|
2.5/4
|
78%
|
Iron Man 3 (2013) |
"
After a while, the steady diet of tongue-in-cheek starts to taste monotonous as day-old gum."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted May 3, 2013
|
|
1/4
|
0%
|
The Colony (2013) |
"
It's reminiscent of the more embarrassing excesses of the tax-shelter movies of 30 years ago."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Apr 26, 2013
|
|
2/4
|
46%
|
Pain & Gain (2013) |
"
The combination of the words "Michael Bay" and "steroids" should be enough to give any moviegoer pause ..."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Apr 26, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
62%
|
Evil Dead (2013) |
"
So long as you grit your teeth and keep your eyes on the screen, it's an enjoyable, if almost academic, exercise in bad taste."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Apr 5, 2013
|
|
2/4
|
——
|
Hit 'n Strum () |
"
A technically competent but clumsily scripted drama about a legal princess and a musical pauper that loses momentum right after the initial collision."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Apr 5, 2013
|
|
1.5/4
|
28%
|
G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013) |
"
What a blast G.I. Joe: Retaliation is! And then another blast, and another, in a series of concussive jolts that shred any conventional sense of story as thoroughly as anything since the last Michael Bay film."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Mar 29, 2013
|
|
2/4
|
31%
|
Emperor (2013) |
"
A stodgy movie that mixes dubious history with a clichéd, Madame Butterfly romance story, set in the period immediately following Japan's surrender in 1945."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Mar 29, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
——
|
De Goede Dood () |
"
A Good Death doesn't hide its stage roots, though this isn't a liability."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Mar 29, 2013
|
|
1/4
|
9%
|
The Host (2013) |
"
Ronan, youthfully elegant as always, tries hard, but the material defeats her."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Mar 29, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
69%
|
The Croods (2013) |
"
Even the lively visuals and unrelenting thrill-ride pace can't disguise rough-hewn storytelling, or the fact that the tale of a old-fashioned macho cave dad and his family seems a bit yabba-dabba done that already."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Mar 22, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
48%
|
Olympus Has Fallen (2013) |
"
Given the premise's essential absurdity, it's almost embarrassingly entertaining."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Mar 22, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
92%
|
No (2013) |
"
A cunning and richly enjoyable combination of high-stakes drama and media satire from Chilean director Pablo Larrain."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Mar 15, 2013
|
|
1/4
|
60%
|
Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) |
"
A Blunder-full Blizzard of Blahs."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Mar 8, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
94%
|
Neighbouring Sounds (2012) |
"
Economically packed with social issues of wealth, property and class, and deft cinematic references, this is a movie built for the modern global high-rise condo market."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Mar 8, 2013
|
|
2/4
|
52%
|
Jack the Giant Slayer (2013) |
"
While it's fine for a director to explore his childhood inspirations, you hope he would bring something a bit more personal to it."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Mar 1, 2013
|
|
2/4
|
67%
|
California Solo (2012) |
"
Lewy's script doesn't cop out with any sentimental redemption, but neither does it establish why the self-destructive Lachlan deserves our sympathy."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Mar 1, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
——
|
Lost Rivers () |
"
There's a gadfly quality to the film, in its seemingly arbitrary choice of cities and its soft, enviro-bliss approach to the tough subject of water engineering, though some of the digressions do pay off ..."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Mar 1, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
——
|
Of Two Minds (2012) |
"
The intimacy and confessional nature of these stories are the documentary's strength, but the stories feel like only a part of a larger puzzle."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Mar 1, 2013
|
|
2/4
|
45%
|
Beautiful Creatures (2013) |
"
Within the needlessly complicated script and CGI special-effects overkill, there are some promising moments."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Feb 14, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
85%
|
Side Effects (2013) |
"
A stylish take on the psychiatric-thriller genre that, despite progressive narrative absurdities, mostly delivers a dose to the pleasure centres."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Feb 8, 2013
|
|
1/4
|
14%
|
Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013) |
"
The movie settles for showers of gore with intermittent moments of spoofiness."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Feb 4, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
80%
|
Warm Bodies (2013) |
"
A good-natured romantic zombie comedy that plays like a tamer version of The Twilight Saga."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Feb 1, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
95%
|
West of Memphis (2012) |
"
What sets this film apart from previous efforts to document the story is that Jackson and Walsh financed a private investigative team with legal and forensic experts who re-examined old evidence, conducted new interviews and found new witnesses."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Feb 1, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
89%
|
A Royal Affair (2012) |
"
For all its incident, A Royal Affair is slow and picturesquely framed - more of a languorously animated coffee-table book than a gripping drama."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Feb 1, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
92%
|
Silver Linings Playbook (2012) |
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Jan 22, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
97%
|
Beware Of Mr. Baker (2012) |
"
