movie review

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Harlem Aria Hits Sour Note
 Harlem Aria Hits Sour Note 
MOVIE REVIEW
Mar 5, 2010 12:35 PM CST

Harlem Aria Hits Sour Note

Apparent Soloist knockoff actually from 1999, where it should stay

(Newser) - Harlem Aria hit the festival circuit in 1999, and contemporary critics are baffled by the timing of the release of the uneven story of a developmentally disabled young black man with a heart and voice of gold:
  • The performances and William Jennings' direction are "no more than adequate,"
...

Brooklyn's Finest a Clich&eacute;d Mess
 Brooklyn's Finest 
 a Clichéd Mess 
Movie Review
Mar 5, 2010 10:46 AM CST

Brooklyn's Finest a Clichéd Mess

Good acting, directing can't rescue ridiculous script

(Newser) - Brooklyn’s Finest, the latest from Training Day director Antoine Fuqua, is “a billy-club sandwich: three cop dramas piled one on top of the other, separated by layers of dramatic cheese," writes Ty Burr of the Boston Globe . About an hour in, “you hit gristle.” Sound...

Defendor 's Would-Be Superhero Less Than Super
 Defendor's Would-Be 
 Superhero Less Than Super 
MOVIE REVIEW
Feb 26, 2010 2:35 PM CST

Defendor's Would-Be Superhero Less Than Super

Woody Harrelson shines, but film doesn't hang together

(Newser) - Woody Harrelson plays a deluded superhero in Defendor, Canadian writer-director Peter Stebbings' debut. The filmmaker's compatriots get where he's coming from; critics south of the border, not so much:
  • "Made for $3.5-million, it looks, if anything, cheaper," James Adams writes in the Globe and Mail . But Harrelson's
...

Actors Save Soggy Yellow Handkerchief
 Actors Save Soggy 
 Yellow Handkerchief 
Movie Review
Feb 26, 2010 12:08 PM CST

Actors Save Soggy Yellow Handkerchief

William Hurt, Kristen Stewart make old story work

(Newser) - Critics misted up during The Yellow Handkerchief, the tale of an ex-con’s search for his estranged wife, taken from an Pete Hamill story. Here’s what they’re saying:
  • “Beautifully acted” and “gorgeously photographed,” The Yellow Hankerchief “tells a timeless fable, and tells it extremely
...

The Crazies Is a Scary Blast
 The Crazies Is a Scary Blast  
MOVIE REVIEW
Feb 26, 2010 8:22 AM CST

The Crazies Is a Scary Blast

Horror remake a stylish tribute to 1973 original

(Newser) - Mike Hale of the New York Times dismisses The Crazies—Breck Eisner's remake of the 1973 George Romero flick—as "not crazy enough." But just about everybody else seems sufficiently freaked by this B-movie tale of bio-weapons gone wrong in small-town America:
  • Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune
...

Kevin Smith's Cop Out Aptly Named
 Kevin Smith's 
 Cop Out Aptly Named 
MOVIE REVIEW
Feb 26, 2010 7:27 AM CST

Kevin Smith's Cop Out Aptly Named

Bruce Willis-Tracy Morgan buddy pic falls flat

(Newser) - Kevin Smith was given the biggest budget of his career for Cop Out, but most critics found the send-up of '80s buddy-cop movies, which stars Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, a waste of talent.
  • The movie is "foul-mouthed but not funny, bullet-riddled but not exciting, crammed with contrivances that
...

Blood Done Sign My Name Clichéd, But Important

Simple civil rights drama splits critics

(Newser) - Critics are somewhat divided on Blood Done Sign My Name, a civil rights drama with more honesty than panache. Here’s what they’re saying:
  • From its not-exactly-deep dialogue to its “not-quite-stereotypical but not-quite-real” characters, Blood “has the look and feel of a dependable TV movie,” says
...

Smiles Rare in Happy Tears
 Smiles Rare in Happy Tears 
Movie Review
Feb 19, 2010 12:38 PM CST

Smiles Rare in Happy Tears

Would-be dramedy just a weird mishmash

(Newser) - Happy Tears, a quirky family dramedy starring Demi Moore, Rip Torn, and Parker Posey, hasn’t made many critics happy. Here’s what they’re saying.
  • Director Mitchell Lichtenstein says the film’s not autobiographical, even though he, like one character, is the son of a famous painter (Roy Lichtenstein).
...

Good Guy Is a Romantic Retread
 Good Guy Is a Romantic Retread 
movie review
Feb 19, 2010 12:03 PM CST

Good Guy Is a Romantic Retread

Nothing much original in this story about traders in love

(Newser) - The Good Guy, a story of twentysomething love and Wall Street traders starring Alexis Bledel and Scott Porter, left most critics feeling like they'd seen this movie before.
  • Ella Taylor, Village Voice : It "suffers from the dreary want of imagination about the specificity of twentysomething life that has sunk
...

Polanski's Ghost Writer Criminally Good
 Polanski's 
 Ghost Writer  
 Criminally Good 
Movie Review
Feb 19, 2010 9:59 AM CST

Polanski's Ghost Writer Criminally Good

Director has lost his freedom, but not his touch

(Newser) - Roman Polanski’s new movie, an atmospheric political thriller, is a winner, critics agree—assuming you can forget the off-screen drama surrounding the director. Here’s what they’re saying:
  • It’s “a dark pearl of a movie…made by a filmmaker suddenly returned to the height of his
...

