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John P. McCarthy
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Rembrandt's J'Accuse (2008) |
What starts out as an audaciously polemical, radically inventive film project ultimately feels more like the most elaborate and earnest art history lecture ever delivered. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Apr 20, 2021
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Into the Abyss (2011) |
Werner Herzog has a well-deserved reputation for tackling difficult, risky subjects. It took courage to enter the Lone Star State and wade into the mire of capital punishment. - America Magazine
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| Posted Aug 04, 2015
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The Imitation Game (2014) |
Cumberbatch brings his immense talent and intelligence -- and not too much glamour -- to the socially awkward, notoriously disheveled protagonist. - America Magazine
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| Posted Jan 06, 2015
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Ivory Tower (2014) |
All in all, Ivory Tower is balanced and comprehensive. - America Magazine
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| Posted Jan 06, 2015
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12 Years a Slave (2013) |
Ejiofor's low-key, naturalistic acting mode is ideal for conveying Northup's self-control and intelligence. And Fassbender avoids turning the malevolent Epps into a one-note nemesis. - America Magazine
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| Posted Apr 28, 2014
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Copperhead (2013) |
Maxwell and Kauffman merit praise for acknowledging historical complexity, but the film's moral and aesthetic limitations keep Copperhead from entering this realm. - America Magazine
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| Posted Apr 28, 2014
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Wuthering Heights (2011) |
Intense and imagistic, sensual and rather salacious, this is a wild, fascinatingly bleak adaptation that seizes on the book's more lurid motifs. - America Magazine
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| Posted Apr 28, 2014
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The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) |
Watching Wes Anderson quietly and unsentimentally make Zero the hero of The Grand Budapest Hotel should win over some of the director's detractors. - America Magazine
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| Posted Apr 28, 2014
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The Oranges (2011) |
There's not enough tension for the humor to diffuse. What we're left with is a bland dramedy featuring a strong cast. - ReelTalk Movie Reviews
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| Posted Oct 05, 2012
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El Bulli: Cooking in Progress (2010) |
You can't help but appreciate the food's visual beauty -- and the physical, mental and emotional energy that went into creating it -- but you don't come away feeling you have to taste any of Adri's food before you die. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Jul 29, 2011
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The Best and the Brightest (2010) |
Strictly bush league, save for a few bravura performances. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Jun 21, 2011
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Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer (2011) |
This ho-hum offshoot of Megan McDonald's book series earns negative "thrill points" as it chronicles the mirthless backyard shenanigans of a suburban Pippi Longstocking. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Jun 07, 2011
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The Hangover Part II (2011) |
Its sense of fun-loving camaraderie feels forced and tinged with buzz-killing danger. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted May 24, 2011
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The First Grader (2010) |
Guilt and glossiness form the foundation of the slick production, which, despite the best intentions of all those working under director Justin Chadwick, exudes a mildly patronizing vapor that dampens the emotional affect and any historical incisiveness. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted May 14, 2011
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Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) |
Is any filmmaker more comfortable moving between the didactic and the lyrical, between quotidian facts and profound speculation? - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Apr 26, 2011
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Footprints (2009) |
The barely coherent Footprints seems bent on erasing any nostalgia one might have for Hollywood's heyday. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Apr 12, 2011
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Jane Eyre (2011) |
Cary Joji Fukunaga's romantic thriller Jane Eyre is to19th-century literature what Black Swan is to ballet: a thoroughly cinematic, occasionally exhilarating reimagining of a repertoire standard. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Mar 10, 2011
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We Are What We Are (2010) |
We Are What We Are is a superficially provocative movie that tries way too hard to be memorable. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Feb 19, 2011
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Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son (2011) |
Big Momma has laid a gigantic egg. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Feb 19, 2011
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Carancho (2010) |
Without resorting to sensationalism, gratuitous gore, false spirituality, or any extraneous artificiality, Trapero has fashioned an emotionally involving picture. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Feb 15, 2011
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The Roommate (2011) |
What's most memorable about this plodding thriller are the copious amounts of foundation and lip gloss. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Feb 04, 2011
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Ward No. 6 (2009) |
The movie's profundity shines through because it gestures at something that might counter its aura of futility and despair. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Dec 22, 2010
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Con Artist (2009) |
[Director Michael Sladek] lets Kostabi hang himself and the auto-execution is fully effected about halfway through. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Nov 19, 2010
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Today's Special (2009) |
Those with even modestly adventuresome cinematic palates will have their appetites whetted before exiting unsatisfied. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Nov 19, 2010
