|
100%
|
One Foot in Heaven (1941)
|
"It's worth watching for March's performance -- although we don't get to hear him preach enough -- and for his take-down of a wealthy family determined to run his church for him."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
57%
|
Nevada Smith (1966)
|
"Not a worthless film, although it's impossible to take seriously."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
90%
|
Bridesmaids (2011)
|
"I laughed almost without pause; at several points I made horselike snorting sounds that hurt the insides of my nose."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
94%
|
The Dark Knight (2008)
|
"Visceral and terrifying."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
23%
|
Angels Crest (2011)
|
"A high-school production of a second-rate Greek tragedian. "
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
85%
|
Contagion (2011)
|
"A supercharged cross between an episode of CSI and a World Health Organization infographic."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
——
|
Last Pullman Car (1998)
|
"One of Chicago documentary group Kartemquin Films's many incisive documentaries about social injustice."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
45%
|
The Perfect Host (2011)
|
"It's a film, not a play, and it doesn't work."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
93%
|
Midnight in Paris (2011)
|
"Watchable, and on a certain level, it's quite enjoyable."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
75%
|
Stake Land (2011)
|
"May be the best blunt-force-trauma, tear-your-throat-out vicious vampire film since Near Dark."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
96%
|
13 Assassins (2011)
|
"Miike's sadistic fetishization of violence and suffering is nowhere in evidence."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
83%
|
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
|
"If the best thing about a spy movie is the wallpaper, perhaps you've miscalculated."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
76%
|
The Debt (2011)
|
"Wants to ask deep philosophical questions [but] the protracted ending prevents any of these philosophical darts from sticking. "
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
91%
|
Point Blank (2011)
|
"Action cinema distilled."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
52%
|
Four Brothers (2005)
|
"Feels like a nervous student's heavily footnoted thesis film."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
83%
|
Warrior (2011)
|
"Suddenly Thunderdome doesn't seem like such a pipe dream anymore."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
——
|
She Demons (1958)
|
"Seems to have been created by choosing randomly from a selection of 13-year-old boys' 'these are a few of my favorite things' lists."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
——
|
Tomorrow Is Another Day (1951)
|
"Not a film noir, but you should still invest your time in locating and viewing it."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
89%
|
Maniac (Sex Maniac) (1934)
|
"A truly wretched film that I enjoyed, partly because of and partly in spite of its excessive excrescence."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
——
|
Along the Great Divide (1951)
|
"Flawed by structural problems in the script but buoyed by its A-list leading cast"
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
——
|
Dance, Fools, Dance (1931)
|
"A wonderful little film on its own, but it's also a handy little primer of early-1930s genre conventions."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
——
|
Tugboat Annie (1933)
|
"An enjoyable diversion that provides Dressler with ample opportunities to flex her acting chops."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
——
|
The Phantom Planet (1961)
|
"It's actually quite compelling."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
100%
|
The Lost Patrol (1934)
|
"A mostly successful experiment in minimalism that allows Ford to work with his traditional themes."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
——
|
Sensuela (1973)
|
"So low-budget that it appears Brechtian, so confoundingly bad that it borders on brilliant, and so 1970s softcore that it might just be feminist."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
——
|
Do It Again ()
|
"A fanboy's love letter to his favorite band, a desperate and admittedly somewhat selfish wish that they get back together and bring back some of the magic he remembers as a lifelong fan. "
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
——
|
Daresalam (2005)
|
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
90%
|
The Fighter (2010)
|
"Chopin playing Chopsticks."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
96%
|
True Grit (2010)
|
"Watching them snipe at each other was one of the undeniable pleasures of the 2010 movie season. "
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
82%
|
Night Catches Us (2010)
|
"Attempts to pry the lid off a painful chapter of American history that textbook writers and elected officials would rather erase or whitewash."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
63%
|
Exam (2010)
|
"Low-budget but handsomely mounted cross between Cube and 12 Angry Men, with some script input by mystery writer Agatha Christie and literary critic Terry Eagleton."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
90%
|
Red Riding: 1980 (2010)
|
"A huge step up from the unfollowable plot and unfathomable evil of Red Riding: 1974."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
41%
|
Death at a Funeral (2010)
|
"It's almost a checklist of things I don't like, but it won me over in its opening minutes and never let go. "
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
12%
|
Jonah Hex (2010)
|
"When it works, which it does quite often, it's one of the better comic book adaptations of recent years."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
98%
|
Marwencol (2010)
|
"A painfully intimate, mysterious, joyous film."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
88%
|
White Material (2010)
|
"Possesses a defiant, exhilarating life, a testament to its peerless crafts(wo)manship and its uniqueness."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
68%
|
Conviction (2010)
|
"I charge director Tony Goldwyn and screenwriter Pamela Gray with ineffective assistance of counsel."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
86%
|
Unstoppable (2010)
|
"The most fun I've had at the movies all year."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
66%
|
The American (2010)
|
"There's a lot to value, even if it drinks a little too deeply from the well of stock Euro-assassin-movie characters and situations."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
87%
|
Black Swan (2010)
|
"Shackled by sports-movie clichés, a reductive view of how creativity works, and, most importantly, Natalie Portman's limitations as an actress."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
58%
|
It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010)
|
"Has a genuine understanding of the protagonist, but ends up betraying him. "
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
72%
|
Monsters (2010)
|
"A somewhat confused spawn of Cloverfield and District 9, with less of an effects budget and less of a coherent self-concept than either of its parents."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
79%
|
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 (2010)
|
"Has too many plot threads to follow in its willy-nilly efforts to set the stage for the real ending. "
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
89%
|
Let Me In (2010)
|
"Not as good as the original but able to stand on its own feet."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
86%
|
Death Line (Raw Meat) (1972)
|
"The first (or only?) ethnographic urban legend horror film."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
81%
|
Catfish (2010)
|
"What a gem!"
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
90%
|
Wanda (1971)
|
"A sometimes incoherent primal scream, directed not at any particular target but at the state of the American dream in the late 1960s, especially as it applied to women."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
92%
|
Vincere (2010)
|
"A series of striking images that serve little purpose except to look striking."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
47%
|
Hereafter (2010)
|
"A few great performances buoy the proceedings, but the laziness of Morgan's script and the overall lack of focus or momentum combine to sink it."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
|
——
|
The Big Tits Dragon (Kyonyû doragon: Onsen zonbi vs sutorippâ 5) (2010)
|
"This film, called Big Tits Zombie and featuring both big tits and zombies, is unforgivably boring."
|
Michael W. Phillips, Jr.
|
73%
21%
63%
85%
46%
40%
