|
86%
|
Inception (2010)
|
"Inception is the rare blockbuster entry as sophisticated and intelligent as it is exciting and spectacular. "
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
81%
|
Despicable Me (2010)
|
"Most computer-animated movies released in 3-D these days, including Toy Story 3, aren't worth seeing in the format. Despicable Me is one of the happy exceptions."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
49%
|
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)
|
"Not as deathly dull as Twilight or as screamingly dull as New Moon, Eclipse is merely dull."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
99%
|
Toy Story 3 (2010)
|
"The oft-misused term "trilogy" probably will accompany this third film, but Toy Story 3 feels less like a final chapter than a long, superficially satisfying afterword."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
46%
|
The A-Team (2010)
|
"As willfully brainless as the movie is, it would indeed be escapist fun if its many action sequences were exhilarating. Instead, they are just as chaotic as the plot."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
67%
|
The Karate Kid (2010)
|
"What makes this Karate Kid frustrating is that the movie it ought to be is right there on the screen, but so are 20 minutes of extraneous fluff. Ignoring Mr. Miyagi's advice, the filmmakers let the story wax on and on."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
15%
|
Sex and the City 2 (2010)
|
"Future Bolsheviks will use Sex and the City 2 as a recruiting film."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
58%
|
Shrek Forever After (Shrek 4) (2010)
|
"This is one grim fairy tale."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
43%
|
Robin Hood (2010)
|
"Robin Hood doesn't become the swashbuckling bandit of Sherwood until the final moments, when the tag "And so the legend begins" appears. You may walk away liking this Robin Hood well enough, but wishing you had seen the sequel."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
74%
|
Iron Man 2 (2010)
|
"Iron Man 2 is as good as the 2008 original and may be even better. "
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
47%
|
The Losers (2010)
|
"The Losers proves that screenwriting is easy if you don't sweat story structure. Or logic. Or the laws of physics."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
76%
|
Kick-Ass (2010)
|
"With an overload of characters and contrasts and disconnects, Kick-Ass tears itself apart. And that leaves its ultra violence untenable."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
67%
|
Date Night (2010)
|
"Like Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore on The Dick Van Dyke Show, Carell and Fey are witty together, sexy together and most important of all, believable together."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
56%
|
Edge of Darkness (2010)
|
"Edge of Darkness is at its core a story about a man grieving from an inconsolable loss. This doesn't ground just the film, it grounds Gibson's performance, which is among the best in his career. Possibly the best."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
28%
|
Clash of the Titans (2010)
|
"A spirit of fun and adventure almost breaks through. Call it a near myth."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
63%
|
Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
|
"Sloppy and needlessly smutty though it is, Hot Tub Time Machine is funny when it doesn't try so hard and sincere in its themes of friendship and middle-age malaise."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
9%
|
The Bounty Hunter (2010)
|
"The Bounty Hunter is supposed to be a romantic comedy-action movie hybrid - Hepburn and Tracy in Midnight Run - but it fails all genre requirements."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
51%
|
Alice in Wonderland (2010)
|
"Burton's personal stamp is missing. On Alice he is a director for hire, helping the Disney empire repurpose one of its animated properties and reinforce its 3-D bulkhead."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
69%
|
Shutter Island (2010)
|
"Shutter Island is second-tier Scorsese, but not one of his misfires. It does the gothic horror genre proud, but fails to transcend it."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
34%
|
The Wolfman (2010)
|
"This moody and violent remake has several terrific moments."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
27%
|
Extraordinary Measures (2010)
|
"If the two leading characters were women, this would have gone straight to the Lifetime network."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
33%
|
The Lovely Bones (2009)
|
"Artistically and technically, this film is superb, rich in excellent performances, wondrous visuals and compelling ideas. Yet for all its brilliance, The Lovely Bones remains elusive."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
70%
|
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
|
"A character known for his supreme intelligence should not be trapped in such a dumbed-down plot."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
83%
|
Avatar (2009)
|
"Avatar is great to look at, often astonishing and sometimes beautiful. But, oh, is the story pedestrian."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
84%
|
The Princess and the Frog (2009)
|
"Princess and the Frog revels in the sumptuous qualities of mood and color and especially music that flow naturally through hand-drawn animation but eludes the subroutines of computer animation."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
75%
|
The Road (2009)
|
"The end of civilization in The Road is ugly and terrifying, but that makes the father and son's hope and faith so much stronger."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
39%
|
2012 (2009)
|
"Emmerich, Bay and their brethren need to learn how boring these CGI onslaughts have become. When we see 18 skyscrapers collapse and several dozen vehicles wreck at the same moment, what do we focus on?"
