Ethan Alter Movie Reviews & Previews

Critics » Ethan Alter

Ethan Alter

Agrees with the Tomatometer 76% of the time.

Publications:: Film Journal International , Giant Magazine , Hollywood Reporter , NYC Film Critic , Premiere Magazine , Show Business Weekly , Television Without Pity , TV Guide's Movie Guide , Village Voice
Critics' Group:: New York Film Critics Online

Total Reviews:: 1162
Total QuickRatings:: 7

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 50 of 1162

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T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date
57%	Kiss Of The Damned (2013)	" The pleasure of the film doesn't lie in the plot; it's all about the sultry, horror-tinged mood that Cassavetes manufactures." — Television Without Pity Posted May 3, 2013
57%	Unmade In China (2013)	" Ultimately, Unmade in China is ultimately less about the experience of making a movie in China than it is a chronicle of one director's wounded ego." — Television Without Pity Posted May 3, 2013
77%	Iron Man 3 (2013)	" For half the movie, Black challenges what audiences have come to expect from comic book movies and Marvel movies in particular. But then in the other half, he falls back on the same-old same-old." — Television Without Pity Posted May 3, 2013
33%	Tai Chi Hero (2013)	" The second installment in a planned martial-arts trilogy mixes broad comedy and cartoonish action that will appeal to the genre's fans, though crossover potential seems limited." — Film Journal International Posted Apr 26, 2013
46%	Pain & Gain (2013)	" For the first half, Bay is completely dialed into this material, his frat boy sense of humor and overblown visual sensibility complimenting the story and setting. " — Television Without Pity Posted Apr 26, 2013
33%	The Numbers Station (2013)	" Cusack's glum visage immediately lays a wet blanket over Danish director Kasper Barfoed's English-language debut and keeps it firmly in place until the final fade-out." — Television Without Pity Posted Apr 26, 2013
56%	Oblivion (2013)	" As a director, Kosinski is a great production designer. But as a dramatist? Not so much." — Television Without Pity Posted Apr 19, 2013
76%	It's a Disaster (2013)	" It's not laugh-out-loud hysterical, but the ensemble -- Cross and the always-amusing Hayes in particular -- establishes a just-zany-enough rapport that's enjoyable rather than irritating." — Television Without Pity Posted Apr 12, 2013
42%	To The Wonder (2013)	" You already have to be a fan of Malick to want to look past the movie's somewhat bland surface. But if you do, you might experience some of the wonder promised by the title." — Television Without Pity Posted Apr 12, 2013
77%	42 (2013)	" [It] takes a crucial piece of sports and social history and treats it with kid gloves, substituting Hollywood gloss for real-world grit." — Television Without Pity Posted Apr 12, 2013
55%	Down the Shore (2013)	" A small-scale, working-class character study that's never quite as nuanced and dramatic as it aspires to be." — Television Without Pity Posted Apr 5, 2013
68%	Trance (2013)	" Boyle gets Trance off to his usual strong start, but it's Dawson who keeps the film afloat in its darkest (second) hour." — Television Without Pity Posted Apr 5, 2013
62%	Evil Dead (2013)	" No one saw Raimi's Evil Dead coming three decades ago and were unprepared for what it had to offer. This Evil Dead delivers what you expect... and it's the weaker for it." — Television Without Pity Posted Apr 5, 2013
81%	The Place Beyond The Pines (2013)	" This entire saga climaxes in an a moment of catharsis that feels remarkably pat and simplistic." — Television Without Pity Posted Mar 29, 2013
9%	The Host (2013)	" Make no mistake, The Host is a bad movie, but it's the kind of bad movie that's almost compulsively watchable if only to see how much worse it could possibly get." — Television Without Pity Posted Mar 29, 2013
96%	Blancanieves (2013)	" Overall, Blancanievesis a minor achievement in the annals of Snow White re-tellings, but not an insignificant one." — Television Without Pity Posted Mar 29, 2013
40%	Mental (2013)	" A kooky comedy in which a spirited cast is almost suffocated by too-aggressive direction." — Film Journal International Posted Mar 28, 2013
28%	G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)	" Even mindless action has to have a baseline amount of mental energy behind it. " — Television Without Pity Posted Mar 28, 2013
65%	Starbuck (2013)	" While Huard is an appealing performer the pace of the storytelling and the comedy is too languid and pokey." — Television Without Pity Posted Mar 22, 2013
43%	Admission (2013)	" It's mostly harmless, but also pretty lifeless." — Television Without Pity Posted Mar 22, 2013
48%	Olympus Has Fallen (2013)	" Even if the movie itself isn't any fun, spotting all of its blatant mistakes and Ed Wood-ian budgetary shortfalls definitely is." — Television Without Pity Posted Mar 22, 2013
8%	K-11 (2013)	" I'm not quite sure why Stewart felt compelled to make this movie, but to her credit I guess, she commits to the story she's telling, as lurid, unpleasant and ultimately pointless as it may be. " — Television Without Pity Posted Mar 15, 2013
66%	Spring Breakers (2013)	" A highly stylized art film that brutally (and, at times, brilliantly) sends up a society and (pop) culture that enables and enhances all the things it claims to bemoan." — Television Without Pity Posted Mar 15, 2013
