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Rex Reed, New York Observer

1. 30 Beats 2012 Under the circumstances, even first-rate New York stage actors like Thomas Sadoski and Justin Kirk seem uncertain and tentative. full review
2. All Together 2012 The acting is solid, and the maturity of vision mixed with humor should appeal to the same audience that turned The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel into such an unexpected runaway hit. full review
3. Beneath The Darkness 2012 You anticipate every scene before it happens and figure out every secret before it's revealed. full review
4. Bringing Up Bobby 2012 Ms. Jovovich displays such a keen awareness of her strengths that she brings out magical elements I never believed possible. full review
5. Citizen Gangster 2012 As good as Citizen Gangster is, it would be even better if you could understand the dialogue. full review
6. Deadfall 2012 The camera work is as beautiful as it is terrifying, with Quebec standing in for northern Michigan in the dead of winter. And the performances are resourceful, superbly etched and expertly nuanced. full review
7. Detachment 2012 Adrien Brody, one of the weirdest looking actors of the millennium, plays Henry Barthes, a man so emotionally blocked by a lifetime of disillusion that he cannot connect with any other human being. full review
8. The Forgiveness of Blood 2012 The result is a film of great humanity that reveals Albania as a primitive region struggling to bridge the gap between medieval European customs and the tide of progress. full review
9. Girl In Progress 2012 A corny, overwritten movie made by a director with nothing to say. full review
10. Goats 2012 Mellow, but very much a work in progress, Goats has a bland but overcrowded menu that could benefit from a little feta. full review
11. Hick 2012 The movie careers downhill with the speed of an unhinged kangaroo with one foot. full review
12. Intruders 2012 Intruders is never scary, and it's so implausible and uninvolving that even when it's being explained, it is still unconvincing. Talky psychology is a poor substitute for supernatural thrills. full review
13. L!fe Happens 2012 It all sounds dreadful, like the pilot for another brainless comedy series on network TV, but it grows on you. full review
14. The Magic of Belle Isle 2012 You can quarrel with the smiley-face outcome of every ordeal, but the tenderness and optimism are so powerful and ingratiating that only a viewer with the darkest sensibility will go away untouched. full review
15. The Moth Diaries 2012 Where are the shivers? The girls are properly fragile, ethereal and neurotic, but the way Ms. Harron gingerly moves them around like porcelain dolls is too careful to stir up much terror. full review
16. Nobody Walks 2012 The actors are all completely wasted in this dumb travesty of fumbling, unfocused, oversexed numbskulls who work in the movie business. full review
17. The Perfect Family 2012 In the final scene I found myself laughing and crying at the same time. full review
18. Private Romeo 2012 Private Romeo will undoubtedly be regarded by some as a curio, but it's a sweet, sympathetic and surprising one, highly recommended to the adventurous spirit in an enlightened and changing world. full review
19. Red Lights 2012 Red Lights goes astray on so many levels that I gave up trying to figure it out before the end of the second reel. full review
20. Seeking Justice 2012 Seeking Justice is an intense thriller so full of shocks it keeps you wired from start to finish. full review
21. Union Square 2012 The actors are so good ... that they make you want to see what they could do in a better movie than this tedious acting-class experiment. full review
22. Albert Nobbs 2011 The point is to show the misery of a underprivileged woman ahead of her time, but so much dedication for such a small payoff makes you wonder why. full review
23. Another Happy Day 2011 It's good to see so much talent and feeling in one movie, and Another Happy Day has plenty of it. full review
24. The Chaperone 2011 As long as the poker-faced "Triple H" is the centerpiece, The Chaperone is not without moments of genuine sweetness. Best of all, he is the most unpretentious and least flamboyant human juggernaut to ever hit the screen. full review
25. Cracks 2011 There is so little dialogue of any significance that I can't figure out why the film is credited with three screenwriters, but Ms. Scott knows what to do with the camera to show dark psychological forces at work... full review
26. Dirty Girl 2011 Dirty Girl is a bad movie with no insights that is broadly drawn and genuinely plagued by filthy dialogue. You don't laugh. You just wince, and wonder how the whole thing ever got financed. full review
