Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 65%
| Public Enemies (2009) | "
Public Enemies has everything going for it except a reason and a script." — Boston Globe Posted Jun 30, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 45%
| Whatever Works (2009) | "
Whatever Works would have only worked if its director had written his trademark self-caricature out of it." — Boston Globe Posted Jun 25, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 51%
| Cheri (2009) | "
If the movie were better -- less swoony, more relentless -- it might be unbearable to watch. As it is, Cheri touches on the insecure egotism of courtesans and movie stars with a knowing firmness." — Boston Globe Posted Jun 25, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 44%
| My Sister's Keeper (2009) | "
This book hasn’t been adapted, it’s been taken outside and shot." — Boston Globe Posted Jun 25, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 19%
| Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) | "
So what if he can’t put a coherent series of shots together? Bay’s going for pure sensation, and everyone knows dramatic continuity is for women and the weak." — Boston Globe Posted Jun 23, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 72%
| Departures (2009) | "
This is the kind of tastefully poignant drama that asks its audience to confront taboos and then pats them on the back for doing so." — Boston Globe Posted Jun 18, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 89%
| Burma VJ (2009) | "
Even as the news-gathering apparatus in the US and elsewhere falters under the weight of new technology and outdated business models, Burma VJ is a fresh reminder that reporters can and must serve as a necessary Paine in the rear." — Boston Globe Posted Jun 18, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 83%
| Treeless Mountain (2009) | "
Treeless Mountain casts a sad, pellucid spell. It looks at life from three feet off the ground and meets the hardening gaze of its 6-year-old protagonist head on." — Boston Globe Posted Jun 18, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 17%
| Year One (2009) | "
Any good will the movie generates is grated right back off by Black, whose obnoxiousness has lost whatever charm it once possessed." — Boston Globe Posted Jun 18, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 87%
| O'Horten (2009) | "
O'Horten is a precise, deadpan drama of slapstick existentialism -- a Bent Hamer movie, in other words." — Boston Globe Posted Jun 11, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 50%
| The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009) | "
The new Pelham is a solid, suspenseful tale all over again, so long as it stays in the subway tunnels and airless offices of the transit department." — Boston Globe Posted Jun 11, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 78%
| The Hangover (2009) | "
The latest in the wave of post-Judd Apatow Bad Lad comedies, The Hangover is rowdy, scurrilous, and, for about three-quarters of its running time, a lot more hilarious than it has any right to be." — Boston Globe Posted Jun 4, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 28%
| Land of the Lost (2009) | "
Genially terrible, Lost is lazy, sloppy multiplex filler, good for a few solid giggles and not much more." — Boston Globe Posted Jun 4, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 50%
| Easy Virtue (2009) | "
Those coming in cold may be forgiven for thinking they've wandered into Atonement remade as a farce." — Boston Globe Posted May 28, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 97%
| Up (2009) | "
Because the movie's grounded, it's free to fly where it wants, and it does so with an exuberance and poignancy that at times feels majestic." — Boston Globe Posted May 28, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Rotten 58%
| The Girlfriend Experience (2009) | "
What could seem an empty stylistic exercise (and was, in the director's 2002 Full Frontal) serves to bring a fresh urgency to the tale, ultimately granting the audience a wisdom and perspective the characters never possess." — Boston Globe Posted May 21, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 25%
| Little Ashes (2009) | "
What's intended to be a daring look at repressed sexuality, three-ways and all, has the dramatic heft of a true-love comic book." — Boston Globe Posted May 21, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 44%
| Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009) | "
It's bigger, noisier, shinier, and dumber, and it has no earthly reason to exist." — Boston Globe Posted May 21, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 63%
| The Brothers Bloom (2009) | "
A con game about con games, the second film from writer-director Rian Johnson is breezily enjoyable for about 10 minutes, until you realize the entire movie is going to be pitched at the same exuberantly manic pace." — Boston Globe Posted May 21, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 32%
| Terminator Salvation (2009) | "
The latest installment in the venerable sci-fi action franchise turns out to be a straight-up war film, grim and muscular and thundering and joyless. It's the color of cement, and it weighs as much, too." — Boston Globe Posted May 21, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 47%
| Management (2009) | "
Sometimes a cute-stalker movie can win the audience's heart. Management only makes you ponder the line between true love and a restraining order." — Boston Globe Posted May 15, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 75%
| Adoration (2009) | "
Watching Adoration is like juggling three tennis balls, a porcupine, and a graduate thesis, but eventually it finds a unifying theme, that of tolerance melting away racial and intergenerational hatreds." — Boston Globe Posted May 14, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 70%
| Rudo and Cursi (2009) | "
Rudo y Cursi is a grave and calculated affront to the men of Mexico, and that's the source of its roistering charm." — Boston Globe Posted May 14, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 96%
| Tulpan (2008) | "
Sergei Dvortsevoy's remarkable film is fiction, but the characters are played by people more or less playing themselves, and each actor brings a rough charisma to the film." — Boston Globe Posted May 14, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 33%