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Due Date (2010) |
With its premise so easily established, Due Date is able to be modestly raucous as well as character-driven, which is how it goes astray since it tries to evoke complex moods and feelings that are beyond its ken. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Nov 05, 2010
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The Tempest (2010) |
The result is cacophonous. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Nov 02, 2010
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The Kids Grow Up (2009) |
Ranks as one of the best non-fiction films of the year. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Oct 29, 2010
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Paranormal Activity 2 (2010) |
As semi-spooky and splatter-free as its predecessor. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Oct 23, 2010
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Kalamity (2010) |
Kalamity is a real klunker. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Oct 22, 2010
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Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen (2009) |
Although its claims about Hildegard's modernity and relevancy should be taken with a grain of salt, one readily imagines Vision attracting a cross-section of the curious, not limited to feminist cinephiles and true believers. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Oct 16, 2010
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Devil (2010) |
A Sunday school parable wrapped in an adequately nail-biting supernatural thriller, Devil uses its triteness to its advantage. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Sep 18, 2010
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The Freebie (2010) |
- Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Sep 18, 2010
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Our Beloved Month of August (2008) |
Elliptical and episodic, the hybrid blends music, documentary and narrative elements into an intriguing but frustratingly vague whole. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Sep 10, 2010
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Honeymoons (Medeni mesec) (2010) |
You don't want Honeymoons to be over quite so soon, but you know it must end at some point. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Sep 10, 2010
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Machete (2010) |
How often can you see Cheech Marin nailed to a cross or Lindsay Lohan in a threesome with Trejo and the actress playing her mother? - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Sep 01, 2010
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Smash His Camera (2010) |
- Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Aug 27, 2010
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DDR/DDR (2008) |
- Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Aug 27, 2010
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Enemies of the People (2009) |
As if the subject matter weren't disconcerting enough, Daniel Pemberton's music is positively eerie. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Jul 30, 2010
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Spoken Word (2009) |
It takes the Mexican-American melodrama Spoken Word a long time to express myriad sentiments that we've heard uttered many times before in many ethnic settings. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Jul 29, 2010
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Alamar (2009) |
It's Natan's good fortune to have a father from one place on earth, hence one background, and a mother from a very different set of circumstances. It's our good fortune to catch glimpses of both. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Jul 16, 2010
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Best Worst Movie (2009) |
Stephenson acknowledges that, from the cast's perspective at least, this is not a story about delayed success but about disappointment and dashed hopes. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Jul 07, 2010
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The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector (2009) |
Brown's gushing, awkwardly presented liner notes discredit any attempt at objectivity without doing justice to Spector's achievements. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Jul 02, 2010
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Killers (2010) |
After this bomb, Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher may qualify as two of the most attractive and prematurely washed-up screen actors Hollywood has ever produced. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Jun 04, 2010
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Get Him to the Greek (2010) |
The Forgetting Sarah Marshall crew-and yes, that includes producer Judd Apatow-have a follow-up gig that's not to be missed. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Jun 01, 2010
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The Father of My Children (2009) |
The idea that movies are a trifle when compared to real life is dangled then shattered by The Father of My Children. Gr (C)goire's love of film lives on, and ours is deepened. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted May 21, 2010
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Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo (2009) |
An entomologist's delight, Jessica Oreck's movie about Japan's insect mania is worth watching even if you're repulsed by creepy-crawlers. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted May 21, 2010
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The Living Wake (2007) |
An alienating experience up until the final fifteen minutes when, during the titular ceremony, it suddenly seems loveable-like an annoyingly oafish pup that won't stop nuzzling until you break down and scratch its belly. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted May 21, 2010
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Ghost Bird (2009) |
A story about wish fulfillment and judgment being clouded by hope. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Apr 30, 2010
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Mercy (2009) |
Caan's decision to cast real-life pals such as Jane Fonda's son Garity, McDermott and John Boyd (as a blabbering lovesick friend)--not to mention his father--makes sense, but the decision to leave out the heart of his narrative doesn't. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Apr 30, 2010
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Anton Chekhov's The Duel (2009) |
Dover Koshashvili's ambling, eminently accessible film captures the spirit of Chekhov's novella without being overly taxing. - Boxoffice Magazine
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| Posted Apr 30, 2010
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