|
——
|
Bad Ass (2012)
|
"It's the casual tone that makes all the difference, but it can't quite carry the movie."
|
Michelle Orange
|
|
38%
|
Lockout (Unrated) (2012)
|
"Lockout is derivative and ridiculous and a good time, provided you can turn off higher brain functions along with any other part of you that might want to lodge a complaint about liberal borrowing from better movies."
|
Alison Willmore
|
|
38%
|
Oscar and the Lady in Pink ()
|
|
Michelle Orange
|
|
51%
|
The Three Stooges (2012)
|
"The Three Stooges is not particularly great, though it is possibly brilliant, a picture that goes beyond homage to become its own rambunctious invention - it's one big eye-poke, with footnotes."
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
84%
|
Post Mortem (2012)
|
"Post Mortem starts out at a crawl, but it gathers emotional momentum as it pushes forward."
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
44%
|
American Reunion (2012)
|
"The picture is devilishly entertaining, not least because it's laced with just the sort of dumb raunchy jokes you hate yourself for laughing at."
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
83%
|
Comic-Con: Episode IV - A Fan's Hope (2012)
|
"Comic-Con Episode IV is a valentine to an event and a group of people so in ascension they don't really need it, but it's still a pleasant thing to watch."
|
Alison Willmore
|
|
9%
|
ATM (2012)
|
"Even by the most lenient of genre standards, the behavior of the characters in David Brooks's ATM is ludicrous enough to make anyone grind his or her teeth in frustration."
|
Alison Willmore
|
|
70%
|
The Hunter (2012)
|
"Scene by scene The Hunter, adapted from a novel by Julia Leigh, holds your attention like a pair of big, inquisitive eyes, or perhaps the point-blank scope of an automatic rifle."
|
Michelle Orange
|
|
75%
|
Damsels in Distress (2012)
|
"The thing has the feel of a vanity project, lacking urgency - like the work of a gentleman filmmaker who doesn't have to work."
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
54%
|
Bully (2001)
|
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
50%
|
Mirror Mirror (2012)
|
"There's plenty of spectacle in movies these days; it's delight that's in short supply, and Tarsem Singh's Mirror Mirror offers plenty of it, shimmering like a school of minnows in a reflective pond."
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
26%
|
Wrath of the Titans (2012)
|
"Greek mythology feels particularly ill-used as a framework for narrative standards this low."
|
Michelle Orange
|
|
82%
|
Goon (2012)
|
"Goon is crude, violent and deeply enjoyable."
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
93%
|
Turn Me On, Dammit! (2012)
|
"The film, which director Jannicke Systad Jacobsen adapted from a novel by Olaug Nilssen, allows Alma's journey to be funny, embarrassing and poignant without ever seeming leering or exploitative."
|
Alison Willmore
|
|
87%
|
Bully (2012)
|
"Bully is effective as a document of the suffering that too many kids suffer at the hands of their cruel and sometimes possibly even psychopathic peers, particularly in parts of the country where the idea of "normal" is pretty narrow."
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
32%
|
Intruders (2012)
|
"A movie about childhood nightmares that plays too much like an actual, incoherent nightmare to make a good movie, Intruders is a psychodrama divided against itself."
|
Michelle Orange
|
|
48%
|
4:44 Last Day on Earth (2012)
|
"Watching the excessively craggy Dafoe and the excessively nubile Leigh roll around on their pre-Apocalyptic mattress was certainly good for a giggle."
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
79%
|
The Deep Blue Sea (2012)
|
"Rachel Weisz, as a woman who risks everything for the love of the wrong man, carries the mood and subtext of the material safely tucked in her dressing-gown pocket -- she's vulnerable and self-motivated in all the right measures."
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
84%
|
The Raid: Redemption (2012)
|
"This is a film that serves as a reminder of just how wonderfully cinematic violence can be."
|
Alison Willmore
|
|
44%
|
Brake (2012)
|
"If we're never drawn in far enough to wonder what we might do in a Plexiglass box at the end of the world, Dorff can sell stock action-hero lines with enough moody grit to hold our attention."
|
Michelle Orange
|
|
85%
|
The Hunger Games (2012)
|
"This is a movie about an independent-minded girl who just isn't sure she can trust a boy, as true to the spirit of the Shirelles as it is to Greek myth."
