|
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
|
30%
|
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
|
47%
|
Olympus Has Fallen (2013) |
"
Given the premise's essential absurdity, it's almost embarrassingly entertaining."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Mar 22, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
93%
|
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
|
59%
|
Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) |
"
A Blunder-full Blizzard of Blahs."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Mar 8, 2013
|
|
4/4
|
92%
|
O Som ao Redor (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
|
46%
|
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
|
84%
|
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
|
15%
|
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
|
81%
|
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
|
98%
|
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
|
80%
|
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
|
65%
|
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
|
85%
|
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
|
78%
|
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
|
75%
|
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
|
12%
|
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
|
46%
|
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
|
33%
|
The Oranges (2012) |
"
The Oranges does not taste freshly squeezed."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Nov 9, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
100%
|
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
|
42%
|
Midnight's Children (2013) |
"
Watchable without ever feeling essential."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Nov 2, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
66%
|
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
|
|
3/4
|
84%
|
Smashed (2012) |
"
It's an addiction-and-recovery movie without the usual side-effect of wallowing melodrama."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Oct 26, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
38%
|
Nobody Walks (2012) |
"
Has the fragranced whiff of a missed opportunity."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Oct 12, 2012
|
|
|
90%
|
Keep the Lights On (2012) |
"
A heart-breaking love story and call for emotional transparency in relationships."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Oct 12, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
96%
|
Argo (2012) |
"
Argo is a movie of many parts, the sum of which can probably be best described as enjoyable Hollywood hokum."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Oct 12, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
63%
|
Sinister (2012) |
"
A mixed bag of old-school and contemporary horror tricks that occasionally raises a hair prickle of intrigue."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Oct 12, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
87%
|
Frankenweenie (2012) |
"
A 3-D, black-and-white, stop-motion animated film, it's a one-man blow for cinematic biodiversity."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Oct 5, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
33%
|
Won't Back Down (2012) |
"
A drama that's as intellectually crude as it is emotionally calculated."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Sep 28, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
56%
|
Eddie The Sleepwalking Cannibal (2013) |
"
As far as it goes, Eddie: The Sleepwalking Cannibal is a well-paced and calibrated blend of juicy gore and low-key comedy."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Sep 28, 2012
|
|
1.5/4
|
45%
|
Hotel Transylvania (2012) |
"
This comedy starring and produced by Adam Sandler feels as slapped together one of the comedian's live-action buddy movies."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Sep 28, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
85%
|
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) |
"
Well-soaked in the familiar brine of teen sensitivity."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Sep 28, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
85%
|
The Master (2012) |
"
[Phoenix and Hoffman] suggest duelling Brandos."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Sep 21, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
80%
|
Laurence Anyways (2013) |
"
A well-acted drama about two anguished lovers struggling with their own flaws and an unjust society."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Sep 21, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
100%
|
In My Mother's Arms (2012) |
"
Roughly-made but illuminating, the Iraq documentary In My Mother's Arms is a brief immersion into life in a Baghdad boys' orphanage."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Aug 31, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
86%
|
Easy Money (2012) |
"
What really distinguishes it from any number of drug-escapade stories is the unusual and welcome sense of Dostoyevskian moral gravity of the narrative."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Aug 24, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
86%
|
Robot & Frank (2012) |
"
Much of Robot & Frank is (frankly) resistible, including the climactic narrative twist, but there is also a likeable oddness that transcends the sentimental contrivance."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Aug 24, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
67%
|
All Together (2012) |
"
As middling comedies go, the French approach has certain virtues. If good wine and long talks with friends can't prevent the inevitable, at least they make the waiting more tolerable."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Aug 17, 2012
|
|
|
——
|
Fortunate Son () |
"
A likeable heartfelt diary film that aims for emotional catharsis and more or less hits the target."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Aug 17, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
86%
|
Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) |
"
Beasts of the Southern Wild marks one of the most auspicious American directorial debuts in years."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Jul 13, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
43%
|
To Rome with Love (2012) |
"
Not great, but not grating."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Jul 6, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
51%
|
Savages (2012) |
"
It all feels more like flexing atrophied muscles rather than creating a believable experience."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Jul 6, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
73%
|
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) |
"
More honourable than "amazing," the latest reboot of the Spider-man franchise brings Marvel Comics web-slinging super-hero down to earth, in a mostly satisfactory way."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Jul 2, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
77%
|
Take This Waltz (2012) |
"
The premise is undermined by casual pacing and a protagonist who seems not 28, but 18, or younger."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Jun 29, 2012
|
|
|
55%
|
People Like Us (2012) |
"
People Like Us is that sort of on-the-nose drama, where every emotional reaction is telegraphed and delivered right on cue."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Jun 29, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
75%
|
Alps (2012) |
"
