Critics » Desmond Ryan
Desmond Ryan

Desmond Ryan

Agrees with the Tomatometer 88% of the time.

Publications:
Philadelphia Inquirer
Total Reviews:
111

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 50 of 111
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Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date
2/4 80% Scream (1996) " By the time Scream arrives at its final twist, Craven has done too many contortions of his own to give the finale much shock value." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Oct 6, 2013
3.5/4 87% The Blair Witch Project (1999) " You can dismiss The Blair Witch Project as a trick. Or you can give in to the treat and savor that rarest of accomplishments in a field notorious for tedium and repetition -- an original horror movie." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Oct 5, 2013
3/4 88% Misery (1990) " Bates turns Wilkes into the nastiest nurse to reach the screen since Louise Fletcher tormented Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Aug 12, 2013
3.5/4 94% The Silence of the Lambs (1991) " Hopkins' cumulative screen image is one of civility and decency, and the association adds to the withering, macabre effect of his murderer. It is a remarkably lucid portrait of lunacy." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Aug 12, 2013
4/4 88% Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) " The difference between John McNaughton's incredibly chilling film and the usual serving of screen carnage is the difference between the mind of a murderer and the cynical and manipulative depiction of mindless murder." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Aug 12, 2013
2/4 84% They Live (1988) " As a movie, They Live is lethargic. As election propaganda, it's terrific." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Aug 6, 2013
4/4 92% Saving Private Ryan (1998) " Anyone who would like to know what superb filmmaking is all about need look no further than this overpowering movie." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Aug 2, 2013
3/4 97% Big (1988) " Penny Marshall brings a logic to the premise that is sustained through most of the movie. And where the other movies snickered at the sexual possibilities in the idea, she faces up to them with both candor and taste." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Aug 2, 2013
3/4 93% The Freshman (1990) " Brando does a wonderful sendup of Corleone that manages to play off the Don's entrenched place in pop culture. But The Freshman is no copycat comedy." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Aug 1, 2013
2/4 84% Back to School (1986) " I mean no disrespect to Rodney Dangerfield in suggesting that Back to School is a comedy that belongs back on the drawing board." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Aug 1, 2013
3/4 96% Supercop (Police Story 3) (Ging chaat goo si 3: Chiu kap ging chaat) (1992) " If you're tired of burned-out coppers in Hollywood's blockbusters, try this offbeat hero from Hong Kong." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Aug 1, 2013
3.5/4 85% Presumed Innocent (1990) " Pakula and the cast are excellent in the cut and thrust debates and the grilling of witnesses. At least on the surface, Presumed Innocent unfolds in the grand tradition of great courtroom drama. But nothing in Presumed Innocent is what it seems." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jul 31, 2013
3/4 92% Parenthood (1989) " The fulcrum of the film is Martin. It's an adventurous and successful stroke of casting that takes advantage of what the audience expects from him." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jul 31, 2013
4/4 90% The Lion King (2011) " The Lion King, complete with jaunty songs by Elton John and Tim Rice, is undeniably and fully worthy of its glorious Disney heritage. It is a gorgeous triumph -- one lion in which the studio can take justified pride." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jul 31, 2013
3.5/4 88% Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) " Not surprisingly, Ford has most of the action here. But Connery -- in what is often a test of a true actor -- shows how much you can do with an essentially passive part." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jul 31, 2013
3/4 94% Ruthless People (1986) " An undemanding but well-executed entertainment." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jul 31, 2013
3/4 93% A Fish Called Wanda (1988) " Perhaps the most unusual aspect of what is surely the year's most original and daring comedy is that John Cleese is not the funniest performer in it. Believe it or not, that honor goes to none other than the usually somber Kevin Kline." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jul 30, 2013
3/4 98% Aliens (1986) " [Aliens] is a spectacular example of state-of-the-art science fiction simply because it never tries to be overtly spectacular." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jul 30, 2013
4/4 95% Apollo 13 (1995) " Howard is not above pushing buttons of his own and milking the big moments. But they are indeed big moments, and the manipulation is not intrusive. He has made a can-do movie for our can't-do age." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jul 30, 2013
3/4 94% Full Metal Jacket (1987) " If his considerable achievement in this long- awaited film falls short of his Olympian standards, there is a reason that ought to give Kubrick some satisfaction. The world has caught up with Kubrick and what he has to say." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jun 21, 2013
2/4 8% Spy Hard (1996) " The jokes come in sporadic volleys rather than the steady machine-gun pace of The Naked Gun and Airplane!, and, with a few exceptions, they are less truly aimed." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jun 14, 2013
1/4 40% Road House (1989) " All Road House amounts to is a botched southern, and it's not worth a detour." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jun 12, 2013
1/4 29% Youngblood (1986) " Youngblood runs out of gas halfway through the first period." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jun 12, 2013
1.5/4 0% Father Hood (1993) " The movie develops a hopelessly split personality." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jun 12, 2013
