|
3.5/5
|
98%
|
One False Move (1992) |
"
For most of the way, One False Move is taut and sure-footed."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted May 6, 2013
|
|
B
|
81%
|
Something in the Air (2013) |
"
Assayas doesn't bring out the fiery best in this material, but he's smart enough to know that revolutionaries like their comforts as much as the ruling class does."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 3, 2013
|
|
B
|
44%
|
Midnight's Children (2013) |
"
There are enough intermittent passages of power and beauty to get you through the slow spots."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 3, 2013
|
|
B+
|
83%
|
What Maisie Knew (2013) |
"
We experience her upsets without the leavening of outside interferences. And because Aprile is such an intuitive performer, we are always searching her face for the imprint of her suffering."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 3, 2013
|
|
C
|
78%
|
Iron Man 3 (2013) |
"
The action, directed by Shane Black, ranges from passable to interminable."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 3, 2013
|
|
C-
|
42%
|
To The Wonder (2013) |
"
Essentially it's an agglomeration of Malick's worst stylistic annoyances."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Apr 26, 2013
|
|
C-
|
24%
|
Arthur Newman (2013) |
"
They embark on one of those maundering, life-lessony odysseys that filmmakers love but audiences rarely do."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Apr 26, 2013
|
|
B+
|
53%
|
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013) |
"
Timeliness is certainly on the side of Mira Nair's uneven but fascinating The Reluctant Fundamentalist."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Apr 26, 2013
|
|
C
|
46%
|
Pain & Gain (2013) |
"
It's official. Michael Bay, director of the Transformers clobberfests, knows how to make movies about humans, too. The problem is, he thinks humans are robots."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Apr 26, 2013
|
|
B
|
87%
|
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Hellboy 2) (2008) |
"
Despite its comic-book trappings, Hellboy II, even more so than its predecessor, Hellboy, resembles nothing so much as an art film phantasmagoria."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Apr 15, 2013
|
|
B-
|
88%
|
The Angels' Share (2013) |
"
The film itself vaporizes before your eyes, but it's likable. Given its unstable mishmash of thuggery and whimsy, that's something of an achievement."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Apr 12, 2013
|
|
C-
|
77%
|
42 (2013) |
"
The filmmaking is TV-movie-of-the-week dull and Robinson's ordeal is hammered home to the exclusion of virtually everything else in his life."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Apr 12, 2013
|
|
3.5/5
|
78%
|
Addams Family Values (1993) |
"
Uneven as it is, Addams Family Values is considerably more enjoyable than its predecessor. At this rate, if there's a third installment, it'll be a knockout. Or at least a TKO."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Apr 11, 2013
|
|
3.5/5
|
82%
|
The Crow (1994) |
"
The Crow, starring the late Brandon Lee, is like one long fright night. Even though it was photographed in color, the edge-of-darkness atmosphere descends on the audience like a shroud."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Apr 10, 2013
|
|
B-
|
54%
|
The Company You Keep (2013) |
"
Sarandon's showpiece sequence, in which Sharon, grilled by the reporter while in FBI custody, stands up for her actions, is easily the film's best."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Apr 5, 2013
|
|
B-
|
68%
|
Trance (2013) |
"
Boyle loads his movie with so many snazzy effects that we lose sight of what it all means."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Apr 5, 2013
|
|
B+
|
94%
|
Room 237 (2013) |
"
Their imaginings are not far removed from the deconstuctionist gobbledygook that has hammerlocked academic film and literary scholarship. But here at least the gobbledygook is entertaining. "
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Apr 5, 2013
|
|
B+
|
81%
|
From Up On Poppy Hill (2013) |
"
Although simpler and less mysterious than the great Hayao Miyazaki movies, the gently melancholic From Up on Poppy Hill is still a must see at a time when family entertainment is too often synonymous with blandness."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Mar 29, 2013
|
|
B
|
81%
|
Renoir (2013) |
"
The sequences of Renoir and his chambermaids luxuriating in the sun-soaked countryside summon up not only Renoir's paintings but also such great Jean Renoir films as A Day in the Country.""
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Mar 29, 2013
|
|
C-
|
43%
|
Admission (2013) |
"
Granted, this is not automatic laugh-riot material, nor should it be, but didn't Fey recognize how hackneyed it all is?"
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Mar 22, 2013
|
|
B+
|
79%
|
Reality (2013) |
"
Garrone doesn't make the mistake of turning his protagonist, Luciano (Aniello Arena), into a bland Everyman. He never loses his singularity."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Mar 22, 2013
|
|
A
|
93%
|
Sugar (2008) |
"
As the film plays out its melancholy story, we realize that what we are watching is far rarer than the usual sports flick."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Mar 20, 2013
|
|
A-
|
91%
|
Gimme The Loot (2013) |
"
I see so many independent movies that sometimes, when an indie movie comes along that really is independent -- that is to say, when it offers up a fresh new way of seeing -- I blink twice."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Mar 15, 2013
|
|
B
|
90%
|
Beyond The Hills (2013) |
"
The movie is a series of longueurs that don't add up to a grand design -- at 2-1/2 hours, it's unnecessarily repetitive -- but it has moments when the spiritual and the secular burst forth in stunning disarray. "
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Mar 8, 2013
|
|
B+
|
96%
|
War Witch (2013) |
"
War Witch is most effective not when we are looking in on Komona but when we are inside her head."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Mar 8, 2013
|
|
C+
|
60%
|
Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) |
"
Raimi's film is supposed to be about magic, but magic is in scant supply."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Mar 8, 2013
|
|
B+
|
89%
|
A Place at the Table (2013) |
"
One thing is clear from "A Place at the Table": You cannot answer the question "Why are people hungry?," without also asking "Why are people poor?""
