Fresh
| Fresh 82%
| Broken Embraces (2009) | "
Equal parts comic melodrama and film noir, and twice as fun as it ought to be, Broken Embraces boasts more bifurcations than any two Hitchcock classics." — Village Voice Posted Nov 17, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 18%
| The Fourth Kind (2009) | "
Universal's alien-abduction thriller none too cleverly bids to pass off mock-documentary footage of levitating psychological patients--and, scarier still, ordinary talking heads--as the real deal." — Variety Posted Nov 4, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 71%
| Where the Wild Things Are (2009) | "
An intimate epic, Jonze's film is nearly unique among modern kid fare for its total lack of condescension to the core audience." — minnpost.com Posted Oct 25, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 45%
| Saw VI (2009) | "
A film so frighteningly familiar it could well be called Saw It Already." — Variety Posted Oct 25, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 29%
| The Canyon (2009) | "
The Canyon could be named for the gaping expanse between its preposterously silly dialogue and sturdy, at times urgent direction." — Variety Posted Oct 23, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 28%
| Ninja Assassin (2009) | "
Seemingly made to capitalize on a dubious CG innovation -- namely, the slicing of bodies in half by whizzing five-pointed stars -- Ninja Assassin has little else to recommend it, not even laughs." — Variety Posted Oct 22, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 27%
| Pandorum (2009) | "
Lazily derivative." — Variety Posted Sep 25, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 96%
| Burma VJ (2009) | "
Burma VJ would be even more intense without its early announcement that some scenes have been restaged, putting the viewer in a regrettably uncertain relationship to what follows." — Minneapolis Star Tribune Posted Sep 17, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 82%
| Whip It (2009) | "
Laced with good-natured hipster kitsch and endearingly goofy girl power, director Drew Barrymore's roller-derby dramedy, Whip It, is a gas." — Variety Posted Sep 14, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 67%
| Carriers (2009) | "
Put into extremely limited release by Paramount Vantage after spending years in studio lockdown, Carriers has moments of genuinely communicable horror and thus deserves better than a de facto theatrical quarantine." — Variety Posted Sep 7, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 48%
| Blood Guts Bullets and Octane (1999) | "
The rare post-Tarantino men-with-guns indie that works on its own terms, this hyperactive B-movie has the title selling points in abundance but also a lot of wit and flair." — Boston Phoenix Posted Sep 5, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 32%
| Out to Sea (1997) | "
The desperately overboard coming-attractions clip suggests something like Speed 0: Bladder Control--so it's a relief that this film's own seamanly "action" finale involves nothing more adventurous than shooting off a flare." — Boston Phoenix Posted Sep 5, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 7%
| 'Til There Was You (1997) | "
Bad romantic comedies with sappy characters aren't always without merit, since we cynics can at least use them to further our conviction that love isn't worth the trouble. But this bad romantic comedy is merely bad." — Boston Phoenix Posted Sep 5, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 40%
| Volcano (1997) | "
Pre-millennium tension is still the best explanation for the recent tidal wave of disaster movies--which hasn't made it any less boring." — Boston Phoenix Posted Sep 5, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 8%
| An American Werewolf in Paris (1997) | "
The humor isn't funny, the horror isn't scary, and the digital wolf f/x look cheap." — Boston Phoenix Posted Sep 5, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 10%
| Warriors of Virtue (1997) | "
Only one element remains clearly traceable to Hong Kong cinema: The titular warriors are badly dubbed." — Boston Phoenix Posted Sep 5, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 70%
| In & Out (1997) | "
In & Out is the screwball Philadelphia, a movie that contorts itself in order to indulge and then whitewash the core audience's perceived homophobia." — Boston Phoenix Posted Sep 5, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 41%
| Bean (1997) | "
Atkinson's reactive brand of bug-eyed and near-silent comedy has always been more akin to Jacques Tati--plus a lecherous pinch of Jerry Lewis, the better to invade the viewer's personal space." — Boston Phoenix Posted Sep 5, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 3%
| McHale's Navy (1997) | "
All apologies to the handful of Americans who've waited decades for this big-screen update of the '60s sitcom--the result is both awful and awfully irrelevant." — Boston Phoenix Posted Sep 5, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 13%
| Larger Than Life (1996) | "
Of course, the elephant Vera keeps sticking her trunk in where it isn't wanted, literally consuming tons of candy and stepping on Murray's cellular phone. Ha ha." — Boston Phoenix Posted Sep 5, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 57%
| Extreme Measures (1996) | "
The good liberal Michael Apted seems to think he's directing a film about society's exploitation of the homeless. In fact, the exploitation is all his." — Boston Phoenix Posted Sep 5, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 20%
| Daylight (1996) | "
Still more millennial fear and commuter angst get routed through this toll-heavy disaster vehicle set in New York's Holland Tunnel--call it The Tunneling Inferno." — Boston Phoenix Posted Sep 5, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 43%
| One Fine Day (1996) | "
Privilege and coincidence have always been central to screwball comedy, but the speed of crosstown travel here rivals Die Hard 3 for plausibility." — Boston Phoenix Posted Sep 5, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 75%
