instantwatcher.com

Lou Lumenick, New York Post

1. Booker's Place: A Mississippi Story 2012 "Booker's Place: A Mississippi Story" doesn't flinch from asking tough questions... full review
2. Deadfall 2012 There's nothing you haven't seen before - and better - in "Deadfall," which would seem to appeal mostly to fans of snowmobile chases. full review
3. The Deep Blue Sea 2012 [Weisz] does a fine, understated job within the parameters of Davies' stripped-down adaptation. full review
4. The Dictator 2012 It ends up being a lot less hilarious than "Borat,'' and not quite as funny as "Bruno.'' full review
5. End of Watch 2012 Gyllenhaal and Pena have great chemistry together ... in their best performances to date. full review
6. For Greater Glory 2012 The sometimes painfully sincere and slow-moving "For Greater Glory" clearly aspires to be inspirational, but history won't cooperate. full review
7. Freelancers 2012 "Freelancers" is De Niro's second-worst film of 2012 after "Red Lights." God help us; he's got two more to go. full review
8. General Education 2012 Wavers between extreme silliness and unbearable earnestness. full review
9. Girl In Progress 2012 The direction ... doesn't do justice to the fairly novel concept of a young woman consciously constructing her own coming-of-age scenario. full review
10. Hick 2012 A smarmy little road movie about a Southern teenage girl losing her innocence the hard way during the Reagan era. full review
11. Holy Motors 2012 The sort of enigmatic movie that many critics embrace because it's open to endless interpretation ... full review
12. In Our Nature 2012 Plays distressingly like a photographed off-Broadway drama. full review
13. Intruders 2012 "Intruders'' looks great and has a promising opening, but this atmospheric Spanish psychological thriller is otherwise pretty underwhelming. full review
14. Jesus Henry Christ 2012 Even for a surreal black comedy, "Jesus Henry Christ" requires massive suspension of disbelief. full review
15. Keyhole 2012 While it has its moments, "Keyhole'' feels like something that might have worked better as a short. full review
16. A Little Bit Of Heaven 2012 Who knew dying could be such a laugh riot? Certainly not any of us who have actually watched a loved one in the awful final stages of cancer. full review
17. The Magic of Belle Isle 2012 "The Magic of Belle Isle'' smothers two of this year's best performances - by Morgan Freeman and Virginia Madsen - in enough family-friendly sweetness to induce diabetic shock. full review
18. ParaNorman 2012 Employs stop-motion animation to provide hand-crafted appeal to the clever and surprisingly scary story of a Massachusetts town whose witch-hunting past catches up with it on its 300th anniversary. full review
19. The Perfect Family 2012 "The Perfect Family'' is Kathleen Turner's show. And when a series of crises forces Eileen to re-examine her values and beliefs, Turner rises magnificently to the occasion. full review
20. The Queen of Versailles 2012 The Siegels make the Kardashians and Donald Trump look like tasteful pikers when it comes to egregiously conspicuous consumption, sheer hubris and utter refusal to take responsibility for their actions. full review
21. The Raven 2012 It's good pulpy fun, with eye catching period trimmings, and Hungarian locations standing in ably for 19th century Maryland. full review
22. Red Lights 2012 One of the most preposterous and incoherent films of 2012... full review
23. Seeking Justice 2012 [Cage] shouldn't do any more movies in which his character signals his acceptance of a Faustian bargain by buying two candy bars. full review
24. Side by Side 2012 A surprisingly accessible documentary about an often very technical subject - the revolution surrounding Hollywood's rapid conversion from 35mm film to digital technologies. full review
25. The Snowtown Murders 2012 Overlong and grim to the point where some scenes are virtually unwatchable... full review
26. The Woman in the Fifth 2012 Pawel Pawlikowski's great-looking but pretentious adaptation of a Douglas Kennedy novel. full review
27. The Zen Of Bennett 2012 Like with any great singer, it's often the telling pauses of the man born Anthony Benedetto that say the most in "The Zen of Bennett." full review
28. The Chaperone 2011 "The Chaperone" is dreadful enough to make you wish Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was still making family movies. full review
