|
66%
|
Black Snake Moan (2007)
|
"The atmosphere is impeccable, Brewer provides enough back story for us to understand the two main characters, and the acting is fine."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
90%
|
Zodiac (2007)
|
"[Zodiac packs] a quarter-century of scrupulously observed detail into its length without repeating itself or wearing out its welcome."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
70%
|
Amazing Grace (2007)
|
"The movie is the usual kind of film biography of a respected figure from the distant past -- honorable, oversimplified, handsome."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
57%
|
The Astronaut Farmer (2006)
|
"The film follows a Hollywood marketing plan more than any personal vision and couches ideas in timeworn platitudes. It's illogical and emotionally unsatisfying."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
8%
|
The Number 23 (2007)
|
"You may have only 23 seconds to check out this review, so I'll sum things up quickly: This is another clever concept that sustains itself for about half a movie, then falls apart embarrassingly."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
19%
|
Factory Girl (2007)
|
"Miller does good work when the script gives her anything to work with."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
84%
|
Breach (2007)
|
"This unconventional thriller tells us up front who the bad guy is and what happened to him in 2001. Then we puzzle out bits of his personality while watching Eric O'Neill, the agent assigned to catch him, go through a crisis of conscience."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
63%
|
Music and Lyrics (2007)
|
"Not all movies are filet mignon, but not all moviegoers want steak. There's a vast market for simple, juicy burgers."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
85%
|
Sweet Land (2006)
|
"The low budget hasn't prevented the filmmakers from taking care with details. The film's almost palpable: You feel the coldness of the blue, forbidding sky and smell the bristling dustiness of the harvest-ready wheat."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
19%
|
The Last Sin Eater (2007)
|
"Folks wanting to hear the usual New Testament message will be pleased; others may feel that the tension dissolves in homilies and wish the main character weren't led around by a blonde-haired little angel in a white dress."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
15%
|
Hannibal Rising (2007)
|
"Errors in logic will delight the attentive."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
5%
|
Because I Said So (2007)
|
"Lehmann must've hoped Keaton's appealing daffiness would offset the character's repulsive behavior, but it doesn't."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
29%
|
Smokin' Aces (2007)
|
"Smokin' Aces is a roller-coaster ride that goes on far too long, ends with a colossal crash, then follows that wreck with a lecture explaining the physics of the machinery."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
91%
|
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
|
"Letters covers less emotional ground than its predecessor, because Eastwood and first-time writer Iris Yamashita (who shares a story credit with Paul Haggis) allow Japanese soldiers only three modes of behavior."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
96%
|
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
|
"Mexican writer-director Guillermo del Toro couches his allegory about fascism in a tale as cruelly fascinating as any from the Brothers Grimm."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
66%
|
Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)
|
"Nuance doesn't matter to [Zhang], and his closeups encourage the nostril-flaring and eye-rolling of a silly soap opera."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
87%
|
Notes on a Scandal (2006)
|
"That the film makes such impact is due to partly to the men in the supporting roles but mostly to Dench and Blanchett. They've made 30 films and TV shows between them in the last five years, but they're still capable of finding reactions we haven't seen."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
74%
|
The Painted Veil (2006)
|
"Veil blends politics and romance only a bit less clumsily than The White Countess, another movie about pre-war China that came to grief."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
92%
|
Volver (2006)
|
"Almodovar finds unusual camera angles to break up the straightforward storytelling. But for the first time I recall, not a single male character is crucial to his story, and no actor has a leading role. You won't miss them."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
54%
|
Alpha Dog (2007)
|
"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
|
|
80%
|
Little Children (2006)
|
"[Little Children] benefits from mostly good acting but is not recommendable on any other level."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
58%
|
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)
|
"Most horror movies try to show us the man inside the monster. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer shows us a man who is all monster, whose colossal amorality makes him a potential Messiah or menace to humanity."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
5%
|
THR3E (2007)
|
"It has a triple-twist ending, highly appropriate for a picture whose plot depends on permutations of the number three, and I'll bet at least two of those surprise you."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
93%
|
Children of Men (2006)
|
"It's as if Cuaron sees a future so hellish that all of us retreat into our self-absorbed worlds, leaving society at large to go hang itself. That's a nightmarish vision indeed."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
69%
|
Freedom Writers (2007)
|
