instantwatcher.com

Desson Thomson, Washington Post

1. Civic Duty 2007 As thoughtful as it means to be -- its agenda is outlined by on-the-nose dialogue from its characters -- Civic Duty does little to go beyond this premise. full review
2. Flawless 2007 Flawless makes an entertainingly nostalgic journey to old Britain -- that black-and-white world we remember from long-ago Alfred Hitchcock and David Lean movies. full review
3. The Hunting Party 2007 A forgettable contribution to all those movies about tormented, gonzo newsmen, stranded in some hellish outpost (in this case, Bosnia), who drink to drown those terrible memories but are committed to news, news, news. full review
4. Puccini for Beginners 2007 It's no fun to sit through the movie's retread Woody Allenisms, including postmodern repartee among the self-absorbed or giddily neurotic and passing strangers suddenly given to ironic Greek chorus-like commentary. full review
5. The Rape of Europa 2007 Europa starts to lose its tight focus and becomes a cinematic cataloguing of events across seven countries. Given the moral imperative at the heart of the movie, however, perhaps more is more. full review
6. Brooklyn Rules 2006 Against all odds, it remains surprisingly watchable. full review
7. Bug 2006 Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon (who reprises his stage persona) never allow us to categorize the main characters as one-dimensional nut jobs but two emotionally fractured souls who retreat into paranoid delusion. full review
8. Cashback 2006 Cashback springs from that childhood fantasy of being able to stop time and wander freely among the temporarily frozen. If only writer-director Sean Ellis had done more than use the conceit for a functional romance. full review
9. Deep Water 2006 As directed by Louise Osmond and Jerry Rothwell, the movie breezes along at a highly watchable clip, thanks to fluid, affecting intercutting of archival, black-and-white footage and present-day interviews. full review
10. Fay Grim 2006 Fay Grim sorely tests the tenacity of [Hal] Hartley's most zealous fans. full review
11. The Ground Truth 2006 Mostly a string of talking-head interviews, but those talking heads -- more than 16 men and women -- are compelling. full review
12. An Inconvenient Truth 2006 While Gore's onstage presentation tells us nothing new, it has a renewed -- call it recycled -- potency, in light of a growing scientific consensus about changing weather patterns. full review
13. Lady Chatterley 2006 [The director] cannily turns [the characters'] corporeal discoveries into a moral mission, two desperately lonely souls crying for spiritual freedom in a world of moral constriction. full review
14. This Is England 2006 Humane and complex. full review
15. The Treatment 2006 ...our emotional involvement remains superficial, and we never get that sense of uplift that Allen's better romantic city tales have given us. full review
16. World Trade Center 2006 It shortchanges audiences when it comes to dramatic revelations that could have resonated on a deeper level. It telegraphs its emotions loud and clear, but somehow they don't reach us. full review
17. Aeon Flux 2005 Kusama seems to spend most of her energy rendering Theron in perfect poses and lighting schemes. full review
18. Bad News Bears 2005 But you don't watch Bad News Bears for the action out on the diamond. You hang out with that hangdog coach so you can catch every slurry, sour-mouthed retort coming out of his mouth. Now that's color commentary. full review
19. Brick 2005 Even as you struggle to keep up with its speedy chatter and multi-character complexity, Brick is always entertaining. full review
20. Cavite 2005 Its herky-jerky camcorder style, jump-cut editing and sustained takes soon wear out their welcome. full review
21. Elizabethtown 2005 To swallow Elizabethtown without experiencing a sharp tummy cramp of disbelief, you have to accept Orlando Bloom as a tormented soul. full review
22. End of the Spear 2005 Although the film invests time among the tribesmen, it never really explores the idea that one man's missionary work is another's ideological aggression. And the movie is tentative, dramatically speaking. full review
23. Into Great Silence 2005 As we vicariously participate in their daily rituals, we find ourselves at the ground level of spiritual worship. It's hard to recall a similar documentary that brings viewers so palpably close to that sacred experience. full review
24. Neil Young: Heart of Gold 2005 Director Demme is smart and sensitive enough to sit back and listen to the music without attention-getting intrusions. full review
25. Sahara 2005 McConaughey's no Harrison Ford. And no one cracks the whip of originality. full review
26. Serenity 2005 Half a millennium after Neil Armstrong's one small step for mankind and we're back in the saddle again. full review
