Jamie S. Rich Movie Reviews & Previews

Critics » Jamie S. Rich

Jamie S. Rich

Agrees with the Tomatometer 68% of the time.

Biography:: Jamie S. Rich is a novelist and comic book writer, whose work has been published by Oni Press, Dark Horse Comics, and Image Comics. He has contributed movie and music reviews to various alternative weeklies in Portland, OR, and currently writes about film for The Oregonian and DVDTalk.com. He is also a member of the Online Film Critics Society.
Publications:: DVDTalk.com , Oregonian , Portland Mercury
Critics' Group:: Online Film Critics Society

Total Reviews:: 56

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Rating	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date
2/5	84%	Sightseers (2013)	" Wheatley's crew are more intent on making the audience cringe, either from gore or uncomfortable laughter, than saying anything about why they are going after such a response." — DVDTalk.com Posted May 9, 2013
1/5	44%	The Great Gatsby (2013)	" If nothing else, one should have expected a zippy visual extravaganza, rendering Gatsby's epic parties and decadent displays with virtuoso indulgence. Such is not the case. " — DVDTalk.com Posted May 9, 2013
3/5	48%	Super (2011)	" An unapologetic B-movie. It revels in its blood and guts, it likes to swear, it's got terrible taste in music, and it's pretty serious about not getting too serious. " — DVDTalk.com Posted May 8, 2013
4.5/5	84%	The Tree of Life (2011)	" ...full of Malick's trademark visual poetry. The camera is rarely at rest. Instead, it circles and tracks and zooms; the whole of existence is constantly in movement." — DVDTalk.com Posted May 8, 2013
5/5	55%	Marie Antoinette (2006)	" Kirsten Dunst is spectacular, sliding from naïve and hopeful girl to disappointed wife and straight into the frivolous queen who will seek pleasure where she finds it." — DVDTalk.com Posted May 8, 2013
4.5/5	77%	Melancholia (2011)	" Melancholia is not an easy film. As with most of von Trier's movies, it is infected with a mental disease that is both unsettling and compelling. " — DVDTalk.com Posted May 8, 2013
3.5/5	55%	Bachelorette (2012)	" If you like to laugh at dark subjects and get a charge out of things so wrong they are funny, then you should be able to enjoy Headland's film for its gutbusters alone." — DVDTalk.com Posted May 8, 2013
4/5	88%	Life of Pi (2012)	" ...better than expected, capturing the mythic fable of Martel's original novel, but from a distance, as if viewed from outside the narrative rather than inside of it." — DVDTalk.com Posted May 8, 2013
3.5/5	74%	Rampart (2012)	" As loosely structured as Dave's damaged psyche, it's more than just another riff on Training Day-the emotional violence is more unsettling than the physical punch-ups." — Portland Mercury Posted May 8, 2013
3/5	14%	Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)	" Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters is completely lacking in pretensions. Instead, it digs into this high concept with a gonzo sense of humor." — DVDTalk.com Posted May 8, 2013
4/5	93%	Barbara (2012)	" Barbara is full of drama but is never melodramatic, and though the story has its share of twists, they are never forced nor contorted." — DVDTalk.com Posted May 8, 2013
2/5	59%	Detour (2013)	" Actor Neil Hopkins (TV 's "Lost") does his best to make the panic come alive, but writer/director William Dickerson fails to create a convincing sense of peril." — Oregonian Posted May 8, 2013
3/5	88%	Yossi (2013)	" Yossi is a stronger film than its predecessor, more deeply felt and less reliant on love-story conventions." — Oregonian Posted May 8, 2013
2.5/5	71%	Greedy Lying Bastards (2013)	" ...tragically falters whenever director Craig Scott Rosebraugh inserts himself into the proceedings and allows his personal ax grinding to overtake journalistic impartiality." — Oregonian Posted May 8, 2013
