|
| 1. |
|
05/18/12 |
Moderate |
 "...about a third of the way along, there's a shocking revelation that definitely packs a punch. Problem is, it's followed by a near-immediate return to familiar narrative..." |
| 2. |
|
05/18/12 |
Moderate |
 "...this being Southern Gothic with a bizarre comic twist, gorilla masks get donned and banks get robbed. Huh? Exactly." |
| 3. |
|
05/04/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...doesn't illuminate the darkness so much as deepen it.... At times it is smart, but it's never a beacon - a pitch-black lighthouse points the way to nowhere." |
| 4. |
|
05/03/12 |
Moderate |
 "The eyes are often delighted, the senses are consistently engaged/assaulted and the funny bone is occasionally tickled, but our emotions emerge wholly unscathed." |
| 5. |
|
04/27/12 |
Moderate |
 "...the plot first strains and then assassinates credulity... Love the kid though, and Statham too - it takes a star with quality to be so rock solid in a crumbling yarn." |
| 6. |
|
04/27/12 |
Weak |
 "...the film sputters and stalls... better to call this thing 'The Big Pill,' 'cause it's awfully hard to swallow." |
| 7. |
|
04/20/12 |
Weak |
 "Another Nicholas Sparks novel, another cinematic brush with insulin shock. Sweet doesn't begin to do this goop justice. Saccharine fails too..." |
| 8. |
|
04/13/12 |
Moderate |
 "...just another minor flick guilty of that most common aesthetic crime: borrowing too much and repaying too little." |
| 9. |
|
04/13/12 |
Very Good |
 "...the two Terences [playwright Rattigan and filmmaker Davies] are made for each other - not quite a love match, maybe, but a solid symbiosis." |
| 10. |
|
04/06/12 |
Very Good |
 "...tackles this headline-heavy topic by mixing moments of raw emotional power with intervals of somewhat suspect manipulation." |
| 11. |
|
04/06/12 |
Moderate |
 "Ultimately, we're all just standing still somewhere in the listless middle, with the only exits both blocked - the low one to escapist entertainment, and the high one to engaged art." |
| 12. |
|
03/30/12 |
Weak |
 "When the dust settles, all that's left are a few motes of lame comedy atop a few million bucks worth of overdressed sets.... less an adaptation than a random assault." |
| 13. |
|
03/30/12 |
Very Good |
 "No, we don't see any blood, or much forgiveness either, but we do witness something far more resonant - a young generation caught between the rock of tradition and the hard place of modernity." |
| 14. |
|
03/23/12 |
Outstanding |
 "Simultaneously retro and futuristic, the script borrows as liberally from Roman epics and medieval lore as it does from reality TV and apocalyptic sci-fi." |
| 15. |
|
03/16/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...the film gets the emphasis wrong. The success that has many fathers is altogether predictable; it's the despicable orphan of failure who has us in his thrall." |
| 16. |
|
03/16/12 |
Moderate |
 "The pic is poking fun at stuff that is poking fun at stuff that began as cheap fun. By now, that's a lot of poking for a little fun." |
| 17. |
|
03/16/12 |
Very Good |
 "...nothing if not brave.... a documentary attempt to give concrete shape to an abstract discussion, using the medium of film to transplant a nuanced thesis - on the concept of debt..." |
| 18. |
|
03/09/12 |
Moderate |
 "...it's an epic delivered in a monotone." |
| 19. |
|
03/09/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "Since the picture is fairly well made, and certainly well acted, the game is worth playing..." |
| 20. |
|
03/09/12 |
Very Good |
 "Make the leap, and you'll be delighted by a movie that's sugary goodness, a guilty pleasure. Don't, and you'll gag on a film that's cloyingly saccharine." |
