Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 88%
| The Princess and the Frog (2009) | "
It's the socio-cultural suggestions of this storytelling choice that's ultimately most troublesome." — Slant Magazine Posted Nov 25, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 16%
| Planet 51 (2009) | "
It’s just an excuse for classic-cinema shout-outs and roller-coaster-like commotion." — Time Out New York Posted Nov 25, 2009 |
Rotten .5/4
| Rotten 8%
| Old Dogs (2009) | "
So wretched that it should be unceremoniously put down." — Slant Magazine Posted Nov 24, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 70%
| The Road (2009) | "
A cinematic adaptation at once faithful and superior to its source material." — Lessons of Darkness Posted Nov 20, 2009 |
Fresh B
| Fresh 85%
| Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) | "
May not result in a coherent whole but nonetheless delivers bursts of random, inspired madness." — Lessons of Darkness Posted Nov 16, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 25%
| Staten Island (2009) | "
Staten Island has the stench of meat left on the counter for too long." — Slant Magazine Posted Nov 15, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 85%
| Red Cliff (2009) | "
The film's shortcomings have less to do with Woo's orchestration of his ambitious tale and more to do with the Frankenstein hatchet job enacted against it." — Slant Magazine Posted Nov 15, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 57%
| Fix (2008) | "
Ruspoli's scenic cross-section L.A. travelogue conveys a strong sense of milieu even as his wannabe-Strung aesthetics reveal the project's underlying style-over-substance concerns." — Slant Magazine Posted Nov 15, 2009 |
Rotten D
| Rotten 38%
| 2012 (2009) | "
The defining entrant in, and the nadir of, the disaster porn genre." — Lessons of Darkness Posted Nov 12, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 86%
| A Serious Man (2009) | "
Isn't drawn in one-to-one cause-effect lines, its obliqueness lending suspense and interpretative depth to the Job-like suffering of Larry." — Lessons of Darkness Posted Nov 12, 2009 |
Rotten C+
| Fresh 89%
| The White Ribbon (2009) | "
Another of the Funny Games auteur's unpersuasively rigid portraits of man's venality." — Lessons of Darkness Posted Nov 12, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 92%
| Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) | "
Anderson prizes the funny over the profound to an extent that keeps the proceedings a tad too light and jovial to register as anything more than a lightweight aside to his more acute, earnest work." — Slant Magazine Posted Nov 9, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Fresh 83%
| Paranormal Activity (2009) | "
The same old thing dressed up in very slightly different clothes." — Lessons of Darkness Posted Nov 9, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 90%
| The Messenger (2009) | "
Moverman's scripting is subdued and emotionally authentic." — Lessons of Darkness Posted Nov 9, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 59%
| Pirate Radio (2009) | "
Writer-director Richard Curtis is about as rock n' roll as the average great-grandmother, so it's no surprise that Pirate Radio, his ode to the irrepressible spirit of '60s classic rock, has all the electricity of a knitted sweater." — Slant Magazine Posted Nov 8, 2009 |
Rotten C+
| Fresh 88%
| Adventureland (2009) | "
Content to occupy that middle ground where insights are authentic but far from revelatory and comedy is more amiable than riotous." — Lessons of Darkness Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 47%
| The Box (2009) | "
Though his narrative's morality-play suspense and Bernard Herrmann-esque score recall Hitchcock, Kelly seems to have selected the '70s so that he can fully channel early-years Steven Spielberg." — Slant Magazine Posted Nov 5, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 55%
| Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009) | "
A clear step in the right direction for Zemeckis and his pet techno-project, the film nonetheless ultimately sabotages itself by prizing the hectic over the heartfelt." — Slant Magazine Posted Nov 3, 2009 |
Rotten .5/4
| Rotten 27%
| Splinterheads (2009) | "
Despite positioning itself as a Napoleon Dynamite-style comedy about a spazzy social retard, Splinterheads seems to have misplaced most of its jokes." — Slant Magazine Posted Nov 1, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 77%
| Collapse (2009) | "
Smith's subject Michael Ruppert never registers as much more than an eloquent but largely untrustworthy quack." — Slant Magazine Posted Nov 1, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Fresh 94%
| An Education (2009) | "
A teen-targeted public service announcement." — Lessons of Darkness Posted Oct 28, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Fresh 91%
| Precious: Based on the Novel PUSH by Sapphire (2009) | "
Daniels and screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher pile tribulations onto their protagonist not to inform but merely to exploit." — Lessons of Darkness Posted Oct 28, 2009 |
Rotten C+
| Rotten 22%
| Law Abiding Citizen (2009) | "
So blatantly nonsensical that the action quickly tips over into campiness." — Lessons of Darkness Posted Oct 26, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Fresh 87%
| Skin (2009) | "
A true-life tale of prejudice that hinges on a unique anomaly." — Slant Magazine Posted Oct 25, 2009 |
