|
39%
|
The Possession (2012)
|
"The problem . . . is that all the spooky hokum has gotten in the way of what might have been a nicely rendered family drama about the toll of divorce"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
22%
|
The Words (2012)
|
". . .is under the impression that it is making a profound artistic statement about the creative impulse. It's not."
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
5%
|
The Cold Light of Day (2012)
|
"Rather than defining those twists and turns with sharp punctuation, director Mabrouk El Mechri turns them into gentle speed bumps, making the film barely interesting rather than exhilarating"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
56%
|
For a Good Time, Call... (2012)
|
"[uses] a refreshing sense of ribald humor, and a sharply realized, bracingly honest wit [to] look at the dynamic that most real women would identify as the defining relationship in their lives, the one with their best friend. "
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
76%
|
Premium Rush (2012)
|
"the powers that be perfectly understand that they are making an evening's diversion, not an artistic statement, which in itself may be a perfectly valid artistic statement"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
48%
|
Hit & Run (2012)
|
"There is even a lesson to be learned, the which is that mixing The Cannonball Run with Siddhartha is harder than it sounds. And it sounds very, very hard. "
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
62%
|
The Awakening (2012)
|
"Though slightly undone by a twist that demands a grain or two too much credulity on the part of the viewer, it nonetheless triumphs as a tone poem of an unsettled zeitgeist that plays cat-and-mouse with that same viewer right until the very end."
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
87%
|
ParaNorman (2012)
|
"[T]he animation is divine. Highly detailed, purposefully designed, imaginatively executed, it is more vivid that reality itself, delighting in imperfections and sight-gags while also attaining heights of pure terror and from the most unexpected sources"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
58%
|
Sparkle (2012)
|
"The characters are stock, and the story is a cliché-ridden morass of excess that builds to absurd proportions, and does so with a straight face."
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
65%
|
The Campaign (2012)
|
"There is much about which to make sport in the American democratic process, and much of it is covered here, but not consistently well, and with little originality."
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
45%
|
Twixt ()
|
"A heady brew of fever dreams, absurd nightmares, and impotent despair"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
87%
|
Easy Money (2012)
|
"a character study of the first order masquerading as a highly effective thriller, using the tropes of that latter genre with a scalpel-like precision, and the severity of an Old Testament deity, as it dissects the perils of pursuing form, not substance."
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
69%
|
Ted (2012)
|
"there is a sophisticated social satire at work that is so finely wrought that though it might appear as the very thing it is skewering, there is something much more subtle and much more potent going on."
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
37%
|
Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012)
|
"moves quickly, is well directed, and from time to time achieves some real suspense. If it also shows how the franchise is wearing a little thin, it also shows why it has lasted this long."
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
31%
|
Total Recall (2012)
|
"The age-old question of what makes us who we are is one that is endlessly fascinating, . . . even if the dialogue is neither sparkling nor thudding, but occupies a disappointing middle ground in a film that has a bad tendency to flirt with lethargy"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
77%
|
Killer Joe (2012)
|
"It's the sort of funny that encompasses both definitions of the word and that is watched, as often as not, with clenched teeth and the temptation to cover ones eyes fighting with the much stronger temptation to see what happens next. "
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
16%
|
The Watch (2012)
|
"Simultaneously subverting and celebrating several genres of he-man testosterone flicks, from horror to buddy action flick, to, heaven help us, the existential suburban angst of John Updike"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
73%
|
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
|
"a fine grafting of Cold War paranoia about the atom onto the current paranoia about gene splicing. "
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
35%
|
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)
|
"If you are going to re-imagine the 16th president of the United States as a vampire hunter, go big or go home. "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter" has chosen the former."
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
48%
|
Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)
|
"It doesn't help that Snow White is Kristen Stewart, an actress who seems to have just the one expression at her command and it is one of pained peevishness. Even when she's smiling, she's peeved."
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
41%
|
Rock of Ages (2012)
|
" A grizzled Alec Baldwin, as the financially troubled owner of The Bourbon Room, and rooster-haired Russell Brand as his factotum, steal the show with their blend of urbane and wry wit mixed with a surprisingly sentimental side"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
74%
|
Prometheus (2012)
|
"offers the unalloyed pleasure of fierce, intelligent performances in a piece of commendable speculative fiction told on both an epic and an intimate scale."
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
20%
|
Chernobyl Diaries (2012)
|
"there is the flatness of predictable formula unsparked by clever direction or particularly outstanding performances in stereotypical roles"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
70%
|
Men in Black III (2012)
|
"High action, slick humor, raucous fun, MIB 3 is also a surprisingly thoughtful paean to the higher implications of pie, and to the miracle of chance that makes up the unified fabric of the past, present, and future."
