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Television Without Pity

Tomatometer-approved publication.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
Noah (2014) Ethan Alter Where Aronofsky's particular genius does come into play is in the first two acts of the film, where he creates a Biblical landscape that's unique and vibrant.
Posted Mar 27, 2014  Edit critic review
Cesar Chavez (2014) Ethan Alter Too bad the film itself is a mediocre monument to a major historical figure.
Posted Mar 26, 2014  Edit critic review
The Raid 2 (2014) Ethan Alter It brings me no great pleasure to report that the The Raid 2 is to The Raid as Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was to the first Transformers: it's longer, flashier and bloated well past the point of tedium.
Posted Mar 26, 2014  Edit critic review
Divergent (2014) Ethan Alter Divergent is so busy setting the stage for what's to come, it forgets to show why what's happening now matters, too.
Posted Mar 20, 2014  Edit critic review
Better Living Through Chemistry (2014) Ethan Alter It's a comedy that OD's on its own smug sense of entitlement.
Posted Mar 14, 2014  Edit critic review
Ernest & Celestine (2012) Ethan Alter This slender, but sweet buddy comedy boasts lovely 2D animation, a great story and, best of all, a distinctly original world that keeps revealing new surprises.
Posted Mar 14, 2014  Edit critic review
Teenage (2013) Ethan Alter Though it has interesting passages, overall Teenage feels like a trailer for the yet-to-be-completed main feature.
Posted Mar 14, 2014  Edit critic review
Le Week-End (2013) Ethan Alter Broadbent attacks the part with gusto, though, allowing the audience to understand Nick without forcing them to necessarily find him sympathetic.
Posted Mar 14, 2014  Edit critic review
Bad Words (2014) Ethan Alter Bad Words gets squishy and sentimental as it approaches its endgame, operating on the mistaken assumption that it needs to explain its anti-hero's pathology and, thus, let him off the hook for his behavior.
Posted Mar 14, 2014  Edit critic review
Veronica Mars (2014) Ethan Alter Even though I enjoyed watching an older Mars reacquaint herself with Neptune, no small amount of disappointment set in as I realized Thomas was guiding the proceedings to an ending that would reinforce the series' status quo.
Posted Mar 13, 2014  Edit critic review
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) Ethan Alter What's special about this film is that, while it bears all the hallmarks of his by-now entirely too familiar style, it also finds him acknowledging the limitations of that style when it butts up against a certain measure of reality
Posted Mar 07, 2014  Edit critic review
300: Rise of an Empire (2014) Ethan Alter Forget Rise of an Empire -- the movie really should have been slugged More of the Same.
Posted Mar 07, 2014  Edit critic review
The Bag Man (2014) Ethan Alter The real mystery here is how first-time director David Grovic was able to recruit a fairly experienced cast for what is, on the page, a distinctly amateur effort.
Posted Feb 28, 2014  Edit critic review
The Lunchbox (2013) Ethan Alter The Lunchbox's combination of well-drawn characters, thoughtful storytelling and vividly-realized setting makes it an easy recommendation for quality-starved moviegoers.
Posted Feb 28, 2014  Edit critic review
Non-Stop (2014) Ethan Alter It may be too on-the-nose to say that Non-Stop doesn't stick the landing, but the speed at which the movie turns from pleasantly diverting to semi-disastrous botch is genuinely disheartening.
Posted Feb 28, 2014  Edit critic review
About Last Night (2014) Ethan Alter About Last Night itself stands little chance of leaving a lasting impression, but it may have gifted us with birth of a new comedy team.
Posted Feb 14, 2014  Edit critic review
Endless Love (2014) Ethan Alter The same glossy, generic pap that passes for big-screen romance these days.
Posted Feb 14, 2014  Edit critic review
Adult World (2013) Ethan Alter The core of the film -- the relationship between Amy and Rat -- clicks in a very real, very entertaining way.
Posted Feb 14, 2014  Edit critic review
RoboCop (2014) Ethan Alter This RoboCop is an assembly-line product where even the social commentary arrives pre-packaged.
Posted Feb 12, 2014  Edit critic review
The Pretty One (2013) Ethan Alter Johnson and Kazan quickly establish a chemistry that's cute-quirky rather than annoying-quirky.
Posted Feb 07, 2014  Edit critic review
The LEGO Movie (2014) Ethan Alter In the guise of a rambunctious animated comedy, the duo have actually delivered a thoughtful and even moving treatise on the power of imagination and the magic of uninhibited creativity.
Posted Feb 07, 2014  Edit critic review
The Monuments Men (2014) Ethan Alter A nobly-intentioned feature that lacks the discipline and focus to unite its disparate elements into an effective whole.
Posted Feb 07, 2014  Edit critic review
That Awkward Moment (2014) Ethan Alter This tedious, originality-starved run through familiar rom-com tropes is basically one long awkward moment.
Posted Jan 31, 2014  Edit critic review
Labor Day (2013) Ethan Alter I'd like to think that one day, Reitman will be able to look back at this film and laugh at his mistakes and miscalculations. For now, we'll just have to do the laughing for him.
