|
0/10
|
15%
|
A Good Day To Die Hard (2013) |
"
This is the Magpie School of action filmmaking: Anytime things start to make so little sense that you might lose the audience, just throw something shiny up on screen to distract."
—
NPR
Posted Feb 14, 2013
|
|
0/10
|
26%
|
This Means War (2012) |
"
A good parody takes a finesse that isn't in the vocabulary of McG, a bargain-basement Michael Bay more concerned with cool than coherence."
—
NPR
Posted Feb 16, 2012
|
|
1.5/10
|
11%
|
Red Riding Hood (2011) |
"
It's a safe bet that if the volume of the laughter in the theater is amplified in direct proportion to how serious any given scene was obviously meant to be, then you've probably got a failure of notable and classic proportions on your hands."
—
DCist
Posted Mar 12, 2011
|
|
1.5/10
|
20%
|
The Rite (2011) |
"
There may be redemption in store for some of his characters, but Hafstrom has some serious work ahead of him if he wants any kind of absolution after this wreck."
—
NPR
Posted Jan 27, 2011
|
|
2/10
|
25%
|
The Change-Up (2011) |
"
The script values shock over wit so completely that every scene feels too eager for laughs, even with comic actors as likable as Bateman and Reynolds doing the shocking."
—
NPR
Posted Aug 5, 2011
|
|
2/10
|
26%
|
Green Lantern (2011) |
"
A screenplay that was conceived in what will undoubtedly be remembered by the four writers who contributed to it as the blackest night of their creative lives."
—
DCist
Posted Jun 17, 2011
|
|
2/10
|
20%
|
The Tourist (2010) |
"
Everyone involved is so clearly phoning it in that you can practically see them checking their wallets to make sure that the paycheck is still there."
—
DCist
Posted Dec 10, 2010
|
|
2/10
|
47%
|
Cartel (2010) |
"
But this amateurish, ultimately poorly argued documentary isn't likely to convert many of those on the fence on this issue."
—
DCist
Posted Jul 18, 2010
|
|
2/10
|
32%
|
The Lovely Bones (2009) |
"
The film is such a misfire, such a disappointing collection of failed attempts at emotional affect and confounding storytelling choices, that it seems more like a bad director's attempt to rip off Jackson's style than his own work."
—
DCist
Posted Jul 4, 2010
|
|
2/10
|
43%
|
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead (2010) |
"
This is a movie so in love with its own supposed cleverness that it never realizes it's not all that clever."
—
NPR.org
Posted Jun 9, 2010
|
|
2.2/10
|
28%
|
Clash of the Titans (2010) |
"
Unlike the original, which made the 10-year-old version of myself want to don a bedsheet toga, fashion a shield from a garbage can lid, and behead evil gorgons, this version was kind of a snooze for both him and me."
—
DCist
Posted Jul 4, 2010
|
|
2.5/10
|
22%
|
Serving Up Richard (2012) |
"
[It] forgets a vital piece of the equation: Jokes work better when they're funny."
—
NPR
Posted Sep 6, 2012
|
|
3.5
|
29%
|
The Trouble with Bliss (2012) |
"
Without much actual character to latch on to, most of the actors seem lost and awkward, even the usually dependable Hall."
—
NPR
Posted Mar 22, 2012
|
|
5.5
|
77%
|
War Horse (2011) |
"
It's not that a film can't be lighthearted family fare, a gritty war epic and a weepie all at once; the problem is that here, those elements feel strictly compartmentalized -- and calculated."
—
NPR
Posted Dec 23, 2011
|
|
2.5/10
|
73%
|
Bellflower (2011) |
"
In a cinematic climate where bland compromise is often the rule, Bellflower may be impressive simply for its unapologetic willingness to be so bile-raising and hateful."
—
DCist
Posted Sep 11, 2011
|
|
4.1
|
44%
|
The Green Hornet (2011) |
"
Superhero movies often must deal with the problem of villains being more charismatic than heroes. But when your hero is so annoying that you find yourself rooting for anyone who could potentially take him out, it's a real problem for the movie."
—
DCist
Posted Jan 14, 2011
|
|
2.5/10
|
28%
|
Takers (2010) |
"
With no emotional heft to the performances, it's hard to care whether anyone's dreams are dashed or fulfilled. That leaves the heist itself to compensate, but it only digs deeper into tired action movie cliches."
