Critics » Brian Orndorf
Brian Orndorf

Brian Orndorf

Agrees with the Tomatometer 71% of the time.

Publications:
BrianOrndorf.com , Collider.com , Dark Horizons , DVDTalk.com , eFilmCritic.com , FilmJerk.com , Modamag.com , OhmyNews.com , rec.arts.movies.reviews , Sci-Fi Movie Page
Critics' Group:
Online Film Critics Society
Total Reviews:
2760
Location:
East Coast

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 50 of 2760
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Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date
B+ —— Father's Day (2012) " A triumphantly diseased motion picture, easily the best movie to pop out of Troma Entertainment in quite some time...There's blood, nudity, and violence. Everyone goes home happy. " — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Feb 11, 2012
B 57% Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (in 3D) (2012) " Naturally, if you already despise everything George Lucas touches, well, these aren't the droids you're looking for. It's more of a 3D party for fans and admirers, playing to the convinced with a conversion." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Feb 10, 2012
B- 42% Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012) " Burdened with a leaden script built only with cliché, the sequel manages to pack a harder punch of adventure than its predecessor, making better use of its 3D environments" — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Feb 10, 2012
D 27% The Vow (2012) " Looks to smear massage oils across the screen, offering viewers something warm and cuddly despite a story that all but demands a more forthright recollection of mental and marital obstacles. " — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Feb 10, 2012
B- 53% Safe House (2012) " The third act of the feature ends up hobbling the viewing experience, but it's important to note that when locked into pure visceral acts of escape, Safe House provides a welcome widescreen jolt." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Feb 9, 2012
B- 95% Pina (2011) " Outsiders might have more difficulty comprehending Bausch's mastery, especially whacked up into bite-sized pieces of inscrutable emotion and abrupt movement." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Feb 9, 2012
B+ 71% Return (2012) " Superbly communicates the difficulties of military transition and its ensuing confusion, executing its perspective with a refreshing trust in its audience." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Feb 9, 2012
C 73% Rampart (2012) " While Harrelson's work contributes to this sandpaper rub of Los Angeles corruption, it's eventually lost to unnecessary distortion in a feature that works much too hard to appear effortless." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Feb 9, 2012
C- 22% The Wicker Tree (2012) " The askew approach of The Wicker Tree is admittedly curious, rendering the movie more dumbfounding than disastrous." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Feb 4, 2012
C 85% Chronicle (2012) " An uneasy cross between a Morrissey record and a middling X-Men sequel." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Feb 3, 2012
C 64% The Woman in Black (2012) " It's a handsomely mounted picture, but empty when it comes to spectral inspiration, leaving Radcliffe to feign interest in the snoozy actions of a supposedly wicked witch." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Feb 3, 2012
B 99% A Separation (2011) " Expectedly, the volatility is penetrating, but the feature is methodical, stewing in every last moment of unease and contemplation, stretching to a point where Farhadi is practically lapping himself. " — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Feb 2, 2012
D+ 73% Big Miracle (2012) " The stereotypes are bruising, built into a laborious script that piles on the setbacks, stretching the story out with a routine of disaster every 10 minutes, making any new design of whale rescue a predictable failure. " — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Feb 2, 2012
D+ —— All Things Fall Apart (2012) " Straining to be meaningful until its blue in the face, All Things Fall Apart is a hackneyed, stilted production, held back in great part by Jackson's decision to insert himself in the lead role. " — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Feb 2, 2012
B- 50% Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie (2012) " For a pair of comedians who routinely make 11 minutes of television feel like a prison sentence, their debut feature film is surprisingly palatable." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Feb 1, 2012
D+ 44% The Flowers of War (2011) " Try as he might to mold this woeful story into something momentous, Zhang turns the picture into punishment, ruining such extraordinary displays of bravery and fortitude with pounding aggression." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 30, 2012
C- 2% One for the Money (2012) " Fans of Evanovich's work should walk away satisfied, perhaps even delighted with the adaptation. Everyone else will simply be able to walk away, which is saying something considering the debilitating toxicity of Heigl's recent output. " — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 27, 2012
B 77% The Grey (2012) " Telling potential viewers they're about to watch a group of men slowly expire for two hours isn't appetizing, leaving the suits scrambling for marketable elements that don't even appear in the picture. It's bad form." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 26, 2012
D+ 32% Man on a Ledge (2012) " Ledge is best left hanging in the air, staying close to stationary characters. Once it starts down a dopey blockbuster route, it ceases to be of any entertainment value." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 26, 2012
B- 93% Coriolanus (2011) " The essence of the picture remains with the Bard, the rest carries on with a wrathful charge, generating frustrating distance and intensity, often in the same instant. " — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 26, 2012
B 51% Perfect Sense (2012) " Frustrating at times, possibly too insistent when it comes to screen poetry, but the concept is intriguing, offering enough scenes of oddity and distress to hold attention and occasionally raise anxiety levels." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 26, 2012
A- 82% Crazy Horse (2012) " Wiseman seizes the essence of an iconic institution, viewing the inner workings and end product of this concentrated creative energy. Crazy Horse is an illuminating delight. " — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 25, 2012
C 15% The Divide (2012) " It's not a film for everyone. Heck, it's not a film for anyone, yet underneath the oppressive atmosphere of this insistently nasty movie are a few persuasive scenes of panic set against a terrifying doomsday scenario. " — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 22, 2012
