Rotten Tomatoes
Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes
Critics list

James Berardinelli

Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:

I was born in September 1967 in the town of New Brunswick, New Jersey (USA). I started writing when I was about 9 years old, and suffered through the traumatic experience of reading chapters from my stories in front of my entire fourth grade class. However, although my "first love" was writing, too many tales of starving authors scared me off that path, so I decided to become an engineer instead. I attended the University of Pennsylvania from 1985 through 1990, obtaining both a BS and an MS in Electrical Engineering. Putting my education to use, I went to work for a company called Bellcore, which pays well enough for me to keep up the mortgage, maintain a home theater, finance film festival trips, and buy the 25-30 gallons of gasoline I need each week to attend screenings. As for my "film history"... As a child, I did not attend many movies. In fact, the first one I remember going to was JAWS, at a drive-in. During my junior high and high school years, I rarely ventured into a theater, but my interest in movies escalated while I was at college. In 1991, the year before I started reviewing, I saw about 30 films. The number jumped up to 180 in 1992, when I wrote capsule reviews for my own use. Starting in 1993, the year I "went public" on the Usenet newsgroups, I began seeing between 220 and 250 theatrical releases per year.

Publications:
Location:

New Jersey, US

Official Website:

http://www.reelviews.net

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026) 78% 2/4 EDIT “As sequels go, this is far from the worst. It delivers on core expectations without ever expending the energy to do anything truly creative. ” – ReelViews May 4, 2026 Full Review Michael (2026) 39% 2/4 EDIT “When compared to the recent influx of musical biopics, this one sits somewhere in the middle; there is too little depth to elevate it to the top, but the soundtrack is too strong to let it sink to the bottom.” – ReelViews Apr 23, 2026 Full Review Lee Cronin's The Mummy (2026) 47% 2/4 EDIT “Unfortunately, Cronin appears to have epic pretensions that result in a sluggish and uneven production. ” – ReelViews Apr 17, 2026 Full Review You, Me & Tuscany (2026) 66% 2/4 EDIT “Despite the talent of the two leads and a healthy budget, this is Hallmark Channel material at best. ” – ReelViews Apr 10, 2026 Full Review The Drama (2026) 76% 2/4 EDIT “The film is certainly uncomfortable and off-putting, but it lacks the wit or satirical bite necessary to be considered amusing.” – ReelViews Apr 7, 2026 Full Review The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026) 42% 2/4 EDIT “I felt like someone had tied me down and forced me to watch 90 minutes of Saturday morning cartoons.” – ReelViews Apr 2, 2026 Full Review They Will Kill You (2026) 65% 2.5/4 EDIT “This has "future cult film" written all over it. But, for those who are more concerned about the here and now, this is a film that delivers on its own peculiar brand of delights before wearing out its welcome.” – ReelViews Mar 27, 2026 Full Review Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (2026) 74% 2.5/4 EDIT “The fundamental problem is that the original was a lightning-in-a-bottle concept, and this isn't material that naturally lends itself to a second installment. ” – ReelViews Mar 23, 2026 Full Review Project Hail Mary (2026) 94% 3.5/4 EDIT “Although the overall pace is unhurried, the sense of danger is always percolating and it occasionally bubbles over. This is the first film of 2026 that I have left feeling like I've experienced a movie the way it's meant to be.” – ReelViews Mar 20, 2026 Full Review undertone (2025) 74% 2.5/4 EDIT “By the time the conclusion arrives, we have become numb to the filmmaker's approach, and the expected non-ending feels preordained and unimpactful. I didn't feel frustrated because I had stopped caring by that point.” – ReelViews Mar 20, 2026 Full Review Hoppers (2026) 94% 3/4 EDIT “It's a pleasant enough feature, and while it will likely satisfy its target audience, I'd be surprised if this is the cornerstone for the next great Pixar franchise.” – ReelViews Mar 8, 2026 Full Review THE BRIDE! (2026) 57% 2/4 EDIT “Bold, divisive, and occasionally exhausting, it mostly rejects traditional narrative storytelling in favor of a collage of visually arresting, oddly conceived moments that often feel like they belong to entirely different movies.” – ReelViews Mar 8, 2026 Full Review Scream 7 (2026) 31% 1.5/4 EDIT “Scream 7 has no plot to speak of; it’s a mere casserole of tired horror clichés, doubling down on...tropes and the myth of the unkillable human villain. ” – ReelViews Feb 28, 2026 Full Review Psycho Killer (2026) 9% 2/4 EDIT “By the 80-minute mark, this once dark, gritty film had shifted into self-parody territory. ” – ReelViews Feb 22, 2026 Full Review Wuthering Heights (2026) 57% 2/4 EDIT “Frankly, the "suffocating passion" is a bore; the characters are not only unlikeable but, more damningly, they simply don't mesh. ” – ReelViews Feb 17, 2026 Full Review Crime 101 (2026) 88% 2.5/5 EDIT “While the climax does not lack for action, the overall resolution feels flaccid and undercooked.” – ReelViews Feb 11, 2026 Full Review Solo Mio (2026) 82% 2.5/4 EDIT “Solo Mio is pretty much what one could reasonably expect from a Kevin James romantic movie: genial, good-natured, and ultimately pretty bland. ” – ReelViews Feb 6, 2026 Full Review Dracula (2025) 54% 2/4 EDIT “The film often feels like a jarring fusion of Stoker’s prose and the feverish scribblings of erotic fan fiction.” – ReelViews Feb 6, 2026 Full Review Shelter (2026) 65% 2.5/4 EDIT “It is a generic spy thriller that works as well as it does because of the stakes created by that central relationship, even if it results in the pair paraphrasing a key exchange from Return of the Jedi.” – ReelViews Feb 3, 2026 Full Review Send Help (2026) 93% 3/4 EDIT “The director’s intent is clearly more "comedy-thriller" than "straight survival horror," offering both jump scares and big laughs. The ever-changing chemistry between McAdams and O'Brien works... until it doesn't.” – ReelViews Feb 2, 2026 Full Review Mercy (2026) 25% 1.5/4 EDIT “The biggest problem with Mercy, aside from its somnambulant pacing, is that the background and storyline are simply too thin. Aside from the hook of a man engaging in a real-time trial for his life, there's not much here.” – ReelViews Jan 23, 2026 Full Review 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) 92% 3/4 EDIT “The Bone Temple doesn't work entirely well as a stand-alone, but as part of a larger whole, it is a very good continuation of the ongoing tale. ” – ReelViews Jan 20, 2026 Full Review Train Dreams (2025) 94% 3.5/4 EDIT “Train Dreams is a lyrical film—a movie concerned more with emotional impact, nostalgia, and powerful imagery than rigid plotting. It is the kind of cinema where a state of reverie is not merely encouraged, but required.” – ReelViews Jan 15, 2026 Full Review No Other Choice (2025) 97% 3.5/4 EDIT “Park shows an almost uncanny ability to switch from tragedy to comedy at the flip of a coin, a tonal tightrope walk that few directors can manage. Lee Byung-hun anchors this madness with a performance of subtle gradations.” – ReelViews Jan 12, 2026 Full Review Primate (2025) 78% 3/4 EDIT “This is a solid horror film that delivers pretty much everything a fan could want or expect (especially considering that it’s January). It doesn’t feel fresh, but neither is it stale. ” – ReelViews Jan 12, 2026 Full Review
No Reviews Yet
Load More