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(1 - 50) of 53 OFCS Rating: 89% Fresh Page   12   > Next "By most standards, this would count as a moody and sophisticated thriller - but it just does not quite live up to the Cronenberg promise."   Eye for Film   Anton Bitel 4/5 "Cronenberg isn't out to explore that particular narrative thread. Indeed, many of the standard crime story motifs that have come to define the cinematic category are completely ignored by this wonderful film..."   PopMatters   Bill Gibron 8/10 "Brutal, but not cruel."   AfterElton.com   Brian Juergens A- "Eastern Promises isn't so much a motion picture as it is a master class in performance nuance and tonal control...an extraordinarily threatening crime saga made with unnerving skill and exquisite detail"   eFilmCritic.com   Brian Orndorf 4/5 "Cronenberg's film regulates all its characters to the ghosts that swirl around them."   Filmcritic.com   Chris Cabin A- ""Eastern Promises" is an exceptionally well-crafted thriller that draws its audience through a thick narrative maze of complicity and double crosses."   ColeSmithey.com   Cole Smithey "Eastern Promises crosses up and recombines stories of parents and children, even violence and history."   PopMatters   Cynthia Fuchs 5/5 "Cronenberg and screenwriter Steve Knight ('Amazing Grace') are actually examining the broader questions of whether people can live moral lives even in the foulest places on Earth."   eFilmCritic.com   Dan Lybarger 3/4 "...absolutely compelling..."   Reel Film Reviews   David Nusair A "Devilishly intelligent."   Ozus' World Movie Reviews   Dennis Schwartz 2.5/4 "An ultimately satisfying venture with a few spot-on acting turns, but it is a tad too ordinary for a director who thrives when he is anything but."   TheMovieBoy.com   Dustin Putman 3/4 "Eastern Promises is a straighter version of Inland Empire, which is not to say that it isn't totally queer."   Slant Magazine   Ed Gonzalez 4/5 "Un ejemplo de cine negro contemporáneo realizado y narrado con gran precisión. Excelente elenco donde se destaca la notable labor de Viggo Mortensen."   Uruguay Total   Enrique Buchichio A- "Viggo Mortensen is riveting.... You can't take your eyes off him, even when you most want to."   EricDSnider.com   Eric D. Snider 3/4 "Surprising and rather suspenseful crime drama and the perfect follow-up from the director who composes a pleasing violent moral duality tale..."   Cinema Crazed   Felix Vasquez Jr. B+ "A riveting drama...it's only by comparison to Cronenberg's best that it comes up slightly short."   One Guy's Opinion   Frank Swietek B- "The story is a bit unfocused, offering the viewer no way in and nothing to hold on to...Eastern Promises leaves you out in the rain from frame one."   Cinepinion   Henry Stewart 2/4 "Perhaps the director set the bar so high with A History of Violence that there was no way he could equal it with Eastern Promises, but for him to fall so far short is nothing less than criminal."   ReelViews   James Berardinelli 3.5/5 "Moreso than most crime films, Eastern Promises bears the heavy, omnipresent weight of history."   Q Network Film Desk   James Kendrick 3.5/4 "Viggo Mortensen chews it up and spits it out as the corrupt centerpiece of maverick director David Cronenberg's searing mob thriller."   Palo Alto Weekly   Jeanne Aufmuth 7/10 "As Cronenberg's primary vehicle, Mortensen makes the show his own."   ReelTalk Movie Reviews   Jeffrey Chen 4/4 "Like it or not, the Russians have their very own Godfather with David Cronenberg's dark, brutal thriller about the inner-workings of London's Russian mafia featuring another powerful performance by Viggo Mortensen."   Big Picture Big Sound   Joe Lozito "One of the best taut thrillers you'll see in 2007."   Planet Sick-Boy   Jon Popick 2/4 "There seems to be no point to it all other than to craft an unsettling motion picture with some grisly close ups of throats being slit."   Bangitout.com   Jordan Hiller 4/5 "to Eastern Promises leitoyrgei stin triha os to kalytero mesaioy belinekoys thrilerodrama poy mporeis na petyheis sti megali othoni edo kai poly kairo."   Movies for the Masses   Joseph Proimakis 2.5/4.0 "A predictable plot with trademark David Cronenberg highlights is salvaged by a great cast... but just barely."   