Keith Phipps

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The A.V. Club, The Dissolve, The Verge, UPROXX
For 1,277 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 46% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 51% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 5 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Keith Phipps' Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 61
Highest review score: 100 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Lowest review score: 0 A Life Less Ordinary
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 625 out of 1277
  2. Mixed: 463 out of 1277
  3. Negative: 189 out of 1277
1277 movie reviews
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    • 65 Metascore
    • 67 Keith Phipps
    My Week with Marilyn
    How could someone so frail and terrified at the mere thought of acting in front of the camera become the biggest movie star in the world? And how could someone so unknowable become so familiar? Then the film makes the mistake of trying to answer these questions.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 67 Keith Phipps
    The Muppets
    Henson's characters maintained an essential innocence while sending up the very idea of entertainment. They put on a show with quotation marks around it, but the irony never felt cynical. When it isn't getting bogged down in unearned sentiment, The Muppets gets that right.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 91 Keith Phipps
    Tyrannosaur
    Considine directs with the confidence of a veteran, giving his actors room to work while letting an ominous, overcast mood hang over almost every scene.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 58 Keith Phipps
    Young Goethe in Love
    Whatever its basis in fact, there's nothing to Young Goethe In Love's story that dozens of other films haven't done before, and better. But Fehling keeps his Goethe just on the right side of obnoxious, and Stein invests a lot of character and gawky charm into what easily could have been just "the girl."
    • 50 Metascore
    • 33 Keith Phipps
    Anonymous
    It's as dull as it is brainless, the work of creators who've spent far more time concocting silly stories about Shakespeare than learning from him.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 42 Keith Phipps
    The Three Musketeers
    Beyond being unable to decide what kind of Musketeers movie it wants to be, Anderson's adaptation seems determined to underachieve as both heavy spectacle and light adventure. It's two mediocrities for the price of one.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 42 Keith Phipps
    The Mighty Macs
    There must have been a reason why the real-life Rush could do so much with seemingly so little, but The Mighty Macs never captures it. It lets canned inspiration provide the uplift, instead of something more tangible.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 67 Keith Phipps
    Texas Killing Fields
    Without "The Wire" and its like as a point of comparison, Texas Killing Fields might seem the natural heir to a gritty '70s cop drama. But with great contemporary TV around, it seems strangely incomplete.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 42 Keith Phipps
    The Big Year
    In The Big Year co-stars Owen Wilson and Jack Black appear on the verge of succumbing to the same terminal blandness that's gripped Martin for so long.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 67 Keith Phipps
    Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone
    Made with affection and access but not enough structure.
    • 17 Metascore
    • 25 Keith Phipps
    The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence)
    The first Human Centipede had audacity on its side. Human Centipede II has only excess.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 25 Keith Phipps
    Straw Dogs
    The original was repulsive but impossible to shake. This remake is pure applause bait, which makes it barbaric in ways Peckinpah would never have dreamed.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    Restless
    Somehow, Van Sant has made a film about life and death in which the stakes never seem higher than whether one insolent kid will stop being such a horrible mope.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    Contagion
    Soderbergh creates an unnerving mosaic from the smaller pieces, a vision of a world that's simultaneously tightly knit, delicately balanced, and prone to breakdown, whether due to disease, bad ideas, or unenlightened self-interest.
    • 24 Metascore
    • 0 Keith Phipps
    Apollo 18
    Unpleasant when it isn't dull, Apollo 18 never sells the lost-footage illusion, and never compensates for it with scares. Jolts, sure. Like so many lazy horror directors, López-Gallego knows how to startle, but not how to frighten.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 58 Keith Phipps
    Brighton Rock
    Rowan Joffe (son of Roland Joffe) provides busy, if never particularly distinctive direction, but it's the leads that continually threaten to sink the film.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 25 Keith Phipps
    Conan the Barbarian
    It shouldn't, in other words, be that hard to make a good Conan movie. John Milius did a half-decent job with "Conan The Barbarian" in 1982, but this new film of the same name feels like a half-hearted revamp of virtually any of the Conan rip-offs that clogged up video-store shelves in the '80s.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    Fright Night
    The film's greatest pleasures come from Noxon's script - which puts the sexual chaos created by Farrell's attractive bloodsucker front and center - and from the performances.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 42 Keith Phipps
    Bellflower
    It is, without a doubt, a striking debut. But it's also punishingly distasteful and disjointed almost beyond coherence, a repetitive heap of a film that feels disgorged rather than crafted.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    Rise of the Planet of the Apes
    Wyatt brings a light touch to the potentially grim material - too light when it drops in some groan-inducing references to the original film - but he keeps the action compelling whether focusing on apes as they run amok or as they quietly contemplate their next move.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    The Guard
    Focusing the film on Gleeson was certainly the right choice. His performance is equal parts funny and unnerving, and he keeps viewers guessing about what drives the man and what he'll do next.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    Cowboys & Aliens
    You want cowboys and aliens in the same movie? This one's for you. If you want anything beyond what the title promises, look elsewhere. And that means even anything resembling a clever mash-up of established genres.
    • The A.V. Club
      • Posted Jul 28, 2011
    • 30 Metascore
    • 42 Keith Phipps
    Zookeeper
    As a study in insanity, Zookeeper is mildly interesting. But as a kiddie comedy, it's something to watch only once the little ones have worn out their "Dr. Doolittle" DVD.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    Larry Crowne
    The story feels half-considered, the relationships thin, and the direction visually indifferent.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    The Names of Love
    The American romantic comedy has grown distressingly moribund lately, but anyone looking to freshen up the genre a bit need look no further than Michel Leclerc's The Names Of Love.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 83 Keith Phipps
    Road to Nowhere
    The tone and subject at times recall David Lynch's "Lost Highway" and "Mulholland Dr.," but the approach is Hellman's own.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    Super 8
    Its pleasures are borrowed, but durable.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 67 Keith Phipps
    Midnight in Paris
    An unassuming wisp of a movie, Midnight In Paris finds Woody Allen penning a love letter to the City Of Lights, albeit one whose sentiments could easily fit on a postcard.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    Daydream Nation
    It's a film about teen angst that's too caught up in its characters' state of mind to see its way through to the other side.
