|
1/5
|
2%
|
Disaster Movie (2008) |
—
Time Out
Posted Nov 17, 2011
|
|
|
86%
|
Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee (2009) |
"
The gags are either too inside, lazily paced, or simply not funny."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jun 24, 2010
|
|
|
66%
|
The Karate Kid (2010) |
"
The plot takes forever to get rolling, and the movie is hamstrung by numerous tourism sequences (from the Forbidden City to the Great Wall) facilitated by the state-run China Film Group."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jun 10, 2010
|
|
|
11%
|
Killers (2010) |
"
Bob DeRosa and Ted Griffin wrote the script, whose plummeting one-liners leave no actor unscathed."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jun 7, 2010
|
|
|
——
|
Chun nyun hack (Beyond the Years) (2007) |
"
This is a pallid retread."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted May 20, 2010
|
|
|
44%
|
Just Wright (2010) |
"
Queen Latifah's warmth has boosted middling movies like "Beauty Shop" and "Last Holiday," but she and costar Common can't strike enough sparks to ignite this weak romantic comedy."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted May 13, 2010
|
|
|
69%
|
Babies (2010) |
"
Imagine one long, stupefying montage of all the home videos you've ever had to watch of your friends' tiny offspring, edited without any narrative arc or discernible point of view, and you'll have the gist of this misbegotten documentary."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted May 6, 2010
|
|
|
26%
|
Why Did I Get Married Too (2010) |
"
Tyler Perry grounds this sequel to Why Did I Get Married? in his trademark blend of comedy, soap opera, and down-home southern sentiment, though he lets up a little on the moral proselytizing, which aids the digestion considerably."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 2, 2010
|
|
|
61%
|
Head On (1999) |
"
Director Ana Kokkinos has an eye for local color but spends little time developing the supporting characters."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 1, 2010
|
|
|
20%
|
The Last Song (2010) |
"
Years on the Hannah Montana TV series have not adequately prepared Miley Cyrus for screen acting, even in a vehicle as unchallenging as this adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 1, 2010
|
|
|
13%
|
The Bounty Hunter (2010) |
"
Inexplicably, Butler continues to get work in romantic comedies despite his limited range and boorish persona."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 18, 2010
|
|
|
13%
|
Our Family Wedding (2010) |
"
Vacuous and contrived."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 11, 2010
|
|
|
28%
|
Remember Me (2010) |
"
Allen Coulter directed this morose and sluggish drama, which gets more mileage from Pattinson's anguished profile than from Will Fetters's thunderously overwritten screenplay."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 11, 2010
|
|
|
74%
|
Unmade Beds (2009) |
"
Director Alexis Dos Santos stressed improvisation, and his scenes have a lingering emotional rawness, but the handheld camera work left me feeling as woozy as the characters appear to be."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Feb 25, 2010
|
|
|
49%
|
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010) |
"
The movie feels like a cut-rate Potter knockoff with a dash of Ray Harryhausen."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Feb 11, 2010
|
|
|
84%
|
Eyes Wide Open (Einaym Pkuhot) (2010) |
"
This directorial debut by Haim Tabakman is unadventurous, borrowing from the gay-cinema canon but adding nothing new."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Feb 2, 2010
|
|
|
82%
|
Defamation (2009) |
"
The filmmaker gives roughly equal time to left, right, and moderate views, but his glib narration, accentuated by a jaunty score, undercuts this otherwise worthy inquiry."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Feb 2, 2010
|
|
|
——
|
The Baby Formula (2008) |
"
The low-key leads get the movie off to a slow start and sap any momentum generated by the arrival of their dysfunctional in-laws."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 29, 2010
|
|
|
16%
|
When in Rome (2010) |
"
Josh Duhamel plays the smitten sports reporter who helps Kristen Bell mount her big art show, "Pain"-a fitting title, given the agony induced by this godawful comedy."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 29, 2010
|
|
|
27%
|
Extraordinary Measures (2010) |
"
It sometimes feels like one of those "disease of the week" TV movies from the 1970s."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 25, 2010
|
|
|
79%
|
The Girl on the Train (La Fille du RER) (2010) |
"
Techine glosses over the story's most potent issue: France's complicated relationship with its Jewish community."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 21, 2010
|
|
|
12%
|
The Spy Next Door (2010) |
"
The fight sequences (with obvious doubles) are anemic, and Chan's traditional outtakes over the closing credits wear pitifully thin."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 14, 2010
|
|
|
87%
|
Amreeka (2009) |
"
Writer-director Cherien Dabis too easily resolves or dismisses the characters' problems, making way for an upbeat ending."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Dec 18, 2009
|
|
|
93%
|
Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg (2009) |
"
It is only in the sequence about Berg's popular costar Philip Loeb that Aviva Kempner's documentary resonates."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Dec 16, 2009
|
|
|
5%
|
Old Dogs (2009) |
"
