Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 70%
| The Last Station (2009) | "
A fun, sexy romp about the last days of Leo Tolstoy? Believe it." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Feb 4, 2010 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 81%
| That Evening Sun (2009) | "
Hal Holbrook's performance in "That Evening Sun" is a piece of work like Jeff Bridges' turn in Crazy Heart -- a veteran actor who knows all the moves, taking a fine little movie and making it great." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Feb 4, 2010 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Rotten 30%
| Extraordinary Measures (2010) | "
Ford's participation, and the grandstanding performance he delivers, raise it from a middlebrow TV-style weepie to a higher plateau of quality. Intermittently, anyway." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Jan 21, 2010 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 78%
| Bronson (2009) | "
Part literate black comedy, part surrealistic character study, part horror movie, Bronson is a sophisticated confection, rich and dark, sprinkled with bitter little jokes." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Jan 21, 2010 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 68%
| The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009) | "
The movie has the busy-aimless feeling of a cocktail party rather than a rigorously constructed drama. Interesting people drift through, anecdotes are shared, attention shifts here and there, and abruptly it's time to go." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Jan 21, 2010 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 93%
| Crazy Heart (2009) | "
You can see why Bridges signed on for this low-key, low-budget character study. It isn't every day an actor gets the chance to pitch face-forward into the camera, dead drunk." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Jan 14, 2010 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 45%
| The Book of Eli (2010) | "
Travolta had his Battlefield Earth, Costner had his Waterworld and now Denzel Washington has his truly awful sci-fi epic, The Book of Eli." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Jan 14, 2010 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Rotten 36%
| The Lovely Bones (2009) | "
Rarely has a film launched by a killing seemed so insistently alive." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Jan 14, 2010 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 66%
| The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) | "
I'd love to report that The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a work of renegade genius. Alas, it's a minor film, memorable largely as the farewell of Heath Ledger, who died when his scenes were only half completed." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Jan 7, 2010 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 68%
| Sherlock Holmes (2009) | "
This is a swashbuckling, pratfalling romp designed to make cerebral Holmes purists drop their monocles into their teacups." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Dec 25, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 37%
| Nine (2009) | "
Nine expires in every sluggish, graceless scene." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Dec 25, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 83%
| A Single Man (2009) | "
It is as gorgeous as you would expect, and surprisingly large-hearted." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Dec 25, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 81%
| Broken Embraces (2009) | "
Pedro Almodovar's latest movie is positively drunk in its desire for handsome actors and beautiful actresses, gorgeously art-directed sets, suspense, comedy, ironic flashbacks, tragic romance." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Dec 25, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 58%
| It's Complicated (2009) | "
Nancy Meyers never pushes for a hard truth when she can reach for an easy laugh. She's like an industrial device, stamping out 100 percent pure-plastic midlife female fantasy." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Dec 25, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 13%
| Did You Hear About the Morgans? (2009) | "
A painful failure, lumpish and crude." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Dec 18, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 82%
| Avatar (2009) | "
The film vibrates with the excitement of discovery and awe. Not just for the sight of six-legged rhinos and butterfly-hued dragons, but for the thousands of hours of work that unite here in a creative epiphany." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Dec 17, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 83%
| Me and Orson Welles (2009) | "
Me and Orson Welles is a little velvet sack of diamonds. It's a sparkling love letter to a gigantic talent, a romance, a comedy, a drama." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Dec 10, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 77%
| Invictus (2009) | "
It's a film of big themes played out on a grand scale, a story of races and generations making an effort to connect." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Dec 10, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 85%
| The Princess and the Frog (2009) | "
A charming carnival of a movie, Disney's The Princess and the Frog is a landmark, business as usual and a return to form for the world's preeminent animation studio." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Dec 10, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 90%
| Up in the Air (2009) | "
It would be easy to make Ryan a louse or a hero who just needs a bit of armor polish. Clooney makes Ryan both ruthless and sympathetic." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Dec 3, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 48%
| Everybody's Fine (2009) | "
Jones clumsily establishes that De Niro's trade was producing telephone wires. And yet he can't communicate with his kids, see? The film includes so many shots of phone poles you'd think it was an AT&T documentary." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Dec 3, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 58%
| Brothers (2009) | "
The film packs a wallop. Too bad about the missteps. It could've been a knockout." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Dec 3, 2009 |
Rotten 0.5/4
| Rotten 21%
| Oh My God (2009) | "
A mashup of slick tourist photos, a cacophony of contradictory sound bites yielding zero insight. Watching this disorganized essay on organized religion may actually make you stupider." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Dec 3, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 93%
| Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) | "
The film earns its title's superlative and a hundred more." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 24, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 76%
| The Road (2009) | "
John Milton described hell as "darkness visible." That is the grim, mesmerizing world that director John Hillcoat creates here." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 24, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 89%
| Red Cliff (2009) | "
