Brent Simon Movie Reviews & Previews

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Brent Simon

Agrees with the Tomatometer 73% of the time.

Biography:: A bespectacled graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Brent Simon is editor-in-chief of Entertainment Today and a writer of many words for many formats. He does not like the new Pacific Bell Wireless commercials and cannot abide a world without U2 and pizza.
Favorites:: Movies without Bette Midler, Barbara Streisand, Mariah Carey and Eric Schaeffer
Publications:: Entertainment Today , FilmStew.com , IGN Movies , Los Angeles CityBeat , Los Angeles Daily News , Now Playing Magazine , ReelzChannel.com , Screen International , Screendaily , Shared Darkness , Shockya.com
Critics' Group:: Los Angeles Film Critics Association

Total Reviews:: 1612
Total QuickRatings:: 11

Location:: Los Angeles, CA

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 50 of 1612

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Rating	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date
—	——	This Means War (2012)	— Screen International Posted Feb 11, 2012
2/5	85%	Chronicle (2012)	" Chronicle exudes a certain unfussy technical polish, but only scratches the surface of its junior-level Magneto narrative and ultimately fritters away a quite promising concept." — Screen International Posted Feb 2, 2012
1/5	2%	One for the Money (2012)	" Inane wish fulfillment of the most dreadful variety -- a deeply vapid movie which puts no sincere care or thought into how its slapdash story choices interact with the real world." — Screen International Posted Jan 29, 2012
C+	——	The Theatre Bizarre (2012)	" A macabre horror anthology that suffers from a couple weak entries weighing it down, but still compares relatively favorably to the qualitative mean established by Anchor Bay's 'Masters of Horror' series a few years back." — Shockya.com Posted Jan 27, 2012
	54%	The Viral Factor (2012)	" An enjoyably sprawling if completely scatterbrained action movie from director Dante Lam." — Screen International Posted Jan 20, 2012
C-	23%	Angels Crest (2011)	" A not very subtle and generally unpersuasive stab at tapestral grief-as-elegy." — Shockya.com Posted Jan 13, 2012
1/5	34%	Joyful Noise (2012)	" An unwieldy, frequently baffling piece of claptrap that careens wildly to and fro in its efforts to serve many different narrative masters." — Screen International Posted Jan 6, 2012
2/5	12%	The Darkest Hour (2011)	" A thin sheen of technical proficiency isn't enough to boost the emotional connectivity or entertainment value of this exceedingly programmatic genre offering, an alien invasion tale with a flat, humdrum script." — Screen International Posted Dec 27, 2011
C+	80%	Shame (2011)	" A very glum, austere putative snapshot of modern emotional disconnection; a vehicle that mistakes hermetic artfulness for insight." — Shockya.com Posted Dec 19, 2011
	45%	Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2012)	" It's a preening and somewhat contrived film, a tapestral effort of skilled tradecraft brought to bear upon a self-serious framework of overt manipulations." — Screen International Posted Dec 19, 2011
B	38%	Cook County (2011)	" A gritty, pungent drama with some nicely attuned performances; the rank aroma of frantic hopelessness can almost be smelled coming off the screen." — Shockya.com Posted Dec 18, 2011
2/5	76%	War Horse (2011)	" Janusz Kaminski's cinematography is superb and at times almost redolent, capturing the smells of both lush fields and grimy trenches, but the film's stabs at episodic drama are torpid and unambitious." — Screen International Posted Dec 16, 2011
C	83%	The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby (2011)	" A movie seemingly about the blinkered awakening of a conscience, but one that dances around intrigue without ever consistently engaging it." — Shockya.com Posted Dec 7, 2011
C	9%	Answers to Nothing (2011)	" Reaches rather nakedly for early Paul Thomas Anderson territory, but the copped moves come off less as artful homage and more as the nervous half-formed duplications of a mentee who's left the nest too soon." — Shockya.com Posted Dec 5, 2011
