|
B
|
78%
|
Iron Man 3 (2013) |
"
The movie is shrewd enough to skitter along so frenetically that nothing, not even tonal contradiction, can stick."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted May 2, 2013
|
|
B
|
77%
|
42 (2013) |
"
42 escapes the trappings of sheer hero worship largely thanks to Boseman, whose relative anonymity eliminates any potential star baggage. More than that, he strikes a tough balance."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Apr 11, 2013
|
|
|
100%
|
The Kings of Summer (2013) |
"
A light-stepping kids comedy for grown-ups."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Apr 9, 2013
|
|
B
|
67%
|
Stoker (2013) |
"
Aesthetics are steering this ghostly ship, leaving narrative in the background to fend for itself. Fortunately, Park is in full command of his repertoire."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Mar 14, 2013
|
|
D
|
60%
|
Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) |
"
Oz the Great and Powerful somehow manages to be both slavish to its hallowed template (when convenient) and completely tone-deaf to the magic that made it a one-of-a-kind cultural milestone."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Mar 8, 2013
|
|
B-
|
15%
|
A Good Day To Die Hard (2013) |
"
It's all more than a little silly, but Willis' presence at least provides undercurrents of easy jocularity."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Feb 14, 2013
|
|
B+
|
52%
|
The Playroom (2013) |
"
Modest in scale, it's the kind of American independent film that brings some honor to that shopworn descriptor."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Feb 14, 2013
|
|
B-
|
85%
|
Side Effects (2013) |
"
Soderbergh, in what's rumored to be his final theatrical release (don't believe it), jumps from imitating the master to imitating the master imitators."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Feb 7, 2013
|
|
B+
|
80%
|
Warm Bodies (2013) |
"
The movie has a wry sense of humor that manages to coexist with its all-you-need-is-love theme."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Jan 31, 2013
|
|
A
|
93%
|
Amour (2012) |
"
There's nowhere to hide: The film cuts no corners and stings with the authenticity of life's fragility."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Jan 17, 2013
|
|
C-
|
32%
|
Gangster Squad (2013) |
"
What's missing from Gangster Squad is a core, a point of view, something to patch together the cheese and carnage."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Jan 10, 2013
|
|
A
|
93%
|
Zero Dark Thirty (2013) |
"
Swift, smart, relentless, Zero Dark Thirty compresses a decade of high-stakes procedural into 157 minutes of pure momentum."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Jan 3, 2013
|
|
B
|
88%
|
Django Unchained (2012) |
"
No movie can match Quentin Tarantino's spaghetti Western/blaxploitation/southern when it comes to illustrating the carnage wrought by slavery."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Dec 25, 2012
|
|
B
|
61%
|
Jack Reacher (2012) |
"
As the details mount, and the star does what stars do, it starts to seem like a good bag of potato chips. There's no nutritional value, but darned if you don't keep eating."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Dec 20, 2012
|
|
A-
|
82%
|
Rust and Bone (2012) |
"
This is a sensuously assembled, almost tactile film that earns its redemption and sears itself in memory."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Dec 20, 2012
|
|
B
|
66%
|
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) |
"
I was impressed with how much of the story's good humor Jackson and Co. manage to weave into the spectacle. It's there in the close shave with a gang of hungry trolls, and it really lifts off once Andy Serkis' uncanny Gollum enters the picture."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Dec 13, 2012
|
|
C-
|
44%
|
Bad Kids Go to Hell (2012) |
"
With characters that come off more as collections of tics than people and a soundtrack stuck on earsplitting dance remix mode, Bad Kids plays like a straight-to-DVD bad dream."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Dec 6, 2012
|
|
B
|
63%
|
Hitchcock (2012) |
"
Its ambitions are modest, its payoffs pleasant enough."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Nov 29, 2012
|
|
A
|
92%
|
Silver Linings Playbook (2012) |
"
Sharp of tongue, generous of spirit, Silver Linings Playbook is a jagged, loopy romantic comedy about "crazy" people that insists, deep down, we're all a little nuts."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Nov 20, 2012
|
|
A
|
89%
|
Lincoln (2012) |
"
Lincoln is a stirring reminder that politics can be noble. Might there be a lesson here for today's shrill D.C. discourse? 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Nov 15, 2012
|
|
A-
|
92%
|
Skyfall (2012) |
"
The movie makes a claim that can't be matched by many Bond films: It's actually about something."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Nov 7, 2012
|
|
B+
|
79%
|
Flight (2012) |
"
Washington sells the hollow confidence of a practiced dissembler, and he conjures enough vulnerability and pure charm to make us wince as he circles the drain."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Nov 1, 2012
|
|
B-
|
68%
|
Cloud Atlas (2012) |
"
Take a collection of stories, connect them through portentous themes and watch it all spin. We've seen it before -Babel, anyone? - but nothing is quite like the daft, brazenly ambitious cosmic fantasia ofCloud Atlas."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Oct 25, 2012
|
|
B+
|
68%
|
Wuthering Heights (2012) |
"
Lyrical and minimalist - if you don't care for such qualities, you may just find it slow ..."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Oct 18, 2012
|
|
A
|
96%
|
Argo (2012) |
"
A tone-perfect hybrid of insider show-biz spoof and tense spy thriller."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Oct 11, 2012
|
|
B+
|
88%
|
The Other Dream Team (2012) |
"
An inspirational if overly talkative new documentary that lives at the intersection of nationalism and sport."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Oct 11, 2012
|
|
A-
|
100%
|
How to Survive a Plague (2012) |
"
Plague isn't the history of a disease so much as the history of a movement, and a portrait of those who refused to suffer passively."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Oct 4, 2012
|
|
B-
|
91%
|
The Revisionaries (2012) |
"
Offers a balanced view of the fight over science and U.S. history standards for Texas schools, but lacks the punch it might have achieved with a stronger point of view."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Oct 4, 2012
|
|
B+
|
93%
|
Looper (2012) |
"
Even with its echoes of sci-fi thrillers past, from La Jette to The Terminator, Rian Johnson's mind bender feels fresh - fresh enough to be forgiven for sputtering off the rails in the final act."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Sep 27, 2012
|
|
A
|
86%
|
The Master (2012) |
"
Entrancing from first frame to last. The lights go down, they come up 137 minutes later, and you're left to ask yourself: What on earth did I just see?"
