movie review

Stories 921 - 940 | << Prev   Next >>

Nothing Funny About This Money
Nothing Funny About This Money
NEW RELEASE
Jan 18, 2008 4:29 PM CST

Nothing Funny About This Money

Star-studded heist comedy offers few laughs

(Newser) - Even Oscar-caliber talent like Diane Keaton and Queen Latifah can't save Mad Money, about three cash-strapped women who join forces to pull off the perfect heist. The movie, which also stars Katie Holmes, "fails to hit the stratosphere," Stephen Schaefer writes in the Boston Herald, because it "...

Cloverfield Not Monstrous
Cloverfield Not Monstrous
NEW RELEASE
Jan 18, 2008 12:23 PM CST

Cloverfield Not Monstrous

Critics reach no consensus on 21st-century Blair Witch

(Newser) - Cloverfield “is going to divide audiences,” predicts ReelViews’ James Berardinelli, and if the critics are any indication, he’s right. The film’s Godzilla/Blair Witch high concept is a love-it-or-hate-it proposition. For Berardinelli, the shaky handheld view provides immediacy and intensity. Time’s Richard Corliss is less entertained....

Heigl Can't Save 27 Dresses
Heigl Can't Save 27 Dresses
NEW RELEASE
Jan 18, 2008 9:37 AM CST

Heigl Can't Save 27 Dresses

Formulaic script and direction make this comedy forgettable

(Newser) - Despite actress Katherine Heigl's undeniable appeal, her first role as a leading lady is in a film of such little consequence "that seeing it and skipping it are the exact same thing," writes Robert Wilonsky of the Village Voice. In 27 Dresses, Heigl plays Jane, a perennial bridesmaid...

Bucket List Is Leaky Schlock
Bucket List Is Leaky Schlock
NEW RELEASE
Jan 11, 2008 1:40 PM CST

Bucket List Is Leaky Schlock

Into-the-sunset tearjerker suggests that facing cancer can be fun

(Newser) - The Bucket List, Rob Reiner’s new cancer comedy, “never ascends from the bowels of tearjerk formula and audience pandering," writes Newsday’s Jan Stuart. The film stars Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as terminally ill buddies trying to do it all before they die. They skydive, race...

Orphanage a Cut Above
Orphanage a Cut Above
NEW RELEASE
Jan 11, 2008 9:43 AM CST

Orphanage a Cut Above

Horror film relies on suspense, not gore, to terrifying effect

(Newser) - So excruciating is the tension in the Spanish supernatural thriller The Orphanage that "you'll have to calm yourself by saying, 'It's only a movie,' " writes Time's Richard Corliss. But the horror film, centering on the dark secrets inside a woman's childhood home, is about as far from...

Killing of John Lennon Is So-So
Killing of John Lennon Is So-So
NEW RELEASE
Jan 2, 2008 9:08 PM CST

Killing of John Lennon Is So-So

Critics praise the craft, but question the subject matter

(Newser) - Critics are decidedly mixed on "The Killing of John Lennon," Andrew Piddington's movie reconstructing events surrounding Mark David Chapman's 1980 murder of the Beatles beloved frontman. While “a well-made film" that doesn't ask you to sympathize with Chapman, Stephen Holden writes in the New York Times, ...

Critics Pick Top Flicks for '07
Critics Pick Top Flicks for '07
Jan 1, 2008 3:00 PM CST

Critics Pick Top Flicks for '07

Juno , I'm Not There , and No Country take top spots

(Newser) - Film critics offer their top picks for 2007, ranging from quirky dramedy (Juno) to drama (Michael Clayton) to foreign fare (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly).                                                ...

Treasure Shines Again
Treasure Shines Again
Dec 30, 2007 4:00 PM CST

Treasure Shines Again

National Treasure: Book of Secrets keeps top spot as Alvin out-sings Legend

(Newser) - National Treasure: Book of Secrets shone in the top spot again this weekend as filmgoers kept flocking to the movies, Variety reports. Alvin and the Chipmunks crooned its way into second, humbling I Am Legend, as Mike Nichols-directed Charlie Wilson's War claimed fourth over Juno, an offbeat dramedy that nabbed...

Blood Makes Critics Swoon
Blood Makes Critics Swoon
NEW RELEASE
Dec 26, 2007 10:50 AM CST

Blood Makes Critics Swoon

Oil film impresses with strong performances

(Newser) - There’s no avoiding it: There Will Be Blood is another long, “indie-flavored, male-centric American art film,” says Variety’s Todd McCarthy. But the “boldly and magnificently strange” flick still has critics enthralled. Following an unsavory and maybe unhinged oil tycoon’s rise to power, the film...

Debaters Inspires, Critics Argue
Debaters Inspires, Critics Argue
NEW RELEASE
Dec 25, 2007 5:01 PM CST

Debaters Inspires, Critics Argue

Film may play it by wrote, but it does it with conviction

(Newser) - The Great Debaters, which follows a Jim Crow-era black debate team, aims only for “inspirational pop entertainment in the Oprah Winfrey mode,” but it still manages to resonate, says the New York Times’ Stephen Holden. It is conventional, and sometimes clichéd, in telling the classic underdog story....

