>
Barbara Shulgasser
Barbara Shulgasser's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at Tomatometer-approved publication(s).
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Two Can Play That Game (2001) |
The trouble with Two Can Play That Game is that the heroine, despite her smarts and accomplishment, is so unlikable. Arrogant, manipulative, smug, and overflowing with bad advice, she's meant to be a role model for women with man troubles everywhere. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Jul 17, 2024
|
|
|
|
Basma (2024) |
Basma is well-meaning but ultimately a disappointment. Many of the situations presented here feel real, but as with many true stories, it lacks the artful rearrangement. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Jul 08, 2024
|
|
|
|
How to Rob a Bank (2024) |
How to Rob a Bank is a straightforward, workmanlike documentary that effectively tells the story of man who lived in a large treehouse, cooked meth in his own lab, then switched careers for bank robbing. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Jun 27, 2024
|
|
|
|
Pilecki's Report (2023) |
Pilecki's Report is beautifully made and Przemyslaw Wyszynski's performance as Pilecki is impeccable. But the film's jumpy construction seems designed to undermine its own best qualities. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Jun 26, 2024
|
|
|
|
Colors of Evil: Red (2024) |
Colors of Evil: Red feels fresh. Perhaps it is the deft editing accompanied by a vivid score by Bartosz Chajdecki, or solid performances and believable dialogue. In any case, it works as a reliable entertainment in a bloody genre. It's just not for kids. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Jun 26, 2024
|
|
|
|
Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind (2022) |
Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind is a gem, a story about a startlingly talented, self-described "sinner," told without comment or judgment. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted May 22, 2024
|
|
|
|
Living With Leopards (2024) |
Despite these narrative missteps, we admire the intelligence and patience of these skillful hunters, but also feel for the beautiful prey who get eaten. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted May 22, 2024
|
|
|
|
Rather (2023) |
Budding journalists will learn a lot from this excellent film. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted May 22, 2024
|
|
|
|
Honeymoonish (2024) |
It's difficult to come up with a single reason Honeymoonish got made. It's a romcom with neither believable rom nor discernible com. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted May 20, 2024
|
|
|
|
Ahead of the Curve (2020) |
The movie's diversity demonstrates that the LGBTQ+ community has come a long way, but there is still progress to be made. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted May 10, 2024
|
|
|
|
Duran Duran: There's Something You Should Know (2018) |
Don't expect big revelations or profound insights into the group that now has four decades of music behind them. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted May 10, 2024
|
|
|
|
Stolen (2024) |
Stolen is a look at a world little known to those outside of Scandinavia. For that reason, a little explanation about the Sami, the only indigenous people of Europe, would've been helpful for foreign audiences. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Apr 30, 2024
|
|
|
|
Zero to Hero (2023) |
What feels off about Zero to Hero is best expressed by a title that suggests a man is a "zero" if his life amounts to anything short of fame and wealth. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Apr 18, 2024
|
|
|
|
Too Much Love (2023) |
Too Much Love is nearly unwatchable. This is a movie about an immature man who doesn't seem to know he is immature. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Apr 17, 2024
|
|
|
|
Copycat (1995) |
Copycat is a well-paced thriller, adroit, compelling, and slick. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Apr 17, 2024
|
|
|
|
Made in America (1993) |
But in terms of achieving cheap laughs, this movie doesn't care about making sense. Its weakness is that it succumbs to the kind of dumb humor that runaway elephants supply. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Apr 17, 2024
|
|
|
|
Heavenly Bodies (1985) |
Dale is an emotional klutz and doesn't summon a single believable sentiment. - San Francisco Examiner
Read More
| Posted Apr 15, 2024
|
|
|
|
Little Women (1994) |
The politics of this movie begin to feel as impossibly perfect as its characters. - San Francisco Examiner
Read More
| Posted Apr 11, 2024
|
|
|
|
No Pressure (2024) |
No Pressure is a weak, shallow comedy about the resistant big city girl who predictably learns to appreciate and return to the country life she deliberately escaped. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Apr 05, 2024
|
|
|
|
24 Hours with Gaspar (2023) |
There's a ton of exposition, as if long, wandering explanations might help (they don't). - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Apr 02, 2024
|
|
|
|
To Kill a Tiger (2022) |
The film paints a picture of an openly abusive and misogynist society where men are never blamed for their terrible acts and blame is casually laid at the feet of female victims. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Mar 26, 2024
|
|
|
|
Art of Love (2024) |
The far better movie about a kazillionaire adrenalin junkie who steals for the thrill is the 1968 The Thomas Crown Affair (and even its 1999 remake). - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Mar 26, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Bloody Hundredth (2024) |
The Bloody Hundredth is a wonderful documentary accompaniment to the TV dramatization series Masters of the Air. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Mar 25, 2024
|
|
|
|
Hunting Housewives (2024) |
With a more able cast and a well-written script, Hunting Housewives could have been a hoot. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Mar 15, 2024
|
|
|
|
Sacred Soil: The Piney Woods School Story (2024) |
The students featured in Sacred Soil: The Piney Woods School Story are as inspiring as their institution's mission: "to prepare leaders for tomorrow's challenges." - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Mar 12, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Parades (2024) |
Movies about people who don't know they are dead are not unusual, so what is new here? - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Mar 11, 2024
|
|
|
|
Pathological: The Lies of Joran Van Der Sloot (2024) |
The story is spun as if that escapade was a journalistic triumph that somehow exposed something or other about Joran, which it did not. In truth, they paid and he lied.
- Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Mar 01, 2024
|
|
|
|
A Soweto Love Story (2024) |
Finally, although the plot still leaves enough large holes to drive a convoy through, responses become nuanced and more real as characters share seemingly true emotions with each other and the audience. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Mar 01, 2024
|
|
|
|
Seraphim Falls (2006) |
Seraphim Falls is a violently, articulately anti-war treatise disguised as a Western. It starts with a bang and few false moves mar the nonstop action from then on. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Feb 21, 2024
|
|
|
|
Ashes (2024) |
When Kenan asks Gokce what she thinks about the manuscript, she calls it "overdramatic and amateurish," and that is an apt description of the movie.
- Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Feb 21, 2024
|
|
|
|
Kill Me if You Dare (2024) |
Nothing here feels the least bit real or funny. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Feb 21, 2024
|
|
|
|
Dune (1984) |
This is a religious movie. Dune fans are a reverential lot, and this is the celluloid house of worship for which they have waited. - San Francisco Examiner
Read More
| Posted Feb 15, 2024
|
|
|
|
RedLife (2023) |
Sometimes actions of one character are deliberately intercut with the actions of a seemingly unconnected character to add to the confusion. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Feb 14, 2024
|
|
|
|
Lover, Stalker, Killer (2024) |
All the elements are there -- online dating gone wrong, a triangle of romantic jealousy, the escalating threats of a cyber- and real life-stalker, arson, murder, clever police, and a brilliant IT mind to unravel the mystery. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Feb 14, 2024
|
|
|
|
Will (2023) |
This is a devastating indictment of the human instinct to survive. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Feb 14, 2024
|
|
|
|
Enough (2002) |
Drenched in a horror movie score, with music leading us to fear what's behind a perfectly innocent shower curtain, most of this is low-level, manipulative exploitation - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Feb 14, 2024
|
|
|
|
Quiz Show (1994) |
The snappy dialogue and rampant corruption give the film a nice verbal snap. - San Francisco Examiner
Read More
| Posted Feb 13, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Unbreakable Tatiana Suarez (2024) |
But it's otherwise another generic sports documentary focusing on, as most of them do, obstacles that a dazzlingly talented and persevering athlete overcomes. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Feb 07, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Heartbreak Agency (2024) |
Additionally, the world created here bears little resemblance to reality. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Feb 07, 2024
|
|
|
|
Love on the Right Course (2024) |
The perfect audience for Love on the Right Course is a tween who loves predictable romance - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Jan 30, 2024
|
|
|
|
Another Body (2023) |
The filmmakers choose to focus on the personal impact on women who learn they've been porn deepfaked rather than on statistics or a need for political and legal reform to combat the problem. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Jan 17, 2024
|
|
|
|
The Taming of the Shrewd 2 (2023) |
The Taming of the Shrewd 2 is dreadful by any set of metrics, with a screenplay interesting only for the fact that anyone would be so bold as to admit to its authorship. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Jan 17, 2024
|
|
|
|
Women on the Edge (2023) |
Women on the Edge is a manic comedy that throws around terms like "patriarchal" and "gerontophobic misogynist" as proof of its pedigree as a feminist-forward comedy. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Dec 09, 2023
|
|
|
|
Wedding Games (2023) |
One can see every problem coming, if one wanted to spend the energy giving this froth a moment of thought. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Dec 09, 2023
|
|
|
|
Last Call for Istanbul (2023) |
Ultimately, the movie is wrapped around a silly premise that crumbles under the slightest bit of scrutiny. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Nov 30, 2023
|
|
|
|
Home Alone (1990) |
The exception to the predictability is Kevin's plotted revenge against two extremely goofy criminals, played by the brilliant Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. - San Francisco Examiner
Read More
| Posted Nov 29, 2023
|
|
|
|
Oregon (2023) |
If only any of the characters were more than clichés, if only Oregon didn't wander off into dull monologues about love, war, and filmmaking, this could have made an amusing student film or short. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Nov 22, 2023
|
|
|
|
See You on Venus (2023) |
Teens who have been through trauma utter greeting card-worthy philosophical twaddle as if it's profound, leaving the audience shrugging. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Nov 22, 2023
|
|
|
|
Oregon (2023) |
As it stands, the only interesting character is a famed actor played by the confident Nejat Isler, and he doesn't show up until the last 15 minutes. - Common Sense Media
Read More
| Posted Nov 15, 2023
|
|
|
|
Cocoon (1985) |
How often do you see a movie with aliens so friendly they will join you for a hand of gin rummy? Did the Blob ever play cards with Steve McQueen? - San Francisco Examiner
Read More
| Posted Nov 12, 2023
|