"The students are uniformly affecting: R&B singer Mario, Jason Finn and April Hernandez stand out as teens about to fall permanently into thug life."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
78%
|
Dreamgirls (2006)
|
"...The film soars in the right places, especially when powerful newcomer Jennifer Hudson sings, and the charismatic supporting cast keeps it chugging forward."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
65%
|
The History Boys (2006)
|
"Lust, love, death and homosexuality (an inevitable topic in British school pictures) each hold the verbal field awhile, but most of the discussion centers around the nature and value of learning."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
44%
|
Night at the Museum (2006)
|
"The museum's design is wonderfully realistic, which makes the adequate effects and shabby cinematography disappointing."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
49%
|
We Are Marshall (2006)
|
"This sense of triumph, more palpable because it's true, should touch even the crustiest of cynics."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
54%
|
The Good Shepherd (2006)
|
"It turtles forward for 160 minutes with unrelenting, humorless solemnity, as if everyone involved were unaware that it has arrived three decades too late to matter."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
76%
|
Rocky Balboa (2006)
|
"Stallone doesn't pander to audiences with unearned sentiment. He believes in his story, in the inspirational element that has sent thousands of folks running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art over 30 years."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
78%
|
Charlotte's Web (2006)
|
"Director Gary Winick and writers Susannah Grant and Karey Kirkpatrick preserve White's lovely observations, often using his language."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
16%
|
Eragon (2006)
|
"This knockoff simply follows its peril-rescue-triumph pattern to the inconclusive end and comes to a galumphing stop by hinting at two more sequels."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
66%
|
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
|
"The most touching drama of this not-very-touching holiday movie season."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
65%
|
Apocalypto (2006)
|
"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
|
|
62%
|
Blood Diamond (2006)
|
"There's an extraordinary subplot in Blood Diamond, sandwiched between a main story meant to arouse outrage and a Hollywood-clumsy finale meant to provoke a standing ovation."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
88%
|
Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing (2006)
|
"The film is about the way hazards force artists to rethink careers and, in some cases, do better work."
|
|
|
51%
|
For Your Consideration (2006)
|
"Everyone's entitled to a slump, and this is only the first blah film in five for Guest (if we count This is Spinal Tap, which he stars in and wrote with McKean, Shearer and Rob Reiner)."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
54%
|
Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny (2006)
|
"It might be too easy, based on all the bong jokes, to suggest the writers couldn't distinguish between 'funny' and 'lame' because they were high. But I'll suggest that, anyway."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
51%
|
The Fountain (2006)
|
"For the first time, I felt Aronofsky's reach for cosmic concepts exceeded his grasp."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
55%
|
Déjà Vu (2006)
|
"Give Deja Vu enormous credit for solving the main problem that has afflicted time-travel movies for decades; the most recent entry in the rewriting-reality genre is tense, well-acted and smart."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
95%
|
Casino Royale (2006)
|
"Craig's detractors, who've complained since the blond actor was cast last year, will have to give up the cry: On first acquaintance, he seems like the best all-around Bond since Sean Connery."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
75%
|
Happy Feet (2006)
|
"An animated film that challenges preconceptions about the genre and foregoes the usual romance/adventure structure."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
48%
|
Harsh Times (2006)
|
"[The film is] two full hours in which literally every scene but the intriguing opening (Iraq War combat shot through a rifle scope) and the bloody, emotionless finale is both dull and disposable."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
25%
|
A Good Year (2006)
|
"Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe attempt light romantic comedy in A Good Year, and the results are as grindingly discordant as a punk band writing a suite of waltzes."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
69%
|
Babel (2006)
|
"At its best, Babel expresses the emotions that link of all of us, even if we have no way to share them. I just wish it did a better job of communicating them."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
72%
|
Flushed Away (2006)
|
"...Brilliantly designed, frantically paced, sadly soulless and immediately forgettable."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
91%
|
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
|
"If you've ever wanted to see a film where 'naked fight coordinator' was one of the credits -- you'll probably find Borat a masterpiece."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
75%
|
Catch a Fire (2006)
|
"[Director Phillip] Noyce and [writer Shawn] Slovo remind us that, if you treat everyone in a culture as a terrorist, you're certain to catch some who really are - but you're also liable to make terrorists of those who never would have been."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
|
73%
|
Flags of Our Fathers (2006)
|
"Flags of Our Fathers honors the men of the so-called Greatest Generation while reminding us that mythology always involves a lie or two."
|
Lawrence Toppman
|
74%
78%
61%
52%
26%
4%
