|
|
55%
|
The Ladykillers (2004) |
"
Bludgeons you with cartoonish gags about stupid football players, irritable-bowel syndrome and (for the second Coen film in a row) somebody accidentally shooting himself in the head."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Mar 25, 2004
|
|
|
93%
|
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004) |
"
As a friend joked, 'If you peel away the movie's postmodern tricks, what you're left with is about as profound as a Hugh Grant movie.'"
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Mar 18, 2004
|
|
|
77%
|
A Decade Under the Influence (2003) |
"
What's missing is anything resembling a point of view ... or the slightest sense of critical discrimination."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted May 29, 2003
|
|
|
49%
|
Bruce Almighty (2003) |
"
It drowns [Carrey's] hilarious physicality in an ocean of sap."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted May 29, 2003
|
|
|
29%
|
Tsui Hark's Vampire Hunters (The Era of Vampires) (2002) |
"
The Hong Kong movie industry is crumbling, and this painfully slack horror picture is another sign of its decay."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted May 22, 2003
|
|
|
74%
|
The Matrix Reloaded (2003) |
"
Feels like a jerry-built sequel."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted May 14, 2003
|
|
|
47%
|
City of Ghosts (2003) |
"
Dillon doesn't yet possess the directorial chops to give his story the necessary snap; the action too often feels poky and muffled."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Apr 24, 2003
|
|
|
43%
|
Anger Management (2003) |
"
Like so many Sandler vehicles, the movie isn't actually funny, but keeps feeling as if it should be."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Apr 10, 2003
|
|
|
34%
|
Tears of the Sun (2003) |
"
Its moral and political viewpoint is so crushingly simple-minded that one yearns for the intellectual nuance of George Bush."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Mar 6, 2003
|
|
|
19%
|
The Life of David Gale (2003) |
"
Although I've never before seen Winslet flounder like this, it's Spacey who really needs help -- his desire to be St. Kevin is turning him into a joke."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Feb 20, 2003
|
|
|
45%
|
Daredevil (2003) |
"
The movie has far less emotional weight than, say, Spider-Man."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Feb 20, 2003
|
|
|
60%
|
Gerry (2003) |
"
Van Sant ultimately reveals so little about this odd couple that we frankly don't give a damn what happens to them."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Feb 12, 2003
|
|
|
49%
|
Human Nature (2002) |
"
Although a few moments are hilarious, this would-be romp remains laboriously earthbound when it should be swinging gaily through the trees."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Dec 9, 2002
|
|
|
33%
|
The Truth About Charlie (2002) |
"
The boyish, goofily smiling Wahlberg is egregiously out of place as the kind of charming-ambiguous dreamboat you'd have to be Cary Grant to pull off."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Oct 24, 2002
|
|
|
95%
|
The Trials of Henry Kissinger (2002) |
"
Gibney and Jarecki just want to string the bastard up."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Oct 24, 2002
|
|
|
96%
|
Bowling for Columbine (2002) |
"
Although he'd have made a crackerjack ad man, [Moore's] a slipshod filmmaker, and the movie quickly collapses, burying its subject beneath bumper-sticker rehashes of received ideas."
—
NPR's Fresh Air
Posted Oct 10, 2002
|
|
|
42%
|
Death to Smoochy (2002) |
"
A broad, braying yuk fest that revels in coarse jokes ... lacks the courage of its own cynicism ... and refuses to develop its own premise."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Sep 16, 2002
|
|
|
60%
|
K-19: The Widowmaker (2002) |
"
K-19 is so unnervingly square that it seems eerily like Party-sanctioned Soviet filmmaking."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Jul 18, 2002
|
|
|
78%
|
A Beautiful Mind (2001) |
"
It's sad to see a beautiful mind whittled down by such a plain one."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Jun 1, 2002
|
|
|
81%
|
The Manchurian Candidate (2004) |
"
If Demme's version lacks the wallop of its predecessor, it is more likely to be popular with contemporary audiences, who will enjoy not only its labyrinthine twists but its stars' burnished professionalism."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Jul 28, 2004
|
|
|
89%
|
Oasis (2003) |
"
This is a film that gives humanism back its good name."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Jun 17, 2004
|
|
|
64%
|
Coffee and Cigarettes (2004) |
"
It's worth fidgeting through the mediocre stuff to get to three good pieces."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted May 12, 2004
|
|
|
78%
|
The Saddest Music in the World (2004) |
"
Surely the oddest 1930s musical ever made, in or out of the 1930s."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted May 6, 2004
|
|
|
62%
|
Young Adam (2004) |
"
For all the symbolic weight of its title, Young Adam doesn't come close to giving us Existence. But it does give us one limited human being."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Apr 15, 2004
|
|
|
85%
|
Kill Bill, Volume 2 (2004) |
"
