Rotten 1/5
| Rotten 22%
| Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009) | "
Three digimated rodents play guitar, go to school and create merry hell, all for the benefit of the "holiday season" audiences that made the original Chipmunks movie a "global phenomenon" to the tune of £350m. That's not phenomenal that's criminal." — Independent Posted Dec 18, 2009 |
Rotten 1/5
| Rotten 8%
| St. Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold () | "
A cavalcade of schoolgirls filled out the press screening of this movie, and very welcome to it they were." — Independent Posted Dec 18, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 38%
| Nine (2009) | "
You will not tap your toes, you will not come out humming, you will not want to hear their like "Those scenes I love to see/ From Guido's p.o.v." in a very long time." — Independent Posted Dec 18, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 78%
| Humpday (2009) | "
Forget the buddy movie and the "bromance", this wryly provocative comedy takes man-love to a place of palm-sweating uncertainty." — Independent Posted Dec 18, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 70%
| Sherlock Holmes (2009) | "
Ritchie is all at sea because he has no grasp of language as something comic, a problem intensified by the thin overlay of "period"." — Independent Posted Dec 18, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 88%
| Nowhere Boy (2009) | "
This study of a boy damaged by loss yet determined to honour his talent strikes a mighty chord, and marks a hugely promising feature debut." — Independent Posted Dec 18, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Fresh 79%
| Unmade Beds (2009) | "
Rumpled, vague and possibly a bit whiffy." — Independent Posted Dec 11, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 11%
| The Stepfather (2009) | "
Fond memories of Joseph Ruben's thrillingly unpleasant B-movie of 1987 will be offended by this bland and almost blood-free remake." — Independent Posted Dec 11, 2009 |
Fresh 5/5
| Fresh 97%
| The Red Shoes (1948) | "
It has a quicksilver grace and variation of mood unlike anything else you've seen." — Independent Posted Dec 11, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 39%
| The Limits of Control (2009) | "
Jarmusch's characteristic indifference to narrative excitement makes it hard to love and may indeed return you to being agnostic." — Independent Posted Dec 11, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Fresh 62%
| Carriers (2009) | "
A queasy mixture of survivalist machismo and mawkish piety." — Independent Posted Dec 11, 2009 |
Rotten 1/5
| Fresh 73%
| Where the Wild Things Are (2009) | "
I have no idea what Jonze and Eggers are trying to say here, either to children or to adults, but it's difficult to imagine how they could have made a more tedious and exasperating attempt at it." — Independent Posted Dec 11, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 23%
| 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 64%
| 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 83%
| 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 63%
| 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 84%
| 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 50%
| 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 33%
| 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 44%
| 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 77%
| 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 88%
| 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 21%
| 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 39%
| 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 84%
| 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 82%
| 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 65%
| 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 95%
| 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 |
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