Rotten 0/5
| Rotten 31%
| Ninja Assassin (2009) | "
Ninja Assassin, awash in a veritable flood of patently fake CG blood – some of which ends up bespotting the "camera," no less – feels like getting stuck on Level 1 of the 1992 beta version Mortal Kombat for two hours." — Austin Chronicle Posted Nov 25, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 71%
| The Road (2009) | "
Hillcoat's rendering of McCarthy's words can't be faulted for its visual replication of the author's grim picture of mankind's final days." — Austin Chronicle Posted Nov 25, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Rotten 50%
| Antichrist (2009) | "
Chaos reigns, indeed, but let's at least attempt to be as unflinchingly honest as von Trier: When has Chaos not?" — Austin Chronicle Posted Nov 20, 2009 |
Rotten 1/5
| Rotten 21%
| Planet 51 (2009) | "
Planet 51 is innocuous to the point of distraction." — Austin Chronicle Posted Nov 20, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/5
| Fresh 85%
| Flame & Citron (2008) | "
A drop-dead gorgeous period noir, rife with paranoia, femmes fatales, and good men inexorably sinking into the bloody mire and opaque texture of life (and death) during wartime." — Austin Chronicle Posted Nov 13, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 38%
| 2012 (2009) | "
Thrilling, ridiculous (the script, by Emmerich and longtime co-writer Harald Kloser, is riddled with howlingly goofy lines and seriously improbable deus-ex-machina moments), and just plain big, dumb fun." — Austin Chronicle Posted Nov 12, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/5
| Rotten 47%
| Ong Bak 2 (2009) | "
Lovely to look at by small degrees, but a mud-spattered mess of a movie overall." — Austin Chronicle Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/5
| Fresh 93%
| The Damned United (2009) | "
Tou don't need to know your Arsenal from your Hull to appreciate the one fact of life that Clough learns too late: Pride comes before a fall, and the pitch provides no safe haven from the excesses of the self." — Austin Chronicle Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 18%
| The Fourth Kind (2009) | "
It's patently hokey material, but then these are patently hokey times." — Austin Chronicle Posted Nov 5, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 87%
| The House of the Devil (2009) | "
Part of the film's off-kilter surreality comes from its retro look, tone, cinematography, and even music." — Austin Chronicle Posted Oct 30, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/5
| Fresh 80%
| Earth Days (2009) | "
Considering the environmental glass houses we've constructed around us, one comes away from Earth Days wondering if it's not past time for some bricks to be slung, metaphorical or otherwise." — Austin Chronicle Posted Oct 30, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/5
| Rotten 49%
| Astro Boy (2009) | "
It's a totally serviceable reboot for young people who are just discovering the joys of manga, but I can't help but miss the raw animation and even rawer emotional aesthetics of Tezuka's original televised anime series." — Austin Chronicle Posted Oct 23, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Rotten 37%
| Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009) | "
There's plenty more going on in this artfully directed and fancifully acted anti-Twilight opening salvo, but suffice it to say that Weitz's film is simply the far more inventive and engrossing teen-vamp flick." — Austin Chronicle Posted Oct 23, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 100%
| Afghan Star (2009) | "
One of the more surreal docs to come down the pike in some time." — Austin Chronicle Posted Oct 16, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 24%
| Law Abiding Citizen (2009) | "
Somebody call Charles Bronson." — Austin Chronicle Posted Oct 15, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/5
| Fresh 83%
| A Woman in Berlin (2008) | "
That rarest of wartime dramas: an intimate, sorrowful glimpse into the heart and loins of the hellish aftermath of war." — Austin Chronicle Posted Oct 9, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 85%
| We Live in Public (2009) | "
Timoner, who also directed the now-classic rocker doc Dig!, makes a bold and trenchant argument, via Harris' pseudomorphically perverse life, that we are all now "slaves to little boxes," and it's true, Tweetpeeps, isn't it?" — Austin Chronicle Posted Oct 9, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/5
| Fresh 89%
| Séraphine (2008) | "
Séraphine, an outsider artist before the term was invented, is both a cautionary tale for contemporay artists of all and sundry media and a genuinely moving portrait of the artist as a young(ish) scullery maid." — Austin Chronicle Posted Oct 9, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 81%
| Beeswax (2009) | "
Everyone is a full-grown adult dealing with all which that entails, and both the characters and the film's easygoing rhythms are, remarkably, true to life and love lost, or found." — Austin Chronicle Posted Oct 9, 2009 |
Rotten 0/5
| Fresh 82%
| Paranormal Activity (2009) | "
An excruciatingly tedious YouTube gag cleverly marketed to go viral in the broadest and most box office-friendly way." — Austin Chronicle Posted Oct 9, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 93%
| Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg (2009) | "
Kempner marshals an impressive lineup of both Berg and Goldberg fans to underscore the irrefutable significance of her subject." — Austin Chronicle Posted Oct 2, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 89%
| Zombieland (2009) | "
Debuting director Fleischer's action-and-innards-drenched film dials it all up to 11 from the opening credits sequence." — Austin Chronicle Posted Oct 1, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/5
| Rotten 22%
| I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell (2009) | "
There are moments of rough comic brilliance scattered throughout, but really, this particular antihero is all anti- and zero hero." — Austin Chronicle Posted Sep 25, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 86%
| The Baader Meinhof Complex (2009) | "
Edel uses documentary tropes to realize his overarching narrative, and the end result is an electrifying, morally complex story of the evil that men (and women) do in the name of the greater good." — Austin Chronicle Posted Sep 25, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 88%
| Amreeka (2009) | "
Faour, in an Oscar-worthy performance, renders Muna in shades of love and hope." — Austin Chronicle Posted Sep 25, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Fresh 78%
| It Might Get Loud (2009) | "
