|
|
21%
|
Fred Claus (2007) |
"
The exceptional cast -- Vaughn, Giamatti, Kathy Bates, Kevin Spacey, Rachel Weisz -- is an embarrassment of riches for a script this thin and this beholden to family-fare protocol, with its mushy-minded moral and slick sentimentality."
—
Village Voice
Posted Nov 6, 2007
|
|
|
17%
|
La tigre e la neve (The Tiger and the Snow) (2006) |
"
Roberto Benigni here plays out a madcap tale of romantic obsession against the backdrop of the Iraq invasion. The results are neither profound nor funny."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Jan 4, 2007
|
|
|
57%
|
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) |
"
A noble experiment in pushing the limits of cinema, but one too many sequences of ruffling silks and dreamy flower bouquets evoke little more than the ad-agency clichés of an elongated Chanel No. 5 commercial."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Jan 4, 2007
|
|
|
17%
|
La tigre e la neve (The Tiger and the Snow) (2006) |
"
Neither profound nor funny, but merely uncomfortable. A hubristic failure at risky humor, The Tiger and the Snow provides Benigni his own Michael Richards moment."
—
Village Voice
Posted Dec 28, 2006
|
|
|
57%
|
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) |
"
It's a noble experiment in pushing the limits of cinema, but Tykwer never achieves true profundity."
—
Village Voice
Posted Dec 27, 2006
|
|
|
88%
|
Bergman Island (Ingmar Bergman - 3 dokumentärer om film, teater, Fårö och livet av Marie Nyreröd) (2006) |
"
As little more than an extended interview, it remains hobbled by determinedly uninspired cinematography and a mundane televisual setup."
—
Village Voice
Posted Dec 5, 2006
|
|
|
60%
|
The Last Atomic Bomb (2006) |
"
The trauma is real, and the facts disturbing, but the doc doesn't have the chops to deliver what should be a more powerful statement."
—
Village Voice
Posted Nov 7, 2006
|
|
|
68%
|
The Wild Blue Yonder (2005) |
"
Though occasionally striking, the footage doesn't pack the evocative punch Herzog intends, and segments that should be lyrical mind trips only result in overstretched longueurs."
—
Village Voice
Posted Oct 24, 2006
|
|
|
——
|
Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela (2005) |
"
Thomas Allen Harris's Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela takes on an intensely dramatic topic -- the struggle against apartheid -- yet paradoxically transforms its powerful source material into a stiff and sometimes awkward tutorial."
—
Village Voice
Posted Jul 7, 2006
|
|
|
57%
|
Drawing Restraint 9 (2005) |
"
An unsatisfying marriage of excessive production values with insipid cinematography and flat-footed editing."
—
Village Voice
Posted Mar 28, 2006
|
|
|
73%
|
Who Gets to Call It Art? (2006) |
"
Surely a figure as crucial as Geldzahler deserves more incisive treatment."
—
Village Voice
Posted Jan 31, 2006
|
|
|
76%
|
Daai si gin (Breaking News) (2006) |
"
Well executed but ultimately unsatisfying ..."
—
Village Voice
Posted Jan 25, 2006
|
|
|
71%
|
Gay Sex in the 70s (2005) |
"
[The film] falls in line with the celebratory doc fare often found at gay film festivals: sub-TV production values, middling archival footage, and a hesitancy to separate history from nostalgia in the course of enshrining the first-person record."
—
Village Voice
Posted Nov 1, 2005
|
|
|
68%
|
Reel Paradise (2005) |
"
Unfortunately, what could have been a superficially amusing IFC reality series was stretched into a thin, overlong feature that follows the rocky integration of this very New York clan into a somewhat ruffled island society."
—
Village Voice
Posted Aug 16, 2005
|
|
|
13%
|
Stealth (2005) |
"
If we're going to be fighting the war on terror in perpetuity, could we at least get better movies out of it?"
—
Village Voice
Posted Aug 2, 2005
|
|
|
45%
|
Dark Water (2005) |
"
It fails to deliver the narrative thrill twists its origins would promise."
