| 1. |
|
05/16/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
"Isn't the whole point of going to a Sacha Baron Cohen movie to get away from humanist sentiment, to go to a place where darker regions can be accessed?" |
| 2. |
|
05/10/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
"...just another overcooked late-Tim Burton style-fest, with enough good gags and strong performances to keep the audience from dwelling on the flaws." |
| 3. |
|
05/04/12 |
Outstanding |
"...an unabashedly inspirational portrait of what even very young people can accomplish with discipline and dedication.... irresistible..." |
| 4. |
|
05/03/12 |
Good |
"...does manage to feel a cut above the average superhero movie... reasonably entertaining and tonally coherent..." |
| 5. |
|
04/27/12 |
Very Good |
"...a perversely heartwarming folktale... a story of thwarted love, not between two people, but between a man and a whole town." |
| 6. |
|
04/26/12 |
Moderate |
"...like the square older cousin of the 2008 Nicholas Stoller/Jason Segel collaboration 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall'.... has all the formlessness with half the fun." |
| 7. |
|
04/19/12 |
Good |
"...an exemplary music documentary in almost every way -- but the area in which it falls short is an important one... Marley's music tends to be heard in frustratingly brief bursts..." |
| 8. |
|
04/13/12 |
Excellent |
"Its surface may be still and quiet, with cool colors, wintry landscapes, and a delicate piano score, but the emotions beneath run tumultuous and deep." |
| 9. |
|
04/12/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
"...rarely comes across as more than a cleverly constructed meta-cinematic puzzle. It's often funny and smart, but seldom deeply involving, and practically never scary." |
| 10. |
|
04/06/12 |
Moderate |
"...stubbornly peculiar.... always surprising.... the Stillman style has come unmoored from its reason for existence.... flits prettily by without ever finding anything to be about." |
| 11. |
|
03/22/12 |
Very Good |
"...it will more than satisfy existing fans of the trilogy and likely create many new ones.... Lawrence carries the whole film on her sturdy shoulders." |
| 12. |
|
03/16/12 |
Moderate |
"...deeply committed to its own weird conceit, diminishing returns and all.... an interesting but failed experiment..." |
| 13. |
|
03/15/12 |
Very Good |
"...if the first two-thirds is anything to go by, there may be a renaissance at hand for the dumb buddy-cop comedy. I'm just not sure, as the wags in 10th grade used to put it, if that's a threat or a promise." |
| 14. |
|
03/09/12 |
Moderate |
"...pleasant but overfamiliar... isn't an awful movie by any means: It's a polished, palatable yuppie rom-com in the Woody Allen-lite tradition..." |
| 15. |
|
03/08/12 |
Good |
"...a strange, at times misshapen, but somehow lovable thing... a niche movie for lovers of literary science fiction... overlong but sweet-spirited..." |
| 16. |
|
03/02/12 |
Outstanding |
"...a miracle -- not only because it's such a terrific movie but because it exists for us to see at all.... the very existence of this movie is a gift. No wonder it came to us in a cake." |
| 17. |
|
02/24/12 |
Good |
"...provides at least one solid laugh per scene, with a few stretches of more extended hilarity (along with more than one riff that dies writhing before our eyes)." |
| 18. |
|
02/17/12 |
Excellent |
"...a powerful and fascinating movie about a subject I can almost guarantee you've never spent much time thinking about... I hope we'll be getting another chance to watch actor Matthias Schoenaerts' work in the near future..." |
| 19. |
|
02/16/12 |
Excellent |
"...modestly scaled but inspiring... a simple character portrait of Bill Courtney, the volunteer coach who squires the Tigers to something resembling victory over the course of that tumultuous season.... Loyalty and courage like that deserve a lot more than just an Oscar." |
| 20. |
|
02/10/12 |
Very Good |
"...someone has written a really good role for Linda Cardellini -- a big, prickly, demanding role that puts her onscreen in literally every scene -- and it's a thrill to watch her operating at full throttle." |