Critics » Joshua Starnes » Fresh
Joshua Starnes

Joshua Starnes

Agrees with the Tomatometer 75% of the time.

Publications:
ComingSoon.net
Critics' Group:
Houston Film Critics Society
Total Reviews:
396

Best Reviewed Films

Showing 1 - 50 of 396
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Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date
10/10 69% A Scanner Darkly (2006) " In the end, it offers only the slightest of answers and the slimmest of hopes, because that is often all life offers as well. Whether anyone grasps that hope it leaves open for the audience to determine." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 30, 2011
10/10 94% The Dark Knight (2008) " You know you're watching a good movie when it puts a smile on your face right from the start. In the The Dark Knight it may be a twisted grimace but given the right perspective there's enjoyment to be had in even the bleakest subject matter." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 18, 2011
9/10 97% Before Midnight (2013) " A grown up, mature work in every sense of the phrase Before Midnight is that rare sequel among sequels - the one which continues to better that which has come before it." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 18, 2013
9/10 93% Amour (2012) " Amour is not an easy film by any stretch of the imagination, but for those in search of art without pretension or affectation, this is the way it's done." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Dec 12, 2012
9/10 87% The Dark Knight Rises (2012) " What flaws The Dark Knight Rises has are few and far between, with most of it hitting just the right note as it prances between the darkest depths and the most hopeful highs like a cat on a hot tin roof." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Jul 19, 2012
9/10 96% Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2011) " Herzog and cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger have documented a natural wonder of the world that most of us will never see in person but thanks to Cave of Forgotten Dreams now have the opportunity to experience in a manner that's almost as good." — ComingSoon.net
Posted May 6, 2011
9/10 61% The New World (2005) " Not Malick's best film, but more than up to his usual high standards, The New World is a powerful and emotional romantic drama, and an essential story in the history of America." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Apr 20, 2011
9/10 96% The Social Network (2010) " The Social Network is so engrossing you don't even notice how heavy handed the films central dramatic irony could be -- that the greatest tool for communication in the modern age was created by someone who has no idea how to relate to other people." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Apr 1, 2011
9/10 26% Stay (2005) " It is both straightforward and abstract, using cinematic tricks to put the audience in Sam/Henry's headspace. The result is a bit a sense of intentional vertigo that may cloud the films ultimately humanist point." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 30, 2011
9/10 78% Sin City (2005) " Sin City is a lot of things, but most of all, it's fun. It may not be for everyone, but everyone should see it once anyway, just to find out if it's for them." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 30, 2011
9/10 73% Iron Man 2 (2010) " Iron Man 2 isn't an ideal sequel but it is good, fixing most of the problems of the first movie without giving up what made it work to begin with." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 27, 2011
9/10 90% The Fighter (2010) " The Fighter deftly manages to be equal parts character drama and sports film without giving short shrift to either. Containing a couple of the best performances of the year it is in turn harrowing and heartwarming." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 22, 2011
9/10 28% Elizabethtown (2005) " It's the fashion today for interpersonal dramas to go for bathos and high-stakes emotional conflict as characters cry out their darkest secrets to each other ... but director Cameron Crowe has taken a different tack." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 21, 2011
9/10 74% War of the Worlds (2005) " War of the Worlds is that most rare of screen adaptations - a film that is faithful to its origins and at the same time, its own separate creature. The first half is better than the second, but what a first half." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 7, 2011
9/10 96% WALL-E (2008) " It's not often that you find 'post-apocalyptic' and 'delightful' going together in the same sentence, but they're essential to describe the deceptively artful Wall-E." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 7, 2011
8.5/10 93% Marvel's The Avengers (2012) " Marvel's The Avengers isn't the Second Coming, though it feels like it's been in the works almost as long as, but as far as big summer entertainment goes you'll rarely get much better." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Apr 30, 2012
8.5/10 51% John Carter (2012) " A modern pulp adventure in the classic Spielberg and Lucas vein, John Carter is exactly what pointless entertainment should be but often isn't" — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 7, 2012
8.5/10 87% Submarine (2011) " Ayoade has taken the old chestnut about each of us being the stars of the film of our life and played it out to its logical artistic extremes." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Jun 24, 2011
8.5/10 78% The Informant! (2009) " The Informant! is Soderbergh having fun, and it's a hoot to watch. With an Oscar caliber performance from Damon and a story so unique if it wasn't true you wouldn't believe, it's the first really good film of the fall." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 27, 2011
8/10 98% Mud (2013) " As fable like as Mud can be, with its good luck charms and wards against werewolves and demons and men who salvage using homemade diving bells, at its heart it is about real people going through real things." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 18, 2013
8/10 88% Django Unchained (2012) " Tarantino definitely has a point to make about slavery, and it is there, but it is well hidden behind a stout curtain of fun, which is ultimately what you'll get from Django Unchained." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Dec 12, 2012
8/10 89% Lincoln (2012) " One of the best acted films of the year." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Nov 2, 2012
8/10 77% Killer Joe (2012) " A little more time and a little more money might have turned Killer Joe into something truly great, or it might have ruined it, overwhelming the delicate chemistry with surface glitter. We'll never know." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Jul 19, 2012
8/10 73% The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) " I'm not convinced we actually needed a completely re-launch of the Spider-Man series just 10 years and three films after it started, but if we have to have one, The Amazing Spider-Man is a good one to have." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Jul 5, 2012
