MSN.com
MSN.com is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this
publication only count toward the Tomatometer when written by the following
Tomatometer-approved critic(s):
Larry Carroll, Sean Axmaker
Rating
Title/Year
Author
1
Drive (2011)
... celebrates -- one might say revels in -- the pulp mythology of existential anti-heroes and criminal chivalry and street opera tragedy of American movies.
Posted Jan 31, 2012
2
Midnight in Paris (2011)
[Woody] Allen brings his fantasy to life with such affection and joy that he transports us into his dream come true as a shared fantasy.
Posted Dec 22, 2011
3
Margin Call (2011)
Chandor is more interested in the banality of greed and opportunism and the ease in which principled employees are swayed to engage in unprincipled acts.
Posted Dec 22, 2011
4
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2011)
... captures the space, the texture, the quality of color of these ghost-like paintings, like shadows of the past captured on the cave walls.
Posted Nov 30, 2011
5
The Smurfs (2011)
Call me Grouchy, but I say grown-ups should just say smurf it and avoid the film completely.
Posted Nov 30, 2011
6
Beginners (2011)
[Director Mike] Mills... gives the film a celebratory passion in the quiet closeness of father and son and the playful first-person storytelling...
Posted Nov 16, 2011
7
Larry Crowne (2011)
... lacks any sense of gravity. Hanks has too much moxie to let little things like unemployment and an underwater mortgage get him down...
Posted Nov 16, 2011
8
Cars 2 (2011)
Kids will be entertained and so will adults. I just didn't find myself particularly engaged.
Posted Nov 1, 2011
9
... that rare breed: an imaginative live-action kid's film that engages and delights adults.
Posted Oct 19, 2011
10
Batman: Year One (2011)
For a story constructed out of choppy slices, this is probably the most unified of the DC animated features.
Posted Oct 19, 2011
11
Director Rob Marshall stages slapstick like dance choreography and action like a theme park ride. Which I guess is appropriate...
Posted Oct 17, 2011
12
Fast Five (2011)
Forget physics, it's just a fun blast of action movie ingenuity, as is the film as a whole.
Posted Oct 4, 2011
13
Captain America (1990)
... a real stiff, a corny piece of nostalgic pulp with cheap action, cheesy dialogue and a charismatically challenged leading man.
Posted Sep 30, 2011
14
Bridesmaids (2011)
... a girl-bonding romp filled equally with outlandish bridal showers and alcohol-fueled slapstick aggression, grand romantic gestures and furtive sex, high couture and low blows.
Posted Sep 28, 2011
15
Basket Case (1982)
16
... a mesmerizing portrait of committed activist who transforms himself into a media-hungry rock star of an international terrorist.
Posted Sep 28, 2011
17
18
Scarface (1983)
It's a whole new spin on the immigrant story and the American Dream as an underworld nightmare and a fitting bookend to the two Godfather films.
Posted Sep 15, 2011
19
X-Men: First Class (2011)
While it never reaches the intelligence or character richness of the first two X-Men films, it's still the superior superhero spectacle of 2011 to date.
Posted Sep 15, 2011
20
Citizen Kane (1941)
Above all, Welles was a showman and Citizen Kane is a three ring circus of cinematic ingenuity...
Posted Sep 14, 2011
21
... a succession of brutal arena battles painted over in swaths of crimson CGI spatter and gaping wounds (a la 300) interspersed with softcore sex right...
Posted Sep 14, 2011
22
Thor (2011)
... not to say that Thor is awful, simply uninspired, full of sound and fury and not much else.
Posted Sep 14, 2011
23
Jane Eyre (2011)
... this new incarnation embraces the Gothic gloom and lonely isolation of the novel but, like its stoic, strong heroine, never gives in to the darkness.
Posted Aug 21, 2011
24
The Big Lebowski (1998)
25
Sands of the Kalahari (1965)
Cy Endfield explored similar themes in "Zulu" a year before but this comes off as pulp melodrama of the machismo variety.
