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James Christopher

Agrees with the Tomatometer 68% of the time.

Publications:: BBC , Daily Mirror [UK] , Times [UK]

Total Reviews:: 304

Best Reviewed Films

Showing 1 - 50 of 304

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Rating	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date
5/5	95%	Star Trek (2009)	" J. J. Abrams's thriller Star Trek is the first tent-pole film that has made me sob with pure pleasure." — Times [UK] Posted May 8, 2009
5/5	91%	There Will Be Blood (2007)	" It's a biblical parable about America's failure to square religion and greed. But most of all it is a marvellously entertaining soap: a sort Dickens does Dallas, without the sex or swimming pools." — Times [UK] Posted Oct 18, 2008
5/5	91%	Gomorrah (Gomorra) (2008)	" Great films change the way we think about cinema. A masterpiece can alter our perception of life. Matteo Garrone's startling film, Gomorrah, about the criminal underworld in Naples, is one of these rare movies." — Times [UK] Posted Oct 10, 2008
5/5	98%	Badlands (1974)	" Terrence Malick's thriller Badlands (1973), is rightly revered as one of the most astonishing debuts in cinema. Its reissue is a wonderful chance to discover why." — Times [UK] Posted Aug 29, 2008
5/5	94%	The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde inseglet) (1957)	" Ingmar Bergman's black and white masterpiece The Seventh Seal has matured like a great wine over 50 years." — Times [UK] Posted Jul 20, 2007
5/5	99%	La Battaglia di Algeri (The Battle of Algiers) (1967)	" Brilliantly directed set-pieces and remarkable thronging crowd scenes make the film a masterpiece; the ominous familiarity of its subject makes it a must-see." — Times [UK] Posted May 11, 2007
5/6	87%	Notes on a Scandal (2006)	" Richard Eyre directs the film like a chamber play. He leans on Philip Glass's ever-present and insistent music like a crutch. But his natural gift for framing scenes is terrifically assured. A potent and evil pleasure." — Times [UK] Posted Feb 5, 2007
4/5	96%	Spartacus (1960)	" Douglas is terrific as the iron-jawed slave fuelled by righteous fury." — Times [UK] Posted Jun 12, 2009
4/5	83%	Hide (2008)	" Marek Losey's thriller The Hide is a macabre gem. It's a crude but enthralling duel with shades of Peter Schaffer's Sleuth. Shades too of Hitchcock's Rope." — Times [UK] Posted Jun 5, 2009
4/5	85%	Looking for Eric (2010)	" Looking for Eric is scathing about the erosion of communal values and the violent, selfish mess of inner-city life." — Times [UK] Posted May 18, 2009
4/5	82%	Bright Star (2009)	" Jane Campion has turned the short and doomed affair between John Keats and Fanny Brawne into an enthralling film that tenderly rips your heart to shreds." — Times [UK] Posted May 16, 2009
4/5	98%	Up (2009)	" It's an unusual, magical film with which to open an art-house festival." — Times [UK] Posted May 14, 2009
4/5	87%	Sounds Like Teen Spirit (2009)	" The documentary Sounds Like Teen Spirit has a thoroughly dismal premise but it is a remarkable and deeply affecting watch." — Times [UK] Posted May 8, 2009
4/5	69%	Delta (2009)	" Delta is a weird, eerie, and utterly compelling Hungarian gem. A lugubrious piece of genius." — Times [UK] Posted May 8, 2009
4/5	65%	Is Anybody There? (2009)	" It's a tragic farce. There are moments of dramatic pudding when the anxieties and fears that Clarence and Edward share grind in opposite directions. But the magic is in the tiny, immaculate stitches." — Times [UK] Posted May 1, 2009
4/5	85%	Tony Manero (2009)	" The brilliance of Tony Manero is that it is so black-hearted. There are no forgivable souls within miles. The squalor is a masterclass in tack. The ghoulish hook is that it is totally compelling." — Times [UK] Posted Apr 9, 2009
4/5	83%	Kirschbl�ten - Hanami (Cherry Blossoms) (2008)	" Ozu's handling of the frosty schism between awkward parents and their ghastly offspring resulted in a heartbreaking piece of cinema." — Times [UK] Posted Apr 3, 2009
4/5	85%	Tyson (2009)	" Toback's split-screen moments, in which the film dissolves from gripping memories into something far closer to stream of consciousness, is pure documentary poetry. Hold tight for a guided tour of Tyson's surreal descent into hell." — Times [UK] Posted Mar 27, 2009
4/5	94%	The Damned United (2009)	" Anyone who has ever kicked a leather football in anger - when they were brown, permanently sodden and weighed 10lb - will almost certainly love this." — Times [UK] Posted Mar 27, 2009
4/5	85%	Wendy and Lucy (2008)	" Wendy and Lucy is a sweet, slight and beautifully crafted film." — Times [UK] Posted Mar 6, 2009
4/5	96%	Gun Crazy (Deadly Is the Female) (1950)	" Admittedly, the script is vintage corn. But visually Gun Crazy is a rude, startling and suggestive pleasure." — Times [UK] Posted Feb 27, 2009
4/5	82%	Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)	" Woody Allen's spoof of the Don Juan myth Vicky Christina Barcelona is his best film this century." — Times [UK] Posted Feb 5, 2009
4/5	92%	Frost/Nixon (2008)	" It sounds like an awful night out in the cinema. But you will be amazed. In Frost/Nixon Ron Howard turns this duel between Michael Sheen's glossy playboy and Frank Langella's shifty ex-President into a gripping tango of egos." — Times [UK] Posted Jan 23, 2009
4/5	94%	Notorious (1946)	" Hitchcock's classic 1946 thriller Notorious is a terrific romantic tango between Ingrid Bergman's exotic and spicy socialite and Cary Grant's prim and proper American spy. It's also shameless war propaganda." — Times [UK] Posted Jan 16, 2009