    • 22 Metascore
    • 16 Keith Phipps
    Passion Play
    Passion Play doesn't overreach so much as it overindulges in aimless pacing, inert acting, and a romance maudlin enough to make "Twilight" look restrained.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 83 Keith Phipps
    Thor
    It's a film with its own identity, the simple, thrilling story of a handsome god who falls to Earth and reminds everyone what heroes do.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 33 Keith Phipps
    Dylan Dog: Dead of Night
    Peter Stormare has fun engaging in some Walken-level scenery-chewing-almost literally-as the patriarch of a werewolf clan. Good for him. That means at least one person has found something to like about this tedious collection of wisecracks and hand-me-down monsters.
    • 20 Metascore
    • 42 Keith Phipps
    Hoodwinked Too! Hood VS. Evil
    It raises the question of who the movie is for in the first place: Kids have seen much better animation in other films, and it's hard to imagine too many grown-ups ready to smile and nod at yet more smirking takes on famous moments from "Scarface" and "The Silence Of The Lambs."
    • 40 Metascore
    • 42 Keith Phipps
    Ceremony
    Trouble is, it feels like a film going through the motions, never finding mooring in believable human feelings.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    Arthur
    Russell Brand steps into the role of Arthur Bach for the 2011 remake, and while it's one of the more reined-in performances of his short, busy big-screen career, Brand's unvarying onscreen persona just doesn't do soulful.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 33 Keith Phipps
    Hop
    Candy-coated or otherwise, crap's still crap.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    Source Code
    For a while it's the rare film that-in the mold of the first "Matrix" movie and "Inception," although on a more modest scale than either-mixes heady puzzles with gripping suspense.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Keith Phipps
    The Four Times (Le Quattro Volte)
    It's a remote location, but Frammartino's canny eye, wry humor, and careful sense of rhythm make it feel like the best possible spot to observe the workings of the world, from ashes to ashes.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Keith Phipps
    Certified Copy
    Though it's dominated by two people walking and talking, after a point it's as difficult to parse what's real and what's constructed in Certified Copy as it is in the home stretch of "Inception" (although "Before Sunset" and Roberto Rossellini's "Journey To Italy" provide closer models).
    • 49 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    Mars Needs Moms
    Any satirical points about contemporary gender roles get lost in a mad rush through the matriarchy's beautifully realized, Death Star-like gray fortress. It's a fun rush, though, and an intense one, too.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 42 Keith Phipps
    The Adjustment Bureau
    It's too little premise stretched over too much movie, and while the cast gives it their all, Nolfi's characterless direction only makes the movie feel that much slighter.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 67 Keith Phipps
    Hall Pass
    Though the film never balances the grown-up stuff with the gross-out gags, it suggests the Farrellys might be able to do mature after all.
    • 22 Metascore
    • 25 Keith Phipps
    Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son
    Star Martin Lawrence, now the sole remaining element from the original "Big Momma's House" 11 years ago, looks pretty tired both in and out of makeup here.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    We Are What We Are
    Mixing social commentary and black humor with copious amounts of blood and cracking bones, We Are What We Are offers a cannibal's-eye view of Mexico City's seamier side.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 25 Keith Phipps
    Just Go with It
    Aniston and Sandler, however, play characters too awful to deserve anyone better than each other. But what did we do to deserve them?
    • 38 Metascore
    • 42 Keith Phipps
    The Rite
    Kudos to The Rite for thinking outside the usual goat/pentagram/black-candles box for its satanic imagery, but is a mule really the best it could manage?
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    Strongman
    Though Levy's film feels shapeless at times, what it loses in structure, it gains in handheld intimacy, letting viewers get to know the mercurial but fundamentally sweet Pleskun.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 67 Keith Phipps
    No Strings Attached
    No Strings Attached isn't a BAD piece of formulaic product.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 58 Keith Phipps
    The Green Hornet
    It's a strange, shapeless, rarely satisfying, but generally amiable movie in which everyone appears to be faking it as they go along, and almost-almost-getting away with it.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 42 Keith Phipps
    Country Strong
    When she's (Paltrow) singing, she can pass for someone who's been listening to Tammy Wynette since the cradle; when the music stops, she looks like a tourist.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    Somewhere
    It's all so uneasily compelling and quietly moving, it might be too much to ask her to sustain it through the conclusion.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Keith Phipps
    True Grit
    The Coens direct True Grit with a light touch, but like Portis' stark, funny novel, their adventure tale shaves off none of the rough edges.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Keith Phipps
    Rabbit Hole
    Rabbit Hole is a tremendously sad movie, but it's also the furthest thing from a miserablist wallow.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    Due Date
    The situations sometimes feel contrived, but the characters never do, particularly because Galifianakis remains simultaneously charming and unrelentingly irritating.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 58 Keith Phipps
    Faster
    Faster starts to lay on a heavy-handed message about the importance of forgiveness. That isn't what anyone showed up to see.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 67 Keith Phipps
    The Tempest
    The best thing about Taymor's Tempest is also the worst: It's not stunning but it is sturdy, a handsome-enough showcase of a film that never really comes to life. It plays like a challenge politely declined.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 91 Keith Phipps
    Black Swan
    A florid, often lurid, completely enthralling film held in place by a disarming Portman, who rarely leaves the frame.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 58 Keith Phipps
    Made in Dagenham
    Make no mistake. In spite of its worthy subject matter and good intentions, Made In Dagenham remains mediocre to the core.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 67 Keith Phipps
    William S. Burroughs: A Man Within
    Offers a concise summary of Burroughs' life and works. Maybe too concise. At a mere 88 minutes, it feels a bit glancing. But as an introduction or refresher course, it gets the job done.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 42 Keith Phipps
    For Colored Girls
    There's no right way to do an adaptation, particularly a difficult-to-adapt work like this, but there are plenty of wrong ways, and Perry's film offers a casebook of things-not-to-do.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Keith Phipps
    What's Up, Tiger Lily?
