|
2/5
|
The Fan
(1981)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Posted Jan 25, 2007
|
|
3/5
|
Three Seasons
(1999)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Posted Jan 25, 2007
|
|
5/5
|
Airplane!
(1980)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Posted Jan 25, 2007
|
|
3/5
|
Innerspace
(1987)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Posted Jan 25, 2007
|
|
3/5
|
She's So Lovely
(1997)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Posted Jan 25, 2007
|
|
2/4
|
Lady in the Water
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Lady in the Water appears to be a creepy fairy tale, but it's really a psychological thriller. Trouble is, the psychology involves the mindset of its writer-director.
Posted Jul 21, 2006
|
|
2/4
|
You, Me and Dupree
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
It simply fades into Wilson's growing résumé of watchable but unremarkable comedies.
Posted Jul 14, 2006
|
|
2.5/4
|
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
At more than two-and-a-half hours, this second installment veers toward overkill
Posted Jul 07, 2006
|
|
3/4
|
The Devil Wears Prada
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Come February, it might be very fashionable to present Streep with another Oscar
Posted Jun 30, 2006
|
|
2.5/4
|
Superman Returns
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
It's a bird. It's a plane. It's a downer.
Posted Jun 28, 2006
|
|
3/4
|
An Inconvenient Truth
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
the documentary is so convincing that it makes opposers of the argument as credible as Holocaust deniers.
Posted Jun 23, 2006
|
|
2/4
|
Nacho Libre
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
What is least appealing about the Hesses is the sense that they are always laughing 'at' rather than 'with' their characters
Posted Jun 16, 2006
|
|
2/4
|
Cars
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Apparently, anthropomorphized machines are a whole lot less fun than anthropomorphized fish, insects, toys or monsters. Remember last year's Robots? Yeah, me neither
Posted Jun 09, 2006
|
|
2.5/4
|
The Break-Up
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
It's at least trying to stay anchored in the real world, where cute couples don't always make up and walk hand-in-hand into the sunset.
Posted Jun 02, 2006
|
|
2.5/4
|
X-Men: The Last Stand
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
The main downfall of X-Men: The Last Stand is also its biggest guilty pleasure: watching just how many mutant baddies they can throw on the screen.
Posted May 26, 2006
|
|
2/4
|
The Da Vinci Code
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Ideas that are genuinely challenging to people's beliefs don't come from sources like Ron Howard. His movie is a professional, workmanlike effort -- a passable potboiler and not much more.
Posted May 19, 2006
|
|
2/4
|
Poseidon
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
It's the cinematic equivalent of a Carnival Cruise
Posted May 12, 2006
|
|
3.5/4
|
Mission: Impossible III
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
The movie is why popcorn was invented.
Posted May 05, 2006
|
|
3.5/4
|
United 93
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
The very act of depicting the events with such detached frankness makes for a far more gripping experience than any cinematic embellishments might provide.
Posted May 01, 2006
|
|
2.5/4
|
American Dreamz
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
The film is tailor-made for the vast audience that can't wait to watch Fox's Idol each week while still intellectually grasping what a glossy hunk of junk it is.
Posted Apr 21, 2006
|
|
3/4
|
Thank You for Smoking
(2005)
|
Jon Niccum
|
a comedy both as dark as a black lung and as illuminating as a stadium full of flicked lighters.
Posted Apr 14, 2006
|
|
3/4
|
Lucky Number Slevin
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
What at first appears to be heading into Quentin Tarantino or Guy Ritchie turf steadily finds its own violent voice
Posted Apr 07, 2006
|
|
1.5/4
|
Basic Instinct 2
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Stone's every line of dialogue, every gesture, every hussy lip smack screams 'I'm too sexy for this movie.' And it's often hilarious.
Posted Mar 31, 2006
|
|
2.5/4
|
V for Vendetta
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
V for Vendetta is a confounding exercise that has no trouble getting people to think, but it's far less successful at getting them to feel.