—
Village Voice
Posted Jul 12, 2005
|
|
|
83%
|
Rize (2005) |
"
Few of the interviews get much further than recording surface boasts and assertive self-definitions; LaChapelle connects all their stories with common threads of resisting gang culture, but at the expense of flattening out each person's character."
—
Village Voice
Posted Jun 21, 2005
|
|
|
31%
|
The Longest Yard (2005) |
"
No uplifting populism here."
—
Village Voice
Posted May 31, 2005
|
|
|
80%
|
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) |
"
Anakin's defection from Jediism to Sithdom should provide the film's backbone, but neither the script nor Christensen delivers the needed nuance."
—
Village Voice
Posted May 13, 2005
|
|
|
38%
|
The Girl from Monday (2005) |
"
Streaky low-frame-rate DV, Dogme-style mundane interiors, and merely unembarrassing televisual performances add up to a monotonous, unenlightening experience."
—
Village Voice
Posted May 3, 2005
|
|
|
33%
|
Conspiracy of Silence (2004) |
"
It's unclear whether this is an actual issue, or just something spicy to be cooked up in the potboiler."
—
Village Voice
Posted Nov 30, 2004
|
|
|
——
|
Muhammad: The Last Prophet (2004) |
"
Though noble in its intent to portray Islam as a peace-loving faith, the narrative flow remains compromised by its catechistic asides and displaced hero."
—
Village Voice
Posted Nov 16, 2004
|
|
|
——
|
Mark of the Devil (1969) |
"
Though the Pioneer is reviving this picture's original barf-bag-at-the-door promo gimmick, there's about a 50 percent chance it'll be more useful to save it for watching the returns on Election Night."
—
Village Voice
Posted Oct 19, 2004
|
|
|
43%
|
Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye (2004) |
"
Relentless, pretentious tedium."
—
Village Voice
Posted Sep 21, 2004
|
|
|
50%
|
A Letter To True (2004) |
"
A corny hodgepodge of gooey sentiment mixed with half-baked mush and strained pieties."
—
Village Voice
Posted Sep 7, 2004
|
|
|
33%
|
Benji - Off the Leash (2004) |
"
This unwarranted iteration of the '70s shaggy-dog tale pales in entertainment value compared to its website, which features a rant from the mutt's creator, Joe Camp."
—
Village Voice
Posted Aug 17, 2004
|
|
|
22%
|
AVP - Alien Vs. Predator (2004) |
"
Perfunctory battle sequences, cardboard characters, and uncreative scare 'ems."
—
Village Voice
Posted Aug 17, 2004
|
|
|
79%
|
Orwell Rolls in His Grave (2003) |
"
Offers little that is not also explored in current agit-docs like Fahrenheit 9/11, The Corporation, or Outfoxed."
—
Village Voice
Posted Jul 20, 2004
|
|
|
54%
|
Let's Get Frank (2003) |
"
Indiscriminately shot, set to insufferably caffeinated trip-hop, and edited with the superficial pep of a television magazine show, Let's Get Frank conveys its congressional star as a personality, but not quite a character."
—
Village Voice
Posted Jul 13, 2004
|
|
|
20%
|
Anonymous (2004) |
"
Sordid beatings, joyless sex, and a sullen synth score create the air of a home-brewed '60s sexploitation-noir flick, or a pre-Stonewall pulp homosexual novel, complete with narrative clichés and the occasional bit of ugly beauty."
—
Village Voice
Posted Jun 15, 2004
|
|
|
8%
|
Carlos Castaneda - Enigma of a Sorcerer (2004) |
"
If only there were drugs strong enough to make it all bearable."
—
Village Voice
Posted Jun 1, 2004
|
|
|
21%
|
Poco più di un anno fa (Adored: Diary of a Porn Star) (2003) |
"
The film's witlessness keeps any satirical potential submerged well below soap opera levels."
—
Village Voice
Posted May 25, 2004
|
|
|
24%
|
Walking Tall (2004) |
"
A ridiculous macho slugfest attempting to reassert the '80s-style roid-raging revenge narrative."
—
Village Voice
Posted Mar 30, 2004
|
|
|
61%
|
NASCAR: The IMAX Experience (2004) |
"
Posits its working-class supporters not as protagonists but consumers, cheering on their just-folks race-car heroes for proxy fantasies of high-speed escape and high-tech goodies."