27. The Flowers of War 2011 I can't get it out of my thoughts, and I recommend it highly. full review
28. Gun Hill Road 2011 The writing is predictable and off the scale in terms of trajectory. The basic plot structure never follows one idea through to resolution. full review
29. Hobo With a Shotgun 2011 Quite the most appalling piece of junk I have seen lately, Hobo With a Shotgun just lies there like an autopsy. full review
30. I Melt with You 2011 They should have called it I Vomit With You. full review
31. The Perfect Host 2011 This is bargain-basement moviemaking, and looks it. Here's wishing Mr. Pierce a vigorous movie career, and better luck next time. full review
32. Sarah Palin: You Betcha! 2011 There may be worse things in life than sitting through a 90-minute movie about Sarah Palin. At the moment, I just can't think of any. full review
33. Stake Land 2011 There isn't much dialogue, and most of the 98-minute running time is devoted to locking in one terrifyingly gothic encounter after another, but the characters are well defined, and director Mickle makes every dime of his micro-budget count. full review
34. 3 Backyards 2010 My mind kept wandering. full review
35. All Good Things 2010 You go away slack-jawed with shock and sated with the chilling bedtime-story elements of a great unsolved mystery novel you can't put down. full review
36. A Bag of Hammers 2010 Most of it seems baffled and unclear. Some nice ideas floating around in here, but A Bag of Hammers is one of the few movies I can remember that appears to be composed mainly of outtakes. full review
37. The Best and the Brightest 2010 The Best and the Brightest should be called The Worst and the Dumbest. full review
38. Black Death 2010 Smith keeps the fog, mist and rain machines working overtime, but to such little purpose that Black Death often looks like outtakes from Fiddler on the Roof. full review
39. The Extra Man 2010 The film knocks itself unconscious trying to be whimsical and offbeat, but is so contrived that it is as embarrassing as it is unfunny. full review
40. Happiness Runs 2010 O.K., life without structure or purpose leads to disillusionment and angst, but we knew that already. I'll be darned if I know what deeper lesson we're supposed to learn after suffering through 88 minutes of misery. full review
41. Heartbeats 2010 Xavier Dolan is the new darling of Canadian cinema, and it's easy to see why. full review
42. Henry's Crime 2010 Close but no cigar. full review
43. Howl 2010 There is no defining story of lasting importance here, so the directors opted for a small narrative, a lot of drawings and snippets of the trial. It's filled with graphics, but doesn't really amount to much of a film or an illumination of the man's life. full review
44. Inhale 2010 You will go away with your heart full and your eyes wide open. full review
45. A Little Help 2010 The actors are sincere (especially Ms. Fischer, who plays frustration well) and the direction has a complacent rhythm, but 1 hour and 48 minutes is too long for a movie in which nothing much happens. full review
46. Morning Glory 2010 For the most part, Morning Glory is a delicious movie that will make you jump for joy. full review
47. The Romantics 2010 The all-night orgy of stupidity that ensues is so contrived that instead of examining friendships and love, it only made me wish they had all drowned, saving us from 95 minutes of wooden, boring and inconsequential embarrassment. full review
48. True Grit 2010 If there's one thing I don't need in my Christmas stocking this year, it's a sorry, lumbering and unasked-for remake of the 1969 sagebrush saga True Grit. full review
49. Vanishing On 7th Street 2010 Mr. Anderson has evidently watched a lot of old Twilight Zone reruns. So much of the film's dense, murky palette evokes menace without mayhem, but the wrap-up at the end by Rod Serling is sadly missed. full review
50. White Irish Drinkers 2010 I was immensely impressed with Mr. Thurston, an appealing actor with intelligence and self-assurance who is going places, and writer-director John Gray, who has already arrived with a bang. full review
51. 44 Inch Chest 2009 If you value your I.Q., avoid a horror called 44 Inch Chest like V.D. full review
52. Cairo Time 2009 What emerges is time pleasantly spent with a slice of life that examines a romantic detente between two cultures. Like smoke from an Egyptian hookah, the melancholia lingers. full review
53. Creation 2009 It arrives on the 150th anniversary of the book, and the baroque direction by Jon Amiel is determined that we should live every single minute of it. full review
54. Crossing Over 2009 Writer-director Wayne Kramer gets uniformly terrific performances from a fine cast playing pawns in the game of sex, violence and betrayal that diminishes the noble tradition of naturalized citizenship. full review