| The Limits of Control (2009) | "
With The Limits of Control, [Jim Jarmusch] has come up with a dud." — Boston Globe Posted May 7, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 67%
| The Merry Gentleman (2009) | "
An overly muted and cautious piece of work. Watching it is like seeing a man ease out onto the limb of a tree, constantly testing its strength." — Boston Globe Posted May 7, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 95%
| Star Trek (2009) | "
Trading on affections sustained over 40 years of popular culture, Star Trek does what a franchise reboot rarely does. It reminds us why we loved these characters in the first place." — Boston Globe Posted May 6, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 67%
| Is Anybody There? (2009) | "
To answer the question put forth by the title of Is Anybody There?: Michael Caine is there, single-handedly lifting a soggy bit of coming-of-age whimsy into the category of the watchable." — Boston Globe Posted Apr 30, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 28%
| Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009) | "
Ghosts is better-than-average McConaughey swill, but not by much -- that's its pleasure and its curse." — Boston Globe Posted Apr 30, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 92%
| The Lemon Tree (2008) | "
The movie's worth seeing for Abbass." — Boston Globe Posted Apr 30, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 86%
| Tyson (2009) | "
Tyson is terrifically compelling and, more than that, unexpectedly moving." — Boston Globe Posted Apr 30, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 38%
| Gigantic (2008) | "
Gigantic plays like a Sundance movie with half the nouns removed; fetchingly cryptic for a while, it's ultimately just obscure." — Boston Globe Posted Apr 23, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 15%
| The Informers (2009) | "
The piece had better have something fresh to say. The Informers doesn't, nor does it seem to want to." — Boston Globe Posted Apr 23, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 89%
| Z (1969) | "
In its slick cinematic urgency and its outrage, Z still has the power to shake you up." — Boston Globe Posted Apr 23, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 55%
| The Soloist (2009) | "
The movie, for all its flaws, reminds us that everyone is worth catching, but it's the actors who best embody that message. They go the full human being." — Boston Globe Posted Apr 23, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 76%
| Shall We Kiss? (2008) | "
It's an ode to the absurdity of attraction." — Boston Globe Posted Apr 16, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 98%
| Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2009) | "
Anvil! is one of the sweetest, funniest films I've seen this year. Also the loudest and most foulmouthed." — Boston Globe Posted Apr 16, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 56%
| 17 Again (2009) | "
17 Again is product, loaded with high fructose corn syrup so the girls will like it, and as meaningful as an afternoon at the mall." — Boston Globe Posted Apr 16, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 74%
| Virtual JFK (2008) | "
Fascinating stuff, but after a while the film runs out of things to say and falls back on clichés." — Boston Globe Posted Apr 9, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 74%
| Tokyo! (2009) | "
If you've seen Paris, je t'aime or New York Stories, you know the rate of return on these urban omnibuses is variable, and so it is here. Go in expecting minor pleasures and you'll be fine." — Boston Globe Posted Apr 9, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| N/A | Scenes From a Parish (2009) | "
It raises more questions about the church's place in a changing world -- and touches more emotions doing so -- than any big-budget studio folderol." — Boston Globe Posted Apr 9, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 93%
| The Betrayal (2008) | "
Self-consciously poetic and shot within a luscious inch of its life, the film's also an engrossing heartbreaker: a family saga that spans continents, political administrations, and decades of travail to arrive at a harder, wiser place." — Boston Globe Posted Apr 9, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 93%
| Sugar (2009) | "
In its unhurried fashion, Sugar can take its place with the best baseball movies. Where most focus on the grand slam, this one's about the life that surrounds the game and everything that comes after." — Boston Globe Posted Apr 9, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 33%
| The Edge of Love (2009) | "
This may be Knightley's first truly mature performance. Too bad it arrives wrapped in doggerel." — Boston Globe Posted Apr 2, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 92%
| The Black Balloon (2008) | "
Structurally and cinematically, The Black Balloon sticks to the coming-of-age basics, but [director] Down has a gift for conveying time and place." — Boston Globe Posted Apr 2, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 89%
| Everlasting Moments (2009) | "
[Director] Troell lovingly re-creates a time when socialism and Charlie Chaplin movies represented the ways forward, and he anchors his social panorama in the meek, stubborn stare of an unnoticed woman possessed with looking at everything." — Boston Globe Posted Apr 2, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 35%
| Alien Trespass (2009) | "
Alien Trespass could be the latest bulletin from Mystery Science Theatre 3000 except that we're the silhouetted heads and the filmmakers are sitting right there next to us." — Boston Globe Posted Apr 2, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 77%
| Just Another Love Story (2009) | "
It's good, nasty fun until it gets boxed in by its own contrivances toward the end." — Boston Globe Posted Mar 26, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 90%
| Hunger (2008) | "
A visually ravishing tour of hell and a meditation on freedom that at best is wordlessly profound and at worst interestingly obscure." — Boston Globe Posted Mar 26, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 72%
| Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) | "
The latest computer-animated production from DreamWorks is a perfectly acceptable family movie." — Boston Globe Posted Mar 26, 2009 |
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