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Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

1. John Dies at the End 2013 It's the ultimate in spoiler titles. And this stoner Ghostbusters, an altered state disguised as a movie, may also add up to a hot cult item if silliness doesn't sabotage the scares full review
2. 2 Days in New York 2012 Julie Delpy is boundlessly appealing. And Chris Rock is acerbic fun. But the frenzied cross-cultural gags take the piss out of the real subject: how blood ties can turn love into a battlefield. full review
3. Act of Valor 2012 I don't know what to make of Act of Valor. It's like reviewing a recruiting poster. full review
4. Bachelorette 2012 Dunst, Caplan and Fisher make a delicious trio as they stir up a bitches' brew of revenge against poor Becky (Wilson). Headland can write zingers that would make the cruelest bridezilla blush. full review
5. Bully 2012 The best social documents on film do more than show you what's wrong in the world - they make it personal. Bully does that with a passion. full review
6. Butter 2012 Butter wishes it were a Christopher Guest sendup but comes off like a cheap imitation. full review
7. The Cabin in the Woods 2012 If it's true that you always kill the thing you love, then horror honchos Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard have taken an ax to slasher cinema in The Cabin in the Woods and chopped it up for kindling. full review
8. Casa de mi padre 2012 Ferrell is an hombre loco. Mi gusta. full review
9. Cosmopolis 2012 If you can get past the psychological density of the source material and the tabloid noise around the star , this mesmerizing mind-bender ought to prove that Robert Pattinson really can act and Director David Cronenberg never runs from a challenge. full review
10. Detachment 2012 Detachment gets to you. It hits hard. full review
11. The Devil Inside 2012 From the amateur acting, writing and directing to an ending that is shocking only in its stupidity, The Devil Inside will make you puke for all the wrong reasons. full review
12. The Dictator 2012 The Dictator starts at outrageous and rockets on from there. Screw the occasional sputter. full review
13. Friends With Kids 2012 Westfeldt is the pulse of Friends With Kids, presenting us with life in all of its vibrant, messy sprawl. full review
14. The Grey 2012 Hold on tight. It's a true call of the wild. full review
15. Holy Motors 2012 Holy Motors, fueled by pure feeling, is a dream of a movie you want to get lost in. full review
16. The Imposter 2012 This true story plays like a gripping psychological thriller, offering hard speculation and harder truths. You won't be able to get it out of your head. full review
17. A Little Bit Of Heaven 2012 full review
18. Mirror Mirror 2012 Who wants to see a fairy tale that weighs a ton? Mirror Mirror reflects badly on everyone involved. full review
19. One for the Money 2012 Everything in One for the Money rings cringingly false. full review
20. The Paperboy 2012 This hot mess got booed by the snobs at Cannes, but there's no denying its profane energy. full review
21. ParaNorman 2012 It's not just Pixar that kicks ass in animation. There's magic in ParaNorman, a small miracle in stop-motion 3D from the wizards at Laika. full review
22. Safe 2012 The trouble with Safe is that you know where it's going every step of the way. full review
23. Side by Side 2012 Keanu Reeves is an astute and witty interviewer in Chris Kenneally's vital film. No true movie junkie is going to want to miss Side by Side. full review
24. Silent House 2012 Paranormal Activity has been here before, of course, but Silent House springs tangy new tricks, and Olsen is a primo scream queen. full review
25. What to Expect When You're Expecting 2012 The still-born What To Expect... is an all-star dud that could be easily confused with Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve, except for the absence of Ashton Kutcher. full review
26. The Adventures of Tintin 2011 The Adventures of Tintin comes at you in a whoosh, like a volcano full of creative ideas in full eruption... It hits home for the kid in all of us who wants to bust out and run free. full review
27. Bellflower 2011 Evan Glodell's explosive debut feature is a thing of toxic beauty. full review
28. Coriolanus 2011 Purists may holler that Fiennes and screenwriter John Logan have cut the Bard's second-longest play into two tense hours onscreen, but the power of the piece is undeniable. full review
29. Footloose 2011 Footloose 2011 is harmless as far as it goes, but on the dance floor and off it never goes nearly far enough. full review
30. Hobo With a Shotgun 2011 What's not to like? full review
31. Justin Bieber: Never Say Never 2011 Never Say Never is a 3D concert film to delight the shy 13-year-old with braces that lives in all of us, but after a while the movie starts to feel like lethal injection by bubblegum. full review
32. No Strings Attached 2011 After the heavy dramatic lifting of Black Swan, you can't fault Oscar favorite Natalie Portman for signing up for some romcom R&R. It's too bad she couldn't have landed a less generic vehicle than No Strings Attached. full review
33. The Perfect Host 2011 The dialogue is witty and spiked with delicious malice. At least it is when Pierce delivers it. It won't spoil the plot to say that he is pricelessly good at taking you places you don't see coming. full review
