|
C
|
46%
|
Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) |
"
The movie offers few thrills but will provide some great screen-savers."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Jun 1, 2012
|
|
B-
|
83%
|
Comic-Con: Episode IV - A Fan's Hope (2012) |
"
...not only captures the passion and energy of the event, it demonstrates how easily subcultures can be exploited by corporate interests."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted May 25, 2012
|
|
B-
|
90%
|
Bernie (2012) |
"
...plays like "In Cold Blood" - if it had been directed by Christopher Guest. "
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted May 25, 2012
|
|
C-
|
34%
|
Battleship (2012) |
"
...more than two hours of high-priced explosion porn that piles on its chest-thumping "America, f&%k yeah!" machismo with a brazenness that makes Top Gun seem Merchant-and-Ivory quaint."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted May 18, 2012
|
|
A-
|
90%
|
Headhunters (2012) |
"
...a sordid blast of delirious violence, brutal corporate satire, and male inadequacy."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted May 17, 2012
|
|
B-
|
74%
|
Sound of My Voice (2012) |
"
...a constant sense of creepy-crawly discomfort and well-timed blackouts keep things moving along, like a page-turning thriller."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted May 17, 2012
|
|
C
|
40%
|
Dark Shadows (2012) |
"
Dark Shadows can't really figure out what kind of movie it is. There's comedy and campy macabre and gothic melodrama and horror but none of it ever congeals into a story that dramatically, tonally or thematically makes sense. "
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted May 10, 2012
|
|
B+
|
93%
|
Marvel's The Avengers (2012) |
"
As spectacle it's big, stupid fun. Visually it's impressive. For comic geeks it's a wet dream come true. But dramatically it's inert. "
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted May 4, 2012
|
|
B-
|
75%
|
Damsels in Distress (2012) |
"
How much you enjoy it will depend on your tolerance for Whit Stillman's dry, self-consciously screwball sense of humor, and a storyline that seems to lose track of itself with alarming frequency. "
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted May 2, 2012
|
|
B-
|
98%
|
The Island President (2012) |
"
As an insight into the cynical nature of world politics, The Island President is wonky but fascinating stuff ... But as a testament to mankind's willingness to change... it's deeply dispiriting. "
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted May 2, 2012
|
|
B-
|
62%
|
The Five-Year Engagement (2012) |
"
Blunt & Segel make a good team, and the jokes, especially in the first third of the film, are solid. But the movie runs too long, stretching its contrived and disconnected situations beyond their ability to generate laughs or pathos."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted May 2, 2012
|
|
B-
|
74%
|
Chimpanzee (2012) |
"
In the end, image triumphs over narrative. [But] does the natural world really need to be shaped into a cartoonish morality tale?"
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Apr 19, 2012
|
|
B+
|
90%
|
The Cabin in the Woods (2012) |
"
It doesn't always work and it's rarely scary, but damn if it isn't entertaining as hell ... But Goddard and Whedon are striving for something more than just spectacle for spectacle's sake, and that's where they stumble."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Apr 13, 2012
|
|
B
|
91%
|
Footnote (2012) |
"
...the movie works best [when it's] sending up pompous bureaucrats, petty university politics and personal jealousies."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Apr 12, 2012
|
|
B
|
87%
|
Bully (2012) |
"
...as a launching point for discussion and activism, Bully is clearly necessary. But as a documentary that instructs or informs, it's a bit of a disappointment. "
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Apr 12, 2012
|
|
B
|
83%
|
The Raid: Redemption (2012) |
"
...a movie that's so in-your-face violent you come out of the theater feeling like it has smashed your head against the wall for an hour and 40 minutes."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Apr 6, 2012
|
|
B+
|
96%
|
The Kid with a Bike (2012) |
"
...the film delivers a final act as riveting as it is artistically satisfying. Not many films can claim a perfect ending. This one can."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Mar 30, 2012
|
|
B
|
82%
|
Goon (2012) |
"