27. Stoned 2005 A flat riff on Jones's short life. You'll get the highlights but no sense of what made him special -- or what really haunted him. full review
28. Sweet Land 2005 As empty and beautiful as the picturesque Minnesota terrain it's so clearly taken with. full review
29. Swimmers 2005 Practices a writerly movie poetry, which -- at its best -- is delicately elegiac. full review
30. Big Fish 2004 A disappointingly dull thud of a fantasy. full review
31. The Forgotten 2004 Slightly predictable and dumb when all is said and done. full review
32. Hotel Rwanda 2004 [The movie] sweeps over you with blunt, unequivocal conviction. full review
33. Me and You and Everyone We Know 2004 Hums with compassion for its outlandish, lonely but always sweet characters. full review
34. Vera Drake 2004 A carefully calibrated parable that quietly sneaks into your heart and prods it sharply. full review
35. White Chicks 2004 Banshee-howlingly awful. full review
36. 21 Grams 2003 If not for its show-offy back-and- forthing of time, the movie would be a banal, pointlessly depressing exercise. full review
37. Bad Boys II 2003 Just like Bad Boys, only louder, longer and the stars get paid more. full review
38. Daddy Day Care 2003 Easy-on-the -sensibilities family film. full review
39. Darkness Falls 2003 A truly awful and extremely loud scareflick.
40. Gigli 2003 Guys, I'm telling you: Don't go to this movie! It's Chasing Amy with guns! You're walking into a trap!
41. Hollywood Homicide 2003 Hollywood Homicide is about murder, all right: the wholesale slaughter of anything funny, original or even vaguely logical.
42. The Hunted 2003 Has so little going for it, you wonder if you've missed something.
43. In the Cut 2003 More of an intriguing project than a satisfying experience. full review
44. The Missing 2003 In The Missing, Ron Howard somehow makes a great movie and an awful movie, all at the same time.
45. Mona Lisa Smile 2003 Like the turtleneck cashmere sweaters and girdles that tie down these promising women, the movie is trite and trussed.
46. Something's Gotta Give 2003 Meyers's movie is too well done to call it anything but good entertainment.
47. Swimming Pool 2003 A watchable, provocative film.
48. Tears of the Sun 2003 This movie should have been called Crocodile Tears of the Sun.
49. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress 2002 If the movie is straightforward and predictable in its attitude, it also exudes a sort of documentary lyricism. full review
50. Bloody Sunday 2002 A movie to remember. full review
51. Changing Lanes 2002 Far richer than you'd ever think possible. full review
52. The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys 2002 Steers refreshingly clear of the usual cliches.
53. The Hours 2002 You don't just love the movie for its structure but for the haunted people in it, making each other miserable, but forcing each other to face who they are.
54. Irreversible 2002 Fails because of its gratuitous rape and violence and also because of its pretentious and intellectually one-dimensional grounds, which make the violence at the end feel even worse.
55. Lost in La Mancha 2002 It's disconcerting to recommend this movie for its entertainment value, but highly watchable it is.
56. The New Guy 2002 Every bad cliche of every bad high school movie finds a home here.
57. The Pianist 2002 A near-masterpiece.
58. Punch-Drunk Love 2002 In this movie, you'll see Sandler like you've never seen him.
59. The Rules of Attraction 2002 Oddly compelling.
60. Secret Things 2002 Gets more operatically farcical (most of it unintentionally so) by the minute.
61. Sex Is Comedy 2002 By Breillat's usually dire standards, this is practically a laff riot, and if you want to see her funniest, most accessible movie, this is the one to watch. full review
62. Stuart Little 2 2002 This is all the stuff that was so watchable the first time. Done over. But at least it's nonlethal entertainment.
63. The Sum of All Fears 2002 One that bombs literally and figuratively.
64. Treasure Planet 2002 Enjoy the spectacle.
65. The Trials of Henry Kissinger 2002 It makes compelling, provocative and prescient viewing.
66. We Were Soldiers 2002 Goes beyond the familiar.
67. Windtalkers 2002 Windtalkers' remains almost obstinately flat.
68. XXX 2002 Essentially a dumb guy's day in Heaven.
69. Atlantis - The Lost Empire 2001 For the most part, the movie's a bland disappointment, on many levels. full review
70. Baran 2001 Heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes apart, sometimes together.
71. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back 2001 In keeping with the Smith rules, the movie is irreverent, self-referential, twisted, cheap and tasteless. And, of course, I mean that as the highest compliment.