29. The Devil's Double 2011 full review
30. Friends With Benefits 2011 Will Gluck's bright screwball farce has witty dialogue that sparkles, at least by debased 21st-century standards. full review
31. Girlfriend 2011 Emotionally manipulative and problematic... full review
32. Ironclad 2011 A gore-filled guilty pleasure... full review
33. Justin Bieber: Never Say Never 2011 An interminable documentary punctuated by perhaps half an hour of heavily edited 3-D performance footage. full review
34. Keep the Lights On 2011 A tough, well-acted little indie ... full review
35. The Last Rites of Joe May 2011 Veteran character actor Dennis Farina gives one of the best performances of the year in a rare lead part as an aging, down-on-his luck small-time hood in "The Last Rites of Joe May.'' full review
36. Magic Trip 2011 I'm not sure I can adequately explain the '60s to someone who wasn't there. "Magic Trip" doesn't really even try. full review
37. Margin Call 2011 Though fictionalized and understated, "Margin Call'' effectively voices the same outrage that the Occupy Wall Street movement is so loudly proclaiming. full review
38. No Strings Attached 2011 The movie quickly sinks into a terminal case of the cutes and extreme predictability - amid the usual surfeit of wacky supporting characters. full review
39. The Other Woman 2011 Thanks to Portman's superb work, we feel her pain acutely. full review
40. Page One: Inside the New York Times 2011 Basically a carefully airbrushed and authorized portrait of the Gray Lady during 14 months when there was serious speculation about the paper's impending demise. full review
41. Peep World 2011 The heavy-handed "Peep World" has a few laughs sprinkled over its abbreviated running time as it limps to a predictable conclusion. full review
42. Rango 2011 An ultra-quirky animated Western with a vocal tour de force by Johnny Depp that's quite unlike anything I've ever seen. full review
43. Seven Days In Utopia 2011 At least watching Black fish, paint and pilot an airplane is less boring than golf. full review
44. There Be Dragons 2011 Even actor's actor Derek Jacobi, as a Jewish factory owner, is wasted in this international muddle of a movie. full review
45. Transformers: Dark of the Moon 2011 I miraculously survived a preview screening with a throbbing headache and slight nausea; others may not be so lucky. full review
46. Trishna 2011 Pinto's lack of dramatic range (she basically has two expressions) and an awkward third act do not provide a solid foundation for Hardy's tragic ending. full review
47. The Ward 2011 A dull, by-the-numbers psych-ward horror thriller that's sadly a lot closer in quality to "Sucker Punch" than "Shutter Island." full review
48. Wrecked 2011 It might not be James Franco's tour de force in the higher-profile "127 Hours," but Oscar winner Adrien Brody makes a meal of his seriously injured character. full review
49. Young Adult 2011 Nobody ever said that adolescence was pretty, even if an increasing number of people are experiencing its final pangs on the cusp of middle age. full review
50. 3 Backyards 2010 Well-acted and acutely observed, the sort of cerebral fare you can more typically find on HBO than in theaters these days. full review
51. All Good Things 2010 Jarecki, the wealthy co-founder of Moviefone who directed the acclaimed documentary "Capturing the Friedmans," here presents another memorable portrait of a dysfunctional family over three decades. full review
52. A Bag of Hammers 2010 Brian Crano's very slight debut of a comedy. full review
53. Bearcity 2010 Douglas Langway's middling comedy is sort of a Sex and the City for big, hirsute gay guys and the younger cubs who fancy them... full review
54. The Best and the Brightest 2010 Josh Shelov's smug and smutty farce employs an estimable cast in an only sporadically funny story... full review
55. The Big Uneasy 2010 "The Big Uneasy" is scary stuff indeed. full review
56. Bill Cunningham New York 2010 Cunningham talks freely about his passion for fashion and photography. full review
57. Black Death 2010 Though deadly serious, Christopher Smith's European-made bubonic- plague melodrama provides good value with lots of blood and guts, as well as a solid cast. full review
58. Casino Jack 2010 Spacey has a field day as the hyper-energetic Abramoff, the former producer of the Dolph Lundgren epic "Red Scorpion" who observes that "Washington is Hollywood with ugly people." full review
