Abduction2011
"Abduction" falls in the same corner of the youth market as the "Twilight" movies. Some moments and many lines feel cribbed from that series.
full review
The Chaperone2011
As funny as these guys can be when they work themselves into a purple-faced rage yelling at the TV camera, none of the current generation of wrestler-actors seem to have the charisma or comic gifts of a Hulk Hogan or Dwayne Johnson.
full review
The Hedgehog2011
The sweet, the comic and the tragic blend together most agreeably in the winsome French romance "The Hedgehog."
full review
Hobo With a Shotgun2011
A grim, visually ugly, intermittently funny-occasionally preachy piece with only the estimable Mr. Hauer to recommend it.
full review
Into The Abyss2011
Herzog has managed another strange and intriguing look at a culture and the sorts of people it creates - victims, cops and criminals.
full review
Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer2011
All garish colors, small-scale sight gags and kid-friendly one-liners, it lacks the same comic spark that a recent "Wimpy Kid's" second diary also failed to deliver.
full review
Kevin Hart: Laugh At My Pain2011
Like a lot of comics, Hart has taken the petty grievances and big pains of his childhood and turned them into stand-up fodder that is funny, familiar and biting.
full review
Like Crazy2011
Felicity Jones will break your heart at least once in "Like Crazy."
full review
Machine Gun Preacher2011
The movie has a hero it cannot make its mind up about. And that confusion muddles the movie.
full review
The Names of Love2011
There's a taste of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," "Something Wild" "Forces of Nature" and even "Bringing Up Baby," perhaps the best of the wild child-seduces-straight arrow romances.
full review
Page One: Inside the New York Times2011
A colorful "how the news is made" movie capturing some very smart, very committed reporters and editors adapting to the changing rules in our brave new online news world.
full review
Snowmen2011
The kids are charming and the supporting cast lift this comedy from above its direct-to-video ambitions.
full review
There Be Dragons2011
A muddled and unsatisfying film - "Doctor Zhivago" without the majesty, "Reds" without the passion or romance.
full review
Biutiful2010
"Biutiful" has lots of characters and interwoven plot-lines, a trait it shares with earlier Inarritu films. But it's the first film he's done that feels cluttered with characters and burdened with the odd and on occasion ugly things they do.
full review
Bloodworth2010
The film's payoff is clumsy and obvious. But Kristofferson, Corbin, Kilmer, Yoakam and Duff create indelible characters in just a few scenes each.
full review
Casino Jack2010
[Hickenlooper] heavy-handedly tried to make sense of it all and then conjured up a movie with "a Hollywood ending." The trouble is, the Hollywood hustler Abramoff never actually provided one.
full review
Cave of Forgotten Dreams2010
"Cave of Forgotten Dreams" is another lovely stanza in the epic poem of humanity that Herzog has been writing for half a century.
full review
Centurion2010
It's a darned entertaining outing from a director who knows action, loves narration and doesn't share Hollywood's fear of period pieces that don't involve Greek gods.
full review
Cold Weather2010
"Cold Weather" settles in for a dreary haul that just makes us hope and wish something -anything - would change.
full review
The Company Men2010
The Company Men will connect with anyone for whom "the new reality" of today's economy hits close to home. But anyone looking for insights deeper than the business world cliches in writer-director John Wells' film may find this a sermon easily tuned out.
full review
Exit Through The Gift Shop2010
The "Emperor's New Clothes" con job of modern art takes one right on the kisser in Exit Through the Gift Shop, a little guerrilla style filmmaking about guerrilla graffiti artists and their status as darlings of the art world.
full review
The Extra Man2010
[Kline's] tour de force, a performance "of uncommon joie de vivre."
full review
Four Lions2010
"Four Lions" is a very funny British send-up of the dimwitted children of parents smart enough to escape their repressive Islamic homelands.
full review
Howl2010
Documentary filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman attracted Hollywood talent, far and wide, for this film, had an epic poem and a classic culture clash as their subject and still produced a corpse from it.
full review
I Am Love2010
An intimate, quiet and even slow movie, its subtle shadings veil turbulent emotions.
full review
I Saw the Devil2010
A thriller that makes you wish you knew how to scream "O.M.G." in Korean.
full review
Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work2010
This behind the scenes, behind the makeup, behind the plastic surgery documentary catches Rivers hard at work, ridiculously hard at work.
full review
Knucklehead2010
Those multi-media moguls at World Wrestling Entertainment haven't quite got the hang of this "family friendly" turn they've taken with their motion picture division.
full review
A Little Help2010
"A Little Help" is an odd duck of a period piece dramedy, a wonderfully detailed character-study set on Long Island a year after the 9/11 attacks.
