|
| 1. |
NPR All Things Considered |
11/13/09 |
Poor |
 "There's perhaps 40 minutes of cheesy but genuinely spectacular special effects -- the stuff you came for -- and two additional hours of painfully idiotic plot." |
| 2. |
|
04/11/13 |
Good |
 "...earnestly grandiose.... Brian Helgeland lays out the history in bold, clear strokes, with little nuance but lots of atmosphere.... Shameless, sure. But effective." |
| 3. |
|
09/29/11 |
Very Good |
 "In other hands, Adam might well be hard to take. But Gordon-Levitt, who's maybe the most natural, least affected actor of his generation, makes prickly plenty engaging." |
| 4. |
|
12/29/11 |
Outstanding |
 "...when you consider how heavily censored filmmakers are in Iran, director Asghar Farhadi's accomplishment starts to seem downright astonishing." |
| 5. |
NPR All Things Considered |
12/11/09 |
Outstanding |
 "An exquisite, almost sensual grief suffuses every frame of 'A Single Man.' " |
| 6. |
NPR All Things Considered |
05/15/09 |
Fair |
 "...there's only so much Ron Howard can do with novelist Dan Brown's genuinely idiotic plotline..." |
| 7. |
NPR All Things Considered |
08/13/10 |
Excellent |
 "Welcome to the jungle, suburban style: white picket fences and beasts of prey.... its gangster conventions feel as if they're in the service of a modern-day Greek tragedy." |
| 8. |
|
10/27/11 |
Weak |
 "...this film's plot will prove incoherent for folks who can't identify Ben Jonson, Robert Cecil and the 2nd Earl of Essex -- and it'll prove exasperating for those who can." |
| 9. |
|
10/11/12 |
Outstanding |
 "...the real accomplishment here is how Affleck manages to segue from 'Ocean's 11'-style repartee to pulse-pounding tension and back again." |
| 10. |
|
05/17/12 |
Poor |
 "The screenwriters have to tie themselves in knots to get to a scene that actually echoes the board game... once they have, the outcome is more or less incoherent." |
| 11. |
|
03/03/12 |
Very Good |
 "It's easy to imagine the story turning precious in the wrong hands, but Weitz and his cast spin it just right..." |
| 12. |
NPR All Things Considered |
05/14/10 |
Moderate |
 "Celebrity's tough to let go of, apparently, even when you know it's undeserved. Best Worst Movie doesn't plumb that thought very deeply..." |
| 13. |
NPR All Things Considered |
11/20/09 |
Excellent |
 "...what you might term a lushly tragic lark -- a heartfelt, if not quite heartbreaking, paean to romance and to the romance of cinema." |
| 14. |
NPR All Things Considered |
12/04/09 |
Very Good |
 "Sheridan takes his time establishing characters, works nuances rather than plot twists, and avoids histrionics... when the emotional fireworks come, they're explosive." |
| 15. |
NPR All Things Considered |
07/10/09 |
Good |
 "...when things feel real, they can get scary-real... pretty bleeping funny." |
| 16. |
|
03/29/12 |
Excellent |
 "...a wrenching, intensely moral film, and so potentially useful to children who are either being bullied, or doing the bullying..." |
| 17. |
NPR All Things Considered |
09/24/10 |
Good |
 "...there is never a shot outside the box. If your point is to keep things tight, you have to have the courage of your restrictions." |
| 18. |
|
01/31/13 |
Very Good |
 "...blends life offstage and on until it's hard to say whether the lifers scrambling to their cells after a jail-yard assassination are acting or simply engaged in self-preservation." |
| 19. |
|
12/15/11 |
Moderate |
 "...you're always aware that you're watching filmed theater -- a scripted pressure-cooker where playability is being allowed to trump plausibility..." |
| 20. |
|
01/20/12 |
Good |
 "There's nothing here to surprise the Broadway devotees who will be this film's prime (and possibly only) audience.... The lady was -- and remains -- a pro..." |
