movie review

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Wild Things Great ... for Adults
 Wild Things Great ... for Adults 
Movie Review
Oct 16, 2009 9:31 AM CDT

Wild Things Great ... for Adults

Spike Jonze's melancholy fantasy gorgeous, heartfelt, uneventful

(Newser) - Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are takes a 10-sentence children’s book and turns it into a full-length movie that’s not really for kids at all. But most critics liked it anyway. Here’s what they’re saying:
  • “Parents and tykes expecting the next Shrek will
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Critics Can't Abide Citizen
 Critics Can't Abide Citizen 
MOVIE REVIEWs
Oct 16, 2009 8:10 AM CDT

Critics Can't Abide Citizen

Film combines unnecessary gore with pseudo-insight

(Newser) - Movie critics are nearly unanimous in their disgust with Law Abiding Citizen, a grisly revenge drama that's as much a moral failure as a cinematic one.
  • The film is "an exercise in illogic and Death Wish cribbing," writes Peter Travers of Rolling Stone, featuring gratuitous gore and an
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Smarten Up and See Education
 Smarten Up and See Education 
MOVIE REVIEW
Oct 9, 2009 12:00 PM CDT

Smarten Up and See Education

Carey Mulligan's performance stands out in British indie film

(Newser) - Carey Mulligan's impressive performance in An Education stands out, as does novelist Nick Hornby's script. Critics agree the story of a 16-year-old seduced by an older man is a dazzling mix of acting, writing, and direction that transcends the typical coming-of-age tale:
  • “Prepare to be wowed by Carey Mulligan,
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Good Hair Has a Few Knots
 Good Hair Has a Few Knots 
MOVIE REVIEW
Oct 9, 2009 10:24 AM CDT

Good Hair Has a Few Knots

Chris Rock shines as interviewer, but social issues get lost in the weave

(Newser) - Chris Rock is a natural and hilarious interviewer, critics agree. But watchers are split on whether the substance of a rather complicated debate shines through in Big Hair, his documentary on black women and their coifs. A sampling:
  • Rock has helped craft a film with "much good feeling and
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Avoid This Couples Retreat
 Avoid This Couples Retreat 
MOVIE REVIEW
Oct 9, 2009 8:01 AM CDT

Avoid This Couples Retreat

Cast is having more fun than the audience in marital-strain rom-com

(Newser) - New Vince Vaughn romantic comedy Couples Retreat takes a terrific cast and puts them in a stunning South Pacific location, say critics, but it's marooned them there with an unfunny script.
  • "Four unlikable couples gather at an all-inclusive marriage-counseling resort in this predictable rom-com," writes Ande Dagan at
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More Than a Game Shoots for the Heart
 More Than a Game 
 Shoots for the Heart  
Movie Review
Oct 2, 2009 1:45 PM CDT

More Than a Game Shoots for the Heart

Movie inspires cheers, eye-rolls

(Newser) - More Than a Game, a documentary following LeBron James and his high school teammates, does its best to be an inspirational movie, and for some it works. For others, it inspires eye-rolling. Here’s what they’re saying:
  • It’s like a classic high school sports movie, writes Owen Glieberman
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For What It Is, Whip It Works
 For What It Is, Whip It Works 
MOVIE REVIEW
Oct 2, 2009 12:36 PM CDT

For What It Is, Whip It Works

Barrymore is a revelation—as a director

(Newser) - Drew Barrymore's Whip It isn't a revelation, but fans of the aspirational sports comedy/drama probably won't do better this season, critics forecast:
  • The film is "hard to mock and easy to like." Though it won't "change the way you think about movies, roller derby or the relations
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Zombieland a Gory 'Joyride'
 Zombieland a Gory 'Joyride' 
MOVIE REVIEW
Oct 2, 2009 11:07 AM CDT

Zombieland a Gory 'Joyride'

Woody Harrelson is great in one of the best new comedies, critics agree

(Newser) - Zombieland is gory, but most critics think it's a rollicking good time. A sampling:
  • “Zombieland is a romance, a comedy, a road movie, and a freewheeling schlock horrorfest, all in one,” writes Stephanie Zacharek for Salon. “Its growling, groaning zombie villains aren't particularly menacing. This isn't so
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Love Kills Laughs in Invention of Lying
 Love Kills Laughs 
 in Invention of Lying  
Movie Review
Oct 2, 2009 8:54 AM CDT

Love Kills Laughs in Invention of Lying

(Newser) - Critics agree: The Invention of Lying should have been better. It’s got a great concept, and the subversive moxy to call religion a fib, but then turns into a standard romantic comedy. Here’s what they’re saying:
  • It’s a “wickedly funny idea” with the wickedness taken
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Capitalism Is Moore at His Messy Best
 Capitalism Is Moore 
 at His Messy Best 

MOVIE REVIEW
Oct 2, 2009 6:37 AM CDT

Capitalism Is Moore at His Messy Best

Filmmaker's full-on assault on the system is his richest work yet

(Newser) - Michael Moore makes Wall Street feel his wrath in Capitalism: A Love Story, and the results, say critics, are frequently annoying, sometimes brilliant, and guaranteed to provoke—in short, everything you'd expect from Moore.
  • The movie, Moore's "liviest, most radical" yet, is no "eye-glazing tutorial on debt
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Coco Before Chanel Is 'Beautifully Woven'

