instantwatcher.com

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger

1. 2 Days in New York 2012 About six hours of those "2 Days in New York" don't work at all. And, coming as they do at the end, they tend to deflate the charm of the trip. full review
2. Act of Valor 2012 These guys ... are the real deal. And any hero worship given them - badly done or not - is still deserved. full review
3. Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry 2012 As this sometimes haphazard documentary shows, Ai won't stop talking. Or blogging. Or tweeting. full review
4. Assassin's Bullet 2012 Why is Slater in this? Why are Sutherland and Spall? Why am I even watching it? full review
5. ATM 2012 None of it builds to anything or engenders any real suspense. full review
6. The Awakening 2012 When these sudden surprises work, as in "A Beautiful Mind" or "The Others," you're too stunned to swallow that next handful of popcorn; when they don't, you're tempted to throw your whole box at the screen. full review
7. Bachelorette 2012 Its actresses - particularly Dunst - are terrific. Headland has a nice feel for music, too, and takes some editing risks. full review
8. Beneath The Darkness 2012 The screenplay gets nothing out of the claustrophobic terror of being locked up in that narrow grave, and the "mystery" is obvious from the start. full review
9. Bully 2012 The access varies widely, there's far too much music telling us what to feel, and at the end its focus begins to drift. If it at least gets people talking, though, that's a good thing. full review
10. Butter 2012 The movie's entire superior attitude is kind of annoying. full review
11. The Cabin in the Woods 2012 "The Cabin in the Woods" gets at the story underneath the story, and the reason behind the cliches. full review
12. Casa de mi padre 2012 A product as cheap, empty and worth of a good beating as a pinata. full review
13. Dark Horse 2012 Characters turn out to have improbable secret lives, or pop in and out like hallucinations. Plotlines that start to satisfy, attitudes that start to make sense, are ruthlessly upended. full review
14. Deadfall 2012 This is the sort of movie best encountered accidentally and for free, caught on basic cable late at night. full review
15. The Deep Blue Sea 2012 Try to stay on board. Whenever it does briefly slip away, it carries you along on a wave. full review
16. Detachment 2012 It wants to be an expose of the pervasive horrors of modern life. Instead, it just forces us to detach as well. full review
17. The Devil Inside 2012 It's better when you don't show too much - but if your story is about the supernatural, eventually you're going to have to come up with something. "The Devil Inside" can't. full review
18. The Do-Deca-Pentathlon 2012 There's a joke here, obviously, in the spectacle of two out-of-shape adults making fools of themselves at sporting events. Unfortunately it's the only joke, and it eventually wears thin. full review
19. Friends With Kids 2012 Imagine - a romantic comedy that's actually both. It's been a long, long time. full review
20. Girl In Progress 2012 It never gives us a character we truly care about, or a consistent reason for watching. full review
21. God Bless America 2012 The film features elaborate (and spot-on) parodies of mean-girl reality shows, YouTube nonsense and fatuous news reports but the people are thin and the plot meanders a bit. full review
22. The Good Doctor 2012 Its meaning is unclear. Its vital signs are shaky. And before long, the whole frail thing's on life support, just begging for somebody to pull the plug. full review
23. The Grey 2012 Somewhere along the line, apparently, it was decided that having men fight for their lives is not enough to hang a movie on. It has to be a movie about Big Ideas. full review
24. Haywire 2012 If "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" was a fancy top-shelf cocktail, this is Polish vodka, neat. full review
25. How to Survive a Plague 2012 Mostly the film toggles between two emotions - the high of watching brave people go to war, and the low of seeing so many of them fall, as entire communities are destroyed. full review
26. The Innkeepers 2012 "The Innkeepers" may have some of the retro charm of a boardwalk spookshow. But the ride is too long - and too few of the attractions seem to be up and running. full review
27. Intruders 2012 This is ... an intelligent, scary little movie. Because it's smart enough to know what's really scary is what's inside us. full review
28. Keyhole 2012 Yes, sometimes the whole thing comes together like a poem or an early surrealist experiment. But too often, it just seems like a jumble of fantasies and daydreams. full review
29. Lovely Molly 2012 Sanchez ... is not making his debut here, and after more than a decade he should be willing to do something besides jerking the camera around and making noises offscreen. full review
