Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 21%
| Planet 51 (2009) | "
It's frenetic and knowing in the modern manner, though, a couple of good gags apart, not very funny. Its patchiness merely demonstrates the gap between Pixar and the rest of the field which is the distance between genius and talent." — Independent Posted Dec 4, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 65%
| The Merry Gentleman (2009) | "
Michael Keaton's directorial debut is a low-key character study which just about survives its odd shifts of tone." — Independent Posted Dec 4, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 82%
| Me and Orson Welles (2009) | "
Christian McKay's performance in the title role measures up to that extraordinariness, both inhabiting Welles's magnetic, overweening personality and approximating a decent physical likeness." — Independent Posted Dec 4, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Fresh 62%
| The Girlfriend Experience (2009) | "
What Soderbergh's film wants to say is uncertain: That a prostitute has business problems like everyone else? That her johns seem a pretty sleazy lot? That "everyone is a critic"? None of these qualify as revelatory." — Independent Posted Dec 4, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 83%
| Disgrace (2009) | "
The visionary gravity of J M Coetzee's Booker-winning novel is perhaps untranslatable to the screen, but Steve Jacobs's film is a very creditable try." — Independent Posted Dec 4, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 48%
| The Descent: Part 2 (2009) | "
Even acknowledging its flimsy credibility and recycled stalk-and-seize tropes, I still jumped out of my seat a couple of times, so the film-makers can probably give themselves a pat on the back: job done." — Independent Posted Dec 4, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 40%
| Cracks (2009) | "
The atmosphere of suppressed erotic longing gives way to a barely contained hysteria, not always convincingly handled by the young cast." — Independent Posted Dec 4, 2009 |
Rotten 1/5
| Rotten 46%
| The Box (2009) | "
The single question I wanted to ask was: how many more times will a studio allow Richard Kelly to commit career suicide?" — Independent Posted Dec 4, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 76%
| The Informant! (2009) | "
The problem with The Informant!, aside from that overcoaxing exclamation mark, is that it's not especially funny." — Independent Posted Nov 20, 2009 |
Rotten 1/5
| Rotten 50%
| Glorious 39 (2009) | "
The cast is impressive Julie Christie, Jenny Agutter, David Tennant, Hugh Bonneville, Christopher Lee though more astonishing is why any of them were tempted into such tosh." — Independent Posted Nov 20, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 76%
| The First Day of the Rest of Your Life () | "
Bιzanηon handles the passage of time and the shifts of perspective quite adroitly, and creates a real sense of the characters as a family unit. His use of music is also inspired." — Independent Posted Nov 20, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 87%
| A Serious Man (2009) | "
Comedy, even tragicomedy, should not feel like such hard work." — Independent Posted Nov 20, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 28%
| The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) | "
This overlong adaptation of the Stephenie Meyer bestseller is notable for setting itself rules and then breaking them." — Independent Posted Nov 19, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 89%
| The White Ribbon (2009) | "
This cool-headed, watchful film simply invites us to observe, to imagine, to make up our own minds. That's another way of saying it treats its audience as grown-ups." — Independent Posted Nov 13, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Fresh 97%
| Tulpan (2008) | "
Feels more like something from National Geographic than a feature film. For some, the lamb-birthing scene will be a steppe too far." — Independent Posted Nov 13, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 49%
| Taking Woodstock (2009) | "
Lee wants to combine a landmark moment with a coming-of-age story, but his style here is so loose and rambling it's impossible to sense the excitement of the former and the particularity of the latter." — Independent Posted Nov 13, 2009 |
Rotten 1/5
| Fresh 62%
| Love The Beast (2009) | "
This self-directed vanity project shows the actor as a decent bloke who keeps in touch with his old mates from home, but that goodwill is squandered by earnest interviews with fellow petrolheads." — Independent Posted Nov 13, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 75%
| Cold Souls (2009) | "
The film itself seems to inhabit the soul of another screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman, though it's more a respectful nod than a blatant steal. Barthes shows enough wit and daring of her own to mark her as one to watch." — Independent Posted Nov 13, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 20%
| Amelia (2009) | "
The look of the movie suave Art Deco lines and 1930s fashions is blameless, though helpless to counter the Ron Bass screenplay, guaranteed to drain the life out of any drama it touches." — Independent Posted Nov 13, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 38%
| 2012 (2009) | "
In between the explosions and quakes you sometimes hear snatches of the script, and then wish you hadn't." — Independent Posted Nov 13, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 77%
| Harry Brown (2009) | "
First-time director Daniel Barber delivers a full measure of foul-mouthed brutishness, but his picture is strictly cartoon-level in terms of character and story." — Independent Posted Nov 13, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 44%
| Jennifer's Body (2009) | "
After the quick-fire wit of Juno, this is disappointing." — Independent Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Fresh 60%
| Paper Heart (2009) | "
This indie squib wobbles briefly on a tightrope between sincerity and cuteness before plunging headlong to a death-by-whimsy." — Independent Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Rotten 1/5
