|
87%
|
28 Days Later (2003)
|
"Later does a lot of things right, which makes its third-act missteps even more frustrating."
|
Nathan Rabin
|
|
91%
|
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
|
"Mixing horror and humor is no mean feat, but Shaun Of The Dead tightens throats in fear without making the laughs stick there in the process."
|
Keith Phipps
|
|
98%
|
Eyes Without a Face (1962)
|
"A lyrical monster movie with visceral thrills and moments of unforgettable visual poetry."
|
Scott Tobias
|
|
8%
|
Runner Runner (2013)
|
"Runner Runner is a run-of-the-mill rise-and-fall story, treating its hero to fabulous, exotic luxury before tugging the rug out from under him."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
74%
|
Concussion (2013)
|
"The viewer is presented with a series of caustic, vignette-like scenes which tease bigger themes but end before they can tackle them ..."
|
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
|
|
80%
|
The Summit (2013)
|
"Director Nick Ryan dramatizes this horrific tale through a variety of hindsight interviews from survivors and the dead's loved ones, footage shot by the climbers during their mission, and staged recreations ..."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
80%
|
I Used To Be Darker (2013)
|
"Drenched in the evening glow of its urban and suburban backdrops, Darker comes alive in the dark, when its characters are drowning their sorrows in song, the sauce, or conversation."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
68%
|
Bad Milo! (2013)
|
"Like a lot of intentionally shoddy or derivative movies, Bad Milo! can't overcome what it's trying to be."
|
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
|
|
50%
|
All Is Bright (2013)
|
"Giamatti merely offers another variation on the irascible persona he's been cultivating since Sideways, while Rudd is ultimately defeated by his character's shapelessness."
|
Mike D'Angelo
|
|
84%
|
A Touch of Sin (2013)
|
"The movie builds repeatedly to crescendo, pushing some desperate individual to the brink and then watching as he or she explodes into violence."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
8%
|
Argento's Dracula 3D (2013)
|
"Argento strands his actors in a variety of crummy master shots and close-ups that accentuate their every exaggerated gesture and line-reading."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
53%
|
A.C.O.D. (2013)
|
"It's too broad to qualify as incisive, too mild to rise above the level of amusing."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
46%
|
Parkland (2013)
|
"As vicarious, you-are-there re-creations of historical events go, it's creditably workmanlike; whether that's the best use of the dream factory is another matter."
|
Mike D'Angelo
|
|
98%
|
Gravity (2013)
|
"If nothing else, Gravity makes the case for throwing immense resources at true visionaries; the blockbuster craftsman as adventurer, Cuarón expertly blends the epic with the intimate."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
98%
|
Evil Dead 2 (1987)
|
"Evil Dead 2's rampant inventiveness and manic energy have ensured that it will endure as a cult classic."
|
Joshua Klein
|
|
17%
|
The Secret Lives Of Dorks (2013)
|
"Replete with deadly fart jokes, projectile-vomit jokes, accidental-boob-grab jokes, and various other sources of alleged humor that real-life outcasts wouldn't voluntarily go anywhere near."
|
Mike D'Angelo
|
|
63%
|
The Network (2013)
|
"An uncritical, drama-free documentary that comes uncomfortably close to resembling a business-magazine puff piece."
|
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
|
|
100%
|
On The Job (2013)
|
"The film manages to create some moments of genuine nervous tension, but is undercut by its split storytelling."
|
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
|
|
94%
|
Muscle Shoals (2013)
|
"Although the intriguingly named first-time director Greg "Freddy" Camalier makes the twice-told tales of the film's second hour watchable, they end up paling in comparison to its essayistic first half."
|
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
|
|
85%
|
We Are What We Are (2013)
|
"Plays less like a contemporary horror film than an increasingly gruesome drama, building to a climax-completely original to this version-where the movie's core themes are expressed through grotesque imagery."
|
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
|
|
90%
|
Inequality For All (2013)
|
"As easy as it is to be intellectually seduced by the man's arguments, it's also hard to avoid wishing that his own cult of personality-his jokes and his history-didn't dominate so much of the running time."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
83%
|
Don Jon (2013)
|
"On page and screen, Gordon-Levitt mostly fails to transform his bulky title protagonist into a multi-dimensional figure. He belongs in the final 15 minutes of an SNL episode, not at the center of a full-sized comedy."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
78%
|
Metallica Through the Never (2013)
|
"Through The Never plays like The Black Album of concert films: It's enormous, slick, and occasionally rousing, but largely fails to capture the sheer intensity of Metallica's superior '80s work."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
16%
|
Baggage Claim (2013)
|
"Patton, who excels at projecting confidence and cool, can't seem to get a handle on the movie's insecure heroine, and overcompensates with broadly cartoonish gestures and facial contortions."
|
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
|
|
59%
|
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013)
|
"Like too many sequels, this second helping of Meatballs confuses bigger for better, piling on the action but misplacing much of the original's charm."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
83%
|
Shepard & Dark (2013)
|
"[The] aesthetic structure creates a haunting sense of the simultaneously wonderful and sad feelings both men have about lives and loves now gone, never to be recaptured."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
——
|
The Hollow Crown: Richard II ()
|
"This is a definitive visual portrait of Richard II, the single best widely available instance of a severely underrated history play with dramatic thematic ramifications for English identity."
