movie review

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Hear About the Morgans? Keep It to Yourself
 Hear About the Morgans? 
 Keep It to Yourself 
MOVIE REVIEW
Dec 18, 2009 12:16 PM CST

Hear About the Morgans? Keep It to Yourself

Sam Elliott's mustache steals the show. No, really.

(Newser) - The highlight of Did You Hear About the Morgans? for most critics is their own joke that Sam Elliott's mustache deserves separate billing. Some reactions:
  • The film is so "lumpish and crude" that Colin Covert saves most of his ire for a geographical offense. "The landscape around Yellowstone,
...

Blunt Burnishes Lackluster Young Victoria
 Blunt Burnishes 
 Lackluster Young Victoria 
MOVIE REVIEW
Dec 18, 2009 11:43 AM CST

Blunt Burnishes Lackluster Young Victoria

Actress carries a film that does not depart from genre conventions

(Newser) - Whether they find the film delightful costumed fluff or a dreary museum piece, most critics agree Emily Blunt is lovely as The Young Victoria. Some takes:
  • "Winningly played" by Blunt, Keith Phipps writes for the Onion AV Club , Victoria is "a bright, vivacious, willful, and sometimes rash monarch-in-the-making,
...

Jeff Bridges Makes Crazy Heart Sing
 Jeff Bridges Makes 
 Crazy Heart Sing 

Movie Review
Dec 18, 2009 9:48 AM CST

Jeff Bridges Makes Crazy Heart Sing

Career-topping performance should catch Oscar's attention

(Newser) - Jeff Bridges is already earning Oscar buzz for his turn as a hard-luck country singer in Crazy Heart. And the critics think it’s all deserved:
  • Bad Blake’s a “juicy, career-crowning role, and Bridges plays the hell out of it,” writes Peter Travers of Rolling Stone . The
...

Avatar Amazes and Awes
 Avatar Amazes and Awes 
MOVIE REVIEWs
Dec 18, 2009 7:09 AM CST

Avatar Amazes and Awes

Cameron's comeback 'the most vivid fantasy world seen on screen'

(Newser) - James Cameron's sci-fi epic Avatar has been hailed as the future of filmmaking and the stunning fantasy world he has created more than lives up to the hype, say impressed critics.
  • "Avatar delivers," writes Steven Rea at the Philadelphia Inquirer . "Combining beyond-state-of-the-art moviemaking with a tried-and-true storyline
...

Invictus Does Mandela Justice
 Invictus Does Mandela Justice 
movie review
Dec 11, 2009 11:32 AM CST

Invictus Does Mandela Justice

Morgan Freeman is superb in the main role

(Newser) - Clint Eastwood's Nelson Mandela tale, Invictus, wins mostly solid reviews, and everybody loves Morgan Freeman in the main role:
  • Peter Travers, Rolling Stone : " Freeman seems born to play Mandela, and he never delivers a false note." Eastwood "shames the usual Hollywood showboating" and makes a "film
...

Lovely Bones Hits and Misses
 Lovely Bones Hits and Misses 
MOVIE REVIEW
Dec 11, 2009 6:52 AM CST

Lovely Bones Hits and Misses

Peter Jackson's adaptation meets mixed reviews

(Newser) - Peter Jackson's crafts a fantastic vision of the afterlife in The Lovely Bones, say critics, but some feel it came at the expense of the human side of the story of a murdered teen, adapted from the book by Alice Sebold.
  • "By turns warmly sentimental, serial-killer sinister, and science-fiction
...

Serious Moonlight a Dim Effort
 Serious Moonlight a Dim Effort 
MOVIE REVIEW
Dec 4, 2009 2:52 PM CST

Serious Moonlight a Dim Effort

Filming slain writer's script a fine sentiment, poorly executed

(Newser) - When Waitress writer-director Adrienne Shelly was murdered, in 2006, she left behind the script for Serious Moonlight. Critics speculate that she might have made it work, but that hasn't happened:
  • "A wife duct-tapes her husband to a chair and tells him that she will make him fall in love
...

Brothers Has Strong Acting, Weak Heart
 Brothers Has Strong 
 Acting, Weak Heart 
movie review
Dec 4, 2009 12:20 PM CST

Brothers Has Strong Acting, Weak Heart

Critics wonder: Why did Jim Sheridan need to do this remake?

(Newser) - Tobey Maguire, Natalie Portman, and Jake Gyllenhaal deliver solid performances in Jim Sheridan's war movie Brothers, but the film doesn't measure up to the 2004 Danish original, say critics:
  • Peter Howell, Toronto Star : "It's still a film worth seeing, if only for the performances, but it seems to be
...

Everybody's Fine ? No, Everybody's Sappy
 Everybody's Fine? 
 No, Everybody's Sappy 
Movie Review
Dec 4, 2009 11:10 AM CST

Everybody's Fine? No, Everybody's Sappy

De Niro the best part about predictable holiday treacle

(Newser) - Critics are divided on Everybody’s Fine: Some think the family drama is okay because of Robert De Niro, and others think it’s awful despite him. What they’re saying:
  • It’s “a thoroughly fake movie that is about, of all things, the need for truthfulness,” writes
...

Up in the Air 'Darkly Hilarious'
 Up in the Air 'Darkly Hilarious' 
MOVIE REVIEW
Dec 4, 2009 7:19 AM CST

Up in the Air 'Darkly Hilarious'

Melancholy downsizing dramedy deftly captures this era

(Newser) - George Clooney stars as a frequent-flying corporate axeman-for-hire in Up In the Air, a dramedy that was too slick for some critics but was ranked among the best of the year by many.
  • "It's rare for a movie to be at once so biting and so moving," writes
...

