Dustin Putman Movie Reviews & Previews

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Dustin Putman

Agrees with the Tomatometer 67% of the time.

Biography:: Dustin Putman is a film critic from the Washington, DC area. An alumnus of American University, he would review movies as a child, but his teen years saw hobby turn into passion and his life as an internet film critic began. Dustin was soon accepted by the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) as a charter member and, in 2001, TheMovieBoy.com was born. Since then, he has become a member of the Washington Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA) and has published over 1,500 full length reviews. Dustin has been quoted in print advertising, magazine articles, on DVD covers, and in television commercials.
Publications:: DustinPutman.com
Critics' Group:: Online Film Critics Society, Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association

Total Reviews:: 2429
Total QuickRatings:: 2

Location:: Frederick, Maryland, USA

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 51 - 100 of 2429

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Rating	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date
0.5/4	6%	A Haunted House (2013)	" "A Haunted House" runs a scant 86 minutes, but it's a painful 86 minutes, seeming twice as long and more punishing by the second." — DustinPutman.com Posted Jan 10, 2013
3/4	93%	Amour (2012)	" A confident, lovingly articulated mood piece about a subject that is universal, yet rarely told." — DustinPutman.com Posted Jan 10, 2013
3/4	93%	Zero Dark Thirty (2013)	" Dense, gritty, sumptuous, and free of superfluous melodrama." — DustinPutman.com Posted Jan 10, 2013
2/4	32%	Gangster Squad (2013)	" The sort of film that fails to give its audience anything but a shrug to take away with them." — DustinPutman.com Posted Jan 10, 2013
2.5/4	19%	Texas Chainsaw (2013)	" Will no doubt divide audiences, even within die-hard fan circles, but it is almost always preferable to take chances than to repeat old tropes with no concern for putting a spin on things." — DustinPutman.com Posted Jan 3, 2013
3/4	51%	Promised Land (2013)	" Moves at an unassuming, surprisingly intoxicating pace, aware of the ebbs and flows and overall qualities that come with living outside the big cities. If only for a few hours, it's a place worth visiting." — DustinPutman.com Posted Dec 27, 2012
2/4	18%	Parental Guidance (2012)	" Billy Crystal and Bette Midler class it up as much as they can. It's just such a shame "Parental Guidance" is otherwise so darn dumb." — DustinPutman.com Posted Dec 24, 2012
3.5/4	88%	Django Unchained (2012)	" The late holiday season's most dizzyingly imaginative and thoroughly pleasing release, an end-of-year jewel as chock-full of sizzling performances as it is bursting with busted knee caps and spurting innards." — DustinPutman.com Posted Dec 24, 2012
2/4	82%	De rouille et d'os (Rust and Bone) (2012)	" Positions the wrong person as the lead protagonist. The film lays its heart on the line, but its focal point is off." — DustinPutman.com Posted Dec 20, 2012
2.5/4	61%	Jack Reacher (2012)	" If "Jack Reacher" falls into more predictable patterns, it does open up some potentially fascinating avenues to take the title character if this were to turn into an ongoing franchise." — DustinPutman.com Posted Dec 20, 2012
2.5/4	81%	The Impossible (2012)	" Thoughtful and well-made, but it also might be a little too simplistic and straightforward for its own good." — DustinPutman.com Posted Dec 20, 2012
2/4	69%	Les Misérables (2012)	" Instead of cheering and wiping away tears at the end, it leaves one deflated as he or she ponders the ways this translation has gone wrong." — DustinPutman.com Posted Dec 18, 2012
2/4	52%	This is 40 (2012)	" A vanity project of the most thankless order." — DustinPutman.com Posted Dec 18, 2012
2.5/4	38%	The Guilt Trip (2012)	" Airy fare, but Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand are just about as perfect as perfect can be together, believably playing son and mother in all of its hair-pulling, but ultimately reassuring, intricacies." — DustinPutman.com Posted Dec 18, 2012
2/4	65%	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)	" With approximately six more hours to go, it's tough not to shudder at the sheer lengths director Peter Jackson is about to go to stretch this story into paper-thin taffy." — DustinPutman.com Posted Dec 13, 2012