full review
Monsters2010
The immigration and drug war parable and photojournalism ethics are never front and center, but draw attention because Edwards doesn't deliver well-earned frights or even cheap jolts. It's a good-looking movie with zero sense of urgency.
full review
Nowhere Boy2010
If you've seen read or seen the Beatles history in literature or film, you'll adore Nowhere Boy for filling in more blank spaces about the early life that formed one of the seminal figures in rock history.
full review
Rabbit Hole2010
The film sets us up to judge and then upends those judgments.
full review
Restrepo2010
At this point in all our Middle Eastern conflicts, we need more from a documentary than just a grunts-eye-view of the frustrating nature of the war.
full review
Senna2010
"Senna" makes a fascinating subject in a pretty entertaining film about a sport that isn't followed that closely by most Americans. But our very ignorance of that subject helps the film and adds to its impact. We don't know this story by heart.
full review
Standing Ovation2010
It's a bubblegum mess, lacking structure, coherence,and any sense of drama. But it manages moments of daft fun, sometimes in spite of itself.
full review
Tiny Furniture2010
Dunham's version of "Reality Bites," that collision between college expectations and harsh reality, runs out of gas by about the third time she confesses to her increasingly irate mom, "I'm figuring it out."
full review
The Whistleblower2010
A first-rate one-woman-against-the-system drama, a film benefiting from grim recreations of an ugly reality and a stellar cast determined to expose it.
full review
Amreeka2009
The immigrant experience gets a fresh, post- 9/11 Palestinian spin in Amreeka, a film that has all the familiar ingredients but is such a well-acted, winning re-combination of those that we see them with fresh eyes.
full review
The Boys Are Back2009
Owen, not chasing Julia Roberts or anyone else for a change, is pleasant enough making this 100-minute argument for unconventional parenting.
full review
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest2009
It's only our investment in these fascinating characters and in wholly unraveling the mystery of Lisbeth Salander's awful past that keep it compelling.
full review
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo2009
A chilling detective tale, a horrific sexual abuse drama and an overlong, emotional, tie-up-every-loose-end melodrama that is sure to be half an hour shorter when Hollywood remakes it without Swedish dialogue and probably without the cool Swedish edge.
full review
Inspector Bellamy2009
Holds enough interest to stand as reasonably representative of Chabrol's work, a dry and moody piece built on closely-observed characters, not on thrills or an unraveling plot.
full review
Paper Man2009
The manipulations characters act out with each other are realistic, even if the overlong and not-nearly-twee-enough comedy built around them isn't, making for a movie whose script may have had more merit than its execution. Or not.
full review
The Perfect Game2009
The odd engaging moment is always followed by a cloying eye-roller, such as when a nearly-new ball appears on their dusty Monterey sandlot. "Father, what does it mean?" "It means God wants us to play baseball!"
full review
Survival of the Dead2009
The hurtful truth is that others -- many others -- have co-opted Romero's whole living dead thing and have been doing it with more style than the Pittsburgh zombie auteur is capable of these days.
full review
Elegy2008
Occasionally touching, always interesting.
full review
Forever Strong2008
The whole package here is warmed-over mush from a hundred other sports movies, a tale padded out with game footage, training sequences, absurd coincidences, life lessons that teach nothing and wasted casting.
full review
Happy-Go-Lucky2008
Hawkins wears her grin in almost every scene, but she gives us hints that this dizzy 30-year-old is deep, as are the disappointments that might have caused Poppy to don this mask. It's a performance of sustained, childlike wonder and adult wit.
full review
Let the Right One In2008
Just when you think you've seen pretty much everything that can be done with that exhausted horror genre, the vampire picture, somebody comes along with a new twist.
full review
Man on Wire2008
James Marsh tells Petit's story, the most inspiring 'heist' in modern history, a Frenchman's stroll between two 110 story buildings in lower Manhattan.
full review
The Other Man2008
Neeson, in particular, has to rumble through the movie behaving in a way consistent with the ending and comes off as far over the top in the process.
full review
Play The Game2008
Play the Game takes an interminable hour to get going. Every scene, every line reading, plays slow. There's no snap to it.
full review
The Square2008
A taut, well-executed if somewhat predictable riff on the murderous caper-that-goes-wrong theme that has anchored sexy, blood-stained crime pictures from The Postman Always Rings Twice to Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.
full review
The Tale of Despereaux2008
There's precious little space in Despereaux's tale for heroism (save for the third act) and humor.
full review
What Just Happened?2008
Movies about Hollywood are as common as Jolie babies, and there have been broader, funnier, meaner takes on the business than this one. But this Barry Levinson version of real-life producer Art Linson's memoir is more movie-savvy than any of them.
