|
58%
|
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (in 3D) (2012)
|
"You realize how much humor Harrison Ford brought to things; without him, at times the movie itself feels frozen in Carbonite."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
53%
|
Safe House (2012)
|
"Whatever its flaws, the film gives you no chance to get bored."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
28%
|
The Vow (2012)
|
"As usual, Channing Tatum looks sweet and dull and, in most scenes, slightly confused."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
43%
|
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012)
|
"I swear some of the giant, Day-Glo vegetation had "Property of 'Lost in Space'" stamped on it."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
76%
|
The Innkeepers (2012)
|
""The Innkeepers" may have some of the retro charm of a boardwalk spookshow. But the ride is too long - and too few of the attractions seem to be up and running."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
64%
|
The Woman in Black (2012)
|
"None of it's new, but it's fun particularly because - like those Hammer films of yore - it peoples its great sets with solid actors."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
72%
|
Big Miracle (2012)
|
"There's something refreshing about a kids' movie that manages to get through its entire length without a poop joke."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
85%
|
Chronicle (2012)
|
"As a surprise entry in the mid-winter movie doldrums, "Chronicle" is a modest charmer."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
2%
|
One for the Money (2012)
|
"I guess I can't call the movie sexist as it was largely produced, directed and written by women. So I'll settle for calling it dull, corny and amateurish instead."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
77%
|
The Grey (2012)
|
"Somewhere along the line, apparently, it was decided that having men fight for their lives is not enough to hang a movie on. It has to be a movie about Big Ideas."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
32%
|
Man on a Ledge (2012)
|
"This is one of the few movies that, with its skyscraper action scenes, probably needed to be made in 3-D. As it is, though, it's barely in 2-D - and really, I'm not sure it needed to be made at all."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
100%
|
Come Back, Africa ()
|
"While the sights and the sounds aren't enough to constitute a great movie in and of themselves, they do result in a fascinating document."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
36%
|
Red Tails (2012)
|
"Instead of pride or anger or resolve, all it left me feeling was a little bit of regret that I hadn't been home, watching "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" instead."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
80%
|
Haywire (2012)
|
"If "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" was a fancy top-shelf cocktail, this is Polish vodka, neat."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
89%
|
Miss Bala (2012)
|
""Miss Bala" can't quite engage. It fires at the target. It makes a lot of noise. But it never quite hits the bull's eye."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
34%
|
Joyful Noise (2012)
|
"My, is there corn. But you'd have to be holding on very tightly to a bad mood to walk away from this meal with a frown."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
48%
|
Contraband (2012)
|
"Frankly, Wahlberg has outgrown movies like this. And so have we."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
91%
|
Beauty and the Beast (In 3D) (2012)
|
"What you gain in an extra, faked dimension you lose in lively, genuine beauty."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
5%
|
The Devil Inside (2012)
|
"It's better when you don't show too much - but if your story is about the supernatural, eventually you're going to have to come up with something. "The Devil Inside" can't."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
74%
|
Norwegian Wood (2012)
|
"The gently diffuse light and color and the compositions by cinematographer Mark Lee Ping Bin, create a delicate, almost watercolored world, fading like a memory."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
0%
|
Beneath The Darkness (2012)
|
"The screenplay gets nothing out of the claustrophobic terror of being locked up in that narrow grave, and the "mystery" is obvious from the start."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
88%
|
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2012)
|
"There is very little overt drama. The camera waits, and watches, like a vulture."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
99%
|
A Separation (2011)
|
"We can't believe our own eyes. How can we begin to pick one of the many competing narratives before us?"
