Splat C+ |
Adoration (2009) |
"Because of the allegorical nature of its people, "Adoration" never fully brings them to life – especially, and most crucially, Simon and Sabine. They are mouthpieces before they are human beings." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato A- |
Adventureland (2009) |
"Audiences expecting another dumb wallow will be startled, and I hope enlivened, by this movie's core of feeling." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato B+ |
American Violet (2009) |
"Director Tim Disney and screenwriter Bill Haney lay out Dee's story with a minimum of fuss. They are smart enough to realize that the material is compelling all on its own." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato B- |
Angels & Demons (2009) |
"Angels and Demons is an OK action film, but only the humorless will find it heretical -- or educational." |
Peter Rainer |
Splat C+ |
The Answer Man (2009) |
"A promising premise and some very good actors are smothered in goo in The Answer Man." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato |
Art & Copy (2009) |
"Even without the nostalgic aspects, Art & Copy is thoroughly entertaining. But the film ends up being an advertisement for advertising. It's hard not to wonder if we're being sold a bill of goods." |
Andy Klein |
Tomato B+ |
Avatar (2009) |
"Pandora is still a good place to park yourself for three hours." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato B- |
Away We Go (2009) |
"In the end, Away We Go is highly sentimental. It's about finding a place to belong in a world that doesn't make it easy, and it's also about the almost hallucinatory anxiety of becoming a parent. Good subjects, weak payoff." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato B- |
American Teen (2008) |
"Burstein does indeed capture some of the awkwardnesses that we can all relate to -- the dating scene, the snubs, the cliques, the bad behavior." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato B- |
Appaloosa (2008) |
"In another era, Harris -- and Mortensen, for that matter -- would have already starred in several westerns. Harris should do more of them; only next time, much less carefully." |
Robert Koehler |
Splat C- |
Australia (2008) |
"This almost three-hour epic keeps shooting for the stars but usually crash-lands with a thud. Someone should have told co-writer/director Baz Luhrmann that just because you call your movie Australia doesn't mean you've created a national epic." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato B- |
Across the Universe (2007) |
"Julie Taymor's flower-powery phantasmagoria is ambitious but ultimately tiresome." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato B- |
Air Guitar Nation (2007) |
"Director Alexandra Lipsitz doesn't do much more than chronicle the noise, but it's intermittently fun stuff." |
Peter Rainer |
Splat D |
Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem (2007) |
"The film's production values are good, but the goings-on are laughable, if not downright boring." |
M. K. Terrell |
Tomato B- |
Alpha Dog (2007) |
"Director Cassevetes has a bit more than he can handle with this complex telling of a real-life tragedy, but he elicits believable performances from the young cast, with Justin Timberlake especially impressive as Johnny's tough-guy-with-a-heart lieutenant." |
M. K. Terrell |
Splat C- |
Amazing Grace (2007) |
"[Director Michael Apted] has an unfortunate penchant for bland stateliness, and never more so than in Amazing Grace." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato B |
American Gangster (2007) |
"It's an entertaining pulp pastiche with pretensions." |
Peter Rainer |
Splat F |
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theatres (2007) |
"Crudely animated, tasteless, and totally pointless, which I'm sure the filmmakers would say is the point." |
M. K. Terrell |
Tomato B |
Arctic Tale (2007) |
"The best reason to see this documentary is for the stunning shots of polar bears and walruses in the Arctic Circle. If the filmmakers had just left it at that, they would have accomplished a lot." |
Peter Rainer |
Splat C+ |
Are We Done Yet? (2007) |
"It's not as funny as it could be, but it's laudable that Ice Cube is making family-friendly movies." |
M. K. Terrell |
Splat D+ |
Arthur and the Invisibles (2007) |
"This mix of computer animation and live action promises much but never really comes together. Haphazard voice dubbing and lack of originality don't help." |
M. K. Terrell |
Tomato B+ |
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) |
"I wish this movie wasn't so purposefully elegiac and attenuated -- at times it's like a middling Terrence Malick fantasia -- but it's well worth sitting through." |
Peter Rainer |
Splat D |
The Astronaut Farmer (2007) |
"Some movies are so flagrantly awful that they achieve classic status. To this rarefied company we must now add The Astronaut Farmer, a nut brain fable that is all the more perversely enjoyable for being seriously intended." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato B+ |
