The Dark Knight (Nolan, 2008)
In social media I quipped that I thought The Dark Knight was essentially a Saw movie with marginally less gore. That's a deliberate overstatement but not by too much.
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Bonnie and Clyde (Penn, 1967)
Are Bonnie (Parker) and Clyde (Barrow) supposed to be sympathetic?
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Road to Perdition (Mendes, 2002) — 10 Years Later
Road to Perdition was not officially Paul Newman's last movie. He did some television work and Pixar's Cars after Perdition was released, but it looks and feels very much like a curtain call...or a torch passing.
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Brave (Chapman, Andrews, and Purcell 2012)
Payoff there is, but I found my own emotions at the conclusion somewhat muted by the fact that--and there's just no easy way to put this--I preferred the pre-chastened heroine to the one who had learned her lesson at the end.
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Rock of Ages (Shankman, 2012)
The most surprising thing about Rock of Ages is that I was prepared to like it.
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Prometheus (Scott, 2012)
Prometheus's biggest problem is not a lack of ambition, but of execution. The film is at no loss for ideas, but it can't really pause to catch its breath long enough to develop any of them.
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U.N. Me (Horowitz and Goff, 2009)
U.N. Me describes scandal after scandal with a relentless dullness and surprisingly glib attitude.
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Pink Ribbons, Inc. (Pool, 2011)
Pink Ribbons, Inc. is really three different documentaries: one that works, one that doesn't, and one that is mildly effective but distracts and detracts from the principle message.
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The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Madden, 2011)
I've often said I would pay to watch Tom Wilkinson or Judi Dench read the phone book. I'm just not sure how I feel about watching them remake The Breakfast Club.
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Minority Report (Spielberg, 2002) — 10 Years Later
I listed Minority Report as my #1 film of 2002, and ten years later the thing I find most surprising about that fact is how brave I felt and counter-cultural I thought I was being.