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Joe Leydon, Variety

  1. 96 Minutes 2012 96 Minutes maintains a brisk pace and generates a satisfying degree of suspense with its credibly contrived tale of disparate lives forever changed by a violent carjacking. full review
  2. The Babymakers 2012 Yet another attempt to mix raunchy excess and romantic-comedy sweetness in an anything-goes raucous farce, The Babymakers offers a few big laughs between ho-hum stretches of frenetic vamping. full review
  3. Bad Kids Go to Hell 2012 A slickly produced and brazenly clever piece of work that could attract a cult by sheer dint of its ingenious nastiness and self-aware snark. full review
  4. Brooklyn Castle 2012 An irresistibly uplifting doc. full review
  5. Citadel 2012 Especially nerve-wracking for any parent who's ever doubted whether he or she could overcome immobilizing fear and spring into action to defend an endangered offspring. Foy exploits that cruel doubt with ruthless efficiency in this impressive debut. full review
  6. The Cup 2012 Although it canters down a well-trod path toward a predictable finish line, The Cup sustains interest through the smooth efficiency of its storytelling and the engaging performances of its lead players. full review
  7. The Devil Inside 2012 Despite the palpable air of deja vu that hangs over it like a light fog, The Devil Inside generates a fair amount of suspense during sizable swaths of its familiar but serviceable exorcism-centric scenario. full review
  8. Fat Kid Rules the World 2012 Affecting performances and effective storytelling are the hallmarks of Fat Kid Rules the World, actor Matthew Lillard's debut effort as a feature director. full review
  9. For Greater Glory 2012 Despite enough good intentions to pave a four-lane highway, the ardently sincere but dramatically unfocused For Greater Glory plays like a multipart miniseries that has been hacked down to feature length. full review
  10. Gayby 2012 [Balances] broad comedy and warm-and-fuzzy sentiment. full review
  11. Hardflip 2012 full review
  12. LOL 2012 LOL is DOA, a shapeless and charmless teen-skewing trifle stocked with trendy slanguage and social-network gimcracks that make it seem like something four years past its expiration date. full review
  13. Meeting Evil 2012 Writer-director Chris Fisher flirts with over-the-top exaggeration so often during Meeting Evil that auds might wish he'd gone all the way and dialed everything up to 11. full review
  14. Nature Calls 2012 A brazenly foul-mouthed but ultimately soft-hearted comedy of bad manners. full review
  15. October Baby 2012 Newcomer Rachel Hendrix grabs attention and sustains sympathy as a lovely yet troubled 19-year-old student determined to unlock the secrets of her past. full review
  16. Tyler Perry's Good Deeds 2012 An otherwise unremarkable pic that takes what feels like a very long time to unwind a drearily predictable storyline. full review
  17. Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning 2012 The grand finale is a series of what appear to be single-take sequences of bone-breaking, bullet-blasting violence, almost all of it presented with a practical-effects, minimal-CGI approach bound to impress genre devotees. full review
  18. Waiting For Lightning 2012 A slickly produced, unabashedly celebratory pic about professional skateboarder Danny Way. full review
  19. The Devil's Rock 2011 full review
  20. Echotone 2011 There's a potentially fascinating and appreciably more concise 60-minute documentary to be found somewhere amid the uneven and unfocused 88-minute hodgepodge. full review
  21. Girl Walks Into a Bar 2011 full review
  22. Paranormal Activity 3 2011 Paranormal Activity 3 earns points for its low-key ability to keep viewers primed over long stretches to expect that something very bad, or even worse, may happen at any moment. full review
  23. A Bag of Hammers 2010 First-time feature helmer Brian Crano maneuvers some tricky tonal shifts with impressive ease in A Bag of Hammers, a droll, quirky comedy with a pleasant amount of heart. full review
  24. Becoming Santa 2010 full review
  25. Christmas Cupid 2010 full review
  26. The Corridor 2010 full review
  27. I Want Your Money 2010 Equal parts hagiography and hatchet job. full review
  28. Punching the Clown 2010 full review
  29. Standing Ovation 2010 Despite its absurdly optimistic title, Standing Ovation deserves a resounding chorus of boos, and maybe a few well-aimed tomatoes. full review
  30. Tiny Furniture 2010 Written and directed by newcomer Lena Dunham, who also plays the lead role, this technically polished indie often feels like a semi-autographical effort by a filmmaker trying to work out issues in her art that she's still confronting in life. full review