Posted Mar 17, 2006
|
|
2.5/4
|
The Hills Have Eyes
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
So visceral is the carnage and so believable are the victims' reactions to it that it's impossible not to get caught up in the story.
Posted Mar 10, 2006
|
|
2/4
|
16 Blocks
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
the quieter scenes far outweigh the noisier ones
Posted Mar 03, 2006
|
|
3/4
|
Running Scared
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
For a picture so fetishistically obsessed with death, Running Scared is vibrantly alive.
Posted Feb 24, 2006
|
|
2.5/4
|
Hoodwinked!
(2005)
|
Jon Niccum
|
an irreverent, imaginative and often just plain weird spin on the classic fairy tale
Posted Feb 17, 2006
|
|
2/4
|
Firewall
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
once the fistfights, car chases and stray explosions begin to mount, the movie veers into exponentially dumb overkill.
Posted Feb 10, 2006
|
|
3/4
|
Capote
(2005)
|
Jon Niccum
|
it does a capable job of capturing a time and place, bringing to life several unforgettable personalities and illustrating the moral self-loathing of a writer whose real-life subject must die before he has a decent ending to his book.
Posted Feb 03, 2006
|
|
3/5
|
S.O.B.
(1981)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Posted Jan 20, 2006
|
|
4/5
|
Sleepers
(1996)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Disturbing and powerful
Posted Jan 20, 2006
|
|
5/5
|
The Parallax View
(1974)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Among the top paranoid thrillers of the 1970s
Posted Jan 20, 2006
|
|
2/5
|
Backdraft
(1991)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Posted Jan 20, 2006
|
|
4/5
|
Live and Let Die
(1973)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Posted Jan 20, 2006
|
|
1/5
|
Hard Target
(1993)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Hysterically inept attempt at action filmmaking
Posted Jan 20, 2006
|
|
3/5
|
Death Race 2000
(1975)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Posted Jan 20, 2006
|
|
3/5
|
Benny & Joon
(1993)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Posted Jan 20, 2006
|
|
3/5
|
Eating Raoul
(1982)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Posted Jan 20, 2006
|
|
2.5/4
|
End of the Spear
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
This generally engrossing Christian parable is the type of film that conservatives will overpraise and liberals will overcriticize.
Posted Jan 20, 2006
|
|
2.5/4
|
Last Holiday
(2006)
|
Jon Niccum
|
somehow the conviction that Queen Latifah brings to the project makes some of the film's dopier choices easier to forgive.
Posted Jan 13, 2006
|
|
2/4
|
Brokeback Mountain
(2005)
|
Jon Niccum
|
a monotonous and often inadvertently campy romance that rivals The Hours as the most overrated movie of the decade
Posted Jan 06, 2006
|
|
4/5
|
Brother's Keeper
(1992)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Posted Dec 27, 2005
|
|
1/5
|
In Love and War
(1996)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Boring and artificial
Posted Dec 27, 2005
|
|
2.5/4
|
The Producers
(2005)
|
Jon Niccum
|
The 'zany' performances are like a well-oiled machine, and, consequently, much of the movie comes across as mechanical.
Posted Dec 27, 2005
|
|
3/4
|
Good Night, and Good Luck.
(2005)
|
Jon Niccum
|
When Murrow cautions viewers they should 'not be driven by fear into an age of unreason,' the film seems more culturally relevant than anything playing at the multiplex.
Posted Dec 23, 2005
|
|
1/5
|
The Doors
(1991)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Tedious and self-important
Posted Dec 14, 2005
|
|
4/5
|
Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures
(2001)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Posted Dec 14, 2005
|
|
3/5
|
Tightrope
(1984)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Posted Dec 14, 2005
|
|
3/5
|
James and the Giant Peach
(1996)
|
Jon Niccum
|
Posted Dec 14, 2005
|
>