    When it does work, it's very funny, and worth a look both as an example of Allen's still-developing talent and—thanks to The Lovin' Spoonful—as the source of one of the greatest rock 'n' roll title songs ever to come out of a decade filled with excellent rock 'n' roll title songs.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    The Night Listener
    Williams delivers a solid, twinkle-free (though closed-off) performance, but the film as a whole can't decide what it wants to be.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 90 Keith Phipps
    Secrets & Lies
    There's not a weak performance in Secrets And Lies, a fact made more notable by the seeming ease with which the cast performs as an ensemble.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Phase IV
    In form, Phase IV isn’t that different from monster movies of old, though the ants never grow to monstrous size. In execution, it’s much more striking, offering a study in contrasts between ants and humans, and one that doesn’t always reflect favorably on the humans.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 67 Keith Phipps
    Leatherheads
    Too much of Leatherheads feels like studied motions, and its charms never plaster over a story that takes forever to get going, and doesn't go too far once it does.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 58 Keith Phipps
    Secretariat
    The film ultimately feels like a well-trod journey to a familiar destination with not enough wonder along the way.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 40 Keith Phipps
    My Wife Is an Actress
    Sadly, that thin premise snaps after a while, and when Wife takes a serious turn, it becomes apparent how little the director has to say.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    The Notorious Bettie Page
    Mol nails it, in a performance that should earn her a comeback on a Heath Ledger-like scale.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 42 Keith Phipps
    Life as We Know It
    Pity any poor kid stuck in a house like that. Pity, too, anyone who has to stop by for a visit.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 42 Keith Phipps
    Cadillac Records
    Martin attempts to present the whole oversized Chess story, but instead winds up reducing the lives and art that give it shape.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    A Good Woman
    The trick to staging Wilde is to hint at the gravity beneath the witticisms. A Good Woman barely even gets the witticisms out, though it does contain Wilde's line about people being either tedious or charming.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 83 Keith Phipps
    Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
    The honesty behind Garcia's queasiest moments gives the film its pull.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 10 Keith Phipps
    Ever After
    It's... directed by Andy Tennant ("It Takes Two") with all the flair of an episode of "7th Heaven", making it that much more worth avoiding.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Keith Phipps
    Manito
    Eason's twist of fate and too-sudden ending seems as rooted in Washington Heights as the music that pours from the neighborhood's car windows, the smoke that billows from its late-night eateries, and the stoic resignation inscribed on its inhabitants' faces.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 40 Keith Phipps
    Prey for Rock & Roll
    An actress of magnetizing screen presence whose inability to land choice roles can only be attributed to her post-TRL age, Gershon easily identifies with her character, giving her performance an edge that this lazy, punked-up melodrama otherwise lacks.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Young Adam
    In this long, slow fall from grace, unceremonious nudity and half-hearted sex begin to look like a mockery of a paradise lost.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 40 Keith Phipps
    Breakin' All the Rules
    Written and directed by Daniel Taplitz, Breakin' has a hard time building up steam and an even harder time distinguishing itself from any number of UPN sitcoms.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Robots
    The amiable but thin comedy Robots does have a little more going on, but not quite enough to make a difference, although it looks good enough to distract viewers from that fact for a while.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Keith Phipps
    Asylum
    Mackenzie's film could almost use one or two lurid touches in place of its stately distance. Then again, a more stylized approach might have allowed less room for Richardson, whose unsparing performance makes other elements almost irrelevant.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    The Flying Scotsman
    There's real triumph to Obree's story, and real adversity, too, but the film contents itself with the pretend versions of both.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 67 Keith Phipps
    Hot Rod
    Hot Rod keeps a sweet tone that's filled with affection for its characters, and enough laughs to become this summer's most mildly recommendable comedy.
    • 25 Metascore
    • 0 Keith Phipps
    The Ten Commandments
    It fails on every conceivable level.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 67 Keith Phipps
    Nowhere Boy
    It's a tender, but sometimes untended, portrait of the artist as a young man-and occasionally as a young asshole-that's handsome, dutiful, and finally, a little dull.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 33 Keith Phipps
    The Final Conflict
    Director Graham Baker has little gift for atmosphere, and apart from one inspired sequence, I suspect I'll forget every aspect of this movie in a couple of days.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 30 Keith Phipps
    Bringing Down the House
    Yet another comedy that suggests someone should take Martin aside and remind him that he can do better.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Something's Gotta Give
    Mostly, it's just a pleasure to watch Keaton and Nicholson learning new steps in an old dance, stumbling to grab at happiness before it's too late.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 30 Keith Phipps
    Catch That Kid
    The film combines dour heroes with a drab look, and the string of "Don't try this at home"-style stunts should underwhelm even viewers too young for James Bond or XXX.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi
    Like Ang Lee's "Hulk," it's a fusion of arthouse and multiplex instincts, and though it seems unlikely to satisfy anyone, it's just as unlikely that anyone who sees it will forget it soon.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 40 Keith Phipps
    Stuart Little 2
    Never becomes more than a just-acceptable kiddie time-filler.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    Fire
    Fire is designed to provoke questions and spark debate. Mission accomplished, but, despite a heartfelt tone that pervades its every moment, it doesn't do much else.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Keith Phipps
    The Hard Word
    Roberts' script and direction show sparks of wit, but the plot comes lifted from countless heist films.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    It's All Gone Pete Tong
    If only any of it were funny.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 91 Keith Phipps
    They Were Expendable
    The liberal Ford and the conservative Wayne had nothing in common politically, but artistically, they're perfectly in sync.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 83 Keith Phipps
    The Fountain
    Viewers not attuned to his (Aronofsky's) heartfelt, bombastic Richard Wagner-by-way-of-"2001: A Space Odyssey" lyricism might be better off looking elsewhere. But they'll never see anything else quite like it.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Keith Phipps
    Shrek 2
    The lovable characters remain, but they never do much of interest in a sequel that's safely above average but superfluous.
