ROTTEN TOMATOES: Ken Hanke - Rotten Tomatoes

Official Websites:
Mountain Xpress (Ashe…

KEN HANKE

Agrees with the Tomatometer 80% of the time.

Biography: Author of books KEN RUSSELL'S FILMS, CHARLIE CHAN AT THE MOVIES, A CRITICAL GUIDE TO HORROR FILM SERIES, TIM BURTON: AN UNAUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY OF THE FILMMAKER. Associate Editor: SCARLET STREET magazine. Movie reviewer/movie coordinator, MOUNTAIN XPRESS. Member Southeastern Film Critics Association.

Favorites: TOMMY THE RULING CLASS LOVE ME TONIGHT MOULIN ROUGE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN

Publications: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Critics' Group: Southeastern Film Critics Association

Total Reviews: 1713
Total QuickRatings: 2067

Location: Asheville NC

MOVIE REVIEWS ONLY

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

Fresh 5/5	Fresh 70%	Sherlock Holmes (2009)	" *Make no mistake, Sherlock Holmes* is every inch a Guy Ritchie picture -- only it's a Guy Ritchie picture about Sherlock Holmes.**" Posted Dec 31, 2009
Fresh 4/5	Rotten 38%	Nine (2009)	" At bottom, what you have is a good film of a fairly good show of a brilliant movie." Posted Dec 31, 2009
Fresh 4.5/5	Fresh 89%	Up in the Air (2009)	" At the center of it all, is George Clooney in the role he seems born to have played -- a role he's lived himself into." Posted Dec 23, 2009
Fresh 3.5/5	Fresh 83%	Avatar (2009)	" Does it signal the death of movies as we know them, as suggested? I doubt it -- not in the least because, technology to one side, it very much is movies as we know them." Posted Dec 23, 2009
Fresh 4.5/5	Fresh 74%	The Young Victoria (2009)	" If I can find any quibble with this richly rewarding film, it's that it's about Queen Victoria and Prince Albert -- a subject that in itself isn't that inherently exciting." Posted Dec 23, 2009
Fresh 5/5	Fresh 83%	Me and Orson Welles (2009)	" One of the best films I've ever seen about the theater, about being in love with art, about first disillusionment with art, and about the ability to bounce back from that." Posted Dec 23, 2009
Rotten 2.5/5	Rotten 46%	Everybody's Fine (2009)	" Once you realize where all this has to go, watching the movie becomes a matter of marking time to get to the warmly desired closing credits." Posted Dec 16, 2009
Fresh 4/5	Fresh 76%	Invictus (2009)	" Solid, unsurprising, formalist filmmaking of the kind we've come to expect from Clint Eastwood." Posted Dec 16, 2009
Fresh 4.5/5	Fresh 92%	Precious: Based on the Novel PUSH by Sapphire (2009)	" Not quite the masterpiece it's been painted as. It is, however, a very good work and an amazingly brave one." Posted Dec 16, 2009
Fresh 4/5	Fresh 83%	The Princess and the Frog (2009)	" Despite all the fuss that's been made over the fact that this is Disney's first film with a black heroine this is pretty completely Disney basic." Posted Dec 16, 2009
Rotten .5/5	Rotten 6%	Old Dogs (2009)	" Old Dogs is -- quite simply -- the nadir of filmmaking." Posted Dec 2, 2009
Fresh 5/5	Fresh 93%	Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)	" Witty, quirky, individual -- and the result is just possibly the most pure fun you'll have at a movie all year." Posted Dec 2, 2009
Fresh 4.5/5	Fresh 87%	A Serious Man (2009)	" A Serious Man simply doesn't care whether or not you like it. In part, I think that's exactly why I do like it: The "take it or leave it" attitude is refreshing." Posted Nov 26, 2009
Fresh 3.5/5	Fresh 72%	The Blind Side (2009)	" The kind of film that works on you while you're watching it, but is finally like a second helping of dessert that leaves you feeling ever so slightly sick afterwards." Posted Nov 26, 2009
Rotten 1.5/5	Rotten 28%	The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)	" *Mostly keeps going by reels and reels of moping from Bella and Edward -- the two have more mood swings and changes of heart than the entire cast of Gone With the Wind.*" Posted Nov 26, 2009
Fresh 4/5	Fresh 82%	Black Rain (1989)	" Powerfully effective, and it addresses the issue of the national scarring of the bombings in a way that no one else ever has." Posted Nov 18, 2009
Fresh 4.5/5	Fresh 94%	An Education (2009)	" A good deal of this works because of Mulligan, who deserves every accolade and Audrey Hepburn comparison she's received for her performance." Posted Nov 18, 2009
Rotten 3/5	Rotten 39%	2012 (2009)	" Emmerich's desire to cram as many hairbreadth escapes and eternities of suspense as possible into one movie ultimately feels more like an eternity plain and simple." Posted Nov 18, 2009
Fresh 5/5	Fresh 60%	Pirate Radio (2009)	" I fell in love with it and have yet to fall out of love with it. I don't expect I shall. This is a movie I suspect I will only come to treasure more with the passage of time." Posted Nov 18, 2009
Fresh 4/5	Rotten 54%	The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)	" A likable little movie that feels more indie than most indies, isn't afraid to shamble along, and, sadly, seems oblivious to the fact that it's in need of a bigger ending." Posted Nov 12, 2009
Rotten 1/5	Rotten 18%	The Fourth Kind (2009)	" *The first line in The Fourth Kind* has Milla Jovovich calling herself an 'actress,' so we know right away the film is lying.**" Posted Nov 12, 2009
Rotten 2.5/5	Rotten 55%	Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009)	" It's a film so determined to make you notice it, that it comes across like an obnoxious child screaming, 'Look at me!'" Posted Nov 12, 2009