3/4	93%	The Trouble with the Truth (2012)	" Don't let this small but potent little gem pass by." — DustinPutman.com Posted Dec 12, 2012
2/4	4%	Playing for Keeps (2012)	" An acceptable but very slim romantic comedy." — DustinPutman.com Posted Dec 6, 2012
2.5/4	36%	The Collection (2012)	" A rare sequel that ably tops the original in just about every department. " — DustinPutman.com Posted Nov 29, 2012
2.5/4	75%	Killing Them Softly (2012)	" It's all rather self-indulgent and certainly on-the-nose, but also knows how to keep the viewer's attention. It starts by grabbing for the jugular." — DustinPutman.com Posted Nov 29, 2012
3.5/4	63%	Hitchcock (2012)	" A motion picture for anyone who loves movies, revels in the art of filmmaking, and appreciates the special, one-of-a-kind, cathartic power of great horror cinema." — DustinPutman.com Posted Nov 20, 2012
3.5/4	88%	Life of Pi (2012)	" One of the year's most gripping dramas, a visual wonderstruck with an emotional chord that reverberates far beyond the awesome imagery." — DustinPutman.com Posted Nov 20, 2012
2.5/4	13%	Red Dawn (2012)	" Viewers willing to check their brains at the door and go along for the ride will find it a suitably exciting, if not exactly tougher or smarter, version of subject matter that is timely in an entirely different way than it was nearly thirty years ago." — DustinPutman.com Posted Nov 20, 2012
2/4	74%	Rise of the Guardians (2012)	" A wasted concept that fails to take advantage of its own originality." — DustinPutman.com Posted Nov 20, 2012
2.5/4	92%	Silver Linings Playbook (2012)	" A bittersweet romantic comedy, plain and simple, and, by the time it has added in subplots involving dance competitions and football superstitions, also rather unwieldy." — DustinPutman.com Posted Nov 15, 2012
2.5/4	48%	The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (2012)	" On final assessment, "The Twilight Saga" has been one pop-cultural fad difficult to figure out the appeal of, but one thing is for sure: all involved saved the best for last." — DustinPutman.com Posted Nov 14, 2012
.5/4	89%	Lincoln (2012)	" Watching the film, which is so emotionally frigid it could chill a person clear to the bone, it is impossible to even entertain the vision of a filmmaker such as Steven Spielberg being behind the camera." — DustinPutman.com Posted Nov 8, 2012
2.5/4	92%	Skyfall (2012)	" Too self-serious for its own good and attempts at giving it a lighter edge fall flat, but there is the suggestion at the end that this new, remodeled Bond is still only getting started." — DustinPutman.com Posted Nov 7, 2012
3/4	40%	In Their Skin (2012)	" That the film ultimately reveals itself to be about redemption and the process of healing over hopelessly succumbing to evil also gives the proceedings an added layer of worth and freshness." — DustinPutman.com Posted Nov 5, 2012
2.5/4	86%	Wreck-it Ralph (2012)	" Probably won't endure like the best of Disney's animated canon, but it's a slight, well-meaning entertainment all the same. " — DustinPutman.com Posted Nov 1, 2012
2/4	78%	Flight (2012)	" Becoming preachy, heavy-handed and patently predictable, the film fully transforms into the "Afterschool Special" it's been flirting with all along, trading tough complexity for strained, unrealistic patness." — DustinPutman.com Posted Nov 1, 2012
2/4	80%	North Sea Texas (2012)	" In the annals of gay cinema about growing up, "North Sea Texas" is, regrettably, an unoriginal and rather disposable take on a subject that's been done much better in the past." — DustinPutman.com Posted Nov 1, 2012
2.5/4	76%	The Bay (2012)	" Does not abide by conventional storytelling, and yet one cannot deny that it is genuinely creepy." — DustinPutman.com Posted Nov 1, 2012
2/4	——	Amber Alert (2012)	" There is, perhaps, a smart film to be made on the same frightening subject. This isn't it." — DustinPutman.com Posted Nov 1, 2012
2/4	6%	Silent Hill: Revelation (2012)	" A hobbled-together mess, high on style and low on substance, while emotional potency clocks in two degrees above freezing." — DustinPutman.com Posted Oct 26, 2012
2.5/4	94%	The Sessions (2012)	" Uneven and perhaps a little too tidy as it aims to promote one man's extraordinary spirit. It is John Hawkes and Helen Hunt, however, who are most worth seeing." — DustinPutman.com Posted Oct 25, 2012
2/4	26%	Fun Size (2012)	" Thank goodness this is a comedy first and foremost, because otherwise poor Albert would have wound up in a garbage bag by the end of the night." — DustinPutman.com Posted Oct 25, 2012