Reviewers mostly positive on biopic of French designer

(Newser) - Coco Before Chanel gets mostly positive reviews for its portrayal of the legendary designer in the days before her rise to fame.
  • “The most obvious credit goes to the strong, sure performance of Audrey Tautou,” writes Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times. “Tautou not only resembles
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Surrogates : Silly But Suspenseful
 Surrogates: 
 Silly But Suspenseful  
movie REVIEW
Sep 25, 2009 10:30 AM CDT

Surrogates: Silly But Suspenseful

Bruce Willis, in weird wig, tops 'smart' sci-fi flick

(Newser) - Critics are lukewarm about Surrogates, the new sci-fi flick starring a surprisingly hirsute Bruce Willis, in which humans command tricked-out robots who do their work and play for them.
  • It's a "preposterous movie that luxuriates in its own silliness," says Stephanie Zacharek of Salon. There's a "heavy-duty
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New Fame Ain't Gonna Last
 New Fame Ain't Gonna Last 
MOVIE REVIEW
Sep 25, 2009 7:05 AM CDT

New Fame Ain't Gonna Last

Slick remake of 1980 musical lacks the original's heart

(Newser) - Fame, the new remake of the classic 1980 musical about students at New York's High School for the Performing Arts, will be entertaining enough for tweeners, say critics, but its sanitized feel and lightweight characters make it a forgettable inferior to the gritty original.
  • "As a demo reel showcasing
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Love Happens Is Manipulative Tripe
 Love Happens 
 Is Manipulative Tripe 
MOVIE REVIEW
Sep 18, 2009 2:18 PM CDT

Love Happens Is Manipulative Tripe

Jennifer Aniston rom-com strikes out with critics

(Newser) - If only love didn't happen. Critics are lambasting Jennifer Aniston's new rom-com, Love Happens—the story of a courtship between a florist and a grieving grief counselor—as predictable and manipulative:
  • It's "an inorganic soap opera," writes Michael Sragow in the Baltimore Sun. "Love happens here with
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Jennifer's Body Not So Hot
 Jennifer's Body Not So Hot 
MOVIE REVIEW
Sep 18, 2009 8:14 AM CDT

Jennifer's Body Not So Hot

Critics lambaste new film from Juno screenwriter

(Newser) - Megan Fox vehicle Jennifer's Body hits the screen today, and most if not all critics are unimpressed by this horror-comedy about a high school girl possessed by the devil.
  • "Jennifer's Body has an impressive writer in Diablo Cody, who won an Oscar for Juno, writes Claudia Puig of USA 
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The Informant! Is 'Devilish Fun'
 The Informant! Is 'Devilish Fun' 
MOVIE REVIEW
Sep 18, 2009 6:13 AM CDT

The Informant! Is 'Devilish Fun'

Matt Damon shines as unreliable narrator in serio-comic take on corporate crime

(Newser) - Steven Soderbergh's The Informant! puts a comic spin on its serious story of a '90s corporate whistle-blower, say critics, with highly entertaining but sometimes muddled results.
  • Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: This "truth-based film about a compulsive liar wavers between corporate thriller and screwball comedy," with an outstanding performance
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Beyond a Reasonable Doubt Beyond Bad
 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt 
 Beyond Bad 
MOVIE REVIEW
Sep 11, 2009 3:50 PM CDT

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt Beyond Bad

Peter Hyams remake of Fritz Lang film is boring and inept

(Newser) - Peter Hyams' Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, a remake of Fritz Lang's noir classic, has a 0% aggregate rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Here's what critics are saying about the Michael Douglas vehicle:
  • "Michael Douglas is the only life in this dull party," writes Peter Travers for Rolling Stone. "
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The Other Man Wastes Neeson
The Other Man Wastes Neeson 
FILM REVIEW
Sep 11, 2009 2:02 PM CDT

The Other Man Wastes Neeson

Adultery story fails to seduce critics

(Newser) - The Other Man, based on a story by The Reader author Bernhard Schlink, has a starry cast including Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, and Antonio Banderas—and critics say they're wasted on this schlocky adultery story.
  • It's "a muddled little dud of a melodrama," writes Stephen Holden in the
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Crude Makes Compelling Case Against Big Oil

Doc tells of disastrous effects of oil extraction

(Newser) - Crude is a hard-hitting documentary about the ravages of the oil industry—Chevron is the villain here—on indigenous people in Ecuador. Critics are wowed:
  • “Here’s a powerhouse of a documentary that makes you feel mad as hell and unwilling to take it anymore,” writes Peter Travers
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Whiteout Leaves Critics Cold
 Whiteout Leaves Critics Cold 
MOVIE REVIEW
Sep 11, 2009 7:40 AM CDT

Whiteout Leaves Critics Cold

Antarctic murder mystery a snowy wipeout for Beckinsale

(Newser) - Antarctica's a great setting for a thriller, say critics, but the new Kate Beckinsale movie Whiteout is too mundane to bear much resemblance to a great thriller.
  • Joe Neumaier, Daily News: Whiteout, based on a graphic novel, has the makings of an enjoyable, cheesy thriller, but then "wimps out,
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