Dan Kois Movie Reviews & Previews

Critics » Dan Kois

Dan Kois

Agrees with the Tomatometer 75% of the time.

Publications:: City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul , Slate , Village Voice , Washington Post

Total Reviews:: 83

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Showing 1 - 50 of 83

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Rating	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date
	61%	Jack Reacher (2012)	" Jack Reacher is an absurdly self-confident, sociopathically laser-focused detective-bot. That is to say, he's a hero that only Tom Cruise could love." — Slate Posted Dec 24, 2012
	81%	The Impossible (2012)	" The movie is not, as the trailer suggests, a tale of the triumph of the human spirit. It's about luck. It's about sadness. But it's also about the way that victims of the disaster -- of any disaster -- band together." — Slate Posted Dec 19, 2012
	44%	Save The Date (2012)	" Save the Date ... is appealingly ambivalent about whether growing up is really such a great idea." — Slate Posted Dec 13, 2012
	67%	We Bought a Zoo (2011)	" Watching the overlong, overfeeling, overdirected We Bought a Zoo made me glad to return from Cameron Crowe's world to the real world, where things aren't quite so simple." — Slate Posted Dec 22, 2011
	93%	Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol (2011)	" Along with many other things, the fourth Mission: Impossible movie also functions as a primer on how to use IMAX technology to immerse an audience." — Slate Posted Dec 15, 2011
	80%	Young Adult (2011)	" Young Adult doesn't fully work, but it's still one of the year's most memorable movies, a ruthless portrait of a heroine with a serious love/loathe relationship with herself." — Slate Posted Dec 8, 2011
	49%	Sleeping Beauty (2011)	" Browning is tiny and frighteningly exposed in these scenes, but Leigh turns the tables: In the moment of her greatest vulnerability, Lucy exercises a curious power over the Johns who pay for her time." — Slate Posted Dec 2, 2011
	24%	Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (2011)	" Condon delivers the most authoritatively directed Twilight film so far, which only brings into sharp relief how tonally incoherent its story is." — Village Voice Posted Nov 17, 2011
	93%	50/50 (2011)	" 50/50 mostly succeeds as a movie about a young man fighting cancer that doesn't give in to sap or sentiment." — Village Voice Posted Sep 27, 2011
	36%	Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)	" Your brain cells perish by the thousands, their howls of agony lost to the cacophony inside your skull. Vast quantities of money, roughly equal to the GDP of Tonga, travel from America's wallets into the coffers of Paramount." — Village Voice Posted Jun 28, 2011
3.5/4	90%	And Everything Is Going Fine (2010)	" A brilliantly conceived documentary, one with uncommon respect for -- and understanding of -- its subject's life and art." — Washington Post Posted Jan 28, 2011
3/4	80%	Barney's Version (2011)	" Yes, it's well acted and frequently touching. But it's the thoughtful, tasteful indie-film version. It's not exactly Barney's version." — Washington Post Posted Jan 28, 2011
3.5/4	75%	The Way Back (2011)	" Weir's movie is superbly made, but its fancy-dancing around history gives a hint of inauthenticity to a film that otherwise thrives on its reverence for historical detail." — Washington Post Posted Jan 21, 2011
3/4	44%	The Green Hornet (2011)	" This morning, the unconscious bodies of three pickpockets were found in front of the Post's offices. Safety-pinned to one was an envelope containing the following movie review." — Washington Post Posted Jan 13, 2011
	84%	The Time That Remains (2011)	" Suleiman's a more assured director than he is a comedian. But individual, Tati-worthy gags still have great power." — Village Voice Posted Jan 4, 2011
1.5/4	13%	Yogi Bear (2010)	" Fart jokes? Check. 3-D spit takes? Check. Yogi shaking his ursine rump to "Baby Got Back"? Dear Lord, check." — Washington Post Posted Dec 17, 2010
1.5/4	43%	Faster (2010)	" By the end of this underwritten wanna-B movie, only the black-and-white muscle car is left standing with its dignity intact." — Washington Post Posted Nov 24, 2010
	90%	Tangled (2010)	" Tangled is unusually attuned to the emotional frequencies of mothers and daughters, considering that, like basically every Disney/Pixar feature, its writer (Dan Fogelman) and directors (Nathan Greno and Byron Howard) are a bunch of dudes." — Village Voice Posted Nov 23, 2010
	79%	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 (2010)	" Watson's brainy, practical Hermione drives the film's narrative; Grint's fiery, jealous Ron provides its relatable (that is, non-magical) conflict." — Village Voice Posted Nov 16, 2010
	81%	Four Lions (2010)	" Though Chris Morris's very funny movie revolves around a cell of hapless would-be terrorists, its chief concerns, and strengths, have little to do with ideology-and everything to do with comedy." — Village Voice Posted Nov 2, 2010
	93%	127 Hours (2010)	" A passionate, bloody argument for engagement with the world." — Village Voice Posted Nov 2, 2010
	55%	Welcome to the Rileys (2010)	" Jake Scott's Welcome to the Rileys is so underwritten that, despite a more energetic performance, Stewart makes much less of an impression." — Village Voice Posted Oct 26, 2010
	32%	Wild Target (2010)	" Wild Target is the kind of movie that actually uses that angry-cat-yowl sound. That is the kind of movie that Wild Target is. " — Village Voice Posted Oct 26, 2010