Scorsese Goes Gothic in Shattering Shutter Island

Director's mastery on display in finely crafted B-movie

(Newser) - Martin Scorsese has crafted a gripping '50s-era thrill ride in Shutter Island, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo as federal marshals probing a disappearance at a hospital for the criminally insane, say critics.
  • The movie is a "nerve-twisting, tension-jammed exercise in pure paranoia—and possibly Scorsese's most commercial
...

Percy Jackson Lacks Spark
 Percy Jackson Lacks Spark 
movie review
Feb 12, 2010 5:25 PM CST

Percy Jackson Lacks Spark

Harry Potter clone falls short of Olympian ambitions

(Newser) - Critics are pretty disappointed with Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. The Harry Potter-esque romp, directed by Chris Columbus, follows a boy who discovers not just that he has powers, but that the Greek gods are alive in America.
  • The film "has no real pep to it
...

Wolfman Bites (in a Bad Way)

 Wolfman Bites (in a Bad Way) 
Movie Review
Feb 12, 2010 9:04 AM CST

Wolfman Bites (in a Bad Way)

Movie is campy and dumb, though one critic enjoys anyway

(Newser) - Critics aren’t exactly howling over the new remake of The Wolfman starring Benicio del Toro, giving it mostly mediocre or failing marks. Here’s what they’re saying:
  • “The movie is pungent with atmosphere, laying down a thick fog of creepy Victorian murk,” writes Kyle Smith of
...

Valentine's Day a Star-Studded Mess
 Valentine's Day a 
 Star-Studded Mess 
MOVIE REVIEW
Feb 12, 2010 6:49 AM CST

Valentine's Day a Star-Studded Mess

Critics massacre sappy ensemble romantic comedy

(Newser) - Romantic comedy Valentine's Day is stuffed with stars and subplots, but the quantity doesn't make up for the lack of quality, say critics in mostly negative reviews.
  • This "is a date movie from hell," writes Peter Travers at Rolling Stone , wondering how Pretty Woman director Garry Marshall persuaded
...

Dear John Is More Nicholas Sparks Schmaltz
 Dear John Is More 
 Nicholas Sparks Schmaltz 
MOVIE REVIEW
Feb 5, 2010 11:11 AM CST

Dear John Is More Nicholas Sparks Schmaltz

'Bogart and Bergman it's not,' critic says

(Newser) - Dear John, the latest Nicholas Sparks film adaptation, works familiar territory: ooey-gooey love. Critics aren't falling for the tale of long-distance romance between an American soldier stationed in the Middle East (Channing Tatum) and his dream girl back home (Amanda Seyfried).
  • Tom Horgen of the Minneapolis Star Tribune decries the
...

From Paris With Love Is Stupid Fun
 From Paris 
 With Love 
 Is Stupid Fun 



MOVIE REVIEW
Feb 5, 2010 8:07 AM CST

From Paris With Love Is Stupid Fun

John Travolta's having—and being—a blast in spy shoot-em-up

(Newser) - A trigger-happy John Travolta is not only the main event but the only event in the gleefully over-the-top spy movie From Paris With Love, say critics.
  • Travolta, plainly having a blast as a "bald-headed, goateed, gonzo CIA agent with a short fuse" is the standout in this "otherwise
...

Mel Gibson Returns to Form in Darkness
 Mel Gibson Returns 
 to Form in Darkness 
movie review
Jan 29, 2010 9:13 AM CST

Mel Gibson Returns to Form in Darkness

He does well in the familiar genre of revenge thriller

(Newser) - Mel Gibson returns to familiar territory in revenge thriller Edge of Darkness , in which he plays a Boston detective unraveling the mystery of his daughter's death, and critics are generally pleased:
  • Claudia Puig, USA Today : "Not only is Edge of Darkness Gibson's best work in a decade—a big
...

When in Rome a 'Rom-Bomb'
 When in Rome a 'Rom-Bomb' 
MOVIE REVIEW
Jan 29, 2010 8:06 AM CST

When in Rome a 'Rom-Bomb'

Flat romantic comedy not as fun as it sounds, say critics

(Newser) - The makers of When in Rome didn't do as makers of good romantic comedies do, say critics in mostly negative reviews.
  • Kristen Bell stars as a workaholic New Yorker besieged by suitors after plucking their coins from a Roman fountain, but the movie's not even as "mildly fun" as
...

Tooth Fairy as Fun as Dental Work
 Tooth Fairy 
 as Fun as 
 Dental Work 
Movie Review
Jan 22, 2010 12:37 PM CST

Tooth Fairy as Fun as Dental Work

One-gag Dwayne Johnson vehicle fails to impress

(Newser) - Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson in a tutu is pretty much the only thing Tooth Fairy has going for it, and critics aren’t exactly enchanted. Here’s what they’re saying:
  • Tooth Fairy is nothing but a “charmless and underdeveloped knockoff of The Santa Clause,” writes Lou
...

Creation Has Potential, Doesn't Evolve
 Creation Has Potential, 
 Doesn't Evolve 
MOVIE REVIEW
Jan 22, 2010 10:23 AM CST

Creation Has Potential, Doesn't Evolve

Critics agree Paul Bettany shines, but premise falls mostly flat

(Newser) - Critics agree that on paper, Creation has a lot going for it. But they don't think the flick delivers the thrill of Charles Darwin's groundbreaking work:
  • "Director Jon Amiel has reduced a crucial moment in science to a Lifetime weepie about a workaholic who needs personal tragedy to wake
...

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