Rotten
| Rotten 51%
| The Lovely Bones (2009) | "
Slipping past Sebold’s quondam feminist protest (briefly glimpsing Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch, for example), Jackson goes to the edge of lurid sentimentality." — New York Press Posted Dec 9, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 79%
| Invictus (2009) | "
Eastwood bungles his subject." — New York Press Posted Dec 9, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 90%
| Up in the Air (2009) | "
Only seriously deluded people could enjoy Reitman’s funny-sad whiplash. He’s playing that same Hollywood game: keeping people ignorant of political economy." — New York Press Posted Dec 2, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 46%
| Everybody's Fine (2009) | "
De Niro brings jolts of depth and feeling to a treacly premise. An amazing flashback scene pits a recalcitrant De Niro against a group of needy child actors who cannot match his profundity." — New York Press Posted Dec 2, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 71%
| The Road (2009) | "
Great junk like Resident Evil and passable schlock like 28 Weeks Later have more skill and integrity. Why would anyone want to make -- or watch -- this Hillcoat/McCarthy desolation except to feel fashionably cynical?" — New York Press Posted Nov 29, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 83%
| The Princess and the Frog (2009) | "
Its hypocrisy is hidden inside a disingenuous promotional campaign that suggests change has come to Disney’s animated white house." — New York Press Posted Nov 29, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 29%
| The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) | "
Bella’s confusion about the mystery of boys, adrenaline and testosterone matches her confusion about her soul. For Weitz, it’s all just F/X." — New York Press Posted Nov 24, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 82%
| Broken Embraces (2009) | "
Almodóvar lost his nerve when he acquired expensive technique. Inspired by Buñuel and De Palma, he used to match them. Now, his once underground satires are just expensive tearjerkers." — New York Press Posted Nov 19, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 85%
| Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) | "
Cage’s receding hairline and hunchback performance evokes Conrad Veidt -- a Klaus Kinski-like maniac -- because this is, in fact, a German Expressionist horror film and comedy." — New York Press Posted Nov 19, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 45%
| The Box (2009) | "
Kelly, king of dumbed-down nihilism, takes a short Twilight Zone TV episode, “Button, Button,” and extends it unendurably..." — New York Press Posted Nov 18, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 38%
| 2012 (2009) | "
2012’s narrative is super-banal and so are its special effects." — New York Press Posted Nov 11, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 90%
| The Messenger (2009) | "
So bungled up with fashionable ambivalence about the Iraq War that every single behavioral detail is not just prejudicial but wrong." — New York Press Posted Nov 11, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 55%
| Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009) | "
Zemeckis' latest motion-capture CGI project capsizes Dickens' narrative power simply because the faces of the human simulacra are so utterly inexpressive and ugly." — New York Press Posted Nov 4, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 91%
| Precious: Based on the Novel PUSH by Sapphire (2009) | "
Winfrey, Perry and Daniels make an unholy triumvirate. They come together at some intersection of race exploitation and opportunism." — New York Press Posted Nov 4, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 53%
| The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009) | "
It’s smugness -- unleavened by wit -- that makes Goats so offensive." — New York Press Posted Nov 4, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 50%
| Antichrist (2009) | "
The quasi-religious title is misleading provocation; Antichrist is really anti-cinema." — New York Press Posted Oct 22, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 94%
| An Education (2009) | "
The plot’s a cynical/sentimental rip-off of Flaubert’s novel Sentimental Education, yet full of commercial calculation -- including Scherfig’s romantic view of the Paris assignation." — New York Press Posted Oct 7, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 57%
| The Invention of Lying (2009) | "
Gervais’ ridicule proves his lack of sophistication. Not only the most brutally photographed movie of the year, The Invention of Lying is so foully directed and carelessly acted it ultimately proves disingenuous." — New York Press Posted Sep 30, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 76%
| The Informant! (2009) | "
There’s no humanity to relate to, no wit to laugh at, only chuckling at one’s own sense of superiority -- if you can afford it." — New York Press Posted Sep 23, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 75%
| Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) | "
Moore’s ambush-and-blame methods are bad journalism. His lack of moral, political context is as questionable as ever." — New York Press Posted Sep 23, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 44%
| Jennifer's Body (2009) | "
Vanessa Hudgens and Alyson Michalka played more complex and affecting versions of these roles in Bandslam -- and neither was embarrassed with the name Needy." — New York Press Posted Sep 23, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 62%
| Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself (2009) | "
To keep empire building, Perry needs to step up his game. And his new film -- the almost-musical I Can Do Bad All By Myself -- ain’t quite there." — New York Press Posted Sep 9, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 95%
| Crude (2009) | "
When well-meaning Trudie Styler, founder of Rainforest Foundation (and Sting’s wife), comes on, even Farjardo’s convictions and Berlinger’s early scenes about native culture and ancestry get swept up amidst hubristic hubbub." — New York Press Posted Sep 9, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 18%
| The Other Man (2009) | "
As the pathetic, decent lothario, Banderas lacks sexual threat just as the script’s various miscommunications lack Pinter menace. Neeson is too rough-hewn for the conflicted cuckold." — New York Press Posted Sep 9, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 49%
| Taking Woodstock (2009) | "
