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| 1. |
|
01/22/09 |
Very Good |
 "Parents may not enjoy it as much as their kids, but if these worlds within words drive a child to read, something's gone right.... It's familiar, to be sure, but a nice diversion..." |
| 2. |
|
01/29/09 |
Weak |
 "The stink of producer/co-screenwriter Luc Besson permeates like Roquefort." |
| 3. |
|
02/12/09 |
Poor |
 "...the hockey-masked killer (Derek Mears) doesn't seem much interested in mindless revenge. No, dude! He's just overly protective of his mythical stash of weed..." |
| 4. |
|
02/19/09 |
Moderate |
 "Plausibility is not the strong suit of P.J. ('Muriel's Wedding') Hogan's romantic comedy based on the Sophie Kinsella books -- Fisher is." |
| 5. |
|
02/26/09 |
Very Good |
 "...the verbal gymnastics of Freedom Jones's script almost measure up to the physical ones. Both are handled gamely by Eric Christian Olsen and Nicholas D'Agosto..." |
| 6. |
|
03/05/09 |
Poor |
 "...you've got the makings of a satisfying action picture. If only they hadn't changed this story.... The fighting's terrible too." |
| 7. |
|
04/15/09 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "Filmmaker Geralyn Pezanoski focuses on the storm after the storm, when it dawned on the people who had lost everything that that included their beloved pets." |
| 8. |
|
04/30/09 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "Say you want to produce an independent computer-animated sci-fi epic but you don't have the deep pockets of Pixar or DreamWorks -- what to do?... you simplify." |
| 9. |
|
04/30/09 |
Poor |
 "...a labored reworking of 'A Christmas Carol,' where Dickens gets bent over by the ghost of Matthew McConaughey's once-promising career." |
| 10. |
|
05/07/09 |
Very Good |
 "...this story belongs to an entire family... this is a J-horror Kurosawa film, an unexpectedly moving one." |
| 11. |
|
06/25/09 |
Poor |
 "...as black-and-white as writer/director Cyrus Nowrasteh's scripts for the TV movies 'The Path to 9/11' and 'The Day Reagan Was Shot.' " |
| 12. |
|
07/02/09 |
Weak |
 "...owes a debt to James M. Cain's novel 'The Postman Always Rings Twice,' but it's debt of the monetary kind that chokes the inhabitants of the title East German town." |
| 13. |
|
07/09/09 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...captures some of the visceral thrills of the nine-year-old anime. Credit Corey Yuen's gravity-defying fight choreography and some cut-rate CGI." |
| 14. |
|
07/30/09 |
Very Good |
 "Meanwhile, recovering alcoholic mom is hilariously driven to google 'kids who kill' en route to the film's delightfully gonzo final twist." |
| 15. |
|
08/06/09 |
Outstanding |
 "Is there anything more heartwarming than watching a little girl officiating at the marriage of two of her favorite dolls?" |
| 16. |
|
08/13/09 |
Very Good |
 "More plotted than usual... the film has its own silence broken by a Beethoven sonata played under the final scene... a distracting element in a work of near-greatness." |
| 17. |
|
09/03/09 |
Poor |
 "...an artless, bloody mess." |
| 18. |
|
09/10/09 |
Poor |
 "They should have called it 'There's Something Insane About Mary.' " |
| 19. |
|
09/10/09 |
Moderate |
 "...older viewers may find little to admire about Acker's feature-length expansion of his Oscar-nominated 10-minute 2005 short, other than its CGI visuals. But what visuals!" |
| 20. |
|
09/17/09 |
Outstanding |
 "Kore-eda's exchanges unfold with an everyday homeliness; he subtly reveals seething resentments and regrets while never losing sight of his characters' fallible humanity." |