59. Cave of Forgotten Dreams 2010 Working with extremely limited lighting, Herzog not only gives a sense of the caves as a sinuous, tactile environment, but focuses on the movement suggested by the paintings. full review
60. Cold Weather 2010 "Cold Weather" is much less interested in providing a satisfying mystery than dwelling on the quirks of its aimless and awkward protagonist -- anyone unwilling to go along risks severe boredom. full review
61. The Conspirator 2010 Working on an obviously limited budget on locations in Savannah, Ga., Redford does a good job of evoking the era with the help of cinematographer Newton Thomas Siegel. full review
62. Inhale 2010 Milks the very real problem of "organ tourism" for all the melodrama and car chases it's worth. full review
63. Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work 2010 Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work compellingly presents a strong woman with no shortage of anger, resentment and regrets -- but not an ounce of self-pity. full review
64. Monsters 2010 Both of them are so obnoxious that you're quickly rooting for the monsters to get them. Unfortunately, they're never in any real danger. full review
65. Morning Glory 2010 It includes more than a few clever lines, and boasts a stellar cast, including the underutilized Diane Keaton. full review
66. Restrepo 2010 A gut-wrenching, politically neutral documentary that spends more than a year with a platoon of American GIs in a valley that's been called the most dangerous spot on Earth. full review
67. The Switch 2010 Tries to be more than a sitcom but keeps falling back on cheap laughs. full review
68. The Tempest 2010 A surprisingly unengaging and charmless fantasy from a director whose previous films ("Across the Universe," "Titus," "Frida") were, despite their other issues, never boring. full review
69. Today's Special 2010 Charming and mouthwatering... full review
70. Vanishing On 7th Street 2010 Brad Anderson's creepily effective low-budget thriller may not have a punch line worthy of your typical "Twilight Zone" episode, but it otherwise gets the job done in under an hour and a half with a good cast. full review
71. The Proposal 2009 Shamelessly derivative, contrived and predictable, The Proposal is nonetheless a crowd-pleasing romantic comedy. full review
72. 44 Inch Chest 2009 Even a great British cast and obscenity-laden gangland dialogue aren't enough to make what amounts to an extended acting exercise into much of a movie. full review
73. The Boys Are Back 2009 The Boys Are Back is not a perfect movie -- but you can't do much better than Owen, who beautifully plays against his darkly brooding persona. full review
74. Bruno 2009 More gut-bustingly funny than anything else out there right now. full review
75. Cairo Time 2009 Cairo Time earns some indulgence for a pace that Westerners may find languid. full review
76. Down Terrace 2009 Down Terrace is the auspicious feature debut of Ben Wheatley, who's spent a decade directing sitcoms, Web-isodes and commercials while fruitlessly pitching scripts to Hollywood. full review
77. The Eclipse 2009 McPherson balances these disparate elements with great skill, never resorting to cheap scare tactics in what amounts to a sensitive character study. full review
78. Five Minutes of Heaven 2009 full review
79. Ghosted 2009 Clumsily written, mostly in English, with performances to match, the only real mystery surrounding Ghosted is how this soporific bore got made. full review
80. Great Directors 2009 Apprently novice filmmaker Angela Ismailos' definition of a Great Director is one who's willing to sit or walk with her while she lobs innocuous questions and gives herself lots of awed close-up reaction shots. full review
81. I Hate Valentine's Day 2009 What it lacks in laughs -- there are none -- it tries to make up for by ladling on stale cliches, such as Vardalos' two stereotypically gay assistants and a desperate younger female friend who stalks guys. full review
82. The Joneses 2009 The Joneses is a black comedy about stealth marketing made by a filmmaker who's evidently much too close to the subject to bite the hand that feeds him. full review