...you have to wonder about a film that wants to emulate the outrageousness of "Slapshot" but feels the need to warm the audience's heart. "
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Mar 30, 2012
|
|
B-
|
50%
|
Mirror Mirror (2012) |
"
[The] screenplay seems more like a clever first draft than well-developed property, but the cast is charming and energetic, and Singh knows how to martial the forces of art direction to create stunningly inventive images. "
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Mar 30, 2012
|
|
B+
|
85%
|
The Hunger Games (2012) |
"
That ["The Hunger Games"] is rated PG-13 while the soon-to-be released documentary "Bully" received an "R," says some rather unflattering things about our culture."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Mar 23, 2012
|
|
B-
|
64%
|
Friends With Kids (2012) |
"
Obviously heartfelt and unusually sharp-sighted, Friends With Kids is good enough that you wish it were better. "
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Mar 19, 2012
|
|
C
|
76%
|
We Need to Talk About Kevin (2012) |
"
Stylized to the point of absurdity, We Need to Talk About Kevin is little more than a blank, tarted-up cartoon, where Ramsey's hyperbolic efforts seem orchestrated to camouflage the fact that she has nothing to say. "
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Mar 19, 2012
|
|
B
|
77%
|
Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2012) |
"
Yes, it's another man-child makes good storyline, yet Jeff, Who Lives at Home still manages to find poignancy, mainly because of Segel's shaggy-dog charm, and his obvious rapport with Helms"
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Mar 19, 2012
|
|
B-
|
95%
|
Undefeated (2012) |
"
For all its good intentions, the film, like its main subject, is a tourist, earning trust as it earnestly captures the incredible struggles of these young men, but never digging deep enough to actually make the story theirs. "
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Mar 19, 2012
|
|
C+
|
55%
|
Being Flynn (2012) |
"
To his credit, De Niro actually gives a committed performance for a change. But that doesn't mean what it once did."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Mar 19, 2012
|
|
B+
|
93%
|
Coriolanus (2011) |
"
Expertly balancing his performance between quiet regret, self-destructive arrogance and howling stubbornness, Fiennes takes center stage without making the role a vanity project."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Mar 9, 2012
|
|
B-
|
52%
|
John Carter (2012) |
"
...an impressively designed world that lacks the danger, wonder and sexiness needed to become a classic. Frankly, the movie seems too epic for Stanton's talents. "
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Mar 9, 2012
|
|
B-
|
71%
|
Thin Ice (2012) |
"
Arkin, as expected, is terrific ... but it's Crudup who steals the show. His brutal annihilation of an ice cream cone on Mickey's dashboard is truly a sight to behold."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Mar 1, 2012
|
|
A-
|
94%
|
The Secret World of Arrietty (2012) |
"
...creates a sense of wide-eyed wonder and discovery as we experience the awe-inspiring mysteries of an ordinary house as seen from the four-inch borrower's point of view."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Feb 24, 2012
|
|
A
|
99%
|
A Separation (2011) |
"
One of A Separation's many virtues is the way it gradually reveals, Rashomon-like, the complicated facts, half-truths, and lies that each character tells for perfectly legitimate reasons."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Feb 24, 2012
|
|
C
|
54%
|
Safe House (2012) |
"
Safe House exemplifies the kind of mediocre movie Hollywood pushes into the January-February release slot. It's nothing you haven't seen elsewhere, and it's not as good - even with Denzel's impish smile."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Feb 10, 2012
|
|
C+
|
65%
|
The Woman in Black (2012) |
"
There's a difference between being scared and being startled ... It's too bad that director James Watkins fills The Woman in Black with far more of the latter and too little of the former. "
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Feb 5, 2012
|
|
B
|
85%
|
Chronicle (2012) |
"
Not only does Trank have a real affinity for his characters, his instincts are pretty edgy, capturing the alienation, class rage and instability of teenage emotions."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Feb 5, 2012
|
|
C-
|
55%
|
Albert Nobbs (2012) |
"