    • 96 Metascore
    • 100 Keith Phipps
    Man with a Movie Camera
    It's a unique, unforgettable, enlightening experience.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Keith Phipps
    Red Dawn
    As an action movie, Red Dawn is a repetitive headache, and anyone with Blue State sympathies will be appalled at its manipulations and exaggerations. But there's smart subtext beneath the big dumb explosions.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 60 Keith Phipps
    The Time Machine
    Machine makes its look-to-the-future-not-the-past message as clear as a Grammy acceptance speech, but as an exploration of regret and the elusive quality of time, it falls well short of "Memento," another film starring a sad-eyed Pearce.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Keith Phipps
    The Dark Knight
    The film's capes and cowls suggest one genre, but it's a metropolis-sized tragedy at heart.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 80 Keith Phipps
    Matchstick Men
    A combination of criminal smoothness and overloaded neuroses, Cage pulls off the lead role better than any actor imaginable.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 25 Keith Phipps
    The Island of Dr. Moreau
    As a sci-fi action movie, the latest Moreau is sub-schlock. As a thinly veiled post-colonial allegory, it's dangerously close to racism. Either way, it's one of the most ridiculous movies in a ridiculous summer.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    City of Angels
    At least Dennis Franz, as a former angel, livens up his scenes, and Ryan is less intolerable than usual. Meanwhile, the always-interesting Cage does a good job pretending he's in a better movie. But he's not.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    Cheaper by the Dozen
    Much of the film feels like watching "Home Alone" and "Mr. Mom" on 12 different TVs at once.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 67 Keith Phipps
    Bloody Birthday
    Timeless message: Kids: They’re the worst.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 58 Keith Phipps
    Princesas
    It's well-acted and strikingly shot, and its depiction of contemporary Spanish squalor is hard to forget, but it never quite reconciles its high-drama situations with its low-key approach. It whispers when it really wants to shout.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    View from the Top
    Over in a breeze, padded out by a generous collection of outtakes, and filled with characters who disappear virtually unnoticed, View is an inoffensive comedy that feels like the victim of too much fiddling.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 67 Keith Phipps
    The Return
    It's more haunting than it has any right to be, thanks to its love of long, lonesome highways and the way the violence of the past bleeds into the present.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    The Good Shepherd
    De Niro made the right choice in making this a film of cold, gray Leiters rather than dynamic Bonds. But he never makes us feel the chill.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 91 Keith Phipps
    The Last Temptation of Christ
    The power to provoke may not always have a smoke-to-fire relationship with greatness but with Scorsese's film, a testament of faith that leaves in the question marks, it undeniably does.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Keith Phipps
    The Sixth Sense
    Teeters on the brink of New Age ludicrousness, but it never goes over: Like Kieslowski and others, Shyamalan knows that what makes for lousy metaphysics can make for powerful metaphor, and in the end he creates a deeply, surprisingly affecting film out of a little bit of smoke and brimstone.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Keith Phipps
    Nine Queens
    Bielinsky's debut is a fine con picture, but at its best, it achieves even more, presenting the profession as a lifestyle with almost existential ramifications.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    Clash of the Titans
    Modestly entertaining by the low standards of spring blockbusters. As with "Transporter 2" and "The Incredible Hulk," Leterrier aims no higher than competence and achieves just that.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 30 Keith Phipps
    The Middle of the World
    When they (the family) arrive at their destination, the story arrives at an ending that's neither obvious nor interesting, kind of like the film leading up to it.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 40 Keith Phipps
    Man of the House
    Jones' role, on the other hand, only requires him to look embarrassed at all times, which shouldn't have been too hard to pull off, considering the circumstances. Is that what they call "method" acting?
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Keith Phipps
    SubUrbia
    This adaptation of Eric Bogosian's 1994 play-- which revolves around several post-high-school drifters hanging around a convenience store while awaiting the return of their rock-star classmate -- doesn't hold up to Linklater's previous work, and the problem is Bogosian's script.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    The Blood of a Poet
    As a groundbreaking examination of the reality-bending potential of film, it's of a piece with Un Chien Andalou and L'Age D'Or.
    • 29 Metascore
    • 30 Keith Phipps
    Johnson Family Vacation
    It's a sign of trouble when watching a movie prompts nostalgia for the movie it's ripping off, particularly when that movie wasn't any good. But walking out of Johnson Family Vacation, it's hard not to feel misty-eyed for the urine-soaked-sandwich gags, incest jokes, and other refined comic elements of "National Lampoon's Vacation."