55. Five Minutes of Heaven 2009 Could benefit from a little less of the balanced historical context and a little more of the movie madness of Quentin Tarantino. full review
56. The Good Heart 2009 Abetted by a thin story line and episodic screenplay, The Good Heart never goes anywhere important, but director Dagur Kri creates a spellbinding ambience. full review
57. The Lodger 2009 The cast works hard to make you believe they believe what the screenwriter tells them to believe. But in the end, it all seems contrived and silly. full review
58. Ondine 2009 I doubt if it has much commercial appeal, but even with its flaws, it could be fresh and offbeat enough to please discerning art-house audiences who ask for more with their Irish breakfast tea than a water biscuit. full review
59. Paper Man 2009 I can think of no better way to describe Paper Man than the blogger who wrote that the point of this awful movie is "No matter how immature you are, you can always remain married to Lisa Kudrow." full review
60. Valhalla Rising 2009 Valhalla Rising is nothing more than an updated version of the kind of time-honored Hollywood Viking movie Kirk Douglas used to do in his sleep, which means lots of inhuman, bone-crunching violence and no plot. full review
61. Wild Target 2009 Nothing works. full review
62. American Violet 2008 A harrowing, compelling and profoundly true story that dares to tackle an important but too rarely exposed issue of the abuse of power in the American criminal justice system. full review
63. Deadgirl 2008 Written by a weirdo named Trent Haaga for no other purpose than to outrage, Deadgirl is part S&M porno, part supernatural chiller, and worthy only if you're interested in how far movies can go before the police arrive. full review
64. Downloading Nancy 2008 Not only does it waste the audience's time with 102 minutes of misery and despair, but it also trashes the talents of four fine actors who should have stayed in bed reading better screenplays that deserve attention and enhance careers. full review
65. Gardens of the Night 2008 Good acting and sincere direction by Damian Harris act as beacons to light the haunting corridors of an underworld spook house. full review
66. Jolene 2008 The movie has been through as many hurdles getting here as dear, sweet Jolene, but sometimes the most engaging movies are the ones worth waiting for. full review
67. The Other Man 2008 Despite the gimlet eye of Richard Eyre, former director of England's Royal National Theatre, and the top-echelon talents of an impressive cast, a dreary, disabled disaster called The Other Man drops dead at the starting gate. full review
68. The Square 2008 The Edgertons are a clever pair, all right, even if The Square seems repetitive and sometimes a bit hackneyed. full review
69. The Yellow Handkerchief 2008 With tired eyes, a hesitant stoop and thinning hair, William Hurt makes only occasional appearances in films these days, but he's forgotten nothing about the kind of niche acting that informed his early work and won him a coveted Best Actor Oscar. full review
70. The Babysitters 2007 Like television's Six Feet Under and the recent film Juno, it's the perfect antidote to the dopey, butter-cream-frosted teen flicks of John Hughes -- Pretty in Pink with poison sauce. full review
71. Before the Rains 2007 A lovely, lyrical film with perfect timing that is a welcome relief from BlackBerrys, iPods, gas taxes, punk rock, the failing economy and the boredom of cutthroat election campaigns. full review
72. Chris & Don: A Love Story 2007 Chris & Don: A Love Story does what a good documentary should. It informs the mind and broadens the horizon while never losing its entertainment value. full review
73. Day Zero 2007 For a hot-button issue movie with a lot of potential for character development, it's slower than Christmas and disappointingly sluggish. full review
74. Flawless 2007 Flawless is anything but. full review
75. Puccini for Beginners 2007 Real pleasure comes in small, refreshing doses in Puccini for Beginners.
76. Heading South 2006 The film is too slow for my taste, but for perfectly formed characters and authentic human conflict, Heading South is beautifully written, carefully photographed and eventually devastating. full review
77. Mission: Impossible III 2006 As idiot movies go, this one is as sub-mental as you might expect. full review
78. Conversations With Other Women 2005 The split screen sabotages [Canosa's] best intentions; it's a conceit that only manages to make the viewer irritable.
79. The Producers 2005 The small, silly details that made you laugh in spite of yourself are only garish and hammy on a screen the size of a mobile trailer.