—
Village Voice
Posted Mar 9, 2004
|
|
|
43%
|
Latter Days (2004) |
"
Pilots its culture-challenging raison d'être through an increasingly insufferable collection of gaysploitation conventions."
—
Village Voice
Posted Jan 27, 2004
|
|
|
36%
|
Billabong Odyssey (2003) |
"
Pretty much everything here -- tow surfing, hydrofoil boards, token bit on women surfers -- already appeared in this summer's equally halfass Step Into Liquid."
—
Village Voice
Posted Nov 4, 2003
|
|
|
32%
|
Mambo Italiano (2003) |
"
Old annoying ethnic family stereotypes meet new annoying gay-relationship stereotypes in this candidate for Kiss Me Guido's heretofore uncontested niche."
—
Village Voice
Posted Sep 16, 2003
|
|
|
74%
|
The Backyard (2002) |
"
Hough's doc never rises above the level of first-year student project, hobbled by scattershot editing, badly written intertitles, and useless directorial voice-over."
—
Village Voice
Posted Aug 26, 2003
|
|
|
8%
|
Grind (2003) |
"
A logo-laden celebration of the joys of sponsorship wrapped inside an innocuous teen-pic package."
—
Village Voice
Posted Aug 19, 2003
|
|
|
75%
|
Koi... Mil Gaya (I Found Someone) (2003) |
"
Ultimately, it's a Hollywood science fiction plot wrapped around a traditional boy-meets-girl Bollywood core, and the song-and-dance numbers are for the most part merely serviceable."
—
Village Voice
Posted Aug 13, 2003
|
|
|
82%
|
Step Into Liquid (2003) |
"
[A] draggy, visually underwhelming portrait of contemporary surf culture."
—
Village Voice
Posted Aug 6, 2003
|
|
|
12%
|
Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights (2002) |
"
Squanders the cross-cultural comedy potential of a Jewish-themed Christmas movie on cheap fart gags and boilerplate schmaltz."
—
Village Voice
Posted Dec 3, 2002
|
|
|
65%
|
Cremaster 3 (2003) |
"
It offers little beyond the momentary joys of pretty and weightless intellectual entertainment."
—
Village Voice
Posted Jun 19, 2002
|
|
|
29%
|
Escape to Life: The Erika and Klaus Mann Story (2002) |
"
Weiss and Speck never make a convincing case for the relevance of these two 20th-century footnotes."
—
Village Voice
Posted Mar 28, 2002
|
|
|
100%
|
Sátántangó (Satan's Tango) (1994) |
"
Critics have rightfully hailed Tarr as one of filmdom's criminally undersung geniuses."
—
Village Voice
Posted Oct 5, 2007
|
|
|
99%
|
Metropolis (1927) |
"
Lang's impossibly vast skyscraper-ziggurats (inspired, it's said, by his first view of the Manhattan skyline) are the blueprint for nearly every science-fiction movie city of the past 30 years."
—
Village Voice
Posted Jul 17, 2007
|
|
|
86%
|
Shadow Company (2007) |
"
Shadow Company attempts to provide a balanced view of a potentially polarizing issue, interviewing historians, security firm heads, war journalists, and former contractors themselves (the Army declined)."
—
Village Voice
Posted Jul 5, 2007
|
|
|
84%
|
Jack Smith and the Destruction Of Atlantis (2006) |
"
Smith's own work, here montaged for easy digestion, is already too rich and sumptuous to require any further frosting."
—
Village Voice
Posted Apr 10, 2007
|
|
|
86%
|
Cobra Verde (Slave Coast) (1987) |
"
It's easy to understand why this was Herzog's final collaboration with the actor, but Kinski's performance nevertheless serves up a potent confusion of documentary and fiction that has long been an essential element of Herzog's filmmaking."
—
Village Voice
Posted Mar 20, 2007
|
|
|
78%
|
The GoodTimesKid (2005) |
"
Though the film never transcends its own neo-boho quirk, it concludes in a marvelous final shot: a long take set to Gang of Four, grungy and materialist in the Jacobs tradition."
—
Village Voice
Posted Jan 16, 2007
|
68%
——
98%