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
34%
|
Battleship (2012)
|
"the film adds space invaders to the traditional maritime conflict, yet never forgets its humble roots as a board game played with pegs and increasingly educated guesses"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
93%
|
Marvel's The Avengers (2012)
|
"the perfect popcorn movie that respects its audience, fan boy or not, though the former will be more excited to see the Stan Lee cameo. "
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
23%
|
The Raven (2012)
|
"An infuriating mix of amateurish writing and flowery antique speech; of sublime romance and hopeless pedantry; of atmospheric melancholy and risible smugness"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
50%
|
Mirror Mirror (2012)
|
"a lush and ravishing rethinking of the Snow White story with both an old-fashioned feel and a modern sensibility"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
57%
|
Safe (2012)
|
"not a bad film, nor a good one. . . and while the story is predictable and the direction is competent but unremarkable, it has a star who can almost, but not quite, toss the flick on his brawny shoulders and carry it all by himself."
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
86%
|
The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012)
|
"The humor is both broad and sly, existing in a mutually non-exclusive arrangement that brings to mind the best examples of symbiosis to be found in nature. While the appeal of lichens, one of nature's best symbiots, is limited, that of this film is not"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
85%
|
Garbo: The Spy (2011)
|
"World War II ended more than half a century ago, but heretofore unknown stories are still surfacing from it. Few, if any, are more fascinating that the eponymous subject of Edmond Roch's stylishly engrossing documentary"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
74%
|
Chimpanzee (2012)
|
"touching, exhilarating, and enlightening in unexpected ways"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
38%
|
Lockout (Unrated) (2012)
|
"If there were a reason to see [this], and there really isn't, it would be to savor the way Guy Pearce gleefully surrenders the last iota of credibility in exchange for whooping it up with good-natured abandon as a near-futuristic action hero."
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
82%
|
Goon (2012)
|
"easily the one of the most original, compelling, and irresistible characters to hit movie screens this year, and he appears in a film that is hard to pigeonhole, which is one of its many virtues"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
32%
|
Intruders (2012)
|
"Defying science and religion both and striking at the darkest places in the psyche, it exposes the fragility of both life and of sanity. "
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
85%
|
The Hunger Games (2012)
|
"It is the shock of recognition coupled with a plot that constantly engages, and even surprises from time to time, that propels an intriguing premise both dynamically and sensitively realized."
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
0%
|
A Thousand Words (2012)
|
"There is something almost poignant in the way Eddie Murphy so palpably desires to make a meaningful film about enlightenment. The almost comes from the difference between that aspiration and the painfully ill-conceived follow-through "
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
67%
|
Friends With Kids (2012)
|
"Westfeldt tells what should be an all too familiar tale with a subversively refreshing take on what constitutes love and romance"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
85%
|
21 Jump Street (2012)
|
"Rather than a re-hash of the original, though, this is a re-imagining by Hill, who ... set it in the present with appropriate nods to the original and a whole lot of silliness. Nostalgia has rarely been better served"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
41%
|
Silent House (2012)
|
"Sarah's gulping breaths and Olsen's keen sense of evoking a terror too great for anything but silence, create the perfect atmosphere of refined yet primal horror"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
17%
|
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)
|
"Elba has his usual charisma and Hinds has a powerful presence of lurking menace, but a film that explores what happens when the Ghost Rider has to urinate while enflamed, and does so with a wink and a smile, is not to be taken seriously"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
27%
|
Project X (2012)
|
"follows the expected tropes for this kind of story, and yet it is a film that somehow manages to be both raunchy and sweet, profane yet endearing"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
26%
|
This Means War (2012)
|
"a frothy romp of a popcorn flick brightened by witty writing and a cast that get laughs by expertly playing it straight with a plausibly implausible plot. "
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
74%
|
Big Miracle (2012)
|
"funny, tear jerking, smart, and not a little subversive with a few well-place jabs at unexpectedly deserving parties as well as a few kudos in a few surprising places"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
53%
|
Safe House (2012)
|
"a curiously subdued film relying more on the charisma of its leading men, Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds, and on psychology rather than bombast for its suspense"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
94%
|
The Secret World of Arrietty (2012)
|
"the basic elements of loneliness, friendship, and the fragility of life are intact, along with that ineffable sense of wonder, melancholy, and magic"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
13%
|
W.E. (2012)
|
"a glossy mess with no discernable point of view; a gluttonous feast of self-pity by women with a total lack of self-awareness"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
65%
|
The Woman in Black (2012)
|
"Simple story, standard elements, to be sure, but handled by director James Watkins with a stunning insight into why things that go bump in the night ranks as one of the most primal of primal fears"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
56%
|
Albert Nobbs (2012)
|
"Close's performance is flawless, so much so that it's possible that she could have passed to an audience not expecting to see her in the role"
|
Andrea Chase
|
|
32%
|
Man on a Ledge (2012)
|
"the energy level never quite gets the adrenaline pumping properly for a film so dependent on split-second timing and dire situations, but as escapist popcorn fare with pretty people and simple characters, it's not at all bad."
|
Andrea Chase
|
75%
25%
74%
85%
46%
40%