full review
The Yellow Handkerchief2008
The sleepy scenery and charming performances -- Stewart escapes her vampires and reminds everyone what the fuss used to be about -- keep The Yellow Handkerchief from blowing it.
full review
Charlie Bartlett2007
Imagine an R-rated Ferris Bueller with only the most annoying parts of the younger Matthew Broderick's screen persona emphasized and you'll draw a bead on Bartlett.
full review
Day Watch2007
Maybe they didn't invent the vampire movie. But thanks to Night Watch and now Day Watch, the Russians certainly have the last word in it.
full review
Freedom Writers2007
An old-fashioned great-teacher-turns-bad-students-into-scholars story that ranks up there with Stand and Deliver.
full review
Hot Rod2007
What works, wonderfully, are the falls, the punch-outs (his brawls with Stepdad are brutal throw-downs) and waiting for that next accident to happen.
full review
The Hunting Party2007
The Hunting Party is a not dark enough, not comic enough dark comedy about the aftermath of the Serbo-Bosnian War.
full review
No End in Sight2007
This is a movie about the very officials who boasted 'I don't do quagmires' (then-defense secretary Rumsfeld), but who hadn't actually done the planning or simple reading of other people's plans that might have avoided that very fate.
full review
Shooter2007
It features a gritty, macho performance by Mark Wahlberg, stinging political commentary and more 'Here's how you do that' moments than the complete MacGuyver collection on DVD.
full review
Altered2006
Too many of the arguments are whispered, too many settings are missing the horrific atmosphere the movie requires.
full review
Bloodrayne2006
Who is Uwe Boll and why does he hate moviegoers so? The German hack, the one-man Blitzkrieg of Bad, is the worst filmmaker in the movies today.
full review
Curious George2006
This is an adaptation that is absolutely faithful to the child's-eye-view books, down to the name of the ship that brings George from Africa -- the H.A. Rey.
full review
Golden Door2006
Yes, the details are spot-on and realistic in the extreme. But we've seen them before. It's the story Crialese hangs this detail on that's weak.
full review
An Inconvenient Truth2006
Political will, Gore suggests, is a renewable resource. Maybe he has rediscovered his. And maybe, we figure, after we've seen it, we should discover ours.
full review
Last Holiday2006
This is a movie with lots of great cuisine, and precious little flava.
full review
Mission: Impossible III2006
If Mission: Impossible 3 is the first pitch of the popcorn-movie season, just two words come to mind -- butter up.
full review
Nacho Libre2006
Oddly reverent, faintly patronizing (they shot it in Mexico, with an exceptionally homely cast of extras), and always warm and funny.
full review
Slither2006
This writing-directing debut from the guy who concocted that rip-off known as Dawn of the Dead isn't that scary, and it isn't nearly as funny as he seems to think it is.
full review
United 932006
It is a movie that takes us where we don't want to go but need to.
full review
Aeon Flux2005
It's not terrible. It's not so bad that it's fun. Aeon Flux doesn't rhyme with 'flux.' It's just watchably bad, which is no reason to watch it at all.
full review
Bad News Bears2005
It isn't funny; it isn't sweet, and it has none of the innocence of the original.
full review
Brokeback Mountain2005
Both [Gyllenhaal and Ledger] embody what that old Waylon and Willie song taught us -- 'Cowboys ain't easy to love, and they're harder to hold.'
full review
Casanova2005
The sticky sweet stuff in the middle traps history's greatest lover and slows the whole affair to a crawl.
full review
Coach Carter2005
Jackson plays the coach with wit and authority. His imposing presence ensures that he won't have to take much guff, even from the toughest punk on the team.
full review
Elizabethtown2005
But as messy, unfocused and rambling as this is, fundamentally flawed as any movie about loss that doesn't let its characters or its viewers feel that loss, it's still a most-enjoyable mess to sit through, a Southern-fried Garden State.
full review
End of the Spear2005
What does hold back this terrifically detailed and often-entertaining effort are the limitations of the script and uneven acting.
full review
Factotum2005
This is one of the best movies of the year, and one of the two or three best performances.
full review
Four Brothers2005
As long as the action snaps and the violence feels (somewhat) righteous, there'll always be a place for movies such as Four Brothers -- on rainy Saturdays, on TNT.
full review
Grizzly Man2005
An alternately gripping and funny-charming nature film and psychological study.
full review
Jarhead2005
Jarhead can't shoot its way out of its own cliches.