83. The Lodger 2009 A good cast can't save The Lodger, the utterly wrongheaded fourth movie version of a 1910 novel inspired by Jack the Ripper that was most famously filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1926. full review
84. Paper Man 2009 Paper Man is far from perfect, but it holds your interest as a character study because of strong performances by Daniels and Stone. full review
85. The Perfect Game 2009 This inspirational film, written by first-timer (and producer) W. William Winokur, is not for cynics or those resistant to cute kids (and child actors sometimes given to mugging). full review
86. The Secret of Kells 2009 It's easy to see how the animation nominators fell in love with this charmer based on Celtic mythology, which is quite unlike anything I've ever seen before. full review
87. Serious Moonlight 2009 full review
88. Wild Target 2009 An eccentric little comic thriller filled with enough laughs that I was mostly willing to overlook the fact that it makes virtually no sense as a thriller. full review
89. Bottle Shock 2008 Beautifully shot by Michael J. Ozier, the dominating taste in Bottle Shock is Rickman's beautiful performance as a snob -- a snob who is secretly open to being delightfully surprised. full review
90. Finding Bliss 2008 A mildly funny, stereotype-stuffed comedy about a straight-laced aspiring filmmaker who is forced to go to work for a producer of adult films. full review
91. Gardens of the Night 2008 Writer-director Jared Harris (and actor and son of the late Richard Harris) claims to have spent 10 years researching this sordid milieu, yet, for all the detail, it ends up playing like an especially lurid '80s TV movie. full review
92. Jolene 2008 So bad it's almost (but not quite) good, Dan Ireland's Jolene is an unusually elaborate and excruciatingly long vanity production... full review
93. New York, I Love You 2008 Yknow a collection of Gotham-themed shorts by international directors is in serious trouble when the most entertaining segment is directed by Hollywood uber-hack Brett Ratner. full review
94. The Other Man 2008 full review
95. Passing Strange 2008 Spike Lee's Passing Strange: The Movie is basically canned musical theater, but this is one Tony-winning Broadway show that's well worth preserving and seeing. full review
96. Play The Game 2008 While Fienberg's direction is no great shakes, the film showcases its veteran cast. full review
97. Shrink 2008 Shrink starts promisingly, but Jonas Pate directs his fine cast straight into a swamp of schmaltz as every loose thread of plot gets patly resolved. full review
98. The Square 2008 A starless but highly effec tive Aussie noir that marks the auspicious feature debut of stuntman and music-video director Nash Edgerton. full review
99. Were the World Mine 2008 An ambitious gay musical fantasy inspired by A Midsummer Night's Dream, Tom Gustafson's Were the World Mine is far better in concept than execution. The shoestring budget hurts. full review
100. What Just Happened? 2008 A fairly toothless Tinseltown expose. full review
101. The Yellow Handkerchief 2008 Erin Dignam's episodic script, brimming with humor and honest emotion -- and the pitch-perfect direction of Udayan Prasad -- thankfully avoids manipulating the audience at every turn. full review
102. Black Snake Moan 2007 This is the kind of movie that's best enjoyed as a stylized fantasy, much like Brewer's most obvious model, Elia Kazan's Southern-fried Tennessee Williams adaptation Baby Doll. full review
103. Boarding Gate 2007 Even an ultra-feral performance by Asia Argento -- the art house Angelina Jolie -- isn't enough to suffer through Boarding Gate, a draggy and incoherent thriller by French director Oliver Assayas. full review
104. Broken English 2007 Posey is a delight throughout, and Zoe Cassavetes is clearly a filmmaker to watch. full review
105. Charlie Bartlett 2007 Charlie Bartlett starts to get a bit preachy as it works its way toward a climax heavily influenced by Rushmore, but it's still well above average for this type of film. full review
106. Chop Shop 2007 [Rahman] Bahrani's unsentimental film is perhaps most interesting as a look at a colorful, little-known world that has recently been targeted for urban renewal. full review
107. Civic Duty 2007 Peter Krause, the fine actor from Six Feet Under, gives a one-note performance that seriously undermines Civic Duty full review
