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| 1. |
|
05/11/12 |
Fair |
 "...a low-budget dramedy... The portraits of beleaguered lower-income people by Ms. Hall and especially Ms. Preston lend the movie its only dramatic traction." |
| 2. |
|
04/27/12 |
Moderate |
 "Bring on the redemption, overabundant shootouts and whiplash editing... if only someone would offer Jason Statham a project worthy of the full range of his talent." |
| 3. |
|
04/06/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...generates a taut frisson within its spare 90 minutes.... director David Brooks capitalizes on antiseptic, fluorescent interiors, while the score, by David Buckley, nicely accents stress points." |
| 4. |
|
03/30/12 |
Good |
 "There's charm aplenty... a romantic comedy that is as interesting for its glimpse into contemporary urban China as it is for the charisma of its leads." |
| 5. |
|
03/30/12 |
Moderate |
 "...you get lots of British thespians hamming it up with trifling dialogue... There are also soldiers, fireballs, smoke and sand. But not much to think about when the dust clears." |
| 6. |
|
03/16/12 |
Fair |
 "...wants desperately to win the love of cult- and B-movie lovers everywhere.... for such a film, its bargain-basement production values and lack of wit unexpectedly prove a greater liability than an asset." |
| 7. |
|
03/09/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...a slender movie of humble, welcome charms.... flirts with romance but to its credit avoids a predictable course.... Mr. Wallis, a first-time feature filmmaker, has cast his movie with the right grizzled faces." |
| 8. |
|
03/09/12 |
Fair |
 "In the simplicity of its premise it embodies the notion of high-concept entertainment. In its execution it demonstrates how technical efficiency can drain the life from a story." |
| 9. |
|
03/03/12 |
Weak |
 "...a disposable trifle of fleeting rewards... Regrettably, the laddie jokes (violence, bodily fluids, sexual accessories) outnumber the video pyrotechnics." |
| 10. |
|
02/03/12 |
Very Good |
 "...urgent, informative and artfully assembled... the film depicts the perils of a booming industry and the bitter rancor it sowed among a citizenry." |
| 11. |
|
02/03/12 |
Good |
 "A real-life examination of competitive surfing in Papua New Guinea, the film derives tension from the proverbial big tournament but also from how the event helps foster a worthy morality." |
| 12. |
|
01/28/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...infinitely surpasses the LaBute 2006 remake fiasco, but can't beat the raw, earthy and mythic (and far more low-budget) power of the first.... finding sympathy for the leads isn't as easy as it was for the forceful if self-righteous Edward Woodward. Still, it does manage to leave you with a haunted, agreeable unease." |
| 13. |
|
01/21/12 |
Moderate |
 "The combat quotient, to the movie's credit, is way up, with narrative folderol kept to a minimum. Is another sequel a possibility? Do vampires get thirsty?" |
| 14. |
|
01/20/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...early steampunk flavorings, including the Black Bats -- flying female antagonists in Art Deco regalia -- have charm.... But if you're not among the indoctrinated, don't bother." |
| 15. |
|
01/13/12 |
Good |
 "...depicts with static or slow-moving compositions a decaying city [London] beset by I.R.A. attacks and successive Tory governments.... a dry, almost somnolent Vanessa Redgrave plays the surviving partner to Robinson's Boswell, now dead, and the gloom softens as she and Robinson set foot in rural England." |
| 16. |
|
01/12/12 |
Good |
 "The taunts in the ring may be make-believe, but the slams against the mat are agonizingly genuine... There's no mistaking the grimaces as these men suffer dearly for their homegrown art." |
| 17. |
|
12/11/11 |
Good |
 "...sustains a bright, buoyant 'Sex and the City' texture with brisk editing, cool camera work and nightclub pastels.... Parineeti Chopra, Aditi Sharma, Dipannita Sharma, Anushka Sharma are so appealing that it's disappointing when their revenge is thwarted by the man..." |
| 18. |
|
12/08/11 |
Good |
 "...has, for all its derivative special effects and conceits, an agreeable light-footedness (a clue to its Hong Kong, not mainland, provenance). Its buoyancy may not redeem its predictability, but it makes the movie bearable and even enjoyable at times.... a refreshing tonic." |
| 19. |
|
12/02/11 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...impassioned if melodramatic... a procession of speechifying, a relentless reiteration of points already crystal clear. But a coda -- a return to the older woman, the mother of the brothers -- resonates with loss.... Song sequences [are] refreshing gulps of air amid the solemnity." |
| 20. |
|
12/02/11 |
Poor |
 "Ostensibly an inspirational film about a high schooler's development of character, 'A Warrior's Heart' is factory-issue jingoism, yielding no surprises and frightfully few insights." |