C-	58%	Crazy Wisdom (2011)	" A subject perhaps worthy of a documentary, but hopelessly obscured by fawning and myopia." — Shockya.com Posted Dec 3, 2011
B+	96%	Tomboy (2011)	" Against a backdrop of overly programmed 'issue dramas,' this superb movie is notable for its strong foundation in character and wholesale investment in psychological motivation, rather than salacious plotting." — Shockya.com Posted Nov 30, 2011
C+	37%	Restless (2011)	" A tenderly stylistic evocation of young love wrapped inside a New Wave-esque bundle of wistfulness and nervous energy, and a well constructed little diorama. But one whose elicited feelings do not, alas, linger." — Shockya.com Posted Nov 29, 2011
B	74%	The Lie (2011)	" A well acted and uncommonly assured and engaging portrait of post-millennial and particularly male uncertainty." — Shockya.com Posted Nov 29, 2011
2.5/5	78%	Melancholia (2011)	" 'Artful hooey' might be the best critical shorthand. Dunst gives a captivating performance, her best in years, but the audience is still left on the outside of her character, looking for a way in." — Shared Darkness Posted Nov 23, 2011
	78%	Battle for Brooklyn (2011)	" Battle For Brooklyn is a telling snapshot of (offscreen) political maneuvering, and the tossed-around wrecking-ball weight of corporate might as it relates to individual rights." — Shared Darkness Posted Nov 23, 2011
B	80%	Incendiary: The Willingham Case (2011)	" Rather flatly told but still engaging throughout, this doc should appeal to both newsmagazine junkies and those impassioned by the death penalty debate." — Shockya.com Posted Nov 19, 2011
B	100%	Under Fire: Journalists In Combat (2011)	" An involving, Oscar-shortlisted documentary look at a razor's-edge occupation, as well as the coping mechanisms of the human brain under stress." — Shockya.com Posted Nov 19, 2011
2/5	44%	Happy Feet Two (2011)	" A moralizing musical that feels the lesser of its Oscar-winning predecessor in every way, Happy Feet 2 dances as fast as it can but can't kick up any level of engagement beyond occasional raucous diversion." — Screen International Posted Nov 14, 2011
	25%	Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (2011)	" The performances in Breaking Dawn are largely soapy and melodramatic, especially from Lautner and to a lesser degree Pattinson." — Screen International Posted Nov 11, 2011
C+	——	Light of Mine ()	" A reflective, strikingly photographed relationship drama about a man grappling with impending blindness, and the notion of how to forge a path for a future he won't be able to see." — Shockya.com Posted Nov 10, 2011
B	94%	Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey (2011)	" Not a complete knockout, but a tapestral, feel-good tale of outside-of-the-box self-actualization." — Shockya.com Posted Nov 9, 2011
B-	70%	Elevate (2011)	" Surface-scratching and at times incurious, but a nonetheless engaging documentary look at Senegalese teenagers attempting to better their lives through eduction and hoops in America." — Shockya.com Posted Nov 7, 2011
A	90%	Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)	" Assured, strikingly well acted, and grippingly directed -- the best American narrative debut of 2011." — Shared Darkness Posted Nov 7, 2011
4/5	79%	The Skin I Live In (2011)	" An exquisite little puzzle-box gem of clinically constructed perversity." — Shared Darkness Posted Nov 3, 2011
3/5	73%	Revenge of the Electric Car (2011)	" An entertaining look at the auto industry's about-face on electric cars, but a movie that could have dug deeper, especially in a political climate where one of two parties wears as a badge of honor their continued rejection of climate science." — Shared Darkness Posted Nov 2, 2011
C+	——	The Green (2011)	" Three-fifths of a good movie -- a generally well sketched drama that fumbles away its accrued admiration late in the third act, with a twist that feels like a sop to audiences of small screen procedurals." — Shockya.com Posted Nov 2, 2011
3/5	50%	The Rum Diary (2011)	" The Rum Diary is sort of the filmic equivalent of an unexpected blast of jazz -- an amusing slice of tropical noir beholden to little more than its own snappy rhythms." — Shared Darkness Posted Nov 1, 2011