39%	The Call (2013)	" Save for one genuinely exciting stretch that begins roughly a half-hour in, the bulk of the film is dull and derivative." — Television Without Pity Posted Mar 15, 2013
38%	The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013)	" It's like of one of those deadly Saturday Night Live sketches where everyone involved clearly knows it isn't working, but they're forced to go through the motions anyway simply to avoid dead air." — Television Without Pity Posted Mar 15, 2013
66%	The We and the I (2013)	" Michel Gondry gets back to his low-budget roots and rediscovers his formidable formal playfulness in the process." — Television Without Pity Posted Mar 8, 2013
65%	Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey (2013)	" Watching Don't Stop Believin' one always gets the sense that there's a larger story that Diaz can't -- or simply doesn't want to -- tell." — Television Without Pity Posted Mar 8, 2013
53%	The Girl (2013)	" The Girl is still more "good for you" than "good," but at least it supplements its feature-length lecture with a pair of good performances and a decent payoff." — Television Without Pity Posted Mar 8, 2013
60%	Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)	" Taken purely on its own terms, Oz the Great and Powerful is a serviceable family blockbuster. " — Television Without Pity Posted Mar 8, 2013
36%	Dead Man Down (2013)	" This is, at heart, a melodrama cloaked in action movie clothing." — Television Without Pity Posted Mar 8, 2013
67%	Stoker (2013)	" Thanks to Park's endless creativity behind the camera, it's impossible to look away from Stoker, even when what's happening on the screen is truly risible." — Hollywood Reporter Posted Mar 1, 2013
52%	Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)	" Singer throws expensive-looking set piece after expensive-looking set piece at the screen and none of it sticks." — Television Without Pity Posted Mar 1, 2013
58%	Snitch (2013)	" Unable to fall back on his default strongman setting, Johnson is more human than we've seen him before." — Television Without Pity Posted Feb 22, 2013
45%	Beautiful Creatures (2013)	" The movie version completely drains the narrative of whatever charm or intrigue might have existed on the page, leaving behind a dry, withered husk. " — Television Without Pity Posted Feb 14, 2013
15%	A Good Day To Die Hard (2013)	" That this utterly disposable, entirely generic piece of action movie mayhem is allowed to advertise itself under the Die Hard banner is a travesty." — Television Without Pity Posted Feb 14, 2013
39%	The ABCs of Death (2013)	" What's striking is that even though the directors have been given complete freedom, so many of the shorts wind up being the same." — Television Without Pity Posted Feb 8, 2013
85%	Side Effects (2013)	" Even when Burns's script falters, Soderbergh's direction remains laser-precise." — Television Without Pity Posted Feb 8, 2013
47%	Bullet to the Head (2013)	" Watching Bullet to the Head you're acutely aware of how stupid and pointless the whole enterprise, yet at the same time the movie successfully delivers a steady stream of short, sharp shocks to your system that keep you engaged." — Television Without Pity Posted Feb 1, 2013
37%	Stand Up Guys (2013)	" Not since Pacino squared off against Robert De Niro in Righteous Kill has a single movie so thoroughly blasphemed a set of Acting Gods." — Television Without Pity Posted Feb 1, 2013
80%	Warm Bodies (2013)	" Not only did Warm Bodies fail to convince me of its central conceit, but the movie's general depiction of zombie life is shoddy, inconsistent and often downright dumb." — Television Without Pity Posted Feb 1, 2013
40%	Parker (2013)	" Statham allows himself to be goofy on occasion as well, which is why this ranks as one of his most enjoyable performances to date. " — Television Without Pity Posted Jan 25, 2013
59%	The Last Stand (2013)	" While Jee-woon has displayed a great deal of visual flair in his South Korean features, his work here proves disappointingly straightforward and impersonal." — Television Without Pity Posted Jan 18, 2013
30%	Broken City (2013)	" A solid, if unexceptional, urban crime yarn. " — Television Without Pity Posted Jan 18, 2013
65%	Mama (2013)	" The middle section of the film just drags on and on, as Mama lurks about the house popping out an inopportune moments while Muschietti stalls for time." — Television Without Pity Posted Jan 18, 2013
79%	Quartet (2013)	" Quartet is ultimately too thinly conceived, lacking a compelling dramatic throughline." — Television Without Pity Posted Jan 11, 2013
24%	Struck by Lightning (2013)	" Struck By Lightning possesses a jarring mixture of tones, with moments of dark comedy sitting somewhat uneasily alongside scenes of quiet domestic drama. " — Television Without Pity Posted Jan 11, 2013
32%	Gangster Squad (2013)	" The movie doesn't much build to a climax as accidentally stumble upon it on the way to the closing credits." — Television Without Pity Posted Jan 11, 2013
100%	My Brooklyn (2013)	" An intriguing depiction of urban gentrification in action, marred somewhat by an unnecessary dip into the first person." — Film Journal International Posted Jan 9, 2013
98%	56 Up (2013)	" If 56 Up is something of a pleasant bore while you're watching it, it gains more resonance when you think about it as the calm before the approaching storm. " — Television Without Pity Posted Jan 4, 2013

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