34. Rango 2011 Say what you will about 'Rango,' the computer-animated Western riding hard on Johnny Depp doing the voice of a lizard - just don't call it business as usual. full review
35. Scream 4 2011 Between a diabolically funny start and a surprise climax, Scream 4 offers nothing more than a series of gory deaths that grow tiresome with repetition. full review
36. Super 8 2011 A retro monster mash with a child's heart, a prodigy's unstoppable imagination and FX dazzle to spare. full review
37. Transformers: Dark of the Moon 2011 Watching Transformers: Dark of the Moon makes you die a little inside. Is this the future of movies? God help us! Michael Bay, you've done it again. full review
38. Warrior 2011 Director Gavin O'Connor comes out swinging in this flawed but fiercely moving family drama...Strong stuff. full review
39. All Good Things 2010 All Good Things throws so many narrative balls in the air that you may struggle to catch up. It's worth the effort. Jarecki is a master of the telling detail. full review
40. Casino Jack 2010 Golden Globe nominee Kevin Spacey has a ball and then some playing the devil inside Jack Abramoff, the corrupt GOP lobbyist who ran wild during the W. years. full review
41. Casino Jack And The United States Of Money 2010 full review
42. The Conspirator 2010 As the film's director, Robert Redford eases with hypnotic skill into this tale of justice in the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln's assassination. full review
43. Exit Through The Gift Shop 2010 A documentary on the art world may strike you as a yawn. No worries. You'll be laughing helplessly at this one. full review
44. The Extra Man 2010 In this maddeningly uneven film version of Jonathan Ames' acclaimed 1998 novel, Kevin Kline gives a master class in acting. full review
45. I'm Still Here 2010 I'm not sure I believed a word of this film. Actors who melt down on camera are usually, well, acting. But I couldn't take my eyes off I'm Still Here. full review
46. Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work 2010 Joan Rivers is a comic force of nature, and this no-bull documentary offers a profanely hilarious peek into the 75th year of her life, on the road and off. Fasten your seat belts. full review
47. Morning Glory 2010 Morning Glory is a tart, terrific comedy that gives Harrison Ford his best and funniest role in years. full review
48. Night Catches Us 2010 Night Catches Us, Tanya Hamilton's first feature as a director, is something to cherish. full review
49. Restrepo 2010 What we see is explosive, deeply moving and impossible to shake. full review
50. The Romantics 2010 Instead of Rachel Getting Married with an Oscar-nominated Anne Hathaway, we get Galt Niederhoffer's misbegotten, miscast snoozefest with Katie Holmes struggling to prove that there is life as an actress while still being Mrs. Tom Cruise. full review
51. The Tempest 2010 I found myself wishing that Taymor would turn off the sound and fury and let The Tempest speak for itself. My wish wasn't granted. full review
52. Tiny Furniture 2010 Tiny Furniture, winner of the SXSW festival's best narrative feature prize, gets under your skin. It's the work of a filmmaker with a stunning future. full review
53. The Whistleblower 2010 The film swings from melodrama to sermonizing, both blunting the human drama that needs to come to the fore. Weisz holds the ground in a performance of ferocity and feeling. full review
54. White Irish Drinkers 2010 Writer-director John Gray digs into his own background to create the ardent and atmospheric White Irish Drinkers. The close, cramped intimacy of this film is so real it stings. full review
55. 44 Inch Chest 2009 There's a difference between exposing misogyny and crassly exploiting it. full review
56. Cairo Time 2009 It's a haunting and hypnotic film. And Clarkson's sublimely nuanced performance is in every way transporting. full review
57. Creation 2009 Amiel has reduced a crucial moment in science to a Lifetime weepie about a workaholic who needs personal tragedy to wake him up to his wife's virtues. full review
58. Crude 2009 Here's a powerhouse of a documentary that makes you feel mad as hell and unwilling to take it anymore. full review
59. Extract 2009 Right in time for the economic downturn comes Extract, a smart and potently funny workplace comedy about running a small business just as small businesses get routinely run into the ground. full review
60. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest 2009 Hornet's Nest is talky but indisputably terrific, and it ends in a dazzling display of courtroom fireworks. Rapace is hot stuff in any language. Oscar, take heed. full review
61. Hunger 2009 Shockingly immediate and philosophically reflective, Hunger is an indelibly moving tribute to what makes us human. full review
62. The Limits of Control 2009 With The Limits of Control, Jim Jarmsuch gets tangled up in his own deadpan. full review
63. When You're Strange 2009 Unhappy with what Oliver Stone did to Jim Morrison and the Doors in his 1991 biopic? Here's the doc for you. full review
64. Bottle Shock 2008 Bottle Shock is something special: there's magic in it.
65. Defiance 2008 For all the film's flaws, this is a war story told with passion about a band of brothers that still has the power to inspire.
