Critic consensus:Visually impressive, but this latest Ripper tale is dull and far from scary.

Numbered reviews:1. Literate and entertaining, From Hell should help erase the memory of the more dismal slasher movies of the past.
2. Part detective story, part thriller, part romance, From Hell manages to juggle each aspect with aplomb.
3. A whodunit where the who is bloody obvious and the characters disposable.
4. a clumsy amalgam of contemporary vision and period thriller
5. The Hughes boys blow it by burying a fine cast ... in stock scares, sappy romance and cliches that really are from hell.
6. It is far more complex and sophisticated than a hack-for-the-fun-of-it kind of film.
7. I completely lost interest in the final 20 minutes.
8. The paper-thin plot is fruitlessly camouflaged by a deluge of camera tricks that would make even Oliver Stone blush, and the movie itself buckles under the pressure.
9. The only thrill, if you can call it that, is waiting to see who gets sliced up next.
10. Particularly disappointing.


Critic consensus:Built from many of the same ingredients as other Nicholas Sparks tearjerkers, Dear John suffers from its cliched framework, as well as Lasse Hallstrom's curiously detached directing.

Numbered reviews:1. If you're a sucker for romantic dramas, Dear John will earn your stamp of approval, along with those tears.
2. Eventually Dear John piles on so much tragedy that it becomes laughable, a parade of contrivances keeping the bland lovers apart.
3. On the grand scale of convincing romantic melodramas, "Dear John" falls somewhere between "Antichrist" and "From Paris With Love."
4. A sappy version of the old letters-from-the-trenches weepers of the 1940s that hobbles along despite the best effort of its cast and a director who ought to know better.
5. Though Ms. Seyfried is a lovely actress, her inexperience shows in her climactic scenes, which aren't written very well to begin with, while Mr. Tatum's stolid reserve decays into dull passivity.
6. The leads do have a strong chemistry, and Seyfried brings a spunky confidence to her role.
7. Suffice it to say that for about half its running time, the story earns goodwill with believable depictions of love both found and lost. It loses all that later in the game when it patently stops being honest and starts being Hollywood.
8. Dear John succeeds where Sparks duds like Rodanthe crumbled because it harnesses fresher talents to pull off a comforting tale about the enduring power of love.
9. Even Seyfried, who otherwise makes a credible love interest, couldn't convince me -- or, by the sound of the audience's nervous laughter, anyone else in the theater -- that she had to do what she did.
10. The uneasy combination of the World Trade Center, Sparks and schmaltzmeister director Lasse Hallstrom pushed me perilously close to nausea and diabetic shock, not to mention deep sleep.


Critic consensus:It's often painful to watch, but Rabbit Hole's finely written script and convincing performances make it worth the effort.

Numbered reviews:
1. The movie is stingy with information and surprisingly generous with humor (which provides realism, and relief from the sadness).
2. Rabbit Hole, directed with grace and surprising humor by John Cameron Mitchell, is a delicate tale that shares a great deal of the hurt of Robert Redford's Ordinary People.
3. For all its sympathy and intelligence, Rabbit Hole is ultimately too safe an experience for such a free-form tragedy.
4. One of the best films of 2010, Rabbit Hole features a devastating performance by Nicole Kidman that would deserve every Best Actress prize on tap were it not for the presence of Black Swan's Natalie Portman on the awards scene.
5. John Cameron Mitchell directed, making an impressive detour in style and subject matter after his flamboyant Shortbus and Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
6. Mitchell keeps the direction simple and well-behaved, usually just pointing the camera at the speaker, but you can see why this topic appealed to him: All three of his films are about people in pain reaching (or lashing) out in different ways.
7. If you'd like to wallow in the exquisite suffering of the upper middle classes for 90 minutes this might be just the film for you.
8. As heavy, stressful, relentlessly sad dramas go, this one goes quite well.
9. Grief may be the topic under examination, but humor -- incisive, observant and warm -- is the tool with which it's dissected in Rabbit Hole.
10. Although it is achingly sad, Rabbit Hole is not maudlin or depressing.