—
NPR
Posted Aug 27, 2010
|
|
2.5/10
|
33%
|
To Save a Life (2010) |
"
Miles ahead in terms of production values and an avoidance of overt proselytizing. It'll likely be an enormous hit with the evangelical communities at which it's targeted. That doesn't save it from being an utter failure outside that narrow context."
—
NPR
Posted Jul 4, 2010
|
|
3/10
|
47%
|
Olympus Has Fallen (2013) |
"
It has to be a joke, right?"
—
NPR
Posted Mar 21, 2013
|
|
3/10
|
20%
|
Chernobyl Diaries (2012) |
"
This is a standard-issue slasher movie without much slashing, substituting the Chernobyl-workers' ghost town of Pripyat for the likes of Friday the 13th's Camp Crystal Lake."
—
The Atlantic
Posted May 25, 2012
|
|
3/10
|
36%
|
The Thing (2011) |
"
Like The Thing itself, the film seeks to ape the form and behavior of something genuine, but you don't need a fancy test to tell that this is a shoddy replica."
—
NPR
Posted Oct 13, 2011
|
|
3/10
|
21%
|
Salvation Boulevard (2011) |
"
Without the humor, the stereotypes that define these characters aren't satirical; they're just mean-spirited and dull."
—
NPR
Posted Jul 14, 2011
|
|
3/10
|
33%
|
Terminator Salvation (2009) |
"
McG demonstrates a complete inability to understand what made the Cameron Terminator films so good."
—
DCist
Posted Jun 13, 2010
|
|
3/10
|
47%
|
Rendition (2007) |
"
Designed to make us feel like we've just witnessed a powerful experience. The reality of the film is that it's nothing but a shallow and underdeveloped position paper."
—
DCist
Posted Jun 10, 2010
|
|
3.4/10
|
22%
|
Repo Men (2010) |
"
The overused homages and a tacked-on twist ending are just failed attempts to save Repo Men from its own shallow blood lust."
—
NPR
Posted Jul 4, 2010
|
|
3.5/10
|
39%
|
The ABCs of Death (2013) |
"
There are just too many stories to fit into two hours - and even with fewer weak links, The ABCs of Death might have fallen short all the same."
—
NPR
Posted Mar 7, 2013
|
|
3.5/10
|
35%
|
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012) |
"
To say that it's an exercise in style over substance is perhaps an overstatement, in that it suggests there's any substance here at all."
—
NPR
Posted Jun 21, 2012
|
|
3.5/10
|
57%
|
Safe (2012) |
"
The thoroughly mediocre Safe provides little more than an excuse for Statham to do what Statham does better than anyone else: look stern while punishing bad guys. That's just not enough."
—
The Atlantic
Posted Apr 30, 2012
|
|
3.5/10
|
25%
|
Killer Elite (2011) |
"
Jason Statham is enjoyable enough to watch that he can occasionally make one forget just how silly and dull a movie like Killer Elite really is."
—
NPR
Posted Sep 23, 2011
|
|
3.5/10
|
34%
|
Burke and Hare (2011) |
"
To call it a black comedy is probably misleading: It's grey at best, and apart from a few scattered chuckles, it dies as quickly and gracelessly as Burke and Hare's victims."
—
NPR
Posted Sep 8, 2011
|
|
3.5/10
|
81%
|
Catfish (2010) |
"
Without getting into the troubling notion that this whole thing is a put-on, the "big revelation" is nothing that anyone with a passing familiarity with socialization on the internet didn't already know after 10 minutes in an AOL chat room circa 1998."
—
DCist
Posted Sep 23, 2010
|
|
3.5/10
|
28%
|
Dear John (2010) |
"
What starts as a charming anachronism %u2014 pens, paper and the postal service in an impersonal digital age %u2014 becomes tedious as Hallstrom is reduced to interminable, repetitive montages covering the many months that the pair are apart."
—
NPR
Posted Jul 4, 2010
|
|
3.5/10
|
50%
|
War Child (2008) |
"
We know that Jal was a child soldier, but we get no background on the practice, and there is a surprising lack of outrage or passion of any sort in all but one of the commentators who provide analysis."
—
DCist
Posted Jun 12, 2010
|
|
3.8/10
|
48%
|
Love and Other Drugs (2010) |
"
Edward Zwick has rarely found a message-based project he can't muddy with weepy melodrama, and this is no exception."
