Sam Adams Movie Reviews & Previews

Critics » Sam Adams

Sam Adams

Agrees with the Tomatometer 75% of the time.

Publications:: AV Club , Chicago Tribune , IFC.com , Los Angeles Times , Philadelphia City Paper , Salon.com , Time Out Chicago , Time Out New York
Critics' Group:: National Society of Film Critics

Total Reviews:: 944

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 51 - 100 of 944

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Rating	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date
B+	89%	A Royal Affair (2012)	" At least for a while, Arcel manages to animate the long-settled debate, at least until the inevitability of its resolution becomes too clear to overlook." — AV Club Posted Nov 8, 2012
B	86%	Wreck-it Ralph (2012)	" Rings a few welcome changes on the Disney-princess mythos, but it still feels like a game you've played before." — Philadelphia City Paper Posted Nov 1, 2012
C+	78%	Flight (2012)	" Zemeckis focuses on surfaces but never discovers what lies beneath them." — Philadelphia City Paper Posted Nov 1, 2012
C	31%	A Man's Story (2012)	" A Man's Story never gets its man." — AV Club Posted Nov 1, 2012
B+	79%	A Late Quartet (2012)	" Zilberman is breaking no new ground, but he gives his actors strong material and room to breathe. When the playing is strong enough, even a few notes can be as rich as a symphony." — AV Club Posted Nov 1, 2012
2/5	9%	Jack and Diane (2012)	" Starts with an irresistibly trashy premise and proceeds to treat it with the po-faced pretentiousness of a film-school thesis." — Time Out New York Posted Oct 31, 2012
B+	67%	Cloud Atlas (2012)	" A movie of big ideas, and only some of them are terrible." — Philadelphia City Paper Posted Oct 25, 2012
2/5	25%	The Black Tulip (2012)	" Set and shot in post-U.S.-liberation Afghanistan, The Black Tulip is noteworthy for its existence alone-and not, unfortunately, for much else." — Time Out New York Posted Oct 23, 2012
2/5	11%	Just 45 Minutes From Broadway (2012)	" Self-consciously cribbing from Chekhov by way of Robert Altman, the filmmaker convenes an extended family of stage actors at a decaying country house in New Rochelle, where the Ambien-enhanced emotional pitch lingers north of perpetual hysteria." — Time Out New York Posted Oct 16, 2012
B+	96%	Argo (2012)	" Divorce it from awards-season hype, and Argo holds up fine: There's no need to pretend it's something it's not, when what it is works just fine." — Philadelphia City Paper Posted Oct 12, 2012
B-	100%	A Whisper To A Roar (2012)	" More inspirational than informative, which is not to slight the importance of inspiring similar movements." — AV Club Posted Oct 11, 2012
A	87%	Middle of Nowhere (2012)	" The power of Middle Of Nowhere is cumulative, conveyed in sustained tone and deepening character rather than bravura sequences or explosive confrontations." — AV Club Posted Oct 11, 2012
1/5	26%	War of the Buttons (2012)	" That War of the Buttons shows no insight into how a nation's will could be so easily subdued is disappointing; that it shows no curiosity on the subject is inexcusable." — Time Out New York Posted Oct 9, 2012
3/5	86%	The Iran Job (2012)	" The doc's technique of cutting between warm exchanges and the bellicose rhetoric of then-presidents Ahmadinejad and Bush wears thin with overuse, but the big-hearted Sheppard makes for an amiable tour guide." — Time Out New York Posted Oct 9, 2012
B	32%	The Oranges (2012)	" Follows through on its yuckster premise with uncommon insight and dedication, without a shirk or a smirk." — Philadelphia City Paper Posted Oct 4, 2012
D+	35%	Butter (2012)	" A toothless, insufferably smug satire using competitive butter-carving as a weak-tea stand-in for Midwestern politics ..." — AV Club Posted Oct 4, 2012
3/5	58%	Bel Borba Aqui (2012)	" The sequences blur together into something resembling a tourist-office promo." — Time Out New York Posted Oct 2, 2012
C-	75%	Chicken with Plums (2012)	" A crushing disappointment by almost any standard, Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Parronaud's followup to the delightful Persepolis is a bad idea poorly realized." — Philadelphia City Paper Posted Sep 28, 2012
B-	78%	Dredd (2012)	" A Judge Dredd for the 21st century: humorless, scowling and shot in murky 3-D. " — Philadelphia City Paper Posted Sep 28, 2012
A-	86%	The Master (2012)	" The Master is less than the sum of its parts, but, oh, what parts they are." — Philadelphia City Paper Posted Sep 28, 2012
B+	43%	Hotel Transylvania (2012)	" It's not a satisfying whole, but parts are sheer delight. " — Philadelphia City Paper Posted Sep 27, 2012
