Splat 2/4
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The Extra Man (2010)
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"The Extra Man is a comedy, but the humor is so genteel and smug it's as if the movie thinks it would be rude for us to laugh."
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Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3/4
|
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)
|
"Be warned that you will not care one bit if the lead man and woman end up together, but you can still have a lot of fun watching them get there or not get there."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3/4
|
The Wildest Dream (2010)
|
"What really brings the past alive in The Wildest Dream is those glorious voices."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 2.5/4
|
Get Low (2010)
|
"I can unreservedly recommend most of the movie, but would it be crazy to suggest that you walk out early?"
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Splat 1.5/4
|
Step Up 3-D (2010)
|
"The dance sequences in Step Up 3-D are thrilling, but the script is strictly 1-D."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Splat 1/4
|
Great Directors (2010)
|
"A better title for Great Directors would be Good Directors Who Returned My Calls."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3/4
|
Cell 211 (Celda 211) (2009)
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"It's a great, simple premise, and I will be surprised if we don't get an American remake starring, say, Jason Statham or Christian Bale."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3/4
|
Farewell (L'affaire Farewell) (2010)
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"From its double- or triple-meaning title to its sober conclusion, it's a winner."
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Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3/4
|
The Other Guys (2010)
|
"The ads make The Other Guys look like a spoof of buddy-cop movies, which is not exactly correct. But whatever it is, it's funny."
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Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 2.5/4
|
Charlie St. Cloud (2010)
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"It could be a one-note characterization, but Efron finds competing emotions in Charlie, and he conveys all of them to us."
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Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3/4
|
Countdown to Zero (2010)
|
"If you're not already scared about nuclear proliferation, this'll do it."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3/4
|
Agora (2010)
|
"It's not perfect, but it's not like any other movie in theaters now."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 2.5/4
|
South of the Border (2010)
|
"What would make South of the Border a better movie is an Oliverstonectomy."
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Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 2.5/4
|
Dinner for Schmucks (2010)
|
"Turns out Dinner for Schmucks is better when you say it in French."
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Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Splat 2/4
|
Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (2010)
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"Four-year-olds — and 34-year-olds — deserve better."
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Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 2.5/4
|
La MISSION (2010)
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"Peter Bratt's film, which stars and was co-produced by his brother, Benjamin, beautifully captures a community on the edge."
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Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3/4
|
Restrepo (2010)
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"The past few years have brought a lot of war documentaries, but Restrepo is the rare one that adds something new."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3/4
|
Best Worst Movie (2010)
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"It made me want to see Troll 2."
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Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 4/4
|
Ramona and Beezus (2010)
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"As a fan of the books, I was skeptical that the movies could re-create their gentle, humane, messy spirit. But I'm happy to report that Ramona and Beezus captures the characters almost perfectly and that Joey King is an ideal Ramona."
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Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3.5/4
|
The Father of My Children (Le pere de mes enfants) (2010)
|
"Father is a very intimate film, and writer-director Mia Hanson-Love has a Robert Altman-like gift for making us believe the relationships continue outside the bounds of the screen."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 2.5/4
|
Salt (2010)
|
"Salt is swift and fairly clever, if not particularly original."
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Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 4/4
|
Inception (2010)
|
"You know how much of a cheat it is when a movie concludes with a character waking up and realizing it was all a dream? Inception goes another way: Its characters wake up from their dreams to figure out what's real."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3/4
|
Wild Grass (Les Herbes Folles) (2010)
|
"Wild Grass wants to give us a lot of options and force us to figure things out for ourselves."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Splat 1/4
|
Standing Ovation (2010)
|
"I had never heard of the people in Standing Ovation before I saw it, and I hope never to hear of any of them again."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3.5/4
|
The Kids Are All Right (2010)
|
"You can tell Cholodenko loves people, and that's why, in The Kids Are All Right, she wanted to show how funny and weird and foolish we often are."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 2.5/4
|
Teza ()
|
"The storytelling is a deliberate muddle, jumbling time and space to suggest Anberber's aghast confusion. But if you stick with it for 140 minutes, everything does come together in an ending that is lyrical and devastating and just about perfect."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 2.5/4
|
The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)
|
"You can't fault the film's classy cast or its genial humor or its speedy-but-comprehensible action sequences, which beautifully straddle the line between "breakneck excitement" and "what the what was that?""
