Tomato 3/5 |
A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash (2006) |
"An informative and unashamedly apocalyptic documentary about the world’s obsession with oil that makes An Inconvenient Truth look positively chipper." |
Kevin Maher |
Tomato 5/5 |
A Prophet (2009) |
"Audiard reaches a new level with this impeccably modulated prison drama. This is exhilarating filmmaking, a movie which instantly takes its place alongside the greats of the crime movie genre." |
Wendy Ide |
Tomato 4/5 |
A Scanner Darkly (2006) |
"It's one hell of a trip, but a bit of a comedown." |
Wendy Ide |
- |
Aaja Nachle (2007) |
Click here to see the review. |
|
Tomato 4/5 |
Accident |
"It’s a story of overheated sexual jealousy, colliding male egos and long boozy days full of spite and point-scoring. It’s brilliantly cruel and only slightly dated." |
Wendy Ide |
Splat 2/5 |
Across the Universe (2007) |
"The more this musical tried to look relevant, the more dated it felt." |
James Christopher |
Splat 2/5 |
Adam (2009) |
"It’s blandly inoffensive but also rather disingenuous, sidestepping the realities of Adam’s condition by investing him with a convenient idiot savant gift for astrophysics and the eyes of a puppy." |
Wendy Ide |
Tomato 5/5 |
Adventureland (2009) |
"The whole enterprise is infused with a quality of feeling, an integrity, that is rare in such a commercial film." |
Toby Young |
Tomato 4/5 |
The Aerial (2007) |
"This wonderfully original little film is filled with tacit menace and ominous symbolism; it’s a work of curious and unsettling beauty." |
Wendy Ide |
Tomato 3/5 |
Afghan Star (2009) |
"But the documentary reveals that tribalism is only one of the problems. “She should be killed,” says a young man of a female contestant who dared to dance on stage." |
Wendy Ide |
Tomato 3.5/5 |
Afro Saxons (2008) |
"Big hair and bigger egos make for an entertaining and frequently amusing documentary." |
Sam Jordison |
Splat 2/5 |
Afro Saxons (2008) |
"It’s an unpolished and slightly chaotic film that whisks the viewer breathlessly from salon to salon, without stopping to get to know any of the key characters in real depth." |
Wendy Ide |
Tomato 4/5 |
Afterschool (2009) |
"If there is one distinctive and promising voice to come out of the info-bite aesthetic of the YouTube generation it is Antonio Campos, whose debut feature Afterschool puts an intriguing spin on the high-school tragedy." |
Wendy Ide |
Splat |
Against the Ropes (2003) |
"Meg Ryan is busily torpedoing any respect she might have accrued" |
Wendy Ide |
Tomato 3/5 |
The Agent (2009) |
"The Agent never really transcends its roots as a two-hander for the stage, but the director Lesley Manning does a good job of keeping things moving and production values are top notch." |
Toby Young |
Splat 2/5 |
Air Guitar Nation (2007) |
"Despite the film’s admirable brevity it’s still hard to maintain a wry ironic grin for a full 81 minutes." |
Kevin Maher |
Tomato 3/5 |
Alexandra (2008) |
"Apart from a thoroughly irritating background track of schmaltzy classical music, this is Sokurov at his shortest and most digestible." |
James Christopher |
Splat |
Alfie (2004) |
"Jude Law plays the limousine taxi driver like a sex-mad Alan Whicker, whisking us around the hot spots of Manhattan with a sardonic eye on the best places to pick up chicks" |
James Christopher |
Splat 1/5 |
Aliens in the Attic (2009) |
"Gremlins meets Goonies meets something stultifyingly inept in a sci-fi adventure for the very young." |
Kevin Maher |
Splat 1/5 |
Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem (2007) |
"A mindless distraction." |
James Christopher |
Tomato 4/5 |
All About Eve (1950) |
"A total joy." |
James Christopher |
Tomato 4/5 |
Alpha Dog (2007) |
"True, Alpha Dog is a film with no manners. But it has great nerve. What’s truly impressive is how the splintered story is buried by individual performances." |
|
Splat 1/5 |
Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007) |
"It’s the kind of family entertainment that makes you reach for the shotgun." |
James Christopher |
Splat 2/5 |
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009) |
"The Squeakquel is painfully high-pitched. It reaches frequencies that could make bats plummet from the sky, clutching at their little ears in agony. It’s as if a mosquito equipped with a power tool is attempting to drill its way through your eardrum." |
Wendy Ide |
Splat 2/5 |
Am I Black Enough For You |
"It all boils down to a complete lack of focus on the part of the film-makers. Not only do they fail to get their questions answered, they also run out of material so disastrously." |
Wendy Ide |
Splat 1/5 |
