Christopher Orr Movie Reviews & Previews

Critics » Christopher Orr

Christopher Orr

Agrees with the Tomatometer 82% of the time.

Publications:: L.A. Weekly , The Atlantic , The New Republic

Total Reviews:: 207

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 50 of 207

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T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date
78%	Iron Man 3 (2013)	" Shane Black excels at writing witty, self-referential, pop-infused banter, and there is no actor working today who is better suited to delivering it than Robert Downey Jr." — The Atlantic Posted May 3, 2013
68%	Trance (2013)	" Trance is to Danny Boyle more or less as Side Effects was to Steven Soderbergh: an arty spin on a trashy B-movie, engineered to showcase the director's particular gifts. " — The Atlantic Posted Apr 12, 2013
62%	Evil Dead (2013)	" A stylish and worthy homage: inventive even as it is derivative, never quite jokey but never taking itself too seriously, and clocking in at an entirely appropriate 91 minutes. Any longer would be unmerciful; any shorter, ungenerous." — The Atlantic Posted Apr 5, 2013
43%	Admission (2013)	" What is most distressing about Admission is that it serves as further evidence that Tina Fey, despite her dominance of the small screen, has not yet mastered the big one." — The Atlantic Posted Mar 22, 2013
69%	The Croods (2013)	" The animation is first-rate, with moments of genuine visual imagination, and the story, while unremarkable, is entirely adequate. " — The Atlantic Posted Mar 22, 2013
67%	Stoker (2013)	" Stoker is a cunning exercise in transgression. But one can't help but wonder what kind of film Park might have made if he'd had the full creative control to which he's accustomed in Korea." — The Atlantic Posted Mar 15, 2013
85%	Side Effects (2013)	" A crafty teaser that presents itself as one kind of film before gradually evolving into another kind altogether. I, for one, enjoyed both enormously. " — The Atlantic Posted Feb 11, 2013
80%	Warm Bodies (2013)	" Though R's mind is nimble in (very witty) voiceover, out loud he can only express himself in a series of groans and grumbles--as touching a metaphor for love-struck adolescence as we may see at the movies this year. " — The Atlantic Posted Feb 1, 2013
30%	Broken City (2013)	" What follows is not a review; it's an autopsy...one long (illustrated!) spoiler." — The Atlantic Posted Jan 22, 2013
70%	Les Misérables (2012)	" Committed fans of the musical are likely to have their affections reaffirmed. The less devout, however, may conclude that in this case more is less, and fidelity not always a virtue." — The Atlantic Posted Dec 25, 2012
93%	Zero Dark Thirty (2013)	" A powerful, morally complicated work on an urgent subject. It is a film that deserves-that almost demands-to be seen and argued over." — The Atlantic Posted Dec 19, 2012
66%	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)	" It frequently seems as though Jackson was less interested in making The Hobbit than in remaking his own fabulously successful Lord of the Rings series." — The Atlantic Posted Dec 14, 2012
76%	Killing Them Softly (2012)	" Like its source material, the movie is stylish, profane, intelligent, and eminently diverting. But as much as it is a delight that Dominik has disinterred Higgins's work, it is a mild disappointment that the result is not more substantial." — The Atlantic Posted Nov 30, 2012
74%	Rise of the Guardians (2012)	" A children's fable reimagined as a superhero flick--a peculiar but delightful hybrid that just may be the best animated offering of the year." — The Atlantic Posted Nov 22, 2012
92%	Silver Linings Playbook (2012)	" With Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell has again recalibrated, and achieved the quirky yet poignant balance of his best early work. " — The Atlantic Posted Nov 16, 2012
92%	Skyfall (2012)	" Among the most ambitious imaginings of Bond to date: dark, supple, and punctuated with moments of unanticipated visual brilliance. " — The Atlantic Posted Nov 9, 2012
89%	Lincoln (2012)	" Lincoln is a film about the arts of suasion-one that encompasses oratory and extortion, conciliation and conspiracy, arms twisted and cheeks turned. It is a film, in short, about politics. " — The Atlantic Posted Nov 9, 2012
86%	Wreck-it Ralph (2012)	" Unlike the Pixar films toward which it aspires-which marry sophisticated conceits to straightforward storylines-Wreck-It Ralph consistently gets lost in its own intricate plot mechanics." — The Atlantic Posted Nov 2, 2012
68%	Cloud Atlas (2012)	" An eminently peculiar mismatch of substance and form, like a Hallmark card written by David Foster Wallace." — The Atlantic Posted Oct 26, 2012
82%	Seven Psychopaths (2012)	" Each time it appears that McDonagh, who also directed, has written himself into a cul de sac, he off-roads the movie (sometimes literally) into fresh territory." — The Atlantic Posted Oct 12, 2012
87%	Frankenweenie (2012)	" Burton's best film since 1994's Ed Wood or even 1990's Edward Scissorhands." — The Atlantic Posted Oct 10, 2012
54%	V/H/S (2012)	" I came, I saw, I hunkered." — The Atlantic Posted Oct 5, 2012
93%	Looper (2012)	" A mind-bending ride that is not afraid to slow down now and again, to explore themes of regret and redemption, solitude and sacrifice, love and loss. It's a movie worth seeing and, perhaps, going back to see again. " — The Atlantic Posted Sep 28, 2012
86%	The Master (2012)	" Where There Will Be Blood transmuted sullen earth into flame and launched it violently skyward, The Master is, as its opening shot advertises, a more fluid undertaking, a story of ebb and flow. " — The Atlantic Posted Sep 21, 2012