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Splat 2/4
|
Looking for Eric (2010)
|
"Looking for Eric would be a whole lot better if it never found Eric."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 2.5/4
|
Predators (2010)
|
"If you plunk down money for a ticket hoping to see some mindless carnage, you're in luck."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Splat 1/4
|
Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (2010)
|
"Two of the most influential artists of the 20th century become simpering dolts in Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Splat 1.5/4
|
The Girl Who Played with Fire (Flickan som lekte med elden) (2010)
|
"The second film in the trilogy based on the best-selling Swedish thrillers should be called The Girl Who's More Interesting Than the Stories She's Stuck In."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Splat 2/4
|
Stonewall Uprising (2010)
|
"More than half of the documentary isn't about Stonewall at all, which makes for a frustrating 49-minute wait until the uprising begins to rise up."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3/4
|
Despicable Me (2010)
|
"There's always something colorful and beautifully designed to look at, Carell makes his character's transition completely believable and those little girls will melt the heart of even the most despicable viewer."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3/4
|
Cyrus (2010)
|
"Cyrus would be a richer, funnier film if it made the effort to figure out all three of its main characters, but it is still an entertaining comedy. I guess two out of three ain't bad."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3/4
|
The Killer Inside Me (2010)
|
"It's an intriguing more-than-meets-the-eye experiment in point of view."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 4/4
|
I Am Love (Io sono l'amore) (2010)
|
"If you are fascinated by how movies convey meaning, and if you get off on wondering, "Why did the director show me that?" and "What's the camera doing there?" you will be astonished by how jam-packed this daring, gorgeous movie is."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Splat 1.5/4
|
The Last Airbender (2010)
|
"As a child puts together pieces of the puzzle that will help him save the world from evildoers in The Last Airbender, I was pondering a bigger mystery: How can this action-packed adventure be so deadly dull?"
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3/4
|
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)
|
"Slade has encouraged the actors to see the humor in the film's goofy love triangle."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3.5/4
|
Winter's Bone (2010)
|
"The setting, which I don't recall ever seeing on film, is menacing, unsettling and so foreign-seeming I kept forgetting Winter's Bone is set in present-day Missouri."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3/4
|
OSS 117: Rio ne répond plus (Lost in Rio) (2010)
|
"Stupid, racist, sexist and yet weirdly lovable, bumbling detective Hubert de la Bath is back in O.S.S. 117: Lost in Rio."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 2.5/4
|
Grown Ups (2010)
|
"These are funny people, and the movie is loosely structured enough to showcase all of their talents."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Splat 2/4
|
Jonah Hex (2010)
|
"In Jonah Hex, Josh Brolin plays a Wild West bounty hunter who can talk to dead people. So how come he couldn't yank the film's director out of his coma?"
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3.5/4
|
Toy Story 3 (2010)
|
"It's a soulful movie, but it's also very nearly as funny as the earlier Toy movies are."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3/4
|
Ondine (2010)
|
"Ondine makes us believe in fairy tales because it so clearly longs to."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 2.5/4
|
Holy Rollers (2010)
|
"[It's] so pretentiously blurred and weirdly framed I've seen better-looking surveillance tapes in documentaries. There's also a tedious romance. But the moral dilemma at the heart of Holy Rollers is so compelling I'd recommend it anyway."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3/4
|
Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders (2010)
|
"The documentary's title makes it sound like a hagiographic look at saintly doctors in war zones, but Living takes off the halos and keeps them off."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3/4
|
Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work (2010)
|
"I'm neither a fan nor a nonfan, but I found her fascinating."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3/4
|
The A-Team (2010)
|
"That A-Team succeeds is a credit to the clear, fluid editing and to the light touch Carnahan supplies."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Fresh 3/4
|
Casino Jack And The United States Of Money (2010)
|
"There's not much new in Casino Jack and the United States of Money, but it is a lucid, entertaining documentary."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|
Splat 2/4
|
Micmacs (Micmacs à tire-larigot) (2010)
|
"There is something whimsical about Micmacs but also something laborious, and that is not a good combo."
|
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
|