Critics' Reviews

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Our Picks

Machete
'MACHETE' AN ACTION TRASHTERPIECE
Our rating:  Our Rating

Vicious, vulgar, violent and vibrant, "Machete" began as a throwaway joke trailer for a film-that-never-was in "Grindhouse" ... Three years later, Rodriguez has a co-director (Ethan Maniquis) and a feature-length film built from the greasy bones of that mock trailer ... "Machete" is gratuitously smutty, sadistically violent, politically aware and somehow also politically incorrect. Put more succinctly, it is awesome ...Full Review
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Our Picks
Going the Distance
Our Rating:
"... feels real, in no small part thanks to documentarian Nanette Burstein's choices in her fiction-film debut." Full Review
The American
Our Rating:
"... eventually 'The American' does get to where it wants to be, and becomes a rather improbably but genuinely moving story" Full Review
Takers
Our Rating:
"... as long as you understand exactly what kind of hack cinema you are getting into, 'Takers' can be pretty fun." Full Review
The Last Exorcism
Our Rating:
"... a bland 'Blair Witch Project' quasi-rip that can't even stick to the self-imposed rules of the 'found-footage' horror film or thriller ..." Full Review
The Switch
Our Rating:
"... thanks to Bateman's truly winning performance, [the film] manages to earn our laughter and our respect in equal measure." Full Review
Nanny McPhee Returns
Our Rating:
"... serves up a flavorful mixture of magic and melancholy, barnyard humor and old-timey British idealism. " Full Review
Lottery Ticket
Our Rating:
"... largely wealthy in incoherence, raising a smile one minute and a cringe the next, until it finally devolves into a 'who-cares' cliché-fest." Full Review
Eat Pray Love
Our Rating:
"... it's the pleasant company of Julia Roberts that makes "Eat Pray Love" a benign, sometimes soporific slide into femme fantasy ..." Full Review
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Our Rating:
"... bright and broad and amusing and funny, but as Gertrude Stein said of Oakland ... there's no there there." Full Review
The Expendables
Our Rating:
"... [aside from] the film's front line of stars ... are a bunch of basic cable staples whose sell-by dates have been and gone." Full Review
The Other Guys
Our Rating:
"... the real reason to see the film is Ferrell and Wahlberg. ... that rare modern comedy as smart as it is crazy, and as skillful as it is silly." Full Review
Step Up 3D
Our Rating:
"... the [3-D] process just gets in the way of the series' main claim to fame: take-your-breath-away, hyperkinetic street-style dancing." Full Review