1/4 8% Problem Child 2 (2004) " The kid in Problem Child 2 is so obnoxious that when his divorcing parents engage in a bitter custody dispute, the loser gets to keep him." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jun 5, 2013
1/4 12% Surf Ninjas (1993) " What do ninjas and surfers have to do with each other? You've got me, and I heroically sat through all of Surf Ninjas." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jun 3, 2013
1.5/4 6% Kazaam (1996) " In his Hollywood debut, Shaq more or less played himself as a coveted college center in William Friedkin's excellent Blue Chips. Kazaam is a compelling argument for keeping him on the court and as far away from a movie set as possible." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted May 29, 2013
0.5/4 5% No Holds Barred () " For months now, Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro have been sitting in their dens and nervously clutching their Oscars. They knew that an unprecedented challenge was looming... the arrival of Hulk Hogan in his first starring role in a movie." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted May 29, 2013
2/4 3% Speed 2 - Cruise Control (1997) " De Bont remains an expert director of action, but putting the reference to cruise control in the title serves as fair warning of an unengaged filmmaker on automatic pilot." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted May 28, 2013
1.5/4 6% Solo (1996) " Solo is at least instructive as a miscellany of action movie cliches in one neat and depressing package." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted May 28, 2013
1/4 10% Fire Birds (1990) " David Green structures the film in the mold of the time-honored boys-into- men military exercise, but don't go looking for The Sands of Iwo Jima." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted May 28, 2013
3/4 35% Young Einstein (1988) " The movie runs out of -- excuse me again -- energy in the late going, and the invention of the humor is uneven. But Serious plays the title role with charm and lightness. His wild red hair makes Don King's look like a crewcut." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted May 22, 2013
2/4 6% Vibes (1988) " Vibes is a harmless, painless romp but it's an instance of a sincere attempt at screwball comedy that simply got screwed up." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted May 21, 2013
2/4 7% Ghost Dad (1990) " The comedy represents a step up from the inane debacle of Leonard Part 6, but one has to concede that no other direction was possible." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted May 21, 2013
2/4 32% Radio Flyer (1992) " Donner and Evans can't find a way to extricate themselves from the impossible structure they have erected. They remain locked into the odd combination of the dreamy and the dreadful that is entirely of their own devising." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted May 20, 2013
2.5/4 22% Color of Night (1994) " The killer may find his target, but Color of Night fails to hit the nail on the head by a frustrating margin." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted May 17, 2013
3/4 70% In Country (1989) " In essence, In Country is a well-turned variation on the quest to find a father that shows up in the folk tales of almost any culture." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted May 7, 2013
4/4 97% Schindler's List (1993) " Schindler's List is filmed in black and white, but the triumph of Neeson's portrait and Steven Zaillian's screenplay is that Oskar Schindler remains gray and enigmatic." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted May 6, 2013
3/4 82% The Crow (1994) " It's a pleasure to welcome The Crow -- a bird of a very different feather." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Apr 10, 2013
3/4 81% Batman Returns (1992) " As Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands reminded us, Burton always has been more absorbed by what his audience sees than by what his movies say." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Apr 10, 2013
3.5/4 97% The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg (2000) " The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg is a gem of a baseball documentary because it illuminates what the Hall of Famer's splendid career meant away from the ballpark." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Mar 19, 2013
4/4 77% Gladiator (2000) " The fusion of the ancient and the modern -- even to the point of some sly echoes of our own sports-mad society -- is seamless. Gladiator does indeed deliver the glory that was Rome, but it also clinically dissects the assumptions on which it was built." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Feb 24, 2013
2.5/4 50% Hearts in Atlantis (2001) " Its heart is certainly in the right place, but its head makes some misjudgments." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Sep 27, 2001
3/4 77% Presque rien (Come Undone) (2000) " A delicately managed piece that is by turns intimately detailed and elliptical." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Sep 6, 2001
3/4 43% All Over The Guy (2001) " A nicely turned and witty screenplay from Bucatinsky." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Sep 6, 2001
1/4 45% Jeepers Creepers (2001) " A standard-issue, ineptly executed serving of the genre's staples, from skeptical cops to an all-knowing psychic, on hand to explain everything about the demonic force behind the body count." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Aug 30, 2001
4/4 93% Apocalypse Now Redux (2001) " A restoration that transforms a flawed movie, one that was touched by greatness, into a masterpiece." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Aug 9, 2001
48% Russian Doll (2001) " A tone of lame amiability doesn't compensate for lack of invention." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Aug 2, 2001
3.5/4 90% Divided We Fall (2001) " Treats the ensuing issues of conscience and compromise with subtlety and warmth." — Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Jul 19, 2001
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