Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2. All Critics (283) | Top Critics (47) | Fresh (273) | Rotten (10) | DVD (10) Fiennes and Rickman get the actorly moments they've been building toward for so long, and the film is most fun when it sticks to mechanics: roller coaster rides, battle scenes, close calls. In the 10 years since Harry's first big- screen close-up, the spell has never been broken. And we Muggles have been made better for the magic. It's a pleasant irony that, just as the first installments of Rowling's oeuvre were better suited to page than screen, the final installments have reversed the relationship. When the movie was over, a young boy sitting behind me said, "That was great! " This is the way The Harry Potter saga was meant to end. Fasten your seat belts. Thankfully, Yates gives us one wonderful final voyage with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, a smashing, melancholy, and thoroughly satisfying conclusion to the eight-film saga.
Passable, well-acted, but not one of the best films of the series. Captain America: The First Avenger. All Critics (222) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (175) | Rotten (47) | DVD (17) It doesn't try too hard for irony or style; the comic-book sensibility remains pure, square, and happily stupid. Pacy and punchy, but not quite a knockout. Comic book fans are likely to appreciate Captain America, which does a good job of consolidating the disparate origin aspects of the character into something easily digestible. The movie looks wonderful. Kudos, then, to the creators of Captain America's big-screen blockbuster for keeping the action rooted in the past; except for some brief present-day bookends. The only problem is that we've been there -- been nearly everywhere Captain America goes -- in countless previous movies. ...a cut above its lackluster Marvel brethren for most of its running time (if only because it primarily resembles an actual movie more than it does a collection of special effects sequences).
The result is fun and refreshingly retro. One of the banner comic book films of the year. Horrible Bosses. All Critics (206) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (142) | Rotten (64) | DVD (7) Gordon knows what works and what doesn't, pushing the leads' chummy chemistry to the fore while allowing the schematic and, frankly, highly unlikely murder plot to sink into the background. The movie's main thrust is lowball wish fulfillment, which comes too cheaply. A lot of low-stakes humor, occasionally brought off by a mostly ingratiating cast.
For something like Horrible Bosses to sparkle, the actors have to shine... and shine they do. The coarseness wouldn't be so bad if at least the steady stream of obscenities were funny. But there is, after all, an art to talking dirty. Horrible Bosses offers a reminder that adherence to formula may not be among the signal virtues of comedy, but--provided the jokes are funny--it's no great vice either. This vulgar comedy is mediocre at best with some fun performances but few jokes that actually work. Colin Farrell is a comedy genius. Horrible movie. ... Inception. All Critics (290) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (248) | Rotten (39) | DVD (6) An astonishment, an engineering feat, and, finally, a folly. It's only the latest indication that Christopher Nolan might be the slyest narrative tactician making movies today. Pretty good, not bad, but brilliant it surely ain't.
Inception is a boldly constructed wonder with plenty of -- as one character describes it -- "paradoxical architecture. " I found myself admiring the movie's stubborn adherence to its own universe and logic. Nolan, like Cobb, is an assiduous extractor, and he knows how to wow audiences. Inception is the best film of the year and one of the best films of the decade, this is Nolan's masterpiece and it is perfect in every regard. Nolan's eyes here were a little too big for his stomach. A smart and inventive thriller, this drama is one of the year's best movies. Nolan has cemented himself among the great filmmakers of our time, not only with this film, but with most of his other works as well. The Adjustment Bureau. All Critics (247) | Top Critics (45) | Fresh (179) | Rotten (68) | DVD (7) Accomplished filmmaking that features two highly attractive, talented leads, a healthy dose of sentiment, an intelligent script, and which takes you away for two hours from the quotidian worries and banalities of your regular life.
This mind-meld of sci-fi thriller, morality play and passionate romance is worth seeing, mostly for the palpable chemistry between the lead actors. Damon and Blunt give such terrific performances you might almost forgive the movie's dopey ending. The on-screen pairing of Matt Damon and Emily Blunt is so winning that you may be willing to overlook the oddly modulating tone of the story that brings them together and then tries to keep them apart. Fans looking for something a little different will find it here - as well as the first real romance of the year. a fantastic piece of science fiction told in the flavor of a classic Twilight Zone episode Paranoia never looked so good.