72. No Such Thing 2001 Everything's serious, poetic, earnest and -- sadly -- dull.
73. Sexy Beast 2001 An engaging conflagration of British B-flick, cockney wit and gallows humor. full review
74. Shaolin Soccer 2001 A hoot from beginning to end.
75. Vanilla Sky 2001 For all the filmmakers' efforts, this project is something of an artistic albatross.
76. Wet Hot American Summer 2001 This movie strains so hard to be funny, it almost ruptures itself.
77. Bread and Tulips 2000 Although Maglietta's appealing as Rosalba, cowriter and director Silvio Scoldini's movie is a little too shopworn and pokey to be more than a respectable European diversion.
78. Memento 2000 Memento doesn't just draw you into a dramatic mystery, it makes you aware of human mystery. And that's food for thought and entertainment. full review
79. Merci Pour le Chocolat 2000 Every moment of the way, there is a delectable sense of suble menace.
80. Our Song 2000 After watching Our Song, we leave with a very potent sense that these characters have become so real, they continue living beyond the close of the movie.
81. Quills 2000 Geoffrey Rush plays this rascal to the magnificent hilt. full review
82. The Tigger Movie 2000 This Tigger outing feels more like an overblown TV special than a grand theatrical release. full review
83. Titan A.E. 2000 A long-winded story, uninspired characters and lackluster off-screen performances. full review
84. Being John Malkovich 1999 Full of creativity. full review
85. A Midsummer Night's Dream 1999 After watching William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, I'm left with more admiration than fairy dust. full review
86. October Sky 1999 Another Universal Pictures paint-by-numbers feel-gooder! full review
87. Snow Falling on Cedars 1999 Casting Hawke as Ishmael Chambers in a mediocre movie version of Snow Falling on Cedars is pretty much the kiss of death. full review
88. Godzilla 1998 full review
89. Eve's Bayou 1997 A movie unto itself, a rousing, original yarn about family life that includes everyone. full review
90. Face/Off 1997 Most enjoyable blockbuster of the summer. full review
91. Liar Liar 1997 It's a magnificent comic experience. full review
92. Private Parts 1997 Some of it is pretty funny, but there's so much more you may just want to tune out. full review
93. A Smile Like Yours 1997 You feel embarrassed for the actors and the crew that had to film them. full review
94. Beautiful Girls 1996 The movie is wry, touching and fun to sit through... full review
95. Beavis and Butt-Head Do America 1996 Takes the spirit of their late night TV show and flies with it. full review
96. Big Night 1996 A charming, delicate repast prepared by Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott. full review
97. Bottle Rocket 1996 A hilarious, inventive and goofy breath of fresh air. full review
98. James and the Giant Peach 1996 It's ripe to bursting with visual effects a heady combination of stop-motion and computer-generated imagery.
99. A Perfect Candidate 1996 What fun it is to watch. full review
100. Pocahontas 1996 As for the songs, they're guaranteed to keep your shoes glued to the floor
101. Sling Blade 1996 Sling Blade takes you down paths full of primitive, almost biblical implications, but it also finds comic relief in moments of palpable tension. full review
102. Trainspotting 1996 The movie tags at the heels of Edinburgh social dropouts Renton, Spud, Sick Boy and Begbie, for whom getting off beats getting out. full review
103. Trees Lounge 1996 full review
104. Bad Boys 1995 Even by the low-low standards of cheap action flicks, this one's bad, boys. full review
105. Braveheart 1995 A rambling disappointment. full review
106. The Crossing Guard 1995 full review
107. Cry, the Beloved Country 1995 full review
108. The Doom Generation 1995 The violence becomes commonplace. The crudities never end. But there are hip benefits for staying to watch. full review