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Keith Phipps
    Day of the Dead
    Though it’s still a disappointment in relation to its two predecessors, it has much to recommend it. It begins and ends brilliantly.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    Salt
    Salt's mechanical command of action is what makes it one of the most entertaining films of a summer thin on its once-abundant variety of cheap thrills.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
    Moore's scenes with a miscast-but-game Harrelson offer a study in how spouses learn to handle even their partners' most destructive impulses, but in most other moments, Anderson fails to get beyond the surface of her characters' lives.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 83 Keith Phipps
    Forbidden Zone
    Forbidden Zone never really jells as a movie. But as a tuneful spectacle of weirdness, it doesn't really have an equivalent, and it's easy to see the influence of its free use of pop-culture relics in everything from Tim Burton's films to The Powerpuff Girls.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Keith Phipps
    The Dancer Upstairs
    Though he never quite rescues the film, Bardem continually suggests the tensions bubbling under the surface that Dancer itself never penetrates.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 20 Keith Phipps
    They
    Craven's name doesn't appear anywhere in the credits of the film otherwise known as They. That's fitting, too, since even the worst Craven-directed movies have a lot more going for them than this painfully familiar bit of oogum-boogum.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 30 Keith Phipps
    Gods and Generals
    Playing in theaters when it belongs on television, where snacks and bathroom breaks can counteract its punishing dryness, and the option of watching something else doesn't involve driving home.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Keith Phipps
    Tea with Mussolini
    While Zeffirelli couldn't have assembled a more capable cast, none of them, except Cher, are given characters colorful enough to make the film worthwhile; almost everyone gets lost amidst the Tuscan scenery.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Schizopolis
    Fast-paced and ambitious, it never bores, and Soderbergh proves himself interesting to watch in addition to being gifted behind the camera.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker
    Rourke's hammy, eyeliner-enhanced acting alone almost makes Alex Rider worth a look.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 58 Keith Phipps
    The Golden Compass
    The Golden Compass does manage the job of bringing Pullman's world to the screen. With luck, any future entries will try harder to get the job done right.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Good Thief
    Jordan invests attention in even the most throwaway moments and marginal characters, and his care makes the film a sustained, low-key pleasure.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    xXx
    Diesel clearly has fun playing a character so bullish that his skin seems to be made of leather, and he's self-conscious enough to pull it off even after the film surrenders to formula.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 25 Keith Phipps
    Evening
    Evening proves that there are such things as mistakes, by featuring two hours of bad choices and half-executed ideas.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    Happy Endings
    There aren't a lot of laughs in Happy Endings, and those that sneak in are pretty wry. There's no comedic snap either, and while that seems not to be the point, humor might have helped with the film's often-sluggish pacing.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 90 Keith Phipps
    Ten
    Nobody handles unvarnished interactions quite the way Kiarostami does, and for much of Ten, it's a kind of austere thrill to watch him focus so intently on one aspect of his craft.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 90 Keith Phipps
    Summer of Sam
    Lee at his best, a virtuoso piece of filmmaking that's stylish, substantial, and rich in detail.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Lilya 4-Ever
    What it became is essentially one long free-fall from destitution to despair.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    Quest for Camelot
    While moments indicate that not everybody working on the project was asleep at the switch, Quest For Camelot is strictly for bored toddlers and those breathlessly anticipating the completion of the Ferngully trilogy.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 100 Keith Phipps
    Halloween
    A remarkable film that towers over the endless clones that followed.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    Being Julia
    It looks handsome but seems infected by the idea of playing different roles; a comedy in one scene, it adopts a mood of a high seriousness the next and clutters the stage with minor characters that contribute little. In the end, this inability to make up its mind does the film in.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 58 Keith Phipps
    Death Race
    It's the perfect end-of-summer film, and a sign that summer needs to end soon.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 90 Keith Phipps
    Alien
    Despite years of imitators, sequels (some great, some not so), and edited-for-television broadcasts, Alien has lost none of its power, and the big screen only intensifies its impact.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    Warriors of Heaven and Earth
    In spite of the unavoidable disappointment that comes from raised expectations (and lowered elevations), it's clumsy storytelling that ultimately keeps Warriors grounded.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    Ice Princess
    Ice Princess will probably connect most strongly with kids who have yet to develop an awareness of sports- and family-film clichés.
    • 98 Metascore
    • 100 Keith Phipps
    The Passion of Joan of Arc
    Danish director Carl Dreyer's 1928 film The Passion Of Joan Of Arc is one of the indisputable masterpieces of the silent era.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Keith Phipps
    Heavy
    Heavy is the kind of deliberately slow-paced character study that allows carefully realized performances to shine.
    • 21 Metascore
    • 25 Keith Phipps
    The Car
    It is, in short, sub-par as demon-possessed-car movies go, even if watching Brolin attempt to act horrified at the sight of a classic automobile makes it almost worthwhile.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    All the Real Girls
    Deschanel and Schneider--who both give rich, funny performances--and everyone around them have inner lives that don't always translate into words. When they speak, it's usually in dialogue halfway between poetry and inarticulate fumbling.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Keith Phipps
    Rebecca
    Shot like a horror film and featuring Olivier as one of the least sympathetic heroes in the Hitchcock canon, Rebecca's smart extrapolation on themes inherited from gothic thrillers and Brontë novels allows the director to begin with a suspenseful romance that barely keeps its subtext under the surface, and smuggle in a story of one woman's immersion into the sexual expectations of her era.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    The Last Starfighter
    A sweet, unabashedly corny, matinee-friendly science-fiction adventure starring Lance Guest as a trailer-park videogame prodigy, and Robert Preston as the alien who recruits him to save the day from some space-baddies.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 58 Keith Phipps
    The Hangover
    It's an agreeably unambitious comedy that might be called a romp, if that word didn't imply a little too much energy.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 25 Keith Phipps
    Blood and Chocolate
    A romantic triangle between werewolves and humans doesn't sound dull, but director Katja von Garnier seems to determined to drain the life out of it.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Keith Phipps
    101 Dalmatians
    However much the film breaks with Disney tradition, it’s still a winning effort that mixes cuteness with dry wit in the service of a fast-paced, emotionally charged adventure tale.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Keith Phipps
    Japanese Story
    When the credits roll and the mood breaks, Japanese Story finally reveals itself as more dewy-eyed than deep, but as long as the mood holds, it holds fast.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 25 Keith Phipps
    2012
    2012 is ultimately only about finding new ways to topple monoliths. Only they don’t feel that new.