.5/5	39%	The ABCs of Death (2013)	" ...two hours of brutality, excrement and viscera. Yes, some segments disturb and repel, and many try for dark humor, but the squirms they induce are far from pleasurable." — Oregonian Posted May 8, 2013
3.5/5	89%	Koch (2013)	" The film neither glorifies nor vilifies. Instead, it treats triumphs and controversies with equal balance. " — Oregonian Posted May 8, 2013
3.5/5	91%	Gimme The Loot (2013)	" Adam Leon achieves the ultimate goal of any fiction: expressing what is universal through something unique and individual. " — DVDTalk.com Posted May 2, 2013
4.5/5	95%	Safety Last! (1923)	" As a personality, Lloyd is a combination of silly and sweet, but his true star power comes from his daring athleticism. " — Oregonian Posted May 2, 2013
3/5	——	The Fruit Hunters (2013)	" Chang examines the historical and spiritual significance of fruit and environmental concerns that affect sustainable crops...the personalities that emerge are fascinating." — Oregonian Posted May 2, 2013
3.5/5	85%	Side Effects (2013)	" Burns' script is a traditional wronged-man murder mystery in the way the story is set up, exposed and debunked. Yet, Soderbergh carves out the movie with a clinical precision." — DVDTalk.com Posted May 2, 2013
0/5	66%	Shoot 'Em Up (2007)	" In order to play at that kind of satire, your movie has to be smart, and Shoot 'Em Up is not smart...What it has instead of brains is a solid rock of meanness. " — DVDTalk.com Posted May 2, 2013
4/5	89%	The Angels' Share (2013)	" The Angels' Share is more common sense than sermon, and an absolute breath of fresh air." — DVDTalk.com Posted Apr 26, 2013
3/5	45%	Leonie (2013)	" Though Leonie is slow at times, it highlights a little-known historical figure in a manner that is emotionally and intellectually satisfying." — Oregonian Posted Apr 26, 2013
1/5	32%	Gangster Squad (2013)	" Gangster Squad begins with the words 'Inspired by True Events,' which more and more is code for 'Everything You See After This Sentence is Entirely Fake.'" — DVDTalk.com Posted Apr 24, 2013
1/5	65%	Mama (2013)	" When a movie makes as little sense as Mama, you have to step back and wonder if the filmmakers made a special effort to keep everything so jumbled and disconnected." — DVDTalk.com Posted Apr 24, 2013
3/5	52%	Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)	" ...a middling hodge-podge of some good individual scenes that never really cohere. [It's] a problem of tone. Is this an ages-old fairy tale dusted off for the digital future?" — DVDTalk.com Posted Apr 24, 2013
5/5	55%	Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)	" ...a completely original script, packed to the rafters with solid comedic scenarios and a whole lot of heart." — DVDTalk.com Posted Apr 24, 2013
4.5/5	94%	Moonrise Kingdom (2012)	" ...a movie packed with impossibilities, but also riddled with the pragmatism that only comes from an artist whose innocence has been dashed on the rocks of adulthood." — DVDTalk.com Posted Apr 24, 2013
2.5/5	66%	Spring Breakers (2013)	" ...as complicated as it is perplexing, inspiring a complex reaction that is a combination of voyeuristic scandal and general queasiness." — DVDTalk.com Posted Apr 24, 2013
3/5	67%	Stoker (2013)	" Stoker is a sensual film, using color and texture to provoke the brain's pleasure centers, and then undermining these effects with the story's grisly events." — DVDTalk.com Posted Apr 24, 2013
4.5/5	86%	The Master (2012)	" Sometimes a movie and its subject intersect in ways that transcend the traditional narrative and the creative process serves to illustrate exactly what the film is about. " — DVDTalk.com Posted Apr 24, 2013
4.5/5	76%	Killing Them Softly (2012)	" The violence throughout Killing Them Softly is a mix of visceral ballet work, dark humor, and sickening consequences. " — DVDTalk.com Posted Apr 24, 2013