B- 29% Underworld Awakening (2012) " It's a sequel that compliments parts one and three. If you enjoyed part two, we can't be friends." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 20, 2012
B- 76% The Innkeepers (2012) " Retains some personality and a reasonable case of the creeps. West keeps the festivities rather subdued, but those exhausted by the current state of shock cinema might find themselves appreciating this spooky breather. " — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 20, 2012
D- 45% The Rebound (2012) " Although it bears the marks of studio intervention, much of the blame remains firmly with Freundlich, who's incapable of arranging a single honest moment in this uncomfortable, frightfully strained creation. " — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 20, 2012
C 45% Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2012) " A tighter edit wouldn't save the feature, but it would relieve its increasingly claustrophobic ambiance, allowing a firmer connection to the mourning. " — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 20, 2012
B+ 80% Haywire (2012) " Soderbergh attempts to battle predictability with predictability, though it's hard to argue with the movie's sporadic concentration. When Haywire wakes up, it's a blast. " — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 20, 2012
C 36% Red Tails (2012) " Largely clumsy with anything that doesn't find the men zipping through the clouds, creating a deflating moviegoing sensation. Parts of the picture are remarkable, but there's not enough historical grit and considered dialogue." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 20, 2012
D- 34% Joyful Noise (2012) " Those with less tolerance for the stridently manic stylings of Queen Latifah and miserable Disney Channel-style conflicts should stay clear and thank the heavens for the ticket money saved." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 13, 2012
B+ 54% The Iron Lady (2012) " Smears a life across the screen, surveying triumphs and disasters, remaining as close to Thatcher's personality as possible, favoring intensity of thought over a meticulous recreation of history." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 12, 2012
D 48% Contraband (2012) " At this point, I think Giovanni Ribisi has been sent back in time by the machines to terminate subtle screen acting. " — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 12, 2012
B+ 92% Beauty and the Beast (In 3D) (2012) " 3D doesn't downplay the inherent artistry of the effort, but it doesn't enhance anything outside of ticket prices." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 12, 2012
C —— Shanghai () " The technical achievements of the picture are numerous, making Shanghai painless to watch. It's maintaining interest in the eroding mystery and its passive players that's a significant challenge." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 12, 2012
C- 54% In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011) " Jolie will happily serve up sexual violence and disturbing gunplay to smack around her audience, but meaningful characterization is lacking, constipating the soulfulness of the screenplay. " — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 12, 2012
D- 5% The Devil Inside (2012) " It's fitting the feature has no ending, as I'm not convinced it ever actually started. " — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 5, 2012
C 73% Kill List (2012) " Mumbled and intentionally impenetrable, the effort is a taxing sit with enormously skillful screen elements, molded into an interpretive shocker that's often not worth the time to unravel. " — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 5, 2012
B+ 74% Norwegian Wood (2012) " The script doesn't possess all of the answers, but there's enough here to leave the movie sporadically stunning and consistently perceptive." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 5, 2012
B- 68% Roadie (2012) " An appealing mood of discomfort that's marvelously executed by the cast, hitting a few persuasive beats of disappointment and resignation that keeps the story grounded in an intriguing, lived-in reality. " — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 5, 2012
D+ 0% Shelter () " The conflicting speeds of the feature create chaos, derailing a familiar but promising junk food thriller, which tries much too hard to keep the viewer off the scent of a mystery they will likely show limited interest in to begin with. " — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Jan 5, 2012
B- 96% Pariah (2011) " It's a deeply flawed picture, but the core intensity of contemplation and hesitation is outstanding, allowing the characters a life beyond cliché." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Dec 30, 2011
C 80% We Need to Talk About Kevin (2012) " Elements of threat are established, yet everything in the picture is frustratingly ephemeral, unwilling to foster menace in a manner that reflects Kevin's own growing evil. " — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Dec 30, 2011
D 7% In My Sleep (2010) " Little screen finesse to support Wolf's aspirations, leaving behind an ambitious but inept production that has difficulty maintaining chills, thrills, and, well, camera focus. " — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Dec 26, 2011
D- 12% The Darkest Hour (2011) " To get to the creature feature basics, one must endure a full court press of ghastly moviemaking decisions, creating a dispiriting amateur ambiance with a premise that seems capable of coughing up a few easy thrills." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Dec 25, 2011
C+ 76% War Horse (2011) " While it seems like grand slam material for the bearded maestro, the story rarely gets off the ground, lost between its dreamy storybook qualities and need to reinforce the bone-chilling tragedy of war. " — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Dec 23, 2011
C 53% Albert Nobbs (2012) " Close is magnetic, accepting an acting experiment with a thrilling fearlessness and devotion to complete immersion. If only the rest of the production matched her grace and concentration." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Dec 22, 2011
B 75% The Adventures of Tintin (2011) " A satisfactory but slightly poky romp, saved by marvelous, expressive animation that generates a crisp, colorful feel for the world Belgian artist Herge created so very long ago." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Dec 22, 2011
B 97% The Artist (2011) " There are certain productions that wear a broad smile and carry little personality, with director Michel Hazanavicius's valentine to moviemaking days of yore perfectly, utterly, monumentally...fine. " — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Dec 22, 2011
C 63% We Bought a Zoo (2011) " Loses touch with reality, turning this life-changing, tear-shedding, lion-roaring rebirth process into a glorified sitcom. A few beautiful scenes glazed with Crowe-brand wonder barely redeem it." — BrianOrndorf.com
Posted Dec 22, 2011
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