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Stories 341 - 360 | << Prev   Next >>

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Cadillac Is Quite a Ride

Top-notch music, performances powers the story of Chess Records

(Newser) - Cadillac Records may play fast and loose with historical fact, but you can't fault the tunes that fuel it, say critics. The "rollicking and insightful celebration of Chicago blues in its hectic golden age" tells the story of Chess Records and bluesmen like Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters, writes... More »

Milk Doesn't Spill a Drop

Critics lap up gay-rights drama

(Newser) - If Milk were a ballot proposition, critics would pass it in a landslide. Part docu-drama, part biopic, the film spins the tale of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay American elected to public office, into an “incisive and stirring” drama, Owen Gleiberman writes in Entertainment Weekly. It’s “... More »

Australia a Continental Mess

Epic misses its mark

(Newser) - Australia strives mightily to be a grand, old-school epic romance. “But what we get instead is an unwieldy mess” that’s overlong and drowning in clichés, writes Elizabeth Weitzman in the New York Daily News. Stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman “have no chemistry to speak of,... More »

Four Christmases a Big Turkey

Holiday comedy saps critics of their Christmas cheer

(Newser) - Holiday comedy Four Christmases had some critics chuckling but left most moaning ho-ho-no. Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon star as a couple forced by circumstance to visit the dysfunctional families of their divorced parents, but the "predictable and dyspeptic story" lacks the bite of misanthropic holiday classics like Bad ... More »

Bolt Is Fetching Fun

Critics say frisky Disney animation is its best effort in years

(Newser) - Disney's latest animated movie may not win prizes for originality, but Bolt is barking up the right tree for family entertainment, say critics. John Travolta voices with "terrific tenderness" the super-powered pooch who's unaware that his life has been a canine Truman Show, writes Michael Rechtshaffen in the Hollywood ... More »

Teens Will Swoon for Twilight

Vampire romance grabs target audience, fails on effects

(Newser) - The teen-vampire drama Twilight will “mesmerize its target audience, 16-year-old girls and their grandmothers,” writes Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times. “The movie is lush and beautiful, and the actors are well-chosen.” The story of a girl and her vegetarian-vampire lover focuses on the “fervent,... More »

Slumdog Millionaire Has Winning Pedigree

Critics can't resist the brutal, yet 'upbeat,' slice of Mumbai life

(Newser) - Slumdog Millionaire's feel-good story is tough to resist, critics say. The hard-knock life of a boy who goes from the streets of Mumbai to game-show fantasyland is “one of the most upbeat stories about living in hell imaginable,” writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times. Still, “... More »

Craig's Bond Saves Solace

Daniel Craig shines in superspy sequel but some find Bond brand too diluted

(Newser) - Quantum of Solace doesn't quite measure up to its predecessor, but that's because the Bond makers set the bar so high with Casino Royale, say critics. Daniel Craig returns for his second outing as the superspy, and his cold-blooded but charismatic performance ensures that his "place as the best... More »

Mac Gives Soul to Uneven Film

Critics divided, but star wins them over

(Newser) - Soul Men is the cinematic swan song of both Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes, and they undoubtedly deserve better, “given how easily it slips into conventionally vulgar and predictably crude” humor, writes John Anderson in Newsday. Still, get past the “old-man jokes, low-rent sex humor” and the film... More »

Role Models Sets Bad Example

Critics mixed on man-child laffer

(Newser) - The "shamelessly stoopid, proudly profane R-rated comedy” Role Models, the story of two immature men forced to take care of kids, is “killer funny,” writes Peter Travers in Rolling Stone. But other critics aren’t so sure. “A lot of Role Models is plain old tin,... More »

Madagascar Sequel Not Wildly Different

(Newser) - Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa brings back the on-the-run New York menagerie, and DreamWorks hasn't monkeyed much with the first movie's winning, if slightly tired, formula, say critics. The celebrity-voiced animals' new adventure "is aimed mostly at children and should score a direct hit," Kirk Honeycutt writes in the... More »

Porno Naughty But Nice

Raunchy 'R' rated comedy is a PG romance at heart

(Newser) - Indie director and slacker king Kevin Smith has made a surprisingly tender film with Zack and Miri Make a Porno, critics say. Elizabeth Banks and Seth Rogan star as a pair of "genuinely likable social misfits" whose platonic friendship is put to the test when they decide to... More »

Changeling Decent but Flawed

A plain headline for what critics call a plainly told movie

(Newser) - There’s a kidnapping, corrupt police, a trip to a mental hospital, a serial killer, even a hooker with a heart of gold. “If Changeling were fiction, you’d accuse it of being over the top,” writes David Ansen of Newsweek. Instead, it’s based on a true... More »

No Glory, Plenty of Cliches

Cop thriller a little too much like every other cop thriller to be a classic

(Newser) - Pride and Glory has all the ingredients of a great cop thriller, critics say, but they're ingredients that have been recycled a few too many times. Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, Noah Emmerich, and Jon Voight turn in fine performances as a family of New York cops, Bill Goodykoontz writes in... More »

Max Payne Lives Up to Its Name

Critics slam video game-based action flick

(Newser) - Max Payne, a sci-fi shooter video game-turned-movie, is “undiluted junk,” writes Elizabeth Weitzman in the New York Daily News. “No amount of generosity could excuse the levels of ineptitude on display here,” she says of the Mark Wahlberg vehicle. “The story has more holes than... More »

Bees More Honey Than Sting

Sweet Southern coming-of-age story could be one for Oscar buzz

(Newser) - The Secret Life of Bees is a pretty sweet story, critics agree, but all that honey proved a little cloying for some. The story of a troubled South Carolina teen (Dakota Fanning) set in 1964 is "an affecting ensemble piece that's destined to generate a fair share of awards-season... More »

City of Ember Smolders

Kids will enjoy nonsensical movie

(Newser) - Kids should enjoy the “rousing and action-packed and short” City of Ember, so long as they "haven't already been hopelessly corrupted by high-powered sci-fi on TV and video,” Roger Ebert writes for the Chicago Sun-Times. But for adults the movie may prove too nonsensical, and, for other... More »

Body of Lies Too Conventional

Film has atmosphere but 'flawed' story

(Newser) - The CIA thriller Body of Lies is “always crisp and watchable,” but “it ends up too unconvincing and conventional to consistently hold our attention,” writes Kenneth Turan in the LA Times. The story of an anti-terror mission played out on the ground but guided from the... More »

Happy-Go-Lucky Dazzles

Famously miserable director Mike Leigh takes a look at the brighter side of life

(Newser) - British director Mike Leigh is famed for his gloomy films, but Happy-Go-Lucky leaves critics smiling. The complex look at happiness stars Sally Hawkins as Poppy, a London teacher with a perpetually sunny outlook. "I wanted to throttle her at first," writes Peter Travers in Rolling Stone, but she'll... More »

Low Approval Ratings Greet W.

Stone's third presidential biopic his weakest

(Newser) - If early reviews are any indication, Oliver Stone might want to avoid waving a “Mission Accomplished” banner. His George Bush biopic, W., is “a gutsy movie,” writes Kirk Honeycutt of the Hollywood Reporter, “but not necessarily a good one.” The movie comes too soon to... More »

Stories 341 - 360 | << Prev   Next >>
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