Fresh 4/5	Fresh 82%	Thirst (2009)	" What sets Park's film apart from the standard vampire picture has more to do with its tone, characterizations, and its strange blend of lyricism and pitch-black comedy." Posted Nov 4, 2009
Fresh 4/5	Fresh 65%	Coco Before Chanel (2009)	" Fontaine manages to create a film that captures both the essence of its subject and the times and circumstances that helped to shape her." Posted Nov 4, 2009
Fresh 4/5	Fresh 67%	Paris (2009)	" It may occasionally seem a little too facile, but all in all the movie scores more points than not and becomes a film of genuine merit." Posted Nov 4, 2009
Fresh 4/5	Fresh 80%	Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009)	" Calling it a documentary is something of a misnomer. It's both more and less than that because, let's face it, the film is the official party line." Posted Nov 4, 2009
Fresh 4.5/5	Fresh 87%	The Baader Meinhof Complex (2009)	" A richly detailed, emotionally complex, character-filled examination." Posted Oct 31, 2009
Rotten 3/5	Rotten 21%	Amelia (2009)	" In one fell swoop, Mira Nair and company have set the genre back 64 years. That's probably some kind of accomplishment." Posted Oct 31, 2009
Rotten 2.5/5	Rotten 45%	Saw VI (2009)	" Saw movies and Halloween go together like ho and hum." Posted Oct 31, 2009
Fresh 3.5/5	Fresh 82%	Paranormal Activity (2009)	" Works better than it has any right to." Posted Oct 31, 2009
Fresh 4/5	Fresh 78%	It Might Get Loud (2009)	" *It might not snag Davis Guggenheim another Oscar, but his It Might Get Loud* proves that Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White make for livelier viewing than Al Gore.**" Posted Oct 25, 2009
Fresh 4/5	Fresh 89%	S�raphine (2008)	" Where the film scores -- and scores very highly -- is in the characterizations of S�raphine and Uhde, both of whom emerge as wholly formed complex creations." Posted Oct 25, 2009
Fresh 3.5/5	Fresh 83%	Whip It (2009)	" Its refreshingly unjaded look at humanity is not something I'm prepared to sneer at." Posted Oct 25, 2009
Fresh 3.5/5	Fresh 89%	Zombieland (2009)	" The overall results are savvier and cheekier than not." Posted Oct 25, 2009
Fresh 4.5/5	Rotten 57%	The Invention of Lying (2009)	" One of the best and most thought-provoking American comedies to come along in some considerable time." Posted Oct 25, 2009
Rotten .5/5	Rotten 11%	The Stepfather (2009)	" What is there to be said about this utterly worthless, addle-brained waste of 101 minutes except that it's an utterly worthless, addle-brained waste of 101 minutes?" Posted Oct 25, 2009
Fresh 4/5	Fresh 73%	Where the Wild Things Are (2009)	" It's all very clever and very creative. It's intellectually stimulating. But how much of it actually had any emotional impact?" Posted Oct 25, 2009
Fresh 4.5/5	Fresh 82%	Pierrot Le Fou (1965)	" An idiosyncratic work by a filmmaker trotting out his obsessions of the moment and committing them to film without much regard for actual meaning." Posted Sep 30, 2009
Rotten 3/5	Fresh 78%	Humpday (2009)	" Possibilities are at least flirted with, if not realized, the results waver between interesting and tedious, only to come up with the inevitable lemon of a resolution." Posted Sep 30, 2009
Fresh 4/5	Fresh 64%	Basquiat (1996)	" *Schnabel made his* film about Basquiat, which carries its own validation. He's also made something of a work of art in its own right.**" Posted Sep 30, 2009
Fresh 4.5/5	Fresh 75%	Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)	" If the film entertains you and outrages you, it's done its job remarkably well." Posted Sep 30, 2009
Rotten 2.5/5	Rotten 28%	Pandorum (2009)	" It's moderately amusing if you're in the mood, but it's incredibly lacking in invention." Posted Sep 30, 2009
Rotten 2.5/5	Rotten 27%	Fame (2009)	" I think the term 're-imagining' is code for 'dumbing down.' 'Re-imagining' may sound better, but the results are unchanged." Posted Sep 30, 2009
Fresh 4/5	Fresh 93%	Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! (2009)	" You'll get more bang, boobs and blood for your buck here than with any other show in town." Posted Sep 22, 2009
Fresh 4/5	Fresh 88%	Timecrimes (2008)	" That rarest of rare things: an intelligent time-travel movie that actually holds together on closer examination." Posted Sep 22, 2009
Fresh 4.5/5	Fresh 89%	And the Ship Sails On (1984)	" *For a movie that revels in its very artificiality, And the Ship Sails On* possesses an astonishing emotional resonance in its last scenes.**" Posted Sep 22, 2009
Fresh 4/5	Fresh 70%	My One and Only (2009)	" You don't have to care anything about George Hamilton in order to enjoy this surprisingly entertaining little movie that will remind you why you once liked Ren�e Zellweger." Posted Sep 22, 2009
Fresh 4/5	Fresh 84%	Bright Star (2009)	" A little too genteel for my tastes. Or rather, it would be were it not for Paul Schneider's complex and often refreshingly rude performance." Posted Sep 22, 2009
Fresh 4.5/5	Fresh 75%	Cold Souls (2009)	" Any work that purports to be about the nature of the soul is pretty high in the pretension realm. In this case, it's also one of the most fascinating movies of 2009." Posted Sep 22, 2009
Fresh 3.5/5	Rotten 44%	Jennifer's Body (2009)	" Never as frightening as it should be, and it's certainly never as hip and funny as it would like to be, but neither is it a disaster." Posted Sep 22, 2009