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Mar 1, 2013
|
|
C
|
67%
|
Stoker (2013) |
"
Park employs all manner of cinematic derring-do -- shock cuts, off-kilter compositions, discontinuous storytelling -- all to no great purpose other than to make us go "Wow." A more appropriate response might be, "Huh?""
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Mar 1, 2013
|
|
C+
|
52%
|
Jack the Giant Slayer (2013) |
"
Not awful, not wonderful, Jack the Giant Slayer is a midrange fairy tale epic that's a lot more ho-hum than fee-fi-fo-fum."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Mar 1, 2013
|
|
|
87%
|
Chicago (2002) |
"
The song-and-dance numbers are calisthenic but unspectacular, with too much fast cutting, and the tone throughout is harmlessly facetious."
—
New York Magazine
Posted Feb 24, 2013
|
|
A-
|
90%
|
Caesar Must Die (2013) |
"
Prison theatricals are nothing new in the movies, but Caesar Must Die, a quasi-documentary featuring hardened convicts acting out Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, is in a class by itself."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Feb 22, 2013
|
|
B
|
70%
|
Bless Me, Ultima (2013) |
"
Writer-director Carl Franklin offers up a tone of heightened reverence that weighs down the material, but there are small, lovely moments when the magic realism approaches the magical."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Feb 22, 2013
|
|
|
86%
|
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) |
"
It's an interesting movie to look back on for its attitudes: In the guise of being a consciousness-raiser it plumps for male tenderness and demonizes the mother who can't recognize how far her workaholic ex-hubbie has come."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted Feb 19, 2013
|
|
B-
|
82%
|
Like Someone in Love (2013) |
"
Despite its visual felicities, Like Someone in Love is so free-floating that it floats away."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Feb 15, 2013
|
|
B
|
92%
|
No (2013) |
"
Larraín's unarguable point is that, in politics, if we wait for good to issue only from the pure in heart, we will be waiting a very long time."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Feb 15, 2013
|
|
C+
|
13%
|
Safe Haven (2013) |
"
The latest Nicholas Sparks-derived weepfest, Safe Haven, is being marketed as a Valentine's Day special, but the plot line is closer to a stalker thriller. It's sudsy-scary. It's also not very good."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Feb 14, 2013
|
|
C+
|
45%
|
Beautiful Creatures (2013) |
"
A dash -- only a dash -- of Tim Burton ghoulishness might have helped. "
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Feb 14, 2013
|
|
C
|
15%
|
A Good Day To Die Hard (2013) |
"
John's appeal was always his ordinariness, but director John Moore has him surviving more explosions than Wile E. Coyote, and with hardly a scratch."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Feb 14, 2013
|
|
B
|
92%
|
Lore (2013) |
"
Saskia Rosendahl is a highly expressive actress within the limited confines of her character, and the film is studded with memorable scenes."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Feb 8, 2013
|
|
B+
|
64%
|
Ferlinghetti A Rebirth of Wonder (2013) |
"
His contribution to the culture of American letters is undeniable, and City Lights -- the store and the imprint -- could well be the closest thing to a literary shrine that we possess."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Feb 8, 2013
|
|
F
|
20%
|
Identity Thief (2013) |
"
Bateman and McCarthy are left stranded onscreen while we are supposed to be chortling at slobber comedy and fat jokes."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Feb 8, 2013
|
|
B-
|
85%
|
Side Effects (2013) |
"
Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns maintain a tone of taut creepiness, but the plot's double and triple crosses are more ingenious than believable."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Feb 8, 2013
|
|
A-
|
92%
|
The Gatekeepers (2013) |
"
It's an eye-opener."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Feb 1, 2013
|
|
B-
|
28%
|
Knife Fight (2013) |
"
Lowe's Paul is slimy, but, lo and behold, we are supposed to believe that he smells like a rose. He really wants to make the world a better place. His sentiments may be genuine but they come across as a con."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jan 25, 2013
|
|
A
|
88%
|
La Danse -- Le Ballet de l'Opera de Paris (2009) |
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jan 22, 2013
|
|
B-
|
81%
|
The Impossible (2012) |
"
The tsunami sequence is amazing, right up there with the one Clint Eastwood staged in Hereafter."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jan 18, 2013
|
|
B+
|
100%
|
Birders: The Central Park Effect (2013) |
"
In Birders, by contrast, nature is one big entrancing show; a world of tweets without "tweets.""
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jan 18, 2013
|
|
C
|
30%
|
Broken City (2013) |
"
The film is a collection of crime noir oddments that don't add up to a full meal."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jan 18, 2013
|
|
B
|
79%
|
Quartet (2013) |
"
The characters in Quartet may be on their way out, but they aren't giving up without a fight."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jan 11, 2013
|
43%
46%
95%
99%
65%
61%