109. Eye For An Eye 1995 A nasty, incompetent piece of work.
110. Four Rooms 1995 The segments are uniformly weak. full review
111. Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam 1995 full review
112. A Month by the Lake 1995 full review
113. Smoke 1995 full review
114. Sudden Death 1995 Van Damme races against time, trying to thwart Boothe and defuse all the bombs. But in the hands of director Peter Hyams, these are just banal action-movie chores. full review
115. Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead 1995 full review
116. Tommy Boy 1995 As a sketch for a Saturday Night Live show, it would have been a tour de force. But as part of this rather unimaginative movie, it's just a bit with a burning desk. full review
117. Black Beauty 1994 full review
118. Blue Chips 1994 If it wasn't for some exciting roundball action, Shaquille O'Neal's hulking-dunking presence and a wonderfully guttural performance from coach Nick Nolte, you'd slither off the bench asleep. full review
119. Clerks 1994 A collegiate and post-collegiate laugh fest. full review
120. The Crow 1994 If he had to die so soon, this movie is the best and most appropriate sendoff Lee could have hoped for. full review
121. Fresh 1994 full review
122. Heavenly Creatures 1994 Jackson (who wrote the script with Frances Walsh) evokes the girlsa(TM) fantasy world with scenes featuring plasticene figures, creating an eerie, metaphysical dimension to the movie. full review
123. Hoop Dreams 1994 An extraordinarily affecting documentary. full review
124. Mother's Boys 1994 full review
125. Pulp Fiction 1994 Brilliant and brutal, funny and exhilarating, jaw-droppingly cruel and disarmingly sweet. full review
126. Radioland Murders 1994 full review
127. Addams Family Values 1993 A thinner, airier reunion. full review
128. The Beverly Hillbillies 1993 Like the old show, the movie glides by quickly and pleasantly. If it's nothing fancy, it's mighty sweet. full review
129. Cop and a Half 1993 full review
130. The Good Son 1993 You sit there laughing at Culkin's best comedy ever. If only this movie wasn't supposed to be a horror picture. full review
131. Hard Target 1993 Essentially, Hard Target is a risk-averse Van Damme vehicle, steered by many hands, and set on tracks leading directly to the delivery entrances of the country's video stores. full review
132. Heart and Souls 1993 full review
133. The House of the Spirits 1993 full review
134. In the Name of the Father 1993 As good a compromise of fact and fiction as you could hope for -- and still call it a movie. full review
135. Indecent Proposal 1993 full review
136. The Nightmare Before Christmas 1993 This brilliant combination of stop-motion animation, three-dimensional sets and superbly imaginative graphics, brings animation to new peaks. full review
137. The Piano 1993 The Piano plays itself with such contrapuntal richness, it resonates in you forever. full review
138. The Snapper 1993 Stephen Frear's The Snapper hits the spot nicely, if your spot likes hearty rounds of working-class comedy. full review
139. The Vanishing 1993 [Screenwriter Todd Graff] duplicates many of the original scenes (particularly the significant gas station ones), but does so mechanically. He jettisons most of the subtleties that made the first film so memorable. full review
140. What's Eating Gilbert Grape 1993 Director Lasse Halstrom and cinematographer Sven Nykvist do their best to disguise the predictability with their own grace notes. But all the music in the world can't hide a tone this false. full review
141. 35 Up 1992 It's a brilliant, vital human document. full review
142. Enchanted April 1992 It would seem from a spate of films lately that the English can only find their warmer, truer selves abroad -- usually in Italy. Enchanted April takes this familiar path, but traipses along with charm and glory, as if for the very first time. full review
143. Glengarry Glen Ross 1992 full review
144. Housesitter 1992 full review
145. Kuffs 1992 full review
146. The Last of the Mohicans 1992 Mann wasn't thinking story, he was thinking scheme. Keep the eyes and ears dazzled, he reasons, and the substance will follow. full review
147. Passion Fish 1992 full review
148. Reservoir Dogs 1992 A nod to such noir crime classics as Stanley Kubrick's "The Killing," the movie's more than savvy sensationalism. Suspense, horror and humor are expertly interwoven. full review
149. Rock-A-Doodle 1992 full review
150. Shining Through 1992 full review
151. Strictly Ballroom 1992 full review
152. Barton Fink 1991 If Fink lacks cumulative punch, its fighting power is a technical knockout. full review
153. Dutch 1991 Hughes, a man more prolific than Stephen King and less inspired than Aaron Spelling, has produced yet another forgettable project. This movie shouldn't even be allowed on planes. full review