3/5	67%	Friends With Kids (2012)	" ...funny and crass and, at times, more than a little schmaltzy. Yet, there's something refreshing about seeing grownups talk about grown-up things in real ways." — Portland Mercury Posted Apr 24, 2013
4/5	95%	The Imposter (2012)	" Frédéric's tale has enough salacious pulp that it remains interesting despite Layton's heavy-handed filmmaking." — Portland Mercury Posted Apr 24, 2013
4.5/5	79%	The Deep Blue Sea (2012)	" Weisz is breathtaking...relying neither on blame nor self-pity. She and the film walk a precarious line, but watching them work their way across is a powerful experience." — Portland Mercury Posted Apr 24, 2013
4/5	77%	Killer Joe (2012)	" ...a scuzzball delight fueled by an uncomfortable morality and an unapologetic sense of its own depravity." — Portland Mercury Posted Apr 24, 2013
3.5/5	58%	Red Hook Summer (2012)	" You might not buy what Lee's peddling, and it certainly has its clunky moments, but you're still likely to have your consciousness raised along with those skeptical eyebrows." — Portland Mercury Posted Apr 24, 2013
1.5/5	47%	A Liar's Autobiography - The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman (2012)	" There's a difference between "anything goes" and "all over the place," and this film ends up being the latter, never quite gelling and, worse, leaving its subject behind..." — Portland Mercury Posted Apr 24, 2013
4/5	98%	Oslo, August 31st (2012)	" Trier assembles his story as a series of scattered moments, repeated exchanges, and overlapping experiences." — Portland Mercury Posted Apr 24, 2013
2.5/5	81%	The Impossible (2012)	" While it does portray tearful reunions and admirable acts of courage, it mostly avoids mawkish sentiment. Life isn't seen as mystical, we aren't told that we're all connected." — Portland Mercury Posted Apr 24, 2013
4/5	92%	Silver Linings Playbook (2012)	" Russell disguises his love story by shooting Silver Linings Playbook with the same visceral immediacy he brought to The Fighter, cloaking the courtship in the manic energy of mental disorders. " — Portland Mercury Posted Apr 24, 2013
3.5/5	69%	Not Fade Away (2012)	" It may be a big lumbering mess, but it's an extremely watchable lumbering mess. All the parts work, even if they don't all get to fulfill their intended jobs." — DVDTalk.com Posted Apr 24, 2013
4/5	64%	Anna Karenina (2012)	" Joe Wright's Anna Karenina is going to be the Speed Racer of literary adaptations-defended by nerds, derided by other nerds, and baffling to the public at large." — Portland Mercury Posted Apr 24, 2013
3.5/5	66%	The We and the I (2013)	" The community on the bus is a microcosm of the community at large, complete with all the petty cruelties and disingenuous posturing. Miniature dramas play out as miles add up." — DVDTalk.com Posted Apr 23, 2013
2/5	94%	Room 237 (2013)	" Credentials are unimportant, source citations are inconsequential...Room 237 is a well-constructed DVD bonus feature masquerading as a legitimate movie." — DVDTalk.com Posted Apr 23, 2013
2/5	68%	Trance (2013)	" ...less a movie and more a series of stacked convolutions and non-sequiturs, building to a big reveal that actually unveils very little." — DVDTalk.com Posted Apr 23, 2013
3.5/5	81%	The Place Beyond The Pines (2013)	" ...there's enough good work...and a strong enough narrative outline that the film still has plenty of high points. Enough to recommend it, but with plenty of reservations." — DVDTalk.com Posted Apr 23, 2013
4.5/5	42%	To The Wonder (2013)	" You have to trust what Malick has done to do its work rather than work at it yourself. The experience is haunting and magical and astonishing and profound." — DVDTalk.com Posted Apr 23, 2013
1/5	——	100 Degrees Below Zero ()	" Don't be fooled by the serious face the film opens with -- this one is pure cheese." — Oregonian Posted Apr 11, 2013

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