| Rotten 54%
| The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009) | "
Interesting title, promisingly quirky subject, top-drawer cast such a duff movie." — Independent Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 100%
| Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno () | "
Unearths footage of camera tests and experiments in kinetic art and colouration that suggest how very remarkable the film might have been. At times, it recalls Hitchcock's use of optical trickery in Vertigo." — Independent Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Rotten 55%
| Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009) | "
Scores high on swooping visuals and meticulous draughtsmanship." — Independent Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 50%
| 1 Day () | "
The street patois is at times incomprehensible, the plot is a joke and the music is absurdly aggressive." — Independent Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 83%
| Bright Star (2009) | "
Bright Star deals with the sonnets and the bonnets top marks to the production and costume designer, Janet Patterson with wit and restraint, and proves that a chaste romance needn't lack for passion, or poetry." — Independent Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 82%
| Thirst (2009) | "
The film is way too long, and quite sick, though Park's demented lyricism will stay with you." — Independent Posted Oct 16, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 81%
| Triangle (2009) | "
This seaborne psycho-thriller has an unusual creepiness about it." — Independent Posted Oct 16, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 47%
| Ong Bak 2 (2009) | "
The energy is intense, the athleticism is wild, the overall effect pretty monotonous." — Independent Posted Oct 16, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 84%
| Pontypool (2009) | "
McHattie and Houle are terrific as the besieged duo." — Independent Posted Oct 16, 2009 |
Rotten 1/5
| Rotten 12%
| Couples Retreat (2009) | "
If it were a send-up of couples therapy and its absurd language the film would at least be about something, but it hasn't even that much intelligence." — Independent Posted Oct 16, 2009 |
Rotten 1/5
| Fresh 66%
| The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) | "
It is a shame that Gilliam didn't settle for being an animator, because these squiggles of invention are so much more his forte than film directing." — Independent Posted Oct 16, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 94%
| Katalin Varga (2009) | "
At times we seem to be watching the reconstruction of an ancient folk tale, and Strickland, as if entrusted with its telling, hardly puts a foot wrong." — Independent Posted Oct 9, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 89%
| Zombieland (2009) | "
A zombie comedy funnier than Shaun of the Dead? They said it couldn't be done, but here it is." — Independent Posted Oct 9, 2009 |
Rotten 1/5
| Fresh 94%
| Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee (2009) | "
Even with a short running time (71 mins) this scrappy, unendearing squib outstays its welcome." — Independent Posted Oct 9, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 94%
| Goodbye Solo (2009) | "
It's touching in its way, though Bahrani's writing is not nearly as strong as his visual sense, and the denouement is perhaps too understated for its own good." — Independent Posted Oct 9, 2009 |
Rotten 1/5
| Rotten 18%
| Love Happens (2009) | "
What a title. Not that this crybaby romantic drama deserves much better." — Independent Posted Oct 9, 2009 |
Fresh 5/5
| Fresh 98%
| Up (2009) | "
Up is buoyant with thrills and spills, yet it's anchored, quite movingly, in the acceptance of mortality. This rollercoaster ride will leave everyone on an up." — Independent Posted Oct 9, 2009 |
Rotten 1/5
| Rotten 0%
| The Spell (2009) | "
This Leeds-set occult mystery is made in so earnest and amateurish a style as to make the Children's Film Foundation look like Hitchcock." — Independent Posted Oct 4, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 27%
| Pandorum (2009) | "
Some scary moments, but its final half-hour is a right old mess, and the title is doomed never to be remembered." — Independent Posted Oct 4, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Fresh 67%
| District 13: Ultimatum (2009) | "
A Parisian conspiracy thriller of frankly preposterous dimensions." — Independent Posted Oct 4, 2009 |
Rotten 1/5
| Rotten 10%
| My Life in Ruins (2009) | "
Might as well be called My Big Fat Greek Package Holiday." — Independent Posted Oct 4, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Fresh 96%
| The Beaches of Agnes (2009) | "
There's not much discipline and it's way too long, but in common with her best work, it has a dreamy sort of charm." — Independent Posted Oct 4, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 100%
| The Army of Crime (2009) | "
A sombre and gripping account of guerrilla fighters in Paris." — Independent Posted Oct 4, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 57%
| The Invention of Lying (2009) | "
This topsy-turvy place hasn't the watertight consistency to persuade us, and its star, for all his talent, is not a romantic comedian. That's the truth as I see it." — Independent Posted Oct 4, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 55%
| The Soloist (2009) | "
Its oddness is chastening: what's ostensibly a triumph-of-the-spirit number doesn't make you feel very triumphant after all." — Independent Posted Sep 25, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 6%
| Whiteout (2009) | "
Apart from a lascivious shot of his scantily clad star, director Dominic Sena keeps the action fairly swift under blizzard-like conditions: at times we seem to be watching people fight inside a snow globe." — Independent Posted Sep 11, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Fresh 84%
| The September Issue (2009) | "
Almost nothing of insight is allowed to intrude on the story, the single point of curiosity being the mild tension between the editor and her flame-haired, forthright creative director Grace Coddington." — Independent Posted Sep 11, 2009 |
IGN RSS Feeds