66. Happy-Go-Lucky 2008 No list of the year's best performances should be made without [Sally Hawkins].
67. Management 2008 Playwright Stephen Belber, in his directing debut, comes close to the sweet spot. He's not there yet. But he'll be worth watching next time. full review
68. Passing Strange 2008 The invigorating result, zestily edited by Lee's own inside iron man, Barry Brown, is in every way a knockout. full review
69. What Just Happened? 2008 It's a tossup. Your call.
70. Chris & Don: A Love Story 2007 What could have been sordid emerges instead as fiercely funny and touching. Even the animated sequences featuring the lovers the way they imagined themselves - Chris as a horse, Don as a cat - resonate with feeling and blunt truth.
71. Encounters at the End of the World 2007 Herzog is one of a kind. His new doc is an event you watch in awe as you marvel at its wonders.
72. Freedom Writers 2007 Corny? You bet. And worse when the plot veers into the glitz of a Dangerous Minds and the sappiness of a TV After School Special. But the movie, which Swank helped produce by using her clout as a two-time Oscar winner, gets to you.
73. The Go-Getter 2007 Director-writer Martin Hynes shapes his first movie into something emotionally truthful, painfully funny and vibrantly alive.
74. Hot Rod 2007 The film's low-key Wayne's World vibe takes it only so far. I laughed, then I wished it was funnier, then I just wished it would end.
75. Phoebe in Wonderland 2007 Let Clarkson and Fanning take you to the rabbit hole of seductive enchantment that defines this movie. full review
76. Shooter 2007 Suspended over a deep gully of disbelief, where logic takes more bullets than the bad guys, Shooter still makes the grade as hard-ass action escapism.
77. An Inconvenient Truth 2006 It grabs you like a thriller with an ending that will haunt your dreams.
78. Jackass: Number Two 2006 The new dose of Jackass is way dumber, grosser and gayer (there are more things shoved up male butts than a cowboy could dream of up on Brokeback Mountain, and the guys even sing a homo anthem from La Cage aux folles).
79. Nacho Libre 2006
80. Sherrybaby 2006 No matter how much grit writer-director Laurie Collyer sprinkles on the surface, the innards of this baby are pure formula.
81. Bad News Bears 2005 Billy Bob Thornton is the best weapon against cute that a kid baseball movie ever had.
82. Casanova 2005 The whimsical plot, involving Casanova's seduction of a cross-dressing feminist, isn't helped by director Lasse Hallstrom's leaden hand.
83. Coach Carter 2005 Carter gives every sports-drama cliche a chance to play. No bad idea is benched.
84. Color Me Kubrick 2005 Director Brian W. Cook should know that hopes are seldom high for movies that debut on DVD the same day they hit the multiplex.
85. Elizabethtown 2005 The film's problems lie with the lack of spark between a wired Dunst and a bland Bloom.
86. Four Brothers 2005 What holds us are the actors, including Terrence Howard as a cop who grew up with the brothers.
87. Jarhead 2005 Gyllenhaal is the heart and soul of a darkly funny and ferociously intense movie that sets its sights on soldiers under the gun of doing nothing.
88. Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man 2005 It's enough to send fans and converts alike to the Cohen library for more of the master himself.
89. Stoned 2005 The herky-jerky editing is meant to indicate tumultuous excitement, switching back and forth in time, but the effect is grating and frustratingly unilluminating.
90. The World's Fastest Indian 2005 Even a nice chianti couldn't help you wash down this lump of tear-jerking twaddle.
91. Little Black Book 2004 Treat this sucker like the actors should have done when they read the script: Kick it to the curb.
92. Vanity Fair 2004 It's one thing to understand Becky -- do we have to love her, too?
93. Anger Management 2003 Has its moments.
94. Book of Love 2003
95. Daddy Day Care 2003 Murphy looks comatose delivering the played-out poopy jokes.
96. Darkness Falls 2003 Do you really need me to tell you how scary this horror show isn't?
97. Down to the Bone 2003 If there were an ounce of taste left in Hollywood, the magnificent Vera Farmiga would be a front-runner for the Best Actress Oscar.
98. Gigli 2003 The stars display zip chemistry, but seem to find themselves adorable. They're so taken with each other they don't need an audience.
