Tomato |
Sakuran (2006) |
"Ninagawa, like Sophia Coppola in Marie Antoinette, brings to a traditional story a keen compositional flair and a love of bright colours, as well as deploying a lively, jazzy soundtrack." |
Sukhdev Sandhu |
Tomato 5/5 |
Samson and Delilah (2009) |
"Like no Australian film I’ve seen. Timeless and also utterly contemporary, it will leave hearts bruised, but aching with joy." |
Sukhdev Sandhu |
Tomato |
Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic (2005) |
"Her high-wire stage performance is unmissable all the same, particularly when she's taking aim at such untouchable sacred cows as Martin Luther King. "They only mention the good stuff! He was a litterbug."" |
Tim Robey |
Splat |
Scar |
"Despite the killer's slavering way with a scalpel, there's no blood spurting out into your near-vision, just a lot of hopeless acting in your face." |
Tim Robey |
Splat |
School for Scoundrels (2006) |
"Wearily spins straw out of its none-too-original premise." |
Tim Robey |
Tomato |
Scott Walker: 30 Century Man (2008) |
"In an era when revivalism rules, Walker, for good or for bad, continues to plough a lonely but fascinating modernist furrow." |
|
Splat 2/5 |
The Secret Life of Bees (2008) |
"It's generous-minded, and though it labours awkwardly to move you, that doesn't mean you won't be moved." |
David Gritten |
Tomato |
Secretary (2002) |
"Playfully subversive and oddly life-affirming." |
Tim Robey |
Splat |
The Seeker (2007) |
"An orgy of portents that runs out of oomph." |
Tim Robey |
Splat |
Seraphim Falls (2007) |
"Messages, as Sam Goldwyn famously advised, are better left to Western Union." |
Tim Robey |
Tomato 4/5 |
Séraphine (2008) |
"A little long, but quietly rewarding." |
Tim Robey |
Tomato 3/5 |
A Serious Man (2009) |
"A Serious Man, whether by accident or design, feels like a scratchier, more personal, less goofy version of the Coens’ aesthetic than they’ve revealed before. Here’s hoping their films get even more truculent in the future." |
Sukhdev Sandhu |
Tomato |
The Seventh Seal (1957) |
"It is endlessly imitated and spoofed; it is also an august pinnacle of high-risk, high-art filmmaking, and one with a reputation for being far more forbidding and humourless than it actually is." |
Tim Robey |
Tomato |
Sex and the City - The Movie (2008) |
"One thing's for sure: fans of the series will lap this film up." |
Celia Walden |
Splat 2/5 |
Shadows in the Sun |
"Tiny things happen oversignificantly in this indulgent British effort set in 1960s." |
Tim Robey |
Tomato |
Sheitan (2006) |
"As a grotesque parody of the hillbilly-terror genre, it has a real wit and energy." |
Tim Robey |
Tomato 3/5 |
Sherlock Holmes (2009) |
"The pace rarely slackens throughout, the set pieces are explosive, the score relentlessly thunderous. Victorian London is recreated – relying on copious use of computer effects – with an eye for the grimy reality." |
|
Tomato 3/5 |
Shifty (2008) |
"Written and directed by first-timer Eran Creevy, this quiet piece is mostly convincing in its mundane details, and doesn’t feel the need to ramp up its plot too precipitately into guns and threats and spiralling vendetta." |
Tim Robey |
Tomato |
Shoot 'Em Up (2007) |
"OTT action and amoral humour are the entire point." |
David Gritten |
Tomato 3/5 |
Shorts (2009) |
"It’s like a pre-teen Pulp Fiction." |
Tim Robey |
Splat |
Shrek the Third (2007) |
"In the end, Shrek the Third, like so many Hollywood animation movies today, neither trusts itself nor cares to create any new magic. If it were a child in a classroom, it would be the back-row smart arse, rather than the poetic dreamer." |
Sukhdev Sandhu |
Tomato |
Shut Up & Sing (2006) |
"This a frank, and slightly scary film about one of America's most cherished democratic privileges - freedom of speech - and how you're more than welcome to it as long as you don't say anything controversial. Then you're off the air." |
Tom Robey |
Tomato |
Shutter |
"This reasonable Thai horror flick can't decide when and how its disgruntled wraith - female, as usual - is allowed to manifest herself." |
Tom Robey |
Tomato |
Sicko (2007) |
"If Moore were a more radical polemicist, he might have focused squarely on this alarming social injustice, but, perhaps rightly, he sees a broader one. Even the insured are handing themselves over to a bewildering lottery." |
Tim Robey |
Splat |
The Simpsons Movie (2007) |