    • 12 Metascore
    • 10 Keith Phipps
    The Master of Disguise
    A film about as funny as a seeping wound.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 33 Keith Phipps
    The Women
    The original was a tart dipped in acid; this one's a biscuit sprinkled in Splenda.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 40 Keith Phipps
    Fools Rush In
    The best that can be said is that neither Matthew Perry nor Salma Hayek embarrass themselves, but they're both appealing enough that the same could probably be said if they were starring in a commercial for a hair-replacement system.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    My Mother's Smile
    As absurd as the situation gets--and the film occasionally launches into surreal asides that only heighten the absurdity--director and star both keep it grounded in the situation's emotions.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Keith Phipps
    Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles
    Zhang Yimou is a master of intimate character pieces.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Road to Perdition
    Mendes' second effort plays like a familiar song transposed to a minor key, a gangland fable soaked in portent and fatalism until its familiarity ceases to be an issue.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 30 Keith Phipps
    Brokedown Palace
    The once-reliable Danes is a particular detriment, but it's really hard to care whether either character escapes from what looks like a really unappealing summer camp.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Keith Phipps
    Black Sabbath
    There's a little bit of everything in Bava's best-known film, the three-part anthology Black Sabbath.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 40 Keith Phipps
    House of 1000 Corpses
    The setup almost needs footnotes, which makes it all the more puzzling that Zombie's obvious love for horror's past would translate into such a joyless, grisly rehashing.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    Let's Scare Jessica to Death
    It's a classic B-movie move of making much out of little, and while Let's Scare Jessica To Death isn't quite a top-rank B-movie classic, it at least offers further proof that all the teen-idol stars and CGI effects—or a logical plot, for that matter—mean nothing if they don't make you scared to turn out the lights.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 42 Keith Phipps
    Last Holiday
    For a film ostensibly about how life means nothing without adventure and unpredictability, Last Holiday all feels as preordained as the film-ending Emeril cameo.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 42 Keith Phipps
    Southland Tales
    The further Kelly bends his funhouse mirror, the more he loses sight of what it was supposed to reflect. By the end, the image has twisted beyond coherence.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 10 Keith Phipps
    Envy
    In short, every element suggests Envy ought to be amusing, but the only comparably disastrous movie in recent memory involves Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, and a rapping retarded man.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 90 Keith Phipps
    The Boxer
    Through quietly fiery performances by Day-Lewis and Watson, as well as novel-like depth and complexity, The Boxer not only avoids these pitfalls but emerges as a thoroughly engrossing movie.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Ocean's Twelve
    What it retains is a playful sense of style, that combines with an anything-goes spirit.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    The Merchant of Venice
    When the halves of the film collide in the courtroom climax, it looks like a misbegotten pilot for Law & Order: Usury Victims Unit.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Keith Phipps
    Winter Kills
    Winter Kills provides a perfect, absurd finale to the half-decade of post-Watergate paranoid thrillers that preceded it and compares favorably to the grand unified conspiracy-theory fictions that followed, such as Oliver Stone's JFK and James Ellroy's book American Tabloid.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 30 Keith Phipps
    Apt Pupil
    McKellen is fine, of course, but the film as a whole offers about as much insight into evil as Ming The Merciless in a “Flash Gordon” serial.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 20 Keith Phipps
    The Passion of the Christ
    Gibson makes sure that no blow remains unfelt, and his approach can't help but stir the body, but he never touches the soul.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 Keith Phipps
    Frailty
    When the twists arrive, they feel like much of the film: creepy and cliché-free, but still terribly wrong.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 67 Keith Phipps
    The Spiderwick Chronicles
    Anyone looking for handsomely presented, kid-friendly thrills need look no further.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    Ha-Hesder
    Ultimately, writer-director Joseph Cedar has created a film that resembles a subtitled very special episode of "JAG."
    • 53 Metascore
    • 83 Keith Phipps
    Race with the Devil
    A near-exact cross between Rosemary's Baby, Duel, and The Parallax View, Race With The Devil has problems getting over the flat, TV-style direction by Cleopatra Jones director Jack Starrett, but it gets by on engaging drive-in goofiness, even if it's tough to swallow the idea that mid-'70s Texas swarmed with Satanists.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man
    Director Lian Lunson keeps the tone reverent, making I'm Your Man the cinematic equivalent of a testimonial dinner. But there's a place for that kind of film, particularly for subjects who've earned it.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 90 Keith Phipps
    Re-Animator
    A deft, funny, fearless, and gloriously tasteless mix of horror and comedy, Re-Animator proves that entertainment value trumps virtually every other concern.
    • 14 Metascore
    • 0 Keith Phipps
    Kung Pow: Enter the Fist
    Does this even count as a movie?
    • 42 Metascore
    • 30 Keith Phipps
    The Replacement Killers
    Chow has a future in a America if given better material with which to work; here, he's wasted in a movie that's forgotten 20 minutes after the credits roll.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
    It’s a brisk, bright, winning effort, even though it already looks sadly out of touch with the times.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    Clash of the Titans
    Titans forces all aspects of the movie except the spectacle into the background, and historical accuracy isn't much of a concern. It does feature a better-than-average cast, however, aside from uncharismatic star Harry Hamlin.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Keith Phipps
    Kundun
    A slow, meditative movie-an appropriate choice given the subject matter-that ultimately fails, in spite of clearly heartfelt good intentions, because of its almost inhuman detachment.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 40 Keith Phipps
    Uncle Nino
    Written and directed by Robert Shallcross, and seemingly misdirected into theaters from its natural home on the ABC Family Channel, Uncle Nino is a sweet but not particularly distinguished effort.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
    Not every moment works, particularly in the draggy middle section, but the spirit of the thing still carries it along.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Keith Phipps
    To Be or Not to Be
    To Be Or Not To Be works as both comedy and thriller, ratcheting up the tension and humor as the actors’ scheme threatens to fall apart, and the gags build on one another.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 33 Keith Phipps
    The Break-Up
    A lot of The Break-Up doesn't work. Actually, apart from some funny moments between old Swingers sparring partners Favreau and Vaughn, and a nice scene with Jason Bateman as the couple's realtor, virtually none of it works.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 100 Keith Phipps
    The Sweet Hereafter
    It's all presented in a detached style that's ultimately much more moving and truthful than any heartstring-slashing weeper. This may be Egoyan's best work yet, and it's surely one of the best films of the year.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    The American Friend
    Adapting Ripley's Game, the third of Patricia Highsmith's Ripley novels, 1977's The American Friend knits Wenders' ongoing concerns into a thriller in the Hitchcock mold.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    The Bread, My Sweet
    Though The Bread, My Sweet is never even a little bit better than this description makes it sound, writer-director Melissa Martin's stagy, unattractive-looking film should at least get credit for going all the way with its manipulation.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Keith Phipps
