ROTTEN TOMATOES: Brett McCracken

BRETT MCCRACKEN

Agrees with the Tomatometer 74% of the time.

Biography: Brett is an avowed disciple of Terrence Malick and watches The Thin Red Line about once a month. He also adores the films of Richard Linklater, Sofia Coppola, Jim Jarmusch, and David Gordon Green. Since graduating from Wheaton College in 2005, Brett has published numerous commentaries and criticisms of movies, music, art and culture. A longtime contributing writer/editor to Relevant, Brett has also written for Ignite Your Faith, Sacred History, Looking Closer, and Radiant. Now a grad student in Cinema and Media Studies at UCLA, Brett edits the department's e-journal, Mediascape. He also has his own "anti-blog".

Publications: Christianity Today

Total Reviews: 35

MOVIE REVIEWS ONLY

Rating	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date (default)

Fresh 3/4	Rotten 46%	The Box (2009)	" A confounding sci-fi mystery on one level and a tortured existential treatise on the other, pondering the nature of man in relation to God." Posted Nov 6, 2009
Fresh 4/4	Fresh 83%	Bright Star (2009)	" A beautiful film and a strikingly truthful one, and not because it waxes too philosophic or throws down the intellectual gauntlet." Posted Oct 31, 2009
Rotten 2/4	Fresh 62%	Che (2008)	" If Soderbergh's goal was to demystify Che Guevera and de-romanticize "revolution," he's succeeded. But unfortunately the result is a film that is just not very compelling." Posted Jan 16, 2009
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 68%	Revolutionary Road (2008)	" A showcase for DiCaprio and Winslet's formidable talents, and they are up to the challenge of playing tortured, well intentioned but ultimately doomed victims of dashed dreams." Posted Dec 31, 2008
Fresh 3.5/4	Fresh 79%	Gran Torino (2008)	" As Walt discovers, we can lament change all we want, but ultimately what's gone is gone. What's important is what we leave behind--our successes, failures, and '72 Detroit-made muscle cars." Posted Dec 16, 2008
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 93%	Milk (2008)	" Milk achieves what it sets out to do, telling an inspiring tale of one man's quest to legitimize his identity, to give hope to his community." Posted Nov 26, 2008
Fresh 4/4	Rotten 54%	Australia (2008)	" *It's an ode to a place* (exotic to some, familiar to others), yes, but more than that, Australia is state of mind: wonderment, grandeur, beauty, love, escape, hope.**" Posted Nov 26, 2008
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 100%	Pray the Devil Back to Hell (2008)	" A simple and inspiring story told through the medium of film. But for what it is, it definitely gets the job done." Posted Nov 7, 2008
Fresh 3.5/4	Fresh 60%	W. (2008)	" In an election season where personal faults are turned into salacious attack ads, it's reassuring to see that the typically salacious Stone is willing to exercise some restraint." Posted Oct 17, 2008
Rotten 2/4	Fresh 70%	Religulous (2008)	" It's meant to "prove" that religious belief and intelligence are mutually exclusive. If you believe that, this movie is for you. For everyone else, it's a trifling and shoddy tirade." Posted Oct 3, 2008
Rotten 2.5/4	Rotten 47%	Lakeview Terrace (2008)	" Slick, dramatic, and occasionally convincing, but at the end of the day it feels less like reality and more like Hollywood-does-a-race-fable." Posted Sep 22, 2008
Fresh 2.5/4	Fresh 76%	Appaloosa (2008)	" Appaloosa is entertaining, certainly, but it feels rather slight and feeble next to some of its more superior recent cohorts in the western genre." Posted Sep 22, 2008
Fresh 3/4	Rotten 40%	Hancock (2008)	" Most of Hancock's faults can be forgiven because Will Smith creates a quintessentially American hero: flawed, frayed, but always sacrificing for the sake of others." Posted Jul 10, 2008
Rotten 2.5/4	Rotten 18%	The Happening (2008)	" The film becomes less comprehensible as it goes along, and the audience -- expecting a patented M. Night ending -- is left with no answers, explanation, or narrative closure." Posted Jun 13, 2008
Fresh 2.5/4	Fresh 96%	Bigger, Stronger, Faster* (2008)	" A foreboding look at our conception of the human being: as a mechanism that can be sculpted, doped, enhanced, and perfected because, well, because we all want to be powerful and attractive." Posted May 30, 2008
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 98%	Surfwise (2008)	" *When so many documentaries today seem concerned only with arguing* a point, it's nice to see something like this which seeks only to reveal.**" Posted May 9, 2008
