MOVIE REVIEWS: FRANKENWEENIE

The last time we saw Tim Burton’s name in movie reviews, he was being kicked around painfully for a movie that eventually flopped despite the fact that it starred Johnny Depp. But most critics agree that Frankenweenie is no Dark Shadows. In fact, many are suggesting that Burton has come forth with a classic. Amy […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: END OF WATCH

Once again, a small, auteur work is garnering over-the-top praise from critics even while they are pummeling far more lavish productions.  With a handful of dissents, they generally agree that writer-director David Ayer has again created a classic police drama. End of Watch is, writes Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times, “rare in its […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: THE WORDS

Maybe in the environment of a theater showing art-house fair, The Words, starring Bradley Cooper, would have received more positive words from critics. Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times writes that it “tries too hard to be smart with its highbrow take on the old ‘gotcha’ theme. It is gorgeously shot to look highbrow […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: TOTAL RECALL

A remake of a movie titled Total Recall practically begs for puns. And the press has obliged with an outpouring of groaners. Ty Burr in the Boston Globe quips: “In the end, here’s the worst sin of this slick, high-octane memory play: It’s forgettable.” The headline of Joe Morgenstern’s review in the Wall Street Journal […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: ICE AGE: CONTINENTAL DRIFT

Critics have given the fourth Ice Age movie, Continental Drift, a mostly cool-to-cold reception. Sean O’Connell in the Washington Post, however, suggests that viewers are likely to overlook its faults. “Logic [in the plot] may be extinct, but, boy, do these movies whiz by like ice cubes zipping across a linoleum floor.” Moreover, he writes, […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: TED

Raunchy? Yes. Funny? Yes. That’s the way most of the nation’s critics have voted in their reviews of Seth MacFarlane’s Ted. In fact, Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times minces no superlative: “The funniest movie character so far this year is a stuffed teddy bear. And the best comedy screenplay so far is Ted,” he […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: BATTLESHIP

Stupid. That’s the general consensus of critics reviewing the big-budget, board-game-based, sci-fi epic Battleship, about aliens bent on destroying the world. Take Amy Biancolli’s review in the San Francisco Chronicle: “It’s loud, it’s large, it’s stupid, and its best gag involves a chicken burrito. It features Taylor Kitsch wearing many more clothes, and maybe one […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: THE AVENGERS

Even many of the critics who had long ago grown weary of the typical superhero movie appear delighted by The Avengers. Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times says that the difference between this superhero movie and the ones that came before is that it “gives us much, much more of the same.” He concludes that […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: SAFE

Safe is expected to bomb at the box office this weekend. If it does, however, it won’t be because of the performance of its star, Jason Statham, which is being praised even by many critics who hate the movie. “There’s nothing terribly original about Safe, but it’s a suitably grimy playground for action cinema’s reigning […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: AMERICAN REUNION

Most of the reviews of American Reunion trash the film as if it were a stale, leftover pie, which, in a sense it is. It’s a ten-year follow-up to 1999’s American Pie, 2001’s American Pie 2, and 2003’s American Wedding. And even the less brutal reviews hardly serve as recommendations. Roger Ebert in the Chicago […]

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