4/4	67%	Cloud Atlas (2012)	" A staggering, symphonic watermark in cinema." — DustinPutman.com Posted Oct 25, 2012
2/4	25%	Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)	" Just as the "Saw" series began to noticeably peter out and grasp at straws after moving beyond a trilogy, the fourth time is most certainly not the charm with "Paranormal Activity 4."" — DustinPutman.com Posted Oct 18, 2012
1/4	12%	Alex Cross (2012)	" A blundering mess." — DustinPutman.com Posted Oct 18, 2012
2.5/4	95%	Sister (2012)	" Unassumingly but surely, "Sister" leaves a poignant impression for viewers patient enough to let it take hold." — DustinPutman.com Posted Oct 18, 2012
1.5/4	39%	Here Comes the Boom (2012)	" Forgets to do one big thing: be funny." — DustinPutman.com Posted Oct 11, 2012
3/4	82%	Seven Psychopaths (2012)	" Here is a motion picture that proudly bends genre conventions and follows a multilayered narrative not quite like any other viewers will have seen. " — DustinPutman.com Posted Oct 11, 2012
2.5/4	96%	Argo (2012)	" A good picture, certainly, but no more than that. In spite of what others might claim, there just isn't much substance here beyond the patently obvious." — DustinPutman.com Posted Oct 11, 2012
3.5/4	63%	Sinister (2012)	" Some kind of twisted work of genius, proudly joining the upper echelon of horror cinema." — DustinPutman.com Posted Oct 11, 2012
1.5/4	14%	Smiley (2012)	" The chances of seeing a bunch of people dressed as Smiley this October 31st is giving too much credit to a project that will be forgotten before it has any chance of becoming more than a minor pop-cultural footnote." — DustinPutman.com Posted Oct 9, 2012
2/4	87%	Frankenweenie (2012)	" Irresponsible and insulting in the way that it takes great pains to, quite correctly, rail against messing with the natural order of things before hypocritically contradicting itself in the end." — DustinPutman.com Posted Oct 4, 2012
2/4	21%	Taken 2 (2012)	" Basically a loose, lesser remake of its predecessor, there is the cloying sense that what is being watched is extraneous and unnecessary—and really, really loopy." — DustinPutman.com Posted Oct 4, 2012
2/4	44%	The Paperboy (2012)	" The outcome is unsatisfying, but it may inspire a fair share of viewers to seek out a shower immediately afterwards." — DustinPutman.com Posted Oct 4, 2012
2/4	35%	Butter (2012)	" Pleasant despite being awfully slight and rather mean-spirited—proof that this material might have made a far better picture with a smarter, more controlled voice." — DustinPutman.com Posted Oct 4, 2012
3/4	81%	Pitch Perfect (2012)	" Though it might sound like a hacky platitude, don't be surprised if "Pitch Perfect" leaves a fair share of its audiences outwardly cheering." — DustinPutman.com Posted Sep 27, 2012
3/4	32%	Won't Back Down (2012)	" Takes on a serious topic, but fret not; the film is an absorbing, marvelously-acted piece of work that entertains without ever feeling like a school assignment itself." — DustinPutman.com Posted Sep 27, 2012
2/4	43%	Hotel Transylvania (2012)	" Proof positive that the makers of "Hotel Transylvania" did not do their research: Frankenstein's monster is named Frankenstein." — DustinPutman.com Posted Sep 27, 2012
3/4	93%	Looper (2012)	" Brutal and chilling, if not air-tight, it is best to allow the many pleasures of "Looper" to sweep over without dwelling too closely on particulars." — DustinPutman.com Posted Sep 27, 2012
3.5/4	85%	The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)	" One of the truest coming-of-age films in recent memory." — DustinPutman.com Posted Sep 27, 2012
2/4	11%	House at the End of the Street (2012)	" Marred by all the mistakes of a novice who has watched a lot of horror movies, but never quite figured out the key ingredients that made a good one effective." — DustinPutman.com Posted Sep 20, 2012
3.5/4	59%	10 Years (2012)	" A full-blown entertainment of observational humor and relatable poignancy." — DustinPutman.com Posted Sep 20, 2012
2/4	51%	Trouble with the Curve (2012)	" Director Robert Lorenz means well, but "Trouble with the Curve" is so run-of-the-mill it is difficult to work up much enthusiasm or concern." — DustinPutman.com Posted Sep 20, 2012
2/4	86%	The Master (2012)	" A provocative drama, but also a frustrating one. Individual moments spark to life, while the rest of it is akin to a book that's scarcely been read beyond the synopsis on the flap." — DustinPutman.com Posted Sep 20, 2012