full review
Land of the Dead2005
The metaphor, that a society that doesn't recognize the evil it is doing might be getting its comeuppance, would have been a cool subtext in a better movie. But this 'Dead' doesn't jolt, shock, scare or amuse. It just staggers along -- very, very slowly.
full review
Lonesome Jim2005
Affleck plays this as a one-note turn, all dour. What a life-force like Anika would see in him is a mystery.
full review
The Longest Yard2005
It's not as good as the 1974 original, or even as good as the 2001 British soccer remake of Yard, Mean Machine. But there are bright spots.
full review
The Lost City2005
It's barely coherent as it is, but at 2 hours and 23 minutes, The Lost City is simply infuriating.
full review
Nine Lives2005
Nine Lives is an elegant film of quick, tour-de-force acting turns, a simple actor's gesture that tells you more than four pages of dialogue, a movie that demands concentration but that rewards the viewer willing to pay attention.
full review
The Producers2005
Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick and Gary Beach have their singing, dancing and kvetching in the Broadway smash The Producers immortalized on film.
full review
Sahara2005
Let's hope today's 10-year-old boys aren't too jaded by Matrix reruns to enjoy this for the good clean fun that it is.
full review
Big Fish2004
Herniated whimsy -- straining, as labored as those poor Brits who stuff their mouths with grits and try to talk like Southerners.
full review
Hotel Rwanda2004
Move past the big picture, of race hatred, arbitrary maps and guilt over what the UN and the West can't or won't do, and find the human story within the inhumanity of war.
full review
Inside Deep Throat2004
Fascinating social criticism and a witty and relevant take on American sexual history.
full review
Vera Drake2004
With Vera Drake, [Leigh] has made his most controversial and accessible work
full review
Anger Management2003
Throw enough money at a Sandler movie and it will look like a decent film -- except when you let middling hack Peter Segal of Nutty Professor II direct.
Bad Boys II2003
Bad Boys II just goes on and on, with more dazzling camera work, more 'funny' murders and executions by the bad guys and the good guys and judiciously used profanity and the occasional 'N' word for comic effect.
CSA: Confederate States of America2003
A sometimes incisive, sometimes amateurish look at race in America, the things we do and tolerate as a nation that are really no different from an America ruled by unrepentant slave-holders.
full review
Gigli2003
It's a catastrophic miscalculation of tone, a comatose comedy about mental illness, contract killers and corpse desecration.
Hollywood Homicide2003
Shelton is too smart an observer to totally miss the mark. But after a career of cooking up yummy, tart dessert delights, he has wheeled himself down the junk-food aisle. Let's hope he's doing it just this once.
In the Cut2003
A puzzling affair of murky motivations and leaps of logic that no amount of Meg Ryan skin and no number of faked orgasms can hide.
full review
The Machinist2003
[Bale's] is a great performance, full of commitment and sacrifice, and The Machinist is one of the year's best films.
full review
The Missing2003
The Missing is often entertaining. But plainly something more was aimed for, and incredibly simple, basic missteps keep the film from reaching the next level.
full review
Once Upon a Time in Mexico2003
A winking exercise in actors acting cool and the amoral joys of trigger- happiness.
Primer2003
It takes a lot for a movie to surprise today's jaded, seen-it, bought-the- PlayStation-version sci-fi fan. Primer can. Let it.
full review
S.W.A.T.2003
A worn-out yawner of a cop thriller where even the cliches seem to realize how dated they are.
Equilibrium2002
Silly stuff, all mixed up together like a term paper from a kid who can't quite distinguish one sci-fi work from another.
The Hebrew Hammer2002
Profane, shockingly un-PC and often laugh-out-loud hilarious, this is the sort of parody that the folks who made the Airplane and Naked Gun movies used to make -- funny.
full review
Lost in La Mancha2002
Wondrous document of a film gone wrong and an artist who inspires fans, cast and crew, even as he terrifies financiers, insurers and anyone more firmly footed in filmmaking reality.
Nicholas Nickleby2002
McGrath has rendered the weighty, moving and engrossing Dickens tale into a near sitcom.
The Pianist2002
Brody is a sublimely haunting presence at the heart of The Pianist.
Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams2002
Though it's competently made, Spy Kids 2 is a classic example of the too hasty sequel, a movie with few ideas and no heart.
Windtalkers2002
[Woo] doesn't reinvent the war film with Windtalkers. But he does capitalize on the post-Private Ryan trend toward showing combat at its most brutal and personal.
The Nightmare Before Christmas1993
A work of grand visual wit, clever songs, funny gags and genuine pathos, it is perhaps the greatest stop-motion animated film ever, a painstaking style of model animation that computers have all but completely done away with.
full review