|
| 1. |
|
01/27/12 |
Moderate |
 "Despite the occasional dumb fun -- especially with the heist portions -- the leap of logic required to make it all work is enough to leave your brain pancaked on the sidewalk." |
| 2. |
|
12/30/11 |
Weak |
 "...surprisingly thrill-less... You should be rooting for the humans, but you might as well be rooting for the blobs. Most likely, though, you'll just be rooting for the credits." |
| 3. |
|
11/25/11 |
Excellent |
 "...more clever than outright funny, but it's also genuinely sweet, and the complicated relations among Santa's clan are surprisingly believable.... In the end, the film really nails the trickiest knot of tangled multicolored lights: family." |
| 4. |
|
10/28/11 |
Moderate |
 "...stupid fun, with an emphasis on stupid.... Everything in the film is puffed up absurdly... It floats, but it's mainly filled with hot air." |
| 5. |
|
10/07/11 |
Moderate |
 "...starts off well enough with agreeable characters, passable dialogue, and the genial tone of an episode of '7th Heaven,' but eventually devolves into over-the-top drama and a suffocating heavy-handedness.... for all intents and purposes the theater seats might as well be pews." |
| 6. |
|
09/23/11 |
Good |
 "While the plot occasionally feels like 'Free Willy' without the drama, it's a cute story if you don't mind temporarily trading in your cynicism for a bag of popcorn." |
| 7. |
|
09/10/11 |
Poor |
 "...a one-note joke played over and over and over. Like a bad movie adaptation of a recurring Saturday Night Live character that never existed... pretty hard to watch." |
| 8. |
|
09/09/11 |
Weak |
 "In space no one can hear you scream. Or groan.... 'Apollo 18' fails to stay with you because, like the cratered satellite on which it's set, it has no atmosphere." |
| 9. |
|
09/02/11 |
Moderate |
 "...silly fun at first, but as her break-ins and escapes grow absurdly complex -- and her motivations increasingly muddy -- it turns into the same silly stuff we've seen before..." |
| 10. |
|
08/21/11 |
Fair |
 "...mainly a collection of fart jokes, backgrounds green-screened into abstraction, and the same 'family first' lessons espoused by the first three films." |
| 11. |
|
08/19/11 |
Very Good |
 "...largely works not because the plot hews closely to that of the 1985 original -- excepting a few smart updates that help brush off the graveyard dirt -- but because it also resurrects its spirit..." |
| 12. |
|
07/29/11 |
Excellent |
 "...tightly paced... it's a blast to be drawn into this urban ecosystem that is, to us Yanks, itself a bit alien." |
| 13. |
|
07/29/11 |
Weak |
 "...recycles discarded bits from other celluloid Happy Meals like 'Alvin and the Chipmunks,' 'Garfield,' and 'Hop'... all careful studio calculation." |
| 14. |
|
07/22/11 |
Good |
 "Jenna Fischer's performance is sweet and subtle, but the film can be so understated in tone and plot that it's hard to tell if it's actually saying anything." |
| 15. |
|
07/15/11 |
Weak |
 "A feat of East-West rapprochement that would have stupefied Nixon... Sadly, rather than melding the best of two worlds, the film only takes the worst of their soap operas." |
| 16. |
|
07/03/11 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...innocuous and inconsequential... while both Gomez and the film sorely lack the effortless charisma of their exemplars, they're not entirely without their own charms." |
| 17. |
|
02/04/11 |
Poor |
 "...few scares and minimal characterization... really just a far-below-par thriller that desperately wishes it were a different movie -- a longing it shares with the audience." |
| 18. |
|
01/28/11 |
Fair |
 "...riches-to-rags story is inoffensive, but for a film ostensibly about the importance of finding a little spice and flavor in your life, 'From Prada to Nada' is surprisingly bland." |
| 19. |
|
12/24/10 |
Fair |
 "...strips the source material down to its recognizable parts and then builds something completely new out of them. Unfortunately, the result is entirely Lilliputian in ambition..." |
| 20. |
|
11/12/10 |
Very Good |
 "Tony Scott is the right man for the job.... The exchange of substance for speed may not appeal to all, but if you're on board you'll find it hard to disembark." |