30. The Magic of Belle Isle 2012 That Freeman would be willing to settle for this, perhaps, isn't that surprising; he hasn't been interesting in breaking a sweat for awhile now. But is this really the best that director Rob Reiner can manage? full review
31. Marley 2012 It's hard to imagine audiences who don't know much about the man sticking around for more than a few minutes of this. And they're the ones who need to know about him most of all. full review
32. Mirror Mirror 2012 The dwarves provide wonderful fun, Singh's visuals have true magic and Alan Menken's score is charming. full review
33. Monsieur Lazhar 2012 The film, alas, seems determined to be as careful, as gentle, as Lazhar himself. full review
34. One for the Money 2012 I guess I can't call the movie sexist as it was largely produced, directed and written by women. So I'll settle for calling it dull, corny and amateurish instead. full review
35. The Pact 2012 McCarthy is clearly an economical director and what he gets on screen here - while hardly new - is still effective and occasionally creepy. full review
36. The Paperboy 2012 Simple ugly trash. full review
37. Price Check 2012 Walker finds a few fresh veins to mine, and some nice performances. full review
38. The Queen of Versailles 2012 Dig into your popcorn, and get ready for some snide schadenfreude. full review
39. The Raven 2012 It lingers intolerably on some inessential scenes, rushes through others, and fails to provide any motivation either for Poe's devoted (albeit fictional) love, or the film's archvillain. full review
40. Red Hook Summer 2012 Welcome back, Spike. It's good to see you again. full review
41. Red Lights 2012 How did a cast like this sign on for a movie like this? full review
42. A Royal Affair 2012 It does a fine job of dramatizing the pure power of ideas and the attraction of like minds. And what happens when those ideas, and that attraction, runs counter to the pleasures of the most powerful man in the land. full review
43. Safe 2012 Yeah, "Safe" is a long way from perfect. But rented, in a few months, it'll go great with a six-pack and a hold-the-anchovies special. full review
44. Seeking Justice 2012 What is it, Nic? What happened? What do they do, send you the angry-guy action movies that Liam Neeson turns down? full review
45. Side by Side 2012 An unapologetically serious, geek-friendly documentary, it talks pixels, grain, depth of field and other technical concerns with a variety of directors, cinematographers, special-effects wizards and more. full review
46. Silent House 2012 [Olsen is] terrific at showing shifts of emotion just underneath the skin of her wide, china-doll face. full review
47. Sleepless Night 2012 The sort of stripped-down, Francophone picture that's been spoiling American action fans over the last few years. There are no Cuisinarted fight scenes, no pauses for awkward romantic subplots. full review
48. Take This Waltz 2012 It's about ... the realization that sometimes, before you can learn anything about other people, you need to learn something about yourself. full review
49. Trade of Innocents 2012 The film fills up its hour-and-a-half harmlessly enough, but nothing's really memorable. Which is rather, bitterly, ironic. full review
50. Unforgivable 2012 There's something in this story that lingers, too, like the Venetian sunset, as we watch these people, rich and poor, acting foolishly, selfishly, sometimes even hurtfully. full review
51. Union Square 2012 An interesting study of families, of class-consciousness, of little passive-aggressive tricks. full review
52. Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning 2012 "There... is... no... end" Van Damme announces in between blows. As a comment on the current film, I'll agree. As a prediction - all I can do is shudder. full review
53. What to Expect When You're Expecting 2012 Director Kirk Jones and screenwriters Shauna Cross and Heather Hach consistently fall back on corny music and slow-motion to try to get laughs. Very little of this movie feels risky, or even frisky. full review
54. The Woman in the Fifth 2012 It is guaranteed to haunt you for awhile. full review
55. Abduction 2011 Why, for his first theatrical job in six years, is Singleton - who has a busy producing career on the side - directing this? The film has a decent budget (and hints, desperately, at sequels). But a Taylor Lautner teen-spy movie? Really? full review
56. The Adventures of Tintin 2011 If I wanted to spend two hours watching a plucky kid and his feisty dog run around having adventures, I'd dig out my old "Jonny Quest" cartoons. full review
57. Another Happy Day 2011 Sam Levinson has proven that he can get a movie made. Good for him. But he still has to prove that he has a story to tell. full review
58. The Artist 2011 Says something about stubbornness and ego (look at the pretension in that title again) and about the dangers everyone faces when they refuse to see that their world is changing around them. full review
59. Conan O'Brien Can't Stop 2011 O'Brien admits he ended this moment in his life knowing himself a little better. We feel the same way. full review
