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Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald

1. John Dies at the End 2013 Despite its astronomical body count, John Dies at the End never takes itself too seriously, and neither should you. full review
2. 360 2012 The film's generic, meaningless title is a sign of the dullness to come. full review
3. Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry 2012 The film's recurring theme is of an artist on a perpetual hunt for transparency, in his country and abroad. full review
4. Bernie 2012 The question of why the law must always be upheld, regardless of consequences, gives this light, amiable movie a surprising heft and weight. full review
5. Compliance 2012 The point of Compliance, which caused walkouts and shouting matches when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, is how we are programmed to do things that go against our natural instincts as long as we believe we have the law on our side. full review
6. Cosmopolis 2012 The movie isn't for everyone. But if it grabs you, prepare for it to stick in your head for days. full review
7. Dark Horse 2012 Solondz will never be much for happy endings, but the film is strangely optimistic and at times borders ever-so-slightly on the whimsical. full review
8. Detachment 2012 A loud, grating wallow in dime-store despair. full review
9. Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai 2012 Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai reveals yet another facet of this always-unpredictable filmmaker: a flair for compassionate, humane melodrama. full review
10. Headhunters 2012 By film's end, we're deep into Coen brothers territory, with an extra splash of Sam Raimi-level gore. full review
11. Holy Motors 2012 Holy Motors is wild and unfettered and playful - the work of an artist who carries his love of cinema in his bones, and knows how to share that affection with the audience. full review
12. The Imposter 2012 The most fascinating aspect of the movie is why the missing boy's family believed the imposter's story. full review
13. Kill List 2012 One of the scariest films I've seen in ages, although I cannot in all honesty explain exactly what the movie is about. full review
14. Marley 2012 You see a man, flawed and imperfect, finding his way through with his music, constantly searching for his place in the world until that quest was cut tragically short. full review
15. Oslo, August 31st 2012 A study of a man who pulled away from the edge of the abyss at the nick of time, only to realize he may not be able to forgive himself for the things he's done. full review
16. The Paperboy 2012 This one has it all: sex, violence, torture, incest, jellyfish attacks, telekinetic masturbation, Nicole Kidman peeing on Zac Efron and a gator gutted in revolting close-up. full review
17. The Perfect Family 2012 A leaden, ham-fisted affair that was exactly the sort of pap John Waters was spoofing when he cast Turner as a serial-killing soccer mom. full review
18. The Queen of Versailles 2012 By the end, the movie has pulled off a small miracle: You become absorbed in the lives of these people for who they are and not what they own. full review
19. The Raven 2012 For a good hour or so, The Raven is gruesome, ludicrous fun. Then it's just ludicrous. full review
20. Red Lights 2012 With the sort of last-minute plot twist that sank M. Night Shyamalan's career, Red Lights comes to an unexpected, risible end. full review
21. Safety Not Guaranteed 2012 Safety Not Guaranteed is droll and hilarious, but there isn't a cheap laugh in it, and the ending is so perfect it sends you soaring. full review
22. Side by Side 2012 Actors such as Robert Downey Jr. complain that because digital cameras can be reloaded in seconds, there is no time for performers to hang out in their trailers between takes (in protest, he urinated in jars, which he hid all over the sets of Zodiac). full review
23. Silent House 2012 "The silence will kill you!" warn the posters for "Silent House." That's only if the boredom doesn't get you first, though. full review
24. Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You 2012 The film is a pleasant watch, filled with nice little moments of comedy and tenderness, and optimistic about the fate of dreamers who happen to be a little slow out of the starting gate. full review
25. The Adventures of Tintin 2011 The relentless pace is a big part of the fun. Who ever heard of a slow rollercoaster, anyway? full review
26. Cracks 2011 Although Green is the sort of actress you can't take your eyes off , her presence is not enough to keep this movie from becoming mired in a slow and predictable rut. full review
27. A Good Old Fashioned Orgy 2011 Feels as if it had been conceived and written on the back of a cocktail napkin, then handed over to the actors in hope they could come up with some funny business. No such luck. full review
28. The Kid with a Bike 2011 Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne return to devastating form with this compelling riff on the Italian neo-realist classic "Bicycle Thieves." full review
29. Young Adult 2011 Every time you're ready to write off Hollywood comedies, along comes a picture like Young Adult to keep hope alive. full review
30. The Big Uneasy 2010 full review
31. Bill Cunningham New York 2010 Bill Cunningham New York shows us a man who not only derives great pleasure from devoting himself to his job but also, in the process, has helped shaped the greatest city in the world. full review
32. Blue Valentine 2010 You are witnessing the implosion of a marriage, and it's a sad, discomfiting thing to behold. full review
33. Hatchet II 2010 The movie is just inept and dull and stupid -- crap being passed off as a guilty, bloody pleasure. full review
34. Kaboom 2010 With Kaboom, Araki takes a huge step backward from the maturity and restraint he demonstrated in 2004's Mysterious Skin, his best and most-assured film to date (and, tellingly, his only adaptation of someone else's material). full review
35. Nowhere Boy 2010 As the story of a young man struggling to find his own identity, Nowhere Boy would work even if its protagonist hadn't grown up to change the world. full review
36. The Switch 2010 You have to overlook a whole lot of guff in order to enjoy the slight but pleasurable entertainment of The Switch. full review
37. Waste Land 2010 It shows us how artists find ideas and concepts for their work from the most unlikely sources, and it demonstrates the power of art to spark curiosity and cultural awareness in even the poorest, most underprivileged people. full review
38. The Whistleblower 2010 In Weisz's eyes, we see Kathryn's transformation from a public servant doing what's expected of her to a crusader driven to by her own conscience. Her performance is terrific; the movie, sadly, is not. full review
39. Antichrist 2009 Von Trier, never exactly an optimist, has never been this gloomy and pessimistic. Antichrist is the feel-bad movie of the year. full review
40. Cairo Time 2009 full review
41. Crossing Over 2009 Part of the reason why Crossing Over doesn't work is that too many of the hurdles [director] Kramer places in front of his protagonists often feel like the product of a writer's imagination instead of real-life experiences. full review
42. Tetro 2009 Tetro is, in many ways, a thematic and spiritual cousin to Rumble Fish, another tale of an innocent who idolizes his older brother and craves his affection more than he should.