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
53%
|
Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009)
|
"Leaving aside the technology behind Robert Zemeckis' animated A Christmas Carol, this is the most satisfying version of Charles Dickens' oft-told tale in years."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
52%
|
The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)
|
"Maybe it is just easier to laugh at things that happened decades ago, but the contemporary story never attains the same power as the flashbacks."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
50%
|
Astro Boy (AstroBoy) (2009)
|
"Director David Bowers supplies just enough heart and more than enough humor to make "Astro Boy" an agreeable entertainment."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
73%
|
Where the Wild Things Are (2009)
|
"Jonze creates perhaps the most artful film aimed at children since The Red Balloon, and one with unusually deep emotional resonance."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
56%
|
The Invention of Lying (2009)
|
"Like many movies that try to stretch a sketch idea to 90 minutes or more, Lying starts to sputter early on."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
84%
|
Whip It (2009)
|
"An easy movie to like."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
57%
|
9 (2009)
|
"A visual feast, if you don't mind the depressing, post-Apocalyptic setting."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
48%
|
Taking Woodstock (2009)
|
"The more tightly Taking Woodstock focuses on history, the more satisfying the experience."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
88%
|
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
|
"Tarantino's scenes go on and on because he's in love with the sound of his character talking. This gets especially maddening in Inglorious Basterds because much of the dialogue is in German, so the words are three times as long."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
75%
|
Julie & Julia (2009)
|
"Any movie that follows parallel stories runs the danger that one will be superior to the other, but the disparity is especially wide in Nora Ephron's Julie & Julia."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
68%
|
Funny People (2009)
|
"Comes mighty close to becoming something few film critics dreamed they would declare, an Adam Sandler masterpiece."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
13%
|
The Ugly Truth (2009)
|
"Allowing the characters to talk dirty adds nothing to the chick flick formula."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
67%
|
Brüno (Bruno) (2009)
|
"Bruno has one crucial element Borat lacked, a satirical point of view."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
67%
|
Public Enemies (2009)
|
"Some sloppy storytelling prevents Public Enemies from reaching greatness anyway, but what hampers the movie is Mann's decision to shoot in high definition video. The movie just looks cheap."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
20%
|
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
|
"All this is Bay being Bay, but you have to question the motives of Hasbro. The company is marketing its toys through a film that contains language and humor inappropriate for children 13 and younger."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
43%
|
The Proposal (2009)
|
"Once you've set your story up as a bedroom farce, resisting the form seems futile. The Proposal meanders toward a tone without arriving at one."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
27%
|
Land of the Lost (2009)
|
"Land of the Lost is only one hour and 36 minutes long, but it could easily be 15 minutes shorter without the scenes of Ferrell's meandering ad-libs."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
98%
|
Up (2009)
|
"Up may not quite rank as Pixar's finest film, but it is certainly the animation studio's oddest and bravest picture, and possibly its most beautiful."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
33%
|
Terminator Salvation (2009)
|
"Who wants to see a Terminator movie without the star synonymous with not just with the role, but the whole concept of the series? Anyone who wants to see another smart, taut and exciting science-fiction extravaganza with outstanding action sequences, that"
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
36%
|
Angels & Demons (2009)
|
"At one point Langdon bellows, "I need a map showing all the churches in Rome!" which is a hilarious bit of dialogue because you might as well demand a map showing all the bars in Milwaukee. Then again, that would lead to a more entertaining movie."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
95%
|
Star Trek (2009)
|
"J.J. Abrams muscles aside Trek's ponderous aspects with a rip-roaring storyline and enough action to qualify as a galactic James Bond movie"
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
37%
|
X-Men Origins - Wolverine (2009)
|
"The script plays it safe and clings to the rules of the superhero movie."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
|
84%
|
State of Play (2009)
|
"Though satisfying as throwaway suspense, State of Play is framed with fondness for the American newspaper and sadness for its presumed demise."
|
Jeffrey Westhoff
|