99. Hollywood Homicide 2003 Action movies that show a real interest in characters and their quirks are so rare that you might be ready to forgive this one its sins of cliche and poky pacing.
100. The Missing 2003 Even Cate Blanchett can't save this misbegotten horse opera.
101. Mona Lisa Smile 2003 Women of the Fifties, rise up in protest.
102. S.W.A.T. 2003 What we have here is a model for the paint-by -numbers, perfectly generic, proudly soulless summer action flick.
103. Something's Gotta Give 2003 Keaton nails every laugh and nuance in this tart, terrific romantic comedy.
104. Tears of the Sun 2003 Fuqua ... can stage action, but he can't save a trivializing, reactionary script featuring a Hollywood star (read America) as a global savior.
105. The Hours 2002 Kidman's acting is superlative, full of passion and feeling.
106. The Master of Disguise 2002 In just over a minute you can see everything that's wrong with this one-joke farce.
107. Nicholas Nickleby 2002 Plummer steals the show without resorting to camp as Nicholas' wounded and wounding Uncle Ralph. It's a great performance and a reminder of Dickens' grandeur.
108. The Pianist 2002 A portrait of hell so shattering it's impossible to shake.
109. The Rules of Attraction 2002 Ellis' satire, filtered through Avary's harsh lens, is hard to stomach, harder to ignore.
110. The Sum of All Fears 2002 Affleck merely creates an outline for a role he still needs to grow into, a role that Ford effortlessly filled with authority.
111. XXX 2002 Cohen ... loads the film with pow.
112. America's Sweethearts 2001 America's Sweethearts is a balloon, all right -- a lead one.
113. The Animal 2001 Certainly reeks like something produced from a squatting position.
114. Bully 2001 full review
115. Love the Hard Way 2001 It's a posturing, pandering tale of sexual obsession in thrall to its own overweening self-importance.
116. No Such Thing 2001 Plodding, peevish and gimmicky.
117. Rat Race 2001 An overheated, underdone farce.
118. Session 9 2001 A spine-tingler.
119. Lara Croft - Tomb Raider 2001 In the department of numbing ineptitude, the pacing runs a neck-and-neck race with the dialogue.
120. Tomcats 2001 Laced with such rampant misogyny that the laughs stick in your throat.
121. Waking Up in Reno 2001 Offers big, fat, dumb laughs that may make you hate yourself for giving in. Ah, what the hell.
122. Wet Hot American Summer 2001 The laughs are scattershot.
123. The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle 2000 It's sledgehammer whimsy, and it's not talking to me.
124. Billy Elliot 2000
125. Gangster No. 1 2000 Just watch Bettany strut his stuff. You'll know a star when you see one.
126. The Gift 2000
127. Malena 2000
128. Meet the Parents 2000 A hilarious hodgepodge of The In-Laws and Annie Hall, in which De Niro gives his best comic performance to date.
129. Quills 2000
130. Scary Movie 2000 Would it be asking too much if the hit-and-miss jokes could maybe nudge an inch beyond the obvious?
131. Shaft 2000
132. Traffic 2000 A real cannonball, a hardass drama about the drug trade that Steven Soderbergh directs like a thriller -- it comes out blazing.
133. But I'm A Cheerleader 1999
134. The General's Daughter 1999 A lurid mess, a Southern gumbo simmering in Gothic cliche.
135. An Ideal Husband 1999
136. A Walk on the Moon 1999
137. Half Baked 1998
138. The Mask of Zorro 1998 Banderas and Hopkins prove that there's life in the Z-boy yet, but by leaving in the dull patches, the filmmakers may find audiences catching zzzzzs in ways they never intended.
139. Return to Paradise 1998 What if director Joseph Ruben didn't resort to B-movie suspense tricks? What if the fine cast wasn't saddled with a shamelessly contrived script by Wesley Strick and Bruce Robinson?
140. Slums of Beverly Hills 1998 What lifts this brash comedy above the vulgar herd is Tamara Jenkins in a heartfelt feature debut as writer and director.
141. Velvet Goldmine 1998
142. Very Bad Things 1998 Berg is so in love with his escalating shock tactics that they quickly cease to shock.
143. What Dreams May Come 1998
144. Chasing Amy 1997 It's a rude blast of gleeful provocation, a farce about emotional pain, a drama about sexual slapstick.
145. Cop Land 1997 Nearly down for the count in the movie ring, Stallone isn't just back in the fight. He's a winner.
146. The Devil's Own 1997
147. Face/Off 1997 Scenes of high-voltage action vie with wild hilarity as two guys with guns switch faces and identities.
