|
94%
|
Epic (2013)
|
"When the filmmakers take little detours from the reluctant-warrior-accepts-his/her-destiny plot, it brings some desperately needed livening up to what otherwise feels like a crushingly by-the-numbers kid saga."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
76%
|
Fast & Furious 6 (2013)
|
"Lin and his team do an extraordinary job of staging the ever-escalating action sequences, up to a jaw-on-the-floor finale involving various four-wheel vehicles in and around a cargo plane that's trying to take off."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
40%
|
Black Rock (2013)
|
"It seemed that Black Rock might take its very basic premise and use it as a platform to explore larger ideas. But even on its own terms as just a lean-and-mean genre exercise, this one's not all that interesting."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
91%
|
Frances Ha (2013)
|
"The understated final moments made me happier than any other filmgoing experience I've had all year."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
86%
|
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
|
"One of the general strengths of Star Trek Into Darkness, in fact, is the feeling of high stakes and genuine threat, which is exceedingly hard to pull off in any long-running franchise."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
83%
|
Venus And Serena (2013)
|
"Fans probably won't learn much they don't already know, but the film covers enough ground to feel like the movie equivalent of one of those lengthy, in-depth articles you used to get in the magazine of your Sunday newspaper."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
37%
|
Peeples (2013)
|
"It's often rote and by-the-numbers, but writer-director Tina Gordon Chism injects the proceedings with enough smart chat, clever situations and spot-on casting choices to make this well-traveled road feel a little less stale."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
49%
|
The Great Gatsby (2013)
|
"This film marks the official moment in which Baz Luhrmann's signature style has become self-parody. So we beat on, boats against the current, jumping the shark."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
48%
|
Scatter My Ashes At Bergdorf's (2013)
|
"Granted, not every documentary is necessarily required to dig up dirt and say awful things, but the overbearing gush gets tiresome."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
78%
|
Iron Man 3 (2013)
|
"If you're the sort of viewer for whom Black's strengths more than make up for his weaknesses, the best bits of Iron Man 3 will make the lesser stuff worth forgiving -- or at least worth enduring."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
8%
|
The Big Wedding (2013)
|
"Sarandon, Keaton and De Niro mesh beautifully, fully convincing as a trio of old friends and carting in lots of characterization that would be otherwise lacking in Zackham's rote screenplay."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
52%
|
At Any Price (2013)
|
"Feels like a series of note cards ("father-son conflict," "dad's mistress hits on son") that never weave together to make a gripping plot."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
98%
|
Mud (2013)
|
"Nichols lovingly sketches his characters and their world; he takes his time doing so, but it's a pleasure to watch the small interactions and the humid reality of secret coves and Piggly Wiggly supermarkets and seedy hotels."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
54%
|
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013)
|
"All the elements are there to tell a sharp, strong story, but director Mira Nair and screenwriter William Wheeler take the events of the day and simplify them into a blunt force object where subtlety and wit are replaced by sermonizing and melodramatics."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
88%
|
In the House (2013)
|
"Darkly funny and utterly compelling, it's arguably the best teacher-student movie since 1999's Election."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
56%
|
Oblivion (2013)
|
"If the dialogue and the concepts of Oblivion had been as fresh and powerful as its art direction, we'd really have something here. Instead, it's something borrowed packaged inside something new."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
4%
|
Scary Movie 5 (2013)
|
"This is the sort of movie where you feel bad for Sheen and Lohan, because they hadn't actually hit rock bottom until they agreed to appear in it."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
75%
|
Simon Killer (2013)
|
"Another terrific performance from Brady Corbet, but it's in the service of a parade of horrors that never leads anywhere interesting."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
77%
|
42 (2013)
|
"For all the 1940s hokiness of 42, with its big cars and big bands and peanuts and Cracker Jack, it's a wonderful surprise to see that there's a recognizable human being at the center of the hoopla."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
68%
|
Trance (2013)
|
"I can't remember the last time I had this much fun having the rug pulled out from under me."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
55%
|
The Company You Keep (2013)
|
"A thoroughly stodgy exploration of the ghosts of the past that has exceedingly little to say about the Vietnam era, the ethics of violent protest or the standards of what's left of the newspaper business."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
62%
|
Evil Dead (2013)
|
"This isn't just the scariest movie in recent memory, it's also the most viscous."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
16%
|
Temptation (2013)
|
"And really, who better to shill for the institution of marriage than 43-year-old bachelor Perry, who uses homosexuality as a punch line (or symbol of evil decadence) and HIV as a cheap plot gimmick?"