The compelling emotion that marks the best Woo movies is AWOL. The pacing is choppy, with most of the human moments lopped off. Is the Han emperor the good guy? Or should we cheer the rebellious opposition warlords? And what the heck is a viceroy?" — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 24, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 91%
| Precious: Based on the Novel PUSH by Sapphire (2009) | "
Despite the film's clear social conscience and sympathy for the community it portrays, Precious never panders for compassion." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 19, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 91%
| The Messenger (2009) | "
This is a poignant war movie, but it's also a buddy movie with a difference, one that's both funny and bleak." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 19, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 70%
| The Blind Side (2009) | "
Watching The Blind Side, I felt my emotions being stage-managed, but once or twice I got something in my eye." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 19, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 28%
| The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) | "
Kristen Stewart brings such raw vulnerability to the screen that she makes moping attractive." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 19, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 39%
| 2012 (2009) | "
Films of this sort are plotted shish kebab style: disaster, change of scenery, new disaster. But on the level of spectacle, 2012 is top-notch." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 12, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 87%
| Skin (2009) | "
It feels hurried, looks cheap, and works overtime to simplify a complex, flawed character into a noble, tragic heroine. The film speaks fluent cliché." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 12, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Rotten 49%
| Antichrist (2009) | "
To watch the Danish provocateur's new film is to experience unrelenting pain, shading into revulsion, while being inspired by his virtuoso command of the medium and sharp intelligence." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 12, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Fresh 60%
| Pirate Radio (2009) | "
Imagine the dullest moments from Almost Famous and the lamest bits from Animal House held together with clumsy Frankenstein stitching. Now punch yourself in the face. There you go." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 12, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 16%
| Gentlemen Broncos (2009) | "
A tedious and unfocused concoction involving science fiction, plagiarism and the nightgown industry." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 12, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 22%
| The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009) | "
It's as if writer/director Troy Duffy threw every idea he had at the wall, creating a very messy wall." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 12, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 55%
| Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009) | "
Favors thrill-ride effects that are more often the star than the servant of the story. It's like "Silent Night" played by Led Zeppelin." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 5, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 53%
| The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009) | "
The yarn unravels without ever identifying its satirical targets. Is it a lampoon of peace-and-love mysticism? A critique of militant war-for-profit privateers? Ultimately, it's a shapeless wad of goat cheese." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 5, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 86%
| Flame & Citron (2008) | "
To its credit, the film gives full weight to the confusion and ambivalence of war; the struggle for liberation from tyranny rarely looks so dubious." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Nov 5, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 95%
| An Education (2009) | "
An Education is a vibrant portrait of England on the cusp of its postwar rebirth." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 29, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 27%
| The Canyon (2009) | "
Hint to newlyweds: Don't honeymoon in a primeval wilderness populated by diamondback rattlesnakes, aggressive wolves and alcoholic wilderness guides." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 29, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 94%
| Good Hair (2009) | "
Morgan Spurlock, look lively. Sacha Baron Cohen, watch your back. Chris Rock's bright, wisecracking exposé Good Hair is the mane event." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 22, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 37%
| Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009) | "
The film shuffles together episodes from the first three volumes of the 12-book Cirque saga, which may explain its rushed, patchy feel. It unfurls like a series of skits." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 22, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 73%
| Where the Wild Things Are (2009) | "
In an era glutted with sanitized, prefabricated, computer-generated kids' stuff, this is an experience of sophisticated cross-generational appeal. It digs deep into childhood's bright, manic exuberance and also its confusion and gloom." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 15, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 65%
| Coco Before Chanel (2009) | "
The film, although sumptuously produced, is a staid and conventional account of her early years." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 15, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 25%
| Law Abiding Citizen (2009) | "
The movie is not -- putting it courteously -- tightly constructed. The narrative shifts are jerky and the tone bounces around like a Jeep on a dirt road." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 15, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 73%
| More Than a Game (2009) | "
It's a resonant story about four boyhood friends, determination, sacrifice, overcoming obstacles and the mentor who guides them from rough beginnings to the national basketball championship. It's about victorious lives, not games." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 15, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 100%
| Still Walking (2009) | "
Still Walking strikes an extraordinary balance between the moment-to-moment pleasure of life and the inevitable regret that accompanies time's passing." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 15, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 87%
| Amreeka (2009) | "
Director Cherien Dabis' debut feature is a surprising, humorous, moving and very human story about a Palestinian family's emigration to Illinois on the eve of the Iraq war." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 15, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 100%
| Le Samourai (1967) | "
Delon's inscrutable presence adds to an unnerving atmosphere of anticipation. You feel that something bad could come crashing into the frame at any second. And you would be right." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Oct 8, 2009 |
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