B	28%	Backwards (2012)	" It's an uncomplicated single-character study whose main purpose is as a housing for its lead performance." — AV Club Posted Sep 20, 2012
A-	90%	Keep the Lights On (2012)	" A poignant case study in the changing contours of gay life." — AV Club Posted Sep 6, 2012
B	84%	Detropia (2012)	" At times, as Ewing and Grady's cameras prowl its empty streets, the city seems like the world's largest ghost town." — AV Club Posted Sep 6, 2012
3/5	65%	2 Days in New York (2012)	" "2 Days in Paris" is as self-assured as it is slight, a deliberate diversion whose winsome charms never run dry." — Los Angeles Times Posted Aug 17, 2012
4/5	——	Drought (2012)	" [González] keeps his distance, leaving room for plenty of thoughtfully framed compositions and allowing the hush of a dried-up land to predominate." — Los Angeles Times Posted Aug 16, 2012
B	71%	Sacrifice (2012)	" Chen can't seem to decide whether he's making a fable or something more down-to-earth, but Sacrifice works either way, if not both at once." — AV Club Posted Jul 26, 2012
C+	37%	Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012)	" Continental Drift feels less like an extension of a theatrical franchise than an episode of a middling TV cartoon, lolling around on territory that's already been settled." — AV Club Posted Jul 12, 2012
D-	29%	The Magic of Belle Isle (2012)	" For a movie that spends so much time extolling the virtues of the imagination to show so little of its own is more than ironic -- it's offensive." — AV Club Posted Jul 5, 2012
D+	28%	Crazy Eyes (2012)	" Sherman's feature turns out to be enamored of the kind of reality that gets left out of movies not because it's provocative or controversial, but because it isn't particularly interesting." — AV Club Posted Jul 5, 2012
A-	88%	Neil Young Journeys (2012)	" The heart of any concert movie is the concert itself, and in the case of Neil Young Journeys, it's a great one." — AV Club Posted Jun 28, 2012
B+	74%	Prometheus (2012)	" Unlike any of the sequels between it and the original, Prometheus is a horror movie first and foremost, gnawing at subconscious terrors even as your conscious mind attempts to bat it away." — Los Angeles Times Posted Jun 7, 2012
B	91%	Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)	" Substituting charm, and sometimes quirk, for special effects, the no-budget time-travel caper Safety Not Guaranteed squeaks by on goodwill and guarded expectations." — AV Club Posted Jun 7, 2012
2/5	79%	Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012)	" Madagscar 3 is less interested in plucking the last bit of meat off the series's bones than with simply picking the lowest-hanging fruit." — Time Out New York Posted Jun 5, 2012
B-	54%	Wallander: The Revenge (2012)	" Given that Henriksson is in his 20th hour of playing Wallander onscreen, it's no surprise that his performance has a well-worn ease; like the character himself, he seems to have been doing this his whole life." — AV Club Posted May 31, 2012
B+	91%	Chely Wright: Wish Me Away (2012)	" While it's fascinating to observe the workings of the mammoth apparatus grafted onto an intensely personal decision, the movie's heart is the moments that take place in private." — AV Club Posted May 31, 2012
1/5	18%	For Greater Glory (2012)	" This drama styles itself as a cinematic epic, but its substance is as flimsy as a Jack Chick pamphlet." — Time Out New York Posted May 29, 2012
C+	4%	Virginia (2012)	" Black seems to be aiming for some sort of loopy fantasia, a tragic fable about struggling with difference in the small-town South, but he's got more half-finished ideas than he can handle." — AV Club Posted May 25, 2012
C+	75%	The Intouchables (2012)	" Sy and Cluzet give their parts more conviction than they deserve, even when the former is forced to re-enact the falsetto-singing-in-the-bubblebath bit from Pretty Woman." — AV Club Posted May 24, 2012
C-	22%	The Samaritan (2012)	" Jackson seems only interested in cashing his paycheck, even if it's not an especially large one." — AV Club Posted May 17, 2012
B	90%	Portrait of Wally (2012)	" Portrait Of Wally tells a gripping story, but the filmmakers should have been more forthright about their own part in it." — AV Club Posted May 10, 2012
B	67%	The Road (2012)	" The Road spends most of its time going in circles, working and reworking a small set of potent images." — AV Club Posted May 10, 2012
A-	96%	The Kid with a Bike (2012)	" Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne make great movies with such regularity they can be easy to overlook, but The Kid With a Bike puts just enough spin on the Dardennes' formula to let you feel their worth anew." — Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
