|
4/5
|
93%
|
Let The Fire Burn (2013) |
"
The second most striking thing about Jason Osder's documentary Let The Fire Burn is that it's composed entirely of archival footage. But the most striking thing is the actual story it tells with that footage."
—
The Dissolve
Posted Oct 2, 2013
|
|
1.5/5
|
——
|
The Citizen (2013) |
"
It's pushing its agenda at every moment, first gently, then relentlessly."
—
The Dissolve
Posted Sep 30, 2013
|
|
4/5
|
67%
|
Haute Cuisine (2013) |
"
Vincent seems to have consciously designed Haute Cuisine as a small movie...But that simplicity is a winning choice."
—
The Dissolve
Posted Sep 19, 2013
|
|
3.5/5
|
88%
|
Rush (2013) |
"
Rush's changing sympathies keep the outcome in doubt, and stage the final contest breathlessly, while sticking to the facts."
—
The Dissolve
Posted Sep 19, 2013
|
|
3/5
|
50%
|
Thanks For Sharing (2013) |
"
The many-threaded approach makes it feel narratively rich and sophisticated, but it also shorthands and shortchanges some of the most interesting characters. "
—
The Dissolve
Posted Sep 19, 2013
|
|
2.5/5
|
42%
|
All Is Bright (2013) |
"
A film that veers between caustic comedy, melodrama, and heartstring-tugging, without finding the spark of sympathy that would hold the film together."
—
The Dissolve
Posted Sep 16, 2013
|
|
3/5
|
60%
|
Riddick (2013) |
"
Riddick taps into a primal well of audience wish-fulfillment, but over the course of its unrelieved, monotonous length, it does its best to suck that well dry."
—
The Dissolve
Posted Sep 6, 2013
|
|
2.5/5
|
31%
|
Austenland (2013) |
"
Austenland embraces convention, and the result is a romantic comedy in which the ending seems not just foreordained, but promised via contract from the first moment of the film."
—
The Dissolve
Posted Aug 15, 2013
|
|
2/5
|
30%
|
Kick-Ass 2 (2013) |
"
A messy, confused, over-the-top mixture of brutality and sick comedy, puckishness and ugliness, self-awareness and tone-deafness."
—
The Dissolve
Posted Aug 15, 2013
|
|
2/5
|
27%
|
Planes (2013) |
"
It's a pleasant enough expression of a series of familiar story beats, but apart from a few brief action-sequence moments, it could hardly be more rote or vanilla."
—
The Dissolve
Posted Aug 8, 2013
|
|
2.5/5
|
68%
|
The Artist and the Model (2013) |
"
While The Artist And The Model is about an artist rediscovering his creative passion through a vibrant young woman, it's remarkably distant and bloodless about the process."
—
The Dissolve
Posted Aug 1, 2013
|
|
1/5
|
14%
|
The Smurfs 2 (2013) |
"
The problem with Smurfs 2 isn't the message, it's the way the film repeats it so baldly and emphatically that even the youngest kids can get it."
—
The Dissolve
Posted Jul 30, 2013
|
|
3/5
|
100%
|
Cloudburst (2013) |
"
In its peaceful moments, it's a gem, but the wild stabs at wacky comedy are usually groaners, a shame in a story that's so smart and savvy when it isn't showing off, being dense, or winding down to a painfully pat ending."
—
The Dissolve
Posted Jul 26, 2013
|
|
3/5
|
69%
|
The Wolverine (2013) |
"
The Wolverine does stand out, and even excels, in many isolated places ... It's just that the great pieces don't fit together to suggest a whole."
—
The Dissolve
Posted Jul 25, 2013
|
|
3.5/5
|
96%
|
Babettes Gæstebud (Babette's Feast) (1987) |
"
While Babette's Feast is bleak, and often ponderous and stony, it eventually resolves as a moving hymn to art."
—
The Dissolve
Posted Jul 23, 2013
|
|
1.5/5
|
42%
|
Red 2 (2013) |
"
RED 2 is perilously close to a formulaic romantic comedy, with a predestined couple going around in predictable relationship-ruining circles while everyone else interferes and dispenses advice."