4/5	94%	Slumdog Millionaire (2008)	" Mumbai's brand new skyscrapers sprout out of patches of mud; Jamal's old-fashioned principles will forever be out of synch with the slick, nightclub world that his older brother Salim inhabits. And so it goes. The romance? Fear not. It's fabulous icing." — Times [UK] Posted Jan 9, 2009
4/5	86%	Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson (2008)	" Gonzo is much more than a tribute to a maverick and genuine pioneer. It's a lament for the gaping hole that Thompson left behind. The only obvious weakness is Gibney's reluctance to engage fully with Thompson's toxic personal life." — Times [UK] Posted Dec 19, 2008
4/5	96%	Ladri di Biciclette (The Bicycle Thief) (Bicycle Thieves) (1949)	" Bicycle Thieves is a postwar classic from the school of Italian Neo-Realism." — Times [UK] Posted Dec 19, 2008
4/5	39%	Inkheart (2009)	" Inkheart shows why books are wonderful yet dangerous places; how a well-told story unlocks the imagination; and how words unleash the most unpredictable emotions." — Times [UK] Posted Dec 12, 2008
4/5	64%	Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008)	" Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath's exhilarating cartoon is a medley of comic humiliations as the sophisticated New Yorkers fail to cut the mustard in the real wild. The Heath Robinson invention will delight adults. The ironies will thrill kids. Great fun." — Times [UK] Posted Dec 5, 2008
4/5	46%	Lakeview Terrace (2008)	" It's a terrifically unstable performance that is admirably matched by the exasperated victims. The ending is too allegorical for its own health, but this is intelligent cinema." — Times [UK] Posted Dec 5, 2008
4/5	51%	What Just Happened? (2008)	" The crisp and merciless ribbing of De Niro in What Just Happened? is a worthy rival. It's also great fun." — Times [UK] Posted Nov 28, 2008
4/5	86%	Le Silence de Lorna (The Silence of Lorna) (Lorna's Silence) (2008)	" The Silence of Lorna won Best Screenplay at this year's Cannes Festival but the Dardenne brothers' latest slice of grim Belgian life could have taken its pick of the prizes." — Times [UK] Posted Nov 28, 2008
4/5	96%	Waltz with Bashir (2008)	" The power of the film is the cartoon "shield" between the witness and the audience. It has the unsettling effect of intensifying the trauma." — Times [UK] Posted Nov 21, 2008
4/5	59%	Quarantine (2008)	" Quarantine is a lucrative steal by Dowdle. The Spanish original is arguably the best v�rit� fright movie since The Blair Witch Project. The American version is not quite in the same league." — Times [UK] Posted Nov 21, 2008
4/5	65%	Quantum of Solace (2008)	" Bond is no longer a work in progress. He is now the cruel, finished article." — Times [UK] Posted Oct 22, 2008
4/5	77%	�� Maymun (Three Monkeys) (2008)	" This is a must." — Times [UK] Posted Oct 18, 2008
4/5	90%	Hunger (2009)	" This is a stunning debut feature." — Times [UK] Posted Oct 18, 2008
4/5	86%	Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)	" Burton was born to film this strange and spooky chamber piece." — Times [UK] Posted Oct 18, 2008
4/5	78%	Burn After Reading (2008)	" Indeed, the spies and thrills don't add up at all. The plot is a total mistake. The characters are madly absurd. The film shouldn't work, but it does." — Times [UK] Posted Oct 17, 2008
4/5	85%	Unrelated (2008)	" The more relaxed the chemistry, the more taboo and tense the film becomes. It's a marvellous piece of cinema that looks as if it is being crafted before your eyes." — Times [UK] Posted Sep 19, 2008
4/5	63%	The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas) (2008)	" Despite moments of improbable whimsy, this is a hugely affecting film. Important, too. It engages with the complexity of the Holocaust in a language that can move children as profoundly as adults." — Times [UK] Posted Sep 12, 2008
4/5	84%	Black White + Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe (2007)	" This is a terrific documentary by James Crump about the unsung collector, Wagstaff, and his lopsided relationship with his hungry young lover, Mapplethorpe." — Times [UK] Posted Aug 15, 2008
4/5	96%	WALL-E (2008)	" For once, the artful nods to Huxley, Kubrick and Philip K. Dick are not the preserve of trainspotters." — Times [UK] Posted Jul 18, 2008
4/5	97%	Entre les Murs (The Class) (2008)	" Cantet's film makes you squirm with indignation and disbelief. But it also captures one or two of those rare moments of breakthrough that make all the difference to a teacher's will to live." — Times [UK] Posted May 24, 2008
4/5	77%	Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)	" Welcome back Indy. Lord knows we've missed you." — Times [UK] Posted May 18, 2008
4/5	93%	Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)	" A delightful comedy that sinks its teeth into your heart with unexpected power." — Times [UK] Posted Apr 18, 2008
4/5	44%	redacted (2007)	" The way De Palma stitches this multimedia montage into a damning narrative is cinema at its angry and exhilarating best." — Daily Mirror [UK] Posted Mar 14, 2008
4/5	72%	Lust, Caution (2007)	" The intensity of the sex is far more honest and revealing than the secrets each lover tries to hide." — Times [UK] Posted Jan 4, 2008
4/5	65%	The Kite Runner (2007)	" An enthralling piece of cinema." — Times [UK] Posted Dec 28, 2007
4/5	77%	I'm Not There (2007)	" One of the sexiest pieces of cinema I've seen at a festival." — Times [UK] Posted Dec 21, 2007

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