Tomato 4/5 |
Hairspray (2007) |
"The unexpected pleasure of Hairspray is that it doesn’t beg to differ." |
James Christopher |
Tomato 4/5 |
Half Moon: A Musician's Last Journey (2007) |
"The savage drama of the landscape, the indomitable optimism of the people and the passion of the ubiquitous music – almost every character is a musician – is universal in its appeal." |
Wendy Ide |
Tomato 4/5 |
Half Nelson (2006) |
"It’s the gritty script and sheer quality of the performances that distinguish this parable." |
James Christopher |
Splat 3/5 |
Hancock (2008) |
"Sadly, the bar is set too high and the movie implodes under the weight of its own ambitions." |
Kevin Maher |
Splat 2/5 |
The Hangover (2009) |
"The lads duly lurch from one bewildering crisis to another." |
James Christopher |
Splat 2/5 |
Hannah Montana The Movie (2009) |
"You have to be true to yourself and your roots, particularly if you live a lie. As moral messages go, the one peddled by Hannah Montana the Movie could do with some fine-tuning." |
Wendy Ide |
Splat 2/5 |
Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007) |
"There’s only so much twentysomething navel-gazing one can listen to before wanting to slap some sense — and some fully formed sentences — into them all." |
Wendy Ide |
Splat 2/5 |
Hannibal Rising (2007) |
"The more Harris has milked his creation, the more ludicrous Hannibal has become, the mystique of inexplicable monstrousness diminished with each appearance." |
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Splat 2/5 |
Hansel & Gretel (2007) |
"The production design is terrific — the colour palette is as lurid as a plate of cupcakes. But the film loses its tension in a baggy final act that overexplains the secret of the house." |
Wendy Ide |
Tomato 4/5 |
Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) |
"A delightful comedy that sinks its teeth into your heart with unexpected power." |
James Christopher |
Tomato 3/5 |
Harry Brown (2009) |
"Harry Brown is one of the most gorgeous-looking British films of the decade." |
Kevin Maher |
Splat 2/5 |
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) |
"This overlong sequel is short of magic." |
Barbara Ellen |
Tomato 3/5 |
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) |
"It seems like only yesterday the three wizardy sprigs were battling giant spiders and cracking conspiracies in the girls' toilets. That knowing comedy keeps this episode sharp." |
James Christopher |
Tomato 4/5 |
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) |
"The strangest thing about the new Harry Potter movie is not that it’s unusually good, which it is, but that it unequivocally illustrates just how poorly we’ve been served by the previous five instalments in the franchise." |
Kevin Maher |
Tomato 3/5 |
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) |
"The latest instalment is more of the same tried and tested formula to be sure, but it’s a formula that produces pure gold as far as the fans are concerned." |
Wendy Ide |
Tomato 3/5 |
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) |
"There are moments when this otherwise enjoyable film, though nicely made and through no fault of its own, feels like a chore to be got through before the main course." |
Leo Lewis |
Tomato 4/5 |
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) |
"Cuarón's appointment to this franchise is quite simply the most inspired Hollywood gamble of the yea" |
James Christopher |
Tomato |
Hate (1995) |
"One of the most blisteringly effective pieces of urban cinema ever made" |
Wendy Ide |
Splat 1/5 |
He's Just Not That Into You (2009) |
"The cretinous script is in no hurry to explain how this anguish will be resolved. The result is a masterclass in Method dullness." |
James Christopher |
Tomato 3/5 |
The Heartbreak Kid (2007) |
"The disappointing upshot is that there is more calculated crudity than joie de vivre." |
James Christopher |
Tomato 3/5 |
Heavy Load (2008) |
"It’s a shade too earnest for comfort, but there’s a tribal exhilaration about the band’s brave and tuneless journey from a grubby pub to their first festival." |
James Christopher |
Splat 2/5 |
Heavy Metal In Baghdad (2008) |
"You mourn the wasted opportunities to explore a culture in which the ultimate rebellion is to copy America’s corporate rock." |
Wendy Ide |
Tomato 4/5 |
Heima: A Film by Sigur Ros (2007) |
"When the band and the film move in sweet simpatico they produce a few precious moments of transcendent grandeur." |
Kevin Maher |
Splat 2/5 |
Heimatklänge |
"Echoes of Home is a feature-length musical documentary about the Swiss art of yodelling. Unintentionally titter-inducing in execution, yet deadly serious in conception." |
Kevin Maher |
