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Gene Seymour
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) |
... For a third go around, it's not bad. - Philadelphia Daily News
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| Posted Jul 25, 2023
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Mulholland Dr. (2001) |
More than any Lynch movie since Eraserhead, this noir-ish Hollywood saga has the shadowy texture and pliant foundation of a dream. Or a nightmare. Or both. - Newsday
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| Posted Jul 11, 2023
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Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993) |
While the animated series' producers prove they can fill 80 minutes as well as they do 30, they haven't shown any comparable ambition with their animation style. - Newsday
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| Posted May 23, 2023
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Evil Dead 2 (1987) |
Those who bear an unshakeable prejudice against movies like this will miss out on that genuine rarity: a sequel with originality. - Philadelphia Daily News
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| Posted Mar 28, 2023
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Come and See (1985) |
Very few war movies from any country -- including our own -- pummel our insides like Come and See. - Philadelphia Daily News
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| Posted Mar 14, 2023
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Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1992) |
What you’re left with isn’t a dream brought to life so much as another efficient baby-sitting machine. Winsor McCay deserved something better. - Newsday
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| Posted Mar 07, 2023
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Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. (1992) |
Johnson's juicy performance deserved a better film. Not that first-time director Leslie Harris doesn't make a good try. - Newsday
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| Posted Jan 10, 2023
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Braveheart (1995) |
Not quite [a classic]. Still, in orchestrating its raw energy, evocative beauty and senses-shattering violence to compelling emotional peaks, Mel Gibson shows he’s got the goods to be as powerful a force in the director’s chair as he is at the box office. - Newsday
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| Posted Nov 17, 2022
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Thousand Pieces of Gold (1990) |
Despite its occasionally slow moments, this account of a young Chinese woman's struggle for dignity in an 1880s mining town wins you over with its unassuming grandeur, its modest, sturdy production values and its gently asserted, keenly felt convictions. - Newsday
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| Posted Feb 16, 2022
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My Family/Mi Familia (1995) |
It is evocative well-crafted and performed with verve and passion by a first-rate cast of Latino actors. - Newsday
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| Posted Aug 26, 2021
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Go Fish (1994) |
It's a fresh kick to see any movie in any era that dares to embrace both romantic love and sexual passion without making a big deal about it. - Newsday
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| Posted Aug 25, 2021
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Hangin' With the Homeboys (1991) |
Vasquez' open-hearted view toward his characters redeems even the hoariest clichés of this otherwise engaging and admirable addition to the guys-night-out sub-genre. - Newsday
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| Posted Aug 12, 2021
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The Secret of My Success (1987) |
[A] Twinkie of a comedy... - Philadelphia Daily News
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| Posted Jun 09, 2021
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Wet Hot American Summer (2001) |
But even with its tackiness arched at an ironic angle, "Wet Hot American Summer's" long-term fate is to become at best a last-minute accessory to a Blockbuster night of pizza and beverages. - Los Angeles Times
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| Posted Mar 31, 2019
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Pokémon the Movie 2000: The Power of One (2000) |
This freshly baked and frosted big-screen "Pokemon" goes down with a sweetness that charms without talking down to its audience. - Los Angeles Times
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| Posted Jan 22, 2019
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Obit. (2016) |
One comes away from "Obit" grateful that the paper has at its disposal a team of humane, gifted people who make commemorating the dead a lively, lasting art. - New York Times
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| Posted Apr 25, 2017
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Good Burger (1997) |
[Good Burger] will satisfy their audience's appetite for basic, messy silliness while leaving many grown-ups mildly bemused by the fuzzy obviousness of its humor, the gawky pacing of its sight gags and the second-handedness of its slapstick. - Los Angeles Times
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| Posted Sep 08, 2015
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Blade (1998) |
Such techno-action may give Blade enough power for a sequel, but one is left wondering whether there's any room for its central character to sustain interest beyond this flashy debut. - Los Angeles Times
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| Posted Jul 15, 2015
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The Avengers (1998) |
The movie lets [Fiennes and Thurman] down with a patchwork climax that feels rushed and perfunctory. - Los Angeles Times
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| Posted Jul 08, 2014
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Deuces Wild (2002) |
Skip it. Just fill in the blanks and you too can brew the same bland, goopy mixture. - Newsday
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| Posted Jun 03, 2013
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The Losers (2010) |
Movies aren't loaded weapons, though sometimes, they do go off when their users aren't careful. - Salon.com
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| Posted Apr 22, 2010
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Bra Boys (2007) |
You know going in that this is going to be a fairly one-sided portrait. But it's also fairly thorough with its archival footage, historical and sociological perspective. - Newsday
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| Posted Oct 18, 2008
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Righteous Kill (2008) |
They seem comfortable enough in each other's company on-screen to make you wish there were more scenes that allowed them to just kick back and riff. It'd be a lot more enjoyable than watching the movie strain for clarity -- or cleverness. - Los Angeles Times
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| Posted Sep 11, 2008
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Sex and the City (2008) |
A lot different from, say, watching several SATC episodes on DVD in succession as if gobbling fudge brownies. That may be OK for the living room, but in a multiplex, you just want things to move along already. - Newsday
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| Posted May 30, 2008
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Then She Found Me (2007) |
Gaunt, grim and wound as tight as a ukulele's string, April Epner (Helen Hunt), the elementary schoolteacher undergoing the mother of all midlife crises in Then She Found Me, is a stern challenge to an audience's collective sympathy. - Newsday
