Rotten
| Rotten 56%
| The Stoning of Soraya M. (2009) | "
Iranian American director Cyrus Nowrasteh has amplified the basic elements of Suraya's story into the worst kind of exploitive Hollywood melodrama, presented under the virtuous guise of moral outrage." — Washington Post Posted Jun 26, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 11%
| My Life in Ruins (2009) | "
In fashioning a comeback for Vardalos, writer Mike Reiss has cribbed much from her Greek Wedding playbook." — Washington Post Posted Jun 5, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 58%
| The Girlfriend Experience (2009) | "
Soderbergh taps into the nervy impulses of his earliest endeavor, sex, lies and videotape as well as Ocean's Eleven. The Girlfriend Experience has something to elevate and exasperate fans of both." — Washington Post Posted May 22, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 76%
| Shall We Kiss? (2008) | "
It is as if the director had studied the comedies of Eric Rohmer and Woody Allen from top to bottom and come away with all the wrong lessons." — Washington Post Posted Apr 9, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 35%
| Alien Trespass (2009) | "
Those who fondly recall The Blob would seem to be the target crowd for a fastidious pastiche that attempts to coax laughs by maintaining a poker face." — Washington Post Posted Apr 2, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 91%
| Gomorrah (2009) | "
Gomorrah manages to be artful without being arty." — Washington Post Posted Mar 13, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 43%
| Race to Witch Mountain (2009) | "
The movie has Johnson, who lifts the script above its conventional cat-and-mouse stratagems with his buoyant wiseacre timing." — Washington Post Posted Mar 13, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 23%
| Fired Up (2009) | "
An arduous cheerleader comedy geared toward those too green to know that cheerleader comedies went out long before the last pompom shake of Bring It On." — Washington Post Posted Feb 19, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/5
| Rotten 27%
| Seven Pounds (2008) | "
When an actor reaches a summit of unparalleled global popularity, it is probably hard to resist the temptation to play God." — Los Angeles Times Posted Dec 19, 2008 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 84%
| Ghost Town (2008) | "
Gervais is a master of the flustered broken thought, and Koepp takes full advantage in scenes that pit Pincus against a distracted doctor (a droll Kristen Wiig) and an imposingly large dog." — Los Angeles Times Posted Sep 19, 2008 |
Fresh
| Rotten 34%
| Pride and Glory (2008) | "
A familiar but taut thriller sparked by a quartet of committed lead performances and the visual acrobatics of stealth camera ace Declan Quinn." — Screen International Posted Sep 15, 2008 |
Fresh
| Fresh 65%
| Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) | "
It is the cozy marriage of sensibilities between the director of Clerks and the co-writer/star of Superbad that gives this movie its particular go-for-the-groin, land-on-the-heart chemistry." — Screen International Posted Sep 9, 2008 |
Fresh 4.5/5
| Fresh 90%
| Transsiberian (2008) | "
A queasy-making train thriller directed with vibrant visual panache by Brad Anderson." — Los Angeles Times Posted Aug 8, 2008 |
Rotten 1.5/5
| Rotten 32%
| The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008) | "
By the time Carter and co-writer Frank Spotnitz throw in cartoon Russian villains and a risible plot point involving same-sex marriage, it's hard to figure where they, or their movie, is coming from." — Los Angeles Times Posted Jul 25, 2008 |
Rotten 2.5/5
| Fresh 68%
| The Wackness (2008) | "
Wackness is ultimately less evocative of pre-Sept. 11 Manhattan than it is of post-Sept. 11 Park City, Utah, where the film had its Sundance debut, and where festival audiences never tire of rebel-male angst and bluesy, guitar-inflected scoring." — Los Angeles Times Posted Jul 3, 2008 |
Rotten 2.5/5
| Fresh 64%
| Brick Lane (2008) | "
[A] glossy but overly efficient drama that, like Nazneen's husband, is ultimately too ineffectual to make much of a dent." — Chicago Tribune Posted Jun 20, 2008 |
Rotten 1.5/5
| Rotten 14%
| The Love Guru (2008) | "
A comedy of low blows and elephantine misfires." — Los Angeles Times Posted Jun 20, 2008 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 82%
| Priceless (2008) | "
This broadly amoral take on Breakfast at Tiffany's suffers from a serious case of who-should-we-care-for: He's a sap, she's a soulless vamp, their patrons are either cruel, self-deluding or both." — Newsday Posted Apr 3, 2008 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 65%
| Stop-Loss (2008) | "
Stop-Loss builds a cumulative power and sense of urgency that can't be denied." — Newsday Posted Mar 27, 2008 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 35%
| 21 (2008) | "
Under Luketic's flaccid direction, 21 is another two-faced moralistic entertainment that shows us how much fun it is to live large, then punishes its characters for acting out our fantasies." — Newsday Posted Mar 27, 2008 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 30%
| Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns (2008) | "
Meet the Browns is saddled with the usual quotient of phony snafus and entanglements that are easily untangled." — Newsday Posted Mar 24, 2008 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 76%
| Heartbeat Detector (2008) | "
Heartbeat Detector earns its points, arriving at a potent conclusion with a stealth and meticulousness that knocks the wind out of you." — Newsday Posted Mar 21, 2008 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Rotten 39%
| The Grand (2008) | "
The Grand lacks any sort of urgency or inner propulsiveness; the actors do their little goofs, then hand them off to the next, lending the jest the frolicking but ultimately monotonous quality of a game of tag." — Newsday Posted Mar 20, 2008 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 27%
| Boarding Gate (2007) | "
The picture grows on you, as does its laconic leading lady, whose slurry delivery conceals an ever-alert mouse handily equipped to beat the cat at his own game." — Newsday Posted Mar 20, 2008 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 63%
| Love Songs (2008) | "
For a film roiling with so much turmoil of the heart, Love Songs generates dismayingly little emotional frisson." — Newsday Posted Mar 20, 2008 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 73%
| Under the Same Moon (2008) | "
