Tomato A+ |
Babe (1995) |
"Unlike subsequent talking-animal pictures, Babe is a movie in which the human leads matter as much as the animals, or more so." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Splat F |
Babe: Pig in the City (1998) |
"Would anyone go for a sequel to The Wizard of Oz that catapulted Dorothy and Toto into the world of Once Were Warriors or Escape From New York?" |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato A+ |
Babette's Feast (1987) |
"A quiet celebration of the divine grace that meets us at every turn, and even redeems our ways not taken, our sacrifices and losses." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato A- |
Back to the Future (1985) |
"Equal parts hilarity, nostalgia, science fiction, screwball comedy, and white-knuckle suspense in a complex storyline wound tighter than a yo-yo in a centrifuge." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Splat C |
Bad Company (2002) |
"Fitfully funny but never exciting or engaging, modestly entertaining but excessively dimwitted, and finally just too darn long… in a word, relentlessly average." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato A+ |
Bambi (1942) |
Click here to see the review. |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Splat C |
Batman (1989) |
"The story is a mess… Scenes and lines of dialogue make no sense… Keaton makes hardly any impression in the role, in or out of the mask." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato A |
Batman Begins (2005) |
"It's tempting to call Batman Begins the Citizen Kane of super-hero movies; at any rate, it's the closest thing so far." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Splat C+ |
Battle for Terra (2009) |
"Has visual style to burn, but its politically correct tale of rapacious invaders and noble natives is less interesting than the world in which the story is set." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Splat F |
Battlefield Earth (2000) |
"No, it doesn’t rise to the appalling heights of awfulness of such legendary mega-bombs as Ishtar or Burn Hollywood Burn. It hasn’t the wit." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato A- |
A Beautiful Mind (2001) |
"A Beautiful Mind is not about ideas per se, but about the experience of living in a world defined by ideas." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato B+ |
Because of Winn-Dixie (2005) |
"Quite a bit better than the dog-movie cliches the trailer suggests… Like Miss Franny's semi-magical candies, it is both sweet and sad, a blend that does the heart good." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato A |
Becket (1964) |
"Peter O’Toole roars magnificently both in laughter and in rage; his Henry sees the world in two great categories: (a) things he wants, and (b) obstacles to getting them." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Splat C |
Bee Movie (2007) |
Click here to see the review. |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato B+ |
Behind Enemy Lines (2001) |
"Goes over the top and beyond in grandly heroic and even superheroic style, in a way unmatched by any war movie since Rambo: First Blood Part II." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Splat F |
Being John Malkovich (1999) |
"Gender and relationships shift and merge and re-form like blobs of goo in a lava lamp… a profoundly anti-human fantasy." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato B+ |
Bella (2007) |
"Bolstered by engaging performances and an appealing Latin milieu, Bella tells a simple, idealistic story with considerable style and charm." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
- |
Bella (2007) |
""A lot of Hollywood directors are always attracted to the dark side… the broken family, the bad friendships, the bad husbands the bad wives, the pain." (Director Alejandro Monteverde)" |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato B+ |
Ben Hur - An Epic Tale of Courage and Faith (2002) |
"A fine way to introduce even the youngest, who might not be ready for the… live-action versions, to this classic tale of adversity, heroism, forgiveness, and redemption." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato A |
Ben-Hur (1959) |
"The grandest of Hollywood's classic biblical epics… doesn't transcend its genre, with its spectacle and melodrama, but it does these things about as well as possible." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato A |
Ben-Hur - A Tale of the Christ (1926) |
"At nearly 2½ hours long, the 1925 version is still an hour shorter than the 1959 version, yet the story is essentially the same, and the scale similarly impressive." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Splat C |
Bend It Like Beckham (2003) |
"Overpadded with sitcom misunderstandings… the mantra that your parents don't always know what's best for you, that you have to live your own life, etc., is repeated so often that it becomes tiresome." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Splat D |
Benji Off the Leash (2004) |
"Thinks a happy ending is not for the boy to get to keep the dog, but for the dog to go to Hollywood… the first family film [that ends with] the father getting arrested." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato A- |
Bernadette (1990) |
"Straightforward, unembellished account that eschews the Hollywood sentiment of Song of Bernadette and speculative psychology of Cavalier's Thérèse." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Splat C- |
Best in Show (2000) |
"What a pity that with such funny material, Guest and company found it necessary to rely so heavily on sex as a supplementary source of comedy." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato B |
Beyond the Gates (2007) |