—
The Dissolve
Posted Jul 18, 2013
|
|
3.5/5
|
98%
|
Blackfish (2013) |
"
Blackfish does an admirable job of preaching without force-feeding, seamlessly blending opinion with reportage, and addressing its central issues from enough angles to make a series of end-runs around dubious viewers."
—
The Dissolve
Posted Jul 18, 2013
|
|
3/5
|
75%
|
Despicable Me 2 (2013) |
"
The assumption seems to be that the public can't get enough Minions. Despicable Me 2 sets out to test that assumption to its absolute limit."
—
The Dissolve
Posted Jul 11, 2013
|
|
4/5
|
78%
|
Monsters University (2013) |
"
It's a strong look at the genesis of a satisfying partnership, but it could be stronger if it trusted that partnership to carry the story."
—
The Dissolve
Posted Jul 11, 2013
|
|
2.5/5
|
67%
|
World War Z (2013) |
"
The film doesn't hold together in any rational way, but it still has a lingering emotional power."
—
The Dissolve
Posted Jul 11, 2013
|
|
2/5
|
38%
|
The Purge (2013) |
"
What should be a taut thriller stretches into an overextended slog with periodic scolding lectures."
—
The Dissolve
Posted Jul 11, 2013
|
|
B+
|
85%
|
Graceland (2013) |
"
None of this could work without a stellar performance from Reyes, who anchors the film with distress and panic, but also with basic humanity."
—
AV Club
Posted Apr 25, 2013
|
|
B-
|
57%
|
Unmade In China (2013) |
"
[It] becomes an onsite mouthpiece for a pouting, passive-aggressive filmmaker who desperately needs an outlet."
—
AV Club
Posted Apr 18, 2013
|
|
B
|
54%
|
Oblivion (2013) |
"
An unsettling sense of not-quite-right coats all of the film's steely surfaces, and Kosinski and his co-writers give audiences plenty of time to absorb the unease and gear up for the action."
—
AV Club
Posted Apr 18, 2013
|
|
B
|
69%
|
Trance (2013) |
"
Narratively, Trance is questionable, but Boyle and Hodges whisk past all the unlikely developments with enough verve and style to keep audiences from thinking too hard until after they've left the theater."
—
AV Club
Posted Apr 4, 2013
|
|
B-
|
68%
|
Wrong (2013) |
"
There's a sly brilliance to the way Dupieux responds to audience expectation by repeatedly, pointedly violating Chekhov's Law."
—
AV Club
Posted Mar 28, 2013
|
|
C+
|
9%
|
The Host (2013) |
"
Niccols always picks unusual, intriguing projects, and gives them a distinctive look, but the emotional core of his stories sometimes escapes him."
—
AV Club
Posted Mar 28, 2013
|
|
D-
|
28%
|
Upside Down (2013) |
"
Moment for moment, Upside Down is the most embarrassing, hilarious, obliviously stupid movie since M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening, and its constant pursuit of a striking image over any other consideration undermines it at every turn."
—
AV Club
Posted Mar 14, 2013
|
|
C-
|
38%
|
The ABCs of Death (2013) |
"
Most are rushed exercises in telegraphic storytelling, struggling to make a point, or at least find a punchline, in a bare few minutes."
—
AV Club
Posted Mar 7, 2013
|
|
B-
|
67%
|
The We and the I (2013) |
"
There's a lot to love about the film, but it can get buried under the attempts to tell everyone's story at once."
—
AV Club
Posted Mar 7, 2013
|
|
A-
|
96%
|
War Witch (2013) |
"
War Witch is a remarkably mature portrait that trusts its audience to have their own reactions to its material; it doesn't yank at the heartstrings so much as expertly tune them."
—
AV Club
Posted Feb 28, 2013
|
|
B+
|
69%
|
Stoker (2013) |
"
It's best taken one tense, exhilarating moment at a time, without anticipation or expectation."