60. Dirty Girl 2011 Undoubtedly this movie means something to its director and screenwriter - a former dancer making his feature-film debut. So why didn't he put more care into the period? full review
61. Footloose 2011 This new version will quite capably supply the same amount of carefree fun to a new generation. Which is exactly what a clever, if not particularly ambitious, remake sets out to do. full review
62. Friends With Benefits 2011 It's gross and kind of embarrassing. For everyone. full review
63. A Good Old Fashioned Orgy 2011 Jason Sudeikis, mildly annoying in small doses, turns out to be greatly annoying in large ones, as our hero. full review
64. Ironclad 2011 The problem is that the movie is only swords and stage blood. The suits of armor are all empty. full review
65. Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer 2011 There isn't even, really, any point. There is, however, throw-up, poo, pee and lots of running around and screaming. full review
66. Justin Bieber: Never Say Never 2011 The movie remains so sanitized, so authorized that it never gives us credit for being able to make up our own minds about him and what he represents. full review
67. The Kid with a Bike 2011 As is usual in their films, the Dardennes remain both deeply interested and carefully objective. The photography and editing are unfussy and unhurried. There is no attempt to do anything but present these small fictions as simple fact. full review
68. The Last Rites of Joe May 2011 Farina is terrific, getting the pathos of the character while avoiding the self-pity, and leavening the tragedy with some occasional sputtering humor. full review
69. Like Crazy 2011 It's just the small story of two young people trying hard to decide whether this is an infatuation worth growing past, or a real relationship worth growing into. full review
70. Machine Gun Preacher 2011 The filmmakers may have started with a real story here. But all they've come up with is a real chore. full review
71. Magic Trip 2011 It's fascinating and sometimes surprising stuff. full review
72. Margin Call 2011 It sees its characters not as villains but, simply, as business people - with all that means. full review
73. The Names of Love 2011 A film that isn't sure if it's a political statement on Muslim/Jewish relations or an "Annie Hall" homage. full review
74. No Strings Attached 2011 "No Strings Attached" is the first fun date movie of the year. The first fun movie, actually. full review
75. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia 2011 There is very little overt drama. The camera waits, and watches, like a vulture. full review
76. The Other Woman 2011 While Natalie Portman and Lisa Kudrow do some terrific work, it's hard to care about these awful characters. full review
77. Page One: Inside the New York Times 2011 The documentary is especially interesting to anyone concerned about journalism, communications and technology. And occasionally, it's especially frustrating, too. full review
78. Paranormal Activity 3 2011 If you haven't seen the first two movies, why are you watching this? And if you have seen the first two movies, why do you need to watch this? full review
79. Rango 2011 Adults and slightly older children should have a great time. full review
80. Red State 2011 Add a bunch of forgettable characters (including a one-note Melissa Leo) and an ending which flirts with (but then flees from) a truly provocative climax, and you've got a project which perhaps only Rob Zombie could have made something of. full review
81. Sarah Palin: You Betcha! 2011 Like his subject, Broomfield prefers flash to facts. full review
82. Scream 4 2011 "Scream" always made fun of itself even as it was frightening us - and that hasn't changed a bit. full review
83. Snow Flower And The Secret Fan 2011 Whatever passion might have been here to begin with never made it to the screen. full review
84. This Must Be The Place 2011 Sean Penn has received a mantle's worth of humanitarian awards over the years. But he might have to give one of them back, just to make amends for "This Must Be the Place." full review
85. True Legend 2011 A silly and yet often enjoyable action film, the movie isn't so much a winking homage to those late-'70s Hong Kong exports as another entry... full review
86. Undefeated 2011 There are interesting edges and unexpected sides to "Undefeated" beginning with that title - because, not long after we've settled in, we watch the team lose its very first game. full review
87. The Ward 2011 The shocks mostly consist of figures suddenly rising up in the background, or thunderclaps from a seemingly endless thunderstorm. full review
88. Warrior 2011 Nolte's performance is masterful, marshalling together pain and regret and a slowly dawning comprehension in a single wince. But all this film has going for it besides him are its incredibly brutal fight scenes. full review
89. You've Been Trumped 2011 Baxter is a little too staid, too polite to get outrageous - and that keeps the film from outraging us the way it should. full review