|
Kevin McFarland
|
|
67%
|
Haute Cuisine (2013)
|
"Narrowness of focus keeps the movie from becoming bloated with self-importance, but it also leaves it feeling a little inconsequential-more of a pleasing snack than a satisfying meal."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
5%
|
Battle of the Year (2013)
|
"Destined to please only bad movie buffs desperate for a fix of awful dialogue, blatant product placement, and clunky exposition."
|
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
|
|
60%
|
Ip Man: The Final Fight (2013)
|
"The Final Fight plays out like a collection of greatest-hits vignettes barely connected to one another."
|
Nick Schager
|
|
89%
|
After Tiller (2013)
|
"After Tiller is an hour and a half of folks on their best behavior, presented as a candid portrait."
|
Mike D'Angelo
|
|
51%
|
A Single Shot (2013)
|
"It's largely just an opportunity for the actors to try on Ozark-y mannerisms, swig moonshine, and hock loogies. And like most exercises in authenticity, it couldn't be more inauthentic if it tried."
|
Scott MacDonald
|
|
71%
|
C.O.G. (2013)
|
"There are some who have complained that C.O.G. ends too abruptly, but it has the bracing, devastating punctuation of a fine short story."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
50%
|
Thanks For Sharing (2013)
|
"Works much better as an act of earnest education than as, well, comedy or drama."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
80%
|
Prisoners (2013)
|
"While the movie is certainly less than the sum of its referents, it nonetheless works as a formally controlled genre piece."
|
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
|
|
67%
|
Newlyweeds (2013)
|
"While the movie's execution never quite makes up for its conception, it does elevate it above, well, just being the sort of movie that would be called Newlyweeds."
|
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
|
|
35%
|
Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)
|
"Characters in Whannell/Wan screenplays speak with the first-draft expository bluntness of a cheap '50s thriller, letting the characters step on some of the best reveals."
|
Jesse Hassenger
|
|
98%
|
Wadjda (2013)
|
"What keeps Wadjda from devolving into a sort of heavy-handed cultural show-and-tell is its title character."
|
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
|
|
88%
|
Life Of Crime ()
|
"A repetitive but sometimes beguiling documentary."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
92%
|
The Selfish Giant ()
|
"That The Selfish Giant feels familiar rather than groundbreaking makes it seem to some degree a step back for its talented director, but she's avoided the sophomore jinx with aplomb."
|
Mike D'Angelo
|
|
44%
|
Blind Detective (Man Tam) ()
|
"After initially being put off, though, I eventually adjusted to the film's antic rhythm, enjoying the two leads' go-for-broke enthusiasm and the convoluted plot's nutty digressions."
|
Mike D'Angelo
|
|
86%
|
Young & Beautiful (Jeune Et Jolie) ()
|
"It's the kind of film that's not afraid to acknowledge that people are fundamentally mysterious, and much of its power comes from the matter-of-fact way that it reconciles various perceptions of Vacth."
|
Mike D'Angelo
|
|
70%
|
Like Father, Like Son (2013)
|
"Like Father, Like Son has the overall depth and tenor of a Lifetime movie."
|
Mike D'Angelo
|
|
62%
|
Les salauds (The Bastards) ()
|
"While Bastards is never less than enthralling while it unravels, its resolution feels shallowly sordid, as if the entire movie was really just a prolonged moralistic scold cleverly disguised as something richer and more mysterious."
|
Mike D'Angelo
|
|
70%
|
Tom à la ferme (Tom at the Farm) ()
|
"Another misfire starring its director, Tom At The Farm is the first real folly from young French-Canadian director Xavier Dolan."
|
A.A. Dowd
|
|
95%
|
Blue Is The Warmest Color (2013)
|
"Blue Is The Warmest Color is familiar in its broad outline but bracingly specific in its minute details, and it traffics in feelings so raw that they're almost painful to observe."
|
Mike D'Angelo
|
|
94%
|
Only Lovers Left Alive ()
|
"What's more, the vampire conceit, while superficially silly, has the salutary effect of throwing human mortality into stark relief, creating a carpe diem sensation without actually...[ END HERE ]..[ END HERE ]saying anything so bana"
|
Mike D'Angelo
|
|
78%
|
Abus de faiblesse (Abuse of Weakness) ()
|
"The movie is interesting to think about as another of the Anatomy Of Hell director's power-struggle portraits, even if its conceit-by design-leaves the question of how the filmmaker allowed a known operator to bilk her out of so much money unresolved. "
|
Ben Kenigsberg
|
|
93%
|
The Double ()
|
"There's not a whole lot to this version of The Double, but its visual comedy and offhand surrealism make it a mild pleasure."
|
Ben Kenigsberg
|
|
89%
|
Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
|
"There's still something undeniably moving about the film's trajectory, which allows McConaughey to blossom into an empathetic figure-one whose homophobia fades as his fighting spirit intensifies-without losing his rapscallion spirit. "
|
A.A. Dowd
|
