Fresh 3.5/4
| Rotten 56%
| The Stoning of Soraya M. (2009) | "
The whole movie marches to that same, sad rhythm of unalterable horror, illuminated by Joel Ransom’s brutal and beautiful cinematography. The sum is difficult to watch." — Houston Chronicle Posted Jun 26, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 97%
| Food, Inc. (2009) | "
A mind-boggling, heart-rending, stomach-churning expose on the food industry." — Houston Chronicle Posted Jun 26, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 19%
| Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) | "
A well-oiled, loudly revving summer action vehicle that does all that’s required, and then some." — Houston Chronicle Posted Jun 24, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 46%
| The Proposal (2009) | "
It isn’t a film with a lot of big guffaws, but I smiled through most of it." — Houston Chronicle Posted Jun 19, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 43%
| Imagine That (2009) | "
Imagine That has a few nagging problems, none of which is Eddie Murphy’s fault." — Houston Chronicle Posted Jun 12, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 28%
| Land of the Lost (2009) | "
It all amounts to a certain brand of comedy -- something closer to long-form Dada than conventional humor." — Houston Chronicle Posted Jun 5, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 11%
| My Life in Ruins (2009) | "
Half the time I wanted everyone to shut up so I could hear the tour guide lecture on the Temple of Hephaestus, or wherever. Then I wanted them to shut up so I could sleep." — Houston Chronicle Posted Jun 5, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 93%
| Drag Me To Hell (2009) | "
Is it as hilarious as the Evil Deads? Almost." — Houston Chronicle Posted May 29, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 62%
| The Brothers Bloom (2009) | "
Even if you don't quite comprehend the ending (there seem to be 12 of them), you'll still feel the wallop of its consequences." — San Francisco Chronicle Posted May 22, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 44%
| Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009) | "
The film offers enough ingenious touches and playful humor that the less-inspired elements hit with a screech." — Houston Chronicle Posted May 22, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 70%
| Rudo and Cursi (2009) | "
There are plenty of kicks: class struggle, wild crackups, Cheap Trick, occasional melodrama and lots of blackly comic moralizing on the lure and letdowns of modern Mexican celebrity." — Houston Chronicle Posted May 14, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 37%
| Angels & Demons (2009) | "
It’s too lurid, too long. Too much is telegraphed." — Houston Chronicle Posted May 14, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 86%
| Tyson (2009) | "
Hypnotic and ultimately incomplete." — Houston Chronicle Posted May 8, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 95%
| Star Trek (2009) | "
Abrams’ redo isn’t just a blast from the past. It’s a blast." — Houston Chronicle Posted May 7, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 46%
| Battle for Terra (2009) | "
An earnest 3-D eco-sermon." — Houston Chronicle Posted May 1, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 71%
| American Violet (2009) | "
A conventional but wholly gripping docudrama." — Houston Chronicle Posted May 1, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 55%
| The Soloist (2009) | "
It took guts. And I suspect there’s no sense in making a cautious film about Nathaniel Ayers." — Houston Chronicle Posted Apr 24, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 85%
| State of Play (2009) | "
It’s a film in a hurry. In the scant minutes between plot twists, we get treated to bite-size nuggets of character development and a few juicy nibbles of acting from a cast almost universally committed to going large." — Houston Chronicle Posted Apr 17, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 56%
| 17 Again (2009) | "
I found him a sympathetic, and strangely believable, middle-aged dad." — Houston Chronicle Posted Apr 17, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 51%
| Observe and Report (2009) | "
A few of the less repeatable lines hit their marks, but the whole affair has the pasty-faced desperation of shoppers trapped in fluorescent light." — Houston Chronicle Posted Apr 10, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 73%
| The Great Buck Howard (2009) | "
A modest snapshot of a performer." — Houston Chronicle Posted Apr 3, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 88%
| Adventureland (2009) | "
The youths of Superbad were a little bit younger, a little more likable, their dirty-virgin wit more hilarious [than in Adventureland]." — Houston Chronicle Posted Apr 3, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 78%
| 12 (2007) | "
Overwrought, overlong yet mesmerizing." — Houston Chronicle Posted Mar 27, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 72%
| Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) | "
True, the story doesn’t amount to much, but the plot tends to take a back seat when you’ve got a not-quite-50-foot version of Reese Witherspoon duking it out with a mighty alien robot alongside the Golden Gate Bridge." — Houston Chronicle Posted Mar 27, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 73%
| Sunshine Cleaning (2009) | "
This one is scripted, directed and acted with grace and immaculate care." — Houston Chronicle Posted Mar 20, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 66%
| Duplicity (2009) | "
A snazzy piece of work, tartly acted and cleverly made. Trust me." — Houston Chronicle Posted Mar 20, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 82%
| I Love You, Man (2009) | "
In almost every major detail and minor plot hiccup, the sweet, vulgar, hilariously awkward I Love You, Man follows Ye Olde Formulae for standard romantic comedies." — Houston Chronicle Posted Mar 20, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 91%
| Gomorrah (2009) | "
