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2.5/4 |
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A Scanner Darkly (2006) |
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"While Dick was a world-class paranoiac, his trenchant writing had bite, wit and energy. Linklater's slacker adaptation ambles where it should creep forward frantically." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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Aberdeen (2001) |
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"The characters, irritating as they can be at first, grow on you as they grow up." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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About a Boy (2002) |
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"If the [Weitz] brothers don't yet have a defined style, they do seem at ease with this more sophisticated material." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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About Schmidt (2002) |
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"Impeccable acting makes every character a pleasure to watch." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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2/4 |
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Adaptation (2002) |
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"This emperor knows he's naked and shouts that fact to the world." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000) |
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"Kids, who have no interest in these animated characters, will find it slow, arcane and stupid. Adults over 35, who presumably might have loyalty to the old TV show, will find it slow, unfunny and stupid." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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The Affair of the Necklace (2001) |
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"The kind of movie made bearable only by uttering snide comments to a friend." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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1.5/4 |
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Against the Ropes (2003) |
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"A title card says the film was 'inspired by the life of Jackie Kallen.' Nothing's actually inspired here, from Dutton's haphazard direction to an inapt score by the late Michael Kamen." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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1.5/4 |
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The Alamo (2004) |
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"Everything about the movie seems smaller than life, from Carter Burwell's hollowly pompous music to Dean Semler's muddy cinematography." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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1.5/4 |
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Alex and Emma (2003) |
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"It's so crammed with stale devices that it should be called When Hoary Met Sappy." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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1/4 |
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Alexander (2004) |
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"An act of hubris so huge that, in Alexander's time, it would draw lightning bolts from contemptuous gods. Today it will get sniggers from stunned critics and a collective yawn from a public unlikely to share Stone's egomania." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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2/4 |
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Alfie (2004) |
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"Jude Law's considerable charm as the philandering limo driver whose heart is the last to be broken goes a long way toward making this needless film palatable." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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Ali (2001) |
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"The new film shouldn't serve as a history lesson, but it will show young folks (and remind us old-timers) what made him the most famous athlete on the planet." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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Alien: The Director's Cut (2003) |
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"Watching it again reminded me how remarkably the sound engineers did their jobs." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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3/4 |
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All About You (2001) |
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"The movie usually steers clear of cliches and offers characters with more complexity than we've come to expect from romantic comedy." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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All or Nothing (2002) |
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"Reality is always Leigh's strong suit, and this movie brims with it." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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1.5/4 |
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All The King's Men (2006) |
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"It's possible for a movie to go wrong from the opening frame, and All the King's Men shows how." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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All the Pretty Horses (2000) |
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"For all the authenticity, there's not much vitality." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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2.5/4 |
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All the Real Girls (2003) |
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"Deschanel gives a heart-wrenching performance that often makes Schneider's seem inert." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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1/4 |
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Alone in the Dark (2005) |
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"I didn't see director Uwe Boll's zombie dud House of the Dead, but on the evidence of Alone in the Dark, he belongs in the pantheon of hopelessly inept directors." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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Along Came a Spider (2001) |
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"It comes at us in clumsy chunks of plot that fit together as badly as blocks of broken concrete." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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2.5/4 |
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Along Came Polly (2004) |
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"A hit-and-miss comedy with reasonable numbers of laughs and lots of personality from its two leads." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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1/4 |
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Alpha Dog (2007) |
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"Has the most unappetizing film of 2007 really arrived just 12 days into the New Year? Alpha Dog will face contenders for that title, but it sets the bar high." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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1.5/4 |
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Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007) |
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"The little beasties in the new film are computer-generated, reasonably realistic (way ahead of Garfield) and cute. It's not their fault the humans, especially Jason Lee's Dave Seville, are excruciatingly boring." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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3.5/4 |
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Amazing Grace (2007) |
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"The movie is the usual kind of film biography of a respected figure from the distant past -- honorable, oversimplified, handsome." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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America's Sweethearts (2001) |
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"You go away reasonably satisfied - not filled up, not delighted, but pleased that your expectations have been met again." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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American Beauty (1999) |
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"Despite the acting, which ranges mostly from good to terrific, Mendes is the real discovery here." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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1.5/4 |
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American Dreamz (2006) |
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"The writer-producer-director of American Dreamz makes nearly every mistake in the satirical book. His targets are either too easy or too dated. He's inconsistent in his attitudes toward them. His stereotypes are stale." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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2.5/4 |
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American Gangster (2007) |
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"The meal's perfectly edible but falls short of delicious." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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American Outlaws (2001) |
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"It has as little regard for truth as a truck driver does for gnats in his way on the interstate." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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American Pie (1999) |
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"The story was primitive, the characters unmemorable, the direction unsophisticated, the writing cliched, the photography and music drab, the pacing uneven, the acting varying from adroitly funny to exaggerated." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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American Psycho (2000) |
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"Psycho remains a hollow portrait of a hollow man." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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American Splendor (2003) |
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"The fictionalized [Pekar] is played to schlumpy, bitter perfection by Paul Giamatti." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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American Wedding (2003) |
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"Among movies I've seen where someone eats a dog turd, this ranks fairly high." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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1.5/4 |
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The Amityville Horror (2005) |
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"The movie starts losing brain cells almost at once." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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Amores Perros (2001) |
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"The filmmakers offer little hope for these characters." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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Analyze That (2002) |
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"The movie bounces all over the map." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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Analyze This (1998) |
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"Crystal stays focused, while DeNiro yowls and bawls without shame." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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2/4 |
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Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) |
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"Hammers away at the same comedic notes like an 8-year-old pounding out 'Chopsticks' on a parlor piano." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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3.5/4 |
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Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera (2004) |
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"If you know nothing about the Phantom, currently the longest-running show on Broadway, this unusually faithful recreation will show what the fuss is about." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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Angela's Ashes (1999) |
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"[Alan Parker] has treated McCourt's Pulitzer-winning book respectfully without embalming it." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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2.5/4 |
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Anger Management (2003) |
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"The results are sporadically hilarious but don't always hang together." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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Anna and the King (1999) |
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"Even folks familiar with the original accounts will find much to enjoy in the new one." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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Antitrust (2001) |
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"This simplistic knockoff of The Firm isn't remotely credible." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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Apocalypse Now Redux (2001) |
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"This was the greatest Vietnam movie of its time, and it remains so." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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1.5/4 |
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Apocalypto (2006) |
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"It represents as brazen an act of career suicide as I can recall from a star director. If he were a first-timer, he'd never work again." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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2/4 |
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Aquamarine (2006) |
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"If the target audience deserves a chance to hear the messages Aquamarine wants to share, does it not also deserve a movie that isn't merely a TV show at double the usual length?" | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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3/4 |
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Arctic Tale (2007) |
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"So the film's visual elements suggest a documentary, but it's a carefully fictionalized narrative. Some folks will thus dismiss it as a fabrication, but it still packs a profound emotional wallop." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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2.5/4 |
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The Aristocrats (2005) |
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"What makes the experience enjoyable for those who tough out the vulgarity will be insights into comedy." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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1/4 |
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Around the World in 80 Days (2004) |
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"Days represents everything that over-budgeted Hollywood can possibly get wrong in a period piece." | |
Lawrence Toppman | |
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