A-	79%	The Deep Blue Sea (2012)	" Terence Davies doesn't make movies so much as he makes moods, languorous explorations of time and space that coalesce like a cloud of fragrant smoke." — Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
B	88%	Boy (2012)	" Rolleston's winning presence doubtless has much to do with the fact that Boy is a record-breaking hit in its home country, but there's some salt mixed in with the film's sugar." — Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
B	75%	Sound of My Voice (2012)	" Sound of My Voice has great atmosphere, but it signifies less than it could." — Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
—	——	Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora's Box (1998)	— Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
—	74%	Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her (2000)	— Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
—	——	Yellowstone (1994)	— Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
—	——	Nothing to Lose (1994)	— Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
—	——	Sibirskiy tsiryulnik (The Barber of Siberia) (1999)	— Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
—	——	Drôle de Félix (Funny Felix ) ()	— Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
—	85%	Open Your Eyes (Abre los ojos) (Permanent Midnight) (1999)	— Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
—	——	The Girl Next Door (1999)	— Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
—	——	Pizzicata (1996)	— Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
—	——	Xing yuan (Sing yun) (Fly Me To Polaris) ()	— Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
—	87%	The Exorcist (1973)	— Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
—	2%	Speed 2 - Cruise Control (1997)	— Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
—	——	Limbo (2004)	— Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
—	——	Une Affaire de Gout (2001)	— Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
—	——	Soleil (1997)	— Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
—	11%	8 Heads in a Duffel Bag (1997)	— Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
—	——	Out to Lunch: Eating in Restaurants (2006)	— Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
—	38%	The Little Mermaid II - Return to the Sea (2000)	— Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
—	——	Magdalen (1998)	— Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
—	——	The Stars of Star Wars: Interviews from the Cast (1999)	— Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
—	——	Bittersweet Motel (2000)	— Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
—	67%	From the Edge of the City (1998)	— Philadelphia City Paper Posted May 3, 2012
C+	86%	Last Call at the Oasis (2012)	" It's true that Americans contribute disproportionately to the problem, but catering to the idea that we're separate from the rest of the world isn't part of the solution." — AV Club Posted May 3, 2012
2/5	48%	The Perfect Family (2012)	" Turner seems stifled by the joyless role of a woman whose only purpose is to be taught the error of her sanctimonious ways." — Time Out New York Posted May 1, 2012
C+	57%	Safe (2012)	" It's hard to swallow Statham, who spent the Crank movies supercharging his last minutes of life, as a suicidal sad-sack, just as it's painful to see him yoked to a cute little girl in an obvious attempt to soften his image." — AV Club Posted Apr 27, 2012
B+	92%	Headhunters (2012)	" Headhunters' title rapidly turns literal, and what seemed like a lightweight heist thriller careens into a bloody-minded game of cat and mouse." — AV Club Posted Apr 26, 2012
D+	47%	96 Minutes (2012)	" Like 21 Grams minus the breadth, acting, or visual style, Aimee Lagos' first feature follows two pairs of friends on a collision course." — AV Club Posted Apr 26, 2012
3/5	71%	The Giant Mechanical Man (2012)	" A winsome, though clunky, romance mercifully sidelines the obvious symbolism..." — Time Out New York Posted Apr 24, 2012
2/5	67%	To the Arctic (2012)	" For all the hardware involved, To the Arctic's ultra-high-def images have an oddly plastic sheen." — Time Out New York Posted Apr 17, 2012
2/5	——	Life, Love, Soul (2012)	" "Life, Love, Soul" has its heart in the right place. Unfortunately, nothing else is." — Los Angeles Times Posted Apr 12, 2012
3/5	64%	Unraveled (2012)	" One moment Dreier is proclaiming his regret, the next he's drawing a bankrupt analogy between fictional bank robbers and the crimes he committed in "so-called reality."" — Los Angeles Times Posted Apr 12, 2012