Amelia (2009) |
"Hilary Swank is forced to deliver dialogue that sounds as if it was written in Chinese and then translated into English by a computer." |
Toby Young |
Tomato 4/5 |
American Gangster (2007) |
"A cocksure upstart that has swaggered onto the scene, confident that it can take its place at the table with the big boys." |
Wendy Ide |
Tomato 3/5 |
American Teen (2008) |
" The documentary curriculum is sex, gossip and self-pity. Not exactly original, but disturbingly true." |
James Christopher |
Tomato 3/5 |
An American Werewolf in London (1981) |
"But in a “comedy horror” picture, the “horror” bits aren’t supposed to be this scary. He would have been better off dispensing with the comedy altogether." |
Toby Young |
Tomato 5/5 |
An Education (2009) |
"This is a wonderful, life-affirming picture that deserves all the prizes it will undoubtedly win. I can’t call it the best British film of the year because it’s still only October. But I’d be amazed if a better one comes along." |
Toby Young |
Tomato 3/5 |
Angel (2007) |
"The film bristles with contemporary subtext and takes swipes at mediocre artists who believe their own press, and the culture of celebrity." |
Kevin Maher |
Splat 2/5 |
Angels & Demons (2009) |
"This graceless and overwrought piece of storytelling will probably earn a Pope’s ransom at the box office, despite its many flaws." |
Wendy Ide |
Splat 2/5 |
Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008) |
"Has a craven need to please." |
Kevin Maher |
- |
The Animal (2001) |
Click here to see the review. |
Barbara Ellen |
Tomato 3/5 |
Anna M. (2007) |
"Writer-director Michel Spinosa, harnessing a powerhouse central performance from Carré, has managed to hit the ground between giddy Hollywood thriller and brooding arthouse character piece." |
Kevin Maher |
Tomato 3/5 |
Año Uña (2008) |
"The way that thoughts and images slip and slide over each other is inspired. If only the characters were slightly less emotionally monosyllabic." |
James Christopher |
Splat 2/5 |
Antichrist (2009) |
"Von Trier has mutilated his own film, turning it into a crazy, hysterical work that alienates the audience with its infantile shock tactics and tedious transgressions." |
Cosmo Landesman |
Tomato 4/5 |
Antichrist (2009) |
"We can scoff and dismiss it as the last gasp ravings of a deranged opportunist. Or we can look, unflinchingly, at Von Trier’s fantastically painful mirror and acknowledge the Id within us all. Now that is scary." |
Kevin Maher |
Splat 1/5 |
Antichrist (2009) |
"Given how desperate to shock the film is, it’s surprising that long swathes of it are so turgidly dull." |
Wendy Ide |
Tomato 5/5 |
Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2009) |
"Anvil! The Story of Anvil has to be one of the most engaging, big-hearted music movies yet made." |
Wendy Ide |
Splat |
Anything Else (2003) |
"Woody Allen tries to extend the shelf-life of his screen persona by hiring a younger, more marketable actor" |
Wendy Ide |
Splat 2/5 |
Anything for Her (2008) |
"Heavy-handed teases do very little for the overcooked melodrama." |
James Christopher |
- |
Apocalypto (2006) |
Click here to see the review. |
|
Tomato 4/5 |
Appaloosa (2008) |
"This is no revisionist western designed to shock life into an unfashionable genre, rather a film that respects the conventions of the traditional western." |
Wendy Ide |
Splat 1/5 |
Are We Done Yet? (2007) |
"The only thing in Steve Carr’s fatuous movie that earns a few giggles is John C McGinley’s silliness as a new-age builder." |
Edward Porter |
Splat 2/5 |
As You Like It (2006) |
"Faced with As You Like It, one of the Bard’s more tiresome plays, Branagh’s direction loses conviction and his storytelling lacks the engaging enthusiasm of his previous Shakespeares." |
Wendy Ide |
Tomato 3/5 |
Ashes of Time Redux (1994) |
"Wong’s elliptical, enigmatic storytelling is lent a real lyricism by the stunning photography. It’s visually rich, drawn in a colour palette that includes searing acid yellows and scorched ambers and reliant on reflected light and layered images." |
Wendy Ide |
- |
Asoka (2001) |
Click here to see the review. |
Barbara Ellen |
Tomato 4/5 |
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) |
"Andrew Dominik’s sensational film debags a cherished idol. Tyrone Power, Robert Wagner and Roy Rogers famously played Jesse James like Robin Hood. Brad Pitt plays him like a poisonous Mr Hyde." |
James Christopher |
Tomato 4/5 |
Atonement (2007) |
"Starry, sexy and unmistakably British, Atonement is the kind of film that comes along all too rarely." |
Wendy Ide |
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