Nobbs is so closed-off, so understated, that we're never given a chance to empathize with or understand him ... The movie is as unrealized and unexpressed as its protagonist."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Jan 27, 2012
|
|
B
|
79%
|
The Grey (2012) |
"
Neeson is a master of brooding badassery in a role that might've gone to Charles Bronson 40 years ago. "
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Jan 27, 2012
|
|
C+
|
47%
|
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2012) |
"
Horn's naturalistic performance is so unmannered, expressive, and spontaneous that it almost overcomes every self-consciously precocious personality tic Foer has constructed. Almost. "
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Jan 21, 2012
|
|
C
|
38%
|
Red Tails (2012) |
"
...though it's tempting to root for Red Tails based on its intentions alone, I fear it would be similar to clapping extra loud for the handicapped child at the little league game, a celebration of effort over execution."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Jan 21, 2012
|
|
B
|
77%
|
The Mill and the Cross (2011) |
"
Visually, it's a lavish dreamscape. But come prepared. This immersive and mostly nonverbal art tour of history could lead to an evening of regret. "
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Jan 18, 2012
|
|
B-
|
78%
|
A Dangerous Method (2011) |
"
David Cronenberg goes Merchant-Ivory. Or maybe it's Last Tango in Switzerland ... As an examination of psyche and desire, A Dangerous Method is smart and sophisticated stuff. As drama it fails."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Jan 18, 2012
|
|
C
|
53%
|
The Iron Lady (2012) |
"
...dull, clichéd and wrongheaded as a biopic can be, sporting a shallow and hamfisted script, and equally inept direction. But Streep sure makes a great Margaret Thatcher."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Jan 12, 2012
|
|
B+
|
83%
|
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) |
"
As drama, Tinker struggles to make an impact. [It's] far better as a slow-burning study in blank-faced paranoia ... a surprisingly humane portrait of people who regularly engage in acts of inhumanity. "
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Jan 10, 2012
|
|
B
|
87%
|
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) |
"
For all its meticulously crafted mood and mise en scène, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is little more than great filmmaking in service of bad art. "
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Dec 20, 2011
|
|
B-
|
80%
|
Young Adult (2011) |
"
Theron, no stranger to subverting her super-model surfaces, fearlessly embraces Mavis' ugly inner child, presenting her as a boozy black hole of self-absorption, sexuality and unfulfilled neediness. "
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Dec 19, 2011
|
|
B
|
61%
|
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) |
"
...Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. snipe at each other like a homoerotic odd couple, consummating their bromance through innuendo-laden banter and frantic shootouts. To be honest, without them, the movie would be a lumbering and bombastic bore. "
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Dec 19, 2011
|
|
B+
|
94%
|
Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol (2011) |
"
I wouldn't say Ghost Protocol makes the most of Bird's skills as a dramatic storyteller, but as a talent in service of entertainment above all else, he rises to the occasion."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Dec 19, 2011
|
|
D
|
7%
|
New Year's Eve (2011) |
"
Watching Robert De Niro put yet another nail in the coffin of his career is bad enough, but et tu Michelle Pfeiffer?"
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Dec 12, 2011
|
|
B
|
94%
|
Hugo (2011) |
"
...an attentively crafted reminiscence of wonderment remembered, rather than wonderment experienced."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Nov 23, 2011
|
|
B
|
89%
|
The Descendants (2011) |
"
It's good, but far less than you'd expect from the guy who started his career with the gleefully provocative Citizen Ruth and Election."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Nov 22, 2011
|
|
B-
|
77%
|
Melancholia (2011) |
"
The destruction of all life has never been rendered with more operatic beauty or cruel finality. ...[Melancholia] offers only unforgiving yet aesthetically gorgeous scorn."
—
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Posted Nov 22, 2011
|
79%
33%
54%
52%
