|
| 1. |
NPR All Things Considered |
02/18/11 |
Poor |
 "CGI sequences are murky and dark... performances negligible... script genuinely inept." |
| 2. |
|
02/07/13 |
Poor |
 "...a catalog of missed opportunities... this uninspired trudge of a road movie is the biggest waste of all." |
| 3. |
|
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." |
| 4. |
NPR All Things Considered |
02/04/11 |
Poor |
 " 'The Poseidon Adventure' without an ocean liner; folks are dropping off right and left, with the guessing game of who'll die next providing the chief narrative thread." |
| 5. |
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." |
| 6. |
|
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." |
| 7. |
NPR All Things Considered |
05/20/11 |
Weak |
 "Swash, Buckle, Repeat As Necessary." |
| 8. |
NPR All Things Considered |
05/01/09 |
Weak |
 "The most terrifying thing about the movie, really, is that plural: Originsssss. So many mutants, so much time. Thank God we can leave that for another summer." |
| 9. |
NPR All Things Considered |
01/21/11 |
Fair |
 "...proof of the maxim that epic elements don't mean much without engaging characters to hang them on." |
| 10. |
NPR All Things Considered |
10/15/10 |
Fair |
 "...a slow-motion tidal wave of afterlife hokum, and you can feel it slipping away, bit by bit, despite Eastwood's best efforts to keep it on life support.... it sort of works." |
| 11. |
NPR All Things Considered |
04/02/10 |
Fair |
 "Everything's bigger and louder and faster, and if much of the action is therefore incoherent, the 'Transformers' crowd is going to be cool enough with that." |
| 12. |
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..." |
| 13. |
NPR All Things Considered |
02/05/09 |
Fair |
 "Director Kyle Newman and his screenwriters started with a 'Harold and Kumar'-style road trip full of raunchy chatter, then made the details equal-opportunity nerdy." |
| 14. |
|
03/21/13 |
Moderate |
 "...structurally crude.... as family viewing, it's pleasant enough: primitive, yes, but in a digitally sophisticated way that's boisterous, funny and will no doubt sell a lot of toys." |
| 15. |
|
03/07/13 |
Moderate |
 "...tells the story of how the Wizard came to Oz, answering a question I suspect no one was asking, but with considerable digital wizardry." |
| 16. |
|
10/25/12 |
Moderate |
 "...it would be hard not to admire what's being attempted here... [but] flashy visuals and fortune-cookie philosophizing do not a resonant movie make." |
| 17. |
|
05/11/12 |
Moderate |
 "...handsome, vaguely true to the old soap opera, and inert... just kind of batty." |
| 18. |
|
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..." |
| 19. |
NPR All Things Considered |
06/04/10 |
Moderate |
 "Jonah Hill and Russell Brand look relaxed together no matter what level of inebriation or awkwardness... But the movie around them goes kind of sloppy and sentimental..." |
| 20. |
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..." |