"The overall momentum flags at times and, even though the film runs for a crisp 87 minutes, it feels over-extended." |
Sheila Johnston |
Splat |
The Singer (2006) |
"Like watching an elephant mate with a gazelle." |
Tim Robey |
Tomato |
Sketches of Frank Gehry (2006) |
"What's missing is a critical edge." |
Sukhdev Sandhu |
Tomato 3/5 |
Skin (2009) |
"If anything, you wish for a bit more bite and artistic daring." |
Tim Robey |
Tomato 4/5 |
Sleep Furiously (2008) |
"Sleep furiously is a film whose lower-case title is in perfect keeping with the understated but tremulous mood it manages, with rare skill, to create and to maintain." |
Sukhdev Sandhu |
- |
Slumdog Millionaire (2008) |
"Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy Move to Maximum City" |
|
Tomato 5/5 |
Slumdog Millionaire (2008) |
"Slumdog Millionaire is as acerbic as it is clear-eyed about the brutal power dynamics in modern-day Mumbai. But, at the same time, what makes it so warming and what has been inspiring audiences all across the world to cheer at its rousing ending." |
Sukhdev Sandhu |
Splat |
Smokin' Aces (2007) |
"The garish pulp shoot-'em-up Smokin' Aces has one of those titles that instantly tell you you've wandered into the wrong fleapit." |
|
Tomato 5/5 |
Sneakers (1992) |
"A marvellous caper-movie throwback." |
Tim Robey |
Tomato |
Solaris (2002) |
"Anomalous and mesmerising." |
Tim Robey |
Tomato 4/5 |
The Soloist (2009) |
"The Soloist has its imperfections, but its ambition trumps them." |
David Gritten |
Tomato |
Somers Town (2009) |
"As a result, he has not only been able to stick two fingers up to the anti-Pole hate-mongers of the popular press, and to create an enchanting portrait of growing up in a British city; he has made his best film to date." |
Sukhdev Sandhu |
Tomato 3/5 |
Soul Power (2009) |
"The concert footage is excellent, with Brown in decent form, even if in truth he was already a decade past his creative peak. Good music movie, thin documentary." |
David Gritten |
Tomato 4/5 |
Sounds Like Teen Spirit |
"Director Jamie Jay Johnson has hit gold with his subjects, and it’s heartening how much he focuses on the ones with actual talent." |
Tim Robey |
Tomato |
Space Chimps (2008) |
"It may look half-finished, but it's bright and silly and passes the time." |
Tim Robey |
Tomato |
Sparkle (2007) |
"Low-budget with a subtle script and real, rounded characters." |
Tim Robey |
Tomato 3/5 |
Special People (2007) |
"Well-meant but gruel-thin British comedy in which a failed film-maker helps wheelchair-bound teenagers to make a movie." |
David Gritten |
Splat |
Spider-Man 3 (2007) |
"The film doesn't teem; it just seems cluttered - a collection of scenes, and occasionally great visuals or gags, strung together by an inadequate plot." |
|
Tomato 3/5 |
Spring Fever (2009) |
"Lou, helped by Zeng Jian’s striking camerawork, captures very well the mood of drift and fragmentation in modern-day urban China. Compelling and messy in equal measure, it’s a cine-letter to the future." |
Sukhdev Sandhu |
Tomato |
St. Trinian's (2009) |
"Camp fun, and catnip for a demographic that British cinema doesn't often bother to please." |
Tim Robey |
Tomato 4/5 |
Star Trek (2009) |
"This is a grand success – perhaps a new populist benchmark in what to do with a flagging franchise, and a witty, light-on-its-feet prequel which makes instant toast of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. May it live long and prosper, by which we mean, sequels, soon" |
Tim Robey |
Splat |
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) |
"Like the most heavily-effects-budgeted shoulder shrug in history." |
Tim Robey |
Tomato |
Stardust (2007) |
"There's a shameless romantic streak here, quite welcome in a boy-targeted genre that usually insists battles are cool and love is for wimps." |
Tim Robey |
Tomato 3/5 |
Starsuckers (2009) |
"A lot of valid points are scored in passing against the celebrity-industrial complex, but there’s not enough real news here." |
Tim Robey |
Tomato 3/5 |
State of Play (2009) |
"State of Play doesn't betray its source material. It's not a huge let-down. It's a perfectly satisfactory evening's entertainment. But I wish it could have been more than that." |
Sukhdev Sandhu |
Tomato |
Steep (2007) |
"In this handsomely shot documentary about extreme skiing, thrill-seeking devotees boast of their exploits, but shed no light on what drives them to risk their lives." |
David Gritten |
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