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Jason Best

Agrees with the Tomatometer 80% of the time.

Publications:: BBC , Movie Talk

Total Reviews:: 274

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 50 of 274

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T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date
46%	Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)	" As a tortured soul for whom beauty is power, Charlize Theron pulls out all the stops, but director Rupert Sanders doesn't know when to rein her in and some of her scenes tip over into ranting." — Movie Talk Posted Jun 1, 2012
93%	The Angels' Share ()	" A whimsical crime caper comedy in the Ealing vein about a bunch of delinquent Glaswegians who pull off a very unlikely heist - think Whisky Galore with sweary Neds instead of twinkling Hebridean islanders." — Movie Talk Posted Jun 1, 2012
80%	House of Pleasures (2011)	" Bonello is more interested in the women's relationships with each other than with their rich clients, though we do get to see them living out some of their patrons' kinky desires." — Movie Talk Posted May 30, 2012
95%	Moonrise Kingdom (2012)	" Moonrise Kingdom is a delight... stuffed full of the quirky details and gags that are Anderson's trademarks, but it also possesses an emotional undertow that will tug at those viewers in tune with its singular sensibility." — Movie Talk Posted May 28, 2012
40%	Iron Sky ()	" Nazis on the moon! What could be more brilliantly bonkers than the lunatic premise of satirical sci-fi action comedy Iron Sky? Sadly, Finnish director Timo Vuorensola fails to make the most of his conceit." — Movie Talk Posted May 25, 2012
23%	What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012)	" As rom-coms go, this one is definitely stillborn." — Movie Talk Posted May 25, 2012
68%	Men in Black III (2012)	" Is the goofy MIB formula - a mix of deadpan acting cool and eye-popping creature effects - still funny? Happily, director Barry Sonnenfeld's ingenious sequel proves the answer is yes." — Movie Talk Posted May 25, 2012
80%	2 Days in New York (2012)	" If Woody Allen had been born a neurotic blonde Frenchwoman instead of a neurotic New Yorker, he might very well have come up with 2 Days in New York... but there simply aren't enough laughs to make the film more than mildly diverting." — Movie Talk Posted May 21, 2012
83%	The Raid: Redemption (2012)	" An action movie so relentlessly exciting and brutal that watching it will leave you feeling black-and-blue and breathless." — Movie Talk Posted May 21, 2012
93%	She Monkeys (Apflickorna) (2011)	" An intriguing and unsettling exploration of female friendship, rivalry and burgeoning sexuality." — Movie Talk Posted May 21, 2012
79%	The Grey (2012)	" A survival thriller with teeth." — Movie Talk Posted May 21, 2012
71%	All In Good Time ()	" It's all very contrived and sometimes clumsy, but what rescues the tale is the element of pathos lurking beneath the film's broad comedy." — Movie Talk Posted May 14, 2012
40%	Dark Shadows (2012)	" As with Pirates, the story often stalls while Depp does his stuff, but his fish-out-of-water vampire is roguish, mannered and a hoot, as you'd expect.. though it's Green's wild-eyed pale-skinned seductress who really sinks her teeth into the film." — Movie Talk Posted May 14, 2012
79%	Get the Gringo ()	" Mel looks a lot more grizzled, of course, than when he first started playing his hair-trigger hotheads but he still oozes charisma. And when it comes to the film's scorching shootouts, he's still got the live-wire energy too." — Movie Talk Posted May 10, 2012
35%	Womb (2012)	" Clone looks good and may get under your skin - if you can put up with the story's glacial pace, which is so creepingly slow that it's no wonder that the token of the pair's childhood love is a snail." — Movie Talk Posted May 4, 2012
20%	The Lucky One (2012)	" It's all very contrived and sentimental and could easily be unbearably slushy, but director Scott Hicks just about keeps the schmaltz in check." — Movie Talk Posted May 4, 2012