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
78%
|
Jeff Who Lives at Home (2012)
|
"At what point do we stop applauding the Duplass brothers for their gumption and stick-to-itiveness and admit that, maybe, their storytelling just isn't so hot?"
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
44%
|
Casa de mi padre (2012)
|
"For a movie with a comedic premise this simple - essentially: can you believe we made a movie with a premise this simple? - Casa de Mi Padre can feel pretty exhausting."
|
Michelle Orange
|
|
57%
|
Detachment (2012)
|
"Detachment is overwhelming and didactic, intolerably so in some moments..."
|
Alison Willmore
|
|
25%
|
Seeking Justice (2012)
|
"Goes from adequate to ludicrous but is only ever compelling enough to serve as audiovisual wallpaper while you're focused on something else."
|
Alison Willmore
|
|
85%
|
21 Jump Street (2012)
|
"Together Hill and Tatum are so much fun to watch that it's disappointing when the story around them becomes overly cluttered and convoluted."
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
92%
|
The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
|
"Whedon and Goddard aren't just having a fun little go at tired horror movie conventions -- they're trying to nuke the entire genre."
|
Jen Yamato
|
|
0%
|
A Thousand Words (2012)
|
"Remember Eddie Murphy? He used to be hilarious."
|
Alison Willmore
|
|
67%
|
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2012)
|
"When the recessive style works with the characters and the kooky international-incident story, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen has an absorbing, old-fashioned sweetness."
|
Michelle Orange
|
|
51%
|
John Carter (2012)
|
"John Carter is so eager to please that, despite its overblown execution, it still manages to feel intimate and fun."
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
41%
|
Silent House (2012)
|
"This is good-for-you, arthouse-style horror. Which doesn't mean it's necessarily any good."
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
99%
|
Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2012)
|
"At its simplest level, Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a portrait of a master. In its deeper layers, it explores what drives us to make things: Beautiful, jewel-like things, or things that delight our palate - or, in this case, both."
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
90%
|
Footnote (2012)
|
"Cedar approaches his subject with so much wit and verve that he almost - almost - makes you forget you're watching a movie about a very small, cloistered subset of academic obsessives whose life's work is about as visually undynamic as you can imagine."
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
67%
|
Friends With Kids (2012)
|
"It's polished to the point of shallow glossiness -- it could benefit from being a little rougher, a little messier."
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
14%
|
Ride the Divide (2010)
|
|
Alison Willmore
|
|
52%
|
The Iron Lady (2012)
|
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
——
|
The Front Line (2007)
|
|
Michelle Orange
|
|
——
|
Hell: The Devil's Domain (2006)
|
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
99%
|
A Separation (2011)
|
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
100%
|
This Is Not a Film (2003)
|
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
82%
|
The Salt of Life (2012)
|
"To my knowledge, the only movie about the love lives of sexagenarians that closes with the Pixies' "Here Comes Your Man.""
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
54%
|
Dr Seuss' The Lorax (2012)
|
"The Lorax is so big, flashy and redundant that it courts precisely the kind of blind consumerism it's supposed to be condemning. It doesn't trust kids to sit still and pay attention for even a minute."
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
27%
|
Project X (2012)
|
"A party disaster movie targeted at kids who find the Hangover franchise too sophisticated."
|
Michelle Orange
|
|
86%
|
The Snowtown Murders (2012)
|
"The Snowtown Murders builds into a multipronged horror effort in which the torture and murder on-screen are matched by the psychologically convincing disintegration of a previously sympathetic protagonist."
|
Alison Willmore
|
|
53%
|
Being Flynn (2012)
|
"There's no doubt that Being Flynn is an attempt at something painful and genuine - the movie itself yearns to make a connection, even if it can't quite locate the most effective channels."
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
37%
|
Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie (2012)
|
"The picture is tonally and stylistically consistent with what they've done for TV, but those episodes run 11 minutes."
|
Alison Willmore
|
|
——
|
Gardener of Eden (2007)
|
|
Michelle Orange
|
|
99%
|
This Is Not a Film (2012)
|
"This Is Not a Film is so technically modest that it almost isn't a film. Yet in its simplicity it's as direct as a laser beam..."
|
Stephanie Zacharek
|
|
32%
|
Tyler Perry's Good Deeds (2012)
|
"[Tyler Perry's Wesley] is Prince Charming for a prospective audience of women who are less enchanted by rippling abs than by kindness and responsibility."
|
Alison Willmore
|
78%
43%
100%
85%
45%
40%