Tomato 3/5 |
Helen (2008) |
"A moody British/Irish co-production, Helen is beautifully photographed and blessed with a wistfully atmospheric score, but it’s a little bit creaky in some of the performances." |
Wendy Ide |
Tomato |
Hellboy (2004) |
"Most effective as a brief window into an era. It captures the bitter aftertaste of a counter-cultural movement gone stale" |
Wendy Ide |
Tomato 4/5 |
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) |
"With Hellboy II, the comic-book blockbuster has finally grown up — without giving up the fairy-tale wonders of our youth." |
Cosmo Landesman |
Tomato 4/5 |
Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno |
"Up there with Lost in La Mancha as a glorious chronicle of film-making folly, the documentary Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno is a beguiling account of a movie that never happened." |
Kevin Maher |
Tomato 3/5 |
Hero (2004) |
"Mortal wounds are delivered and received like love letters. Even the plot is a piece of poetry, intensely formal and hopelessly sentimental" |
James Christopher |
Tomato 4/5 |
The Hide (2009) |
"Marek Losey’s thriller The Hide is a macabre gem. It’s a crude but enthralling duel with shades of Peter Schaffer’s Sleuth. Shades too of Hitchcock’s Rope." |
James Christopher |
Tomato 4/5 |
High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008) |
"As far as slickly produced and joyfully energetic escapism goes, High School Musical 3 is top of the class." |
Wendy Ide |
Tomato 4/5 |
The Hitcher (2007) |
"The first few minutes of Dave Meyers’s remake of The Hitcher are desperately tense." |
James Christopher |
Tomato |
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) |
"Adams would have been flattered by Jennings’s lavish film debut. The graphics are fabulous. The aliens are deliciously grotesque, and Martin Freeman is inspired casting" |
James Christopher |
Splat 1/5 |
Hitman (2007) |
"Xavier Gens should have stuck to making music videos rather than inflict his goldfish-like attention-span on cinema." |
Wendy Ide |
Tomato 4/5 |
The Hoax (2007) |
"Meticulously evoked atmosphere adds to the experience." |
Wendy Ide |
Tomato 3/5 |
Home (2009) |
"It would have been more effective if Meier had exercised less restraint and allowed her characters to spin out of control." |
Toby Young |
Tomato 4/5 |
The Horseman (2008) |
"For a revenge thriller, The Horseman strays dangerously close to “torture porn” territory, but it’s so well made that you’re almost willing to excuse the gratuitous close-ups." |
Toby Young |
Tomato |
Hostage (2005) |
"This is a masterclass in how to come back after being flushed down the toilet for the umpteenth time" |
James Christopher |
Splat 1/5 |
Hostel: Part II (2007) |
"It pains me to admit that Hostel: Part II is a slicker package than the craven original. That doesn’t excuse the fact that it’s torture pornography for morons." |
James Christopher |
Tomato 4/5 |
Hot Fuzz (2007) |
"It has one thing its predecessors never had: a nice cup of tea and some biscuits once the dust has settled." |
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Splat 2/5 |
Hotel for Dogs (2009) |
"It needs something quite special to save this film from toxic splurges of sentiment. Lisa Kudrow and Kevin Dillon duly oblige as a pair of fabulously awful foster parents." |
James Christopher |
Splat 2/5 |
The Hottie & the Nottie (2008) |
"This parody is the divine joke: a heavenly reminder of how fabulously unfair real life is for the rest of us plain mortals." |
James Christopher |
Tomato 3/5 |
The House Bunny (2008) |
"But there is a lunatic sense of adventure about Fred Wolf’s saucy comedy, and it smothers all sorts of unforgiveable sins." |
James Christopher |
Tomato 3/5 |
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008) |
"The film has none of the self-lacerating pain of Young’s book, but as an exercise in humiliation it is second to none." |
James Christopher |
Tomato 4/5 |
Humpday (2009) |
"Humpday is a high-concept comedy made for low-budget money that might just be one of the funniest films of the year." |
Kevin Maher |
Tomato 4/5 |
Hunger (2008) |
"This is a stunning debut feature." |
James Christopher |
Tomato 4/5 |
Hunger (2008) |
"Ultimately, the one thing that can’t be questioned is McQueen’s bold and unflinching talent." |
Wendy Ide |
Tomato 5/5 |
The Hurt Locker (2009) |
"For, in short, in its gutsy, bare-bones beauty, The Hurt Locker is not simply a war movie. It is war poetry." |
Kevin Maher |
Splat 2/5 |
Hush (2008) |
"The label slapped on the side of Mark Tonderai’s low-budget horror movie has absolutely no bearing on the silly contents." |
James Christopher |
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