Movie Reviews

Judd Apatow's Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story "is less thoughtful satire and ... more the distant cousin of Airplane! ," writes Brian Orndorf of OhMyNews.com. Starring John C. Reilly as a blues prodigy who ultimately experiences success, failure, and redemption, it plays like "an extended riff on the likes of severely mediocre Oscar-bait" such as Walk the Line and Ray , Orndorf says. More »

Sweeney Todd , about a wronged barber-turned-murderer, is so good that watching it will make you "feel sorry for the poor saps in the next theater at the multiplex," writes Kyle Smith of the New York Post . Directed by Tim Burton and starring a "stupendous" Johnny Depp, the big-screen adaptation of the 1979 Broadway musical is "scary, monstrously funny, and melodically thrilling," writes Peter Travers of Rolling Stone . More »

Charlie Wilson's War , the darkly comedic true story of the largest and most successful covert operation in US history, leaves critics mostly charmed. The Mike Nichols project featuring Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Julia Roberts "is that rare Hollywood commodity these days," writes Variety's Todd McCarthy, "a smart, sophisticated entertainment for grownups." More »

The Kite Runner, adapted from Khaled Hosseini’s acclaimed novel about two boys’ journey through the tumultuous recent history of Afghanistan, fails to match the book’s critical raves. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times loves it, praising the compelling narrative and the “natural, convincing and powerful" child stars' acting. More »

I Am Legend , a tale of the last man on Earth, who, through some freak of immunity, avoids a killer virus, isn't a perfect film. But despite its lack of surprises and its ending, which feels like "a studio-sanctioned reshoot," writes Chicago Tribune critic Michael Phillips, "you’re willing to cut the movie a break." More »

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 Nechak in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. More »

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 film version of Atonement has achieved that to which every literary adaptation should aspire," writes Ann Hornaday in the Washington Post. More »

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, cruel, and heartbreaking emotional explorations that have appeared in recent movies." More »

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 Savages ," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York TImes . More »

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 Chicken Little admonition built upon the cynical belief that when the sky really falls, we’ll reveal our true inner beast and prey on one another. Enough with that already,” he writes. More »

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 Jason Leigh, who's made the unfortunate decision to marry Jack Black. More »

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 in Salon. But critics reserve much of their enthusiasm for Langella's poignant portrayal. More »

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 tale and especially its "wicked good" princess. Drawing multiple comparisons to Mary Poppins , Variety calls it “a film aimed at the entire population—niches be damned.” More »

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 evoke enough wonderment," writes Variety's Brian Lowry. More »

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 Travers in Rolling Stone . But "as far as cinematic mythology goes, this film flies only so high," Michael Phillips cautions in the Chicago Tribune . More »

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. More »

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 deal gone horribly wrong and the resulting fallout, is "entertaining as hell," raves Peter Travers of Rolling Stone . More »

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 percent goo." More »

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 , a stunningly paced film that finds director Ridley Scott at the top of his game, "goes to the heart of America's obsession with success as a killer instinct." More »

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 quest to escape 9-to-5 hive drudgery by suing humanity “infectiously amusing.” More »