11%	Piggy ()	" From the clunky dialogue and dreary voice-over narration, it sounds as though director Kieron Hawkes has swallowed a GCSE psychology textbook and regurgitated gobbets of half-digested psychobabble all over the screenplay." — Movie Talk Posted May 4, 2012
55%	Safe (2012)	" Jason Statham cuts a swathe through New York with fists, guns and one-liners." — Movie Talk Posted May 4, 2012
75%	Damsels in Distress (2012)	" Set on the campus of a fictional East Coast college, Damsels revolves around a typical Stillman set of earnest, talky, old-beyond-their years and behind-their-time youngsters. " — Movie Talk Posted Apr 30, 2012
55%	Albert Nobbs (2012)	" Glenn Close's character couldn't be more buttoned-up, but beneath the reserve she conveys a lifetime of loneliness, hurt and quiet heartache." — Movie Talk Posted Apr 30, 2012
94%	Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol (2011)	" It's Cruise's daredevil bravado that provides the film's standout episode, a sequence of hair-raising, palm-dampening, gob-smacking suspense that sees him clinging to the side of the world's tallest building." — Movie Talk Posted Apr 30, 2012
6%	Dream House (2011)	" Dream House is clearly something of a wreck, yet watching the film provides glimpses of the better film the project might have been. " — Movie Talk Posted Apr 20, 2012
84%	Romantics Anonymous (2011)	" Set in Lyon amid the world of chocolate making, this charmingly old-fashioned French romantic comedy is a truly mouth-watering confection. " — Movie Talk Posted Apr 20, 2012
35%	Lockout (2012)	" Whether you call it rip-off or homage, Lockout's guilty-pleasure mix of explosive action and tongue-in-cheek humour is mightily enjoyable." — Movie Talk Posted Apr 20, 2012
34%	Battleship (2012)	" Cringe at unfeasibly wooden acting and hoot at unspeakably bad dialogue, not all of which is unintentionally funny. By the time a bunch of grizzled veterans turn up, all you can do is raise the white flag and surrender to the film's awesome silliness." — Movie Talk Posted Apr 13, 2012
90%	Headhunters (2012)	" Schadenfreude is tempered by a sense that Roger is all too emblematic of our current plight in Europe. He deserves his comeuppance, of course, but he isn't the only one in recent years who's been living beyond his means and riding for a fall." — Movie Talk Posted Apr 5, 2012
69%	This Must Be The Place ()	" Funnier on screen than he's been in any part since permanently stoned surfer dude Jeff Spicoli in 1982's Fast Times at Ridegmont High, Penn is terrific in a film that's consistently quirky, often laugh-out loud funny and sometimes surprisingly poignant." — Movie Talk Posted Apr 5, 2012
64%	Another Earth (2011)	" Another Earth doesn't fully come off - the slow pace stops it achieving escape velocity - but the intriguing ideas and Marling's touching performance make it a promising debut." — Movie Talk Posted Apr 2, 2012
50%	Mirror Mirror (2012)	" 'Who's the fairest of them all,' is a cruel question to pose to a Hollywood beauty in her forties facing competition from ever-younger starlets, but Julia Roberts gamely takes it on the chin in this tongue-in-cheek reinvention of the classic fairy tale" — Movie Talk Posted Mar 31, 2012
100%	Wild Bill ()	" Dexter Fletcher doesn't overplay the cowboy angle. Instead, he puts most of his efforts into creating a believable dynamic between the father and his sons, and it's in this tangled skein of shyness, suspicion, loyalty and love that the film's heart lies." — Movie Talk Posted Mar 30, 2012
85%	The Hunger Games (2012)	" Smarter and tougher than Twilight - and with a heroine who couldn't be further removed from drooping, love-struck Bella Swann." — Movie Talk Posted Mar 30, 2012
25%	Act of Valor (2012)	" A movie so hawkish and gung-ho that it makes John Wayne's The Green Berets look unpatriotic and Top Gun seem positively pinko. " — Movie Talk Posted Mar 30, 2012
25%	Wrath of the Titans (2012)	" Rosamund Pike is hilariously miscast. Her plummy voice ringing out amid the film's mish-mash of accents, she rallies her troops looking and sounding less like a mythological heroine than a lacrosse captain rousing her team on the school playing field." — Movie Talk Posted Mar 30, 2012