| Ed's Next Move (1996) | "
When the jokes aren't sexual or xenophobic, the movie's sense of humor is merely strained." — Boston Phoenix Posted Sep 5, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 16%
| Jingle All the Way (1996) | "
God forbid Arnold should have to shell out for one of those Spanish-speaking turbomen being hocked in the bad part of town." — Boston Phoenix Posted Sep 5, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 71%
| Brother of Sleep (1997) | "
The film's real pleasure isn't its humor so much as its overall excess, the tone it projects of several major chords being struck at once." — Boston Phoenix Posted Sep 5, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 59%
| The Preacher's Wife (1996) | "
Houston's inevitable chart-toppers aside, the film mainly sells the values of cooperation and good-samaritanism." — Boston Phoenix Posted Sep 5, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 29%
| Gamer (2009) | "
Literally playing an action figure, bulky Butler doesn't deliver a performance so much as a workout routine; the best that can be said for him here is that he shows endurance." — Variety Posted Sep 4, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 91%
| Home (2009) | "
Director Ursula Meier generally distinguishes her feature debut by not pushing elements to melodramatic or farcical extremes." — Variety Posted Sep 1, 2009 |
Fresh
| N/A | No Subtitles Required: Laszlo and Vilmos (2008) | "
Spanning the pair's half-century-long friendship and individual work on strikingly shot films of the past four decades, pic deftly combines personal, political and cinematic histories through anecdote-laden interviews and eye-popping clips." — Variety Posted Sep 1, 2009 |
Fresh
| N/A | Woodpecker (2008) | "
A birdwatchers' Best in Show, Alex Karpovsky's mock-doc Woodpecker stretches its single joke to feature length, earning a beakful of yuks." — Variety Posted Sep 1, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 77%
| Genova (2008) | "
Genova conveys its strongest themes through insinuation, and modulates its shifting moods through Winterbottom's precisely calibrated DV processing." — Variety Posted Sep 1, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 84%
| Pontypool (2009) | "
However shrewdly contrived to keep its budget low, Pontypool, set almost entirely in a basement radio station, is a zombie flick sans bite." — Variety Posted Sep 1, 2009 |
Rotten
| N/A | Maman Est Chez le Coiffeur (2008) | "
The film makes attractive use of vivid period detail, but its episodic narrative never takes hold." — Variety Posted Sep 1, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 66%
| Is Anybody There? (2009) | "
Profoundly (and some would say pleasurably) formulaic, the film possesses scant cinematic energy, relying wholly on the familiar transformation of a grumpy old man into an infectiously weepy humanist." — Variety Posted Sep 1, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 81%
| Examined Life (2009) | "
Taylor's stimulating film, enlivened by creative location shooting, will surely find an appreciative audience among highbrow cinephiles." — Variety Posted Sep 1, 2009 |
Rotten
| N/A | Blue Gold: World Water Wars (2009) | "
Alternately political and apolitical, pessimistic and optimistic--but rarely, if ever, cinematic." — Variety Posted Sep 1, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 73%
| Hansel & Gretel (2007) | "
Hardly innovative, but effective and handsomely produced, Hansel & Gretel puts the "grim" in Grimm while placing South Korean director Yim Phil-sung on the shortlist of Pan's Labyrinth emulators to trust." — Variety Posted Sep 1, 2009 |
Rotten
| N/A | The Killing Room (2009) | "
A high-concept/low-impact twist on torture porn, The Killing Room will likely do its slaying on DVD." — Variety Posted Sep 1, 2009 |
Rotten
| N/A | When You're Strange (2009) | "
Primo footage of recording sessions, concert perfs and various backstage trips is ubiquitous--and sadly squandered--amid wall-to-wall voiceover narration that is punishingly banal when not factually sketchy or flat-out false." — Variety Posted Sep 1, 2009 |
Fresh
| Fresh 85%
| We Live in Public (2009) | "
Like Timoner's DIG!, this astounding new docu burrows into the thin and darkly funny spaces between artistry and vanity, isolation and community, collaboration and exploitation, sanity and madness." — Variety Posted Sep 1, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 26%
| Motherhood (2009) | "
Though pregnant with possibility, Motherhood fails to deliver." — Variety Posted Sep 1, 2009 |
Fresh
| Rotten 14%
| The Informers (2009) | "
Rating less than zero on the sophistication scale, The Informers is thus a totally faithful adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel--and an accurate look at early '80s-era Los Angeles." — Variety Posted Sep 1, 2009 |
Rotten
| Rotten 28%
| 12 Rounds (2009) | "
Heavy on stunts but light on plausibility, humor, surprise, visual ingenuity or psychological depth." — Variety Posted Sep 1, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 63%
| Crank High Voltage (2009) | "
Yet another D.O.A. for the ADD era." — Variety Posted Sep 1, 2009 |
Rotten
| Fresh 60%
| Polytechnique (2009) | "
Lensed in black-and-white, the 77-minute film is plenty arty and only arguably constructive in its tasteful fictionalization of a violent tragedy." — Variety Posted Sep 1, 2009 |
Fresh
| N/A | Call of the Wild 3D (2009) | "
Alternately jerking the audience's tears and splashing snow in their faces, 3-D indie Call of the Wild loses focus (literally) but gets by on its good-hearted demeanor." — Variety Posted Sep 1, 2009 |
Rotten
| N/A | Don McKay (2009) | "
Writer-director Jake Goldberger's mild riff on Double Indemnity, etc., works best as a showcase for its veteran cast." — Variety Posted Sep 1, 2009 |
N/A | Fresh 77%
| I'm Not There (2007) | "
How to produce a Dylan movie for less than $20 million" — minnpost.com Posted Sep 1, 2009 |
N/A | Fresh 95%
| King Corn (2007) | "
We're all ears." — minnpost.com Posted Sep 1, 2009 |
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