22%	The Words (2012)	" The story-within-a-story-within-a-story is so slight and inconsequential, like the tiniest of a set of Russian nesting dolls, that we may be forgiven for letting our minds wander toward bedtime and tomorrow's errands." — The Atlantic Posted Sep 7, 2012
85%	Sleepwalk With Me (2012)	" I liked Sleepwalk With Me-just not nearly as much as I would've liked to have liked it. " — The Atlantic Posted Aug 31, 2012
76%	Premium Rush (2012)	" Throwing "premium" into the title may be overselling such a trifling entertainment. But for the cinematically discounted days of late summer, it's a perfectly diverting little ride." — The Atlantic Posted Aug 24, 2012
89%	Compliance (2012)	" Ultimately what is fascinating about Compliance is its suggestion of the near-universality, and ultimate mundanity, of the totalitarian reflex. " — The Atlantic Posted Aug 20, 2012
56%	The Bourne Legacy (2012)	" Perhaps the most interesting question arising from The Bourne Legacy is just how long the filmmakers hope to trade on the Bourne name without any, you know, Bourne. " — The Atlantic Posted Aug 10, 2012
31%	Total Recall (2012)	" I was no particular fan of the first Total Recall, but I confess that this flat, by-the-numbers remake made me a tad nostalgic for its bombastic preposterousness." — The Atlantic Posted Aug 3, 2012
79%	Ruby Sparks (2012)	" Envision (500) Days of Summer as retold by Charlie Kaufman and you won't be far off. " — The Atlantic Posted Jul 27, 2012
87%	The Dark Knight Rises (2012)	" There was an opportunity here for Nolan to show us another way, to (again) stretch the boundaries of what is possible in a superhero film. Instead, alas, the latter half of The Dark Knight Rises retreats toward conventionality." — The Atlantic Posted Jul 20, 2012
37%	Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012)	" Yes, this is the part where I outsource my critical role to my children. If you are the kind of person who (quite understandably) abhors this particular gimmick, you may wish to stop reading now." — The Atlantic Posted Jul 13, 2012
73%	The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)	" The Amazing Spider-Man is considerably more fun-and, yes, even touching-than so premature a reboot had any right to be. " — The Atlantic Posted Jul 3, 2012
43%	To Rome with Love (2012)	" Allen seems to be aiming for the precise intersection of art and commerce where sophistication is implied, but nothing that takes place is ever obscure or challenging or revelatory. " — The Atlantic Posted Jun 29, 2012
78%	Brave (2012)	" Though it falls short of the studio's best in many respects, Brave is ravishing to look at. Merida's carrot corona is alone worth the price of admission. " — The Atlantic Posted Jun 22, 2012
41%	Rock of Ages (2012)	" The movie's supporting stars are always, inevitably, winking at the audience, but it's unclear whether the dewy-eyed leads even know how to blink. " — The Atlantic Posted Jun 15, 2012
74%	Prometheus (2012)	" Prometheus--like, in its telling, the human race itself--is a creation spliced from the DNA of superior forebears." — The Atlantic Posted Jun 8, 2012
94%	Moonrise Kingdom (2012)	" Anderson's best feature since Rushmore, in part because, like that film, it takes as its primary subject matter odd, precocious children, rather than the damaged and dissatisfied adults they will one day become. " — The Atlantic Posted Jun 1, 2012
48%	Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)	" Sanders does not (yet) share Guillermo del Toro's gifts, but he, too, has an eye for the beautiful and the grotesque, and for that entrancing borderline where the two meet." — The Atlantic Posted Jun 1, 2012
70%	Men in Black III (2012)	" The movie represents at least a partial return to form--not as inventive as the first, but surely better than the recycled materials that made up the second." — The Atlantic Posted May 25, 2012
34%	Battleship (2012)	" Battleship is substantially less awful than it could have been. And for me, that may have been the biggest disappointment of all." — The Atlantic Posted May 18, 2012
58%	The Dictator (2012)	" A bit scattershot and schticky, the film never quite settles into a consistent comic rhythm. Yet for fans of Baron Cohen's work there are plenty of moments of crass hilarity." — The Atlantic Posted May 16, 2012
38%	Dark Shadows (2012)	" Fans of Depp's past collusions with Burton will find their rewards along the way. But there's a perfunctory vibe to the goings on, a weariness amid the weirdness." — The Atlantic Posted May 11, 2012
93%	Marvel's The Avengers (2012)	" Ultimately, it all comes back to Whedon: His clear vision for each character and how they might be profitably intermingled; his unexpected knack for action choreography; his funny, tender, immaculately constructed script." — The Atlantic Posted May 4, 2012
92%	The Cabin in the Woods (2012)	" A horror movie embedded in a conspiracy flick embedded in another horror movie-the most inventive cabin-in-the-woods picture since The Evil Dead and the canniest genre deconstruction since Scream." — The Atlantic Posted Apr 13, 2012
51%	John Carter (2012)	" The most indelible performance in the film is not, strictly speaking, a performance at all. Rather it is Woola, a six-legged Martian hound who rather resembles a cross between a bulldog and a fetal gila monster." — The Atlantic Posted Mar 9, 2012
96%	The Muppets (2011)	" The chorus of one of the songs declares, 'I've got everything that I need, right in front of me.' For 120 minutes, that's precisely how I felt." — The Atlantic Posted Nov 24, 2011
73%	Like Crazy (2011)	" Belying its title, Like Crazy is a film not about the ferocity of love, but about its fragility." — The Atlantic Posted Nov 4, 2011

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