|
13%
|
W.E. (2012)
|
"A movie that's less about people than the fetishistic obsession with style."
|
Ann Hornaday
|
|
53%
|
Safe House (2012)
|
"As fun as the movie occasionally is, it can't make its own drama convincing, much less give Reynolds the nudge he needs toward Matt Damon-ville."
|
John DeFore
|
|
43%
|
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012)
|
"Sincerely tries to pay homage to the likes of Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson but is too contaminated by today's tame sensibilities to make it fly."
|
John DeFore
|
|
28%
|
The Vow (2012)
|
"It's a shame things are so black and white, because the movie has more promise - and more laughs - than trailers suggest."
|
Stephanie Merry
|
|
85%
|
Chronicle (2012)
|
"A pretty good idea for a sci-fi thriller is undermined by hastiness - and by the pretense that it was mostly shot by one of its protagonists."
|
Mark Jenkins
|
|
——
|
The Theatre Bizarre (2012)
|
"These elements may be shocking and even bizarre. But, like a lot of midnight-movie provocations, they soon turn predictable."
|
Mark Jenkins
|
|
64%
|
The Woman in Black (2012)
|
"Watkins knows how to make a body jump out of its skin, even if he does use the face-reflected-in-the-mirror/window trick once too often. At the same time, the film is kind of, well, silly."
|
Michael O'Sullivan
|
|
76%
|
The Innkeepers (2012)
|
"Up until near the end ... you could mistake it for a low-key haunted-house comedy."
|
John DeFore
|
|
95%
|
Pina (2011)
|
"What might seem like a convenient bid for publicity - the first 3-D art-house film! - turns out to be the only logical way to showcase the action."
|
Stephanie Merry
|
|
72%
|
Big Miracle (2012)
|
"Cold War-era bonding over whales? It would sound utterly absurd if it weren't based on fact. And that's part of what makes this movie fun for adults."
|
Stephanie Merry
|
|
82%
|
Addiction Incorporated (2011)
|
"Rather than relying only on archival footage and a parade of talking heads, Evans mixes it up with reenactments of episodes in the past. It's subtly unobtrusive and effective."
|
Michael O'Sullivan
|
|
85%
|
The Ides of March (2011)
|
|
Jen Chaney
|
|
53%
|
Albert Nobbs (2012)
|
"[It] sneaks up on the audience with the quiet discretion of the enigmatic protagonist at its center. And, like him, it contains multitudes beneath its prim surface."
|
Ann Hornaday
|
|
32%
|
Man on a Ledge (2012)
|
"It sure is about a man on a ledge."
|
Ann Hornaday
|
|
65%
|
Cherry Tree Lane ()
|
|
Michael O'Sullivan
|
|
71%
|
OKA! (2011)
|
"It's a pleasant, if slow-moving, trip down a lazy river."
|
Michael O'Sullivan
|
|
45%
|
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2012)
|
"Stephen Daldry's extremely labored and incredibly crass adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer's novel."
|
Ann Hornaday
|
|
15%
|
The Divide (2012)
|
"The tale quickly degenerates from a dramatically promising clash of personalities under pressure to a gratuitous display of rape, murder, torture, dismemberment, madness, ugly misogyny, naked racism and yelling."
|
Michael O'Sullivan
|
|
80%
|
Haywire (2012)
|
""Haywire" stays true to its low-rent B-movie principles, right down to the fast, strong and quietly competent heroine at its center."
|
Ann Hornaday
|
|
36%
|
Red Tails (2012)
|
"The African American fliers' great achievement merits a great movie. "Red Tails" isn't it."
|
Mark Jenkins
|
|
54%
|
In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011)
|
"An ambitious if not entirely fully realized drama about the 1990s war in the former Yugoslavia."
|
Ann Hornaday
|
|
54%
|
The Iron Lady (2012)
|
"[Streep's] performance overpowers the movie it's in - a perfectly executed triple axel that renders everything else just featureless ice."
|
Ann Hornaday
|
|
94%
|
Corman's World: Exploits Of A Hollywood Rebel (2011)
|
"Alex Stapleton's lively, engrossing and enlightening documentary about a career that can be described as surprising on multiple counts."
|
Ann Hornaday
|
|
71%
|
Carnage (2011)
|
"What are supposed to be transgressive observations about the holy state of parenthood and matrimony instead come across as self-satisfied and shallow as the pieties Reza intends to puncture."
|
Ann Hornaday
|
|
34%
|
Joyful Noise (2012)
|
"Despite some mawkish dialogue, there's something to be said for leaving the theater with a smile. Can I get an amen?"
|
Stephanie Merry
|
|
48%
|
Contraband (2012)
|
""Contraband" is like an "Ocean's Eleven" movie, minus the glamour."
