|
3/4
|
90%
|
The Messenger (2009) |
"
These largely self-contained vignettes are harrowing, the source of a font of raw emotional release that could never be otherwise captured except through a presumably invasive documentary process."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Nov 11, 2009
|
|
3/4
|
94%
|
An Education (2009) |
"
The emotional maturity of a sheltered teen in post-war austerity Britain is thoroughly tested in An Education."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Oct 6, 2009
|
|
3/4
|
87%
|
Fifty Dead Men Walking (2008) |
"
Impressively compact in its storytelling and visually sumptuous despite a budget of pocket-change proportions."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Aug 21, 2009
|
|
3/4
|
90%
|
Séraphine (2009) |
"
In consistently erring of the side of subtlety, Moreau's performance also proves a perfect tonal match for Provost's subtle, meticulous, and frequently beautiful compositions."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Jun 1, 2009
|
|
|
69%
|
Alone with Her (2007) |
"
What sets the film a notch above standard genre fare is its ability to ask bigger questions about a stalker like Doug."
—
Cinematical
Posted Oct 28, 2008
|
|
3/4
|
92%
|
Caramel (2008) |
"
The penetrating musical score, with its memorable shadings of emotional danger, the snappy and confident pacing and the emergence of 33-year-old Labaki as an international talent to watch all combine to make the film satisfying confection."
—
Premiere Magazine
Posted Feb 1, 2008
|
|
|
12%
|
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (AVP 2) (2007) |
"
I can't recommend it as a good movie on its own merits, stocked as it is with cardboard cutout characters and a barely coherent plot, but it's miles more interesting than the last Alien vs. Predator film"
—
Cinematical
Posted Jan 2, 2008
|
|
|
48%
|
Towelhead (2007) |
"
The long-awaited directorial debut of Alan Ball does not disappoint."
—
Cinematical
Posted Sep 18, 2007
|
|
|
83%
|
It's a Free World... (2007) |
"
Works on every level -- the performances are compelling, the drama feels grounded and real, and we brush up against an issue so large and overwhelming that you can easily see why no one thinks it's their problem to solve."
—
Cinematical
Posted Sep 18, 2007
|
|
|
24%
|
The Life Before Her Eyes (2007) |
"
Not as profound in its revelations as it wants to be, but with strong acting and a strong visual palette, it's a success."
—
Cinematical
Posted Sep 15, 2007
|
|
|
50%
|
Then She Found Me (2007) |
"
Sometimes charming, occasionally funny, it never draws attention to itself as the work of a director with training wheels on."
—
Cinematical
Posted Sep 14, 2007
|
|
|
44%
|
redacted (2007) |
"
I tend to think that even bad De Palma -- movies like Snake Eyes and The Black Dahlia -- are still better than most of the tripe we have to sit through, so even if Redacted falls under that category, it's still worth recommending."
—
Cinematical
Posted Sep 14, 2007
|
|
|
83%
|
Atonement (2007) |
"
Chalk up another stunning achievement for Joe Wright, who must now be recognized as an auteur with few equals of his age and experience in world cinema."
—
Cinematical
Posted Sep 11, 2007
|
|
2.5/4
|
70%
|
Sherlock Holmes (2009) |
"
Pop culture's most enduring sleuth gets a welcome, modernized makeover in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Dec 24, 2009
|
|
2.5/4
|
43%
|
Jennifer's Body (2009) |
"
Represents a cornucopia of ideas, both comedy and horror, and the determination of the filmmakers to simply play the odds of getting more elements right than wrong instead of pursuing a purer vision makes it a mixed viewing experience."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Sep 16, 2009
|
|
2.5/4
|
93%
|
Drag Me to Hell (2009) |
"
A giddy procession of intermittently successful jump scares and make-you-vomit sight gags strung together by a story so elemental it could be rendered in mural form on a funhouse wall."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted May 25, 2009
|
|
2.5/4
|
92%
|
Etz Limon (Lemon Tree) (2009) |
"
Riklis is ultimately unable to center his attention on any one of its multiple fissures and reflexively allows Lemon Tree to rest on its aura of subliminal female solidarity."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Apr 14, 2009
|
|
2.5/4
|
52%
|
Leatherheads (2008) |
"
Leatherheads isn't poorly made, but it's easy, hang-back material from a director who's already proven himself up for a challenge, and that's hard to accept."