43. New York, I Love You 2008 The result, as is always the case with short story collections, is a mixed bag, although unlike Paris Je T'Aime, the duds outnumber the winners this time. full review
44. Were the World Mine 2008 The movie takes the familiar scenarios of high school angst and adolescent crushes and gives them a wonderful musical spin, complete with elaborate sets and choreography. full review
45. The Hunting Party 2007 By the time the end credits roll, you're still not sure what kind of movie The Hunting Party is supposed to be, other than just queasy.
46. Into the Wild 2007 The movie tries its hardest to celebrate the impetuousness of its hero and the exhilaration of his accomplishments. Mostly, though, it just reminds you of the severity of his mistakes.
47. Lars and the Real Girl 2007 Initially sounds perverted but ends up being just the opposite.
48. Bug 2006 There's nothing about Bug you'd call pleasant, but this dark, intense picture is the best and most vibrant movie Friedkin has directed in decades. full review
49. Nacho Libre 2006 The movie is a bauble, but it's an enjoyably weird and original one, and it is anchored by Black's constantly amusing performance. full review
50. United 93 2006 There's nothing about United 93 that qualifies as entertainment in the traditional sense: It is an unpleasant, wrenching experience, which is just as it should be. full review
51. Elizabethtown 2005 It's an awfully self-indulgent picture, but Crowe's indulgences pay off beautifully. full review
52. Four Brothers 2005 [Singleton's] sloppiest, laziest movie to date, springing to life in fits and starts, risibly mawkish and occasionally gripping, and often feeling like it was made up on the set. full review
53. Inside Deep Throat 2004 Bailey and Barbato aren't as interested in the picture itself as they are in the people who made it, a collection of hustlers, crackpots, cranks and stooges colorful enough to inspire Elmore Leonard. full review
54. Secuestro Express 2004 Secuestro Express leaves you feeling like a bit of a hostage yourself. full review
55. American Wedding 2003 [An] uneven but undeniably sweet movie. full review
56. Bad Boys II 2003 The latest collaboration between director Michael Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, two filmmakers who bring out the worst in each other, is just as bloated and fatuous as their previous efforts. full review
57. The Good Thief 2003 A sparkling exercise in movie cool. full review
58. In the Cut 2003 For all its clammy atmosphere and sinful airs, In the Cut is a cold, airless, frustratingly detached experience. full review
59. The Machinist 2003 A stunt that didn't merit Bale's startling, and dangerous, transformation. full review
60. Primer 2003 The ingenious debut of writer-director Shane Carruth, who assembled the film on his home computer and also plays one of the two leads, is purposely designed to be a little bewildering. full review
61. S.W.A.T. 2003 S.W.A.T. is a compendium of missed opportunities, uninspired action and cliches so tired, you wish the screenwriters had called 911. full review
62. Touching the Void 2003 One of the most gripping and harrowing looks at mountain climbing ever filmed. full review
63. Bloody Sunday 2002 What Bloody Sunday lacks in clarity, it makes up for with a great, fiery passion. full review
64. Bowling for Columbine 2002 By turns hilarious, infuriating, moving, manipulative, self-serving and, most importantly, absolutely required viewing. full review
65. The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys 2002 A soggy coming-of-age drama, one loaded with a single fresh conceit and plenty of tired, wheezing ones. full review
66. The Rules of Attraction 2002 A cautionary tale with one exclamation mark too many, The Rules of Attraction simply tries too hard. full review
67. Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams 2002 Leaves you wishing Rodriguez had saved some of his ideas for another movie. There's a difference between fast-paced and chaotic, and Spy Kids 2 often blurs the line between the two. full review
68. The Sum of All Fears 2002 It's a testament to how effective The Sum of All Fears really is that it sends you home feeling more scared than you were before. full review
69. Treasure Planet 2002 If Treasure Planet falls short of Lion King's classic status, it still proves there is plenty of room in animation for movies that aren't geared exclusively to 8-year-olds. full review
70. Windtalkers 2002 The script is riddled with so many cliches, you count on the battle scenes to wake you from your stupor. full review
71. The Deep End 2001 For all its genre trappings, this is an intelligent, probing study of an ordinary woman under extraordinary duress. full review
72. Rat Race 2001 The movie is so cheerfully, furiously relentless, its contagious silliness wears you down. full review
73. The Score 2001 Its single-mindedness still makes for a refreshing change from the preposterous bloat of most contemporary action movies. full review
74. The Gift 2000 A modest entertainment.
75. Quills 2000 A marvelous, saucy romp.
76. Traffic 2000 The movie's scope is breathtaking, delivering the most expansive portrait of the illegal narcotics trade ever put on film.