Rotten
| Rotten 19%
| Planet 51 (2009) | "
A high concept gets low execution in Planet 51, a lame-brained toon that even kids will recognize as an insipid goof on sci-fi conventions." — Variety Posted Nov 16, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 37%
| 2012 (2009) | "
On any level other than as sheer visual sensation, 2012 is a joke, for the simple reason that it has no point of view." — Variety Posted Nov 10, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 56%
| Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009) | "
Shortchanging traditional animation by literalizing it while robbing actors of their full range of facial expressiveness, the performance-capture technique favored by director Robert Zemeckis looks more than ever like the emperor's new clothes." — Variety Posted Nov 3, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 91%
| Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) | "
The film achieves a feel that is at once coarse-grained and elegant, antiquated and the height of fashion." — Variety Posted Oct 14, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 70%
| Where the Wild Things Are (2009) | "
Director Spike Jonze's sharp instincts and vibrant visual style can't quite compensate for the lack of narrative eventfulness that increasingly bogs down this bright-minded picture." — Variety Posted Oct 12, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 94%
| An Education (2009) | "
An Education is a wonderful film." — Variety Posted Oct 6, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 86%
| A Serious Man (2009) | "
A Serious Man is the kind of picture you get to make after you've won an Oscar." — Variety Posted Oct 2, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 39%
| Surrogates (2009) | "
A film about robots that might find its biggest fans among Luddites, Surrogates is an intense and eerily plausible sci-fi thriller." — Variety Posted Sep 24, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 76%
| The Informant! (2009) | "
The pic showcases an excellent performance by a chubbed-out Matt Damon as a Midwestern executive who's so smart he's dumb." — Variety Posted Sep 9, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 4%
| The Mod Squad (1999) | "
This latest bigscreen retrofitting of a vintage TV series (1968-73) feels like the most shameless effort yet in the renewed exploitation of the youth market." — Variety Posted Sep 9, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 95%
| Up in the Air (2009) | "
A slickly engaging piece of lightweight existentialism highlighted by winning turns from George Clooney and Vera Farmiga." — Variety Posted Sep 8, 2009 |
— | Fresh 65%
| Out of Time (2003) |
Click here to read article — Variety Posted Sep 8, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 75%
| The Road (2009) | "
Except for the physical aspects of this bleak odyssey by a father and son through a post-apocalyptic landscape, this long-delayed production falls dispiritingly short on every front." — Variety Posted Sep 3, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 84%
| Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) | "
The film is offbeat, silly, disarming and loopy all at the same time, and viewers will decide to ride with that or just give up on it, according to mood and disposition." — Variety Posted Sep 3, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 56%
| 9 (2009) | "
In the end, the picture's impact derives mostly from its design and assured execution." — Variety Posted Aug 18, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 14%
| Spread (2009) | "
The pic reveals the palpable pressure to resolve matters pressing heavily on a screenwriter who opted for an unsatisfactory shortcut to an ending." — Variety Posted Aug 13, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 68%
| Funny People (2009) | "
Amusing and engaging yet lacking in snap and cohesion." — Variety Posted Jul 25, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 55%
| Orphan (2009) | "
Teasingly enjoyable rubbish through the first hour, Orphan becomes genuine trash during its protracted second half." — Variety Posted Jul 22, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 8%
| Burn Hollywood Burn (1997) | "
A caustic but under-funny "expose" of the venality of the motion picture business." — Variety Posted Jul 20, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 15%
| The Ugly Truth (2009) | "
It’s an odd, far-fetched twist on the Pygmalion story, with the modern angle of poking holes in political correctness, one that might have been made marginally convincing by a dollop of backstory or psychology." — Variety Posted Jul 20, 2009 |
— | Rotten 23%
| Hard Rain (1998) |
Click here to read article — Variety Posted Jul 17, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 87%
| 500 Days of Summer (2009) | "
Boy gets girl and boy loses girl in convoluted, sometimes cloying but ultimately winning fashion in 500 Days of Summer." — Variety Posted Jul 16, 2009 |
— | Fresh 88%
| Catch-22 (1970) |
Click here to read article — Variety Posted Jul 14, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 83%
| Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) | "
Dazzlingly well made and perhaps deliberately less fanciful than the previous entries, this one is played in a mode closer to palpable life-or-death drama than any of the others and is quite effective as such." — Variety Posted Jul 6, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 67%
| Bruno (2009) | "
There is also a pronounced nasty streak to the innumerable provocations staged by the title character that curdles the laughs and wears out the flamboyant Austrian fashionista's welcome within the picture's brief 82-minute running time." — Variety Posted Jun 30, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 67%