2.5/4	85%	End of Watch (2012)	" When "End of Watch" works, it compels with an immediacy few filmmakers can hope to achieve. It's worth stepping over the occasional indiscretions to get to the good stuff." — DustinPutman.com Posted Sep 20, 2012
2.5/4	69%	Liberal Arts (2012)	" It's a give-and-take picture, one with faults as well as virtues, but writer-director Josh Radnor makes certain that he leaves his audience with something to think about. " — DustinPutman.com Posted Sep 20, 2012
2/4	28%	Backwards (2012)	" Likable in spurts but too safe by a long stroke, "Backwards" would be right at home as a cable movie airing on ABC Family." — DustinPutman.com Posted Sep 20, 2012
1.5/4	30%	Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)	" Proves without a shadow of a doubt that this franchise is just jerking viewers around as it paces in circles. At some point, even Alice is going to have to admit that she's been wasting her time." — DustinPutman.com Posted Sep 14, 2012
3/4	87%	Arbitrage (2012)	" A well-crafted dramatic thriller with a rare braininess and a deeply unsettling undercurrent." — DustinPutman.com Posted Sep 13, 2012
3/4	73%	Hello I Must Be Going (2012)	" Carries with it a low-key transcendence, flourishing first and foremost through its lost and aching protagonist." — DustinPutman.com Posted Sep 10, 2012
2/4	22%	The Words (2012)	" Sometimes, less is more. "The Words" is one of those times." — DustinPutman.com Posted Sep 6, 2012
3/4	54%	V/H/S (2012)	" A grab-bag of clever, diverse frights." — DustinPutman.com Posted Sep 6, 2012
2.5/4	39%	The Possession (2012)	" Before jumping the rails by the climax, director Bornedal gets it right, his know-how of the genre, of the importance of building atmosphere and character over predictable jump scares, recalls a lush, adult-minded style all but missing since the 1970s." — DustinPutman.com Posted Aug 31, 2012
2/4	56%	For a Good Time, Call... (2012)	" A smutty feature-length sitcom with heart, "For a Good Time, Call..." is like a well-cast, middle-of-the-road television series; it's pleasant enough while passing the time, but also so insignificant that it's only too easy to forget." — DustinPutman.com Posted Aug 30, 2012
2.5/4	85%	Sleepwalk With Me (2012)	" The real find, above all else, is Mike Birbiglia himself. He's as sure of a natural in front of the camera as he is behind it." — DustinPutman.com Posted Aug 30, 2012
3/4	55%	Bachelorette (2012)	" As black as comedy can get while still ending up a crowd-pleaser. Straddling a very fine line, but never toppling over, the film's future cult status and high rewatchability factor are all but guaranteed." — DustinPutman.com Posted Aug 28, 2012
3.5/4	67%	Lawless (2012)	" An enthralling mixture of lyricism and curdled blood, the film is at once heartfelt and wrenching, quietly ominous and literally cutthroat, a western-cum-gangster-saga in a vein both classic and modern." — DustinPutman.com Posted Aug 28, 2012
1.5/4	4%	The Apparition (2012)	" May run just 82 minutes (and that includes drawn-out final credits), but the picture's brevity can't hide what a toothless waste of potential it all is." — DustinPutman.com Posted Aug 24, 2012
2.5/4	76%	Premium Rush (2012)	" The cinematic equivalent of a theme park ride—fun in the moment, inconsequential in the long run, and over in a blink." — DustinPutman.com Posted Aug 23, 2012
.5/4	64%	Cosmopolis (2012)	" Art-house cinema at its most achingly smarmy and self-indulgent. Frustrating verging on abysmal verging on infuriating." — DustinPutman.com Posted Aug 23, 2012
2.5/4	48%	Hit & Run (2012)	" It is the genuine central relationship [between Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell] that turns this off-the-wall free-for-all into more than just a throwaway romp." — DustinPutman.com Posted Aug 21, 2012
1/4	65%	The Expendables 2 (2012)	" Sounds like it should be a blast. Why, then, is the reality about as fun as chewing on a hand grenade?" — DustinPutman.com Posted Aug 17, 2012
3.5/4	87%	ParaNorman (2012)	" Simply put, it is no less than the most confident, fully realized, and just plain imaginative stop-motion animated feature since 1993's holiday classic "The Nightmare Before Christmas."" — DustinPutman.com Posted Aug 16, 2012
1.5/4	58%	Sparkle (2012)	" A serious drama that works far better as an inadvertent comedy of filmmaking ineptitude." — DustinPutman.com Posted Aug 16, 2012
3/4	89%	Compliance (2012)	" Skirts the credibility line, occasionally coming off as a stretch and other times so eerily plausible it might as well be a documentary." — DustinPutman.com Posted Aug 16, 2012
