|
| 1. |
|
05/14/13 |
Poor |
 "...brutal -- not so much in its violence, though there's some of that too, as in its flabbergasting tedium -- and utterly artless." |
| 2. |
|
04/18/13 |
Poor |
 "...the laziest sort of documentary, the kind that unearths a relatively unknown American artist of marginal interest and tries to dust off his or her secret legacy..." |
| 3. |
|
03/28/13 |
Poor |
 "...dreadful. The action is dominated by jittery cinematography, the jokes clunk, and the politics are abysmal.... This is screaming-eagle jingoism at its most meat-headed..." |
| 4. |
|
12/20/12 |
Poor |
 "It's hard to imagine anyone short of circus arts diehards or undiscriminating stoners being even intermittently impressed by this flashy string of high-tech set pieces." |
| 5. |
|
02/13/13 |
Poor |
 "...wholly generic... barely distinguished by the presence of Willis's banner hero. The plot is somehow vaporously thin and needlessly dense at the same time..." |
| 6. |
|
07/12/12 |
Poor |
 "...pros like Malkvoich and Goodman don't so much elevate this off-off-off-Broadway material as much as they get mired in it, wading through the slop of the script..." |
| 7. |
|
01/19/13 |
Weak |
 "Statham's superficial manipulability is put in service of corny capering... vacillates between flat comedy and spiked savagery, the product of a painfully slapdash script..." |
| 8. |
|
10/28/12 |
Weak |
 "...built on licensing.... warmed-over wink, nudge fare... an all-encompassing super video game mega-branded under the Disney banner. Save your quarters." |
| 9. |
|
10/03/12 |
Weak |
 "...an obvious dud.... the original film grappled with some seriously icky themes (sex slavery, specifically). 'Taken 2' never feels excitingly unsettling..." |
| 10. |
|
08/02/12 |
Weak |
 "...spoiled with stupid indexical nods to its predecessor, compounding its bankruptcy of imagination with active, self-conscious references to that very insolvency." |
| 11. |
|
06/05/12 |
Weak |
 "...plays out like bogusly high-minded fan fiction.... seems to delusionally maintain that its modest thrills are being enlivened by deeper concerns." |
| 12. |
|
02/28/13 |
Weak |
 "...the film plays like an occasion for top Israeli intelligence brass to atone, and shed crocodile tears for the errors of their ways. It's a case of way too little way too late." |
| 13. |
|
01/24/13 |
Weak |
"Jason Statham's no Lee Marvin, but his ample charms are squandered on a goofy script.... 'Parker's' action scenes are pretty thrilling." |
| 14. |
|
12/20/12 |
Weak |
 "Clumsily directed by Anne Fletcher, most of the jokes fall flat, the comic bickering receding into shapelessness." |
| 15. |
|
12/06/12 |
Weak |
 "Beyond the upbeat lesson and the rousing hagiography glowing around its subject, Jason Becker himself remains a mystery." |
| 16. |
|
08/16/12 |
Weak |
 "China's homespun response to the American popcorn picture.... the bloated blockbuster trappings bog the film down... the high fantasy elements seem too silly." |
| 17. |
|
11/20/12 |
Moderate |
 "...too 'deep,' with Hyams's sundry aesthetic superfluities and thematic aspirations ponderously bogging down his substantial talents as an action filmmaker." |
| 18. |
|
05/23/12 |
Moderate |
 "...flashes of honest-to-goodness delight that distinguish the original are replaced by a gaudy cynicism, never more so than in the film's barely sly condescension..." |
| 19. |
|
08/02/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...occasionally affecting... The three principals give strong performances, especially given the complex emotional material and criss-crossing sexual allegiances." |
| 20. |
|
12/12/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "While the rush toward a conventional climax is confusing and disappointing, there's an undeniable pleasure in seeing Tarantino juggle the dynamite of his ideas..." |