154. Frankie & Johnny 1991 full review
155. Let Him Have It 1991 full review
156. Paris Is Burning 1991 full review
157. Slacker 1991 The experience is funny, surreal and weird. Sometimes it's even scary. full review
158. Sleeping with the Enemy 1991 No one in this movie can be accused of doing his best. full review
159. Soapdish 1991 Lines like this are amusing, but they pop instantly, like soap bubbles. full review
160. The Grifters 1990 This is one human board game that's absorbing to watch. full review
161. The Hunt for Red October 1990 A Reagan youth's wet dream of underwater ballistics and East-West conflict. full review
162. Internal Affairs 1990 Those with strange axes to grind, or too much time, or demented senses of humor, and you know who you are, may just have a fun time of this. full review
163. The Krays 1990 full review
164. Mermaids 1990 It's awash in mediocrity, waterlogged with innocuousness and redeemed only occasionally by sweet-faced Ryder. full review
165. Miller's Crossing 1990 Crossing is the kind of movie that benefits from a second sitting, to get a complete grip on the plot. full review
166. The Russia House 1990 full review
167. Earth Girls Are Easy 1989 When it's time for that inevitable return to the planet Jhazzalan, you may hear yourself breathing a sigh of relief. full review
168. Harlem Nights 1989 Does it matter to Eddie Murphy whether Harlem Nights is good or bad? It doesn't look like it. full review
169. Monsieur Hire 1989 full review
170. My Left Foot 1989 Not only does Day-Lewis master the physical aspects of the role, the minute-to-minute struggle of almost complete paralysis, he lives the painful genesis of an artistic character. full review
171. Colors 1988 It's an exhilarating sparring match between Duvall's workmanlike fine-tuning and Penn's raw energy. full review
172. Coming to America 1988 The main pleasure in America comes in the romancing of prince and pauper. But the comedy is a mere handmaiden. full review
173. A Fish Called Wanda 1988 It'll keep you amused enough to sit still and even remember it fondly. But it seems a light day's fishing for Messers Cleese and Palin. full review
174. The Last Temptation of Christ 1988 There are too many epic moments and impassioned performances to dismiss Scorsese's work. full review
175. Madame Sousatzka 1988 As charming and fanciful as it is impossible to pigeonhole. full review
176. Rain Man 1988 Rain Man is far from a washout but you can't help feeling all those missed opportunities raining down on you. full review
177. Talk Radio 1988 It's midnight in America and there's a lot of angry people out there in the darkness. If that's the main point to Oliver Stone's Talk Radio, it's the only one. full review
178. The Thin Blue Line 1988 full review
179. Tucker: The Man and His Dream 1988 Nobody does it better: Pristine images glide past you with the just-waxed brilliance of an assembly line of new Tuckers. full review
180. Beverly Hills Cop II 1987 full review
181. Cross My Heart 1987 A less-filling helping of Bedroom Farce Lite. full review
182. Dirty Dancing 1987 The dance finale between Gray and Swayze, although an obvious crowd-pleaser, is performed to a contemporary song clearly intended for the charts, which blows the period feel right off the dance floor. full review
183. Fatal Attraction 1987 Close should take pride in her performance. She should also expect a depressing avalanche of scripts requiring a she-wacko. full review
184. The Last Emperor 1987 A remarkable achievement. full review
185. No Way Out 1987 The film makes such good use of Washington and builds suspense so well that it transcends a plot bordering on ridiculous. full review
186. Personal Services 1987 full review
187. Planes, Trains and Automobiles 1987 The script and direction by Hughes ... amount to wobbly passes that Martin and Candy turn into touchdowns anyway. full review
188. Summer School 1987 Here are some of Summer School's favorite things: idiocy, illiteracy, irresponsibility, drunkenness, dumbness and debauchery. Piqued? full review
189. The Untouchables 1987 ...an entertaining but incongruous mix of class and pulp. full review
190. Switchblade Sisters 1975 Sublime, exploitative camp.
191. Midnight Cowboy 1969 The performances by Hoffman and Voight are big. full review
192. Becket 1964 Becket may seem like a movie of yesteryear, but its timeliness brims over with rousing, meditative discourses between Henry and the church leaders on the separation of church and state. full review
193. 8 1/2 1963 Somehow, the movie is more than the dated crisis of a naval-contemplating artist. It's about the inability in all of us to make sense of our lives, put it all together and come up with something meaningful. full review
194. Gojira 1954 There's a surprisingly powerful thrust to this film. full review