C+	38%	Touchback (2012)	" Touchback takes a handoff from Peggy Sue Got Married and It's A Wonderful Life and runs it up the middle for a modest gain." — AV Club Posted Apr 12, 2012
2/5	75%	Damsels in Distress (2012)	" Stillman too often substitutes pith for insight, until even that is drowned out by the sound of him chortling into his sleeve." — Los Angeles Times Posted Apr 5, 2012
B	70%	The Hunter (2012)	" Dafoe invests every action with a sense of purpose (not, thankfully, the same thing as meaning), to the extent that viewers would likely turn up to watch him peel potatoes, Jeanne Dielman-style." — AV Club Posted Apr 5, 2012
B-	87%	Bully (2012)	" Physical superiority and popularity are no longer prerequisites for grinding someone else down, which makes understanding bullying as essential as stigmatizing it. We are all bullies now." — AV Club Posted Mar 29, 2012
B	48%	4:44 Last Day on Earth (2012)	" The mechanics of the pending cataclysm don't interest Ferrera so much as the emotional stakes: How do people act when there's no future left?" — AV Club Posted Mar 22, 2012
2/5	29%	The Trouble with Bliss (2012)	" Hall's puppy-dog charisma holds up under the strain, but it isn't nearly enough to keep this messy midlife-crisis dramedy afloat." — Time Out New York Posted Mar 20, 2012
1/5	44%	Brake (2012)	" [Dorff] spends most of the movie confusing tough-guy stoicism with simple inertness, despite the occasional Jack Bauer-style yell." — Time Out New York Posted Mar 20, 2012
B-	57%	Detachment (2012)	" Kaye frequently flirts with familiar tropes, but here, he takes them in a loving embrace, betraying a rank sentimentality the film otherwise avoids." — AV Club Posted Mar 15, 2012
2/5	63%	Delicacy (2012)	" It's a rebound-romance movie that's simplistic but sweet, an uncomplicated cinematic bonbon." — Time Out New York Posted Mar 13, 2012
2/5	25%	Seeking Justice (2012)	" Nicolas Cage has spent so long turning himself into a living cartoon that he's lost the ability to play human beings." — Time Out New York Posted Mar 13, 2012
C+	50%	Good for Nothing (2012)	" The film's antipodean locales provide plenty of uncharted territory, vast expanses of untamed land that offer endless opportunity but little guidance. A man could get lost out there, and Wallis does." — AV Club Posted Mar 8, 2012
B+	84%	Last Days Here (2012)	" The fact that Last Days Here cares more about Liebling's personal redemption than his professional triumph is ultimately a saving grace, a telling demonstration of the film's well-ordered priorities." — AV Club Posted Mar 1, 2012
C+	73%	Black Butterflies (2012)	" Black Butterflies scarcely tries to illuminate the substance of Jonker's writing." — AV Club Posted Mar 1, 2012
C	32%	Tyler Perry's Good Deeds (2012)	" By Perry's standards, it's a high-toned production, which means it doesn't look as if were shot during downtime on a soap-opera set, but it's still as blurry as a fifth-generation copy." — AV Club Posted Feb 24, 2012
D	——	Buzzkill (2012)	" A slow-motion car crash of miscalculated charisma, BuzzKill lives and rapidly dies by Daniel Raymont's grating lead performance." — AV Club Posted Feb 16, 2012
B-	90%	Cirkus Columbia (2012)	" Cirkus Columbia looks to the past, evoking the kind of unreal, vaguely politicized tales that were once the lifeblood of arthouse cinema." — AV Club Posted Feb 16, 2012
5/5	94%	The Secret World of Arrietty (2012)	" It's one of few animated fairy tales to genuinely transport the audience into their world and, in the process, let us see our own with fresh awe and respect." — Time Out New York Posted Feb 14, 2012
A-	99%	A Separation (2011)	" The characters are deliberately ordinary, but their stories take on the weight of myth." — Philadelphia City Paper Posted Jan 31, 2012
B	56%	Albert Nobbs (2012)	" Close can't keep the character from seemingly like a pitiable doormat, but the tears come nonetheless." — Philadelphia City Paper Posted Jan 31, 2012
C+	2%	One for the Money (2012)	" Heigl's comic timing is solid, and she knows her limitations well enough, but there's a hollowness at the movie's center, right where Heigl's heart should be." — AV Club Posted Jan 27, 2012
4/5	100%	Come Back, Africa ()	" Come Back, Africa is a work of amazing grace-and a forgotten treasure." — Time Out New York Posted Jan 24, 2012
C-	40%	Ultrasuede: In Search of Halston (2012)	" At least Smith has proof that he spent ample time with the beautiful people." — AV Club Posted Jan 19, 2012

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