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
9%
|
The Host (2013)
|
"During the dull stretches of The Host -- and, sadly, there are many of them -- you may find yourself rewriting the movie as a French farce."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
94%
|
Room 237 (2013)
|
"I found myself torn between wanting to see The Shining again immediately and never, ever wanting to see it again."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
28%
|
G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)
|
"Once the story picks up, it's all ka-blam all the time, but rather than generate thrills and excitement, it ultimately becomes enervating."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
81%
|
From Up On Poppy Hill (2013)
|
"The screenplay deftly balances the characters' intimate concerns with the nation's historic growing pains, resulting in a story that's as engrossing as the visuals are breathtaking. "
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
47%
|
Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
|
"The movie makes up in adrenaline what it lacks in brains."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
69%
|
The Croods (2013)
|
"This material could have easily fallen into sitcom clichés with a heaping scoop of anachronism jokes on the side, but The Croods takes these characters and their situation seriously enough to make the story matter."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
43%
|
Admission (2013)
|
"Would that Fey had been as choosy and critical about the screenplay as her character is about personal essays attached to applications to Princeton University."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
66%
|
Spring Breakers (2013)
|
"As presented by Korine, this bacchanal has become codified, conformist and utterly repetitive. Are we having fun yet?"
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
41%
|
The Call (2013)
|
"When The Call focuses on Berry and her headset, the movie maintains an entertaining level of suspense; when it becomes yet another Silence of the Lambs rip-off, you can feel the tension seep away."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
37%
|
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013)
|
"Always seems poised to deliver big laughs but, once the smoke and the pigeons clear, leaves you only with a mild chuckle or two."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
37%
|
Dead Man Down (2013)
|
"In the end, a viewer can do little more than appreciate Dead Man's shimmering look and wish all involved better luck in their next endeavor."
|
Leah Rozen
|
|
60%
|
Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)
|
"Rather than tell us that everything we know about Oz is wrong, the filmmakers take what we already know about the wonderful wizard and thread it into a tale about the magic behind cinema itself."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
27%
|
21 And Over (2013)
|
"21 & Over provides lots of fun while the beer flows. Too bad the R.A. felt like he had to come in and ask everyone about their major."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
67%
|
Stoker (2013)
|
"The film has visual style to spare, but even that becomes overwhelming, turning Stoker into self-parody."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
25%
|
Phantom (2013)
|
"There's a lot to like about Phantom, but the movie, like the rust-bucket old submarine in which most of it takes place, would be better off dry-docked."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
19%
|
Inescapable (2013)
|
"The film tries to meld politically charged personal drama with the action-movie tropes you'd expect in a story set in the Middle East. (Chase through a crowded marketplace? Brawl at the hamam? Check!)"
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
34%
|
Dark Skies (2013)
|
"A smart little chiller, one that can be read as a metaphor for the American family in crisis during tough economic times or merely as a tense exploration of things that go bump in the night."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
26%
|
Escape From Planet Earth 3D (2013)
|
"It's a bowl of warm water into which no one has bothered to place a bouillon cube. The kids in the theater with me never mustered a single laugh or gasp of excitement. It's plenty o' nuttin'."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
92%
|
No (2013)
|
"It's a perfectly fine movie, but given its fairly radical storyline, the filmmaking tends to hew toward the safe and the familiar."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
15%
|
A Good Day To Die Hard (2013)
|
"While the first Die Hard was a Swiss watch of precise plotting and layered character development - the next three installments could, at least, tell time - A Good Day to Die Hard makes lots of noise but little sense."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
45%
|
Beautiful Creatures (2013)
|
"That Beautiful Creatures can offer both sumptuous silliness and a teen couple whose relationship actually matters is its own particular brand of magic."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
16%
|
A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III (2013)
|
"This isn't a despicable film or a lazy one; it's just a doodle, a glorified home movie by a filmmaker who no doubt has one hell of a Rolodex and a few favors to call in."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
20%
|
Identity Thief (2013)
|
"Has the kind of cast that makes audiences ask, "How bad could it be?" before proceeding to answer that very question."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
85%
|
Side Effects (2013)
|
"Stop reading now, avoid all reviews and blabbermouths, and go see the movie yourself before anyone tells you anything."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
47%
|
Bullet to the Head (2013)
|
"Stallone can still be entertaining, but here he's got no character to play, nothing fun to say, and the craziest hair/hairpiece/scalp growth this side of John Travolta."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
4%
|
Movie 43 (2013)
|
"Movie 43 is gross, juvenile, disgusting, scatological, vile, reprehensible and in the worst possible taste. But heaven help me, I laughed."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
|
60%
|
John Dies at the End (2013)
|
"A shaggy-dog story with restless leg syndrome."
|
Alonso Duralde
|
76%
33%
94%
85%
45%
40%