Posted Aug 3, 2011
26
Stake Land (2011)
There's a scruffy immediacy to the direction... but also a grace to the imagery and a commitment to the performances.
Posted Aug 3, 2011
27
Rio (2011)
28
Skidoo (1968)
... Keystone Mobsters, with career criminals and fun-loving hippies colliding in a comedy of flower power, slapstick and psychedelia...
Posted Jul 20, 2011
29
Limitless (2011)
It's not the science that's important, it's the momentum, the conceptual journey, the dynamism of the head games and chemically-enhanced battle of wits...
Posted Jul 20, 2011
30
Rango (2011)
... this southwestern goof is really for really big kids with a love of movies, a sense of whimsy and a soft spot for the hideously gorgeous creatures of the desert.
Posted Jul 12, 2011
31
Of Gods and Men (2011)
... as powerful a film you'll ever see about faith, commitment and the courage of one's convictions.
Posted Jul 5, 2011
32
Hobo With a Shotgun (2011)
... a blood-spattered love letter to the grindhouse vengeance movie by first-time filmmakers who, as Spinal Tap might put it, crank everything up to 11.
Posted Jul 5, 2011
33
Barney's Version (2011)
Director Richard J. Lewis never quite gets a handle on the sprawling storyline and stumbles over the tonal shifts... but Giamatti holds the center together.
Posted Jul 1, 2011
34
A Thousand Clowns (1965)
... there's something disingenuous about presenting defiant purposelessness and unemployment as an act of courage.
Posted Jul 1, 2011
35
The mix of naturalism, visual poetry, youthful energy and frisky sexuality of a canoodling romantic triangle is really quite irresistible.
Posted Jul 1, 2011
36
Tetsuo: The Bullet Man (2009)
The backstory satisfies a certain urge to know but lacks the gonzo mystery and waking nightmare horror of the original...
Posted Jul 1, 2011
37
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
... delivers a pulp punch while it savagely satirizes the entire hardboiled mythos with its bare-knuckle brutality, flights of purple prose dialogue and he-man chauvinism ...
Posted Jun 27, 2011
38
The Adjustment Bureau (2011)
Too bad the film doesn't have anything else to offer besides the chemistry between the photogenic leads, the handsome location shooting and the usual bromides ...
Posted Jun 27, 2011
39
Red Riding Hood (2011)
... this gorgeously-mounted production fails to rouse the primitive ferocity of the primal beauty and the beast tale.
Posted Jun 14, 2011
40
Battle: Los Angeles (2011)
... this humorless film as unimaginative -- and as exhausting -- as you can get.
Posted Jun 14, 2011
41
Another Year (2010)
There's a lot of anger and misery around them and yet it's amazing how this film... can also be so warming and affirming.
Posted Jun 11, 2011
42
The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
... one of the most rousing adventures of the 1970s.
Posted Jun 11, 2011
43
The Stunt Man (1980)
The film twists and turns from scene to scene, carrying the audience on the some whirlwind mind-game...
Posted Jun 11, 2011
44
True Grit (2010)
... the most accessible and successful (financially speaking) film of their career.
Posted Jun 11, 2011
45
The Merry Widow (1925)
Stroheim revels in the mind-blowing decadence of the playground of royal existence...
Posted May 26, 2011
46
Laila (1929)
... there is an elemental power from the film's location shooting in the mountains of Norway.
Posted May 26, 2011
47
... a delicate and delightful piece of old-fashioned hand-drawn animation where character is in body language and personality in the "performance."
Posted May 26, 2011
48
Blue Valentine (2010)
... a crucible for very powerful performances and a convincing relationship in all its contradictions.
Posted May 26, 2011
49
The Mechanic (2011)
... a minor pleasure to see an action film that makes a virtue of lean, mean action stripped to the essence.
Posted May 26, 2011
50
Gnomeo and Juliet (2011)