|
——
|
Good Lawyer's Wife ()
|
"A Good Lawyer's Wife Moon So-ri certainly isn't, but she has turned in the most mesmerizing piece of acting I've yet seen in an Asian movie."
|
Richard Roeper
|
|
——
|
Ai-Fak ()
|
"Pungent, moving and insightful, and one of the best Thai movies I've seen."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
47%
|
City of Ghosts (2003)
|
""The best reason to see the movie is to sample some of the local flavours - sometimes intoxicating, often thoroughly unpalatable - from somewhere more comfortable.""
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
——
|
The Eye 2 (Gin gwai 2) (2004)
|
"Coming five years in the wake of The Sixth Sense and its many imitators, Joey's visions of dead people are too conventional to be particularly frightening."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
87%
|
Zatôichi (The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi) (2003)
|
""It left me with an enormous, somewhat bemused grin on my face. It has a wacky charm all of its own.""
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
26%
|
Along Came Polly (2004)
|
""This film mostly misses the mark with its clumsy approach to comedy, overstating the obvious and running cheap gags into the ground.""
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
36%
|
Duplex (Our House) (2003)
|
""Never mind being able to empathize with killing her - I was tempted to jump on the next plane and offer myself up as a first-time assassin.""
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
65%
|
The Last Samurai (2003)
|
"Taking Cruise seriously as a born-again philosopher action hero of the east is a tall order indeed."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
80%
|
Beautiful Boxer (2005)
|
"Only the most intransigent sexual bigot could fail to feel a twinge of vicarious glee when Nong trounces his sneering, homophobic opponents."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
85%
|
Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)
|
"Tarantino has elevated the B-movie to A-grade pop art with this worthwhile addition to his 24-carat canon."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
65%
|
My Little Eye (2002)
|
"The film's final few twists are disappointingly predictable but nothing can detract from the bleak and compelling horror of the climactic denouement."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
99%
|
Finding Nemo 3D (2012)
|
"Packs more into its 100 minutes than many franchises manage in a decade."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
82%
|
Matchstick Men (2003)
|
"Funny, sad, thoughtful and surprising, the greatest con Matchstick Men pulls is manipulating the audience into believing they know exactly what the film's all about."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
48%
|
S.W.A.T. (2003)
|
"It's not boring but you may forget it before you leave the theater."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
79%
|
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
|
"Depp provides the film's show-stopping turn. He steals every scene he's in"
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
88%
|
28 Days Later (2003)
|
"Constantly involving, this is the best purely British science-fiction/horror film in decades, and the first great apocalypse movie of this Millennium."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
70%
|
Terminator 3 - Rise of the Machines (2003)
|
"T3 replicates numerous elements of the franchise to create a credible clone -- but this all-out-action model is comparatively soulless, lacking the heart, spirit, and humanity possessed of T2."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
62%
|
Hulk (2003)
|
"Lee's commendably cerebral and ultimately more inclusive approach results in a more interesting film than one aimed at a core audience of comic-book geeks."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
——
|
Chek law dak gung (Naked Weapon) (2002)
|
"Red-blooded males should be happy with the cameras' worship of Maggie Q's form. But even the guilty enjoyment factor is reduced when the script oversteps from cheap titillation to misogyny"
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
88%
|
The Animatrix (2003)
|
"Some top-quality extras will keep you interested while you wait for Revolutions to surface, but this is mainly artful window dressing for diehard Matrix fans and/or animation aficionados"
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
40%
|
Reign of Fire (2002)
|
"Fans of B-movie monster mayhem will be in hog heaven with this DVD monstrosity."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
95%
|
Hero (2004)
|
"Zhang Yimou's spellbinding silk-and-sword epic swoops gracefully onto the DVD market. Wu xia -- that's kung-fu with swords to you and me -- has never been more poetically depicted onscreen."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
89%
|
Far From Heaven (2003)
|
"Far From Heaven demonstrates mastery of the language of film, reinterpreting a bygone genre to shed new light upon a time departed."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
43%
|
Anger Management (2003)
|
"The fact that Sandler doesn't read his press suggests that he cares about the critics' opinions somewhat; perhaps he should break free of his self-imposed shackles and concentrate on being a grown-up actor"