Brave Trailer. New Trailers Top Box Office Top DVD Rentals Most Popular Trailers More Brave Clips. Cars 2. All Critics (204) | Top Critics (42) | Fresh (79) | Rotten (124) | DVD (9) Don't tell the kids, but Santa Claus isn't real and Pixar is fallible. Time, perhaps, for the franchise to be towed off to the scrapyard. Sorry, Pixar. It's an example of what a sequel should, or at least can, be. Cars 2 is marginally better than its predecessor, but the same problem still remains: Cars just aren't very interesting as anthropomorphic animation vehicles (pun intended).
Larry the Cable Guy has helped make Mater one of Pixar's sweetest creations. Not that Cars 2 is an actively bad animated film. Undoubtedly flawed, this animated film is still (barely) worth seeing. Minor Pixar, but it would be a major film were it made by just about anyone else. Unlike the duller than duller "Cars," this is better than the toys they sell along with it. Despite a more interesting plot, Cars 2 still leans on a number of problems established in the first film -- specifically leading men, Lightning McQueen and Mater. Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
All Critics (246) | Top Critics (46) | Fresh (87) | Rotten (157) | DVD (8) The third outing for a herd of toys that should have stayed in their boxes. Despite its manifest improvements, there is something so sour and unpleasant about the new film that it left me almost nostalgic for the innocent idiocies of its predecessor. At 157 minutes, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" isn't just a movie. It's a sentence. For good or ill, Bay is the soul of a new machine, the poet of post-human cinema, the CEO of Hollywood's military-entertainment complex.
Marveling at its grotesque gigantism doesn't make this two-and-a-half-hour-long movie any less dull. If you're going to make a movie in which some of your stars are animated toys and much of downtown Chicago is reduced to rubble, this is the way to do it: shamelessly, with no expense spared and no cliche avoided. An overlong ordeal, devoid of excitement and intrigue.
This movie is actively making the world a worse place to live. I Am Number Four. All Critics (159) | Top Critics (31) | Fresh (52) | Rotten (106) | DVD (13) The young "Four" cast appears to have been plucked from an Abercrombie & Fitch catalogue - which isn't an issue until you realize that the characters they're playing are about as thin as the pages in that Gen-Y fashion Bible. The door is left wide open for a sequel, but it's hard to imagine there'll be much call for it. The sci-fi-teen romance I Am Number Four is witless, insultingly derivative, muddy-looking, and edited in the hammering epileptic style that marks so many films produced, as this one is, by Michael Bay. Granted, I Am NumberFour is a little better and makes loads more sense than Eagle Eye, Caruso's most recent vehicle for comely young actors in peril. But neither one has the sass and pluck of Disturbia. Pettyfer - a child actor turned model turned self-satisfied hunk - isn't much except blond hair and good cheekbones as our hero.
An entertaining film that lacks maturity and expression. Super 8. All Critics (270) | Top Critics (46) | Fresh (221) | Rotten (48) | DVD (13) Super 8 is accomplished commercial filmmaking. A diverting but rather pointless affair, undermined by its obsessive and clinical commitment to recreating past glories. Spielberg and Abrams are the unwitting targets of their own irony. A love letter to a cinematic era, before 'blockbuster' became a synonym for 'franchise' or 'tent pole.' Remember the good old days? This is the movie you went to see on a Saturday afternoon in the good old days. There's much to like in this story of a group of young movie-makers who stumble upon an event right out of, well, the movies.
An idealistic and powerful summer film with great characters and a wonderful script. While it may not achieve the level of pop culture canonization as the Spielberg films it invokes, Super 8 should inspire many to use their camera-phones for something more creative than a profile pic. It wants to be Spielberg, needs to be Spielberg, begs to be Spielberg.
X-Men: First Class (2011.