Tomato 3/4 |
Baadasssss! (2004) |
"Colorful time capsule of a movie." |
David Sterritt |
Tomato A- |
The Baader Meinhof Complex (2009) |
"There's a fine line to walk when making a film about outlaws: A few wrong moves and, presto, glamorization occurs. To its credit, The Baader Meinhof Complex almost entirely avoids this pitfall." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato B- |
Babel (2006) |
"If they really want to appear radical the next time out, my advice is: Tell a single story and tell it well. What a concept." |
Peter Rainer |
Splat |
Baby Mama (2008) |
"The pregnancy-movie craze shows no signs of abating, but not all bellies are created equal. Baby Mama is a disservice to Tina Fey, who is at her best playing characters who are whip-smart." |
Peter Rainer |
Splat 1/4 |
Backyard (2003) |
"Eventually you realize the whole movie has been about young showoffs who think it's uproarious to gross out neighborhood grownups." |
David Sterritt |
Splat 2/4 |
Bad Company (2002) |
"The movie runs much too long, and a few funny bits aside, most of the comedy writing is lame." |
David Sterritt |
Tomato 3/4 |
Bad Education (2004) |
"Spain's most important living filmmaker isn't at his very best in this complicated tale, but it raises still-timely questions well worth pondering." |
David Sterritt |
Splat 2/4 |
Bad Guy (2001) |
"Certainly offbeat, but not on a level with director Kim's previous work about marginalized people." |
David Sterritt |
Tomato A- |
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) |
"The pairing of Nicolas Cage, one of the world's most out-there actors, with Werner Herzog, cinema's reigning madman-visionary, is a match made in looney-tunes heaven." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato 3/4 |
Bad News Bears (2005) |
"The coach is certainly an offensive goofball, and the Bears are certainly a pack of hard-to-handle whippersnappers. But the picture's point is that surfaces don't tell the whole story about people, about teams, or about anything." |
David Sterritt |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005) |
"Marvelously acted." |
David Sterritt |
Splat C |
Ballast (2008) |
"Ballast lacks ballast. Much praised by aficionados of minimalist indie cinema -- hey, who needs a plot when you've got mood? -- it's a wearying slog through anomie in a Mississippi Delta township." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato A- |
Ballets Russes (2005) |
"Ballets Russes does an amazing job of unearthing footage of the famous ballet troupe from its beginnings in turn-of-the-century Paris through to its demise in the '60s." |
Peter Rainer |
Splat C |
Balls of Fury (2007) |
"It's an alternately hilarious and lame movie, but fairly inoffensive if one overlooks some breaches of political correctness and heavy reliance on shots to the groin." |
M. K. Terrell |
Tomato 3/4 |
Balseros (2002) |
"Poignant, spirited, revealing." |
David Sterritt |
Splat 2/4 |
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (2005) |
"The story is winning but the telling, with Dai adapting and directing from his own novel, is too sentimental in the long run." |
David Sterritt |
Tomato 3/4 |
Bamboozled (2000) |
"It's a vintage Lee production: sometimes brilliant, frequently infuriating, never dull, and so jammed with provocative ideas that you're uncertain whether to yell 'Right on!' or throw your popcorn at the screen." |
David Sterritt |
Tomato 4/4 |
Band of Outsiders (1964) |
"It offers 10 times more pleasures than the average picture." |
David Sterritt |
Tomato B- |
The Band's Visit (2007) |
"Writer-director Eran Kolirin has a gentle touch, although the film is too self-consciously sentimental." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato 3/4 |
Bang Rajan (2004) |
"The story suggests a more violent Seven Samurai, full of jungle mayhem and eloquently filmed action-movie suspense." |
David Sterritt |
Tomato B |
The Bank Job (2008) |
"The Bank Job is nothing more than an efficient time-killer with the added bonus of being based on a real misadventure. But, unlike its benighted cast of characters, it gets the job done without a hitch." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato 4/4 |
Baran (2002) |
Click here to see the review. |
David Sterritt |
Splat 2/4 |
The Barbarian Invasions (2003) |
"A bit too neat and calculated to make the emotions ring really true." |
David Sterritt |
Tomato B |
Barnyard: The Original Party Animals (2006) |
"This coming-of-age story can seem like a series of "Far Side" panels expanded into a feature, but it imparts its lessons with a wealth of detail and too many gags to catch in one viewing." |