108. Flawless 2007 The plot contortions that very slowly unfold under Michael Radford's arthritic direction in Flawless are not much...entertaining. full review
109. The Hunting Party 2007 The film comes off more like a drunken recollection by a war correspondent than something that might actually have happened. full review
110. Mr. Bean's Holiday 2007 Mr. Bean's Holiday picks up steam when it finally arrives in Cannes just in time to wreak yet more havoc at the big film festival, but getting there is pretty tedious. A little of the wildly mugging Atkinson goes a long way. full review
111. Puccini for Beginners 2007 Writer-director Maggenti turns in some smart dialogue and keeps things moving swiftly. full review
112. Shotgun Stories 2007 Yes, it's a mite pretentious and on the slow side. But debuting director Jeff Nichols has an eye for small-town America and a sensibility that he shares with fellow North Carolina School of the Arts alumnus David Gordon Greene. full review
113. The Ten 2007 Multi-segment movies tend to be notoriously uneven, and this definitely proves to be the case with The Ten. full review
114. You Kill Me 2007 You Kill Me really belongs to Kingsley, whose character's deadpan reactions to his new environment are priceless. He really kills. full review
115. Brooklyn Rules 2006 Vivid work by Alec Baldwin as a brutal Gambino crime family captain isn't enough to justify the sub-Scorsese stylings of Michael Corrente's Brooklyn Rules. full review
116. Copying Beethoven, (Klang der Stille) 2006 ...Tin-eared script and tone-deaf direction sabotages a fortissimo performance by Ed Harris in the title role.
117. Curious George 2006 Despite 16 years in development and drafts by many prominent Hollywood screenwriters, the finished product (credited to O'Callaghan and Mike Webb) feels undeveloped, like a 10-minute TV cartoon stretched to barely feature length.
118. Keeping Up With The Steins 2006 A sitcom with enough big laughs and emotional truth to get audiences past awkward pacing and some slow spots.
119. Last Holiday 2006 Last Holiday is a thoroughly mediocre dramedy.
120. Saint of 9/11 2006 ... a cinematic elegy for Father Mychal Judge ...
121. Sixty Six 2006 The direction of this autobiographical tale by Paul Weiland (whose lengthy rap sheet runs all the way from Leonard Part 6 to Made of Honor) is less than subtle. full review
122. World Trade Center 2006 An expertly crafted, respectful piece of inspirational filmmaking.
123. Aeon Flux 2005 Aeon Flux is by far the year's worst movie, a most dubious achievement.
124. Carlito's Way: Rise to Power 2005 Writer-director Michael Bregman (son of Martin, who produced both films) keeps things moving briskly on the way to an improbably happy ending.
125. Color Me Kubrick 2005 Great fun for the first 20 minutes but seems long at 86. full review
126. Elizabethtown 2005 Choppily edited and only sporadically funny.
127. End of the Spear 2005 This undramatic would-be piece of inspiration seems like made-for-TV fare for the Christian Broadcasting Network before it morphed into the Family Channel.
128. Race You to the Bottom 2005 full review
129. Special 2005 Rappaport does a yeoman's job in this tonally confused oddity. full review
130. Stagedoor 2005 Alexandra Shiva's Stagedoor is a sloppy and only mildly engaging documentary about Stagedoor Manor, a legendary summer performing-arts camp in the Catskills.
131. Sweet Land 2005 Sweet Land is gorgeously shot and directed without a false note, but its chief virtue is the beautiful and little-known [Elizabeth] Reaser.
132. Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price 2005 Wal-Mart's home office in Bentonville, Ark., can rest easy: Greenwald, as usual, is hysterically preaching to the choir.
133. Dead Man's Shoes 2004 Meadows ... very slowly builds to a powerful climax for this arty cross between Straw Dogs and First Blood.
134. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind 2004 Audacious, thought-provoking and ruefully funny.
135. A Good Woman 2004 A Good Woman is such a dreary affair that it makes you wonder whether the last Wilde adaptation -- the critically lambasted The Importance of Being Earnest with Reese Witherspoon -- was really that bad after all.
136. Kill Your Idols 2004 The documentary enters more dubious territory when it tries to present today's more consumer-friendly post-punkers (like the Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs) as some sort of successors.