—
Premiere Magazine
Posted Apr 4, 2008
|
|
2.5/4
|
26%
|
Drillbit Taylor (2008) |
"
Drillbit Taylor presents nothing blindingly new for fans of Apatow- or Sandler-style humor and when watching it, one can hear the faint rustling of old scripts being yanked from drawers for a timely cash-in."
—
Premiere Magazine
Posted Mar 21, 2008
|
|
2/4
|
26%
|
Ninja Assassin (2009) |
"
Ninja Assassin has little opportunity to fill its action-free beats with dread or tension."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Nov 27, 2009
|
|
2/4
|
81%
|
Disgrace (2008) |
"
It's not Coetzee's assertion that the white minority South Africans must go a ways toward assimilating into African life to remain relevant that invites deep scrutiny, but the narrow vision presented here of Africanization as something akin to wilding."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Sep 17, 2009
|
|
2/4
|
49%
|
Taking Woodstock (2009) |
"
Taking Woodstock fails to immerse us in the visceral feeling of being there."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Aug 27, 2009
|
|
2/4
|
34%
|
G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra (2009) |
"
Sommers seems to be operating under what he perceives as a pact between himself and his 11-year-old fanbase, to simply provide them with as much awesome **** as he's allowed to shovel at the screen."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Aug 6, 2009
|
|
2/4
|
45%
|
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (Ice Age 3) (2009) |
"
This third entry in the animated kiddie series appears to be more, um, fair and balanced."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Jul 6, 2009
|
|
2/4
|
17%
|
Downloading Nancy (2008) |
"
An emotionally sterile and self-serious terminal disease drama without a moment of levity to be found from first frame to last."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Jun 1, 2009
|
|
2/4
|
64%
|
Duplicity (2009) |
"
A romance aiming at a tone of jazz-riff larkishness but somewhat undermined in that pursuit by the washboard-stiffness of its main characters."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Mar 17, 2009
|
|
2/4
|
42%
|
He's Just Not That Into You (2009) |
"
He's Just Not That Into You can't help but approximate its unsatisfying elevation of chit-chat into a primary mode of rom-com narrative communication, a bad omen for the genre going forward."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Feb 5, 2009
|
|
1.5/4
|
58%
|
Edge of Darkness (2010) |
"
A shot that defiantly fixes on Mel Gibson's balding pate from behind is the only evidence of the volatile actor-director's famous penchant for cinematic self-flagellation here."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Jan 25, 2010
|
|
1.5/4
|
36%
|
Los Paranoicos (The Paranoids) (2008) |
"
A frustratingly underdeveloped Argentinian dramedy about the perils of emotional retreat."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Jan 22, 2010
|
|
1.5/4
|
37%
|
Nine (2009) |
"
Marshall overlooks the potentially unsavory dimensions of a reputed scaliwag director's sex life in favor of a succession of bloodlessly PG-13 encounters heavy on implication."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Dec 16, 2009
|
|
1.5/4
|
84%
|
Whip It (2009) |
"
There's a lot of underlying potential here, but there seems to have been no one around to whip it into shape."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Sep 29, 2009
|
|
1.5/4
|
39%
|
Surrogates (2009) |
"
Mostow demonstrates an uncharacteristic lack of subtlety throughout that suggests a diminishment of skills for the man who helmed the crackerjack kidnap thriller Breakdown."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Sep 25, 2009
|
|
1.5/4
|
29%
|
Shrink (2009) |
"
Though it never rains frogs in Shrink, the influence of Magnolia on this sprawling portrait of West L.A.'s rich-and-miserable couldn't be more pronounced."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Jul 23, 2009