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
33%
|
Johnny English (2003)
|
"A competent genre exercise, likeable and funny without being side-splitting, but loaded with sufficient eccentric charm to earn its slapstick stripes."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
74%
|
Signs (2002)
|
"The skill involved in creating intense atmospherics and haunting suspense from so little cannot be overstated in an age when the world's most successful film companies pump billions of dollars into pyrotechnics and CGI monstrosities."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
86%
|
Ong-Bak (Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior) (2005)
|
"Playing out like a big-budget B movie, pounded into shape to form a competent action flick, with extraordinary stunt work and compelling fight scenes."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
——
|
Som and Bank: Bangkok for Sale (One Take Only) (2002)
|
"The cinematic panache is always evident, the artistry undeniable, but the assault on the senses produced by the rapidly-shifting window dressing smacks of impatience."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
85%
|
Kissing Jessica Stein (2002)
|
"This sharp, witty romantic comedy gets a fair DVD licking. With a skimpy set of extras, it doesn't exactly make for an enticing package - but the film is still a hilarious account of the contemporary dating scene."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
——
|
Mekhong Full Moon Party (2002)
|
"Jira Malikul's feature-directing debut is a pleasant excursion into one of Thailand's oldest and most endearing myths."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
96%
|
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
|
"Time and repeat viewing will tell whether the second part of his magnum opus is better than its predecessor. But for now, this is unprecedented widescreen escapism"
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
33%
|
Tears of the Sun (2003)
|
"The Bush administration could have barely asked for a more beneficial piece of widescreen propaganda than Tears of the Sun."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
30%
|
Scooby-Doo (2002)
|
"It's a lightweight, amiable popcorn flick - the forgettable plotting won't inspire repeated viewings. However, it's breezy and colorful; a celluloid rainbow world with garishly wacky set designs augmenting the fittingly animated feel."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
13%
|
Ghost Ship (2002)
|
"Adrift in a sea of recycled clichés, Ghost Ship is a creaking, rusty vessel, harboring stolen loot which has been gathering dust for years. And the boat's not exactly shipshape either."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
77%
|
Changing Lanes (2002)
|
"The script deftly uses the protagonists' dilemma to probe the gray areas of life and pose wider questions about modernity: How do the everyday decisions you make form your moral backbone? How does greed affect conscience?"
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
76%
|
My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)
|
". It's a testament to the film's considerable charm that it succeeds in entertaining, despite playing out like a feature-length sitcom replete with stereotypical familial quandaries. There's a sheer unbridled delight in the way the story unfurls..."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
54%
|
The Transporter (2002)
|
"When not obscured by the booming bass-heavy soundtrack, the conversation presents the kind of linguistic fumbling not heard since Macy Gray's game of Chinese whispers with Mr Bean."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
——
|
The Touch (2003)
|
"Replacing the bullwhip with an acrobat's silk scarf, The Touch aspires to be Indiana Jones and the Temple of Dun Huang. It plays more like Lara Croft's slightly befuddled Asian sister gone astray in the Gobi desert"
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
82%
|
Road to Perdition (2002)
|
"Road to Perdition clearly isn't shy about its sprawling, commercial ambition. Peculiar, then, that as a work of art, its overwhelming tone is one of muted emotion, passion repressed, and of tears withheld."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
57%
|
Die Another Day (2002)
|
"It's all ridiculous stuff, of course, but Brosnan, unlike Dalton, gets the joke and he's happy to run with it - for one more outing, at least."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
76%
|
8 Mile (2002)
|
"That hip-hop should also remain untarnished by glib Hollywood representation was essential for Eminem; the rap cognoscenti are wise to the outside world's stereotyped perception of their culture."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
96%
|
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
|
"Catch really sings when the con is on, and the slow-burning black humor is emblematic of Spielberg's most sophisticated handling of comedy to date."
|
Joel Quenby
|
|
87%
|
The Quiet American (2003)
|
" A thought-provoking look at how Western foreign policy - however well intentioned - can wreak havoc in other cultures."
|
Joel Quenby
|
78%
31%
100%
85%
45%
40%