D	10%	Trespass (2011)	" A thunderously stupid home invasion thriller about a diamond dealer who has a wall-safe with the password 'diamond.' Yes, seriously." — Shared Darkness Posted Nov 1, 2011
3/5	37%	In Time (2011)	" Messy and half-formed, but a pleasing throwback to an era in which ideas powered movies more than special effects, In Time provides a steady flow of lively entertainment due to its brain-tickling central conceit." — Screen International Posted Oct 31, 2011
B	71%	OKA! (2011)	" A unique and fascinating tale of cultural connection, and the elemental nature of various human curiosities that bind us together." — Shockya.com Posted Oct 31, 2011
A-	74%	Like Crazy (2011)	" Beautifully acted, and tender and evocative -- a closed-loop romance for those seeking uplift, and a melancholic rumination from adulthood for those who are so sure they know better." — Shared Darkness Posted Oct 27, 2011
B	81%	Klitschko (2011)	" Klitschko at least showcases behemoth athletic champions who are worthy of role model status for reasons other than just their physical accomplishments." — Shockya.com Posted Oct 26, 2011
A-	100%	Hell and Back Again (2011)	" Belies the misguided notion that a nonfiction effort on war's aftermath can't be artistically minded, and also can't somehow be as moving as (or even more so than) a scripted dramatic interpretation." — Shockya.com Posted Oct 25, 2011
3.5/5	83%	Puss in Boots (2011)	" A winning vocal turn by Banderas anchors this swashbuckling animated family adventure, a peppy, character-rooted romp that thankfully abandons some of the more frenzied and forced in-joke references of the Shrek series." — Screen International Posted Oct 24, 2011
B-	59%	El Bulli: Cooking In Progress (2011)	" A rather elegantly simplistic and hands-off exploration of food as avant-garde art that cooks up all sorts of elemental yearnings in the tastebuds of viewers." — Shockya.com Posted Oct 24, 2011
C-	70%	Oranges And Sunshine (2011)	" A 'message movie' told in staid, blocky fashion, as if already edited down for a Hallmark-style TV presentation, and the lowest-common-denominator audience that medium occasionally implies." — Shockya.com Posted Oct 23, 2011
B+	27%	Connected: An Autoblogography About Love, Death & Technology (2011)	" Tiffany Shlain's rangy, autobiographic treatise on technology and modern life has a soul, and bristles with a hunger and intellectual vigor lacking in many modern American films." — Shockya.com Posted Oct 22, 2011
2.5/5	48%	The Mighty Macs (2011)	" Achingly familiar and evincing little ambition to stretch beyond its comfortably prescribed parameters of feel-good fortification, the film is mainly a nice showcase for Gugino, plus a reminder that sports aren't an exclusive domain of just men." — Screen International Posted Oct 20, 2011
2/5	92%	Take Shelter (2011)	" When its last, proudly ambiguous note is struck, one leaves convinced only that there exists a greater exploitation of this same concept yet to be made, one with sharper contrasts and more starkly defined stakes." — Shared Darkness Posted Oct 18, 2011
C+	0%	Father of Invention (2011)	" A weird and fitfully fresh comedy with a name-heavy cast that almost methodically fumbles away a viewer's engagement, leaving them with thoughts of what could have been." — Shockya.com Posted Oct 17, 2011
C-	40%	Granito (2011)	" A well-meaning but inelegant bore." — Shockya.com Posted Oct 17, 2011
D-	——	Mardi Gras: Spring Break (2011)	" An unsubtle and roundly unfunny stinker, and the sort of film that no cast member would bring up freely of their own volition in any interview. Hell, even Carmen Electra (who cameos as herself) probably feels some shame about her participation." — Shockya.com Posted Oct 14, 2011
B	75%	The Woman (2011)	" Its muddled finale feels like a manifestation of Weezer's 'Undone (The Sweater Song),' but this Woman is undeniably unforgettable, and in a world of carefully measured entertainment that's certainly saying something." — Shockya.com Posted Oct 12, 2011
3/5	70%	Footloose (2011)	" A virtual cinematic poison pill to anyone irrevocably divorced from any trace memories of adolescent feeling, and further proof that in life but especially art feeling is stronger than thought." — Screen International Posted Oct 12, 2011

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