Persepolis an Animated Triumph
Persepolis an Animated Triumph
NEW RELEASE
Dec 25, 2007 12:24 PM CST

Persepolis an Animated Triumph

Critics enthralled with 'landmark in animation'

(Newser) - Persepolis isn’t just a good animated movie. “It’s a small landmark in feature animation,” writes Nick Pinkerton of the Village Voice. Rendered with handcrafted charm in black and white, it tells the poignant-yet-funny story of a girl growing up amidst the Iranian revolution. But “bare...

Dewey Cox Rocks!
Dewey Cox Rocks!
NEW RELEASE
Dec 21, 2007 4:35 PM CST

Dewey Cox Rocks!

Despite being a little uneven, Judd Apatow parody provides lots of laughs

(Newser) - Judd Apatow's Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story "is less thoughtful satire and ... more the distant cousin of Airplane!," writes Brian Orndorf of OhMyNews.com. Starring John C. Reilly as a blues prodigy who ultimately experiences success, failure, and redemption, it plays like "an extended riff on...

Sweeney Todd Is Bloody Good
Sweeney Todd Is Bloody Good
NEW RELEASE
Dec 21, 2007 2:14 PM CST

Sweeney Todd Is Bloody Good

Macabre musical about killer barber hits all the right notes, critics say

(Newser) - Sweeney Todd, about a wronged barber-turned-murderer, is so good that watching it will make you "feel sorry for the poor saps in the next theater at the multiplex," writes Kyle Smith of the New York Post. Directed by Tim Burton and starring a "stupendous" Johnny Depp, the...

Charlie Wilson's War a Winner
Charlie Wilson's War a Winner
NEW RELEASE
Dec 21, 2007 10:45 AM CST

Charlie Wilson's War a Winner

Sorkin writes, Nichols directs, Hanks stars, movie shines

(Newser) - Charlie Wilson's War, the darkly comedic true story of the largest and most successful covert operation in US history, leaves critics mostly charmed. The Mike Nichols project featuring Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Julia Roberts "is that rare Hollywood commodity these days," writes Variety's Todd McCarthy, "...

Kite Runner Doesn't Quite Soar
Kite Runner Doesn't Quite Soar
NEW RELEASE
Dec 14, 2007 5:24 PM CST

Kite Runner Doesn't Quite Soar

Film fails to garner book's praise

(Newser) - The Kite Runner, adapted from Khaled Hosseini’s acclaimed novel about two boys’ journey through the tumultuous recent history of Afghanistan, fails to match the book’s critical raves. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times loves it, praising the compelling narrative and the “natural, convincing and powerful" child stars'...

Smith Carries Legend
Smith Carries Legend
NEW RELEASE
Dec 14, 2007 8:31 AM CST

Smith Carries Legend

Movie has its flaws, but it's also a lot of fun

(Newser) - I Am Legend, a tale of the last man on Earth, who, through some freak of immunity, avoids a killer virus, isn't a perfect film. But despite its lack of surprises and its ending, which feels like "a studio-sanctioned reshoot," writes Chicago Tribune critic Michael Phillips, "you’...

Golden Compass Hard to Follow
Golden Compass Hard to Follow
NEW RELEASE
Dec 7, 2007 1:10 PM CST

Golden Compass Hard to Follow

Movie has great special effects but little soul, critics say

(Newser) - Critics are mixed on The Golden Compass, praising the controversial film's special effects but complaining about a lack of engaging storytelling. "The film is dominated by computer-generated effects and they're most of its problem— they don't give us anything to emotionally attach to or invest in," wrote Paula...

Atonement Is a Sexy Spellbinder
Atonement Is a Sexy Spellbinder
NEW RELEASE
Dec 7, 2007 10:30 AM CST

Atonement Is a Sexy Spellbinder

Adaptation of McEwan novel brings its 'A' game

(Newser) - Adapting a brilliant, broodingly introspective novel into a movie is risky business, but critics say Atonement—based on Ian McEwan's chronicle of  the effects of a young girl's lie on an English family—gets it surprisingly right. "In the almost spookily capable hands of 34-year-old director Joe Wright, the...

Unconventional Butterfly Soars
Unconventional Butterfly Soars
NEW RELEASE
Nov 30, 2007 10:50 AM CST

Unconventional Butterfly Soars

Critics adore film based on paralyzed Frenchman's memoir

(Newser) - Critics adore The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, a movie based on the memoir of the paralyzed editor of French Elle. In the New Yorker, David Denby writes that the film has "some of the freest and most creative uses of the camera and some of the most daring,...

The Savages : Savagely Good
The Savages: Savagely Good
NEW RELEASE
Nov 28, 2007 4:30 PM CST

The Savages: Savagely Good

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney earning high marks

(Newser) - The Savages—a tale of middle-aged siblings forced to put their lives on hold to take care of their elderly father—is earning nearly unanimous praise for its deft mix of dark humor and brutal honesty. "There isn’t a single moment of emotional guff or sentimentality in The ...

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