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
54%
|
The Iron Lady (2012)
|
"What "The Iron Lady" does contain - what makes it worth watching - is a literally amazing performance by Meryl Streep ..."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
96%
|
Pariah (2011)
|
"The message - that prejudice exists in every community - is one worth listening to."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
63%
|
We Bought a Zoo (2011)
|
"These are ideas from old movies, and presented without any of the conviction those pictures used to give them."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
76%
|
War Horse (2011)
|
"Spielberg's phenomenal skill for making images remains undiminished. The rows in a piece of knitting dissolve into the furrows in a stony field; men's bodies fly through the air like broken dolls. Some images are too fussed over, but every one is striking."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
45%
|
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2012)
|
"Slightly Sappy & Annoyingly Whimsical, a movie which confronts the unspeakable and emerges merely unreal."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
54%
|
In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011)
|
"Feels more like one of those overly scripted appearances celebrity activists are always making in front of Congress."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
75%
|
The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
|
"If I wanted to spend two hours watching a plucky kid and his feisty dog run around having adventures, I'd dig out my old "Jonny Quest" cartoons."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
53%
|
Albert Nobbs (2012)
|
"There is comedy in it. But mostly there's just a kind of soft, quiet sadness - about lives unlived, about chances lost, about loves forever unexpressed."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
87%
|
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
|
"A solidly crafted, creepily suspenseful thriller."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
60%
|
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
|
"Downey may think this interpretation is an insight, or funny, but it pushes what was already a rude rewriting of the classic characters into eye-rolling camp. And it throws everything off balance."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
94%
|
Corman's World: Exploits Of A Hollywood Rebel (2011)
|
"A movie about Roger Corman should kind of look like a Roger Corman movie - fast and cheap and a little battered around the edges. And entertaining as hell."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
71%
|
Carnage (2011)
|
"If the original drama seemed designed to make patrons feel smarter than they were, its new director does the same favor for the playwright."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
93%
|
Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol (2011)
|
"The eye-candy - from high-tech gadgets to gorgeous people - has only been ratcheted up. And so has the excitement."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
82%
|
Young Adult (2011)
|
""Young Adult" finally stumbles not because it tries to make us like Mavis, but because everyone else in it seems to, no matter what she does."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
8%
|
New Year's Eve (2011)
|
"Should auld acquaintance be forgot? I don't know, but "New Year's Eve" sure should be."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
22%
|
The Sitter (2011)
|
"If you can get past that rude-awakening opening - and some of the rougher humor - there's a comedy here. And probably the last halfway acceptable one of the year."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
97%
|
The Artist (2011)
|
"Says something about stubbornness and ego (look at the pretension in that title again) and about the dangers everyone faces when they refuse to see that their world is changing around them."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
85%
|
In Darkness (2012)
|
"As many Holocaust stories as we've seen, this one still has a fresh and important lesson about heroism - and how it has the habit of springing from some all-too-human places."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
80%
|
We Need to Talk About Kevin (2012)
|
"It's a gripping, grueling movie, but is it one most American parents will want to watch? Probably not, and I can't blame them. But is it one many American parents should see? Absolutely."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
84%
|
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
|
"A story about friends selling out friends, of wives betraying husbands, of everyone lying to anyone to gain an edge, an advantage, an extra bit of cash."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
80%
|
Shame (2011)
|
""Shame" is all about weakness and compulsion. It's not about the joy of sex. It's about the utter despair it can't conceal."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
93%
|
Coriolanus (2011)
|
"Finds something to say about the cult of personality, the trickery of political campaigns, and the potential dangers of populist movements."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
83%
|
Outrage (2011)
|
"Unfortunately the film itself feels a little punch drunk, particularly as the feuds escalate. Who's trying to knock off whom? It's hard to keep track..."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
84%
|
My Week with Marilyn (2011)
|
"No other actress has quite understood the frustrated, maternal side of Monroe that informed so many of her performances. Or quite recaptured that absolutely luminous quality she had on film."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
73%
|
Rampart (2012)
|
""Rampart" has nothing but great performances - particularly Harrelson's brutally vulgar, violent one as Dave Brown. And it gets more of Ellroy's world on screen than any other adaptation."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
77%
|
A Dangerous Method (2011)
|
"Most of this talky film just feels like a debate between two experts, trying to answer a question few of us had asked. When the real question is, Where's David Cronenberg?"
|
Stephen Whitty
|
|
97%
|
The Muppets (2011)
|
"They're still all great fun (even if, with Jim Henson gone and Frank Oz not participating, not everyone sounds quite as they did at the beginning)."
|
Stephen Whitty
|