    Six Days Seven Nights
    Not especially funny, romantic, or exciting.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    Invictus
    It’s a simplistic, superficial approach to a real-life story that marginalizes most historical details not involving scrums and tackles. It’s also pretty effective, in spite of the gloss.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 30 Keith Phipps
    Boogeyman
    Mostly Boogeyman remains content to be a film about a boogeyman who hides in closets and under beds and gobbles people up. And for that, it deserves a certain amount of respect. On the other hand, the film could hardly be any sillier.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Dear Frankie
    On its own terms, Dear Frankie works much better than it really has any right to. Auerbach tells a small, contrived story, but gives it the weight of life.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Ronin
    Here's a strangely flawed and strangely satisfying movie.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Keith Phipps
    Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child
    The artist's arresting images speak for themselves, even though now only the bystanders are left to tell his story.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    Marnie
    It's a must for those already enthralled by Rear Window, Vertigo, and the like, but a bit of a slog for anyone else.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Keith Phipps
    Love Liza
    Love Liza needs more than mood on its side. A moment of recognizable human behavior would have been a fine place to start.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 80 Keith Phipps
    Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion [re-release]
    As specific as the film is to Italy at the turn of the turbulent 1970s, it’s also a film about how power first corrupts, then makes mad those who possess it.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    Mother and Child
    Garcia shoots Mother And Child with minimal flare, an approach that keeps the focus squarely on the cast, whose moving work helps pave over some of the narrative’s lumpier patches.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Keith Phipps
    Lord of the Flies
    Like Golding's novel, Flies wears its allegorical impulses on its sleeve, but, also like Golding's novel, it rings uncomfortably true.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    The Omega Man
    If nothing else, The Omega Man remains worth seeing for its remarkable shots of Heston wandering through an abandoned metropolis.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 10 Keith Phipps
    Life and Debt
    Tough to respect a documentary that doesn't play fair. Anyone interested in the subject would be better off spending Life And Debt's torturous 80-minute running time with a good article on the topic.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Truth About Charlie
    Though indisputably a thriller, Charlie abandons itself to little cinematic rhapsodies, self-reflexive asides, and montages of Paris locations cued to a soundtrack of cool French pop, all of which often seems more vital than the main order of business.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Keith Phipps
    Piglet's Big Movie
    Though it's tough to find much fault with a film so sweet, Piglet's Big Movie never lives up to its title.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 91 Keith Phipps
    Cloverfield
    It puts human faces on the victims of mass destruction, faces that might easily have been yours or mine, staring down the maw of something we don't understand.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    Burn After Reading
    This feels like a second-shelf Coen comedy, particularly when compared to their no-less-shaggy "The Big Lebowski."
    • 56 Metascore
    • 30 Keith Phipps
    Troy
    Troy does look good--so good, in fact, that it takes a while to reveal itself as a thundering dud with much action but little personality, human drama, or brains.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Keith Phipps
    Daughters of Darkness
    Strikingly shot and notable for Seyrig's monstrous, Dietrich-like character, Daughters is a psychosexual horror film that's gripping almost up to the very end.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 30 Keith Phipps
    Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star
    Spade can still be funny when he lets himself be mean, and Dickie Roberts shows glimmers of that dynamic, but they're muscled out by lazy slapstick and maudlin stuff.
    • 14 Metascore
    • 20 Keith Phipps
    Rollerball
    Only those attracted to "Waterworld" or "Last Action Hero" level big-budget disasters need bother with this one.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 40 Keith Phipps
    The Country Bears
    It has the courage to feature some refreshingly lousy bear costumes, but the film seems likely to send most kids tugging at sleeves for the cinematic equivalent of Space Mountain.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 40 Keith Phipps
    Cold Creek Manor
    In one of the most laughable confrontations between humanity and nature since Elisha Cuthbert stared down the cougar on "24," Quaid's family runs amok in the house, as each member simultaneously discovers a carefully placed snake meant to scare them off the property, almost as if the snakes were working off a timer system. The film never recovers.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 Keith Phipps
    To Be and to Have
    An early shot of two turtles crawling through the classroom establishes the film's deliberate pace, and To Be And To Have benefits from the care.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 30 Keith Phipps
    Stateside
    A mess.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 58 Keith Phipps
    The Crazies
    The crazies themselves could be a lot more terrifying. Without the rotting ickiness of proper zombies, they just seem like methed-out Iowans looking for a fix. That’s scary, but not scary enough.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 16 Keith Phipps
    Jingle All the Way
    If there is a bottom of the Hollywood barrel, Jingle All The Way has been gleaned from the filth upon which that bottom rests.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 90 Keith Phipps
    Scream
    Finely crafted, tense, scary thriller from start to finish.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 33 Keith Phipps
    Land of the Lost
    It doesn't help that neither Ferrell nor McBride bring their best material, with McBride offering yet another variation on an angry redneck, and Ferrell falling back on Ron Burgundy-like bluster and nonsense exclamations.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    Accepted
    The ideal viewer of Accepted probably won't have seen any college comedies before. Or any slobs-vs.-snobs movies like "Caddyshack." For those who have, it's kind of a snore.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Keith Phipps
    Odd Man Out
    Though he has little coherent dialogue after a certain point, Mason is ideal as the embodiment of unsteadiness, physical and moral.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Keith Phipps
    Wattstax (re-released)
    Now an invaluable time capsule, the film has to transcend its own conceptual messiness.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 67 Keith Phipps
    Ramona and Beezus
    Ramona And Beezus has the undeniably nice, pleasantly uninspired feel of film designed to kill time with the kids on a rainy weekend.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 20 Keith Phipps
    Torque
    Torque has a sense of humor about itself, but the laughs stick in the throat.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    Stage Beauty
    As historical speculation, it's clever enough. As a film, it glows with flop-sweat.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Keith Phipps
    The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
    By the film's halfway point, the subplots have all started to head in the most obvious directions imaginable, which is too bad, since they all have real potential. Ferrera's story of spending the summer as an out-of-place ethnic element in the milk-white suburbs stays interesting the longest, in large part thanks to her performance.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Keith Phipps
    House of Usher
    Working from a script by Richard Matheson that spins Poe’s story to feature length, Corman, cinematographer Floyd Crosby (father of David), and composer and exotica icon Les Baxter create a hallucinatory swirl of a movie that has the feel of an especially sharp nightmare.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 42 Keith Phipps
    The Switch
    Turns out it's hard to make one man swapping his sperm for another's seem cute, as much as The Switch tries.
