movie review – News Stories About movie review - Page 48

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

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

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

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 ...

The Mist Rolls In Slowly

NEW RELEASE

Nov 24, 2007 10:46 AM CST

The Mist Rolls In Slowly

Stephen King adaptation gets mediocre reviews

(Newser) - Some horror movies just aren't fun enough, and that's the way Newsday's Jan Stuart feels about The Mist, a "mean-spirited horror melange" based on a Stephen King novella about a monster-filled fog that engulfs a grocery store and shakes up the customers trapped inside. “The Mist is another...

Margot Annoys at the Wedding

NEW RELEASE

Nov 23, 2007 3:46 PM CST

Margot Annoys at the Wedding

'Annoying' or well crafted? Critics are split

(Newser) - The estranged sisters at the heart of Noah Baumbach's talky Margot at the Wedding are well portrayed but just too unlikable to win over most critics. Nicole Kidman's short-story writer Margot, who Newsweek's David Ansen calls a "brittle nightmare," descends on the wedding of her pregnant sister, Jennifer...

Langella Lovely in Evening

NEW RELEASE

Nov 23, 2007 11:54 AM CST

Langella Lovely in Evening

Starting Out in the Evening draws praise

(Newser) - Critics are fond of Starting Out in the Evening, starring Frank Langella as an aging novelist who is sought out by an energetic young grad student. "The picture feels both intimate and immediate, a model for what smart young filmmakers can do with good material," says Stephanie Zacharek...

Critics Under Enchanted's Spell

NEW RELEASE

Nov 21, 2007 12:12 PM CST

Critics Under Enchanted's Spell

Adams wins reviewers over in Disney sendup

(Newser) - Enchanted starts out looking like classic Disney animation—right up until the wicked queen banishes Princess Giselle to a live-action Times Square. “OK, it’s a little corny,” admits Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers. But, like most critics, he succumbs to the spell of this gently revisionist fairy...

Emporium Short on Wonder

NEW RELEASE

Nov 16, 2007 12:58 PM CST

Emporium Short on Wonder

Star power can't save unimaginative effort

(Newser) - Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium might be less than magical for grown-ups, critics of the whimsical family flick agree. Dustin Hoffman stars as the eponymous eccentric who bequeathes a magical living toy store to reluctant protégé Natalie Portman in a film that "sprinkles in charming moments but ultimately doesn't...

The Geat Is Good, Not Great

Nov 16, 2007 10:10 AM CST

The Geat Is Good, Not Great

But check out the perks: 3-D, mo-cap, and an essentially naked Angelina Jolie

(Newser) - Reviewers of the new animated Beowulf generally agree the tech—including 3-D and motion-captured performances—is awesome, while the rest of the movie is just "pretty good." The film "springs so many pow 3-D surprises you'll think Beowulf is your own private fun house," writes Peter...

Fred Claus: Ho-Ho-Hum

Nov 9, 2007 3:10 PM CST

Fred Claus: Ho-Ho-Hum

Great cast can't redeem not-so-great story, critics say

(Newser) - Critics gave a frosty reception to Fred Claus, the new holiday comedy starring Vince Vaughn as Santa's rebellious brother. The cast, which includes Paul Giamatti, Kathy Bates, and Kevin Spacey, "is an embarrassment of riches for a script this thin," says Michelle Orange of the Village Voice.

No Country Is Thriller Heaven

Nov 9, 2007 10:27 AM CST

No Country Is Thriller Heaven

Coen brothers adapt McCarthy novel to good effect

(Newser) - It's a far piece from their Oscar-winning Fargo, but No Country for Old Men, the new thriller from Joel and Ethan Coen, is generating the same kind of buzz. Set in a West Texas border town in 1980, No Country, an adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel about a drug...

Martian Lands With a Thud

Nov 2, 2007 4:25 PM CDT

Martian Lands With a Thud

Would-be dramedy is just tragic

(Newser) - Critics were less than awed by the arrival of Martian Child, the saccharine story of a recently widowed science-fiction writer (John Cusack) and his unlikely adoption of a young boy (Bobby Coleman) who claims to be from Mars. Manohla Dargis of the Times calls the manipulative family dramedy "100...

Denzel's Dead On in Gangster

Nov 2, 2007 1:20 PM CDT

Denzel's Dead On in Gangster

Crowe shines as a cop who takes on drug king pin Frank Lucas

(Newser) - As 1970s Harlem drug kingpin Frank Lucas, Denzel Washington is equal parts charisma and cold blood—a combination critics can't resist. "In the still, watchful center of his volcanic performance you'll find the measure of a dangerous man," writes Peter Travers of Rolling Stone, adding that American Gangster,...

Buzz Uneven for Bee Movie

Nov 2, 2007 9:10 AM CDT

Buzz Uneven for Bee Movie

Critics divided by Seinfeld's animated debut

(Newser) - Jerry Seinfeld uses “every stupid bee joke that he and his cronies could cook up” in Bee Movie, Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal says, and USA Today's Claudia Puig calls the animated feature “so unfunny it almost stings.” But Newsday finds Barry B. Benson’s...

Devil Will Make You Watch It

Oct 26, 2007 4:56 PM CDT

Devil Will Make You Watch It

Crime drama could net legendary director first best directing Oscar

(Newser) - He may be 83, but in Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Sidney Lumet musters the “wide-awake elegance of a virtuoso half his age,” EW's Owen Gleiberman says, producing a vivid crime melodrama critics unanimously place among the year’s best. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke...

Dan's Life Is Almost Too Real

Oct 26, 2007 12:12 PM CDT

Dan's Life Is Almost Too Real

In that way, it's much like real life

(Newser) - Reaction's to Steve Carell's genial comedy Dan in Real Life range from appreciative to underwhelmed. AO Scott of the New York Times calls the film—starring Carell as a recent widower and advice columnist—"for the most part, winningly gentle and observant." Roger Ebert calls it "soothingly...

Hollywood Mourns Children

Oct 21, 2007 7:08 PM CDT

Hollywood Mourns Children

(Newser) - Hollywood is in mourning. Films like Gone Baby Gone, In the Valley of Elah, and Reservation Road all feature parents grieving over lost or dead children, railing at authority and looking for someone to blame. NPR’s Bob Mondello sees a theme here very different from the usual practice of...

Afflecks' Gone Baby a Real Coup

Oct 19, 2007 4:48 PM CDT

Afflecks' Gone Baby a Real Coup

(Newser) - Ben Affleck “emerges triumphant” from his directorial debut, Rolling Stone says in reviewing Gone Baby Gone, out today and already a critics' darling. “It's one of the best crime movies of this decade,” the Hollywood Reporter raves. Younger brother Casey stars as a PI searching for a...

Rendition Torture to Sit Through

Oct 19, 2007 2:17 PM CDT

Rendition Torture to Sit Through

(Newser) - Rendition, the story of an American woman's search for her arrested Egyptian-born husband, is a well-meaning but ultimately shallow exploration of America's policies on torture, critics say. "Rendition tackles the concern in a heavy-handed thriller with simplistic characters and manipulative storylines," says the Hollywood Reporter.