90. Young Adult 2011 "Young Adult" finally stumbles not because it tries to make us like Mavis, but because everyone else in it seems to, no matter what she does. full review
91. Casino Jack 2010 If you care about the material, you already saw it done earlier, and better, in the Gibney film. full review
92. City of Life and Death 2010 Directed by Lu Chuan, it's a fascinating film, and an unusual entry in the current Chinese cinema. full review
93. The Conspirator 2010 Wright, who has been doing great and largely unrecognized work for years, is terrific as the hard, handsome, difficult defendant, as is James McAvoy as her reluctant defense counsel. full review
94. The Extra Man 2010 The Extra Man not only gilds the flower, but then glues on sequins and forces it into cha-cha heels. full review
95. Henry's Crime 2010 Reeves seems more laid-back than loser - it's hard to accept him as someone who has let half of his adult life go to waste without minding, or even noticing. full review
96. Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work 2010 "Oh grow up," Rivers used to snap. You wonder if she ever will. full review
97. A Little Help 2010 That this is small comedy is fine. That it doesn't have a single big laugh is a little tiresome. full review
98. Monsters 2010 full review
99. Senna 2010 Kapadia has, quite daringly, decided to rely completely on primary materials - although occasionally we hear the voices of after-the-fact observers, what we see is what happened then. full review
100. South of the Border 2010 Like Michael Moore -- a clip of whom appears early in the film -- Stone isn't just his own worst enemy, but his cause's. full review
101. The Switch 2010 The truly dusty cliche it drags out again is the cute couple who don't, you know, think-of-each-other-like-that. Until, of course, they do. full review
102. The Tempest 2010 Mirren, of course, is wonderful - in those few scenes when the CGI stops. But those rare moments are separated by tedious songs and far too many close-ups of Ariel laughing, laughing, laughing. full review
103. True Grit 2010 If anyone ever needed a quick lesson in the difference between being a great star and being a great actor, a new "True Grit" arrives to give a master's class. full review
104. Vanishing On 7th Street 2010 Anderson does a lot with very little - a wavering light, a patch of darkness - and Jaswinski's script tries to break up the stage-bound monotony with a few well-timed (if not particularly informative) flashbacks. full review
105. The Whistleblower 2010 That you leave the film with nagging doubts and questions is not a problem. That you leave it with a sense of disappointment, however, is. full review
106. The Proposal 2009 A mostly harmless, completely unsurprising romantic comedy. full review
107. An American Affair 2009 It's a good rule of thumb that any film that grandly puts "American" in its title is going to try to make some statements way beyond its pay grade. full review
108. Cairo Time 2009 It's as refreshing as a glass of mint tea. full review
109. Crude 2009 The film is fair (which is different from being objective) and works hard at representing both points of view. That it's already been denounced in some quarters is only proof he has the oil companies worried. full review
110. The Eclipse 2009 McPherson -- while getting some lovely shots of the Irish seaside -- never succeeds in making Michael's literary interests, or Lena's passionate interests, seem quite plausible. full review
111. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 2009 There's nothing calming about director Niels Arden Oplev's style, which is fast and furious and smartly mirrors content. full review
112. The Good Guy 2009 Greenberg is dull and lumpish; Porter is little more than a smile on its way to a toothpaste ad. full review
113. The Good Heart 2009 But the film has no grasp of reality. And, worse, it has no feel for poetry, settling for pat contrasts between the two men, and taking its cardiac imagery to an absurd and literal conclusion. full review
114. The House of the Devil 2009 A slightly faster set-up, and slightly more drawn-out climax, would make this even better. full review
115. I Hate Valentine's Day 2009 For I Hate Valentine's Day, Vardalos has chosen to direct. And that's a mistake that only compounds the ones in her screenplay. full review
116. The Limits of Control 2009 The Limits of Control feels like a dream I had after a slightly off paella and way too much bad wine. full review
117. The Perfect Game 2009 A big, bland serving of corn that wouldn't have been out of place on The Wonderful World of Disney 50 years ago. full review
118. Soul Kitchen 2009 Soul Kitchen isn't, like Akin's earlier films, a full feast, rich with carefully catered courses of philosophy, cultural conflict and melodrama. It's really more akin to a light snack. But take a bite. full review