8/10 94% Moonrise Kingdom (2012) " Kingdom benefits as well from a better designed story that does not weave restlessly the way his last did, but it's still not going to convince anyone who doesn't already like what Anderson does to follow along." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Jun 22, 2012
8/10 79% The Grey (2012) " Action junkies should get what they"re looking for as well though be warned, The Grey is at its heart a meditative film about a man examining his place in the world." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Jan 27, 2012
8/10 95% Pina (2011) " Pina is as rich in imagery and emotion as any film released this year and in some cases moreso." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Jan 27, 2012
8/10 78% A Dangerous Method (2011) " A Dangerous Method probably won't tell you anything useful about Jung or Freud or how their relationship fell apart. What it will provide are sterling performances and classic Cronenberg repressed sado-masochism and sometimes that is enough." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Dec 27, 2011
8/10 96% Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 (2011) " Even if you're not a big fan of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 a mixture of solid storytelling and excellent craftsmanship make it--maybe not a new bar for adventure filmmaking--but a worthy entry and conclusion." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Jul 13, 2011
8/10 77% Thor (2011) " Though occasionally wry it's not as out and out fun as some of the best comic films, but Thor rises to the challenge on the back of solid storytelling and a focus on character more action films could do with." — ComingSoon.net
Posted May 2, 2011
8/10 60% Oliver Twist (2005) " Oliver Twist is an affecting and refreshing adaptation of Dickens seminal work from a master director." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Apr 25, 2011
8/10 74% Micmacs (Micmacs à tire-larigot) (2010) " Micmacs is quick and funny and easy but so light it floats away from you when all is said and done, and doesn't leave much behind. It's worth the time you spend with it though." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Apr 8, 2011
8/10 90% Michael Clayton (2007) " There's a lot of skill involved in Michael Clayton and an understated, ambiguous hero that's becoming rare in modern film. Even if under its subtle surface there isn't really much there, the surface is good enough to make it worthwhile." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Apr 8, 2011
8/10 91% Source Code (2011) " Source Code is high concept filmmaking done the way it's supposed to be." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Apr 8, 2011
8/10 71% The Science of Sleep (2006) " It's kind of weird and very French, but don't let that scare you. The Science of Sleep is well worth your time." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Apr 1, 2011
8/10 95% Star Trek (2009) " Star Trek has needed this kind of face lift for years." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 30, 2011
8/10 53% Spanglish (2004) " Spanglish is a heartfelt, funny, sad, human story about what people want and what they should do; about culture's colliding and maintaining their individuality; and about what parents do for their children." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 30, 2011
8/10 64% Spartan (2004) " He'll always be writer first, but for a relentless entertainment with actual with wit and soul, Spartan may just be the best thing David Mamet has done, certainly the best he has directed." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 30, 2011
8/10 93% Sicko (2007) " While much of Sicko is certainly propaganda, that should not deter anyone from seeing it or giving some credence to what Moore is saying, because what he is talking about is very real and very important." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 30, 2011
8/10 70% Sherlock Holmes (2009) " Purists can, and certainly will, spend much time arguing how much is true to the material and how much was changed but the rest won't, and shouldn't care. The fact is, Sherlock Holmes is just down right entertaining." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 30, 2011
8/10 81% Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) " Scott Pilgrim will make your head explode. But in a good way, not with brains and stuff." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 30, 2011
8/10 89% Let Me In (2010) " Let Me In is slow and thoughtful and its most chilling aspects require consideration after the fact by the viewer rather than simple thrills that wash over you viscerally and are just quickly gone." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 29, 2011
8/10 66% The Karate Kid (2010) " The Karate Kid is an excellent coming-of-age sports film filled with heart and humor that doesn't test your gag reflex. Even if you love the original the new version is a worthy follow up, both comfortable and fresh, and that isn't easy to do." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 29, 2011
8/10 94% Juno (2007) " Indie film has the same success rate as Hollywood spectacle and for the same reason--reliance on well worn stereotypes and cliché--but it's the good stuff that comes along that makes all the dreck worth sitting through. Juno is the good stuff." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 29, 2011
8/10 86% Inception (2010) " Flaws aside, there's a lot to like about Inception and Nolan keeps his eye on the ball throughout, offering up a lush treat of a thriller with nerve and wit" — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 27, 2011
8/10 71% Voces inocentes, (Innocent Voices) (2005) " It's depressing - God, is it depressing - in a way that only a film about growing up amidst a Central American civil war can be, but it is also often uplifting, and that is a tricky balance to pull off." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 27, 2011
8/10 88% Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) " Easily the best Harry Potter film so far." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 22, 2011
8/10 44% The Green Hornet (2011) " For what problems it does have it is a genuinely different take on this kind of material with a firm focus on action, character and humor. No one else should ever attempt to make a superhero movie quite like this, but for The Green Hornet it works." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 22, 2011
8/10 94% Gone Baby Gone (2007) " A tense meditation on morality in the modern world, Gone Baby Gone is a superb crime thriller featuring a star performance from Casey Affleck. If crime drama is your thing, it really doesn't get much better than this." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 22, 2011
8/10 83% Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (2005) " The Corpse Bride may be a bit too melancholy to find a real family audience, but for an adult who hasn't quite given up on happily ever afters and strange goings on in the dark woods, it's just the ticket." — ComingSoon.net
Posted Mar 21, 2011
Showing 1 - 50 of 396
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