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5/5	Chimes at MidnightOffsite
4/4	The Indian TombOffsite
4.5/5	Sunshine CleaningOffsite
4/5	The Great Buck HowardOffsite
3.5/5	Iron HorseOffsite
3/5	The InformersOffsite
2.5/5	FightingOffsite
2/5	Fast & FuriousOffsite
1.5/5	OrphanOffsite
1/5	ObsessedOffsite
.5/5	C Me DanceOffsite

5/5	Sherlock HolmesOffsite
5/5	Me and Orson WellesOffsite
5/5	Fantastic Mr. FoxOffsite
5/5	Pirate RadioOffsite
5/5	Rear WindowOffsite
4/4	The Indian TombOffsite
5/5	Inglourious BasterdsOffsite
5/5	Boudu Saved from DrowningOffsite
5/5	Fanny and AlexanderOffsite
5/5	TetroOffsite

0/4	EnoughOffsite
.5/5	Old DogsOffsite
.5/5	The StepfatherOffsite
.5/5	Post GradOffsite
.5/5	Transformers: Revenge of the FallenOffsite
.5/5	Land of the LostOffsite
.5/5	Next Day AirOffsite
.5/5	C Me DanceOffsite
.5/5	Miss MarchOffsite
.5/5	Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-LiOffsite

KEN HANKE

MOVIE REVIEWS ONLY

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