Fresh 3.5/4	Fresh 90%	The Visitor (2008)	" Thoroughly, refreshingly unique, a film that weaves a tight, timely tale that is equal parts heart-warming and wrenching." Posted Apr 18, 2008
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 79%	Chicago 10 (2008)	" *The filmmakers' hope, presumably, is that kids will see Chicago 10* and get stirred into action%u2014taking to the streets to take down The Man, Yippie style.**" Posted Feb 29, 2008
Rotten 2.5/4	Fresh 80%	In Bruges (2008)	" There are several standout moments, but as a whole it feels rather flat and arrested. For a film about Purgatory, however, that might be appropriate." Posted Feb 8, 2008
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 92%	U2 3D (2008)	" *The experience of sight and sound that one encounters in U23D* is undeniably breathtaking. . . The next best thing to actually being at a live concert.**" Posted Jan 23, 2008
Fresh 3/4	Rotten 46%	Cassandra's Dream (2008)	" Farrell and McGregor deliver remarkably nuanced performances in and through their mundane one-dimensionality, taking average Joes and give them average strengths and weaknesses." Posted Jan 23, 2008
Rotten 1/4	Rotten 21%	Day Zero (2008)	" A film that revels in defeatism and hyperbolized dystopia; a would-be political statement that is more insipid than insightful." Posted Jan 18, 2008
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 85%	Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)	" Touches on Dostoevskian notions of playing God and purging the world of its lowlife rabble, and at times Todd seems something of a proletariat hero, exacting class reparations by night and knife." Posted Dec 21, 2007
Fresh 3.5/4	Fresh 89%	The Savages (2007)	" The Savages does a good job keeping things in perspective by pointing out the "what can you do?" absurdity of it all. We all face mortality, and we can all laugh at it too." Posted Nov 30, 2007
Rotten 2.5/4	Fresh 72%	Stephen King's The Mist (2007)	" *It's not The Shawshank Redemption, but for what it is, The Mist* is an admirable venture into the always foggy, sometimes treacherous landscape of the human soul.**" Posted Nov 21, 2007
Fresh	Fresh 60%	What Would Jesus Buy? (2007)	" The passion that is evident in the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir is contagious and admirable. Many Christian churches could learn a few things from this secular outfit." Posted Nov 19, 2007
Fresh 4/4	Fresh 75%	My Best Friend (2007)	" A wonderful, rare film that portrays one of the most under-represented but universal human neuroses: the desire for friendship or platonic love." Posted Oct 12, 2007
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 63%	Death at a Funeral (2007)	" *Very funny and entertaining, a sometimes-dark comedy somewhere between Four Weddings and a Funeral* and Meet the Parents.**" Posted Oct 12, 2007
Fresh 4/4	Fresh 89%	Rescue Dawn (2007)	" Even as this film is being proclaimed as Herzog's "most accessible" yet, there are still some serious layers of beauty and depth that go beyond most any film you'll see this year." Posted Oct 12, 2007
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 81%	Talk to Me (2007)	" A compelling portrait of a particularly tumultuous time in American history and how the media of the day adapted to and helped foster the many changes that were going on." Posted Oct 12, 2007
Rotten 2/4	Rotten 13%	The Seeker (2007)	" *Too quick, too slight, and too cliched to make a splash in the company of such high-quality adaptations like LOTR* and Harry Potter.**" Posted Oct 12, 2007
Rotten 2/4	Fresh 94%	Lake of Fire (2007)	" The latest in a long list of hyper-politicized, sensationalistic documentaries that are high on scare tactics and shock value, but low on progressive discourse." Posted Oct 12, 2007
Rotten 2.5/4	Rotten 26%	The Final Season (2007)	" *Unabashedly builds on stock sports movies of the past (the tagline could have been Friday Night Lights* meets Field of Dreams) and follows formulas to an almost comical degree.**" Posted Oct 12, 2007
Rotten 1.5/4	Rotten 41%	Feast of Love (2007)	" *The love feasted upon in this film is not about commitment or selflessness. No, the love in this Feast* is very fickle and selfish.**" Posted Sep 29, 2007
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 88%	3:10 to Yuma (2007)	" Yuma portrays a West that is stark, barren, and morally ambiguous. Like all the great "revisionist westerns" of recent years, very few characters are all good or all bad." Posted Sep 19, 2007

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BRETT MCCRACKEN

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