Wright Penn Lifts Pippa Lee
 Wright Penn Lifts Pippa Lee 
MOVIE REVIEW
Nov 27, 2009 9:32 AM CST

Wright Penn Lifts Pippa Lee

Strong cast boosts 'highbrow chick flick'

(Newser) - The ensemble melodrama The Private Lives of Pippa Lee is receiving largely lukewarm reviews, but most critics agree that star Robin Wright Penn's top-notch performance gives it a vital lift.
  • Wright , as a former wild child turned desperately bored middle-aged housewife, "is the miracle this picture needs, helping the
...

Lovely Bones Is Jackson's Best Yet
 Lovely Bones Is 
 Jackson's Best Yet 
Sneak Peek
Nov 25, 2009 2:40 PM CST

Lovely Bones Is Jackson's Best Yet

After sneak screening, critic predicts Oscar glory; another pans it

(Newser) - The Lovely Bones got a sneak showing in London last night, and one reviewer is already calling it the best film of next year—while another lambastes it as candy-coated crap. An anonymous critic from the Sun says he’s already sure he won’t “see anything more astonishing,...

Disney Returns to Form With Princess
 Disney Returns 
 to Form With 
 Princess 
MOVIE REVIEW
Nov 25, 2009 1:58 PM CST

Disney Returns to Form With Princess

Classic animation charms the critics

(Newser) - Classic Disney animation makes a triumphant return with The Princess and the Frog. Critics agree the film is beautiful, and most—but not all—were charmed by the story:
  • The movie, set in New Orleans, is “the sweetest, most sincere romantic comedy to come along in ages, and a
...

Quiet, Creepy, Absurd, Home Wows Critics
 Quiet, Creepy, Absurd, 
 Home Wows Critics 
Movie Review
Nov 25, 2009 11:55 AM CST

Quiet, Creepy, Absurd, Home Wows Critics

Acclaimed French film makes US debut

(Newser) - Ursula Meier’s acclaimed Home, in which a family is driven insane by the new highway running past their idyllic country house, is opening in the US. Should you be excited? Critics say yes:
  • This is a “bewitching dream of a film,” says Sukhdev Sandhu of the Daily
...

Welles Best Part of Me and Orson Welles
 Welles Best Part of  
 Me and Orson Welles 
MOVIE REVIEW
Nov 25, 2009 11:24 AM CST

Welles Best Part of Me and Orson Welles

Christian McKay eclipses Zac Efron

(Newser) - Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles, an atmospheric period piece set behind the scenes of Welles' 1937 production of Julius Caesar, has critics gushing about Christian McKay as Orson Welles, but split on Zac Efron as a wide-eyed teen who stumbles into Welles's glamorous orbit:
  • The "frothy" film is
...

Put Down Old Dogs
 Put Down Old Dogs 
MOVIE REVIEW
Nov 25, 2009 9:06 AM CST

Put Down Old Dogs

No new tricks in Travolta-Williams turkey

(Newser) - Don't expect new tricks, funny jokes, or much else from the new John Travolta-Robin Williams comedy Old Dogs, say critics in reviews that range from scathing to indifferent.
  • "It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without a turkey," writes Ty Burr at the Boston Globe , and this "pitiful family
...

Bleak Road Not as Good as Book
 Bleak Road Not 
 as Good as Book 
Movie Review
Nov 25, 2009 7:19 AM CST

Bleak Road Not as Good as Book

Critics split on adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic epic

(Newser) - It’s a thankless job adapting a literary darling like The Road, and, sure enough, director John Hillcoat hasn’t gotten much thanks. Critics have mixed feelings about the bleak post-apocalyptic film. Here’s what they’re saying:
  • Despite good acting, the film is merely adequate, “an honorable attempt
...

Bullock Shines in Crowd-Pleasing Blind Side
 Bullock Shines in 
 Crowd-Pleasing Blind Side  
movie review
Nov 20, 2009 1:25 PM CST

Bullock Shines in Crowd-Pleasing Blind Side

Football chick flick lacks suspense, delivers happy ending

(Newser) - The Blind Side lacks inherent suspense—it's based on the true story of Michael Oher, a rookie offensive tackle for the Baltimore Ravens. But the tale of a homeless African-American teen adopted by big-hearted white yuppies, at bottom a Sandra Bullock vehicle, goes over big in football country.
  • Writer-director John
...

Don't Land On Planet 51
 Don't Land On Planet 51 
Movie Review
Nov 20, 2009 12:48 PM CST

Don't Land On Planet 51

Laugh-free sci-fi satire mediocre at best

(Newser) - It has a cool concept—a human is greeted with paranoia on an alien planet straight out of the '50s—but critics say Planet 51 never reaches orbit. Some reviews:
  • It’s a “bland, humor-free narrative,” with lame references to other movies instead of jokes, writes Glenn Whipp
...

Bad Lieutenant Is Terribly Fantastic
 Bad Lieutenant Is 
 Terribly Fantastic 
MOVIE REVIEW
Nov 20, 2009 12:02 PM CST

Bad Lieutenant Is Terribly Fantastic

Cage's unhinged performance dazzles, and Herzog keeps up

(Newser) - What is Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, exactly? Most critics haven't the foggiest, but they like Werner Herzog's not-at-all-a-remake and Nicholas Cage's performance. Some reactions:
  • Cage’s “sublimely deranged lead performance” compares favorably to Herzog’s work with Klaus Kinski, Scottt Tobias writes for the Onion AV
...

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