The film's very title is a tease, however: It never gets all that loud, and you might doze off after 30 minutes of watching this unwieldy power trio." — Austin Chronicle Posted Sep 11, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/5
| Rotten 57%
| 9 (2009) | "
It's hard to tell what the moral message is, other than "it's good to work together to achieve your goals" or "don't press random buttons unless you know what they might do."" — Austin Chronicle Posted Sep 10, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/5
| Fresh 81%
| Departures (2009) | "
The film's tone lies, appropriately, somewhere between life, death, and the inadvertent humor that comes from finally accepting the yin/yang perfection of both and getting on with what comes between." — Austin Chronicle Posted Aug 28, 2009 |
Rotten 0/5
| Rotten 9%
| Post Grad (2009) | "
No one in the cast, not even the great Carol Burnett, makes much of an impression in a film that virtually defines the word 'unnecessary,' but it does manage to pull double duty as one heck of a sleep aid." — Austin Chronicle Posted Aug 20, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Fresh 88%
| Inglourious Basterds (2009) | "
For all its stylistic flourishes and interlocking storylines, Inglourious Basterds is, at its bullet-riddled core, a bloody good war movie, twisting and twisted and full of wordy shrapnel but no less kickass for it." — Austin Chronicle Posted Aug 20, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 90%
| District 9 (2009) | "
District 9 is a wrenching, riveting, occasionally violent, often heartbreaking, and, above all, socially conscious science-fiction film featuring seamlessly integrated CGI effects alongside flat-out perfect performances." — Austin Chronicle Posted Aug 13, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/5
| Rotten 58%
| A Perfect Getaway (2009) | "
The entire third act is an exercise in manic, flashbacky histrionics -- but Zahn and Olyphant's mismatched machismo and the bizarre mystery at the heart of the story do score high marks for exceptional and thoroughly engrossing weirdness." — Austin Chronicle Posted Aug 7, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/5
| Fresh 89%
| O'Horten (2009) | "
A spare and perfectly droll kinda-sorta comedy." — Austin Chronicle Posted Aug 7, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Fresh 81%
| Unmistaken Child (2009) | "
Who knew reincarnation could be such a lovely snooze?" — Austin Chronicle Posted Jul 31, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/5
| Rotten 25%
| The Collector (2009) | "
The Collector feels like the final, welcome nail in the bizarrely popular torture-porn coffin." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jul 31, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 47%
| The Girl From Monaco (2009) | "
Like its protagonist, you end up with plenty to think about, puzzle over, and forget." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jul 10, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/5
| Fresh 67%
| Bruno (2009) | "
Brüno never comes close to the inspired comic/cultural lunacy of Borat, or even the dunderhead fearlessness of Ali G." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jul 10, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/5
| Rotten 56%
| Enlighten Up! (2009) | "
While Enlighten Up! is ultimately just a surface look at yoga, it's still interesting, if not exactly enlightening, to watch the true believer and the jaded New York journo clash their way down the road to, one hopes, some sort of spiritual resolution." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jun 19, 2009 |
Rotten 1/5
| Rotten 51%
| The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009) | "
There's precious little that’s memorable or even exciting about this new, annoying Pelham, which goes off the rails early on and never recovers." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jun 11, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Rotten 38%
| Imagine That (2009) | "
Imagine That is an innocuous, at times charming and frequently sweet, family film with engaging performances, a straightforward moral for parents everywhere, and enough genuine giggles to keep both parents and their young charges amused." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jun 11, 2009 |
Rotten 1/5
| Rotten 25%
| Land of the Lost (2009) | "
Land of the Lost is, unfortunately, a perfect example of studio bloat: It's all noise and flash and chaos, but it lacks virtually everything that made the original television series so memorable." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jun 4, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 92%
| Drag Me To Hell (2009) | "
Drag Me to Hell never quite hits the psychotronic heights of Evil Dead II, but, in the interim, the director has honed his skills to a razor's edge in the creation of nerve-racking suspense and jarring shocks." — Austin Chronicle Posted May 28, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/5
| Rotten 32%
| Terminator Salvation (2009) | "
The film is just like its machines, which, by the end of McG's McBlockbuster deserve to win their war against humanity, if only to curtail, once and for all, uninspired and inhumanly mechanistic filmmaking such as this." — Austin Chronicle Posted May 20, 2009 |
Rotten 0.5/5
| Rotten 22%
| Next Day Air (2009) | "
Consistently unremarkable from its dullsville title on down." — Austin Chronicle Posted May 14, 2009 |
Fresh 4/5
| Fresh 95%
| Star Trek (2009) | "
An immensely satisfying origin story that, narratively, goes all the way back to James Tiberius Kirk's corn-fed and hotheaded Iowa youth before introducing, one by one, the characters we know -- before we knew them." — Austin Chronicle Posted May 7, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Rotten 41%
| Fighting (2009) | "
A sad-solid TKO." — Austin Chronicle Posted May 1, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Fresh 66%
| Is Anybody There? (2009) | "
Abracadabra, indeed." — Austin Chronicle Posted Apr 30, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Rotten 47%
| Battle for Terra (2009) | "
Battle for Terra boasts impressively executed battle sequences that, frankly, are light-years beyond anything found in the recent Star Wars animated add-ons." — Austin Chronicle Posted Apr 30, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/5
| Rotten 59%
| Paris 36 (2008) | "
Oh, the ennui, the ennui." — Austin Chronicle Posted Apr 24, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 38%
| Gigantic (2008) | "
It's just not all that interesting to watch two pretty young things go through the muddled rituals of the pas de duh when I can, you know, do it just as poorly myself." — Austin Chronicle Posted Apr 24, 2009 |
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