119. Valhalla Rising 2009 It's Herzog deconstructed and reconstructed, amped up and slowed down -- like the way '60s band Vanilla Fudge used to take Top 40 hits and drag them out for most of an album side. full review
120. Wild Target 2009 There have been a lot of black comedies about assassins lately -- there have been a few just this year -- but Wild Target may be the first one to contain genuine laughs. full review
121. American Violet 2008 The badly titled American Violet comes from filmmakers who had clearly made up their minds long before they had written a word. And it's aimed at people who have too, before they've seen a frame. full review
122. Elegy 2008 A remarkable example of the actor at his best -- conveying wounded hurt or burning hunger with a glance. full review
123. Happy-Go-Lucky 2008 Happy-Go-Lucky ultimately charms -- just like its dizzy, disarming heroine. full review
124. I Sell the Dead 2008 Movie fans of all kinds will appreciate a film that knows the differences among 'terror,' 'terrible' and 'terribly good fun.' full review
125. Management 2008 A large part of Management's charm, [is that] it wanders through some fresh locations (Maryland, Arizona and Washington), takes some offbeat detours and just generally refuses to be predictable. full review
126. The Other Man 2008 Before long, the characters, which director Richard Eyre adapted from a Bernhard Schlink short story, cease to be people and start to become devices. full review
127. Religulous 2008 In the end, for all its genuflections towards free inquiry and rational debate, Maher is as close-minded as any of the preachers he despises. full review
128. Shrink 2008 Full of fake moments and 'Deep Thoughts' sentiment. It's the kind of film in which people stare regretfully into mirrors a lot. full review
129. The Tale of Despereaux 2008 Their gentle care and attention help fill out this sweet tale. So, too, do the background artists who have created wonderfully intricate universes for the different rodents to inhabit. full review
130. The Babysitters 2007 Although the film is pitched as dark comedy, there's nothing very funny about the sexualization of teenagers. full review
131. Black Snake Moan 2007 The characters never connect, and the movie never takes off. Rae may be the one sporting a padlock around her waist. But it's the movie that's shackled. full review
132. Charlie Bartlett 2007 A comedy that strains so hard to be edgy it nearly pulls a muscle. full review
133. Encounters at the End of the World 2007 He [Herzog] is cinema's poet of the empty spaces. full review
134. Flawless 2007 This is supposed to be a caper movie. Shouldn't it have a heroine who looks as if she could, you know, conceivably, caper? full review
135. Freedom Writers 2007 An unashamed heart-tugger, Freedom Writers is based on the true story of Erin Gruwell, a teacher so full of gee-whiz decency she can only be played by Hilary Swank. full review
136. Hot Rod 2007 There is nothing remotely 'worthwhile' in this mix. full review
137. The Hunting Party 2007 Although Gere and Howard's characters are invented, they feel the truest of all. They are often more foolhardy than courageous, less brave than simply stubborn. They are not real heroes, in the classic sense. But they are simply real. full review
138. Puccini for Beginners 2007 For fans desperate for a funny new romantic comedy, and willing to expand their definitions of just what a date movie might entail, Puccini for Beginners offers a good 101 introduction to the genre. full review
139. Shooter 2007 It's best to turn your brain off, half an hour in. full review
140. The Signal 2007 Ultimately, The Signal doesn't rewrite the rules of horror, the way those masters did. But its filmmakers do provide a creepy, bloody good show. full review
141. You Kill Me 2007 Eventually it's just too much of a bad thing -- and only leaves you wondering why you began it at all. full review
142. Bloodrayne 2006 'You don't know the meaning of pain!' our heroine hisses at one point. Oh, honey, believe us, we do. full review
143. The Fall of Fujimori 2006 It never loses sight of the grim reality behind Fujimori's eccentricities, or the thousands of people arrested, kidnapped, raped, tortured, executed or, simply, 'disappeared.' full review
144. Fay Grim 2006 The feeling of the original film has been lost. full review
145. Heading South 2006 In Laurent Cantet's fine new film Heading South, the amorous travelers aren't men but well-heeled, middle-aged women from North America, and their playground is lawless Haiti. full review
146. Jackass: Number Two 2006 A solid hour-and-a-half, plus outtakes, of gratuitous violence and endless stupidity. full review
147. Nacho Libre 2006 The combination of body slams and bathroom jokes makes it a heck of a lot livelier than Cars. full review
148. Saint of 9/11 2006 If you think you can't bear to see another World Trade Center movie, you should still see the new documentary, Saint of 9/11. full review