|
Michael O'Sullivan
|
|
5%
|
The Devil Inside (2012)
|
"You can see where this is going, and the filmmakers can see that you can see. So they rush to the hideous yet hilarious climax in little more than an hour and then pad the running time with the slowest-moving credits ever."
|
Mark Jenkins
|
|
100%
|
Semper Fi: Always Faithful ()
|
"Jerry Ensminger isn't an environmental or public health crusader as much as a grieving father."
|
Ann Hornaday
|
|
74%
|
Norwegian Wood (2012)
|
""Norwegian Wood" is a restrained portrait of liminal moments, a coming-of-age tale that feels more like a moody ghost story than a neatly contained chronicle of beginnings."
|
Stephanie Merry
|
|
96%
|
Pariah (2011)
|
""Pariah" feels a lot like life, at its most confusing, contradictory and exhilarating."
|
Ann Hornaday
|
|
20%
|
Mister Frost ()
|
"Thousands of actors have played Lucifer, but none has ever given him this particular charismatic brand of idiosyncratic loopiness."
|
Hal Hinson
|
|
63%
|
We Bought a Zoo (2011)
|
""We Bought a Zoo" provides a welcome seasonal dash of wholesomeness and humor, but it's also a heartening celebration of second acts, even at their most unwelcome."
|
Ann Hornaday
|
|
69%
|
My Reincarnation (2011)
|
""My Reincarnation" is a fascinating, if inexpertly told, yarn."
|
Michael O'Sullivan
|
|
87%
|
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
|
"Mara's bristling, unbridled performance gives the film the ballast it needs to pull off that curious, undeniably engrossing, balancing act."
|
Ann Hornaday
|
|
75%
|
The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
|
"There's a lot going on in "The Adventures of Tintin," but precious little is really at stake."
|
Ann Hornaday
|
|
96%
|
Tomboy (2011)
|
"Sciamma pictures the story in dappled sunlight and wooded fields that, though not far from dull apartment blocks, have an out-of-time seductiveness."
|
John DeFore
|
|
93%
|
Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol (2011)
|
"Possesses the requisite number of expertly choreographed how'd-they-do-that scenes, as well as some terrific supporting performances from "Mission: Impossible" veterans and newcomers."
|
Ann Hornaday
|
|
60%
|
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
|
"It's a modest improvement on bad-boy director Guy Ritchie's first tweaking of Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic detective."
|
Mark Jenkins
|
|
84%
|
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
|
"It's a 1970s story told in 1970s style, an unrepentant un-reboot so old school that it feels subversively new."
|
Ann Hornaday
|
|
77%
|
A Dangerous Method (2011)
|
"Perhaps Cronenberg's most transgressive movie yet, one in which ideas - rather than their fetishistic signifiers - possess more energy and verve than the most calculated shock effect."
|
Ann Hornaday
|
|
13%
|
Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (2011)
|
""Chipwrecked" serves up more of the derivative chaos that floats this franchise's boat."
|
Sean O'Connell
|
|
85%
|
King of Devil's Island (2011)
|
"As the stone-faced and venal governor, Skarsgard is excellent. So is Helstad as Erling, the film's strong, if tragic hero."
|
Michael O'Sullivan
|
|
82%
|
Young Adult (2011)
|
"There's enough grit in the film's gears to keep the forward motion from ever getting too smooth."
|
Michael O'Sullivan
|
|
——
|
Community College (2009)
|
|
Jen Chaney
|
|
22%
|
The Sitter (2011)
|
"[Its] most valuable contribution to the cinematic landscape is its blessedly brief 80-minute running time."
|
Ann Hornaday
|
|
8%
|
New Year's Eve (2011)
|
"Sags when it should shimmer, labors clunkily when it should glide and - most unforgivably - plops some otherwise attractive and even talented actors into roles that are completely outside their physical and psychic comfort zone."
|
Ann Hornaday
|
|
76%
|
The Other F Word (2011)
|
"There are delicious contrasts between the musicians in full-on punk-rock mode and in full-on dad mode."
|
Joe Heim
|
|
80%
|
Shame (2011)
|
"What movies so often relegate to the margins of pornography or sophomoric titillation is radically redefined here, stripped of its erotic charge and depicted as a numbing erasure of life and emotion."
|
Ann Hornaday
|
|
84%
|
My Week with Marilyn (2011)
|
"Williams's Monroe is more vital than anything else. The actress captures Monroe's range of emotions and personae, her shifts from vulnerability to brashness."
|
Mark Jenkins
|
|
75%
|
The Swell Season (2011)
|
"A documentary that is every bit as intimate and disarming as the movie that made them famous..."
|
Ann Hornaday
|