Bulger tries, unconvincingly, to paint Baker as a difficult but admirable rebel. The lingering question in the documentary is whether his musical accomplishments were worth the trail of damage."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Jan 18, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
——
|
The Bastard Sings The Sweetest Song () |
"
[It] feels unclassifiable: a documentary as allegory, but mostly a record of a love story between a filmmaker and her subjects, struggling with the cages of intimacy and cruelty that shape their lives."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Jan 18, 2013
|
|
2.5/4
|
79%
|
Quartet (2013) |
"
Masterpiece Theatre comfort food, a chance to watch fine actors act without too many complications."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Jan 18, 2013
|
|
3/4
|
93%
|
Zero Dark Thirty (2013) |
"
No doubt Zero Dark Thirty serves a function by airing America's dirty laundry about detainee and torture programs, but in its wake, there's a crying need for a compassionate Coming Home to counter its brutal Deer Hunter."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Jan 11, 2013
|
|
2/4
|
51%
|
Promised Land (2013) |
"
Far too awkward and contrived a drama to change many hearts and minds."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Jan 4, 2013
|
|
2/4
|
18%
|
Parental Guidance (2012) |
"
One of those intergenerational embarrassment comedies in the Meet the Fockers line, where children can enjoy seeing grown-ups looking ridiculous."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Dec 28, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
88%
|
Django Unchained (2012) |
"
Even the explosive final half-hour, featuring the cartoonish flying bodies and splatterrific payback that are the director's brand, fails to provide the catharsis promised by the title."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Dec 21, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
70%
|
Les Misérables (2012) |
"
A productive experiment, an epic-scaled weepie, an exercise in sincere kitsch, and, perhaps too easily dismissed, a rare modern movie about the wretched poor, a traditional subject of interest at this time of year."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Dec 21, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
61%
|
Jack Reacher (2012) |
"
Cruise is too mature, diminutive and fine-looking for the role, even if he has gym-sculpted abs, which he manages to show off."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Dec 21, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
66%
|
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) |
"
The repeated iterations of fight, flight and respite here get wearing. Especially perhaps because, with Jackson's fetish for detail, they take more time to watch on screen than to read about."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Dec 14, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
68%
|
Step Up To The Plate (2012) |
"
A pleasurable, if drama-free portrait of French chef Michel Bras as he begins the handover of his three-star Michelin restaurant to his son, over the course of four seasons."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Dec 7, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
84%
|
Bestiaire (2012) |
"
The question the camera seems to ask is: What are animals to us and what are we to them?"
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Dec 7, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
4%
|
Playing for Keeps (2012) |
"
Butler beware: In acting as in soccer, if you keep taking dives, sooner or later you pay the penalty."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Dec 7, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
71%
|
Le magasin des suicides (The Suicide Shop) () |
"
Too grisly for kids, or at least their ticket-buying parents. At the same time, the bouncy musical numbers with their contorted rhymes are unlikely to be embraced by any self-respecting Goth teen."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Nov 30, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
79%
|
A Late Quartet (2012) |
"
The screenplay by Seth Grossman and Israeli-American director Yaron Zilberman is old-fashioned and melodramatic but stirring in its portrait of people struggling with individual egos to produce something nobler than themselves."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Nov 30, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
76%
|
Killing Them Softly (2012) |
"
A stylish, brutal affair that delivers grim atmosphere and punishing violence but loses impact in telegraphing its political punches."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Nov 30, 2012
|
|
1.5/4
|
13%
|
Red Dawn (2012) |
"
Preposterously insincere ..."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Nov 21, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
74%
|
Rise of the Guardians (2012) |
"
All this feels formulaic and the believe-in-magic message is even more treacly than typical, but give first-time feature director Peter Ramsey credit for his visual panache."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Nov 21, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
47%
|
A Liar's Autobiography - The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman (2012) |
"
Apart from Chapman's dry observational tone and the others' silly voices, there's not much here to touch Python fans accustomed to soaring in a higher stratosphere of humour."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Nov 16, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
32%
|
The Oranges (2012) |
"
The Oranges does not taste freshly squeezed."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Nov 9, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
——
|
The World Before Her (2013) |
"
A thought-provoking film that examines women's limited choices in a patriarchal country reeling from the contradictions of rapid modernization."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Nov 9, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
44%
|
Midnight's Children (2013) |
"
Watchable without ever feeling essential."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Nov 2, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
68%
|
Cloud Atlas (2012) |
"
Felicitous moments can't break through the dark nebula of self-importance around Cloud Atlas ..."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Oct 26, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
94%
|
The Sessions (2012) |
"
Most often with The Sessions the blunt comedy outweighs the drift toward sanctimony."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Oct 26, 2012
|
43%
46%
95%
99%
65%
61%
