Alistair Harkness Movie Reviews & Previews

Critics » Alistair Harkness

Alistair Harkness

Agrees with the Tomatometer 78% of the time.

Publications:: Edinburgh U Film Society , Film4 , FilmFour.com , Scotsman

Total Reviews:: 635

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 50 of 635

Previous | Next

Rating	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date
3/5	50%	Fuck For Forest ()	" It's unintentionally funny in places, but when the group heads for the Amazon and is confronted with the realities of practical activism, the film fails to interrogate their failings in any meaningful way." — Scotsman Posted May 5, 2013
2/5	26%	21 And Over (2013)	" Despite the veneer of vomit-stained raucousness, it's fairly mild stuff ..." — Scotsman Posted May 5, 2013
3/5	50%	All Stars ()	" It's hard not to go along with the film ..." — Scotsman Posted May 5, 2013
3/5	74%	Chimpanzee (2012)	" As a primate primer for the younger end of the family market, Chimpanzee does a good job of inspiring awe in our closest cousins and doesn't stint on harsh "circle of life" lessons ..." — Scotsman Posted May 5, 2013
2/5	36%	Dead Man Down (2013)	" Needless to say, the whole thing builds towards a big shoot-out, but none of the action is executed with any verve or style." — Scotsman Posted May 5, 2013
4/5	60%	I'm So Excited! (2013)	" It's broad, bawdy stuff, and more than a little retro too, to the point where the luggage isn't the only thing that feels Carry On ..." — Scotsman Posted May 5, 2013
5/5	78%	Iron Man 3 (2013)	" This is comic book filmmaking with the emphasis very much on the "comic" -- and further proof that it's possible to tell a meaty story full of high stakes action without getting weighed down by fanboy-courting descents into darkness." — Scotsman Posted Apr 24, 2013
3/5	56%	Oblivion (2013)	" There's no "whoa" moment, no "spinning top" head-scratchers. Instead Oblivion feels a little too content to get by on spectacle and star-power alone." — Scotsman Posted Apr 15, 2013
2/5	34%	The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012)	" A slice of retro whimsy, it's rooted to nothing in particular and is inoffensive in every way except its overwhelming blandness." — Scotsman Posted Apr 8, 2013
2/5	29%	All Things To All Men ()	" The latest attempt to make a British Michael Mann-style crime epic based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what Michael Mann actually does as a filmmaker." — Scotsman Posted Apr 8, 2013
4/5	100%	Michael H. Profession: Director ()	" [A] fascinating documentary on the Austrian auteur." — Scotsman Posted Apr 8, 2013
2/5	79%	A Late Quartet (2012)	" One might expect a film set in the high culture world of classical music to come up with a more sophisticated metaphor for the insecurities of a violinist than having him worry about always playing second fiddle in life." — Scotsman Posted Apr 8, 2013
3/5	35%	Dark Skies (2013)	" It's never uninteresting." — Scotsman Posted Apr 8, 2013
5/5	66%	Spring Breakers (2013)	" There's Korine, defiantly lobbing grenades at the mainstream and exploding it all to hell." — Scotsman Posted Apr 8, 2013
4/5	89%	Compliance (2012)	" Zobel is canny enough to gradually intensify the level of discomfort to ensure the characters' increasing irrationality feels honest in the situation, regardless of how out-of-whack it seems from a distance." — Scotsman Posted Mar 24, 2013
3/5	44%	The Paperboy (2012)	" There is a certain trashy appeal, but in the end it's all too random to really mean anything. Apart from the cast, The Paperboy just doesn't deliver." — Scotsman Posted Mar 17, 2013
3/5	60%	Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)	" Raimi deploys enough magical moments elsewhere to see it through. Just." — Scotsman Posted Mar 10, 2013
4/5	87%	Robot & Frank (2012)	" Explores in subtle and heartbreaking ways how memory becomes a defining part of who were are and where we're going." — Scotsman Posted Mar 10, 2013
1/5	8%	Fire With Fire (2012)	" The result is breathtakingly dumb with absolutely zero redeeming features." — Scotsman Posted Mar 10, 2013
4/5	95%	Side by Side (2012)	" Keanu Reeves proves a surprisingly engaging host for this documentary inquiry into the ongoing transition from celluloid to digital filmmaking." — Scotsman Posted Mar 10, 2013
2/5	52%	Broken (2013)	" Even the presence of Tim Roth, Cillian Murphy and Denis Lawson can't sell us on scenarios that make The Jeremy Kyle Show look restrained." — Scotsman Posted Mar 10, 2013
4/5	85%	Side Effects (2013)	" An effortlessly slick medical thriller that makes no grand statements or summations beyond being effortlessly artful and entertaining." — Scotsman Posted Mar 10, 2013
2/5	14%	Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)	" The gore is a bore and the sweary script just isn't funny." — Scotsman Posted Mar 3, 2013
