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'Hotel Transylvania' Reviews, Green Day, No Doubt & More: The Week In Ouch

Did These Critics Go Too Far?
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Another week, another round of unimpressed critics.

"Hotel Transylvania," "Won't Back Down," "House at the End of the Street" and "Taken 2" were among the offerings that didn't exactly earn stellar reviews. (Lest you think these folks hate everything, "Looper" and "Pitch Perfect" fared much better.) These movies all faltered in different ways, providing a number of lessons for aspiring filmmakers and Hollywood heavyweights alike.

In music, it was a rough week for genre-defining titans. Both Green Day and No Doubt's latest efforts were met with a lukewarm reception, though No Doubt seemed to be on the receiving end of the harsher criticism. Why so serious? Turns out folks found No Doubt's disc to be a bit on the empty side, all production and not much heart. As for Green Day, the band's evolution into a corporate favorite -- Billie Joe Armstrong's public meltdown and stint in rehab notwithstanding -- has alienated fans who remember their punk days. Lupe Fiasco's message-heavy album didn't exactly make much of a positive impression either.

Peep all the reviews below. As always, let us know who you think missed the mark.

The Week In Ouch
'House At The End Of The Street'(01 of08)
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The New York Times was not a fan:
Once the action kicks in, “House at the End of the Street” turns into a choppily edited, poorly timed mess with little continuity, overloaded with aural shocks in a desperate attempt to compensate for its minimal suspense.
 (credit:AP)
Green Day's '¡Uno!'(02 of08)
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Andy Gill of The Independent breaks down Billie Joe Armstrong and friends:
This, the first salvo of a 3CD campaign that will see two further albums released by mid-January, finds Green Day's devotion to the most basic of rock formats resulting almost inevitably in some of the dullest music released all year.
 (credit:AP)
Lupe Fiasco's New Record(03 of08)
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The Guardian dispatched Lupe's album thusly:
Fiasco is not without skills or beliefs, but neither are as refined as his self-regard.
 (credit:AP)
Tadanobu Asano, Taylor Kitsch(04 of08)
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"Battleship" returns for DVD release. The film was not kindly reviewed when it debuted:
You can’t ‘get’ a film like Battleship. It’s not satire, it doesn’t play on two levels like Starship Troopers, it’s just shit. Still, I almost encourage you to seek it out. As a piece of miscalculated, American wankery, it is almost unparalleled. Consider this one Sunk.
 (credit:AP)
'Taken 2'(05 of08)
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Writing in Time Out, Tom Huddleston panned Neeson's thriller sequel:
‘Taken 2’ is a cynical, contemptuous film whose sole reason for existing appears to be to squeeze the pockets of anyone who enjoyed the first movie. Don’t give it the satisfaction.
 (credit:AP)
'Won't Back Down'(06 of08)
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This film seems like a really good try:
The one-step-forward, two-steps-back nature of collaborative reform doesn’t lend itself to a climax featuring plucky heroes wearing green and big bad union guys wearing red. Writer-director Daniel Barnz choreographs that sequence to maximize nail-biting and stirring emotion. But by that time, “Won’t Back Down” has become so didactic that viewers are likely to feel less uplifted than lectured.
 (credit:AP)
'Hotel Transylvania' (07 of08)
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The children's movie did not impress Newsday's Rafer Guzman:
"Hotel Transylvania," a 3-D animated feature in which Count Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler) manages a resort for persecuted monsters, feels like a string of jokes without a story. That might be better than the other way around, but this Sony Pictures Animation production ends up feeling less like a children's movie and more like a disposable summer comedy.
 (credit:AP)
No Doubt - 'Push & Shove'(08 of08)
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No Doubt seems to have lost their way, according to the Boston Globe:
It’s not a matter of everybody fighting for their own ideas at the group’s expense; just the opposite, in fact, as it sounds like every last detail was worked out through numbing compromise. The band has rarely sounded this faceless, with the indiscriminate, locked-in sheen of a producer-driven act instead of the fused idiosyncrasies of a supposedly inspired foursome.
 (credit:AP)

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