Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 83%
| Me and Orson Welles (2009) | "
A tribute to the transformative power of art -- not just for the audience but for the artist..." Posted Dec 30, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 70%
| Sherlock Holmes (2009) | "
This latest Holmes -- frequently stripped down to suspenders and pantaloons, the better for bareknuckle brawling -- may displease Arthur Conan Doyle purists but should find favor with audiences eager for a fun, witty action movie." Posted Dec 28, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Rotten 37%
| Nine (2009) | "
If you remember the lugubriously comical Bela Lugosi accent used by Jason Segel when performing his 'Dracula' puppet opera in 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall,' you've got a notion of Daniel Day-Lewis' 'singing' voice in 'Nine.'" Posted Dec 28, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 22%
| Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009) | "
Richard Widmark is dead but his spirit improbably lives on in this 'squeakquel,' in which the allegedly adorable harmonizing rodents cause an old lady in a wheelchair to roll down a steep flight of stairs..." Posted Dec 28, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 89%
| Up in the Air (2009) | "
A solid adult comedy-drama, with lead characters sturdy enough to have been played by Cary Grant and Bette Davis in another era, and actors confident and talented enough not to be humiliated by the comparison." Posted Dec 28, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 49%
| It's Complicated (2009) | "
More sitcom than screwball, Meyers' films are more interesting to talk about -- Why aren't more movies aimed at this demographic? What does the popularity of these films say about mature women and their relationships? -- than enjoyable to watch." Posted Dec 28, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 83%
| Avatar (2009) | "
Works as both a socially conscious Western update and as a true SF film, revealing the influences of such fine genre writers as Philip Jose Farmer, Larry Niven and especially Edgar Rice Burroughs (the 'John Carter of Mars' series)." Posted Dec 28, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 84%
| Bright Star (2009) | "
The most perfect film of the year." Posted Dec 18, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 72%
| The Road (2009) | "
A very fine film that somehow manages to attain only a fraction of the heart-rending power of its grim source." Posted Dec 18, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 15%
| Did You Hear About the Morgans? (2009) | "
Adorable if adulterous and agnostic salad-fancying nitwit city slickers save their marriage with the help of a God-fearing, meat-eating 'Sarah Palin' and her sheriff husband in what could be described as 'Green Acres' in Red State drag, plus guns." Posted Dec 18, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 95%
| La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet (2009) | "
Without the distractions of 'documentary' data, the film becomes a pure, almost meditative experience..." Posted Dec 18, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 83%
| The Princess and the Frog (2009) | "
Say it loud, I'm green and I'm proud: 'It's not slime, it's mucus,' Tiana asserts during the film's final act, after Disney's first African-American princess has spent most of the film in the emerald skin of an amphibian." Posted Dec 11, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 76%
| Invictus (2009) | "
Risks dullness and embraces preachiness to pursue an idea that is given lip service by politicians but is rarely addressed in motion pictures: 'How do we inspire ourselves to greatness?'" Posted Dec 11, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 89%
| Red Cliff (2009) | "
It reminded me of a Road Runner cartoon. The battlefield violence is essentially repetitious, but Woo -- the auteur as Wile E. Coyote -- introduces gimmicks ('the tortoise formation'), tricks and variations to keep things interesting." Posted Dec 11, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 60%
| Pirate Radio (2009) | "
Overstates the Establishment-vs.-youth culture impact of Britain's real-life offshore radio stations..." Posted Dec 9, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 46%
| Everybody's Fine (2009) | "
Contains an honest, thoughtful, relatively unmannered De Niro performance..." Posted Dec 4, 2009 |
Rotten 1.5/4
| Fresh 67%
| Paris (2009) | "
'Seize the Day.' That's the title of a song that plays during the end credits... It's also the trite message of this tedious tapestry-of-life ensemble piece, in which a prettily dying young man advises his man-less sister to 'take a chance on chance.'" Posted Dec 1, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 28%
| The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) | "
Bella's tedious moping takes center stage until a poorly delivered telephone message (what a lame dramatic device!) sends everyone to Italy to confront 'the Vulturi'..." Posted Dec 1, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 31%
| Ninja Assassin (2009) | "
Never tries to be anything but a slick update of the cheap martial arts thrillers distributed by Cannon Films in the 1980s..." Posted Dec 1, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 6%
| Old Dogs (2009) | "
Add scary music, and some scenes could come straight from a horror movie, with no need for re-editing, as when Williams is trapped in a tanning booth, or when Williams slams a car trunk's lid onto a woman's arms, like Terry O'Quinn did in 'Stepfather 2.'" Posted Dec 1, 2009 |
Fresh 4/4
| Fresh 93%
| Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) | "
A celebration of 'wild animals with true natures and beautiful talents.' (In other words, artists and children?)" Posted Dec 1, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 92%
| Precious: Based on the Novel PUSH by Sapphire (2009) | "
Sapphire's story and the film's performances are powerful enough to compensate for Daniels' miscalculations and phony tricks." Posted Nov 20, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 72%
| The Blind Side (2009) | "
Sarah Palin isn't the only gun-toting, ex-cheerleader, conservative Christian sports mom back in the news. This week also gives us Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy..." Posted Nov 20, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 94%
| An Education (2009) | "
The message proves surprisingly conventional, but its delivery is entirely pleasurable." Posted Nov 20, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 23%
| Planet 51 (2009) | "
A trite compendium of everything that's wrong with non-Pixar computer-animated feature films." Posted Nov 20, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 54%