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Sep 20, 2012
|
|
B
|
51%
|
Trouble with the Curve (2012) |
"
Muttering in a hoarse whisper, stooping just a bit, [Eastwood] finds an angry grace and pathos more satisfying than anything else in this grooved fastball of a movie."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Sep 20, 2012
|
|
B+
|
22%
|
The Words (2012) |
"
Even with one story line and time frame too many, the movie conjures a mean Faustian bargain and leaves a classic dramatic question hanging in its air: What would you do if faced with similar circumstances?"
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Sep 6, 2012
|
|
B+
|
67%
|
Lawless (2012) |
"
Lawless turns the literary tone of its source novel into something faster, leaner and more populist."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Aug 29, 2012
|
|
A-
|
56%
|
The Bourne Legacy (2012) |
"
Gilroy has been around the franchise from the start, and he finds a satisfying medium between the previous directors' disparate styles, the cool jazz tones of Doug Liman and the shaky-cam faux-documentary approach of Paul Greengrass."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Aug 9, 2012
|
|
B
|
77%
|
Killer Joe (2012) |
"
Like a deep-fried Twinkie at the State Fair of Texas, Killer Joe is gooey, flavorful and bad for you. Dig in."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Aug 3, 2012
|
|
B+
|
87%
|
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) |
"
Yes, The Dark Knight Rises. And rises. And rises some more."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Jul 19, 2012
|
|
A-
|
78%
|
Take This Waltz (2012) |
"
Both the small moments and the end product of Waltz are quietly sublime."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Jul 12, 2012
|
|
D+
|
43%
|
To Rome with Love (2012) |
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Jul 5, 2012
|
|
B+
|
73%
|
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) |
"
This is a grittier webslinger saga, led by a Peter Parker with swagger and angst and a tone defined more by emotional resonance than wide-eyed wonder. It still has plenty of fizz."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Jul 4, 2012
|
|
B
|
69%
|
Ted (2012) |
"
You can overlook an awful lot in a comedy when it makes you laugh."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Jun 28, 2012
|
|
B+
|
74%
|
Prometheus (2012) |
"
If you have fond, 33-year-old memories of averting your young eyes from a propulsive parasite critter, Prometheus might just be your kind of return trip."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Jun 7, 2012
|
|
D
|
29%
|
Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding (2012) |
"
Woodstock, and hippie grandmas everywhere, demand better."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Jun 7, 2012
|
|
A
|
97%
|
La Grande illusion (Grand Illusion) (2012) |
"
It's among the most understated anti-war films ever made, effortlessly humanistic but far too subtle to indulge in preaching."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Jun 7, 2012
|
|
B-
|
79%
|
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012) |
"
A riot of splashy colors, silly 3-D gimmicks, big, broad kid-friendly gags - and those professionally pesky penguins."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted Jun 7, 2012
|
|
C
|
48%
|
Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) |
"
The only one who comes out of this odd pairing unscathed is Walt Disney, looking smarter than ever for boiling the tale down to its mythical essence way back in 1937."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted May 31, 2012
|
|
B+
|
21%
|
My Way (2012) |
"
Given its aggressiveness in all cinematic matters, My Way manages to color in the personal stakes with enough clarity to keep you caring about the players set loose on its massive canvas."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted May 17, 2012
|
|
B
|
58%
|
The Dictator (2012) |
"
If nothing here offends you, take a bow on behalf of your stout constitution. If nothing here makes you laugh, you might need to loosen up a tad."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted May 12, 2012
|
|
B+
|
90%
|
Bernie (2012) |
"
Watching Bernie is a little like sitting on a shady front porch and gossiping with the town tattlers."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted May 3, 2012
|
|
B+
|
93%
|
Marvel's The Avengers (2012) |
"
Whedon knows how to be self-aware without getting overly cute about it. He has fun highlighting each character's neurosis and knows which personalities clash to greatest effect."
—
Dallas Morning News
Posted May 3, 2012
|
44%
46%
95%
99%
65%
61%
