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Sean P. Means
Tomatometer-approved critic
http://www.sltrib.com
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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It Ends With Us (2024) |
Even when the story beats are at their most predictable — several shots are devoted to Lively’s Lily looking in a mirror and applying concealer to an injury to her face — Lively brings her enormous empathy to them. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Aug 08, 2024
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Alien Resurrection (1997) |
Alien Resurrection ultimately transforms the action movie the way it transforms Ripley. You may think you know what to expect -- but that's when the movie, like the new Ripley, is likely to turn and bite you. - Salt Lake Tribune
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| Posted Aug 06, 2024
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The Convert (2023) |
“The Convert” works with a familiar movie scenario — experiencing the culture of Indigenous people through the eyes of a colonial outsider — but it expends a fair amount of energy exploring that culture on its own terms. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Aug 02, 2024
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Fly Me to the Moon (2024) |
There’s enough that works with “Fly Me to the Moon” that one gets annoyed that more of it misfires. It’s one vehicle that could have spent more time being re-engineered before being sent out to the launchpad. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Aug 02, 2024
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Longlegs (2024) |
Cage’s performance is, once again, proof that when the guy really puts his back into it, he’s the most arresting actor around. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Aug 02, 2024
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Widow Clicquot (2023) |
The historical drama “Widow Clicquot” demonstrates that there are few pursuits more laborious than making the perfect champagne — except, perhaps, making a historical drama about the making of the perfect champagne. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Aug 02, 2024
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Twisters (2024) |
[The] script plays like a fancy cuckoo clock, where things pop out at regular intervals to make a lot of noise. In between, there’s some heavy-handed messaging about the double whammy poor Oklahomans face from harsh weather and rapacious capitalism. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Aug 02, 2024
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Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2023) |
The pairing of Montpetit and Bénard brings out the story’s edgy quirks, as the two shy characters spark in unexpected and quietly moving ways. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Aug 02, 2024
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Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) |
The prime reason “Deadpool & Wolverine” exists is how the movie not only references the MCU and crosses over into “X-Men” territory, but dredges up characters from the pre-MCU Marvel movie roster that some viewers may have forgotten ever happened. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Aug 02, 2024
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Coup! (2023) |
The battle of wits is also a battle of acting superiority, and Sarsgaard — in a rare comic role for the usually morose actor — runs rings around poor Magnussen. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Aug 02, 2024
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Kneecap (2024) |
When the movie is focused on the raw energy of Kneecap’s raps, and the sheer defiance of speaking one’s indigenous language, the emotion hits hard. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Aug 02, 2024
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Harold and the Purple Crayon (2024) |
Levi relies on the same shtick he used in two “Shazam!” movies, playing the clueless man-child with incredible powers, but the routine is getting old. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Aug 02, 2024
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Trap (2024) |
With Hartnett’s high-wire acting, Shyamalan gets further on his outlandish premise than he probably deserves. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Aug 02, 2024
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Twister (1996) |
A thrill ride that engages the brain and solar plexus simultaneously. As summer movies go, Twister has the stuff to blow them all away. - Salt Lake Tribune
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| Posted Jul 16, 2024
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Kinds of Kindness (2024) |
By using these actors as an ensemble, shifting roles and attitudes from story to story, Lanthimos deepens the common threads that tie these stories to each other. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Jul 04, 2024
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Despicable Me 4 (2024) |
There could be a funny movie to be made out of “Despicable Me 4,” by playing the video of Carell and Ferrell ad-libbing in the recording booth. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Jul 04, 2024
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MaXXXine (2024) |
"As drenched in ‘80s camp and film references as it is in blood." - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Jul 04, 2024
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Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara (2023) |
“Kidnapped” illustrates, with the emotional force of grand opera, the cruelty inflicted by people claiming in God’s name that they know what’s best. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Jun 28, 2024
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Tuesday (2023) |
The highest praise I can give “Tuesday” is this: For the first time in I can’t remember when, I could not at any moment predict what would happen next — and anything I might have imagined was outdone by what Pusic did instead. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Jun 28, 2024
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Ghostlight (2024) |
Once you get past the plot mechanics of O’Sullivan’s script, which can be a little too on-the-nose, the strength of the story’s emotional pull cannot be denied. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Jun 28, 2024
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Thelma (2024) |
Squibb gives a solid performance here, leaning into the comic possibilities of being a woman of action while also tapping into some heartfelt emotional moments where Thelma reflects on the small annoyances and occasional joys of living as long as she has. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Jun 28, 2024
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The Bikeriders (2023) |
Because it’s based on a book of photography, perhaps it’s inevitable that “The Bikeriders” is all enigmatic images on the surface and not much going on beneath. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Jun 28, 2024
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Janet Planet (2023) |
The showstopper in “Janet Planet” is Nicholson, … who brings both a world-weary resignation and a reservoir of eternal hope to Janet’s quest to understand the world and her place in it. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Jun 28, 2024
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A Quiet Place: Day One (2024) |
Nyong’o holds everything steady, giving us an action heroine guided solely by the desire to experience a moment of normal life before it all comes crashing down. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Jun 28, 2024
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Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 (2024) |
What Costner puts on the screen in these first three hours is often impressive, and a reminder that … there are few filmmakers alive who intuitively understand the iconography of the Hollywood Western like he does. - Salt Lake Tribune
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| Posted Jun 28, 2024
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Inside Out 2 (2024) |
It’s an achievement that the sequel, “Inside Out 2,” manages to come even close to the original’s wit and insight into the mind of a girl. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Jun 12, 2024
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Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024) |