3/4	64%	Jackass 3-D (2010)	" Indebted as director Jeff Tremaine is to Artaud's Theater of Cruelty and the works of Luis Buñuel, "Jackass 3D" remains surprisingly accessible." — Washington Post Posted Oct 15, 2010
	65%	Freakonomics (2010)	" The 20-minute shorts range in style from traditional fly-on-the-wall narrative to a kind of hyperactive PowerPoint presentation." — Village Voice Posted Sep 28, 2010
1.5/4	50%	Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010)	" Children with a particular affection for epic tales, no matter how derivative or cacophonous, will probably enjoy Legend of the Guardians." — Washington Post Posted Sep 24, 2010
	67%	Jack Goes Boating (2010)	" [A] pleasure of a film." — Village Voice Posted Sep 14, 2010
	43%	Highwater (2010)	" Sure to become a sacred text to surf-movie enthusiasts, but surprisingly watchable even for those who think "goofy-footing" is a new Southern hip-hop dance craze." — Village Voice Posted Aug 24, 2010
	35%	Lottery Ticket (2010)	" It's comforting, really, to see the movie's soft-pedaling of actual ghetto problems; realism isn't Lottery Ticket's game." — Village Voice Posted Aug 17, 2010
2/4	83%	Stonewall Uprising (2010)	" For a movie about a groundbreaking gay rebellion, Stonewall Uprising plays it much too straight." — Washington Post Posted Aug 17, 2010
2/4	52%	Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (2010)	" Beautiful but indulgent." — Washington Post Posted Aug 16, 2010
	47%	Spring Fever (Chun feng chen zui de ye wan) (2010)	" For long stretches of this tantalizing, romantic, aggravating film -- until just before its extremely satisfying ending, in fact -- I wished Lou had caught a little spring fever himself, cranked up the volume, and turned on the lights." — Village Voice Posted Aug 3, 2010
1/4	14%	Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (2010)	" Cats and dogs working together for the greater good? Woof." — Washington Post Posted Jul 30, 2010
	43%	Dinner for Schmucks (2010)	" Paramount Pictures and director Jay Roach would like to invite you to a dinner they're hosting, at which you are welcome to laugh at these poor jerks. That's a little messed up." — Village Voice Posted Jul 27, 2010
	79%	Orlando (1992)	" A silly and serious work of art that isn't afraid to entertain." — Slate Posted Jul 27, 2010
3/4	70%	Ramona and Beezus (2010)	" Allen's direction is bright and imaginative; particularly enjoyable are the movie's occasional flights of fancy." — Washington Post Posted Jul 23, 2010
3/4	89%	Alle Anderen (Everyone Else) (2010)	" All that's certain is that we're getting to know these two characters exceptionally well and that their tics and flaws are as recognizable as our own." — Washington Post Posted Jun 30, 2010
	——	The Necessities of Life (2009)	" A well-acted but dreary drama of clashing cultures." — Washington Post Posted Jun 30, 2010
	49%	The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)	" Eclipse is the least laughable installment yet in the series, and director David Slade efficiently delivers the fan service that Twihards require." — Village Voice Posted Jun 30, 2010
	52%	Knight & Day (2010)	" He's just so irritating, Roy Miller, each subpar quip delivered with a cocksure grin that makes you wish the bad guys were better at hitting back." — City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul Posted Jun 22, 2010
	94%	Winter's Bone (2010)	" Lawrence gives a guarded and watchful performance." — Village Voice Posted Jun 8, 2010
3.5/4	86%	The Square (2010)	" The Square suggests an exciting future for a pair of brothers with a dark view of pitiless fate." — Washington Post Posted May 7, 2010
	69%	Babies (2010)	" For the most part, the strength of Babies is the way it babies babies babies babies babies universality babies babies babies, babies babies babies miracle babies babies." — Village Voice Posted May 4, 2010
2.5/4	19%	The Back-up Plan (2010)	" The Back-Up Plan's blunt honesty about the messiness of pregnancy is refreshing. It's a shame that the movie couldn't find a similarly refreshing way to tell its uninspired love story." — Washington Post Posted Apr 23, 2010
	49%	The Losers (2010)	" Director Sylvain White and screenwriters James Vanderbilt and Peter Berg strain to achieve the pleasurable mix of cheap laughs and expensive action that Lethal Weapon pulled off effortlessly with the help of its stellar cast." — Village Voice Posted Apr 20, 2010
2.5/4	61%	The Joneses (2010)	" By the end, The Joneses feels a little too satisfied with its own admittedly clever conceit and for the broad leeway it allows itself in the creative bandying of logos and slogans." — Washington Post Posted Apr 16, 2010
0.5/4	28%	Clash of the Titans (2010)	" The latest example of Hollywood's belief that any terrible script can be made palatable if you just throw enough money and British accents at it." — Washington Post Posted Apr 2, 2010
2/4	20%	The Last Song (2010)	" Cyrus is game and appealing, but she's not nearly enough of a natural actress to pull off the emotional whip-cracks the story puts Ronnie through." — Washington Post Posted Mar 31, 2010
3/4	74%	The Exploding Girl (2010)	" Viewers willing to slow down their cinematic metabolism enough to watch The Exploding Girl at its own pace will find their patience rewarded by moments of great beauty..." — Washington Post Posted Mar 26, 2010

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