Kenneth Turan

Kenneth Turan

Agrees with the Tomatometer 79% of the time.

Publications:
Journal News (Westchester, NY) , Los Angeles Daily News , Los Angeles Times , Newsday , NPR's Morning Edition
Critics' Group:
Los Angeles Film Critics Association, National Society of Film Critics
Total Reviews:
1760

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 50 of 1760
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Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date
2/5 47% The Great Gatsby (2013) " On paper "Gatsby" sounds like quite the film. On screen, though, things start to fall apart." — Los Angeles Times
Posted May 8, 2013
4/5 97% Groundhog Day (1993) " Groundhog Day may not be the funniest collaboration between Bill Murray and director Harold Ramis... Yet this gentle, small-scale effort is easily the most endearing film of both men's careers, a sweet and amusing surprise package." — Los Angeles Times
Posted May 6, 2013
3.5/5 78% Iron Man 3 (2013) " By even posing questions of identity, the film creates the kind of jeopardy we can believe in, and for a superhero movie, that is an accomplishment in and of itself." — Los Angeles Times
Posted May 2, 2013
3.5/5 47% Scatter My Ashes At Bergdorf's (2013) " Though partly funded by one of the descendants of the store's founder, director Matthew Miele has made a lively, clever, fast-moving film that isn't overly reverential about its subject." — Los Angeles Times
Posted May 2, 2013
4/5 76% Kon Tiki (2013) " "Kon-Tiki" is a ripping yarn torn from yesterday's headlines." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Apr 25, 2013
4/5 52% The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013) " If there ever was a time to see "The Reluctant Fundamentalist," that time is here and now." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Apr 25, 2013
2/5 50% Bert Stern: Original Madman (2013) " If someone is that bored with their own life, it's not clear why we should bother listening in, no matter what they've accomplished." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Apr 19, 2013
4/5 56% Oblivion (2013) " More adventurous than your typical Hollywood tent pole, "Oblivion" makes you remember why science fiction movies pulled you in way back when and didn't let you go." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Apr 18, 2013
3/5 57% Unmade In China (2013) " It's a cautionary tale of sorts, but the story is so strange it is often not clear exactly what it's cautioning us against." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Apr 18, 2013
3/5 77% The Mask (1994) " Not only is he adept at physical humor, the kind of knockabout stuff that recalls the classic silent clowns, but Carrey also has a bright and likable screen presence, a lost puppy quality that is surprisingly endearing." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Apr 12, 2013
3/5 77% 42 (2013) " Robinson's story had so much drama in real life, and his sacrifice and pain made such a lasting influence, that "42" ends up being effective in its gee-whiz way almost in spite of itself." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Apr 11, 2013
4/5 87% Upstream Color (2013) " Being completely understood at first glance is not on creator Shane Carruth's agenda, but while this may sound upsetting, it turns out to be quite the opposite." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Apr 11, 2013
5/5 100% M (1931) " Few films are gripping and effective 82 years after their original release, but this one surely is." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Apr 11, 2013
2/5 68% Trance (2013) " A slick heist tale with more twists than sense, this is one movie that ends up outsmarting itself." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Apr 4, 2013
2/5 92% Jurassic Park: An IMAX 3D Experience (2013) " Do the dinosaurs work? Indeed they do. Does anything else? Not really." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Apr 1, 2013
3.5/5 91% Gimme The Loot (2013) " "Gimme the Loot" shouldn't be as appealing and exuberant as it is, it really shouldn't." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Mar 28, 2013
3/5 96% Blancanieves (2013) " In an attempt to be both modern and traditional, this gorgeously made film ends up betwixt and between." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Mar 28, 2013
4/5 81% Renoir (2013) " A lush, involving film that deals not with one Renoir but two, as well as the strong-minded woman who was a key player in both their lives." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Mar 28, 2013
2/5 54% Basic Instinct (1992) " Basic Instinct is a reminder of the difference between exhilaration and exhaustion, between tension and hysteria, between eroticism and exhibitionism. The line may be fine, but it is real enough to separate the great thrillers from the also-rans." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Mar 25, 2013
4/5 81% From Up On Poppy Hill (2013) " "From Up on Poppy Hill" is frankly stunning, as beautiful a hand-drawn animated feature as you are likely to see." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Mar 21, 2013
3/5 77% A League of Their Own (1992) " Though amusing enough to avoid absolutely drowning in schmaltz, it's sad to see a film with potential lose its way in the late innings." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Mar 20, 2013
4/5 97% The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg (2000) " Aviva Kempner's warm and intelligent mash note to a man who clearly deserved it." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Mar 19, 2013
2.5/5 67% Cobb (1994) " The result, whether Cobb is wailing about greatness or ruminating about the dark circumstances around his father's death, is a performance too operatic and out of control." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Mar 19, 2013
3.5/5 79% Ginger & Rosa (2013) " Fanning displays a dazzling naturalness on camera, an ability to move persuasively between any number of emotions, from hesitant to sassy to distraught to anything else you can name." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Mar 14, 2013