MovieCrypt.com   Kevin A. Ranson 4/4 "Cronenberg's Christmas flick is intensely thought-provoking and affecting."   Montreal Film Journal   Kevin N. Laforest 3.5/4 "An icily seductive parable about family, power, unconventional justice and the perils of answered prayers."   TV Guide's Movie Guide   Maitland McDonagh 3/3 "La verdad es que resulta difícil encontrar un guión mejor escrito que el de Promesas del Este"   Off-Off-Critica   MalaBesta 2/4 "A mediocre crime thriller -- nothing more, nothing less. That it's directed by David Cronenberg is disappointing."   Mark Reviews Movies   Mark Dujsik 8/10 "Double-crosses, violent fights, and secret plans make the film feel like a good episode of the Sopranovs. This could well be Cronenberg's best film of this decade, atmospheric and exciting."   rec.arts.movies.reviews   Mark R. Leeper "Here we have somber reflection, the lurking gray peril of an urban underbelly, shifting shifty glances and unspoken threats. Eastern Promises is almost silent -- even its title sounds like a shush."   Flick Filosopher   MaryAnn Johanson 3/4 "David Cronenberg tells a story of the Russian mob in London as only he can--indeed, with ample doses of brutal, bloody, extreme violence."   Mr. Brown's Movies   Michael Dequina 4/4 "Eastern Promises is not just one of this year's best films, it is also my pick for the best David Cronenberg movie to date."   Aisle Seat   Mike McGranaghan B "Its subtextual currents are more compelling than the actual narrative itself, which never wholly coheres into something satisfyingly suspenseful."   Lessons of Darkness   Nick Schager 4/5 "Poderia perfeitamente ter se revelado um thriller absolutamente convencional caso não tivesse, a seu favor, dois elementos importantíssimos: a direção segura e intrigante de David Cronenberg e, claro, a performance hipnótica de Viggo Mortensen."   Cinema em Cena   Pablo Villaca 4/5 "Mueller-Stahl - equal parts grandfatherly and malevolent - conveys more menace in an offhand remark than most actors do pointing a loaded gun."   Film Threat   Pete Vonder Haar 5/5 "The kind of dark, disturbing and deeply fascinating work that jolts you while you are watching it unfold and continues to insinuate itself into your mind long after the end credits have rolled."   eFilmCritic.com   Peter Sobczynski 4.5/5 "Features strikingly good performances, as well as a realistic vision of London's darker, wetter corners."   Shadows on the Wall   Rich Cline 5/5 "...It doesn't take long for this supposedly 'conventional' Cronenberg outing to announce its place in his portfolio. It begins with blood and slime..."   eFilmCritic.com   Rob Gonsalves B "A fascinating entry into a little-understood subculture."   Flipside Movie Emporium   Rob Vaux B "If you can stomach Cronenberg's bloody style, then you'll probably like this kind of movie a lot more than I do."   Laramie Movie Scope   Robert Roten "Eastern Promises is a routine crime drama that tries to have Anna’s humanitarian mission give it an air of nobility."   Reeling Reviews   Robin Clifford 8/10 "A mysterious crime family with smoldering secrets plays with sharp objects off the slimy backwaters of the Thames. Cronenberg and Mortensen are at it again, with relish!"   Monsters and Critics   Ron Wilkinson B+ "The restraint of both director and actor makes this steely gangster drama reverberate long after it ends."   Seattle Post-Intelligencer   Sean Axmaker 3/4 "A gritty, shocking and darkly entertaining crime thriller that coats its action with a layer of barrel-bottom sleaze."   Charlotte Weekly   Sean O'Connell 7/10 ""The naked bathhouse fight is perhaps the most eagerly anticipated scene in this brutal Cronenberg thriller - but there's more to it than that.""   www.susangranger.com   Susan Granger 7/10 "Feels, except for a few choice moments, like the work of a slightly bored craftsman phoning it in."   Antagony & Ecstasy   Tim Brayton 2.5/4 "This intermittently riveting and atmospheric film nevertheless ends on such a bewilderingly abrupt and unsatisfying note, you wonder if there's a missing reel."   Reel.com   Timothy Knight 4/4 "London as a murky wood filthy with wolves."   Film Freak Central   Walter Chaw  (1 - 50) of 53 OFCS Rating: 89% Fresh Page   12   > Next