|
C
|
56%
|
Man of Steel (2013) |
"
You get the feeling [Snyder] would rather have chucked the entire back story, not to mention the front story, and just delivered up nonstop bashing. Which he sort of does anyway."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 13, 2013
|
|
B+
|
84%
|
Much Ado About Nothing (2013) |
"
I enjoyed Whedon's film both as a species of stunt and also as a legitimately entertaining entry in the voluminous Shakespeare adaptation sweepstakes."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 7, 2013
|
|
A-
|
82%
|
Dirty Wars (2013) |
"
An exposé of practices that need -- demand -- exposing."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 7, 2013
|
|
C-
|
35%
|
The Internship (2013) |
"
Google, the corporate entity, is so lovingly portrayed that the film itself resembles nothing so much as a massive product tie-in."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 7, 2013
|
|
A-
|
84%
|
Fill the Void (2013) |
"
I left Fill the Void feeling privileged, however briefly, to have been brought into this world."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 31, 2013
|
|
C+
|
76%
|
The Kings of Summer (2013) |
"
[The Kings of Summer] has some vitality, but it sinks into cliché just the same."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 31, 2013
|
|
C
|
50%
|
Now You See Me (2013) |
"
One of those movies with a terrific premise and a less-than-terrific follow-through."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 31, 2013
|
|
C-
|
11%
|
After Earth (2013) |
"
It's impossible to take this movie seriously, certainly not as seriously as it takes itself."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 31, 2013
|
|
1.5/5
|
4%
|
Getting Even With Dad (1994) |
"
It's all a bit smug and suspect."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted May 28, 2013
|
|
A-
|
95%
|
We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks (2013) |
"
The results are far more exciting than most Hollywood espionage thrillers."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 24, 2013
|
|
A
|
98%
|
Before Midnight (2013) |
"
Before Midnight is the fullest and richest and saddest of the three movies in the trilogy."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 24, 2013
|
|
C+
|
64%
|
Epic (2013) |
"
Director Chris Wedge falls into the common animator's trap of making the "human" characters a lot duller than the nonhuman creepy-crawlies."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 24, 2013
|
|
C-
|
19%
|
The Hangover Part III (2013) |
"
The tonal problem of the second installment, which often resembled a drug-infested pulp thriller instead of a comedy, is also problematic here."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 23, 2013
|
|
1.5/5
|
7%
|
Ghost Dad (1990) |
"
I suppose you can't blame the star of one of TV's most popular series for attempting to conquer the movies -- yet again. What's perplexing is that Cosby keeps choosing vehicles that seem designed to sabotage the conquest."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted May 21, 2013
|
|
1/5
|
4%
|
Mobsters (1991) |
"
Mobsters looks like it was made by people who have seen too many gangster films for people who haven't seen any. There isn't a breath of life in the filmmaking."
—
Los Angeles Times
Posted May 21, 2013
|
|
B+
|
95%
|
Stories We Tell (2013) |
"
Polley was right to follow her instincts, though, in not attempting to tie everything up. She recognizes that family histories are necessarily contradictory, crazymaking, and essentially unfathomable."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 17, 2013
|
|
B
|
93%
|
Frances Ha (2013) |
"
It's a skimpy, overextended riff, but some of the seemingly tossed-off moments are lovely."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 17, 2013
|
|
B
|
44%
|
The English Teacher (2013) |
"
Greg Kinnear does a nice supporting job as Jason's dad."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 17, 2013
|
|
B
|
87%
|
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) |
"
J.J. Abrams's Star Trek Into Darkness, the sequel to his prequel, delivers the goods, even if some of the goods are less than fresh."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 16, 2013
|
|
|
80%
|
The Boxer (1997) |
"
The Boxer is very observant about the ways in which women are enlisted in the IRA cause."
—
Dallas Observer
Posted May 14, 2013
|
|
B-
|
77%
|
Venus And Serena (2013) |
"
The movie offers up much fascinating then-and-now footage."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 10, 2013
|
|
C+
|
35%
|
Peeples (2013) |
"
The slapstick is often clunky, but Robinson has a sweet jester's disposition that keeps many of the gags from collapsing."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 10, 2013
|
|
C-
|
49%
|
The Great Gatsby (2013) |
"
Fitzgerald's sensibility is delicately nuanced, but there's steel in his melancholy. With Luhrmann, everything, not just the parties but the intimate scenes, turns into Mardi Gras."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 9, 2013
|
|
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
|
82%
|
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
|
42%
|
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+
|
88%
|
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
|
79%
|
Iron Man 3 (2013) |
"
The action, directed by Shane Black, ranges from passable to interminable."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 3, 2013
|
|
C-
|
44%
|
To The Wonder (2013) |
"
Essentially it's an agglomeration of Malick's worst stylistic annoyances."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Apr 26, 2013
|
|
C-
|
23%
|
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+
|
55%
|
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
|
49%
|
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-
|
89%
|
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-
|
79%
|
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-
|
55%
|
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-
|
69%
|
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+
|
93%
|
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+
|
83%
|
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
|
72%
|
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-
|
38%
|
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-
|
92%
|
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+
|
59%
|
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
|
69%
|
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-
|
91%
|
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
|
71%
|
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-
|
81%
|
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
|
93%
|
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+
|
46%
|
Beautiful Creatures (2013) |
"
A dash -- only a dash -- of Tim Burton ghoulishness might have helped. "
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Feb 14, 2013