|
|
1.5/4
|
78%
|
Anonyma - Eine Frau in Berlin (A Woman in Berlin) (2009) |
"
As quickly as possible, the initial, brutal encounters are concluded and the film is hurried along to its second, plot-heavy incarnation as a healing-and-reconciliation drama."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Jul 15, 2009
|
|
1.5/4
|
29%
|
Deadgirl (2008) |
"
The appeal of Deadgirl depends exclusively on the intriguing image at its center."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Jul 7, 2009
|
|
1.5/4
|
96%
|
Les Plages d'Agnès (The Beaches of Agnes) (2008) |
"
The Girl from Monaco is a frustratingly suspense-free affair"
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Jul 6, 2009
|
|
1.5/4
|
48%
|
La Fille de Monaco (The Girl from Monaco) (2009) |
"
The Girl from Monaco is a frustratingly suspense-free affair."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Jul 1, 2009
|
|
1.5/4
|
48%
|
My Sister's Keeper (2009) |
"
My Sister's Keeper suffers from sheer sloppiness of script that results in scenes of comedic frivolity coming off as screechingly forced."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Jun 25, 2009
|
|
1.5/4
|
33%
|
Terminator Salvation (2009) |
"
Like the human skulls crushed under sleek metal feet in those feverish sequences, the Terminator film series is finished."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted May 21, 2009
|
|
1.5/4
|
56%
|
The Soloist (2009) |
"
An emotionally tone deaf and, typical of the director, gimmick-laden and aggressively polished adaptation."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Apr 23, 2009
|
|
1.5/4
|
44%
|
Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009) |
"
It's all in good fun, even if it isn't actually much fun."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Apr 11, 2009
|
|
1.5/4
|
59%
|
The International (2009) |
"
The International isn't pitching itself at Jack Ryan territory, but weirdly, at The Da Vinci Code."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Feb 13, 2009
|
|
1.5/4
|
30%
|
Underworld: The Rise of the Lycans (2009) |
"
Hiistorical events referenced in the first two installments of the Underworld franchise are brought to life in this passionless, idea-deprived prequel"
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Jan 24, 2009
|
|
0/0
|
24%
|
Serious Moonlight (2009) |
"
Hopefully Serious Moonlight will not become Meg Ryan's Trog: an embarrassing, final starring role in an otherwise respectable movie star career that has sputtered to a halt in recent years."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Nov 30, 2009
|
|
1/4
|
25%
|
Law Abiding Citizen (2009) |
"
An illogical, campy joke of a movie that suffers hugely in comparison to F. Gary Gray's earlier ****-the-injustice-system thriller The Negotiator."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Oct 16, 2009
|
|
1/4
|
80%
|
Bandslam (2009) |
"
I Can't Go On, I'll Go On is the name of the bubblegum rock group at the center of Bandslam, as well as a useful mantra for any moviegoer struggling to make it all the way through this depressingly phony approximation of a teen tragicomedy."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Aug 11, 2009
|
|
1/4
|
39%
|
Imagine That (2009) |
"
In its minimalism that borders on self-parody, Imagine That is reminiscent of M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Jun 11, 2009
|
|
1/4
|
55%
|
17 Again (2009) |
"
When 17 Again isn't pilfering from its betters, it's engaging in the most Pavlovian button-pushing."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Apr 17, 2009
|
|
1/4
|
31%
|
While She Was Out (2008) |
"
A half-assed re-filming of First Blood."
—
Slant Magazine
Posted Jan 12, 2009
|
|
|
65%
|
Brick Lane (2008) |
"
A depressing, static drama that will have heads lolling backwards and eyes drooping wherever it plays."
—
Cinematical
Posted Sep 22, 2007
|
63%
——
97%