1/5	13%	Safe Haven (2013)	" It's beyond laughable ..." — Scotsman Posted Mar 3, 2013
2/5	76%	The Bay (2012)	" Even though multiple-sourced footage remains a potentially interesting way to shoot a movie, using this particular framing device really has become redundant." — Scotsman Posted Mar 3, 2013
2/5	30%	Broken City (2013)	" The results are as jaded and dull as Crowe's performance." — Scotsman Posted Mar 3, 2013
3/5	87%	Arbitrage (2012)	" Arbitrage is the kind of classily put-together film that actors, filmmakers and grown-up audiences frequently complain no longer gets made." — Scotsman Posted Mar 3, 2013
4/5	67%	Stoker (2013)	" A movie that delights in twisting expectations by playing around with old horror tropes only to deliver something altogether stranger and less easily defined." — Scotsman Posted Mar 3, 2013
3/5	68%	Cloud Atlas (2012)	" Large-scale mainstream moviemaking of a type that could be just as easily be celebrated or castigated as a filmmaking folly." — Scotsman Posted Feb 25, 2013
3/5	65%	Mama (2013)	" It gradually falls apart the more Muschietti feels the need to explain Mama's backstory." — Scotsman Posted Feb 25, 2013
4/5	100%	Fire In The Blood ()	" [An] insightful and quietly angry documentary about the way "Big Pharma" profiteering has been responsible for the preventable deaths of millions of impoverished people." — Scotsman Posted Feb 25, 2013
4/5	92%	Lore (2013)	" [A] complex portrait of a young girl with repellent beliefs gradually coming of age and to an understanding of what it means to be human in the face of some heinous experiences." — Scotsman Posted Feb 25, 2013
1/5	73%	Unfinished Song (Song for Marion) (2013)	" A movie that celebrates wilful amateurism over anything good." — Scotsman Posted Feb 25, 2013
1/5	42%	To The Wonder (2013)	" Insufferable in almost every way." — Scotsman Posted Feb 25, 2013
1/5	11%	Sammy's Adventures 2 (Sammy's avonturen 2) ()	" Your kids deserve better." — Scotsman Posted Feb 18, 2013
1/5	15%	A Good Day To Die Hard (2013)	" It's woeful stuff." — Scotsman Posted Feb 18, 2013
4/5	87%	Bullhead (2012)	" Roskam has created a convoluted but airtight plot involving undercover investigations, betrayals and revenge, it doesn't go in the direction one might expect." — Scotsman Posted Feb 4, 2013
3/5	64%	Antiviral (2013)	" An intriguing and fairly stylish mix of sci-fi, horror and detective movie tropes that suggest Cronenberg might soon step out from his father's shadow." — Scotsman Posted Feb 4, 2013
1/5	38%	Hyde Park on Hudson (2012)	" It's icky stuff, not helped by Murray giving perhaps the worst performance of his career. And I include Garfield 2." — Scotsman Posted Feb 4, 2013
2/5	47%	Bullet to the Head (2013)	" Even watched in an indulgent frame of mind, this is dull, retrograde rubbish." — Scotsman Posted Feb 4, 2013
3/5	100%	Kovasikajuttu (The Punk Syndrome) ()	" What shines through most strongly ... is both the sense of camaraderie and the personal benefits each band member takes from the experience." — Scotsman Posted Feb 4, 2013
2/5	79%	Flight (2012)	" Flight may begin on a glorious high, but the long hangover that follows is a prime example of mainstream Hollywood dramatic filmmaking at its most cartoonish." — Scotsman Posted Feb 4, 2013
3/5	75%	Surviving Progress (2012)	" Persuasively argued in places, the film never really gets beyond the surface. That, however, may also be the point." — Scotsman Posted Jan 28, 2013
2/5	32%	Won't Back Down (2012)	" As terrible as it sounds." — Scotsman Posted Jan 28, 2013
4/5	87%	Boxing Day ()	" The film unfurls through a series of brilliantly staged and intensely uncomfortable interactions between the supercilious Basil and the grating Nick." — Scotsman Posted Jan 28, 2013
3/5	89%	Lincoln (2012)	" It's an impeccably crafted history lesson that, unusually for a Spielberg film, tells us why its subject matter is important, instead of engaging with it on an emotional level." — Scotsman Posted Jan 28, 2013
3/5	54%	V/H/S (2012)	" Conceptual pedantry aside, there are things to enjoy here." — Scotsman Posted Jan 21, 2013
3/5	91%	Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan ()	" This affectionate fan tribute to the legendary stop-motion special effects artist is distinguished by the fact that the fans paying tribute are among the most successful directors in the world." — Scotsman Posted Jan 21, 2013
3/5	94%	The Sessions (2012)	" The Sessions proves unusually candid in its matter-of-fact attitude to both sex and nudity." — Scotsman Posted Jan 21, 2013

Showing 1 - 50 of 635

Previous | Next

Sort by Rating:

Sort results by this critic's rating. This option is only available for critics with a rating system (4 star, letter grade, 1-10, etc.)
Sort by T-meter:

Sort results by the Tomatometer (percentage of critics recommending a certain movie)