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| Posted Apr 24, 2008
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The Ruins (2008) |
The usual gore-and-gristle fare, but this one serves it up with a tad more suggestiveness and smarts. - Newsday
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| Posted Apr 07, 2008
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Run Fat Boy Run (2007) |
Snarkiness and sentiment are in constant battle for supremacy throughout Run Fat Boy Run with no chance of a comfortable draw. - Newsday
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| Posted Mar 27, 2008
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The Hammer (2007) |
It's no classic, but, unlike recent attempts at sports comedy (we're looking at you, Semi-Pro), The Hammer comes through by not seeming to try too hard. - Newsday
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| Posted Mar 20, 2008
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Irina Palm (2007) |
It could have been a delicately witty comedy of manners. - Newsday
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| Posted Mar 20, 2008
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Drillbit Taylor (2008) |
The Apatow vibe may still carry some righteous mojo. But Drillbit Taylor proves that even the smoothest-running hit machine can stand a tuneup every few miles. - Newsday
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| Posted Mar 20, 2008
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Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! (2008) |
Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! is the first feature-length Seuss movie adaptation to adequately evoke the warmhearted eccentricity of Theodore Geisel's classic children's books. - Newsday
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| Posted Mar 13, 2008
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The Bank Job (2008) |
The Bank Job is fun to watch while both the heist and its often bloody consequences unravel in front of you. - Newsday
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| Posted Mar 06, 2008
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Married Life (2007) |
[The] four principal actors are such worthy vehicles for sustaining the throbbing pace and shifting moods of this chamber piece that it's difficult to single anyone out. - Newsday
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| Posted Mar 06, 2008
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College Road Trip (2008) |
College Road Trip is the kind of movie that its audiences will use once for blowing off steam and then toss aside as if it were shrink-wrap. - Newsday
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| Posted Mar 06, 2008
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City of Men (2007) |
Despite its contrivances and flashiness, City of Men somehow wins you over with its steady, underlying flow of intimacy and compassion. - Newsday
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| Posted Feb 28, 2008
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Chicago 10 (2007) |
If presentation of the tumultuous events before, during and after the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago will suffice for a feature-length film, then it's hard to imagine a more ferocious or inventive depiction than Chicago 10. - Newsday
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| Posted Feb 28, 2008
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Penelope (2006) |
If only Penelope knew what it truly wished to be and how to go about it. - Newsday
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| Posted Feb 28, 2008
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Semi-Pro (2008) |
You keep watching Semi-Pro and waiting for its potentially hilarious setup to deliver the goods. And after a while, you realize that the laughter comes only in anticipation of a payoff that never quite arrives. - Newsday
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| Posted Feb 28, 2008
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The Counterfeiters (2007) |
[Director] Ruzowitzky wisely knows he doesn't have to be overly emphatic in orchestrating the tension of both the moral conundrum and the always uncertain fate of the inmates. - Newsday
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| Posted Feb 21, 2008
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Be Kind Rewind (2008) |
Even though its thin conceit strains and stumbles into being, Gondry's movie somehow ingratiates itself to the dauntless dreamer that lives within each of us. - Newsday
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| Posted Feb 21, 2008
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The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008) |
As movie fantasies go, The Spiderwick Chronicles has a modest, almost ramshackle aggressiveness that, against all odds, manages to enchant, if not exactly transport. - Newsday
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| Posted Feb 13, 2008
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Ezra (2007) |
Since the movie, however infuriating, is a plea for mercy, the audience is compelled to forgive Ezra its often jittery and confusing overlaps. - Newsday
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| Posted Feb 13, 2008
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Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights - Hollywood to the Heartland (2006) |
A tad overlong, but as vanity projects go, this is warm, openhearted stuff. - Newsday
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| Posted Feb 07, 2008
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Fool's Gold (2008) |
An 'as-if' romantic adventure reunites How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days lovebirds Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson in a sun-soaked treasure hunt that squanders everybody's time, including yours. - Newsday
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| Posted Feb 07, 2008
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Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (2008) |
Even when the movie's overplayed or undercooked, its roughhousing energy grows on you. - Newsday
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| Posted Feb 07, 2008
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Over Her Dead Body (2008) |
Even the worst movies are capable of bending the laws of time. Still, there's something really special about the way Over Her Dead Body makes its 93 minutes seem more like nine hours. - Newsday
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| Posted Jan 31, 2008
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Meet the Spartans (2008) |
What's the point of making a parody that's dumber than the stuff it parodies? - Newsday
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| Posted Jan 25, 2008
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The Air I Breathe (2007) |
With any luck, The Air I Breathe should be the last gasp of the faux-Altmanesque school of serendipitous storytelling. - Newsday
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| Posted Jan 24, 2008
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Rambo (2008) |
The battle sequences are so muddled in execution that we can't tell who's killing whom. Which may have been the point, but knowing Stallone -- and Rambo -- one doubts that very much. - Newsday
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| Posted Jan 24, 2008
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Teeth (2007) |
The gratuitous and often overly garish mayhem is made more palatable by the assured comedic turn by Weixler. - Newsday
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| Posted Jan 17, 2008
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