|
93%
|
Drive (2011)
|
"... celebrates -- one might say revels in -- the pulp mythology of existential anti-heroes and criminal chivalry and street opera tragedy of American movies."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
93%
|
Midnight in Paris (2011)
|
"[Woody] Allen brings his fantasy to life with such affection and joy that he transports us into his dream come true as a shared fantasy."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
88%
|
Margin Call (2011)
|
"Chandor is more interested in the banality of greed and opportunism and the ease in which principled employees are swayed to engage in unprincipled acts."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
96%
|
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2011)
|
"... captures the space, the texture, the quality of color of these ghost-like paintings, like shadows of the past captured on the cave walls."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
23%
|
The Smurfs (2011)
|
"Call me Grouchy, but I say grown-ups should just say smurf it and avoid the film completely. "
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
84%
|
Beginners (2011)
|
"[Director Mike] Mills... gives the film a celebratory passion in the quiet closeness of father and son and the playful first-person storytelling..."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
35%
|
Larry Crowne (2011)
|
"... lacks any sense of gravity. Hanks has too much moxie to let little things like unemployment and an underwater mortgage get him down..."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
38%
|
Cars 2 (2011)
|
"Kids will be entertained and so will adults. I just didn't find myself particularly engaged."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
89%
|
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
|
"... that rare breed: an imaginative live-action kid's film that engages and delights adults."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
86%
|
Batman: Year One (2011)
|
"For a story constructed out of choppy slices, this is probably the most unified of the DC animated features."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
33%
|
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)
|
"Director Rob Marshall stages slapstick like dance choreography and action like a theme park ride. Which I guess is appropriate... "
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
78%
|
Fast Five (2011)
|
"Forget physics, it's just a fun blast of action movie ingenuity, as is the film as a whole. "
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
10%
|
Captain America (1990)
|
"... a real stiff, a corny piece of nostalgic pulp with cheap action, cheesy dialogue and a charismatically challenged leading man."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
90%
|
Bridesmaids (2011)
|
"... a girl-bonding romp filled equally with outlandish bridal showers and alcohol-fueled slapstick aggression, grand romantic gestures and furtive sex, high couture and low blows."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
75%
|
Basket Case (1982)
|
"The DIY effects may look naively amateur today but there's a loving B-movie attitude and a genuine sense of character to the "monster," the misshapen, fleshy, snaggle-toothed Belial."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
——
|
Carlos Cavazo - The Carlos Cavazo Package ()
|
"... a mesmerizing portrait of committed activist who transforms himself into a media-hungry rock star of an international terrorist."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
36%
|
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)
|
"You either take it on faith that the succession of scenes and exposition actually add up to a story and enjoy the ride, or sink 2 1/2 hours into the most expensive abstract disaster film ever made."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
89%
|
Scarface (2003)
|
"It's a whole new spin on the immigrant story and the American Dream as an underworld nightmare and a fitting bookend to the two Godfather films."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
88%
|
X-Men: First Class (2011)
|
"While it never reaches the intelligence or character richness of the first two X-Men films, it's still the superior superhero spectacle of 2011 to date. "
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
100%
|
Citizen Kane (1941)
|
"Above all, Welles was a showman and Citizen Kane is a three ring circus of cinematic ingenuity..."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
——
|
Starz Studios: Spartacus: Gods Of The Arena ()
|
"... a succession of brutal arena battles painted over in swaths of crimson CGI spatter and gaping wounds (a la 300) interspersed with softcore sex right..."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
77%
|
Thor (2011)
|
"... not to say that Thor is awful, simply uninspired, full of sound and fury and not much else."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
84%
|
Jane Eyre (2011)
|
"... this new incarnation embraces the Gothic gloom and lonely isolation of the novel but, like its stoic, strong heroine, never gives in to the darkness."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
80%
|
The Big Lebowski (1998)
|
"The Coens concoct an absurdist Chandler-esque mystery, drop in a couple hilarious dream fantasies, and even bring in a drawling Sam Elliot to narrate this tall tale like a western myth."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
——
|
Sands of the Kalahari ()