2.5/5 38% The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013) " Calling it "The Mildly Diverting Burt Wonderstone" would have been more accurate, but how many tickets is that going to sell?" — Los Angeles Times
Posted Mar 14, 2013
5/5 95% Touch of Evil (1958) " Expressionistic in the extreme, filled with shadows, angles and cinematic flourishes, the film raises the usual brooding nightmare ambiance of film noir to a level few other pictures have attempted." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Mar 12, 2013
2.5/5 60% Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) " A partially effective jumble whose elements clash rather than cohere, this solid but not spectacular effort stubbornly refuses to catch fire until it's almost too late." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Mar 7, 2013
4/5 87% The Silence (2013) " "The Silence" is an exemplary German-language thriller, a complex and disturbing examination of guilt, violence and psychological torment that chills us to the core not once but two times over." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Mar 7, 2013
4/5 96% War Witch (2013) " The powerful things we expect from "War Witch" are as advertised, but what we don't expect is even better." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Mar 7, 2013
2/5 46% Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary (2013) " A film that would let us decide the pros and cons of his life for ourselves would certainly be welcome." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Feb 28, 2013
1/5 52% Jack the Giant Slayer (2013) " There may never have been a Jack tale that delivered so little pleasure for so many dollars as what we have here." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Feb 28, 2013
3/5 47% The Sweeney (2013) " A briskly involving British crime entertainment of the old school. You've seen the type, and more than once, but the genre still has enough juice to take us for a ride." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Feb 28, 2013
5/5 91% Million Dollar Baby (2004) " Perhaps the director's most touching, most elegiac work yet, Million Dollar Baby is a film that does both the expected and the unexpected, that has the nerve and the will to be as pitiless as it is sentimental." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Feb 24, 2013
4/5 90% Caesar Must Die (2013) " Ranks among the most involving adaptations of Shakespeare ever put on screen ..." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Feb 21, 2013
4/5 70% Bless Me, Ultima (2013) " A deeply satisfying feat of storytelling, "Bless Me, Ultima" makes a difficult task look easy." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Feb 21, 2013
4/5 92% No (2013) " Say yes to "No."" — Los Angeles Times
Posted Feb 14, 2013
2/5 15% A Good Day To Die Hard (2013) " True, a lot of stuff gets blown up and stunts that must have cost the Earth appear with startling regularity, but the sense of exhilaration and fun that marked the best of the series has gone unaccountably AWOL." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Feb 13, 2013
5/5 93% Amour (2012) " The resulting interplay of ruthless restraint and unavoidable passion, plus the film's refusal to shrink from depicting the inevitable horrors of physical deterioration, is devastating." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Feb 8, 2013
4/5 85% Side Effects (2013) " If this does prove to be Soderbergh's final film - and I wouldn't hold my breath - he picked a heck of a one to go out on." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Feb 7, 2013
4/5 92% Lore (2013) " For both audiences who admire it and the protagonist who lives it, the intense, emotional "Lore" is a picture from life's other side." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Feb 7, 2013
4/5 92% In the Soup (1992) " A charming pipsqueak of a movie, a playful film of ragged and shaggy appeal." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Feb 7, 2013
5/5 96% Port of Shadows (Le Quai des Brumes) (2012) " Because it is so uncompromising, so pure, "Port of Shadow's" particularly French brand of romantic fatalism still knocks us out decades after the fact." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jan 31, 2013
4/5 100% Sound City (2013) " High-spirited, emotional and funny, "Sound City" is, of all things, a mash note to a machine. Not just any machine, however, but one that helped change the face of rock 'n' roll." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jan 31, 2013
4/5 98% 56 Up (2013) " To see "56 Up" is to be reunited with an old friend." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jan 17, 2013
2.5/5 51% Promised Land (2013) " When you add in the plot contrivances that cluster around its finale, "Promised Land" concludes as an echo of a convincing film rather than the real deal." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Dec 27, 2012
4/5 70% Les Misérables (2012) " Despite its pitfalls, this movie musical is a clutch player that delivers an emotional wallop when it counts. You can walk into the theater as an agnostic, but you may just leave singing with the choir." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Dec 25, 2012
4/5 93% Barbara (2012) " It's one terrific film, as smart, thoughtful and emotionally involving as just about anything that's out there." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Dec 21, 2012
4/5 45% On the Road (2012) " Salles has lovingly crafted a poetic, sensitive, achingly romantic version of the Kerouac book that captures the evanescence of its characters' existence and the purity of their rebellious hunger for the essence of life." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Dec 20, 2012
4/5 93% Zero Dark Thirty (2013) " Kathryn Bigelow proves herself once again to be a master of heightened realism and narrative drive in this retelling of the decade-long search for Osama bin Laden." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Dec 18, 2012
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