M. K. Terrell |
Splat 1/4 |
Basic (2003) |
"Vanderbilt's screenplay ought to be court-martialed." |
David Sterritt |
Splat C |
Basic Instinct 2 (2006) |
"It's been 14 years since the original Basic Instinct, and time -- and the miracles of beauty technology -- have been kind to Stone. Not much else about this movie holds up." |
Peter Rainer |
Splat 2/4 |
Batman Begins (2005) |
"Batman Begins delivers enough action to please Saturday-night crowds, if not the surreal wit that made the first two Batman movies, directed by Tim Burton, so entertaining." |
David Sterritt |
Tomato 4/4 |
Battle of Algiers (1966) |
"Like all masterpieces, it speaks to later ages as powerfully and intelligently as to its own." |
David Sterritt |
Splat 2/4 |
The Battle of Shaker Heights (2003) |
"The movie was not great, but not Ishtar." |
Kim Campbell |
Splat D |
The Baxter (2005) |
"Savvy viewers will see through this pastiche of shopworn goods." |
Peter Rainer |
Splat 1/4 |
Be Cool (2005) |
"The overlong comedy has few laughs and flirts far too much with racist, homophobic humor. A waste of a fine cast." |
David Sterritt |
Tomato B+ |
The Beaches of Agnes (2009) |
"Ultimately, her movie is about how her life, anybody's life, is created out of oddments that never quite cohere, and don't need to. The sheer sensuousness of all these bric-a-brac memories is sustaining." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato 3/4 |
Bear Cub (2004) |
"A compassionate, life-affirming Spanish comedy-drama." |
David Sterritt |
Tomato 4/4 |
The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005) |
"As stylish as it is suspenseful." |
David Sterritt |
Splat 2/4 |
The Beautiful Country (2005) |
"The subject is compelling but the story is very, very slow." |
David Sterritt |
Splat D |
Because I Said So (2007) |
"Wince-inducing." |
Peter Rainer |
Splat 2/4 |
Because of Winn-Dixie (2005) |
"Bland, amiable, innocuous." |
David Sterritt |
Tomato B+ |
Becket (1964) |
"Burton is extraordinary in one of his rare good movie roles and O'Toole is regally madcap and larger than life." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato B- |
Becoming Jane (2007) |
"Becoming Jane has its felicities...McAvoy and Hathaway work well together despite being saddled with dialogue that is not remotely in Austen's league. But then again, what is?" |
Peter Rainer |
Splat C |
Bee Movie (2007) |
"Bee Movie is best viewed as an oddball career move rather than as a successful movie." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato B |
Bee Season (2005) |
"Bee Season, at its core, is about something powerful: The ways in which family members wreak destruction on each other with the best of intentions." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato B |
Been Rich All My Life (2006) |
"The film could be more adept and probing, but the ladies -- Cleo Hayes, Marion Coles, Elaine Ellis, Fay Ray, and Geri Kennedy -- are delightful." |
Peter Rainer |
Splat C- |
Beerfest (2006) |
"The Broken Lizard comedy troupe returns to the big screen with a film that is, impossibly, even more sophomoric than their seminal Super Troopers." |
Matt Bradley |
Tomato 4/4 |
Before Sunset (2004) |
"All told, [Linklater is] one of today's most versatile American filmmakers, and Before Sunset finds his light shining as brightly as ever." |
David Sterritt |
Tomato A |
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) |
"To state it in the bluntest terms, Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is one of the great American films of the past decade, and the crowning masterpiece of Lumet's long career." |
Robert Koehler |
Tomato 4/4 |
Being John Malkovich (1999) |
"Pitches so many curveballs that even its title is a joke." |
David Sterritt |
Tomato 3/4 |
Being Julia (2004) |
"Being Julia is a smart treat." |
David Sterritt |
Tomato 4/4 |
The Believer (2002) |
"It hits a few false notes when it overplays the violence committed by Danny's skinhead sidekicks, but most of the movie is chillingly understated, if that's the right term for such a heart-stopping narrative." |
David Sterritt |
Splat 2/4 |
Beloved (1998) |
"Much of the acting is solid, but earnest performances can't give the picture all the bite and excitement it sorely needs." |
David Sterritt |
Tomato 2/4 |
Bend It Like Beckham (2003) |
"Movies are great barometers for cultural -- and multicultural -- attitudes. Bend It Like Beckham is an interesting case in point." |
David Sterritt |
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