80. Sahara 2005 Despite the vast beauty of location settings in Morocco and Spain, the vast lack of chemistry between the two stars is appalling. full review
81. Dead Man's Shoes 2004 Dead Man's Shoes is for the true connoisseur: a tight, well-made, evocative piece of filmmaking that recalls the extreme emotions in some of Sam Peckinpah's genre-benders about retribution and vigilante justice. full review
82. The Forgotten 2004 Moore is too precious a commodity to fritter away her time and talent on a no-thrills thriller as bland and superficial as The Forgotten. full review
83. Inside Deep Throat 2004 A fascinating look back both at a time when sex wasn't discussed in polite circles, and at Deep Throat itself. full review
84. The Passion of the Christ 2004 Mr. Gibson has gone to a lot of sweat and expense to make a movie that doesn't say much of anything new.
85. Vanity Fair 2004 It's lavish but lulling, and at two hours and 18 minutes, it's something of a bore. full review
86. Anger Management 2003 Embarrassed and clueless, Mr. Nicholson is clearly slumming. As a goopy, doofus pet-clothes designer whose only talent is nostril-wiggling, Mr. Sandler comes closer to playing his real self. full review
87. Gigli 2003 Shapeless and without a shred of originality, the movie mimics and copies pieces of a number of old movies, all superior in every way. full review
88. The Good Thief 2003 Mr. Jordan has lovingly recreated much of what glittered in the hard French thrillers that once starred Delon and Belmondo, and provided a superbly customized vehicle for the salty charms of ashtray-voiced Nick Nolte.
89. The Hunted 2003 Ludicrous, plotless, ho-hum tale of lurid confrontation. full review
90. Identity 2003 A lame-brained nut job in search of an identity of its own. full review
91. The Missing 2003 The rawest, scariest, most nerve-rattling saddlebags-and- sagebrush saga since Robert Mulligan's The Stalking Moon.
92. Something's Gotta Give 2003 A comedy of manners (and mannerisms) with two of the most mannered movie stars of our time, Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson, acting all over the place until you surrender with the ecstasy of pure pleasure.
93. Swimming Pool 2003 Two parts psychological thriller and one part pretentious French art-house head-scratcher that leaves you mumbling, 'Duh.' full review
94. Tears of the Sun 2003 Raping and pillaging and blowing things up is mainly what this movie is about, although it claims to show how the most robotic, dehumanized soldiers can be transformed by human suffering. full review
95. Bowling for Columbine 2002 Mr. Moore aims at so many targets and tilts at so many windmills that his arguments lose persuasion.
96. Changing Lanes 2002 In addition to gluing you to the edge of your seat, Changing Lanes is also a film of freshness, imagination and insight. full review
97. The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys 2002 It's not serious enough to be profound, and not ribald enough to be giddy. full review
98. The Hours 2002 Fragmented and stinking vaguely of literary pretentiousness, The Hours is a stretch -- it's missing the spinal fusion that might have held it together with the kind of cinematic coherence I found sadly lacking.
99. Punch-Drunk Love 2002 How odd that a tribute to a wildly theatrical presence should turn out so dull and prosaic.
100. Sonny 2002 As the sulking, moody male hustler in the title role, [Franco] has all of Dean's mannerisms and self-indulgence, but none of his sweetness and vulnerability.
101. We Were Soldiers 2002 After suffering through We Were Soldiers, I think I've seen all the war movies I care to endure for quite some time.
102. America's Sweethearts 2001 A boring, brain-dead flop. full review
103. Bully 2001 full review
104. Love the Hard Way 2001 The cool, detached German director lacks the kind of warmth needed to bring such characters to life.
105. No Such Thing 2001 I watched the brainless insanity of No Such Thing with mounting disbelief. full review
106. The Safety of Objects 2001 It pretends to be a meaningful slice of Americana, but only succeeds in serving masses of tedium while driving its heavy foot down its own throat. full review
107. Session 9 2001 Despite the talent involved and the unbearable atmosphere of the asylum, the script is a letdown. The final resolution is more ludicrous than convincing. full review
108. Vanilla Sky 2001 A good example of what self-destructive cinematic havoc can be wrought by handing over millions of dollars to movie stars to produce their own ego trips. full review