|
13%
|
W.E. (2012)
|
"Finally, a Hollywood feature directed by someone who's performed live at the Super Bowl halftime show."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
52%
|
Safe House (2012)
|
"What kills the movie ... is the script. That's strange, because it was known for years as one of the industry's best unproduced screenplays."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
85%
|
Chronicle (2012)
|
"This is a movie that understands how to engage its audience - a spoonful of philosophy and a bucket of CGI."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
63%
|
The Woman in Black (2012)
|
"I haven't seen this many people jump out of their seats since "Jack and Jill," although in this case, people returned."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
95%
|
Pina (2011)
|
"This seems like a ripping good idea. In practice, "Pina" turns out to have a few problems."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
32%
|
Man on a Ledge (2012)
|
"Completely preposterous, relying on massively improbable twists of fate. The same few crooked cops are assigned to every major police action in the city of New York."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
89%
|
Miss Bala (2012)
|
"You feel the movie's authenticity, throughout the ordeal that leaves Laura brutalized, terrified, confused, abandoned, with nowhere to turn."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
53%
|
Albert Nobbs (2012)
|
"As for Close, she looks nothing like a man. Nor much like a woman."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
77%
|
The Grey (2012)
|
"It's a tight thriller helped a great deal by on-location shooting (in British Columbia) that gives the movie a very vivid sense of place and of winter peril."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
36%
|
Red Tails (2012)
|
"It's awesome."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
80%
|
Haywire (2012)
|
"Five minutes of Carano fighting, 85 minutes of half-baked espionage plotting that nobody, not writer Lem Dobbs or Soderbergh, seems to care much about."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
45%
|
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2012)
|
"This is a story invented to exist in a book, and you can feel it resisting the jump to screen."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
54%
|
The Iron Lady (2012)
|
""The Iron Lady" is keenly attuned to the small indignities of a woman trying to elbow her way into a man's world."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
96%
|
Pariah (2011)
|
"Part of what makes "Pariah" exceptional is its skill at mapping family dynamics."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
71%
|
Carnage (2011)
|
"This has black comedy potential, but "Carnage" is less gruesome fun that it might have been, and for a surprising reason - the performances."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
48%
|
Contraband (2012)
|
"A competent genre movie enlivened by vivid sense of place/culture - shot on location in New Orleans, delving into the world of merchant seaman/dock workers/smugglers."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
54%
|
In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011)
|
"Jolie is aiming high here, her influences are impeccable. Her game, however, could use a little work."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
97%
|
The Artist (2011)
|
"Those who know nothing about the history of cinema will not be shortchanged - "The Artist" can be enjoyed by anyone who loves what is essential about movies."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
63%
|
We Bought a Zoo (2011)
|
"It's reassuring, a little square, and you sense that Crowe, now a father and family man, is reaching out to a new, younger audience."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
76%
|
War Horse (2011)
|
"A meditation on the 20th century transformation from pastoral to industrial, in the horrific context of World War One."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
84%
|
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
|
"Measured, muted, controlled - a style that is ideally suited to le Carre's brainy, subtle narrative."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
75%
|
The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
|
""Tintin" is fast-moving and competent, but it is not the magical entertainment its pedigree has us jacked up to expect."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
87%
|
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
|
"The new "Tattoo" is buoyed by Fincher's peerless craftsmanship. Never has a director been better suited to photographing winter scenes near the Arctic Circle."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
82%
|
Young Adult (2011)
|
"The cast is uniformly good - this is a hallmark of director Jason Reitman, who has an uncanny ability to put the right actor in the right role and to get the right performance. Even tiny roles stand out."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
60%
|
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
|
"Props to "Game of Shadows" for having an actual Doyle-ish plot, one that rewards your investment of 128 minutes."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
93%
|
Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol (2011)
|
"It's undeniably fun."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
22%
|
The Sitter (2011)
|
"You can feel in "Sitter" that Hill is getting tired of this routine, that he wants to shed his own skin."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
80%
|
Shame (2011)
|
"The role leaves Fassbender naked in front of the camera in ways literal and figurative."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
94%
|
Hugo (2011)
|
"A movie for grown-up film buffs, but one children can enjoy, so long as they don't mind a history lesson on the founding fathers of cinema, complete with 3-D visual aids."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
97%
|
The Muppets (2011)
|
"I found "The Muppets" movie to be highly tolerable, and agreeably low on the Miss Piggy involvement scale."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
25%
|
Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (2011)
|
"It's like "Roadhouse" for women. As irresistible as it is ridiculous."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
89%
|
Into The Abyss (2011)
|
"A disturbing profile of a rural Texas community where disintegrated families produce a culture dominated by substance abuse, violence, illiteracy and other problems."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
90%
|
The Descendants (2011)
|
""Descendants" finds its footing, hitting Payne's unique note of comedy/drama, and benefits greatly from some terrific third-act appearances by actors in small but crucial supporting roles."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
44%
|
J. Edgar (2011)
|
"This is conceptually interesting, but it's clumsily delivered by Eastwood, whose movie is a succession of dull interior scenes, expository conversation and fractured chronology."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
78%
|
Melancholia (2011)
|
"If you can stand it, "Melancholia" pivots drastically at its midpoint, and becomes something else, something far more watchable."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
3%
|
Jack and Jill (2011)
|
"It feels a little lazy, like Dugan and Sandler didn't work hard enough to iron out the premise."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
73%
|
Mozart's Sister (2011)
|
"Nannerl is clearly a woman repressed, but Feret gives this potentially great woman no life, no spark."
|
Molly Eichel
|
|
69%
|
A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas (2011)
|
"I saw it sober, so I don't think it measures up to the original, but it does preserve the franchise's multiethnic flavor and lowbrow appeal, although it seems more "Cheech and Chong" than ever."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
79%
|
The Skin I Live In (2011)
|
"Banderas has some hair-raising scenes with Anaya as his in-house patient/muse."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
68%
|
Tower Heist (2011)
|
"There's a nice ensemble feel, the cast is easy to root for, and although Ratner goes big and broad during the finale (Thanksgiving Day Parade), interest in the revenge plot or its crew never flags."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
50%
|
The Rum Diary (2011)
|
""The Rum Diary" panders to fans of the Thompson legend with very broad drug-booze comedy that sits uneasily with the movie's pretentions to anti-colonial commentary."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
47%
|
Anonymous (2011)
|
"Books have been written to argue that de Vere, Earl of Oxford, is the true author of Shakespeare's work, and if this subject interests you at all, you're better off sticking with one of those."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
37%
|
In Time (2011)
|
""In Time" feels a tad derivative, and is much less successful than "Gattaca" in giving us the nuts and bolts of a good thriller."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
90%
|
Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)
|
"Olsen makes all of this seem vividly real, and each of her scenes is alive with tension, so that Durkin's nonlinear, episodic narrative never really flags."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
88%
|
Margin Call (2011)
|
"If you really look at "Margin Call" you can see Chandor making important criticism in small and subtle ways..."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
92%
|
Take Shelter (2011)
|
"Shannon's talent can be hard to control - it can burst the containment of his character and destabilize a movie - but in "Take Shelter" it is expertly deployed by writer-director Jeff Nichols."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
48%
|
The Mighty Macs (2011)
|
"Instead of breaking new ground, "The Mighty Macs" revels in clichés, made apparent by the musical score of swelling strings, forcing unearned emotional resonance that the movie can't organically create."
|
Molly Eichel
|
|
39%
|
The Big Year (2011)
|
"Another watered-down mainstream comedy with a self-improvement message and standard relationship dramas."
|
Gary Thompson
|
|
70%
|
Footloose (2011)
|
"Some things never change: The best part of "Footloose" is the dancing."
|
Molly Eichel
|
|
10%
|
Trespass (2011)
|
"Look, I don't want to be mean, but you've got people in this movie who can't move their upper lips. It's bizarre."
|
Gary Thompson
|
