|
67%
|
Epic (2013)
|
"Though Epic walks a woefully-worn, save-the-planet path, it manages to feel fresh, even when drawing inspiration directly from Alice in Wonderland, Avatar and The Lord of the Rings."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
68%
|
The Iceman (2013)
|
"Getting to see Shannon boogie to Blondie is enough to warrant a stay of execution."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
50%
|
The Great Gatsby (2013)
|
"A visually-stunning, theatrically-showy spectacle that's as lavishly grandiose as one of Gatsby's grotesquely over-the-top shindigs."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
78%
|
Iron Man 3 (2013)
|
"A movie so block-headed, so aimlessly busy, you'd think Michael Bay directed the thing. Actually, that would be an upgrade."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
42%
|
To The Wonder (2013)
|
"Malick's profound message permeating throughout: Living in Oklahoma blows."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
68%
|
Trance (2013)
|
"The film's sensory experience is too alluring to resist, Boyle salvaging his unduly swirly story with a slathering of his shimmering, sumptuous aesthetics."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
28%
|
G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)
|
"Administers exhilaration without a Michael Bay level of enervation."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
93%
|
The Sapphires (2013)
|
"The most affable, innocuous outing ever set in a war zone."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
66%
|
Spring Breakers (2013)
|
"Korine kills it with a Britney Spears-backed montage of the pretty little gangsters protecting Franco's drug-trafficking turf. Gun-toting teens clad in string bikinis passing for high art? Indubitably."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
69%
|
The Croods (2013)
|
"The Croods is the most entertaining film of the year thus far -- a Neolithic knockout."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
43%
|
Admission (2013)
|
"Admission doesn't just misfire, it flatlines."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
95%
|
West of Memphis (2012)
|
"I would have preferred Jackson's clinically-presented project display a bit more reverence for the three young lives that were brutally taken some twenty years ago."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
37%
|
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013)
|
"If The Incredible Burt Wonderstone were a real Vegas show, its rightful home would be amongst the rubble of an imploded casino."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
59%
|
Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)
|
"The film's CGI'd talking monkey is more alive than Franco. And it totally looks fake."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
82%
|
The Place Beyond The Pines (2013)
|
"While Cianfrance's overambitious narrative and Crash-y conclusion come perilously close to bringing the film to its knees, the electrifying first half more than compensates. "
|
Erick Weber
|
|
67%
|
Stoker (2013)
|
"Dripping with mood but deprived of dynamics, Stoker fails as an overall film yet wonders with the wizardry of the man behind the cam."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
26%
|
Escape From Planet Earth 3D (2013)
|
"A surprisingly well-produced effort that fills the recent vacuum of family films without totally sucking."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
15%
|
A Good Day To Die Hard (2013)
|
"A bombastic onslaught of smashed-up machinery and king-sized explosions that adequately sates your neanderthalic needs."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
46%
|
Beautiful Creatures (2013)
|
"A supernatural spell of boringness smothers it all."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
85%
|
Side Effects (2013)
|
"Its big twist is telegraphed so soon after its start, there's zero shock value and zero suspense as the film plods towards its pathetically pat ending."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
100%
|
Sound City (2013)
|
"An electrifying and enthralling labor of love that acts as a defibrillator for your creative juices."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
80%
|
Warm Bodies (2013)
|
"It's hard to beat a brain-eating scene with John Waits' "Missing You" blaring in the background, the '80s ode to the forlorn has never sounded so grotesquely poignant."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
30%
|
Broken City (2013)
|
"A tedious, needlessly convoluted clunker."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
93%
|
Amour (2012)
|
"Haneke addresses the ravaging effects of aging in a starkly intimate way but Amour oddly lacks affectivity. Something that should be overflowing with emotion is strangely as sterile as Georges and Anne's Parisian apartment."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
32%
|
Gangster Squad (2013)
|
"It's the premium cast that redeems the project. "
|
Erick Weber
|
|
93%
|
Zero Dark Thirty (2013)
|
"While it's executed with the same level of meticulous precision as the raid itself, you can't help but wonder if Bigelow could have compressed things just a bit."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
81%
|
The Impossible (2012)
|
"The Impossible is immersive only when it's fully immersed."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