    • 28 Metascore
    • 33 Keith Phipps
    The Haunting of Molly Hartley
    It's a horror film better suited for skittish cats than humans.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Keith Phipps
    Hard Goodbyes: My Father
    Panayotopoulou's background in photography shows in the way she lets her chiaroscuro lighting mirror her characters' emotions. It also shows in the still-life quality that Hard Goodbyes never quite gets beyond.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Ignorant Fairies
    His Secret Life's languid pace and general aimlessness keep getting in the way.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Count of Monte Cristo
    While fleeting moments from Pearce and Luis Guzmán (as Caviezel's loyal servant) suggest the film might have been even more fun had they been allowed to loosen up a bit, the finished product still offers little cause for complaint.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 30 Keith Phipps
    Mango Yellow
    It's a lot to suffer through for a film that has nothing to say, but insists on saying it anyway. Repeatedly.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 33 Keith Phipps
    The Haunting in Connecticut
    As a piece of storytelling, The Haunting In Connecticut is pretty lazy. As a horror movie, it’s lazier still, bringing out every annoying shock-cut and disorienting sound-design trick of the last decade.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Keith Phipps
    A Woman Under the Influence
    Falk and Rowlands—in performances of almost indescribable intensity—detail a marriage anchored by love, but tossed by the expectations of others and the unpredictable swell of madness.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Keith Phipps
    Lost Highway
    A slow, ponderous, ultimately unsuccessful exercise in cerebral nihilism.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 58 Keith Phipps
    Halloween II (2009)
    Halloween II provides ample spotlights for Zombie’s visual gifts, but—apart from some striking Oedipal fantasy sequences featuring Sheri Moon Zombie as the spirit of Myers’ mother—we saw most of this last time around, and a lot of promising material leads to dead ends.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 40 Keith Phipps
    Once Upon a Time in Mexico
    An overstuffed would-be epic.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 58 Keith Phipps
    The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
    Video veteran Sanaa Hamri directs with smooth competence, and the leads all go pleasantly through their paces, but there are no surprises.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 20 Keith Phipps
    He Got Game
    There's not a relationship in He Got Game that feels right, especially the one between Washington and Allen, and if that doesn't work, neither does the film.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    The Yellow Handkerchief
    It’s nice to see a film unafraid to be quiet and sensitive, but one good gust of coastal breeze would blow this one away.
    • 97 Metascore
    • 100 Keith Phipps
    American Graffiti
    A funny, touching, nearly cliché-free, and thoroughly considered evocation of a time, place, and state of mind. Released just 11 years after the events it depicts (it usually takes about 20 years for nostalgia to set in), the film both captures the enormous societal changes between the early '60s and early '70s and winningly dramatizes the lives of its characters.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 83 Keith Phipps
    Wild Style
    The story of a much-admired graffiti artist who is tempted by the possibility of mainstream success, Wild Style is extremely clumsy as a drama, with awkward dialogue and even more awkward acting. However, as a showcase for many aspects of the incredible outpouring of creativity that took place in New York during the late '70s and early '80s, it can't be beat.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    One Swallow Brought Spring
    Carion and his gifted leads never take the easy way out. Instead, they let the characters get acquainted against the slow change of the seasons, taking their relationship along unexpected turns.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Night of the Comet
    Night Of The Comet borrows freely from everything from The Omega Man to Romero’s zombie films to Repo Man, but it never borrows so heavily as to feel like a rip-off of anything.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Monsieur Ibrahim
    Adapting a novel by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, François Dupeyron uses handheld cameras and some jarring edits, but, prostitutes and all, this is storybook material: heartfelt, pleasant, cuddly, and a little too insubstantial to stick in the mind for long.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 80 Keith Phipps
    The Ladykillers
    Already as dark as London soot, the comedy hardly needed work to bring it in line with the Coen brothers' sensibility, but the remake moves to a beat of its own, one unexpectedly in sync with the gospel music dominating its soundtrack.
    • 15 Metascore
    • 20 Keith Phipps
    The Cookout
    Gives virtually every cast member a shot at humiliation.
    • 99 Metascore
    • 100 Keith Phipps
    Playtime
    Tati's most elaborate film, Playtime stands as his masterpiece, an awe-inspiring work of intricate choreography with a heart to match its technical expertise.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Keith Phipps
    Saint Ralph
    Scott can invest just about any scene with heft and intelligence, but neither the material nor his co-star give him much help.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Keith Phipps
    Lilo & Stitch
    With its sharp wit and its portrayal of how broken families sometimes fit back together, Lilo would make a fine summer double feature alongside "About A Boy," another film that stays funny while dancing around a tiny abyss.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 40 Keith Phipps
    Babe: Pig in the City
    Maybe it could have worked had the movie found a story worth telling, but it simply drifts from depressing incident to depressing incident, resembling the nightmare of an adorable but deeply emotionally scarred pig. Anyone with fond memories of Babe ought to avoid this mirthless, dispiriting sequel.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 58 Keith Phipps
    Extreme Measures
    While Extreme Measures is competently directed by Michael Apted, and is never really boring, it's nothing we haven't seen before. And though it attempts to make an important point about the value of life, by the end viewers will only be reminded that they are two fruitless hours closer to the grave.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Keith Phipps
    Gran Torino
    Eastwood directs with his usual relaxed pace and bursts of intensity, a style that's pleasing to watch--and which, also as usual, never fully compensates for any shortcomings of the script handed to him.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Keith Phipps
    Promises
    "I knew the children here had something to say," Goldberg says in voiceover early in the film. That statement may sound slightly maudlin, but the film that follows is anything but.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Keith Phipps
    Ghost Chase
    For all the difficulties facing young filmmakers attempting to make it in Hollywood, many services are designed to aid their struggle. Film schools, for example, can help young visionaries hone their technical skills and expand their knowledge of film history. But more helpful than anything, if Ghost Chase is to be believed, are the ghosts of long-dead butlers who take the form of midget extraterrestrials.
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