|
3/4
|
79%
|
Monsters University (2013) |
"
"Monsters University" is fine family entertainment with something for the adults and a lot for the kids."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Jun 18, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
56%
|
Man of Steel (2013) |
"
The result is a film that, while relentlessly grim and badly in need of humor, manages to be a smart, nuanced take on the Superman mythology."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Jun 11, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
34%
|
The Internship (2013) |
"
Somehow much -- if certainly not all -- of the film works. Levy largely avoids the cynical and the crude, which is refreshing. Some bits are legitimately funny."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Jun 5, 2013
|
|
1/4
|
11%
|
After Earth (2013) |
"
Bits of the plot, including the environmental science of the new Earth, make no sense. The dialogue is leaden. And the special effects are surprisingly unconvincing ..."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted May 30, 2013
|
|
1.5/4
|
20%
|
The Hangover Part III (2013) |
"
Phillips has lost all of the sharp humor, keen sense of debauchery and still plain fun that marked the original."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted May 22, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
87%
|
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) |
"
Abrams gets considerable help from a cast who go after their roles with great zest."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted May 14, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
78%
|
Iron Man 3 (2013) |
"
It's decent popcorn entertainment -- just fine for the summertime, but nothing more than that."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted May 1, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
77%
|
42 (2013) |
"
If you want a sense of a true all-American hero, this film is a fine place to start."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Apr 10, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
93%
|
The Sapphires (2013) |
"
"The Sapphires" is a bit like a puppy you're trying to house break. It may have its bad cinematic moments but it's just so darn appealing that you have to love it."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Mar 26, 2013
|
|
2/4
|
37%
|
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013) |
"
There's no question that you will laugh at times throughout "Burt Wonderstone." But if you are looking for something truly magical, you will come away disappointed."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Mar 13, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
94%
|
Amour (2012) |
"
A wrenching film that is sure to bring tears -- a lot of tears -- to your eyes and manages, in many ways, to affirm that love is worth sharing and life is worth living even in the most final of days."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Jan 9, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
65%
|
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) |
"
In a bit of irony, Bilbo Baggins says at the end of the movie: "I do believe the worst is behind us." We can only hope so."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Dec 11, 2012
|
|
1.5/4
|
63%
|
Hitchcock (2012) |
"
Hitchcock once famously said that a good filmmaker should always "always make the audience suffer as much as possible." I don't think he meant the kind of suffering "Hitchcock" inflicts on its audience."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Nov 27, 2012
|
|
1/4
|
13%
|
Red Dawn (2012) |
"
Remaking an old film is rarely a good idea, but sometimes the idea is so spectacularly bad that the reasoning behind it defies all comprehension."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Nov 20, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
89%
|
Lincoln (2012) |
"
One of the finest historical dramas ever committed to film. It's a triumph for Spielberg, Kushner and, most of all, Day-Lewis."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Nov 7, 2012
|
|
3.5/4
|
92%
|
Skyfall (2012) |
"
This is a brilliant reboot of the canon, mixing a sense of melancholy, the shock of changing times and the darkness of loss with thrillingly staged chase and fight scenes and clever references to all that has come before."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Nov 6, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
86%
|
Wreck-it Ralph (2012) |
"
It's a fine piece of moviemaking that has a little something for kids who don't remember when games were played in arcades and adults who will delight in the tweaking of a bygone era."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Oct 31, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
67%
|
Cloud Atlas (2012) |
"
"Cloud Atlas" is a film where the creators' admirable reach exceeds their grasp. You may be getting six films for the cost of one, but it may not really be worth the price."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Oct 24, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
52%
|
Trouble with the Curve (2012) |
"
"Trouble with the Curve" may not be the Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, but it's a fine afternoon or evening at the ballpark."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Sep 19, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
85%
|
Sleepwalk With Me (2012) |
"
It is a likable, warm film that brings a welcome reassurance: Even if you fail spectacularly as a comedian or as a human being, it really can turn out OK in the end."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Aug 30, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
74%
|
Hope Springs (2012) |
"
It's going for the truth in people's lives and, for the most part, it finds it."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Aug 7, 2012
|
|
3.5/4
|
87%
|
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) |
"
As a cop tells a younger partner when Batman first reappears, "Boy, you're in for a show tonight, son." And, indeed, it's been quite a show."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Jul 17, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
86%
|
Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) |
"
In filmmaking, as in Hushpuppy's world, everything must fit together just right. And in "Beasts of the Southern Wild," everything does."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Jul 3, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
43%
|
To Rome with Love (2012) |
"
If you're expecting another "Midnight in Paris" -- and you may well in the first moments of the new film -- you will be disappointed."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Jun 27, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
