Rotten
| Rotten 23%
| Valentine's Day (2010) | "
As gooey and lacking in protein as a chocolate holiday bonbon, Valentine's Day plays like a feature-length commercial produced by the Friends of the Valentine Promotional Society." — Variety Posted Feb 8, 2010 |
Fresh
| N/A | Extra Man (2010) | "
Although too devoted to matters literary, theatrical, operatic and sexually outre to make it with general audiences, this adaptation of Jonathan Ames' novel exudes the sort of smarts and sophisticated charm specialized audiences seek." — Variety Posted Jan 28, 2010 |
— | N/A | Blue Valentine (2010) |
Click here to read article — Variety Posted Jan 27, 2010 |
Rotten
| Rotten 38%
| The Killer Inside Me (2010) | "
This Killer lacks punch, dynamism and genuinely seedy atmosphere." — Variety Posted Jan 26, 2010 |
Fresh
| N/A | Nuummioq (2010) | "
As it is, the pic is marked by a fleet editing style that skips from moment to moment while still allowing the story's meditative aspects to take hold." — Variety Posted Jan 26, 2010 |
Fresh
| N/A | Jack Goes Boating (2010) | "
Hoffman brings a sympathetic touch to a small dramatic piece that recalls the warm-hearted "little people" dramas of the '50s." — Variety Posted Jan 25, 2010 |
Rotten
| Fresh 83%
| Hesher (2010) | "
The problem with the script by Susser and David Michod, working from a story by Brian Charles Frank, is that Hesher's uncouth behavior is so aggressively pushed to single-minded, crudely exploitative effect." — Variety Posted Jan 25, 2010 |
Rotten
| Rotten 45%
| The Book of Eli (2010) | "
Iconically effective as a single-minded messenger with a mission, Washington's Eli is ultimately too confined by the man-of-few-words movie norms he's saddled with." — Variety Posted Jan 11, 2010 |
Rotten
| Fresh 90%
| Malcolm X (1992) | "
Spike Lee has made a disappointingly conventional and sluggish film in Malcolm X." — Variety Posted Jan 6, 2010 |
— | Rotten 44%
| XX/XY (2003) |
Click here to read article — Variety Posted Dec 25, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 68%
| Sherlock Holmes (2009) | "
If you can get over the idea of Sherlock Holmes as an action hero -- and if, indeed, you want to -- then there is something to enjoy about this flagrant makeover of fiction's first modern detective into a man of brawn as much as brain." — Variety Posted Dec 16, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 82%
| Avatar (2009) | "
The King of the World sets his sights on creating another world entirely in Avatar, and it's very much a place worth visiting." — Variety Posted Dec 10, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 58%
| It's Complicated (2009) | "
Cute and clever though the plot may be, everything is played out in the broadest possible terms without an iota of nuance or subtlety." — Variety Posted Dec 10, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 37%
| Nine (2009) | "
Sophisticated, sexy and stylishly decked out, Rob Marshall's disciplined, tightly focused film impresses and amuses as it extravagantly renders the creative crisis of a middle-aged Italian director, circa 1965." — Variety Posted Dec 4, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 93%
| Crazy Heart (2009) | "
Playing a drunken, washed-up music legend reduced to playing small-town bowling alleys, Jeff Bridges is the whole show here as a cowboy-style crooner who wrestles with his demons in ways that easily engage an audience's sympathies." — Variety Posted Dec 3, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 77%
| Invictus (2009) | "
Inspirational on the face of it, Clint Eastwood's film has a predictable trajectory, but every scene brims with surprising details that accumulate into a rich fabric of history, cultural impressions and emotion." — Variety Posted Nov 29, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 36%
| The Lovely Bones (2009) | "
Jackson undermines solid work from a good cast with show-offy celestial evocations that severely disrupt the emotional connections with the characters." — Variety Posted Nov 24, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 23%
| 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 39%
| 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 55%
| 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 93%
| 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 73%
| 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 95%
| An Education (2009) | "
An Education is a wonderful film." — Variety Posted Oct 6, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 87%
| 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 40%
| 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 77%
| 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 90%
| 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 76%
| 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 85%
| 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 57%
| 9 (2009) | "
In the end, the picture's impact derives mostly from its design and assured execution." — Variety Posted Aug 18, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 22%
| 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 14%
| 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 66%
| 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 86%
| 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 89%
| 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 49%
| 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 |
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