|
|
C
|
14%
|
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
|
93%
|
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-
|
84%
|
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-
|
93%
|
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
|
29%
|
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
|
80%
|
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
|
|
C
|
32%
|
Gangster Squad (2013) |
"
Director Ruben Fleischer and screenwriter Will Beall can't decide whether to make a spoof or a serious drama, so they wrongheadedly attempt both."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jan 11, 2013
|
|
B-
|
93%
|
Coriolanus (2011) |
"
Fiennes leads a cast that, at least in the major roles, is uniformly powerful."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jan 8, 2013
|
|
A
|
100%
|
The Invisible War (2012) |
"
I have rarely been more righteously riled up than I was while watching the documentary The Invisible War."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jan 7, 2013
|
|
B-
|
51%
|
Promised Land (2013) |
"
Promised Land is more effective as an anti-fracking screed than as a drama."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jan 4, 2013
|
|
A-
|
100%
|
56 Up (2013) |
"
What gives the series its force is not just its universality but also its particularity. These grown-ups may be Everyman, but they are also singular."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jan 4, 2013
|
|
B-
|
52%
|
This is 40 (2012) |
"
The performers are so likable that you stay with them even when, as is often the case, the material is hit-or-miss."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Dec 21, 2012
|
|
B-
|
93%
|
Amour (2012) |
"
Because of its subject matter, and because of the actors, it's impossible to watch this film without being moved. But a martinet is running the show."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Dec 21, 2012
|
|
C
|
44%
|
On the Road (2012) |
"
It's all rather exhausting, as opposed to exhilarating."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Dec 21, 2012
|
|
C+
|
70%
|
Not Fade Away (2012) |
"
It's a "personal" movie that, in some ways, seems impersonal. Everything seems a bit too varnished and staged and overly familiar."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Dec 21, 2012
|
|
C-
|
38%
|
The Guilt Trip (2012) |
"
The Guilt Trip pairs Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand in the hope, no doubt, that sparks will fly. They don't."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Dec 21, 2012
|
|
B
|
61%
|
Jack Reacher (2012) |
"
Werner Herzog, better known as one of the finest living directors, plays a bad guy with Teutonic relish. If he doesn't watch it, he'll have a whole other career for himself playing dead-eyed villains."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Dec 21, 2012
|
|
C+
|
65%
|
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) |
"
My first thought in watching The Hobbit was: Do we really need this movie? It was my last thought, too."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Dec 14, 2012
|
|
C+
|
93%
|
Zero Dark Thirty (2013) |
"
By showing scenes of torture without taking any kind of moral (as opposed to tactical) stand on what we are seeing, Bigelow has made an amoral movie -- which is, I would argue, an unconscionable approach to this material."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Dec 14, 2012
|
|
B-
|
37%
|
Hyde Park on Hudson (2012) |
"
Michell manages to wring the requisite mixture of pathos and mirth from the confab."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Dec 7, 2012
|
|
B-
|
82%
|
De rouille et d'os (Rust and Bone) (2012) |
"
The entire shebang is like a Frenchified homage to the tough-tender universe of everything from The Champ to the Bogart-Bacall duets."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Dec 7, 2012
|
|
C+
|
74%
|
Rise of the Guardians (2012) |
"
The conceit has its charms but too much of this movie, directed by Peter Ramsey, is more clamorous than inspired, and little kids might find parts of it too scarily intense."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Nov 30, 2012
|
|
B+
|
96%
|
Chasing Ice (2012) |
"
The rapid disappearance of ice mountains, filmed over a period of years, is compressed through time-lapse technology into minutes and seconds. The speeded-up effect is harrowing and also, disturbingly, eerily beautiful."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Nov 30, 2012
|
|
C
|
63%
|
Hitchcock (2012) |
"
Hopkins has been fitted out prosthetically to resemble Hitchcock and he does a reasonably good job of impersonating him, but it's a foredoomed effort."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Nov 30, 2012
|
|
A-
|
93%
|
The Central Park Five (2012) |
"
What she and her father and husband have drawn from this material is a combustible amalgam: a movie about justice violated, rectified, and denied."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Nov 30, 2012
|
|
B+
|
75%
|
Killing Them Softly (2012) |
"
The dialogue is sharp and so are the performances. Andrew Dominik directed this neo-noir in a low-key comic style that's alternately gritty and fancy. The gritty stuff is best."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Nov 30, 2012
|
|
B
|
87%
|
Life of Pi (2012) |
"
Like that other "unfilmable" novel, Cloud Atlas, it has, of course, been turned into a movie -- with rather happier results."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Nov 21, 2012
|
|
B+
|
91%
|
Holy Motors (2012) |
"
This is the kind of it-can-mean-whatever-you-want-it-to-mean art film that I usually run from, but Carax is such a prodigiously gifted mesmerist that, if you give way, you're likely to be enfolded in the film's phantasmagoria."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Nov 21, 2012
|
|
B
|
92%
|
Silver Linings Playbook (2012) |
"
Lawrence, in her most high-low, sad-comic turn yet, is remarkable."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Nov 21, 2012
|
|
C-
|
64%
|
Anna Karenina (2012) |
"
Often deliberately arch and formal, the performers have been instructed to emphasize the overwrought theatricality of Anna's disapproving social set. What doesn't emerge is Anna's passion. Panic is more like it."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Nov 16, 2012
|
|
B
|
89%
|
Lincoln (2012) |
"
Day-Lewis's Lincoln is the spiritual center of the film, but he's ringed by a multitudinous cast of characters."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Nov 9, 2012
|
|
A-
|
92%
|
Skyfall (2012) |
"
Daniel Craig, in his third outing as 007, has taken over the role in a way that makes it his as distinctively as it was Sean Connery's all those years ago."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Nov 8, 2012
|
|
B+
|
80%
|
Orchestra Of Exiles (2012) |
"
It's a great, too-little-known piece of history."
—
Christian Science Monitor
Posted Nov 2, 2012
|