Lanthimos' film, with its emphasis on death deferred, holds the chilly fascination of a gaping skull."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Jun 22, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
95%
|
5 Broken Cameras (2012) |
"
Both a moving first-person essay and an artful exercise in political advocacy, 5 Broken Cameras is about the experience of West Bank protests from the inside."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Jun 22, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
78%
|
Brave (2012) |
"
What we get would be fine from another studio, but too safe and familiar for Pixar."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Jun 22, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
50%
|
388 Arletta Avenue (2012) |
"
388 Arletta Avenue manages to use the terrorized-couple genre to provide a timely commentary on supposedly safe homes and distant wars."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Jun 15, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
95%
|
Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present (2012) |
"
The film goes a long way to establish the intellectual seriousness and dedication involved in her ambitious series of art stunts."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Jun 15, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
41%
|
Rock of Ages (2012) |
"
Far too mild for its supposedly outrageous subject."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Jun 15, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
64%
|
Cosmopolis (2012) |
"
A carefully prepared freeze-dried entrée, sans jus, that fails to stir the appetite."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Jun 8, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
27%
|
High School (2012) |
"
A stoner comedy with a slightly musty vintage aroma."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Jun 8, 2012
|
|
4/4
|
81%
|
China Heavyweight (2012) |
"
Chang nurses a compelling drama from a multilayered cultural reality, at once intimate and unfathomably large in implications."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted May 11, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
57%
|
The Dictator (2012) |
"
While Baron Cohen's lanky physical slapstick and verbal manglings are funny, the movie begins to feel like one of the later, worn-out Pink Panther movies."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted May 11, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
50%
|
Citizen Gangster (2012) |
"
Inspired by Boyd's story, rather than literally retelling it, the movie is less a gangster film than an existential allegory of choices and limitations."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted May 11, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
22%
|
Raven (2012) |
—
Globe and Mail
Posted May 4, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
78%
|
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012) |
"
With its stereotypical characters and creaky plot turns, this passage to India feels even longer than its running time."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted May 4, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
92%
|
Headhunters (2012) |
"
Headhunters is slick and spritely, a mixture of corporate skullduggery and low-life slapstick that plays like The Firm meets Blood Simple."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted May 4, 2012
|
|
1/4
|
38%
|
Oscar and the Lady in Pink () |
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Apr 27, 2012
|
|
1/4
|
33%
|
The Lady (2012) |
"
The Lady is a slog, a two-and-a-half hour, painted-on-wood exercise in political iconography."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Apr 27, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
23%
|
The Raven (2012) |
"
The pervasive gore overpowers the few clumsy attempts at wit here..."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Apr 27, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
63%
|
The Five-Year Engagement (2012) |
"
Feels more like the raw feed than the final edit, and seems to run as long as the time span promised in the title."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Apr 27, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
——
|
I'm Yours () |
"
The plot collapses into a fairy-tale ending that is offered as an odd remedy for the characters' facile defeatism."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Apr 20, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
74%
|
Chimpanzee (2012) |
"
Unfortunately, when so many strings have been pulled along the way, Oscar's triumph feels contrived for dramatic impact, even though it really happened."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Apr 20, 2012
|
|
2/4
|
——
|
Hard Core Logo 2 () |
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Apr 20, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
92%
|
The Cabin in the Woods (2012) |
"
Cabin is a meta-horror-comedy mash-up that, at least for two-thirds of its running time, holds together smartly."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Apr 13, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
70%
|
Keyhole (2012) |
"
Like Maddin's melancholic and relatively more conventional My Winnipeg, Keyhole is about a memory house, but one that is even more fragmented, mythical and elusive."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Apr 13, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
83%
|
The Salt of Life (2012) |
"
Though you can empathize with Gianni's loneliness, the lecherous buffoon is too much of a stock type to feel fresh. At times, the comedy is shamelessly broad."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Apr 6, 2012
|
|
2.5/4
|
——
|
The Girl In The White Coat () |
"
Ultimately, The Girl in the White Coat feels programmatic, an exercise in watching an emotionally and mentally defenceless person being abused in progressively more outrageous ways."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Apr 6, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
88%
|
Titanic (2012) |
"
Overall, for a blockbuster movie about one great big thing hitting another great big thing, the new film shows distinctly upper-deck restraint."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Apr 4, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
93%
|
Gerhard Richter Painting (2012) |
"
A documentary about the 80-year-old German artist putting paint on canvas that offers a look at the mighty mountain of creative achievement."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Mar 30, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
95%
|
One Life (2013) |
"
What's before our eyes suggests we share the planet with some amazingly strange beings."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Mar 23, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
85%
|
The Raid: Redemption (2012) |
"
After too many bloated Hollywood spectacles, the joltingly energetic The Raid: Redemption feels like an action film distilled to its essence."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Mar 23, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
99%
|
Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2012) |
"
A profile of a celebrity chef, a quick cultural immersion and many mouth-watering montages of food preparation in one package."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Mar 16, 2012
|
|
3/4
|
93%
|
King of Devil's Island (2011) |
"
Possibly no one else does "grim" with as much unsparing enthusiasm as the Scandinavians."
—
Globe and Mail
Posted Mar 16, 2012
|
