|
| 1. |
|
01/18/13 |
Outstanding |
 "...for my money, it's Chastain's best performance yet.... damned if 'Mama' doesn't transcend its nonsense.... an honest-to-god film instead of a quickie horror cash-in..." |
| 2. |
|
01/18/13 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...a return to men who crack quips, fight with their fists, and swagger around without having to carry the weight of the world on their over-developed shoulders." |
| 3. |
|
12/20/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand elevate a formulaic script... this can feel like one long, occasionally funny, occasionally haranguing reminder to love your mother." |
| 4. |
|
12/19/12 |
Good |
 "...a bit unsteady as it wavers between action and laughs. But the flick is great entertainment... it's fast, fun, and smarter than it looks." |
| 5. |
|
12/17/12 |
Good |
 "...benefits from the closeness of this material to its creator as much as it suffers for it... feels like a recycled Erma Bombeck column with some added iPad etiquette..." |
| 6. |
|
12/14/12 |
Very Good |
 "...a neat, lightweight little hipster romance... a convincingly contemporary depiction of relationships and dating when the goalposts have been moved..." |
| 7. |
|
12/12/12 |
Very Good |
 "...unflinching austerity... the clinical distance Haneke manages so well also makes the film feel like a beautifully crafted but calculated exercise..." |
| 8. |
|
12/12/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...an unfortunate example of a director disappearing so far into his own vision that he's lost interest in taking a step back and looking at it in its entirety." |
| 9. |
|
12/10/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...even if this isn't a great screen adaptation of the musical, there's no resisting the ending, which pairs the film's two brightest stars and then has everyone join in..." |
| 10. |
|
12/06/12 |
Good |
 "...thoroughly and effectively sappy... It wrings out tears with an industrious efficiency that leaves you feeling manhandled after the exhilarating, terrifying footage..." |
| 11. |
|
12/05/12 |
Poor |
 "A dismal misfire... a sort of high-stakes comedy of manners, but it's one in which the extremely mannered are placed in contrast with the merely very mannered." |
| 12. |
|
12/04/12 |
Good |
 "Jackson brings a plain earnestness to the material which matches Tolkien's direct and straightforward narrative voice... returning to Middle Earth feels right." |
| 13. |
|
11/29/12 |
Outstanding |
 "...an examination of how contemporary warfare has so much more to do with information than with sending troops out into battle.... stunningly well-realized..." |
| 14. |
|
11/29/12 |
Very Good |
 "...wants to be angry and scathing, but, to its credit, enjoys its characters and its mechanics too much to have a sharp edge." |
| 15. |
|
11/20/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "Lee's movie is a grand gesture of filmmaking pushed to its furthest technical edges, but hemmed in and confined by its fidelity to words on a page." |
| 16. |
|
11/15/12 |
Very Good |
 "The tangible details of the town and its supporting characters are anything but saccharine... the film creates a sense of place you don't want to leave behind." |
| 17. |
|
11/15/12 |
Good (Not Great) |
 "...it sets aside the strange undercurrents of desire and danger that defined the series... Bella's an empowered badass, and that's why things feel off." |
| 18. |
|
11/08/12 |
Outstanding |
 "...a magnificently warts-and-all portrait and appreciation of democracy at work in all its bickering, lively messiness." |
| 19. |
|
11/07/12 |
Excellent |
 "They've made him fun again.... Bond is literally reborn.... he gets fewer silly gadgets these days, but he does have his awesomely fly car and a customized gun." |
| 20. |
|
11/01/12 |
Good |
 "...a solid, burnished work made about adults for adults... turns out to be a disappointingly standard addiction story in its second half..." |