  31. White Irish Drinkers 2010 A modestly engaging domestic drama that earns few points for originality but rewards aud attention with persuasive performances, outbursts of robust humor and a vivid yet understated evocation of time and place. full review
  32. Zenith 2010 Smoothly incorporating influences as diverse as Philip K. Dick and Terry Gilliam, Zenith commands attention and builds suspense by taking inventive detours through familiar territory. full review
  33. Cleanflix 2009 Pic is undeniably amusing when focused on extreme measures by self-appointed censors, but there's only a token effort made to seriously examine central questions. full review
  34. The Perfect Game 2009 It's an unabashedly corny but occasionally stirring dramedy based on the true-life story of scrappy young baseball players from Mexico. full review
  35. Forever Strong 2008 This earnest indie production comes across like formulaic fiction while taking cues (and recycling cliches) from the 'inspirational sports drama' playbook. full review
  36. Humboldt County 2008 An amiably paced, character-driven comedy-drama about a disenchanted student who finds himself among the unreconstructed hippies and second-generation fringe dwellers who farm marijuana in the Lost Coast region of Northern California. full review
  37. A Necessary Death 2008 full review
  38. The Secret of Moonacre 2008 full review
  39. Tinker Bell 2008 A polished, pleasant trifle that should enchant wee ones during hours and hours of repeat viewings. full review
  40. Being Michael Madsen 2007 Michael Mongillo's modestly clever mockumentary Being Michael Madsen could generate smiles of approval (and shocks of recognition) among showbiz insiders and media-savvy civilians as homevid and pay-cable fare. full review
  41. Steal a Pencil for Me 2007 Describing what Steal a Pencil for Me is about might actually do a disservice to this affectionately observed documentary. full review
  42. Bloodrayne 2006 Pic lurches from incident to incident at a graceless plodding place, offering little in the way of genuine excitement -- the swordfights often are confusingly cut and choreographed -- and only minimal amounts of guilty-pleasure titillation. full review
  43. Jackass: Number Two 2006 To call the humor sophomoric would be to overstate its sophistication. Call it infantile, and you'll be much closer to the mark. But it's hard to deny that many of the more outrageous bits have an exhilaratingly potent, shock-you-into-guffawing impact. full review
  44. Maxed Out 2006 Intelligent, informative and unusually entertaining docudocu errs only when it yanks too insistently on heartstrings. full review
  45. Nacho Libre 2006 Nacho Libre strikes a delicate balance of whimsy and absurdity that may surprise auds primed to expect wall-to-wall slapstick. full review
  46. Carlito's Way: Rise to Power 2005 Even by the notoriously undemanding standards of direct-to-vid spin-offs, Carlito's Way: Rise to Power is conspicuously underwhelming. full review
  47. Psychopathia Sexualis 2005 Psychopathia Sexualis seems both plodding and snickering in its almost comically tepid rendering of masochism, homosexuality, full review
  48. Stagedoor 2005 Shiva's most impressive achievement here is her ability to communicate universal verities through specific details. full review
  49. Word Wars 2004 There's a pronounced lack of emotional pay-off that likely will derail any attempts to position Word Wars as an aud-friendly crowd-pleaser with breakout potential comparable to Spellbound. full review
  50. The Musketeer 2001 Handsome but ho-hum action flick. full review
  51. The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle 2000 full review
  52. Scream 3 2000 full review
  53. Track Down 2000 full review
  54. In Too Deep 1999 In Too Deep doesn't exactly abound in surprise plot twists. Even so, director Michael Rymer does a satisfying job of infusing the cliches with edgy persuasiveness. full review
  55. October Sky 1999 Immensely entertaining and unabashedly inspirational! full review
  56. Black Dog 1998 full review
  57. Godzilla 1998 full review
  58. The Rugrats Movie 1998 Makes little effort to reach beyond its target audience. full review
  59. Species II 1998 full review
  60. Anaconda 1997 A silly and plodding Jaws rip-off about a 40-foot man-eating snake on the prowl in the Brazilian rain forest. full review
  61. Home Alone 3 1997 full review
  62. A Smile Like Yours 1997 full review
  63. Beavis and Butt-Head Do America 1996 Faithful fans of the MTV series will no doubt be amused. But the few newcomers who pay the price of admission likely will wonder what all the fuss has been about. full review
  64. The Crow: City of Angels 1996 Stunningly awful. full review
  65. George Carlin: Back in Town 1996 full review
  66. Eye For An Eye 1995 A B movie that somehow won the lottery and got an A-movie cast and director. full review
  67. Tales from the Hood 1995 full review