Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 46%
| Whatever Works (2009) | "
[It] goes from burned-out Allen motif to a mannered dinner theater production in little less than 10 minutes. And it stays there." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Jul 6, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 98%
| Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2009) | "
Presents likeable characters, puts them in tough situations, and illuminates their souls with humor and sincerity. It just so happens that the two men who populate this story used to wear leather S&M gear onstage and play guitars with dildos." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Jun 30, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 17%
| Year One (2009) | "
Post-modern awareness is mixed with an ancient setting, but the humor still manages to be prehistoric. If you've always wanted to see smart comedians revert to grade school hi-jinks for cheap laughs, then this is the movie for you." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Jun 29, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 19%
| Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) | "
It didn't take itself seriously...a huge blockbuster on the kind of scale I expected, and it didn't offend me like Wolverine or Terminator Salvation." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Jun 29, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 70%
| Rudo and Cursi (2009) | "
Carlos Cuaron has directed a typical rise-and-fall picture. Granted, it has loads of local flavor and two appealing leads, but it adds little to the genre and is too melodramatic to rise above." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Jun 12, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 78%
| The Hangover (2009) | "
Great casting benefits the movie hugely, as does a premise centered around the mystery of what happened, but its choppy editing does it no favors." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Jun 9, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 28%
| Land of the Lost (2009) | "
Caught in an unfunny netherworld between kid-oriented mainstream summer entertainment and a cheap-looking green-screened sort of surreality, it might have been a watchable, no, bearable movie had it just embraced one or the other fully." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Jun 9, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 97%
| Up (2009) | "
Pixar delivers [another] piece of expertly-rendered, artful entertainment...that doesn't pander to kids and that families will still adore." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Jun 4, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 93%
| Drag Me To Hell (2009) | "
...walks a narrow path between campiness, sincerity, and sudden bursts of shock and 'aaaah'!" — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Jun 4, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 62%
| The Brothers Bloom (2009) | "
It's as much about society's need for a well-told story as it is about an emotional connection between its characters. This sincerity is ultimately what lifts the picture above many of its predecessors." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted May 29, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 32%
| Terminator Salvation (2009) | "
I'm fed up with this series. This is not the way to start [a new trilogy]." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted May 26, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 89%
| Sin Nombre (2009) | "
What makes it unique among films that cover similar subject matter is the restrained acting and richness of its visual sense." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted May 21, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 37%
| Angels & Demons (2009) | "
It's not his prose that makes Brown's novels such page-turners, it's that mix of thrilling conflict and old-world mystery. Take out the backstory and you basically have an empty episode of "24."" — Scene-Stealers.com Posted May 19, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 95%
| Star Trek (2009) | "
... has a lot of humor but is very serious about its premise ... about as good as Hollywood blockbusters get." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted May 11, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 36%
| X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) | "
Having an origin story takes the mystery out of the character, but neutering his inner conflict in favor of inconsequential fight scenes is an ill-conceived mishandling of him from beginning to end." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted May 4, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 15%
| The Informers (2009) | "
The Informers becomes that rare movie that is so tedious it dares you to keep watching." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Apr 28, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 85%
| State of Play (2009) | "
It's as much a funeral procession for a dying art as it is a celebration of its ideals." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Apr 21, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 51%
| Observe and Report (2009) | "
Hill is finding his own voice as an original comedic filmmaker, however spotty he may be." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Apr 14, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 88%
| Adventureland (2009) | "
It captures perfectly that feeling of weightlessness just before impending adulthood. At once a personal and generational film, it also carries a poetic kind of melancholy that's unique to movies of its kind, save for maybe Say Anything or Dazed" — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Apr 7, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 72%
| Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) | "
With a title like Monsters Vs. Aliens, [it] tells you exactly what it's going to be. Yet so did Snakes on a Plane, and somehow that movie managed to disappoint as well." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Mar 31, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 84%
| Two Lovers (2009) | "
It's almost always either night or at least dusk, and Gray's heartsick main character seems to suck in the darkness like oxygen." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Mar 27, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 82%
| I Love You, Man (2009) | "
Even with a typical script, Jason Segel and especially Paul Rudd can carry it to a very funny level." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Mar 23, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 64%
| Watchmen (2009) | "
The movie is so uneven that it sometimes it feels like parody or a gaudy recreation just minutes after achieving some kind of true cinematic bliss." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Mar 9, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 98%
| Let the Right One In (2008) | "
Vast amounts of empty space take up the formalistic widescreen compositions ... Then there are the sounds: a heartbeat, sniffling, breathing. All these things bring the audience closer to the characters and help make our experience theirs." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Feb 11, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Fresh 79%
| Gran Torino (2008) | "
I understand that Eastwood meant well, and it is interesting to fill up a tried-and-true movie formula with this much frank racism in order to make it different, but Gran Torino is just a well-intentioned mess." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Feb 11, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 98%