| The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009) | "
Not the acerbic, Strangelovian satire one might expect but a pleasant, good-natured film that adopts the happy hippy vibe of Bridges' far-out Vietnam vet..." Posted Nov 13, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Rotten 55%
| Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009) | "
The 3D isn't enough to justify yet another version of this familiar tale; the film seems more opportunistic than necessary." Posted Nov 13, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 44%
| The Box (2009) | "
The first half is a brilliantly realized exercise in sustained tension; the suspense fades as the story becomes increasingly bizarre..." Posted Nov 13, 2009 |
Rotten 1/4
| Rotten 6%
| All About Steve (2009) | "
'I'm going to eat you like a mountain lion,' says the sex-starved Bullock as she attacks Cooper in his van, moments after meeting him, in one of several appalling scenes that represent director Phil Traill's idea of cute." Posted Nov 13, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 39%
| 2012 (2009) | "
The bad news: The world as we know it has come to an end. The good news: Mommy's new boyfriend was squashed in the gears of a giant high-tech ark, so Daddy's back in the picture!" Posted Nov 13, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 94%
| The Damned United (2009) | "
As a film inspired by British football, this may hold limited appeal for American moviegoers. But it's also a film about a form of spurned love, which means it's a story about love and hate, which means it's a movie that everybody can relate to." Posted Nov 13, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 77%
| That Evening Sun (2009) | "
Confounds expectations and discomfits the audience by reversing the strategy of 'Gran Torino,' with Holbrook's proud, cantankerous old-timer becoming less worthy of the audience's early investment of loyalty and trust as the story progresses..." Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Fresh 3.5/4
| Fresh 70%
| Alexander the Last (2009) | "
With its self-conscious references to the artistic process and to art itself (in a scene that wouldn't be out of place in a Godard project, a character reads Poe's 'The Bells,' almost in its entirety), this is Swanberg's most moving and impressive film..." Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 45%
| Saw VI (2009) | "
Would make a good co-feature with Michael Moore's 'Sicko,' as self-righteous maniac Jigsaw -- apparently a fan of the public option -- plays his bloody, lethal 'games' with health insurance professionals who deny coverage to the needy." Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 45%
| Shorts (2009) | "
A fun trifle -- essentially, a homemade 'Little Rascals' update in which youngsters with a 'wishing rock' wreak accidental havoc (and create upright crocodiles, a giant dung beetle, a 'big bad booger' monster and an intellectual telepathic baby)." Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Fresh 65%
| Coco Before Chanel (2009) | "
'Coco Before Chanel'? Whose bright idea was that? Isn't that like 'Amelia Before Airplanes'? Or 'Frankenstein Before Med School'?" Posted Nov 6, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 43%
| The Proposal (2009) | "
Tailored to fit Sandra Bullock more snugly than the antique wedding gown altered for the star during the final act, the film begins to fall apart at the seams after its focus wanders from its promising screwball premise..." Posted Oct 30, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 75%
| Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) | "
Effective when it exposes the immoral, even 'evil' excesses of an economic system that prizes profit above public welfare; less persuasive when it waxes nostalgic about the factory era of the mid-20th century..." Posted Oct 30, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 37%
| Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009) | "
A fun, energetic adventure with plenty of inoffensive ghoulish touches that should please kid and adult horror buffs alike." Posted Oct 30, 2009 |
Rotten 2/4
| Rotten 11%
| The Stepfather (2009) | "
Substitutes an Oedipus complex for sexual menace by replacing the teenage daughter heroine of the earlier film with a hunky military school bad boy, then compounds the mistake with a bad pop/rock soundtrack and a silly action climax..." Posted Oct 30, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 80%
| Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009) | "
Reveals a 'King of Pop' whose talent was undiminished by whatever private demons contributed to his shocking death at the age of 50." Posted Oct 30, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Fresh 87%
| A Serious Man (2009) | "
Takes the concept of the self-loathing Jew to an arguably loathsome new level..." Posted Oct 30, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 94%
| Good Hair (2010) | "
Unlike most documentaries with a message, 'Good Hair' invites moviegoers to a conversation, not a lecture." Posted Oct 23, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Rotten 21%
| Amelia (2009) | "
Burns a lot of fuel over the idea that Earhart was not just a hero of the air but an original feminist -- an iconoclast in jodhpurs and a necktie whose addiction to the 'freedom' of flight was representative of womankind's yearning for independence..." Posted Oct 23, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Rotten 48%
| Astro Boy (2009) | "
It may creep some people out -- parents more than children, no doubt." Posted Oct 23, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 73%
| Where the Wild Things Are (2009) | "
The title isn't a question, but the movie provides an answer: Everywhere." Posted Oct 16, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Fresh 82%
| Paranormal Activity (2009) | "
'Maybe we shouldn't have the camera?' Katie asks, raising the interesting if undeveloped notion that the plugged-in generation's endless self-regard and intentional surrendering of privacy invites discontent, disruption, even disaster." Posted Oct 16, 2009 |
Rotten 2.5/4
| Rotten 24%
| Law Abiding Citizen (2009) | "
'It's gonna be biblical,' promises the self-righteous Butler about his vengeance, although moviegoers familiar with the Good Book may wonder how they missed the chapter in which the Philistines were smote with a booby-trapped cell phone." Posted Oct 16, 2009 |
Fresh 2.5/4
| Rotten 29%
| Aliens in the Attic (2009) | "
Amiable, kid-oriented slapstick..." Posted Oct 16, 2009 |
Fresh 3/4
| Rotten 44%
| Jennifer's Body (2009) | "
Tonally inconsistent, at least it errs on the side of ambition and cleverness; its box-office failure suggests that male genre fans don't want to be asked to identify with the victims instead of the menace." Posted Oct 6, 2009 |
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