There’s nothing extraneous about it, nothing excessive in its violence or its art. It’s as desolate as it needs to be and no more." — Houston Chronicle Posted Mar 13, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 71%
| The Secrets (2008) | "
The Secrets twines coming-out, coming-of-age and coming-to-terms-with-Orthodoxy in a way that diminishes all three -- and dilutes its message with clichés." — Houston Chronicle Posted Mar 13, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 80%
| As It Is in Heaven (2004) | "
It tells its tale of love, community and redemption with soap-operatic mood swings and a true believer’s faith in the transcendent powers of music." — Houston Chronicle Posted Mar 6, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 64%
| Watchmen (2009) | "
It should have remained what it was from the start: a masterpiece of vicious Cold War paranoia, completely and gut-churningly rendered on the printed page." — Houston Chronicle Posted Mar 4, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 94%
| 2009 Academy-Award Nominated Short Films (2009) | "
Smack in the middle is the best of the five (better than some of the nominees): Jérémy Clapin’s Skhizein, a 14-minute study of a man who’s existentially dislodged by a 150-ton meteorite." — Houston Chronicle Posted Feb 27, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 84%
| Two Lovers (2009) | "
[A] compact, compassionate portrait of a man struggling to define himself and his own understanding of happiness." — Houston Chronicle Posted Feb 27, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 97%
| The Class (2008) | "
By rough estimate, maybe 80 percent of the movie consists of these student-teacher slanging matches, but it's engrossing." — Houston Chronicle Posted Feb 20, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 84%
| Wendy and Lucy (2008) | "
Wendy and Lucy is a short, sweet film with a premise as plain as they come: A girl and her dog drift into town." — Houston Chronicle Posted Feb 20, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 58%
| The International (2009) | "
The International isn’t top-form Tykwer, but it’s handsome and adamant, and now’s as good a time as any for some out-of-control greedy-banker-bashing." — Houston Chronicle Posted Feb 13, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 13%
| The Pink Panther 2 (2009) | "
For all the obvious cribbing, the filmmakers still seem ill-at-ease with Clouseau’s simplistic world view and frank buffoonery." — Houston Chronicle Posted Feb 6, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 88%
| Coraline (2009) | "
It is a sumptuous visual feast and a perfectly enchanting story." — Houston Chronicle Posted Feb 6, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 57%
| Taken (2009) | "
If it’s unrepentant violence you’re after, you’re better off renting [director] Morel’s 2004 collaboration syndicate with Besson, District B13." — Houston Chronicle Posted Jan 30, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 39%
| Inkheart (2009) | "
The film’s storybook Alpine vistas are lovely to behold, and bits of humor pop out in welcome moments. Other than that, it never quite springs to life as intended -- not in your kitchen, and not on screen." — Houston Chronicle Posted Jan 23, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 63%
| Che (2008) | "
The film's last chapter is arid yet breathtaking cinema, marked by despairing visuals and a climax that withers, not winds, to a close." — Houston Chronicle Posted Jan 16, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 98%
| The Wrestler (2008) | "
Predictable as it is, this sad, strong beast of a film keeps us pinned to the mat with the strength of its compassion and the overpowering force of its central performance." — Houston Chronicle Posted Jan 16, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 56%
| Defiance (2008) | "
It is, all in all, a film as square-shouldered as its leads -- tough-minded, forcibly acted and conventionally spun by Zwick and co-writer Clayton Frohman." — Houston Chronicle Posted Jan 16, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 69%
| Revolutionary Road (2008) | "
Viewers in the mood for rip-snorting marital combat should go ahead and partake, but they must prepare to leave the theatre in a state of profound depression." — Houston Chronicle Posted Jan 9, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 79%
| Gran Torino (2008) | "
Gran Torino is the most obvious and least interesting of the four movies [Eastwood's] directed in the last two years." — Houston Chronicle Posted Jan 9, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 72%
| The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) | "
Director David Fincher has turned out an overlong, Forrest Gumpian exercise in mannered whimsy. It’s sentimental; it’s episodic; it dawdles. Brad Pitt spends a good length of screen time drinking tea with Tilda Swinton. But it’s also bewitching." — Houston Chronicle Posted Dec 24, 2008 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 78%
| Doubt (2008) | "
Doubt asks hard questions, and we dutifully squirm in reply." — Houston Chronicle Posted Dec 19, 2008 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 27%
| Seven Pounds (2008) | "
The film closes on a meeting between two characters that’s now wayyyy high on my list of weirdest moments in cinema. It is, I think, supposed to be touching." — Houston Chronicle Posted Dec 19, 2008 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 92%
| Frost/Nixon (2008) | "
When the movie sticks to its central dramatic conflict, it can be spellbinding." — Houston Chronicle Posted Dec 12, 2008 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 94%
| Slumdog Millionaire (2008) | "
Slumdog Millionaire is not the cure for all the world’s ills, but it comes close. It solves, for instance, such endemic global problems as: a) sadness, b) lovelessness, c) cynicism, and d) the waning cultural relevance of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." — Houston Chronicle Posted Dec 12, 2008 |
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