—
DCist
Posted Nov 25, 2010
|
|
3.8/10
|
47%
|
Hereafter (2010) |
"
Eastwood's filmmaking here is laboriously tasteful and painfully restrained to the point of complete atrophy. "
—
DCist
Posted Oct 22, 2010
|
|
3.9/10
|
55%
|
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) |
"
The kind of pointed critique of the American financial system this film might have made ends up without teeth, while the troubled personal relationships at its core are steered, without reason, towards an inexplicably treacly Hollywood ending."
—
DCist
Posted Sep 24, 2010
|
|
3.9/10
|
15%
|
The Romantics (2010) |
"
Niederhoffer wears her influences proudly on her sleeve, but crosses that line between homage and mimicry, making it difficult to hear her own voice as a filmmaker."
—
NPR
Posted Sep 10, 2010
|
|
3.9/10
|
62%
|
Salt (2010) |
"
Do the filmmakers think of us as magpies, so easily distracted by shiny objects -- or, in this case, slow-motion explosions and fast-paced physics-defying chase sequences -- that we'll buy even the most outlandish plot holes?"
—
DCist
Posted Jul 23, 2010
|
|
3.9/10
|
19%
|
The Fourth Kind (2009) |
"
When the director divides the screen into quadrants for his big finish, the effect is just laughable -- but then by that point, the movie is too."
—
NPR
Posted Jul 4, 2010
|
|
4/10
|
41%
|
The Call (2013) |
"
The shoddy attention to character, plausibility, and detail is particularly surprising coming from Anderson, a director of smart indie thrillers like The Machinist, Session 9 and Transsiberian."
—
NPR
Posted Mar 14, 2013
|
|
4/10
|
43%
|
Hotel Transylvania (2012) |
"
At its core, this movie is little more than Twilight told from the other side of the tracks, only with far more fart jokes."
—
NPR
Posted Sep 27, 2012
|
|
4/10
|
53%
|
Safe House (2012) |
"
Excellent performances from both Washington and Reynolds can't can't save Safe House from its boilerplate-thriller bones."
—
NPR
Posted Feb 9, 2012
|
|
4/10
|
44%
|
J. Edgar (2011) |
"
A dreary slog through 40 years of history that were nowhere near as dull as what's onscreen here."
—
The Washingtonian
Posted Nov 10, 2011
|
|
4/10
|
66%
|
Love Crime (2011) |
"
Every office scene feels so blatantly like an actor trying to create an approximation of what office work and banter feels like, that it amounts to spending the entirety of a marionette show watching the puppeteer and not the puppets."
—
DCist
Posted Oct 2, 2011
|
|
4/10
|
45%
|
The Perfect Host (2011) |
"
Around every corner is a new twist, a strategically placed misdirection or another switch of predator and prey. But while the gamesmanship is satisfying in moderation, it becomes a little monotonous in excess."
—
NPR
Posted Jul 1, 2011
|
|
4/10
|
34%
|
The Hangover Part II (2011) |
"
The result is a cinematic illustration of the law of diminishing returns, in which more money, more exotic locales, more crazy situations and more Mike Tyson all fuel a familiar carnival of abasement."
—
NPR
Posted May 25, 2011
|
|
4/10
|
——
|
Ranchero (2011) |
"
The film's inconsistencies, details that never seem to add up plausibly, along with the script's stilted dialogue, do the most harm to Kaponas' debut feature."
—
NPR
Posted May 19, 2011
|
|
4/10
|
51%
|
Stone (2010) |
"
This is a film about people who are lost, and the filmmakers draw a direct line between their characters' existential wanderings and the religious obsessions they find for themselves."
—
NPR
Posted Oct 8, 2010
|
|
4/10
|
71%
|
The Crazies (2010) |
"
The incoherence is made all the more disappointing because Eisner displays a great deal of raw talent for the genre's tone and set pieces."
—
NPR
Posted Jul 4, 2010
|
|
4/10
|
39%
|
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (2009) |
"
Faced with the unenviable choice between honoring his daunting inspiration and telling his own story, the director shoots straight down the middle -- and misses both targets."
—
NPR
Posted Jul 4, 2010
|
75%
22%
67%
85%
46%
40%