46%	StreetDance 2 ()	" The story is even flimsier than before, but the dancing is even more electrifying... The vibrant choreography fuses hip-hop hustle and Latin sensuality and the climactic dance number is so cool it raises goosebumps." — Movie Talk Posted Mar 30, 2012
86%	The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012)	" Those old salts at Aardman Studios have come up with a rollicking comedy adventure that more than lives up to the company's tradition of teeming visual invention and quirky fun." — Movie Talk Posted Mar 28, 2012
85%	21 Jump Street (2012)	" A rude and raucous action comedy spoof, which turns the high-minded, message-laden original series on its head in order to poke fun at everything from Hollywood's desperate recycling of the past to the tired conventions of buddy-cop movies." — Movie Talk Posted Mar 16, 2012
67%	We Bought a Zoo (2011)	" While the creatures may be dangerous, Jerry Maguire director Cameron Crowe definitely plays things safe." — Movie Talk Posted Mar 16, 2012
51%	Contraband (2012)	" With the action of Icelandic heist thriller Reykjavik-Rotterdam relocated to New Orleans and Panama for Hollywood remake Contraband, the 'reformed crook forced into one-last job' plot feels even more routine but Wahlberg gives the role his best shot. " — Movie Talk Posted Mar 15, 2012
52%	John Carter (2012)	" Director Andrew Stanton injects the hokum with a lively sense of fun and leads Kitsch and Collins pull off their far-fetched roles with gusto." — Movie Talk Posted Mar 12, 2012
76%	The Help (2011)	" Octavia Spencer's Minny provides the movie's funniest moments, especially when she gets her own back on former employer Hilly with an audacious reprisal that proves that revenge is indeed a dish best served cold." — Movie Talk Posted Mar 12, 2012
38%	Monte Carlo (2011)	" It's all frothy and silly, but Selena Gomez and her co-stars are sweet and appealing and are sure to win over the film's target audience." — Movie Talk Posted Mar 12, 2012
36%	Immortals (2011)	" Costume designer Eiko Ishioka drapes the gods in dinky gold lam� outfits and outlandish headgear - Daniel Sharman's Aires sports a helmet spiked with swords and Kellan Lutz's Poseidon appears to be wearing a rather whimsical fascinator. " — Movie Talk Posted Mar 8, 2012
20%	The Decoy Bride (2012)	" Writer Sally Phillips throws in the odd sharp line (love-shy Katie describes herself as 'a man-vegan') but the clumsily contrived plot and a lack of spark between McDonald (engaging) and Tennant (surprisingly under-par) throw the film fatally off course." — Movie Talk Posted Mar 8, 2012
21%	The Raven (2012)	" It's a fiendishly clever idea: turn Edgar Allan Poe into the hero of a gothic thriller that weaves together aspects of his rackety life and mysterious death with lurid elements taken from his stories. A shame, then, that the execution is so bungled." — Movie Talk Posted Mar 8, 2012
——	Jack and the Beanstalk (2009)	" Jack and the Beanstalk seeks to emulate the playful wit of the wondrous The Princess Bride but falls woefully short." — Movie Talk Posted Mar 5, 2012
71%	X: Night of Vengeance (2011)	" The ensuing chase doesn't entirely hang together, with some twists more plausible than others, but the setting's scuzzy, febrile atmosphere adds to the tension and the two leads hold their own." — Movie Talk Posted Mar 5, 2012
47%	Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2012)	" What seemed a gimmicky device on the page feels even more awkwardly whimsical and implausible on screen" — Movie Talk Posted Mar 5, 2012
5%	Black Gold ()	" Pedestrian storytelling and clunky dialogue leaves this would-be epic drama about a power struggle between feuding kingdoms in soon-to-be-oil-rich 1920s Arabia bogged down in the sand" — Movie Talk Posted Mar 5, 2012
54%	Safe House (2012)	" A frenetic action thriller whose chases, gunplay and hand-to-hand combat flash by in such a furious blur that the viewer barely has time to register the plot's shortcomings." — Movie Talk Posted Mar 5, 2012

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