|
"Cy Endfield explored similar themes in "Zulu" a year before but this comes off as pulp melodrama of the machismo variety."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
75%
|
Stake Land (2011)
|
"There's a scruffy immediacy to the direction... but also a grace to the imagery and a commitment to the performances."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
72%
|
Rio (2011)
|
"There's lots of color, some gorgeous animation, a running beat of lively (if not always memorable) music and the energy of lovely tropical birds in flight. The rest is formula..."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
36%
|
Skidoo (1968)
|
"... Keystone Mobsters, with career criminals and fun-loving hippies colliding in a comedy of flower power, slapstick and psychedelia..."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
70%
|
Limitless (2011)
|
"It's not the science that's important, it's the momentum, the conceptual journey, the dynamism of the head games and chemically-enhanced battle of wits..."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
88%
|
Rango (2011)
|
"... this southwestern goof is really for really big kids with a love of movies, a sense of whimsy and a soft spot for the hideously gorgeous creatures of the desert. "
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
93%
|
Of Gods and Men (2011)
|
"... as powerful a film you'll ever see about faith, commitment and the courage of one's convictions."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
67%
|
Hobo With a Shotgun (2011)
|
"... a blood-spattered love letter to the grindhouse vengeance movie by first-time filmmakers who, as Spinal Tap might put it, crank everything up to 11."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
80%
|
Barney's Version (2011)
|
"Director Richard J. Lewis never quite gets a handle on the sprawling storyline and stumbles over the tonal shifts... but Giamatti holds the center together. "
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
69%
|
A Thousand Clowns (1965)
|
"... there's something disingenuous about presenting defiant purposelessness and unemployment as an act of courage."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
100%
|
Menschen am Sonntag (People on Sunday) (1930)
|
"The mix of naturalism, visual poetry, youthful energy and frisky sexuality of a canoodling romantic triangle is really quite irresistible. "
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
——
|
Tetsuo: The Bullet Man (2009)
|
"The backstory satisfies a certain urge to know but lacks the gonzo mystery and waking nightmare horror of the original..."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
97%
|
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
|
"... delivers a pulp punch while it savagely satirizes the entire hardboiled mythos with its bare-knuckle brutality, flights of purple prose dialogue and he-man chauvinism ..."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
73%
|
The Adjustment Bureau (2011)
|
"Too bad the film doesn't have anything else to offer besides the chemistry between the photogenic leads, the handsome location shooting and the usual bromides ..."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
11%
|
Red Riding Hood (2011)
|
"... this gorgeously-mounted production fails to rouse the primitive ferocity of the primal beauty and the beast tale."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
35%
|
Battle: Los Angeles (2011)
|
"... this humorless film as unimaginative -- and as exhausting -- as you can get. "
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
93%
|
Another Year (2010)
|
"There's a lot of anger and misery around them and yet it's amazing how this film... can also be so warming and affirming."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
96%
|
The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
|
"... one of the most rousing adventures of the 1970s."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
92%
|
The Stunt Man (1980)
|
"The film twists and turns from scene to scene, carrying the audience on the some whirlwind mind-game..."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
96%
|
True Grit (2010)
|
"... the most accessible and successful (financially speaking) film of their career. "
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
——
|
The Merry Widow (1925)
|
"Stroheim revels in the mind-blowing decadence of the playground of royal existence..."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
——
|
Laila (1929)
|
"... there is an elemental power from the film's location shooting in the mountains of Norway."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
90%
|
The Illusionist (L'illusionniste) (2010)
|
"... a delicate and delightful piece of old-fashioned hand-drawn animation where character is in body language and personality in the "performance." "
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
88%
|
Blue Valentine (2010)
|
"... a crucible for very powerful performances and a convincing relationship in all its contradictions."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
53%
|
The Mechanic (2011)
|
"... a minor pleasure to see an action film that makes a virtue of lean, mean action stripped to the essence. "
|
Sean Axmaker
|
|
56%
|
Gnomeo and Juliet (2011)
|
"... shenanigans play out to a score of classic Elton John songs (and two new ones) and a script crammed full of pop-culture references and Shakespeare puns."
|
Sean Axmaker
|
73%
21%
63%
85%
46%
40%