Click here to see the review. |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato A |
The Bicycle Thief (1948) |
"A defining landmark of Italian neorealism and a haunting fable of want and desperation… an ideal marriage of form and meaning. Even the title is indispensable." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Splat C- |
Big Fat Liar (2002) |
"Can’t quite work itself up to affirm that Lying is Bad, but proclaims with great conviction that The Truth Isn’t Overrated." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Splat C |
Big Fish (2003) |
"Celebrates the whimsical spirit and imagination of a man whose only mode of relating to other people seems to be as props in the mythic narrative of his life." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato A |
The Big Sleep (1946) |
"The dialogue is hard-boiled and crackles with wit, the plot is fast-paced and nearly impenetrable, and Humphrey Bogart is coolly unflappable in Howard Hawkes’s stylish noir classic." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato B+ |
The Birth of a Nation (1915) |
"Artistically, technically, and culturally, the importance of Griffith's celebrated, villified, deeply troubling Civil War masterpiece cannot be overstated." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato A- |
Black Hawk Down (2001) |
"What is it that a film like this offers us in times like these? Understanding? Catharsis? Perspective? The words seem irrelevant." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato A- |
The Black Pirate (1926) |
"One of the silent era’s most spectacular action blockbusters… Fairbanks’s astonishing acrobatics remain dazzling today." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato C+ |
Blackbeard's Ghost (1968) |
"Undeniably silly and somewhat dated, Blackbeard’s Ghost remains harmless, modestly entertaining family fare." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato C+ |
Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004) |
"Destined to reach a tiny audience of serious golf fanatics and Caviezel fans… Caviezel convincingly projects Jones's sincerity, flashes of anger, and bursts of pain." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
- |
Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004) |
"Click to view article" |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato B+ |
Bonhoeffer (2003) |
"To its credit, the film examines Bonhoeffer's life and thought in an expressly theological light… [His ideas] are as integral to the portrait as his resistance work." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato A- |
Born Into Brothels (2004) |
"Briski doesn't merely document the children's milieu. Instead, she does something revolutionary: She empowers them to document it for themselves." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato B |
The Bourne Identity (2002) |
"Sets medium-range goals for itself, and nails them solidly." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato B+ |
The Bourne Supremacy (2004) |
"James Bond only does things you could never do, but Bourne does things you could never even think of." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato A- |
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) |
"Bourne has gone the distance for three straight films… seals the achievement of a rare action franchise for thinking adults, combining gripping entertainment with an undercurrent of moral seriousness." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Splat 2.5/4 |
The Brave One (2007) |
"Every slimeball Erica encounters menaces her with remorseless, repulsive sadism—there's never anyone who just has a lewd comment, say… Everyone wants to bludgeon or shoot her, mutilate and molest her…" |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato B- |
Bride and Prejudice (2005) |
"As Monsoon Wedding was to Crouching Tiger, Bride and Prejudice is in a measure to, say, Rumble in the Bronx or Jackie Chan's First Strike." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Splat C- |
Brideshead Revisited (2008) |
"It’s as if Waugh’s story has been filtered through the spiritual blindness of young Charles. The movie sees, but it doesn’t understand." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato B- |
Bridge to Terabithia (2007) |
Click here to see the review. |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Splat D |
Bringing Down the House (2003) |
"Thinks it is enlightened because it is down on white culture and down with black culture. It is not. Along with National Security, it represents a step backward for race relations, and for black characters in Hollywood." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Tomato A+ |
Bringing Up Baby (1938) |
"The zaniest, most delightful screwball comedy of them all… Hepburn at her effervescent best and Grant in a marvelous performance combining stuffiness and injured dignity with his usual debonair charm." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Splat F |
Brokeback Mountain (2005) |
"A jaundiced portrait of maleness in crisis… extending not only to… the central characters, but also to the validity of manhood as exemplified by every other male character in the film." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Splat D |
Brother Bear (2003) |
"Disney animation's attempts to recover from the collapse of its renaissance have come to an end not with a bang, or even a growl, but with a whimper." |
Steven D. Greydanus |
Splat C- |
Bruce Almighty (2003) |
"Here is what God says: Stop 'looking up.' Stop looking to God. Look to yourself instead. Make a difference. Give blood. Take the high road. Forgive. Be satisfied with what you have. Oh. Is that what we'd be doing, if only we'd stop 'looking up.'" |
Steven D. Greydanus |
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