Fresh B
| Fresh 92%
| Skin (2009) | "
A powerful fact-based parable illustrating exactly how irrational and cruel racial bigotry is." Posted Nov 7, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Rotten 47%
| The Box (2009) | "
While visually arresting and peculiar enough to hold your interest, in the end it proves to be pretty empty inside." Posted Nov 5, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Rotten 56%
| The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009) | "
Offers just a few moderately amusing moments, and by and large proves curiously flat, despite all the talent on the screen." Posted Nov 5, 2009 |
Rotten F
| Rotten 15%
| The Fourth Kind (2009) | "
If you're gullible enough to accept the backstory given here, you're probably the sort of person who'll take Criswell's assurances that Plan 9 from Outer Space is based on sworn testimony at face value." Posted Nov 5, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Rotten 55%
| Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009) | "
Clear evidence of the limitations of the performance-capture method of animation and of the excesses it invites...there's more of artifice than art in it." Posted Nov 5, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 84%
| Flame & Citron (2008) | "
A suspenseful, often riverting drama of World War II resistance that combines old-fashioned virtues of craft and style with a more modern sense of nuance and complexity." Posted Oct 31, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 93%
| An Education (2009) | "
Takes what's essentially a soap-operatic plot and spins it into something very like cinematic gold...instructive about how a very familiar story can be given new vibrancy by filmmakers and actors working at peak form." Posted Oct 27, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 69%
| (Untitled) (2009) | "
The rare picture nowadays that takes satiric aim at the pomposity of the world of high art and hits the target, even if the blows are more often than not only glancing ones." Posted Oct 24, 2009 |
Rotten D+
| Rotten 37%
| Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009) | "
All winded wind-up and no dazzling follow-through. Hogwart's wizards have absolutely nothing to fear from this bunch of sad second-raters." Posted Oct 24, 2009 |
Rotten F
| Rotten 44%
| Saw VI (2009) | "
The tawdry use of important real-life social issues in the service of what amounts to nothing more than another exercise in malignant sadism makes this picture even worse than earlier episodes." Posted Oct 24, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Rotten 48%
| Ong Bak 2 (2009) | "
Not really a sequel but more a misguided prequelish follow-up...obviously enjoyed a much larger budget than its titular predecessor, but it's nowhere near as much fun." Posted Oct 22, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Rotten 48%
| Astro Boy (2009) | "
Decked out in snazzy computer-generated animation, but comes across as more rote than exhilarating." Posted Oct 22, 2009 |
Rotten C-
| Rotten 17%
| Amelia (2009) | "
Comes off more like a museum exhibit than a vital drama...Amelia never takes flight, but it certainly crashes." Posted Oct 22, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 92%
| The Damned United (2009) | "
Even if you're not a soccer fan you should respond to...another expert mining of historical record by Peter Morgan [that's] not so much a sports movie as a character study." Posted Oct 21, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 93%
| Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg (2009) | "
Stylistically unpretentious but highly informative and enjoyable documentary [on] one of radio's great stars and a television pioneer." Posted Oct 21, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 95%
| Good Hair (2009) | "
A surprisingly fascinating subject that...yields lots of laughs." Posted Oct 21, 2009 |
N/A | Fresh 73%
| More Than a Game (2009) | "
Interview with Kristopher Belman"
INTERVIEW Posted Oct 19, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Fresh 71%
| Walt and El Grupo (2009) | "
A bland tourist souvenir, the equivalent of an authorized biography rather than an independent one." Posted Oct 18, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 86%
| The Baader Meinhof Complex (2009) | "
Merely lets the facts of forty years ago speak for themselves, and one can't deny that its dramatization of them has enormous energy and urgency." Posted Oct 16, 2009 |
Rotten D
| Rotten 11%
| The Stepfather (2009) | "
A botched remake...A real thriller has you on the edge of your seat; watching this one, you're more liable to sit back and snooze." Posted Oct 16, 2009 |
Rotten C-
| Rotten 42%
| New York, I Love You (2009) | "
This love letter to the Big Apple has more than its share of worms." Posted Oct 15, 2009 |
Rotten D
| Rotten 23%
| Law Abiding Citizen (2009) | "
One of the silliest action yarns in years...There's room for good pulp trash on screen, but lousy pulp, which is what this picture is, deserves a quick trip to the dumpster." Posted Oct 15, 2009 |
Rotten C+
| Fresh 70%
| Where the Wild Things Are (2009) | "
One appreciates the mixture of fidelity and imagination that Jonze has lavished on Sendak's little book, but in the end the magic spark that marks a classic eludes him." Posted Oct 14, 2009 |
Rotten D
| Rotten 12%
| Couples Retreat (2009) | "