149. Sherrybaby 2006 ... Sherrybaby remains a lost soul, if not an absolute lost cause. And while we can pity her continued descent, it's hard to want to watch. full review
150. Slither 2006 It's strictly a fun B-movie horror, on the order of Tremors, that somehow got released by a major studio. full review
151. This Is England 2006 A gripping bit of British drama. full review
152. The Wind That Shakes the Barley 2006 A truly Irish tale, The Wind That Shakes the Barley demands some work from American audiences. full review
153. Brokeback Mountain 2005 Like all great love stories, Ang Lee's is one of tragic romance, strongly acted by Heath Ledger as the most buttoned-up of cowboys, and Michelle Williams as his betrayed and enraged wife. full review
154. Broken Flowers 2005 Broken Flowers is a road movie, and like the best road movies, it doesn't take a straight path. full review
155. Color Me Kubrick 2005 Director and co-writer Brian Cook was Kubrick's assistant director on The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut and he fills the film with subtle touches and sly in-jokes. full review
156. Elizabethtown 2005 Like most journeys, Elizabethtown could have used a bit more planning; its detours make backseat drivers of us all. full review
157. End of the Spear 2005 Filmmakers don't need stories with a religious agenda any more than they need ones with an irreligious one. They don't need stories with any agenda, frankly. They just need good stories. full review
158. Grizzly Man 2005 It's not great filmmaking but it is amazing film. full review
159. Jarhead 2005 The movie is so good you wish it were even better, particularly in its characterizations. full review
160. The Longest Yard 2005 Although Sandler has occasionally broken the pattern, most recently with Spanglish, here he returns to the old, profitable, well-worn rut. full review
161. My Summer of Love 2005 No friendship is ever quite as consuming as one between two adolescent girls, and My Summer of Love very quickly moves on into dangerous Heavenly Creatures territory. full review
162. Sahara 2005 Productions this guiltlessly corny need real personalities to sell them, and unlike the dull National Treasure, Sahara has a few. full review
163. Stagedoor 2005 Performing is something [these kids] need to do. And Stagedoor shows them doing it -- blindly, bravely, determinedly. full review
164. Dead Man's Shoes 2004 A poor fit for anyone. And that includes even the undiscriminating gorehounds looking for yet another bloody slice of payback. full review
165. The Forgotten 2004 The only mystery here, once the lights come up, is why these good people signed on to appear in this sad mistake. full review
166. A Good Woman 2004 Wilde isn't supposed to be lovely, or charming. He's supposed to be funny, wicked, rude and as full of serious feeling as a lavender butterfly. full review
167. Inside Deep Throat 2004 Bailey and Barbato aren't interested in classic documentary filmmaking. They're trendy dabblers in waste management, picking through the pop-culture trash to see what they can recycle for kitsch value. full review
168. CSA: Confederate States of America 2003 There's a rough, raw kind of genius here, and one that resonates. Because how far off is Willmott's scenario anyway? full review
169. Daddy Day Care 2003 Murphy is now as sweet and safe as Jell-O pudding. And about as exciting. full review
170. Down to the Bone 2003 Unlike most movies about addictions, Down to the Bone doesn't follow the usual, comforting three-act structure -- social user develops a problem, user becomes a desperate addict, user finally gets some help. full review
171. Gigli 2003 Such an utter wreck of a movie you expect to see it lying on its side somewhere in rural Pennsylvania, with a small gang of engineers circling and a wisp of smoke rising from the caboose. full review
172. Identity 2003 An over-directed slasher picture full of arty tricks and slumming stars. full review
173. Mona Lisa Smile 2003 The movie is only interesting intermittently, and the period details don't feel right. full review
174. The Deserted Station 2002 Like all of Iranian cinema, Deserted Station is marked by unaffected, neo-realist performances, particularly by Nezam Manouchehri as the testy and uncertain husband, and Leila Hatami as his quietly sad wife. full review
175. Secret Things 2002 [The movie] collapses under the weight of its own artsiness. full review
176. Bully 2001 full review
177. Love the Hard Way 2001 Full of bad dialogue, cheap locations, unbelievable situations and a lot of characters who have clearly spent too much time watching B-movies. full review
178. Manic 2001 It begins to feel a little like one of those made-for-TV, issue-of-the-week melodramas Linda Blair used to star in. full review
179. Easy Money 1983 full review
180. Rosemary's Baby 1968 One of the finest horror films ever made. full review
181. Gojira 1954 An interesting exercise in nostalgia as well as an informative look at the origins of a sci-fi giant who's stamped through nearly 30 films. full review