2.5/4	62%	The Awakening (2012)	" Delivers a series of well-chosen jolts and unsettling ideas. Otherwise, gee, it really is quite a lot like countless other pictures that have come before it." — DustinPutman.com Posted Aug 16, 2012
3/4	34%	The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012)	" Produced by Walt Disney Pictures, this live-action fable is the best original project the studio has rustled together in at least a few years." — DustinPutman.com Posted Aug 14, 2012
2/4	65%	The Campaign (2012)	" Lewd, crude and sometimes a gas, but as a political satire the film recoils in trepidation, fearful of leaning too left or right and alienating a segment of the audience." — DustinPutman.com Posted Aug 10, 2012
1/4	56%	The Bourne Legacy (2012)	" The "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" or "Exorcist II: The Heretic" of the "Bourne" series, a low-rent, low-voltage rehash with each new idea offered up being a bad one." — DustinPutman.com Posted Aug 9, 2012
3/4	74%	Hope Springs (2012)	" There aren't nearly enough movies made these days about and catering to the AARP-aged population, and even fewer still with the intelligence and insight said audience members deserve. For this, "Hope Springs" is something rather rare and special." — DustinPutman.com Posted Aug 8, 2012
2/4	38%	[REC] 3 Genesis (2012)	" Doesn't come close to earning the revery of its moniker. This is one misbegotten deviation from the norm not worth repeating." — DustinPutman.com Posted Aug 3, 2012
2/4	31%	Total Recall (2012)	" Looks as good as can be, but, as is so often the sad case with big-budget Hollywood bonanzas, there's a precious absence of brains to go along with the diverting imagery." — DustinPutman.com Posted Aug 2, 2012
2.5/4	50%	Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (2012)	" The third and, thus far, wisest installment based on Jeff Kinney's best-selling books." — DustinPutman.com Posted Aug 2, 2012
2/4	16%	The Watch (2012)	" Cannot possibly be what anyone involved had in mind when they signed on." — DustinPutman.com Posted Jul 26, 2012
2.5/4	42%	Step Up 4: Miami Heat (2012)	" Easily the best entry in the surprisingly financially successful dance franchise." — DustinPutman.com Posted Jul 26, 2012
3/4	79%	Ruby Sparks (2012)	" Delicate, unassuming, and, like Ruby herself, kind of difficult not to fall for." — DustinPutman.com Posted Jul 24, 2012
2/4	46%	Step Up 3-D (2010)	" Blends the narrative, the dancing, and the music in a vibrant way that hasn't been captured before. Otherwise, it's really just more of the same." — DustinPutman.com Posted Jul 24, 2012
2/4	27%	Step Up 2 the Streets (2008)	" Competent and too innocent in its own way to strongly dislike, but there also isn't much to push it above mediocrity. There's more substance in cotton candy." — DustinPutman.com Posted Jul 24, 2012
2/4	19%	Step Up (2006)	" Even if the picture breaks no new ground, the verve of the actors and their fancy footwork is half the battle." — DustinPutman.com Posted Jul 24, 2012
3/4	87%	The Dark Knight Rises (2012)	" Too much muchness and a belabored last hour are the Caped Crusader's biggest foes here, and the script, overall, just isn't as airtight as "The Dark Knight." Does that mean it's not a good picture, though? Hardly." — DustinPutman.com Posted Jul 18, 2012
1.5/4	37%	Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012)	" There is something most definitely amiss when a four-and-a-half-minute short has more laughs, wit, sweetness and creativity than the feature-length main attraction that succeeds it." — DustinPutman.com Posted Jul 12, 2012
2/4	51%	Savages (2012)	" Empty mayhem in between plenty of down time." — DustinPutman.com Posted Jul 5, 2012
3/4	86%	Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)	" Yet another poster child for how much can be achieved with shoestring funds, and how the beauty of a good screenplay is more important than anything money can buy." — DustinPutman.com Posted Jul 2, 2012
2.5/4	73%	The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)	" It's a generally well-made picture, better for its visuals than its human component. But did it need to be made, and so soon?" — DustinPutman.com Posted Jul 2, 2012
1.5/4	43%	To Rome with Love (2012)	" [Woody Allen's] most jarring failure since 2003's "Anything Else."" — DustinPutman.com Posted Jun 28, 2012

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