Posted Jan 31, 2014  Edit critic review
12 O'Clock Boys (2013) Ethan Alter That Nathan is able to cover so much ground in a mere 76 minutes makes 12 O'Clock Boys all the more remarkable and essential.
Posted Jan 31, 2014  Edit critic review
Stranger by the Lake (2013) Ethan Alter Though it'll be confined to the art house circuit, Stranger By the Lake actually has all the ingredients of a mainstream, page-turning summer beach read.
Posted Jan 24, 2014  Edit critic review
Enemies Closer (2013) Ethan Alter An agreeable way to kill 80 minutes.
Posted Jan 24, 2014  Edit critic review
Ride Along (2014) Ethan Alter Though it's claiming to be a comedy, the Ice Cube/Kevin Hart team-up Ride Along isn't actually funny. At all.
Posted Jan 17, 2014  Edit critic review
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014) Ethan Alter This is the first Ryan adventure that isn't directly based on a Clancy novel and perhaps that explains why it works as well as it does... at least until it doesn't.
Posted Jan 17, 2014  Edit critic review
The Invisible Woman (2013) Ethan Alter If you're looking for a cure to the common English period prestige picture, Ralph Fiennes's The Invisible Woman fits the bill nicely.
Posted Dec 31, 2013  Edit critic review
August: Osage County (2013) Ethan Alter Clearly calculated to win Oscars, August: Osage County instead feels more worthy of a Razzie or two.
Posted Dec 31, 2013  Edit critic review
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) Ethan Alter Honestly, the only meaning I took away from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is that it makes Simple Jack look like Citizen Kane.
Posted Dec 26, 2013  Edit critic review
Grudge Match (2013) Ethan Alter Those hoping for comic fireworks to erupt between the meeting of these grumpy old men will be disappointed.
Posted Dec 26, 2013  Edit critic review
47 Ronin (2013) Ethan Alter Too much money was spent on this version of the legend of the 47 Ronin for it to be classified as a wholly inept failure. What it does represent, though, is a failure of imagination.
Posted Dec 26, 2013  Edit critic review
Lone Survivor (2013) Ethan Alter It's a well-executed survival story, but it misses the chance to amount to anything more.
Posted Dec 26, 2013  Edit critic review
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) Ethan Alter At three hours long, The Wolf of Wall Street also stands as a monument to the characters' flair for excess.
Posted Dec 26, 2013  Edit critic review
Her (2013) Ethan Alter I really can't say enough about how vividly the filmmaker and his creative team render this World of Tomorrow.
Posted Dec 18, 2013  Edit critic review
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013) Ethan Alter Flabby though it may be at times, this sequel delivers a steady stream of laughs and, more importantly, doesn't diminish our goodwill for this bunch of idiots.
Posted Dec 18, 2013  Edit critic review
The Sound Of Music Live! (2013) Ethan Alter Seeing The Sound of Music on DVD minus the live element (and its driving, hate watch-fueled Twitter traffic) makes it seem like an even bigger mess.
Posted Dec 17, 2013  Edit critic review
Saving Mr. Banks (2013) Ethan Alter As much as the script strains to connect Travers' past with her present, Saving Mr. Banks instead resembles two very different movies shoved together.
Posted Dec 13, 2013  Edit critic review
American Hustle (2013) Ethan Alter It's a messy movie, yes, but that complements the messy personalities at its center.
Posted Dec 13, 2013  Edit critic review
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) Ethan Alter As a Middle-earth softie, The Desolation of Smaug mostly provides what I've been hoping to get out of Jackson's second tour-of-duty in Tolkien land.
Posted Dec 13, 2013  Edit critic review
The Sound Of Music Live! (2013) Aly Semigran For as much as Underwood strained to get some of the musical numbers down pat, it was watching her try to emote as the beloved Maria that was truly the hardest thing to stomach.
Posted Dec 06, 2013  Edit critic review
Tim's Vermeer (2013) Ethan Alter It's a film about the process of creativity, one that shows just how closely art and science are often intertwined.
Posted Dec 06, 2013  Edit critic review
Out of the Furnace (2013) Ethan Alter A movie that sets out to be the antidote to glossy revenge pictures, but becomes that very thing.
Posted Dec 06, 2013  Edit critic review
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) Ethan Alter Yet another home run for a pair of filmmakers who have proven incapable of striking a false note for four movies now.
Posted Dec 06, 2013  Edit critic review
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013) Ethan Alter There's ultimately too much chaos and not enough control in Chadwick's presentation of Mandela's decades-spanning history.
Posted Nov 27, 2013  Edit critic review
Homefront (2013) Ethan Alter It's the most incongruous (and enjoyably so) good guy/bad guy pairing since Philip Seymour Hoffman threatened to make Tom Cruise's girlfriend bleed and cry and call out his name in Mission: Impossible III.
Posted Nov 27, 2013  Edit critic review
Oldboy (2013) Ethan Alter If somebody had to remake Oldboy, I'm glad it was Spike Lee.
Posted Nov 27, 2013  Edit critic review
Black Nativity (2013) Ethan Alter It's in moments like that that Black Nativity really sings; the rest of the time it operates at a familiar hum.
Posted Nov 27, 2013  Edit critic review
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