148. Private Parts 1997 A comic firecracker with a surprising human touch.
149. She's So Lovely 1997
150. Albino Alligator 1996
151. Basquiat 1996
152. Beautiful Girls 1996 In a relationship that skirts bad taste, Hutton and Portman make tender movie magic, giving this big-screen spin on Friends its only moments of true romantic yearning.
153. Big Night 1996 A feast of a film done on a low budget with a menu featuring top-grade acting, writing and direction.
154. The First Wives Club 1996
155. The Nutty Professor 1996 Eddie Murphy is funny again. Sadly, he lacks the guts to follow through on the cathartic self-satire that gives the film its distinction.
156. Pocahontas 1996 Disney deserves praise for raising the ante on its ambitions in animation. Next time, though, a little less civics lesson and a little more heart.
157. Restoration 1996 Lively, lavish and grandly acted pageant.
158. Trainspotting 1996 Trainspotting is a singular sensation, a visionary knockout spiked with insight, wild invention and outrageous wit.
159. Unhook the Stars 1996
160. Bad Boys 1995 It's all special-effects noise and nonsense.
161. Braveheart 1995 Though the film dawdles a bit with the shimmery, dappled love stuff involving Wallace with a Scottish peasant and a French princess, the action will pin you to your seat.
162. Clueless 1995 Silverstone is a winner. And so is the movie, which also functions as a lunatic update of Emma, the 1816 Jane Austen novel.
163. The Doom Generation 1995 It's a savagely funny ride fueled by Araki's insight and blunt compassion.
164. Eye For An Eye 1995 Dumb dips from oppressive to offensive in this Sally Field suspense drama, which actually comes out for vigilantism.
165. Smoke 1995
166. Species 1995
167. Sudden Death 1995 Despite the elaborate stunts, go-go-go direction from Peter Hyams, plus butt-kicking and surprise goalie action from Van Damme, Death deserves the hockey-puck booby prize for...getting its jollies by putting kids in jeopardy.
168. Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead 1995
169. Unzipped 1995
170. Airheads 1994 Fraser and Buscemi are deadpan delights. And Sandler, Opera Man on SNL, is a red-hot screen find.
171. Bad Girls 1994
172. The Crow 1994 Lee is sensational on all counts in a final performance that brims over with athleticism and ardor.
173. Fresh 1994
174. Heavenly Creatures 1994 1994 spellbinder.
175. Pulp Fiction 1994 There's a special kick that comes from watching something this thrillingly alive.
176. The War 1994
177. The Beverly Hillbillies 1993 Tomlin finds the humor and the heart in these hillbillies. The rest is just crude oil.
178. Hard Target 1993 Even when the acting is hammy, notably Wilford Brimley's turn as Chance's Cajun uncle, Woo stages every fight with hypnotic grace.
179. Heart and Souls 1993
180. Indecent Proposal 1993
181. The Nightmare Before Christmas 1993 Of all the new Halloween films, only this one has the power to truly haunt our dreams.
182. The Snapper 1993 This rip-roaring Irish comedy is the freshest surprise of the season.
183. American Me 1992
184. Glengarry Glen Ross 1992
185. Housesitter 1992
186. Incident at Oglala 1992
187. The Last of the Mohicans 1992 ...the action is richly detailed and thrillingly staged.
188. Passion Fish 1992
189. Reservoir Dogs 1992
190. Shining Through 1992
191. Strictly Ballroom 1992
192. Barton Fink 1991 Partly hilarious, partly horrific, totally mesmerizing.
193. Dead Again 1991 A miscalculation from a prodigious talent who has forgotten that you squeeze the life out of romance when you don't give it space to breathe.
194. The Doors 1991 I can't recall a film that evokes the myth of the Sixties more potently.
195. Frankie & Johnny 1991
196. Slacker 1991 What Linklater has captured is a generation of bristling minds unable to turn their thoughts into action.
197. Sleeping with the Enemy 1991 Julia Roberts, a beauty who can also act, is one of the best things in recent movies. By my count she hasn't made a really good movie yet.
198. Soapdish 1991 It's a kick to see Field sending up her sweetheart image.
199. Terminator 2: Judgment Day 1991 It's Cameron's show; he's the reigning king of movie pow, with dark wit and a poet's eye for mayhem. T2 cost a reported $100 million, and you can actually see where the money went.
200. Internal Affairs 1990 [A] cliched catchall, which wastes a fine cast.
201. Miller's Crossing 1990 The Coens' take on Depression-era gangster flicks, looks gorgeous and showcases John Turturro's best acting ever.
202. The Russia House 1990
203. Earth Girls Are Easy 1989 An entertaining trifle.
204. Valmont 1989