Rotten .5/4
| Rotten 13%
| Labor Day (2009) | "
A promotional film best suited for broadcast in an office lobby." — Slant Magazine Posted Oct 25, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 22%
| The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009) | "
The true abiding love affair here remains between Duffy and QT." — Slant Magazine Posted Oct 25, 2009 |
Rotten 1.0/4.0
| Rotten 45%
| Saw VI (2009) | "
Saw VI plays like the last gasp for relevance of a heavy-metal series that has not only gone regurgitation-rusty but seems lacking much of a will to live." — Slant Magazine Posted Oct 24, 2009 |
Rotten C-
| Rotten 16%
| The Boondock Saints (1999) | "
[A] dim-witted, aesthetically clunky Tarantino clone." — Lessons of Darkness Posted Oct 23, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 20%
| Amelia (2009) | "
Amelia attempts the yeoman's task of recounting a tale about which it has virtually nothing to say." — Slant Magazine Posted Oct 22, 2009 |
Fresh 3/5
| Rotten 48%
| Astro Boy (2009) | "
In its best moments, the film exudes an almost Miyazakian love of flight, notably during the hero’s maiden soar through the clouds." — Time Out New York Posted Oct 21, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Rotten 38%
| Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009) | "
At the very least, such triteness will dredge up a desire to keep the Weitz family -- brother Chris was responsible for the leaden Golden Compass debacle -- away from the first chapters of big-budget franchises." — Time Out New York Posted Oct 21, 2009 |
Rotten 1/5
| Rotten 26%
| Motherhood (2009) | "
A portrait of parenthood that’s apt to turn one into an ardent advocate of contraception, Motherhood portrays such shrill, mopey and all-around unpleasant adults that it’s hard to believe any of them found procreative partners." — Time Out New York Posted Oct 21, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 84%
| Happiness (1998) | "
Exhibits an almost pitch-perfect balance between condescension and compassion." — Lessons of Darkness Posted Oct 20, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 11%
| The Stepfather (2009) | "
a shabby substitute for its original." — Slant Magazine Posted Oct 16, 2009 |
Fresh B+
| Fresh 70%
| Where the Wild Things Are (2009) | "
A mature, striking exploration of the way that kids feel." — Lessons of Darkness Posted Oct 14, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Rotten 49%
| Antichrist (2009) | "
Only sporadically feels like an effort interested in grappling with the miserable fallout from tragedy." — Lessons of Darkness Posted Oct 14, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Rotten 39%
| Surrogates (2009) | "
Has all the get-up-and-go of a dead battery." — Lessons of Darkness Posted Oct 14, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 12%
| Couples Retreat (2009) | "
Ultimately comes off as merely an excuse for stars to take a vacation on the studio's%u2014and moviegoing public's%u2014dime." — Slant Magazine Posted Oct 7, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Fresh 60%
| Wild Grass (2009) | "
Never congeal[s] into an emotionally coherent or compelling whole." — Lessons of Darkness Posted Oct 7, 2009 |
Rotten C-
| Fresh 69%
| Flanders (2006) | "
[A] stilted, affected term-paper treatise on the human condition." — Lessons of Darkness Posted Oct 7, 2009 |
Rotten C
| Fresh 68%
| Humanité (1999) | "
Feels like an overly deliberate meta-Bressonian prank." — Lessons of Darkness Posted Oct 7, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 29%
| Free Style (2009) | "
For High School Musical fans unwaveringly devoted to Corbin Bleu, Free Style provides ample opportunity to swoon over the former East High basketballer's big floppy hair and Disney Channel-grade emoting." — Slant Magazine Posted Oct 5, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 93%
| The Damned United (2009) | "
The parallel-tracks structure smoothly reveals cause-effect relationships even as it sometimes feels designed to gussy up the narrative's straightforward rise-and-fall arc." — Slant Magazine Posted Oct 5, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 78%
| Bronson (2009) | "
Bronson is a fast, ferocious, wickedly funny portrait of one man's acceptance of his bone-deep animalism." — Slant Magazine Posted Oct 5, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 89%
| Zombieland (2009) | "
Unlike its spiritual predecessor Shaun of the Dead, Fleischer's film doesn't really get either zombie movies or human relationships." — Slant Magazine Posted Oct 1, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Rotten 56%
| The Invention of Lying (2009) | "
The Invention of Lying sets its sights high before settling for comfortable lovey-dovey convention." — Slant Magazine Posted Sep 30, 2009 |
Rotten 2/5
| Fresh 73%
| More Than a Game (2009) | "
Belman only skims the surface; even his depiction of the admirable Joyce (who ditched corporate America to chase his dream of being a mentor) shows a preference for tidy sound bites over intense inquiry." — Time Out New York Posted Sep 30, 2009 |
Rotten .5/4
| Rotten 0%
| A Beautiful Life (2009) | "
This intertwined tale of people struggling on society's fringe plays like bad community theater." — Slant Magazine Posted Sep 29, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 50%
| Hadewijch (2009) | "
Ultimately seems just as calculated and mechanical a pose as Dumont's previous efforts." — Slant Magazine Posted Sep 28, 2009 |
IGN RSS Feeds