Fresh B+
| Fresh 64%
| Watchmen (2009) | "
Fans of the 1986 graphic novel Watchmen should be pleased with the eye-filling, slavishly faithful, long-time-coming film version that opens today and threatens to become the first true movie event of 2009." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Mar 5, 2009 |
Fresh A-
| Rotten 56%
| Defiance (2008) | "
An absorbing family saga, a thrilling combat movie and a backwoods epic that conveys the feel of a frontier-community-under-duress with the vividness of a John Ford classic." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Jan 16, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 98%
| The Wrestler (2008) | "
It's bleak, credulity straining and often stomach-turning, but it definitely works as a heart-tugging character study, and Rourke's performance as the has-been title character is golden." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Jan 8, 2009 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 69%
| Revolutionary Road (2008) | "
It is as fascinating as a train wreck, as well as the most sensitive, wryly compassionate, immaculately acted and uncannily real a movie portrait of a dysfunctional marriage as I can remember seeing since Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Jan 5, 2009 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 62%
| The Reader (2008) | "
With its probing script by David Hare, painterly camerawork by Chris Menges and Roger Deakins, confident direction by Stephen Daldry and impeccable supporting performances, every frame of the movie screams filmmaking excellence." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Dec 29, 2008 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 79%
| Gran Torino (2008) | "
An enjoyable movie hybrid that's part politically incorrect comedy, part vigilante action movie and part smiley-face parable of urban American multiculturalism." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Dec 29, 2008 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 72%
| The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) | "
It has been a while since mainstream Hollywood has come up with a big-budget, big-star vehicle as unique, audacious and rewarding as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Dec 29, 2008 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 60%
| Valkyrie (2008) | "
Valkyrie is a highly intelligent and deeply engrossing historical drama and, frame for frame, the year's most suspenseful nail-biter." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Dec 29, 2008 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 78%
| Doubt (2008) | "
The film's added enigma makes the play's title even more appropriate, but it results in a more ambiguous and perhaps less satisfying dramatic experience." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Dec 19, 2008 |
Fresh B+
| Rotten 27%
| Seven Pounds (2008) | "
If you're in the market for a quality tearjerker, my advice is to stop reading this review now, avoid the film's revealing trailers and go see it with as blank a slate as possible." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Dec 19, 2008 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 92%
| Frost/Nixon (2008) | "
When it comes to modern political docudramas, British writer Peter Morgan is the man with the golden touch." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Dec 12, 2008 |
Fresh B-
| Rotten 20%
| The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) | "
It's a decent enough stab at being what the old movie was to its time, following the same basic plot, full of respectful references to its model, updated with a gallery of fairly imaginative special effects." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Dec 12, 2008 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 100%
| Great Speeches From a Dying World (2009) | "
This gritty, unflinching documentary by Linas Phillips traces the misfortunes of 10 of Seattle's hard-core homeless over a period of a year." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Dec 4, 2008 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 91%
| Stranded (2008) | "
The movie far outdistances the two earlier, partially fictionalized film accounts of the incident and goes against expectations at every turn to be an eerie, unsettling and strangely inspiring survival epic." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Dec 4, 2008 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 94%
| Milk (2008) | "
It feels authentic in every frame." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Nov 26, 2008 |
Fresh B-
| Rotten 54%
| Australia (2008) | "
Australia offers plenty of fun, and parades more spectacle, sweeping camera movement and gushy sentimental romance than can possibly be absorbed in 2 ½ hours." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Nov 26, 2008 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 94%
| Slumdog Millionaire (2008) | "
The movie is buoyed by a rich, life-affirming vision of ancient verities in a Brave New Third World that fairly sweeps us away." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Nov 21, 2008 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 65%
| Quantum of Solace (2008) | "
Craig's coldblooded charisma carries almost every scene." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Nov 13, 2008 |
Rotten C
| Rotten 45%
| Soul Men (2008) | "
All told, Soul Men is not much of a legacy for Mac or anyone else, but he's sporadically endearing in the role." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Nov 6, 2008 |
Rotten C+
| Rotten 59%
| RocknRolla (2008) | "
It's wincingly dated, playing like a Cockney remake of Pulp Fiction, with no new ideas and so cartoonish in style that it's difficult to emotionally connect with anything that's going on." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Oct 31, 2008 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 92%
| Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) | "
It's rather grim, the laughs are few, and the only lesson it teaches is that, for all its sins, Hollywood is much better at making this kind of life-affirming Pollyanna movie." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Oct 23, 2008 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 61%
| Changeling (2008) | "
The 78-year old director continues his prolific streak of directing success with yet another highly crafted, uniformly well-acted, fearlessly gut-wrenching drama that bears his personal stamp on every frame." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Oct 23, 2008 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 82%
| Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) | "
Clearly, Allen has been inspired by his location, and his film also serves as an evocative travelogue of Spain's most magical city." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Oct 18, 2008 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 100%
| Man On Wire (2008) | "
Director James Marsh assembles this material into an offbeat but often unbearably exciting heist movie -- a white-knuckle ride of a thriller that can stand up against such classics of the genre as Rififi, Topkapi and Robbery." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Oct 18, 2008 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 90%
| The Grocer's Son (2008) | "
Anyone who takes a chance on this unpromising import will be richly rewarded." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Oct 18, 2008 |
Fresh B-
| Rotten 37%