A loud, crude, dreary misfire that feels like it was cobbled together from material cut from other lousy comedies." Posted Oct 9, 2009 |
N/A | Rotten 29%
| Free Style (2009) | "
Interview with Corbin Bleu"
INTERVIEW Posted Oct 9, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 84%
| Paranormal Activity (2009) | "
Isn't much more than an extended exercise in horror tropes, but it's a clever one, expertly designed and executed, depending more on pulse-pounding suggestion rather than explicit violence." Posted Oct 8, 2009 |
Rotten D-
| Rotten 29%
| Free Style (2009) | "
You can always while away the hour and a half playing 'Count the Cliches.' One wishes Bleu all the best, but on the evidence of this picture his career might be a lot shorter than his hair." Posted Oct 8, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Fresh 66%
| Coco Before Chanel (2009) | "
As cool and elegant as its heroine. Unfortunately it's also equally impassive, opaque and--at least in this incarnation--dull." Posted Oct 6, 2009 |
Fresh A
| Fresh 85%
| A Serious Man (2009) | "
Piercingly funny, wrenchingly sad and always brilliant...a small but genuine masterwork from a team that's already given us plenty of them." Posted Oct 6, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 72%
| The Boys Are Back (2009) | "
For the most part it's a tearjerker that works...testimony to the good judgment--and good taste--of everyone involved." Posted Oct 6, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 86%
| Lorna's Silence (2009) | "
The Dardennes have once again captured the harsh reality of the modern underclass while also injecting a note of moral hopefulness into what might have been a bleak and heartless tale." Posted Oct 6, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 86%
| A Woman in Berlin (2008) | "
Though deliberately paced and somewhat repetitive, it's...powerful and enlightening." Posted Oct 6, 2009 |
Fresh A-
| Fresh 100%
| Toy Story 2 (1999) | "
Colorful and witty...the mixture of action and humor proves as irresistible as ever." Posted Oct 1, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 100%
| Toy Story (1995) | "
Colorful and witty...the mixture of action and humor proves as irresistible as ever." Posted Oct 1, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 89%
| Zombieland (2009) | "
Nothing more than a Troma schlockfest with a bigger budget, but it boasts an amusing script, a quick tempo and...a cast that milks the madness for all it's worth." Posted Oct 1, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 82%
| Whip It (2009) | "
An unexpected pleasure...goofily enjoyable." Posted Oct 1, 2009 |
Rotten C+
| Rotten 55%
| The Invention of Lying (2009) | "
Starts with a clever premise and raises the prospect of really biting satire, only to trail off into weakly sweet comedy that falls far short of its potential." Posted Oct 1, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 75%
| Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) | "
What [Moore] offers isn't an argument as much as a polemic. But as in the past, he proves a skilled polemicist,...[and] looked at dispassionately, it's fun." Posted Oct 1, 2009 |
Rotten C-
| Rotten 18%
| The Other Man (2009) | "
A turgid tale of adultery among the rich and boring." Posted Sep 29, 2009 |
Rotten F
| Rotten 27%
| Pandorum (2009) | "
So bad it ought to be based on a video game." Posted Sep 29, 2009 |
Rotten D+
| Rotten 38%
| Surrogates (2009) | "
Particularly silly...the sort of emptily bombastic popcorn movie that might make you wish you had a surrogate to go and sit through it in your place." Posted Sep 24, 2009 |
Rotten D
| Rotten 28%
| Fame (2009) | "
Riddled with cliches from beginning to end...[a] misguided exhumation of what was once a pretty lively piece." Posted Sep 24, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 88%
| Amreeka (2009) | "
An earnest comedy-drama, which covers familiar territory but in an unpretentious, and so reasonably pleasant fashion." Posted Sep 24, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Rotten 45%
| Jennifer's Body (2009) | "
You have to give Cody and her cohorts credit for trying to pump some new blood into a stale genre, and there are moments of inspired cleverness...but they're not frequent or sustained enough." Posted Sep 18, 2009 |
Rotten F
| Rotten 18%
| Love Happens (2009) | "
Yeah, love happens. So does something else. Sappy, overemphatic and cloying...[a] mountain of narrative cliches." Posted Sep 18, 2009 |
N/A | Fresh 83%
| Bright Star (2009) | "
Interview with Paul Schneider"
INTERVIEW Posted Sep 17, 2009 |
Fresh B-
| Fresh 85%
| Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (2009) | "
Doesn't soar like Up, but it stays afloat long enough to remain a pleasant family treat." Posted Sep 17, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 83%
| Bright Star (2009) | "
A mellow, pictorially attractive period piece in which the characters seem actually to breathe rather than merely pose, as so often happens in such films." Posted Sep 17, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 76%
| The Informant! (2009) | "
A movie of chuckles rather than belly-laughs...but they really add up. In its unforced, loopy way, this is one of the funniest pictures of the year." Posted Sep 16, 2009 |
N/A | Rotten 32%
| The Burning Plain (2009) | "
Interview with Guillermo Arriaga and Joachim de Almeida"
INTERVIEW Posted Sep 16, 2009 |
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