
"Richard Linklater's squiggly new film, A Scanner Darkly, is an ambitious attempt to find the right visual style to render the experience of drug addiction and the paranoid vision of novelist Philip K. Dick, into a distinctive visual form." |
Liam Lacey |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
A Stone's Throw (2006) |
"Beautiful cinematography and a fine ensemble cast make A Stone's Throw well worth catching." |
Jennie Punter |
Splat 2/4 |
Accepted (2006) |
"Give the new college comedy Accepted half credit for having the gumption to marry two previously unrelated, seminal classics in American arts and letters." |
Stephen Cole |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Akeelah and the Bee (2006) |
"Akeelah is derivatively entertaining in a feel-good sort of way." |
Rick Groen |
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