78%
|
Brave (2012) |
"
A good, often entertaining work that kids will love."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Jun 19, 2012
|
|
3.5/4
|
94%
|
Moonrise Kingdom (2012) |
"
Hayward and Gilman are newcomers who are asked to carry much of the film and pull it off with lovely understatement and extraordinary believability."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted May 30, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
51%
|
John Carter (2012) |
"
"John Carter" may not be a perfect movie, but it's one where you can safely plunk down your money, grab your box of popcorn and come away reasonably satisfied when the closing credits roll."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Mar 8, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
60%
|
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) |
"
The game is now afoot with Holmes' arch-nemesis, Professor James Moriarity -- and that makes a notable difference. This time, Holmes is up against an equal, and it's elementary indeed that muscle and firepower alone won't carry the day."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Dec 15, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
96%
|
The Muppets (2011) |
"
The film is loaded with everything Muppets fans love: loopy musical production numbers, very funny montages, some hilarious asides and weird little moments."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Nov 22, 2011
|
|
2.5/4
|
44%
|
J. Edgar (2011) |
"
For all its virtues -- or, perhaps, because of them -- J. Edgar is a disappointment."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Nov 10, 2011
|
|
2/4
|
47%
|
Anonymous (2011) |
"
If you are looking for something more intellectual, and certainly more accurate in its portrayal of a rich period in English history, you will have to go elsewhere."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Oct 28, 2011
|
|
3.5/4
|
85%
|
The Ides of March (2011) |
"
This is intelligent filmmaking, and a provocative moral fable. It may not be perfect, but it stands as one of the better, most realistic movies about the way we elect our leaders."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Oct 7, 2011
|
|
3/4
|
44%
|
Cowboys & Aliens (2011) |
"
There is enough to like and to savor in Cowboys & Aliens that it makes for an enjoyable two hours in the dark with a big bag of buttery popcorn."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Jul 28, 2011
|
|
4/4
|
96%
|
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 (2011) |
"
Tears are shed for the lost, cheers are raised for the (often unexpectedly) brave and noble, and, in the movie's final moments, there is a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment rarely achieved in filmmaking."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Jul 13, 2011
|
|
2.5/4
|
38%
|
Cars 2 (2011) |
"
[Pixar]t has set such a high bar with what it has done with animation and storytelling over its 25 years that when it falls short -- and it does fall short with Cars 2 -- the disappointment can make a perfectly good, entertaining movie seem like a letdown."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Jun 23, 2011
|
|
1.5/4
|
32%
|
How Do You Know (2010) |
"
What's truly perplexing about the failures of How Do You Know is that the film was written and directed by James L. Brooks, a master of the rom-com genre."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Dec 16, 2010
|
|
3/4
|
78%
|
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 (2010) |
"
Much of the heavy lifting falls to Watson, and, in such moments as the one where she must wipe out her family's memories of her to protect them, she is more than up to the task."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Nov 17, 2010
|
|
4/4
|
96%
|
The Social Network (2010) |
"
You will know The Social Network is something very special from its first scene."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Oct 1, 2010
|
|
|
81%
|
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) |
"
For most of its hour and 53 minutes, it's a dazzling and thoroughly engaging ride through a fantasy world born of Wright's (and O'Malley's) vivid imaginations."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Aug 13, 2010
|
|
3.5/4
|
99%
|
Toy Story 3 (2010) |
"
In a summer that will be littered with bad sequels, bad 3-D and bad storytelling, it is a movie to be heartily embraced."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Jun 17, 2010
|
|
C-
|
57%
|
Shrek Forever After (Shrek 4) (2010) |
"
There is no happy ending for the Shrek franchise."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted May 20, 2010
|
|
2.5/4
|
69%
|
The Runaways (2010) |
"
It may be, as Fowley says near the end of the film, that the Runaways "were a conceptual rock project that failed." But as a film about a certain time and place in rock history, The Runaways largely succeeds."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Mar 19, 2010
|
|
0.5/4
|
60%
|
Pirate Radio (The Boat That Rocked) (2009) |
"
I started glancing at the time well before the midway mark."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Nov 13, 2009
|
|
3/4
|
81%
|
Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009) |
"
Perhaps the best way to approach it -- at least for those who are not total Jackson fans -- is to view it as an often-fascinating document on how the sausage (or magic, if you will) is made for a mega-concert tour."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Oct 29, 2009
|
|
C
|
48%
|
Taking Woodstock (2009) |
"
The characters are all representative of the period but they come off as one-dimensional, more symbols than individuals."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Aug 25, 2009
|
|
|
75%
|
Julie & Julia (2009) |
"
Sometimes a meal can be less than perfect but still so thoroughly enjoyable that a missed ingredient here or a bit of overcooking there doesn't really matter."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Aug 19, 2009
|
|
3.5/4
|
84%
|
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) |
"
Half-Blood Prince shows the Potter film franchise and Rowling's story are in very good hands indeed."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Jul 13, 2009
|
|
3.5/4
|
97%
|
When the Levees Broke (2006) |
"
Do the flaws diminish Levees? To a degree. But the story Lee tells is so powerful, so important, that the lapses aren't a reason not to pay heed to what this passionate film has to say."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Aug 22, 2006
|
|
|
67%
|
Sleepy Hollow (1999) |
"
If you're willing to loosen your grip on reality, it is a grand journey to a place where Gothic is cross-wired with modern sensibilities."
—
San Jose Mercury News
Posted Jan 1, 2000
|
74%
79%
62%
52%
26%
4%