Really, it’s the same circumstance captured in Bye Bye Birdie, but Lee and Schamus lack a sense of humor." — New York Press Posted Aug 26, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 59%
| The Headless Woman (2009) | "
Martel is a very minor art-filmmaker. Not especially insightful, she exemplifies the second-rate aesthetics of underdeveloped cultures. Her over-subtle approach hides the superficiality of her dull, dull style." — New York Press Posted Aug 26, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 34%
| St. Trinian's (2009) | "
St.Trinian’s represents a travesty of the British comic tradition." — New York Press Posted Aug 26, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 88%
| Inglourious Basterds (2009) | "
QT manipulates WWII horror into hip pornography -- Jewish revenge looks just like the sadism in Eli Roth’s Hostel movie. Our political and moral responses are discombobulated." — New York Press Posted Aug 19, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 90%
| District 9 (2009) | "
District 9 represents the sloppiest and dopiest pop cinema -- the kind that comes from a second-rate film culture." — New York Press Posted Aug 12, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 81%
| Beeswax (2009) | "
You work very hard for tiny rewards. Only a cinema-illiterate could mistake this for an advance." — New York Press Posted Aug 5, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 75%
| Julie & Julia (2009) | "
Ephron conveys neither gustatory joy nor cinematic know-how." — New York Press Posted Aug 5, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 82%
| Thirst (2009) | "
One can’t take Thirst seriously, even with its ironic cha-cha music cues, when Park sets up his usual elaborate sentimental ending -- further variation on his typical self-flagellation and mortification of the flesh." — New York Press Posted Jul 29, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 68%
| Funny People (2009) | "
Apatow's whiny characters pitch audiences into a vat of self-pity." — New York Press Posted Jul 29, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 14%
| The Ugly Truth (2009) | "
This Butler-Heigl mismatch drop-kicks romcom from the RocknRolla sublime to the Apatow depths." — New York Press Posted Jul 22, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 95%
| In the Loop (2009) | "
Instead of inspiring geniuses, Iraq war backlash has only resulted in snarky self-righteousness that -- from Charlie Wilson’s War and now British import In the Loop -- has demonstrated the low ebb of modern comedy." — New York Press Posted Jul 22, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 26%
| Shrink (2009) | "
Coincidenceville would have been a better title for Shrink, the film in which psychiatrist Henry Carter (Kevin Spacey) and a handful of Los Angelinos crisscross past credulity but for the convenience of showing our interrelatedness." — New York Press Posted Jul 22, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 83%
| Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) | "
Astoundingly unimaginative, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ruins the idea of popular entertainment." — New York Press Posted Jul 15, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 86%
| 500 Days of Summer (2009) | "
It is so annoyingly cute about the smartness of middle-class young white people in love that one quickly realizes it is only about that -- not love nor passion as everyone experiences it." — New York Press Posted Jul 15, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 67%
| Bruno (2009) | "
The fallacy that Baron Cohen’s comedy is politically pertinent derives from its pandering to Lefty biases." — New York Press Posted Jul 8, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 75%
| Humpday (2009) | "
Humpday typifies the low-level indie film where characters talk out silly ideas they don’t believe in anyway, just the pop confusion in their heads." — New York Press Posted Jul 8, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 86%
| Tony Manero (2009) | "
Cinephilia -- the smart-about-movies concept about the love of film -- has been so distorted in contemporary movie culture that it has led to the repugnant Chilean film Tony Manero." — New York Press Posted Jul 1, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 67%
| Public Enemies (2009) | "
Mann not only lacks the narrative efficiency of old genre filmmaking, Public Enemies’ look inspires the opposite of movie love." — New York Press Posted Jul 1, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 78%
| The Hangover (2009) | "
Rising-star Bradley Cooper and gang represent the dirtbag element that has become acceptable in contemporary comedy." — New York Press Posted Jun 17, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 43%
| The Proposal (2009) | "
Every scene between Bullock and Reynolds only suggests how fine they might be in good circumstances." — New York Press Posted Jun 17, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 47%
| Whatever Works (2009) | "
Ten years after his great expectoration of bile in Deconstructing Harry, Woody Allen comes up with Whatever Works -- the most shameless, cynically titled Hollywood con job since the days of Billy Wilder." — New York Press Posted Jun 17, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 51%
| The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009) | "
Pelham 123 exploits urban anxiety without relief or understanding. Using exacerbation as entertainment, it is simply an I HATE NY ad." — New York Press Posted Jun 10, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 68%
| Tetro (2009) | "
Clearly, Coppola needs to re-read O’Neill and stop trying to be Soderbergh." — New York Press Posted Jun 10, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 66%
| Away We Go (2009) | "
Away We Go is as calculated as any summer tentpole blockbuster." — New York Press Posted Jun 3, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 98%
| Up (2009) | "
All this deflated cinema and Pixarism mischaracterizes what good animation can be (as in Coraline, Monster House, Chicken Little, Teacher’s Pet, The Iron Giant). Up’s aesthetic failure stems from its emotional letdown." — New York Press Posted May 27, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 62%
| The Girlfriend Experience (2009) | "
It’s a millennial dirge for people who don’t know the spiritual/materialist crisis Godard predicted in Nouvelle Vague." — New York Press Posted May 20, 2009 |
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