| Critic |
Review |
Quote |
Analysis |
This Week's Verdict |
Stephen Holden,
The New York Times |
Stardust |
"Beyond Lamia, the movie suffers from a dire lack of strong, clear-cut characters, with one outrageous exception. [...] The most glaring of several mistakes in casting is Ms. Danes's charm-free Yvaine, a cranky older version of her teenage character on the television series My So-Called Life. [...] At a certain point you may find yourself imagining how much better Stardust might have been with Gwyneth Paltrow in the role.
" |
With Claire Danes, Sienna Miller and Michelle Pfeiffer in the same movie, no wonder it's hard to tell characters apart. Not sure how adding Gwyneth Paltrow would have remedied that problem.
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Jim Ridley,
Village Voice |
Rocket Science |
"So: Rocket Science is yet another Eagle vs. Little Miss Napoleon Dynamite quirk fest that practically frames its characters in cartoon panels, letting arch oddity trump genuine depth of imagination and empathy. No: Rocket Science evokes the moment a kid starts to sort out the mixed signals of human complexity. If everything seems weird and goofy, no shit — when you're 15, clumsy and shy, everything is weird and goofy: girls, parents, frisky middle-aged chamber-musos whose idea of a musicale is sawing away at the Violent Femmes. . .
What? Keep reading." |
Reading more than a paragraph while hanging in the air trying to figure out where the reviewer is going is exhausting and not fun.
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Kevin Crust,
L.A. Times |
Rush Hour 3 |
"In terms of creative content, Rush Hour 3 may be one of the most conservation-minded movies ever made. Hardly a joke, stunt, musical interlude or special effect is deployed that doesn't seem to directly reference one or both of the earlier Rush Hour movies. Director Brett Ratner, screenwriter Jeff Nathanson and stars Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker appear to be trying to save the planet one gag at a time by recycling as much material as humanly possible." |
Perhaps it takes a Californian to use conservation as a metaphor in a movie review.
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Armond White,
New York Press |
Rocket Science |
"Hal Hefner, the teenage nerd hero played by Reece Daniel Thompson in Rocket Science , has the most prodigious stutter since Roger Daltrey got snagged pronouncing the 'G' in The Who's 1965 hit 'My Generation.' And yet, Thompson's tongue-tied tour-de-force signifies so much less. While Daltry's g-g-g-g-g-g agitated to the point of rebellious impudence, Thompson's stutter as Hal just seems precious. It's indicative of the self-pitying narcissism found in so many indie youth movies — from Donnie Darko to anything starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt." |
Zzzz… Armond White redeems himself somewhat in the next paragraph by referencing Ferris Bueller. Still, White's thoughts on how yesterday's righteous teenage rebellion personified by the Who has given birth to today's narcissistic and self-pitying indie-hipster youth seems more like a symptom of his own age than a valid critique of this particular movie.
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Stephanie Zacharek,
Salon.com |
Rush Hour 3 |
"Exactly what is going on here? I'm still not sure, but when Roman Polanski shows up, as a disheveled, tweedy French police inspector who specializes in anal-cavity searches, he's like a walking in-joke: Either you know who he is or you don't, but the movie is a little bit funnier, and a little bit stranger, if you do. Rush Hour 3 even dares to recycle, with obvious affection, an old Abbott and Costello gag. (It kicks off with the explosive declaration 'I am Yu!') I wish Rush Hour 3 were better, but I'll grant director Brett Ratner this much: He knows that homage isn't a kind of cheese." |
But are we sure that Rush Hour 3 doesn't smell just a little bit like, oh I dunno, Roquefort or Cheddar?
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