|
| 1. |
|
04/24/13 |
Fair |
 "A kung fu pastiche that sometimes resembles a video game and comes tricked out with an assortment of steampunk gizmos.... more like Tai Chi Business as Usual." |
| 2. |
|
04/19/13 |
Very Good |
 "...nothing if not ruthlessly effective.... Zombie's disturbing violence and slow pacing leave viewers feeling as helpless and brain-addled as his protagonists." |
| 3. |
|
04/18/13 |
Fair |
 "The movie's creators do a disservice to Chilean singer and multi-hyphenate artist Violeta Parra's legacy by making her suicide the logical climax to her working life." |
| 4. |
|
04/10/13 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "Rittenberg understands what happened during the Cultural Revolution, and Drasnin knows he doesn't need to confront Rittenberg with the consequences of his actions." |
| 5. |
|
04/05/13 |
Outstanding |
 "...tantalizes... it's about pattern recognition, but it's also about how a couple's inexplicable attraction is fostered by (shared?) trauma." |
| 6. |
|
04/05/13 |
Moderate |
 "...a maddeningly short-sighted character study about a disturbed young American in Paris... consistently unsettling, but not always for the right reasons." |
| 7. |
|
03/27/13 |
Fair |
"...death-obsessed.... loosely organized narrative episodes conflate the artist's creative frustrations with her self-destructive personality." |
| 8. |
|
03/20/13 |
Weak |
 "...maddeningly superficial.... its creators likewise expect viewers to take their subjects' ostentatious sincerity and generically uplifting message at face value." |
| 9. |
|
03/07/13 |
Weak |
 "The original film's jump-scare chills don't work now... you can actually see the monsters jumping out of the shadows." |
| 10. |
|
03/06/13 |
Weak |
"When the creators of the film swapped pseudo-verité realism for psychological realism, they made it a lot harder to take their franchise seriously..." |
| 11. |
|
02/13/13 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...writer/actor Xu Zheng errs on the side of improvisatory and lazily assembled Apatow-esque narrative episodes; many of those scenes are amiably goofy..." |
| 12. |
|
02/08/13 |
Poor |
 "...a toxically quirky black comedy starring a morbidly obese albino... there's no genuine empathy in in this movie, just lots and lots of misanthropy." |
| 13. |
|
02/06/13 |
Poor |
 "Visually unspectacular and emotionally stillborn... fails as both a fantasy and a romance... The clunky action mostly revolves around uninspired wire-fu choreography..." |
| 14. |
|
02/06/13 |
Very Good |
 "Bejoy Nambiar's stylistic experiment coalesces into a moving set of faith-based confrontations. It's thrilling to watch him futz around with tone and style..." |
| 15. |
|
01/30/13 |
Weak |
 "...the film's hyper-convoluted heist plot is entirely haphazard.... the only thing that distinguishes the film from its American influences is its busy-ness." |
| 16. |
|
01/23/13 |
Excellent |
 "Jeffrey Kimball's bird footage is attractive on its own, but the way he positions his birders in conversation with one another is why the movie soars." |
| 17. |
|
01/16/13 |
Poor |
 "...populated exclusively by stick figures defined by conventional tics... comprised of rote scenes of broad comedy and arid melodrama... dishearteningly banal." |
| 18. |
|
01/09/13 |
Fair |
 "...banal... director Wolfgang Murnberger and his co-writer Paul Hengge do nothing to flesh out their provocative themes." |
| 19. |
|
01/03/13 |
Fair |
 "...only tentatively concerned with the tension that arises after National Guard units are ordered to deploy... its interest in exploring class and race in the service vanishes..." |
| 20. |
|
12/26/12 |
Fair |
"Without its topical pretext and overzealous patriotism, this would be just another generic action film.... A throbbing Hans Zimmer-lite soundtrack overscores..." |