Are there fans clamoring for the fourth installment of a franchise that, at 29, is older than the movie’s target audience? Particularly one that’s this tonally unbalanced, careening from unfocused mayhem and scattershot humor? Only the box office knows. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted Jun 06, 2024
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Robot Dreams (2023) |
The deceptively simple animation captures Varon’s line drawings and the sunniest, happiest version of New York City possible, in service to a witty, charming story of friendship crossing boundaries of time and hardship. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted May 30, 2024
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Young Woman and the Sea (2024) |
In its best moments, focusing on Ridley’s Trudy and her determination and her family bonds, the movie comes out a winner. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted May 30, 2024
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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) |
In an era where creatures, machines and worlds can be pieced together with pixels, the tactile messiness of George Miller’s “Mad Max” movies — where the stunt driving and other outlandish tricks are, mostly, happening in camera — is astonishing. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted May 26, 2024
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Babes (2024) |
Adlon displays a very dry wit and a well-tuned sense of the absurdities women endure to be mothers, lovers and friends. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted May 26, 2024
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Bob Marley: One Love (2024) |
If you know nothing about Bob Marley, the biographical drama “Bob Marley: One Love” will teach you that much and maybe a few timeline details — but anyone with knowledge of Marley’s complicated life will feel like major sections are glossed over. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted May 20, 2024
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The Taste of Things (2023) |
“The Taste of Things” is a movie meant to make you fall in love — with the food, with the stars, with the French countryside — and it succeeds beautifully. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted May 20, 2024
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Ordinary Angels (2024) |
“Ordinary Angels” is proof that events that are real don’t necessarily feel real when put up on screen, and that can make all the difference. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted May 20, 2024
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Perfect Days (2023) |
While “Perfect Days” isn’t driven by its plot, but that doesn’t mean there’s a down stretch or a wasted move. It’s a movie about the importance of little moments — and a movie that’s full of such little moments, every one of which is a reward. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted May 20, 2024
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Drive-Away Dolls (2024) |
Director Ethan Coen — in the big chair for the first time without his brother Joel — creates a hilariously down and dirty movie (co-written with his editor and wife, Tricia Cooke) that draws apparent inspiration from low-rent ‘60s drive-in movies. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted May 20, 2024
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Dune: Part Two (2024) |
If Villeneuve makes good on his recent talk of making a third movie (based on Herbert’s sequel, “Dune Messiah”), “Dune: Part Two” is the downpayment that tells us it’s going to be spectacular. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted May 20, 2024
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Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024) |
As the movie progresses through its emotional beats, its subplot involving the partnership between Mr. Ping and Po’s panda dad, Li, and its menagerie of comical side characters, it’s hard to shake the feeling that we’ve been here before. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted May 20, 2024
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Io Capitano (2023) |
After too many seasons where the word “immigrant” is a label on undifferentiated figures in a news story or a hate-filled punchline in a political speech, Garrone’s greatest service is the bracing reminder that these are people just like us. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted May 20, 2024
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Arthur the King (2024) |
“Arthur the King” is an entertaining enough adventure yarn about a shaggy, scruffy creature who barks and growls while scrapping through the jungles of the Dominican Republic. That’s the character played by Mark Wahlberg. The movie is also about a dog. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted May 20, 2024
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Love Lies Bleeding (2024) |
“Steamy” barely begins to describe the heat on display in “Love Lies Bleeding,” a deliciously devilish slice of lesbian noir from director Rose Glass — that showcases one of our best actors, Kristen Stewart, and an appealing newcomer in Katy O’Brian. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted May 20, 2024
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Problemista (2023) |
As a writer, Torres has a dry, absurdist humor. … As a director, Torres suggests the whimsical imagery that Wes Anderson would make if he were a gay Salvadoran working with a budget of a buck-fifty. And as an actor, he’s … annoying.
- The Movie Cricket
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| Posted May 20, 2024
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Late Night with the Devil (2023) |
Dastmalchian conveys the creeping unease Jack feels as his TV career is circling the drain, which is nearly as terrifying as the horrors his show is about to unleash on America. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted May 20, 2024
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Remembering Gene Wilder (2023) |
“Remembering Gene Wilder” feels like the sort of safe, sanitized accounting of Wilder’s life and work that one would see playing in a museum exhibit of the man’s work. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted May 20, 2024
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Ennio (2021) |
“Ennio” captures Morricone’s wit, his humility, his striving for perfection. Most importantly, though, it captures his music, in the context of some spectacular movies, and allows us to consider a lifetime of music in one engrossing sitting. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted May 20, 2024
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Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) |
Compare this movie to last year’s “Godzilla Minus One,” and it’s clear that the character’s Japanese originators still have a better handle on what makes Godzilla fearsome and tragic — and more than the sum of its computer-generated parts. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted May 20, 2024
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The First Omen (2024) |
It’s an intriguing movie-watching exercise to try to figure out why the people behind “The First Omen” wanted to create a prequel for a movie that otherwise would have disappeared down the memory hole. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted May 20, 2024
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Wicked Little Letters (2023) |
{The movie} is a good reason to watch and appreciate the lead performers, Colman and Buckley, who bring different types of intensity to the disparate roles — Colman’s Edith as the repressed do-gooder, and Buckley as the unfiltered survivor. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted May 20, 2024
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Monkey Man (2024) |
Patel builds the action up in measured doses, steeping us in the theology of the heroic monkey god Hanuman and the disparity of extreme poverty and extreme avarice in modern India. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted May 20, 2024
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Escape from Germany (2024) |
Christensen’s habit of turning every plot turn into a Sunday school lesson is on display here — with every twist of fate or fortunate coincidence taken as a sign of God’s hand. Miracles are good for sermons, but they make for unsubtle screenwriting. - The Movie Cricket
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| Posted May 20, 2024
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