88%
|
Django Unchained (2012)
|
"At a shade under three hours, Django Unchained never once feels that length...a testament to the ferocity of Tarantino's fantastically unmannerly concoction."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
69%
|
Les Misérables (2012)
|
"This is filmmaking of the most opulent order -- par excellence."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
52%
|
This is 40 (2012)
|
"Teetering between tepidly humorous and totally unfunny, Judd Apatow's crazy long crudefest plays like bits and pieces of a stand-up routine that would get a comedian booed off the stage."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
65%
|
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
|
"Packed with crescendos and crap-outs, Peter Jackson's mega-bloated beginning to Bilbo Baggins' pilgrimage across Middle-earth to Lonely Mountain both awes and bores."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
75%
|
Killing Them Softly (2012)
|
"Everything about the loaded-with-lowlives crime flick is elongated, extended to the very precipice of its expiration date."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
63%
|
Hitchcock (2012)
|
"Mirren's "I am woman, hear me roar" nuclear weapon-level unloading on her hubby is a contender for the strongest acting moment this year - time stops, jaws drop when she unleashes it."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
88%
|
Life of Pi (2012)
|
"Serving up 2012's single most awe-inspiring stanza of cinema, Ang Lee's Life of Pi is a thing of beauty - a gorgeously presented piece of art."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
13%
|
Red Dawn (2012)
|
"Shockingly tolerable and surprisingly entertaining. "
|
Erick Weber
|
|
64%
|
Anna Karenina (2012)
|
"Breaking down the walls - literally - Wright has served up a silver screen stunner. Cue the standing ovation."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
92%
|
Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
|
"A thoroughly annoying and staggeringly laughless quirkfest featuring the most alarmingly miscast role of 2012."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
89%
|
Lincoln (2012)
|
"Day-Lewis doesn't play Abraham Lincoln, he is Abraham Lincoln in a performance that will have you seriously questioning if what you're watching is a documentary shot in the 1860s."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
92%
|
Skyfall (2012)
|
"With the onset of the sublime Skyfall, Daniel Craig officially wrests the title of "Best Bond Ever" from Connery, the British bulldog delivers a brilliant, bulldozing performance in a cinematic spectacular more streamlined than one of his Tom Ford suits."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
78%
|
Flight (2012)
|
"The only thing Zemeckis could have done to make Flight more of a chore to sit through beyond its stunning opening sequence, have a kid kick your seat-back for the protracted remainder of the flick."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
94%
|
The Sessions (2012)
|
"For the entire endeavor to emotionally register, you must buy into the romance that purportedly blossoms between Hawkes and Hunt. I didn't, not for a second."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
84%
|
Smashed (2012)
|
"Winstead's performance is sure to be remembered come awards season, it packs more punch than a bottle of Bacardi 151."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
67%
|
Cloud Atlas (2012)
|
"The Wachowskis' monumentally ambitious sci-fi time-hopper demands a superhuman level of dedication and patience but the payoff isn't worth the labor required to endure its nearly three-hour runtime."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
94%
|
Hugo (2011)
|
"A luminous triumph that may just remind you why our hearts leap when the lights go down in a movie theater."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
98%
|
The Artist (2011)
|
"Its retro-retro take uniquely delivers the most crucial element of the moviegoing experience, the art of entertainment."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
93%
|
Take Shelter (2011)
|
"While Take Shelter isn't by any means perfect - writer/director Jeff Nichols could use a refresher course on editing - it's a powerful film, displaying a devolvement into insanity that ultimately proves to be quite visionary."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
88%
|
Margin Call (2011)
|
"Margin Call can't beat the street, missing the mark in a major way given the massive expectations."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
84%
|
Puss in Boots (2011)
|
"Bet the litter box that the cat in the hat will be back, Puss in Boots is fantastic family fun, both kids and adults will lap it up like a cold glass of milk."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
44%
|
J. Edgar (2011)
|
"Regardless of how you may feel about the film's vision of Hoover's private life, you have to respect J. Edgar for the conviction of its depiction. Very much like the resolve of the despotic man it so vividly portrays."
|
Erick Weber
|
|
93%
|
Turn Me On, Dammit! (2012)
|
"Director Jannicke Systad Jacobsen competently captures the awkwardness we all felt as teens and it's made that much more impressive considering the majority of her cast had never set foot in front of a camera before."
|
Erick Weber
|
75%
22%
67%
85%
46%
40%