| The Wrestler (2008) | "
gripping, realistic ... Mickey Rourke brings everything he has to it, and it's perfect for him ... if the violence hurts you, that means Aronofsky's doing his job." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Feb 11, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 69%
| Revolutionary Road (2008) | "
[Solid] performances took me over some of the bumps of the movie." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Feb 11, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 56%
| Defiance (2008) | "
[Defiance] stuffs everything into a tired formula, robs the story of its inherent drama, and makes it dull. [It's] absent of any surprises or subtle characterization." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Feb 11, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 88%
| Coraline (2009) | "
An interesting comment on parent-child relationships ... there's a certain amount of mystery ... and disappointment to [one's] parents." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Feb 11, 2009 |
Rotten .5/4
| Rotten 20%
| The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) | "
What, in 1951, was a scary Cold War-era warning about the misuse of atomic energy has now become a vague and infantile pro-green special-effects showcase (even the CGI is unimaginative and looks like a swirly, soft-focus nightmare) with one entire suspens" — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Dec 26, 2008 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 15%
| The Spirit (2008) | "
Movies that exist in their own overheated genre-iffic world are not easy to swallow for a lot of audiences. The sheer joy with which Miller approaches this material, though, is infectious, and The Spirit grew on me even as it confounded me." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Dec 26, 2008 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 92%
| Frost/Nixon (2008) | "
While I normally don't complain too much about facts getting distorted in movies for better drama, Howard's format inherently seems like it's trying to pass itself off as reality, and that really bugged me." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Dec 26, 2008 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 60%
| Valkyrie (2008) | "
Director Bryan Singer approaches this sensitive material as a strict procedural. It's almost as if we are joining part two of a miniseries already in progress." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Dec 26, 2008 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 72%
| The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) | "
The character doesn't change...[he] stays the way he was when he was this 'simpleton with wisdom,' and that's too Gump-like." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Dec 26, 2008 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 78%
| Doubt (2008) | "
What fascinated me about Doubt were two peripheries: The blatant sexism of the 1960s Catholic church and the anguish of a terribly conflicted mother, played by Viola Davis." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Dec 26, 2008 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 43%
| Yes Man (2008) | "
Either you're in the mood for some mid-nineties Jim Carrey comfort food that's high on sugar and low on content, or you're not. It's as simple as that." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Dec 22, 2008 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 94%
| Slumdog Millionaire (2008) | "
Most fairy tales are rooted first in nightmares, and if this story is any indication, there are plenty of those haunting the people of Mumbai." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Dec 16, 2008 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 94%
| Milk (2008) | "
Considering that it is a story steeped in tragedy, Milk is a joyous movie." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Dec 12, 2008 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 49%
| Twilight (2008) | "
Cinematically, it's all over the place, [but] the best thing about this movie [is] the relationships and the characters [are taken seriously]." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Dec 1, 2008 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 54%
| Australia (2008) | "
It has very little of [Moulin Rouge]'s irreverence or nose-thumbing spirit, opting instead for a stubborn adherence to the tenets of the budget-busting Hollywood prestige pictures of the 1950s and 1960s." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Dec 1, 2008 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 67%
| Synecdoche, New York (2008) | "
Kaufman has succeeded in portraying an unflinchingly honest and deep examination of the soul of a person without jumping through traditional hoops of this happened here, this happened next.'" — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Nov 22, 2008 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 65%
| Quantum of Solace (2008) | "
For today's cultural climate, it cleverly features the ultimate corporate villain, Mr. Greene, who masquerades as eco-friendly green." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Nov 17, 2008 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 76%
| Role Models (2008) | "
It may not be the most original comedy ever, but what Role Models lacks in originality of concept, it makes up for in the natural wittiness of its actors." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Nov 11, 2008 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 59%
| RocknRolla (2008) | "
It does contain exactly two memorable scenes...but the rest of RocknRolla is one identical scene after another where one guy tries to out badass the other guy." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Nov 3, 2008 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 65%
| Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) | "
It's that When Harry Met Sally thing. Can guys and girls be friends without having sex?" — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Nov 3, 2008 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 86%
| Rachel Getting Married (2008) | "
Letting the movie breathe is the key to knowing the subtleties of Kym and her family. Lumet's plotting may not be clever, but her characterization is, and the actors are up to the task." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Oct 24, 2008 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 60%
| W. (2008) | "
More incendiary than people give it credit for...The fact that people see this as sympathetic is terrible, because [this] is not [all] it takes to run the free world." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Oct 21, 2008 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 51%
| Body of Lies (2008) | "
It looks really good and has really great acting in it, [but it] doesn't amount to much in the end, emotionally." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Oct 14, 2008 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 70%
| Religulous (2008) | "
At his best, he has the bewildered incredulousness of George Carlin. At his worst, he's as self-righteous as his targets." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Oct 9, 2008 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 41%
| Blindness (2008) | "
[It] could conceivably be shown in a Western Civ course. Like that required 100-level history course, though, the movie itself sometimes feels like swallowing your medicine." — Scene-Stealers.com Posted Oct 6, 2008 |
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