Vol. 2 is the most sheerly enjoyable movie I've seen in ages, allowing for all the intimacy that was missing from its predecessor."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Apr 15, 2004
|
|
|
80%
|
Millennium Mambo (Qianxi Manbo) (2001) |
"
A ravishing bauble about la dolce vita in Taiwan."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Mar 25, 2004
|
|
|
90%
|
James' Journey to Jerusalem (2004) |
"
An enjoyable, sneaky-smart fable about the collision between innocence and experience."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Mar 25, 2004
|
|
|
85%
|
Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) |
"
A fan-boy's paradise."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Oct 9, 2003
|
|
|
87%
|
Dracula: Pages From a Virgin's Diary (2003) |
"
The most inventive vampire picture of the last 80 years."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Jun 26, 2003
|
|
|
88%
|
28 Days Later (2003) |
"
While 28 Days Later is itself a stylistic tour de force, Boyle recaptures his earlier storytelling briskness and deft touch with actors."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Jun 26, 2003
|
|
|
75%
|
The Good Old Naughty Days (2003) |
"
Provide a revealing glimpse into an earlier, if not more innocent, erotic universe."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Jun 3, 2003
|
|
|
73%
|
Together (He ni zai yi qi) (2003) |
"
If you can get past the corn, the story exerts a not-unsatisfying emotional pull thanks to Yun's soulful gravity and a tenderness that Chen hasn't shown quite so openly since his 1984 debut, Yellow Earth."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted May 29, 2003
|
|
|
72%
|
The Italian Job (2003) |
"
Paramount's new version boasts no such cultural resonance, but it's far more enjoyable than, say, X2 or The Matrix Reloaded."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted May 29, 2003
|
|
|
78%
|
Owning Mahowny (2003) |
"
[Kwietniowski] tracks his lost hero's descent with a cool, precise visual style that's humanized by Hoffman's unerring ability to seem at once dull, decent and out of control."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted May 1, 2003
|
|
|
96%
|
Winged Migration (Le Peuple Migrateur) (2003) |
"
The footage ... is astonishing both for the beauty of the birds and for its sheer technical brilliance."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted May 1, 2003
|
|
|
80%
|
Japón (2003) |
"
Reygadas grapples with the most elemental of issues ... and the result is sly, touching and more than a little loony."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Apr 24, 2003
|
|
|
62%
|
Identity (2003) |
"
Enjoyably swervy."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Apr 24, 2003
|
|
|
86%
|
Ten (2003) |
"
One of the year's finest movies."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Apr 24, 2003
|
|
|
80%
|
Better Luck Tomorrow (2002) |
"
Though it doesn't fully transcend its small budget (the lighting is dingy), the story feels rooted in something more solid than prefab posturing."
—
NPR's Fresh Air
Posted Apr 10, 2003
|
|
|
73%
|
Fellini - I'm a Born Liar (2003) |
"
Pettigrew assumes that Fellini was a genius, and while this film won't convince any skeptics, the maestro's fans can sink into it like a hot bath."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Apr 10, 2003
|
|
|
56%
|
Irreversible (2002) |
"
The opening 50 minutes are brutal, but if you can take the punishment, you'll probably be wowed by Noé's skills as a filmmaker."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Mar 6, 2003
|
|
|
71%
|
All the Real Girls (2003) |
"
Green is attuned to the poetry of ordinary life, with its longueurs and sudden bursts of deep emotion."
—
NPR's Fresh Air
Posted Feb 12, 2003
|
|
|
90%
|
Cidade de Deus (City of God) (2003) |
"
From beginning to end, City of God doesn't just hold you; it clutches your lapels with its lurid exuberance."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Jan 16, 2003
|
|
|
75%
|
Gangs of New York (2002) |
"
What ultimately gives Gangs of New York its power is less its storytelling than its grand, bracingly radical vision of American history."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Dec 19, 2002
|
|
|
79%
|
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2003) |
"
Rockwell delivers a performance admirable in its hustling sweatiness."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Dec 19, 2002
|
|
|
96%
|
Catch Me If You Can (2002) |
"
Bursts with the old-fashioned Hollywood panache."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Dec 19, 2002
|
|
|
85%
|
About Schmidt (2002) |
"
Nicholson himself has done all you could ask: This is easily his strongest work since he did Reds and The Border back-to-back 20 years ago."
—
NPR's Fresh Air
Posted Dec 11, 2002
|
|
|
65%
|
Solaris (2002) |
"
Tautly elliptical story of love, memory, guilt and redemption."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Nov 27, 2002
|
|
|
48%
|
Femme Fatale (2002) |
"
[Romijin-Stamos] knows her way around a wisecrack, and Femme Fatale may do for her what Basic Instinct did for Sharon Stone."
—
L.A. Weekly
Posted Nov 7, 2002
|
|
|
76%
|
8 Mile (2002) |
"
What saves all this from being purely conventional is the filmmaker's keen sense of Rabbit's essential solitude as an artist, even when surrounded by friends."
—
NPR's Fresh Air
Posted Nov 7, 2002
|
68%
——
98%