137. CSA: Confederate States of America 2003 Kevin Willmott's clever, very low-budget film rewrites history.
138. I Like Killing Flies 2003 An irresistible no-budget documentary.
139. Ned Kelly 2003 A leaden retelling of the legend of Australia's Jesse James that has understandably been sitting on the shelf for a couple of years.
140. Radio 2003 It's hard to say what's more offensive about the out-of-tune Radio -- Cuba Gooding Jr. trying to ingratiate himself by mugging up a storm as a mentally challenged man, or the mawkish narrative surrounding him like so much syrup.
141. Ayurveda: The Art Of Being 2002 It would work much better as a one-hour TV documentary.
142. Blackwoods 2002 Director Uwe Boll and the actors provide scant reason to care in this crude '70s throwback.
143. Changing Lanes 2002 Finally, a thinking person's thriller.
144. Showboy 2002 A no-budget vanity production that almost instantly wears out its welcome.
145. Sonny 2002 An instant candidate for worst movie of the year.
146. Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams 2002 [Spy Kids 2] is both overblown and overlong compared to the original -- but happily has enough heart and smarts to recommend it as one of the season's worthier family entertainments.
147. Stuart Little 2 2002 Has a lot more stupid action -- and a lot less heart -- than the character-driven original.
148. Treasure Planet 2002 Better than OK, but no Spirited Away.
149. America's Sweethearts 2001 As undemanding summer movies go, America's Sweethearts is surprisingly funny and sweet, despite some missed comic opportunities and curious casting choices.
150. The American Astronaut 2001 Obviously not for all tastes -- but it's quite unlike anything else out there at the moment.
151. Children Underground 2001 A powerful piece of filmmaking.
152. The Fluffer 2001 The performances are more than serviceable and The Fluffer is well-paced and engaging until the flaccid climax.
153. Love the Hard Way 2001 Wildly uneven romantic drama.
154. Manic 2001 Excellent performances redeem Jordan Melamed's gritty teenage version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
155. Pootie Tang 2001 Akin to watching a random collection of deleted scenes from a misconceived movie that should never have darkened the inside of a theater in the first place.
156. Rat Race 2001 Zucker, who's been dabbling in tearjerkers like Ghost for the past decade, is a little rusty.
157. Session 9 2001 The film isn't remotely scary.
158. Tape 2001 You never quite escape the feeling you're watching a barely adapted TV version of a somewhat gimmicky stage play.
159. Lara Croft - Tomb Raider 2001 A tedious bore that deserves early entombment.
160. Wet Hot American Summer 2001 What the world doesn't need now is an homage to Bill Murray's 1979 summer-camp hit Meatballs.
161. Gossip 2000 Gossip is a remarkably accurate title for a glossy, shallow thriller where not a single scene rings true.
162. The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle 2000 The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle is no Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but it has it own goofy charms.
163. Beautiful Creatures 2000 Darkly funny if derivative.
164. The Gift 2000 The smartest and scariest supernatural thriller since The Sixth Sense.
165. Happy Accidents 2000 Anderson ... resorts to all sorts of directorial tricks to sustain this shaky premise.
166. Maybe Baby 2000 This would be a stultifyingly incestuous affair even if all the jokes about fertilization weren't so tiresomely lame and predictable.
167. Merci Pour le Chocolat 2000 Chabrol ratchets up such a level of suspense -- and Huppert gives such a mesmerizingly deadpan performance -- that Merci Pour le Chocolat turns out to be as irresistible as a piece of dark chocolate.
168. Mission: Impossible 2 2000 Check your brains at the popcorn stand and hang on for a spectacular ride.
169. Being John Malkovich 1999 Being John Malkovich, which contains not a frame of extraneous footage, is more than a must-see movie: It's a must - see - more - than - once event.
170. But I'm A Cheerleader 1999 Dumb, heavy-handed satire.
171. Man on the Moon 1999 One of the year's most entertaining movies.
172. Superstar 1999 The funniest SNL movie since Wayne's World.