A drama of mother-son love that lunges for the heart from its pulsating curtain raiser to its leap-for-joy fade out." — Newsday Posted Mar 20, 2008 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 48%
| Doomsday (2008) | "
Much as one might admire the British health care system as presented in the documentary Sicko, even Michael Moore would have to admit they have a hard time over there coping with apocalyptic viruses." — Newsday Posted Mar 17, 2008 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 24%
| Never Back Down (2008) | "
Never see movies that give stupid macho advice in their titles." — Newsday Posted Mar 13, 2008 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 51%
| Funny Games (2008) | "
Funny Games is about as hostile a jest as has ever been aimed at American audiences by a foreign director. The joke wouldn't be half as galling were it not so expertly written and executed." — Newsday Posted Mar 13, 2008 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 9%
| 10,000 B.C. (2008) | "
An epic adventure of such towering testosterone counts and ceaseless tedium, you can almost feel the hair growing on your chest as the bags collect beneath your eyes." — Newsday Posted Mar 6, 2008 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 68%
| Snow Angels (2008) | "
Writer-director David Gordon Green's brave and magnificently performed period piece (mid-'70s) witnesses an adolescent's first romance as it blossoms amid a dissonant backdrop of disintegrating marriages." — Newsday Posted Mar 6, 2008 |
Fresh
| Fresh 79%
| Blind Mountain (2008) | "
The heat of empathetic outrage that Li generates from the audience is enough to make the theater combust." — Newsday Posted Mar 6, 2008 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Rotten 49%
| CJ7 (2008) | "
It is safe to say that no one makes movies quite like Hong Kong's clown impresario Stephen Chow." — Newsday Posted Mar 6, 2008 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Fresh 77%
| Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008) | "
Director Bharat Nalluri compounds the chintziness with a full-throttle approach that blows away any lingering nuance from the source material." — Newsday Posted Mar 6, 2008 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 39%
| Bonneville (2006) | "
The kind of comfy, reassuring take on human relations that makes cynics want to growl at the stranger sitting next to them." — Newsday Posted Feb 28, 2008 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 41%
| The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) | "
Beneath the thundering horse hoofs and happy wedding fiddles is a viper's nest of sexual intrigue that would be at home on Desperate Housewives." — Newsday Posted Feb 28, 2008 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 96%
| Chop Shop (2007) | "
It's already been compared to Brazilian classics City of God and Pixote. But Chop Shop is both more hopeful and less punishing than those films, in no small measure owing to the synergy between first-time actors Polanco and Gonzales." — Newsday Posted Feb 28, 2008 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 67%
| The Duchess of Langeais (2008) | "
The Duchess of Languor might be more evocative. Faithfully lifted from the pages of Honore de Balzac, Jacques Rivette's overlong, resplendently decorative drama takes on the phlegmatic air of its character." — Newsday Posted Feb 21, 2008 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 54%
| The Signal (2007) | "
The Signal is a well-oiled example of that oxymoronic Tarantino phenomenon: the arty grindhouse picture." — Newsday Posted Feb 21, 2008 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Rotten 54%
| Charlie Bartlett (2007) | "
This high school dramedy feels strangely earthbound, despite an articulate script and an engaging cast." — Newsday Posted Feb 21, 2008 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 35%
| Vantage Point (2008) | "
An assassination thriller that boasts the glossy tourist vistas of an airline magazine combined with a serious case of instant-replay-itis." — Newsday Posted Feb 21, 2008 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 72%
| Definitely, Maybe (2008) | "
Reynolds provides the perfect foil for these spiky women. Quietly masculine and so relaxed in his effects that he could be prescribed for anxiety, Reynolds exudes an elusive charisma that suggests Ryan O'Neal by way of George Gobel." — Newsday Posted Feb 13, 2008 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 16%
| Jumper (2008) | "
It presumes, with misguided cynicism, that Rice's oafish choices reflect the smoldering fantasies of any average guy who might wish to jump himself out of an unforgiving, single-parent household in Ann Arbor, Mich." — Newsday Posted Feb 13, 2008 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 84%
| The Year My Parents Went On Vacation (2008) | "
The film's final third contains a glimmer of a great movie wanting to break out." — Newsday Posted Feb 13, 2008 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 81%
| In Bruges (2008) | "
Martin McDonagh's raucous dark comedy teeters between cheeky humor and violence, overplaying both to varying degrees." — Newsday Posted Feb 7, 2008 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 22%
| The Eye (2008) | "
The most frightening aspect of this supernatural horror film -- a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong thriller -- is that there was a 114-minute version, before someone took pity and snipped it down to a lugubrious 97." — Newsday Posted Feb 4, 2008 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 85%
| The Silence Before Bach (2008) | "
The demolition of the music bio-pic as witnessed by Todd Haynes' I'm Not There and the parody Walk Hard continues robustly with this time-tripping melange from Spanish director Pere Portabella." — Newsday Posted Jan 31, 2008 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 92%
| Caramel (2008) | "
A film of abundant heart and exquisite faces." — Newsday Posted Jan 31, 2008 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 84%
| The Witnesses (2008) | "
André Techiné's The Witnesses is one of the finest fiction-film accounts of a free yet frightful moment in time, when the relaxing sexual liberties of the previous decade were being squeezed by the onset of an unforgiving new virus." — Newsday Posted Jan 31, 2008 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 71%
| Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert (2008) | "
Totally slick and vanilla, but you have to like a kid who works this hard." — Newsday Posted Jan 31, 2008 |
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