|
——
|
Joseph - King of Dreams (2000)
|
"Once one stops making unfair comparisons to a theatrical film made on a much bigger budget, Joseph: King of Dreams is worthwhile on its own more modest terms."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
53%
|
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
|
"By the time that you read this short essay of ours / The Grinch will have made ten squintillion more dollars!"
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
77%
|
Gladiator (2000)
|
"All the pieces are in place, but somehow they just don’t come together."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
70%
|
Frequency (2000)
|
"Touches upon the profound human longing to escape the constraints of time, to see the wrongs and mistakes of the past somehow set right, redeemed."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
25%
|
The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000)
|
"What’s with the film’s odd preoccupation with such adult themes as class, money, and sex?"
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
53%
|
The Family Man (2000)
|
"If it were only predictable, syrupy, and overlong, The Family Man might still be worth watching for the appealing performances from Leoni and Cage."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
84%
|
Erin Brockovich (2000)
|
"Erin is far and away her own worst enemy — and a good thing too, because she needed at least one."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
96%
|
The Dish (2001)
|
"In 1969, when the world watched as man went the moon, America needed help from Australia to see it. Today, the Aussies are coming to our aid again."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
97%
|
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2001)
|
"A firebrand of a movie, bold, dramatic, and haunting."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
96%
|
Chicken Run (2000)
|
"May not maintain quite the same frantic level of invention as the Wallace and Gromit shorts, but it has more heart."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
45%
|
The Cell (2000)
|
"Gives imaginative and visual shape to as it were the very soul of misogynism, perversion, depravity, sadism, and the supreme nihilism and egotism of the damned."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
90%
|
Cast Away (2000)
|
"Chuck has flashes of ingenuity that filled me with the thrill of discovery and invention, and stretches of failure that I felt just as acutely."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
95%
|
Best in Show (2000)
|
"What a pity that with such funny material, Guest and company found it necessary to rely so heavily on sex as a supplementary source of comedy."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
2%
|
Battlefield Earth (2000)
|
"No, it doesn’t rise to the appalling heights of awfulness of such legendary mega-bombs as Ishtar or Burn Hollywood Burn. It hasn’t the wit."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
95%
|
The Straight Story (1999)
|
"Lynch has no intention of trying to “explain” what makes Alvin tick or of understanding him in any reductionistic way; of reducing a man to a motivation."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
56%
|
Mumford (1999)
|
"A film without conviction, about a town full of people with problems without depth, aided by a guru without soul."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
80%
|
The Green Mile (1999)
|
"Those whose lives Coffey touches may find relief from physical ailments, but they seem no freer, more hopeful, or nobler for the experience."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
89%
|
Galaxy Quest (1999)
|
"Meet the Thermians: the biggest science-fiction nerds of all time."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
67%
|
The End of the Affair (1999)
|
"Can anyone fail to recognize this as a fundamental betrayal of the author’s creative vision?"
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
67%
|
Dogma (1999)
|
"Smith isn’t content merely to promote his own generic “faith”; he has to tell us, again and again, what’s wrong with orthodox Catholic belief."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
93%
|
Being John Malkovich (1999)
|
"Gender and relationships shift and merge and re-form like blobs of goo in a lava lamp… a profoundly anti-human fantasy."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
61%
|
Rush Hour (1998)
|
"Eventually, of course, Lee and Carter must learn to work together, respecting one other’s methods and abilities, blah blah blah."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
79%
|
The Prince of Egypt (1998)
|
"A genuinely great work of art that is also an inspiring and theologically significant narrative."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
86%
|
Pleasantville (1998)
|
"For a movie that makes such a big deal about color, Pleasantville is awfully black and white."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
61%
|
Babe: Pig in the City (1998)
|
"Would anyone go for a sequel to The Wizard of Oz that catapulted Dorothy and Toto into the world of Once Were Warriors or Escape From New York?"
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
39%
|
Armageddon (1998)
|
"Yes, in this film the honors-science students are obliged to sit back and watch as the shop class saves the world."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
98%
|
Babe (1995)
|
"Unlike subsequent talking-animal pictures, Babe is a movie in which the human leads matter as much as the animals, or more so."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
76%
|
The Ref (1994)
|
"The Ref has a soft heart of domesticity underneath its superficially heartless humor."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
90%
|
Iron Monkey (2001)
|
"The joy of watching this kind of stuff lies in the choreographical invention and creativity [and] the speed and dexterity of the combatants."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
96%
|
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
|
"Despite the macabre humor, there’s something touchingly innocent about Halloweentown."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
95%
|
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
|
"Lecter fascinates us because he embodies qualities that we associate with civilized, reasonable existence, yet he is murderously sociopathic."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
75%
|
Romero (1989)
|
"Where Romero excels as a film is in its depiction of its subject’s gradual transformation."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
94%
|
Die Hard (1988)
|
"For an evening of edge-of-your-seat entertainment, you’d be hard pressed to do much better."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
83%
|
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
|
"Cross a certain line, and message overwhelms medium, substance overwhelms style, what you have to say drowns out how you might be saying it."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
95%
|
Babettes Gæstebud (Babette's Feast) (1987)
|
"A quiet celebration of the divine grace that meets us at every turn, and even redeems our ways not taken, our sacrifices and losses."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
98%
|
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
|
"Like Peter Pan, who also took children flying until it was time for them to grow up, E.T. represents the wonder of childhood, of a time that we must all leave behind."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
76%
|
Silverado (1985)
|
"By the time the credits roll, we’ve had a whirlwind tour of virtually everything you can do in a Western."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
75%
|
Becket (1964)
|
"Peter O'Toole roars magnificently both in laughter and in rage; his Henry sees the world in two great categories: (a) things he wants, and (b) obstacles to getting them."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
100%
|
Lilies of the Field (1963)
|
"Despite the divergence in faith and culture, a tolerant ecumenical respect characterizes the relationship between Smith and the sisters."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
——
|
Father Brown (The Detective) (1954)
|
"What's become here of Fr. Brown's self-effacing humanism?"
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
100%
|
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
|
"People who say they don’t like musicals should watch Singin’ in the Rain, and find out how sweet eating one’s words can be."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
——
|
Come to the Stable (1949)
|
"Sweet, pious entertainment of a sort that “they don't make like that anymore.”"
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
——
|
Monsieur Vincent (1947)
|
"Maurice Cloche's beautifully crafted, award-winning biopic of St. Vincent de Paul celebrates the saint's single-minded devotion to the poor."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
96%
|
Fantasia (1940)
|
"A joyous experiment in pure animation, an ambitious work of imaginative power, a showcase of cutting-edge technique, and a celebration of great music."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
99%
|
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
|
"Ranks among our earliest and most defining experiences of wonder and of fear, of fairy-tale joys and terrors, of the lure of the exotic and the comfort of home."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
100%
|
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
|
"Rocky Sullivan is riveting. His movements are quick and vital, his speech like machine-gun fire, his demeanor sharp and confident. He is all attitude and style."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
100%
|
Modern Times (1936)
|
"A worthy last hurrah for an immortal character, for a great body of work, and for a whole era of cinema."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
88%
|
American Beauty (1999)
|
"There is beauty to which this movie is stone cold blind: beauty it tramples on as ignorantly as Buddy Kane or Col. Fitts."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
93%
|
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
|
"The remaining battle scenes are riveting, and in war as nowhere else difficult choices can have shattering consequences."
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
|
67%
|
Gulliver's Travels (1939)
|
|
Steven D. Greydanus
|
73%
21%
63%
85%
46%
40%