| Henry Poole Is Here (2008) | "
Wilson plays disillusionment convincingly, the supporting cast (especially Barraza) is golden, and director Mark Pellington has just the right touch to bring off a teary-eyed inspirational drama." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Oct 18, 2008 |
Fresh B
| Rotten 29%
| Morning Light (2008) | "
It's extremely good at communicating the joy of sailing, of putting its finger on the unique aesthetic appeal it offers its addicts and of making us believe that it is a precious gift that will enhance the future of these young people." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Oct 17, 2008 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 60%
| W. (2008) | "
It leaves us with a sense that it has nailed the man and the spirit of those around him and defined the New Millennium tragedy of America in a succinct and dramatic way." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Oct 17, 2008 |
Fresh B
| Rotten 50%
| City of Ember (2008) | "
A first-rate, no-nonsense adventure saga that plays nicely off the timely idea that energy is finite and precious." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Oct 10, 2008 |
Fresh B
| Rotten 51%
| Body of Lies (2008) | "
It's a Mideast thriller pulsing with suspense, shootouts, explosions, flashy movie-star performances and the kind of evocative atmosphere that has made director Ridley Scott famous." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Oct 10, 2008 |
Fresh B
| Rotten 52%
| Allah Made Me Funny (2008) | "
The routines are so clean they could have played on the Ed Sullivan show in the '50s -- which is refreshing and so old it seems new." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Oct 2, 2008 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 70%
| Religulous (2008) | "
It's an unstructured, scatter-gun attack, with Maher's cynical wit piercing the pretensions of one true believer after another, and director Larry Charles punctuating the encounters with cuts to Maher's vintage stand-up routines." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Oct 2, 2008 |
Rotten C+
| Rotten 40%
| Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008) | "
Like most recent Disney movies, this one has way too much going on in it, as if the producers were assuaging their distrust of the premise with meandering subplots and unnecessary characters." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Oct 2, 2008 |
Fresh A-
| Rotten 58%
| Flash of Genius (2008) | "
There's definitely hope for an industry that can still make a movie as good as Flash of Genius about a subject as difficult as intellectual property rights." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Oct 2, 2008 |
Rotten C+
| Rotten 30%
| Nights in Rodanthe (2008) | "
Despite the basic likability of the stars, that crucial chemistry is not sizzling or even hugely compelling, their situation seems slightly contrived and the movie is somehow not half as emotionally involving as it needs to be." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Sep 26, 2008 |
Fresh B
| Rotten 27%
| Eagle Eye (2008) | "
[Director Caruso] has done a masterful job of maintaining suspense, keeping the stunts mind-blowing and dressing the visuals in the bleak hues and gritty style of a '70s paranoid thriller." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Sep 26, 2008 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 80%
| Trumbo (2008) | "
Of all the many narrative films and documentaries that have been made about the Hollywood blacklist, none has more intimately captured what it must have been like to live through that sordid time." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Sep 11, 2008 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 60%
| Traitor (2008) | "
A tough, taut, mostly well-executed morality parable and thriller that explores some of the bitter ironies of this strange religious vendetta in which America unwittingly finds itself." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Aug 26, 2008 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 63%
| Hamlet 2 (2008) | "
Frequently amusing and consistently outrageous but ultimately tiresome." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Aug 22, 2008 |
Fresh B-
| Rotten 43%
| Death Race (2008) | "
The story gets conviction off the performances of Statham and Allen and anyone looking for an end-of-summer crunchathon has definitely come to the right place." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Aug 22, 2008 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 82%
| Tropic Thunder (2008) | "
The movie is disgusting enough for the low-humor crowd, and yet witty and biting enough to be a guilty pleasure for everyone else." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Aug 12, 2008 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 74%
| Elegy (2008) | "
An absorbing but somber drama." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Aug 11, 2008 |
Rotten D-
| Rotten 11%
| Hell Ride (2008) | "
Hell Ride is storytelling at its worst: the thinnest possible excuse for a wall-to-wall string of beheadings, throat-cuttings, mass murders and orgies, shot and edited in a murky, lackluster, faux-Spaghetti Western style." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Aug 8, 2008 |
Rotten D
| Rotten 48%
| Bottle Shock (2008) | "
The movie is simply not very good." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Aug 6, 2008 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 71%
| American Teen (2008) | "
Faux-doc or not, Burstein's film is funny and engaging, and it gives us an amazing intimacy and identification with these characters as it skillfully strips away the layers of their cliched teenage stereotypes to reveal the true person beneath." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Aug 1, 2008 |
Rotten C+
| Rotten 14%
| The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) | "
It's just colossally dumb. With the lamest of humor and nothing to engage the intellect in even a tiny way, it soon becomes repetitious and dull." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Aug 1, 2008 |
Fresh B
| Rotten 37%
| Swing Vote (2008) | "
It's a clever idea for a lampoon and the movie has some fun with it, especially in the scenes that show us how willing and eager the candidates are to shade or reverse their positions on ANY issue at the slightest hint it might please [Bud]." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Aug 1, 2008 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 86%
| Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (2008) | "
It's altogether as fascinating as a train wreck, and Gibney makes a convincing argument that Thompson was a true American original and an important literary figure shaped by the idealism, romanticism, politics and drug culture of the '60s." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Jul 28, 2008 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 65%
| Brideshead Revisited (2008) | "
It offers excellent performances by Whishaw, the always-reliable Gambon and especially Thompson as the strong, brittle, stubbornly Catholic dowager figure." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Jul 24, 2008 |
Fresh
| Fresh 94%
| Last Year at Marienbad (1961) | "
Love it or hate it, no one's cinematic education is complete without having taken this baffling, haunting, uniquely challenging movie ride." — Seattle Post-Intelligencer Posted Jul 18, 2008 |
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