|
| 1. |
|
04/27/13 |
Poor |
 "...has something to offend everyone.... staggeringly unfunny... apathetically performed... couldn't possibly be more square." |
| 2. |
|
01/20/12 |
Poor |
 "...one longs for the comparatively rich characterizations and cinematography of your average 1990s PlayStation game." |
| 3. |
|
09/26/10 |
Poor |
 "...gleefully aims for the bottom of the barrel... script reeks of paint-by-numbers gutlessness, cobbled together out of musty clichés..." |
| 4. |
|
05/08/13 |
Poor |
 "Like many of his generation, James might be lost, but a good film would at least hold him accountable for also being an asshole." |
| 5. |
|
03/01/13 |
Poor |
 "Invokes faith and gender-based traumas only to reduce them to a redundant series of decibel-heavy scares... a prime example of a bad thing done well." |
| 6. |
|
10/26/11 |
Poor |
 "...boring... squanders its considerable acting talent in the name of limp drama and even limper social commentary..." |
| 7. |
|
09/10/11 |
Poor |
 "...the voices of Happy Madison, who produced this film, have never been more blatant in their two-faced approach to audience condescension." |
| 8. |
|
06/13/13 |
Weak |
 "...a disappointingly rote entry in the wuxia pantheon.... pays only lip service to notions of brotherhood and the clashing values of traditionalism and modernity." |
| 9. |
|
03/22/13 |
Weak |
 "...intimate to a fault... pays tribute to a hero but fails to acknowledge how many great protectors have been lost just as senselessly..." |
| 10. |
|
02/18/13 |
Weak |
 "...an energetic and well-meaning but thoroughly watered-down and creatively ossified kiddie flick... proves contemptuously paper-thin..." |
| 11. |
|
10/05/12 |
Weak |
 "...made with good intentions.... aims for both breadth and depth on matters of war and brotherhood but comes up short on both counts." |
| 12. |
|
10/20/11 |
Weak |
 "The creative blame goes round and round, from the poor staging and inert cinematography to a general cluelessness about the components of the genre..." |
| 13. |
|
05/17/13 |
Moderate |
 "...this is all meant to be taken as a meta exercise in Hollywood-insider rib-nudging... the film is too calculated in its raunchiness to be more than sporadically amusing." |
| 14. |
|
04/10/13 |
Moderate |
 "...fails to elevate itself above mere legacy... dabbles in character study and fighting spectacle before giving way to an overwhelmingly anonymous aesthetic." |
| 15. |
|
02/14/13 |
Moderate |
 "...never strays far from the inoffensively generic... a sporadically entertaining, modestly ambitious shoot 'em up that frequently succumbs to spelling out its subtext." |
| 16. |
|
08/23/12 |
Moderate |
 "...the portrayal of random violence is borderline tasteless in its calculated obviousness.... the film's ambitions ultimately break even with its mawkish ineptitude..." |
| 17. |
|
06/14/12 |
Moderate |
 "...has heart, which is more than can be said of some other recent genre throwbacks, but it ultimately makes barely a splash." |
| 18. |
|
03/11/12 |
Moderate |
 "...alternately trifling in its broad pandering and gutless in its paint-by-numbers effort to recreate the manic energy of, say, 'Liar Liar.' " |
| 19. |
|
11/10/11 |
Moderate |
 "...might very well entertain enthusiasts of Jascha Heifetz... but to those who don't already have his music fluttering around inside the chambers of their heart, there's little chance of developing an appreciation..." |
| 20. |
|
05/02/13 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...heartfelt.... Ambo approaches these subjects with an almost profound sense of empathy, one that goes a long way in uniting the vaguely related narrative threads." |