| Public Enemies (2009) | "
Overall impact is muted. Oddly, too, the film is somewhat shortchanged by its great star, Johnny Depp, who disappointingly has chosen to play Dillinger as self-consciously cool rather than earthy and gregarious." — Variety Posted Jun 25, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 90%
| Speed (1994) | "
Athough it hits any number of gaping credibility potholes on its careening journey around Los Angeles, Speed delivers the goods as a non-stop actioner that scarcely pauses to take a breath." — Variety Posted Jun 14, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 52%
| The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009) | "
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 is an efficiently reworked version of a tense, ticking-clock suspense story." — Variety Posted Jun 8, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 65%
| The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) | "
The helmer has made a pretty good thing out of a very bad situation in "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus"." — Variety Posted May 22, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 89%
| The White Ribbon (2009) | "
Immaculately crafted in beautiful black-and-white and entirely absorbing through its longish running time." — Variety Posted May 22, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 88%
| Inglourious Basterds (2009) | "
By turns surprising, nutty, windy, audacious and a bit caught up in its own cleverness, the picture is a completely distinctive piece of American pop art with a strong Euro flavor that's new for the director." — Variety Posted May 20, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 50%
| Agora (2009) | "
The mother of all secular humanists fights a losing battle against freshly minted religious zealots in “Agora,” a visually imposing, high-minded epic." — Variety Posted May 18, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 48%
| Antichrist (2009) | "
Lars von Trier cuts a big fat art-film fart with "Antichrist." As if deliberately courting critical abuse, the Danish bad boy densely packs this theological-psychological horror opus with grotesque, self-consciously provocative images." — Variety Posted May 18, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 49%
| Taking Woodstock (2009) | "
A sort of let's-put-on-a-show summer-camp lark for director Ang Lee after the dramatic rigors of "Brokeback Mountain" and "Lust, Caution," the picture serves up intermittent pleasures but is too raggedy and laid-back for its own good." — Variety Posted May 16, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 83%
| Bright Star (2009) | "
Breaking through any period piece mustiness with piercing insight into the emotions and behavior of her characters." — Variety Posted May 15, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 68%
| Tetro (2009) | "
The angst-ridden treatment of Oedipal issues makes the picture play out like a passably talented imitation of O'Neill, Williams, Miller and Inge, and thus it feels like the pale product of an over-tilled field." — Variety Posted May 14, 2009 |
— | N/A | Vigo (1998) |
Click here to read article — Variety Posted May 6, 2009 |
— | Rotten 26%
| Anna Karenina (1997) |
Click here to read article — Variety Posted May 1, 2009 |
— | Fresh 83%
| Caught (1996) |
Click here to read article — Variety Posted Apr 29, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 27%
| Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009) | "
A second-rate sex farce...mostly clunky and vaguely unsavory." — Variety Posted Apr 27, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 95%
| Star Trek (2009) | "
Blasting onto the screen at warp speed and remaining there for two hours, the new and improved Star Trek will transport fans to sci-fi nirvana." — Variety Posted Apr 24, 2009 |
— | Fresh 63%
| Chaplin (1992) |
Click here to read article — Variety Posted Apr 24, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 98%
| Up (2009) | "
[Up] could easily have been cloying, but instead proves disarming in its deep reserves of narrative imagination and surprise, as well as its poignant thematic balance of dreams deferred and dreams fulfilled." — Variety Posted Apr 23, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 40%
| The Limits of Control (2009) | "
It just feels tired and recycled -- the referencing of Rimbaud and Blake, the flagrant hipsterism that here falsifies rather than refreshes...the above-it-all attitude toward connecting on a human level." — Variety Posted Apr 23, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 86%
| Tyson (2009) | "
Although straightforward in format, the film capitalizes on an obviously intense connection between filmmaker and subject with psychological acuity and emotional power." — Variety Posted Apr 23, 2009 |
— | Rotten 36%
| Boesman & Lena (2000) |
Click here to read article — Variety Posted Apr 17, 2009 |
— | N/A | Gamera - Guardian of the Universe (1995) |
Click here to read article — Variety Posted Apr 17, 2009 |
— | N/A | Too Tired To Die (1998) |
Click here to read article — Variety Posted Apr 17, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 55%
| The Soloist (2009) | "
Neither rarefied art film nor widely accessible inspirational drama, The Soloist falls between the cracks both creatively and commercially." — Variety Posted Apr 17, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 88%
| X2: X-Men United (2003) | "
Bigger and more ambitious in every respect, from its action and visceral qualities to its themes." — Variety Posted Apr 15, 2009 |
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