A total train wreck."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Nov 25, 2009
|
|
|
11%
|
Couples Retreat (2009) |
"
The various therapies -- talk, yoga, massage -- serve only to set up tired insult humor and smarmy sight gags."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Oct 8, 2009
|
|
|
25%
|
Fame (2009) |
"
The high school is so sanitized that there are no drugs, cutthroat competition, or-inconceivably for a theatrical milieu-no gay students."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Oct 2, 2009
|
|
|
34%
|
The Burning Plain (2009) |
"
The result is confusion, not catharsis."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Sep 25, 2009
|
|
|
48%
|
Taking Woodstock (2009) |
"
Ang Lee's 11th collaboration with producer James Schamus starts out strong and funny before getting mired in 60s nostalgia."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Aug 27, 2009
|
|
|
21%
|
Spread (2009) |
"
The film becomes unintentionally funny when he falls for another hustler (Margarita Levieva) with even less conscience, their grand passion leading to ludicrous behavior and soap-opera dialogue."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Aug 20, 2009
|
|
|
92%
|
Ponyo (2009) |
"
One of the anime master's weaker efforts."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Aug 20, 2009
|
|
|
45%
|
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (Ice Age 3) (2009) |
"
The manic pace quickly grows tiresome, as does the influx of cloying baby animals."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Aug 20, 2009
|
|
|
74%
|
Cold Souls (2009) |
"
A dark indie comedy that's distinguished by a sci-fi theme and surrealistic touches but ends without a payoff."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Aug 20, 2009
|
|
|
20%
|
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) |
"
The special effects are better and the dialogue slightly more humorous than in the first movie, but the anti-Arab subtext is repugnant."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jun 25, 2009
|
|
|
43%
|
Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009) |
"
Bloated with visual effects."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted May 21, 2009
|
|
|
46%
|
Management (2009) |
"
This quirky indie romance is beguiling at first but later succumbs to artifice."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted May 14, 2009
|
|
|
62%
|
Faubourg 36 (Paris 36) (2009) |
"
Essentially a pastiche, as musty as a flea market."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 24, 2009
|
|
|
76%
|
Our City Dreams (2008) |
"
Chiara Clemente, a documentarian for Italian TV, gets in close enough to record her subjects' techniques but not close enough to reveal what makes the women tick."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 24, 2009
|
|
|
39%
|
Fighting (2009) |
"
The screenplay about a hunky street vendor turned underground fighter (Channing Tatum of Stop-Loss) is sloppy and false."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 24, 2009
|
|
|
34%
|
Alien Trespass (2009) |
"
Sinks under the weight of its homage."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Apr 3, 2009
|
|
|
17%
|
The Haunting in Connecticut (2009) |
"
It loses steam once the wraiths become fully visible: they're just not scary enough."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 27, 2009
|
|
|
33%
|
Knowing (2009) |
"
The dialogue is sci-fi standard-issue, composer Marco Beltrami shamelessly cribs from Bernard Herrmann, and wispy Rose Byrne barely registers as Cage's ally."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Mar 19, 2009
|
|
|
12%
|
Pink Panther 2 (2009) |
"
Costars John Cleese, Jean Reno, Alfred Molina, Andy Garcia, and Jeremy Irons look either bored or desperate, gasping for laughs in an airless screenplay."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Feb 5, 2009
|
|
|
58%
|
Taken (2009) |
"
Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen saddle Neeson with indigestible dialogue and preposterous situations."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 29, 2009
|
|
|
57%
|
Defiance (2009) |
"
Zwick, intent on correcting the perception of Jews as passive victims, lets the action set pieces overwhelm the more intimate scenes, several of which are already diminished by stilted dialogue."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 16, 2009
|
|
|
33%
|
Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009) |
"
To call this Kevin James comedy fatuous might be misinterpreted as an attack on the star's girth -- so how about inane, tepid, lazy, puerile, phony, and unfunny?"
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 16, 2009
|
|
|
33%
|
Not Easily Broken (2009) |
"
A queasy mix of comedy, melodrama, and self-help spirituality."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 9, 2009
|
|
|
10%
|
Bride Wars (2009) |
"
With artifice as layered as the tiers of a marzipan cake, this resembles nothing so much as a stale Rock Hudson-Doris Day comedy: you know that eventually the combatants will recognize they love each other the most."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Jan 9, 2009
|
|
|
64%
|
Marley & Me (2008) |
"
Doesn't consistently capture the book's personable tone."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Dec 29, 2008
|
|
|
56%
|
The Tale of Despereaux (2008) |
"
The imagery is colorful and artfully rendered, but the filmmakers, favoring technological wizardry over story, have beefed up the narrative with teeming rodent civilizations, a seafaring sequence, and gladiatorial action pieces."
—
Chicago Reader
Posted Dec 19, 2008
|
77%
35%
93%
85%
45%
40%