—
AV Club
Posted Feb 28, 2013
|
|
C-
|
52%
|
Jack the Giant Slayer (2013) |
"
The film spends a great deal of its focus on fights that stretch out to Lord Of The Rings length, but without LOTR-level effects or panache."
—
AV Club
Posted Feb 28, 2013
|
|
B+
|
94%
|
The King's Speech (2010) |
"
The King's Speech is admirably free of easy answers and simple, happy endings; it's a skewed, awards-ready version of history, but one polished to a fine, satisfying shine."
—
AV Club
Posted Feb 16, 2013
|
|
C
|
27%
|
Escape From Planet Earth (2013) |
"
It's unchallenging fun for a younger crowd, but adults might feel like they're staring down a colorful 24-piece board puzzle, trying to figure out how such a simple activity could be drawn out over 90 minutes."
—
AV Club
Posted Feb 15, 2013
|
|
D+
|
46%
|
Beautiful Creatures (2013) |
"
Beautiful Creatures is an oddball creation: a morality play with no basic understanding of morality."
—
AV Club
Posted Feb 14, 2013
|
|
C+
|
20%
|
Identity Thief (2013) |
"
A comedy doesn't necessarily need to develop its characters past caricatures, but a better balance between narrative and yuks tends to make the yuks stronger."
—
AV Club
Posted Feb 7, 2013
|
|
C
|
81%
|
Warm Bodies (2013) |
"
Takes its premise painfully literally, resulting in a series of unlikely developments guaranteed to get hardcore zombie-movie fans frothing with rage -- if they don't doze off first."
—
AV Club
Posted Jan 31, 2013
|
|
C-
|
15%
|
Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013) |
"
It isn't a movie so much as a mechanical process."
—
AV Club
Posted Jan 25, 2013
|
|
B+
|
66%
|
Mama (2013) |
"
Plenty of horror movies are willing to settle for making audiences jump. Mama is more ambitious by far: It makes sure viewers are emotionally committed even when they aren't clutching their armrests or covering their eyes."
—
AV Club
Posted Jan 17, 2013
|
|
C+
|
29%
|
Struck by Lightning (2013) |
"
Lightning is a funny, fast-moving movie, packed with barbed one-liners, goofy hyperbole, and all the oversized exasperation of teen angst. But it's too acid, particularly where Colfer is concerned."
—
AV Club
Posted Jan 10, 2013
|
|
B
|
100%
|
56 Up (2013) |
"
A rich portrait of how individual lives progress, and how age shapes expectations and experience."
—
AV Club
Posted Jan 3, 2013
|
|
B-
|
70%
|
Les Misérables (2012) |
"
Jackman is performing in a drama, Crowe on his concert stage, and Hathaway alone in her room. It's a collection of performances rather than a story."
—
AV Club
Posted Dec 24, 2012
|
|
C-
|
61%
|
Jack Reacher (2012) |
"
Jack Reacher isn't much of a man, and Jack Reacher isn't the story of a man. It's mythmaking for self-satisfied sociopaths."
—
AV Club
Posted Dec 20, 2012
|
|
B
|
89%
|
Consuming Spirits (2012) |
"
In its final half-hour, it pulls all the threads together, and a breathtaking bigger picture finally comes into focus."
—
AV Club
Posted Dec 13, 2012
|
|
B-
|
65%
|
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) |
"
At its best, it recaptures the Rings movies' breadth, detail, and staggering sense of beauty."
—
AV Club
Posted Dec 13, 2012
|
|
A
|
94%
|
The Rabbi's Cat (2012) |
"
While the scenes don't always fit together thematically or tonally, each one is its own polished gem."
—
AV Club
Posted Dec 6, 2012
|
|
B
|
74%
|
Rise of the Guardians (2012) |
"
Rise Of The Guardians boasts a great deal of visual energy and amounts to a lot of fun ..."
—
AV Club
Posted Nov 21, 2012
|
|
A-
|
87%
|
Life of Pi (2012) |
"
It's more compelling to focus on Lee's visceral cinematic experience than on the larger, fuzzier messages Martel's story conveys about humanity's connection with God."
—
AV Club
Posted Nov 21, 2012
|