Atonement (2007) |
"Given the difficulties in transferring Ian McEwan's trickily structured 2001 novel Atonement to the screen, director Joe Wright and screenwriter Christopher Hampton have done a commendable job. Commendable but not electrifying." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato B |
August Evening (2007) |
"Loren has an ethereal presence that is, at the same time, indomitable." |
Peter Rainer |
Splat D+ |
August Rush (2007) |
"It tries very hard to be fanciful, lyrical, sentimental, magical, rapturous, romantic, heartwarming, tear-jerking and inspiring. The result, however, is a goulash of half-baked bathos." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato B+ |
Away From Her (2007) |
"Away From Her is cause for celebration if only because it stars the great Julie Christie in her first lead role in many years." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato A- |
A Scanner Darkly (2006) |
"It's the kind of movie that gets under your skin -- and stays there." |
Peter Rainer |
Splat C |
Accepted (2006) |
"Sophomoric doesn't begin to describe the humor (most of the characters are freshmen after all), but you may find some laughs in spite of yourself." |
M. K. Terrell |
Tomato B |
Akeelah and the Bee (2006) |
"... a slight but winning heart-tugger ..." |
Peter Rainer |
Tomato B |
Al Franken: God Spoke (2006) |
"This scattershot movie, shot over two years, follows the zigzag trail of political satirist Al Franken as he feuds with Bill O'Reilly, campaigns against George W. Bush, and helps establish Air America." |
Peter Rainer |
Splat C- |
Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker (2006) |
"It hasn't a shred of originality." |
M. K. Terrell |
Splat C |
All The King's Men (2006) |
"Penn is given very little to do, after the first half hour or so, except connive and exhort and flail his arms. If you were to plot his character arc on a graph, it would mostly resemble a flat line." |
Peter Rainer |
Splat D |
American Dreamz (2006) |
"The time is certainly ripe for a scathing black comedy about our current political life -- something on the order of, say, Dr. Strangelove. Alas, American Dreamz is not that film. Not even close." |
Peter Rainer |
Splat C |
Annapolis (2006) |
"Any resemblance (except qualitatively) to An Officer and A Gentleman is strictly unaccidental." |
Peter Rainer |
Splat B- |
The Ant Bully (2006) |
"The art direction and animation are superb, but it may be worth the extra bucks to see it in IMAX 3-D." |
M. K. Terrell |
Splat C+ |
Apocalypto (2006) |
"Gibson is never content to show us just one or two decapitated heads bouncing down the steps of a temple when he can show us eight or nine." |
Peter Rainer |
Splat C+ |
Aquamarine (2006) |
"This big-screen after-school special may not appeal to adults, but it'll make a splash with preteens." |
M. K. Terrell |
Splat B- |
Art School Confidential (2006) |
"Zwigoff captures quite well the backstab aspects of this world, its rampant phoney baloneyness. But his funk doesn't allow him to capture something far more enticing: the power of true artistry." |
Peter Rainer |
Splat C+ |
ATL (2006) |
"Despite a few pitfalls (the adult worlds of money and sex) ATL makes navigating the trials, tribulations, and Southern twangs of life on the wrong side of the tracks look relatively painless." |
Matt Bradley |
Splat 2/4 |
Adventures of Sharkboy and Lava Girl in 3-D (2005) |
"You'll know who the target audience is when you discover the story's setting is called Planet Drool, and the hero is an imaginative schoolboy who joins the title characters to fight the evil Mr. Electric and save the world." |
David Sterritt |
Splat D |
Aeon Flux (2005) |
"The camera drools over each titilating catfight and gazelle-like leap." |
Matt Bradley |
Tomato 4/4 |
Aliens of the Deep (2005) |
"A major treat for the eyes." |
David Sterritt |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Amityville Horror (2005) |
"This remake stays close to the eponymous 1979 horror movie it's based on, except for being precisely 10,000 times scarier." |
David Sterritt |
Tomato 4/4 |
Another Road Home (2005) |
"It's unlikely there will ever be a more moving portrait of the shared selfhood, usually veiled by politics, common to the Palestinian and Israeli peoples." |
David Sterritt |
Tomato 3/4 |
Apres Vous (2005) |
"Garcia is great in this French dramatic comedy, and Auteuil remains one of the great European stars." |
David Sterritt |
Splat 2/4 |
Arakimentari (2005) |
"Illuminating, if not exactly edifying." |
David Sterritt |
Splat 2/4 |
Are We There Yet? (2005) |
"You may be asking yourself the title question as you watch a kid-phobic man take an unwanted road trip with the children of a single mom he wants to woo." |
David Sterritt |
Splat 2/4 |
The Aristocrats (2005) |
"Mighty monotonous after a while." |
David Sterritt |
Tomato 4/4 |
Army of One (2005) |
"Contains truly eye-opening moments." |
David Sterritt |
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