Marjorie Baumgarten Movie Reviews & Previews

Critics » Marjorie Baumgarten

Marjorie Baumgarten

Agrees with the Tomatometer 80% of the time.

Publications:: Anchorage Press , Austin Chronicle , Variety

Total Reviews:: 2550
Total QuickRatings:: 2

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 51 - 100 of 2550

Previous | Next

Rating	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date
0/5	79%	Miami Connection (2012)	" Nonsensical dialogue, painful acting, lots of strobe lights, and even more fighting -- what more could a person want? Perhaps a beheading? Miami Connection has that, too." — Austin Chronicle Posted Nov 9, 2012
2.5/5	84%	Smashed (2012)	" Smashed may be better at preaching to the choir and is likely to find its largest audience among struggling 12-steppers." — Austin Chronicle Posted Nov 9, 2012
3/5	78%	Flight (2012)	" Zemeckis shows he still has a vivid visual sensibility and a finger on the zeitgeist. But the script by John Gatins leaves nothing up in the air and returns all the tray tables locked in their upright positions." — Austin Chronicle Posted Nov 1, 2012
2.5/5	44%	The Paperboy (2012)	" Despite all its garish accoutrements and salacious underpinnings, The Paperboy can be a hoot to watch." — Austin Chronicle Posted Oct 26, 2012
3.5/5	87%	Middle of Nowhere (2012)	" Ava DuVernay won a best director's award at Sundance for Middle of Nowhere, a prize that seems fitting for the sort of film that has the kind of gravity and authority that sneaks up on the viewer." — Austin Chronicle Posted Oct 26, 2012
3.5/5	91%	The Revisionaries (2012)	" Due to redistricting, every position on the Texas State Board of Education is up for election on the November 2012 ballot. See The Revisionaries and become better informed about the subject, and then remember to cast your vote." — Austin Chronicle Posted Oct 26, 2012
1/5	5%	Atlas Shrugged: Part II (2012)	" Atlas won't be the only one to shrug off this tiresome load." — Austin Chronicle Posted Oct 19, 2012
3.5/5	82%	Seven Psychopaths (2012)	" Seven Psychopaths isn't a great movie -- there are stretches where it has too much going on for its own good -- but it is an inspired, strange, and occasionally choke-on-your-popcorn funny ensemble piece." — Austin Chronicle Posted Oct 12, 2012
2.5/5	63%	Sinister (2012)	" Only in the world of horror movies do people knowingly move into houses where the previous tenants were horrendously murdered." — Austin Chronicle Posted Oct 11, 2012
3.5/5	96%	Argo (2012)	" Affleck's greatest talent, however, may lie in his casting instincts: In addition to the above-mentioned turns by Arkin and Goodman, stand-out performances are also delivered by Bryan Cranston... and Victor Garber." — Austin Chronicle Posted Oct 11, 2012
2/5	32%	The Oranges (2012)	" It doesn't help matters that the characters are sorely undeveloped, allowing these usually marvelous actors only single traits to work with." — Austin Chronicle Posted Oct 5, 2012
2.5/5	35%	Butter (2012)	" Butter contains enough genuine levity to slide down easily." — Austin Chronicle Posted Oct 5, 2012
3/5	55%	Bachelorette (2012)	" The funny stuff is impertinently delightful and honest, and delivered expertly by this female ensemble. Material this hilarious and astute is a rare thing in the few comedies that dare to be dominated by women" — Austin Chronicle Posted Sep 28, 2012
3/5	73%	Hello I Must Be Going (2012)	" The film is worth seeing for the performances, but the drama is a nonstarter." — Austin Chronicle Posted Sep 28, 2012
1.5/5	32%	Won't Back Down (2012)	" The film casts the teachers' union in the role of the story's villain, an option that's far too simplistic and unfair." — Austin Chronicle Posted Sep 27, 2012
3/5	75%	Chicken with Plums (2012)	" Fluctuating between the extraordinary and the dull, with sections of narrative explication and tangents, Chicken With Plums can be as frustrating as it is ambitious. It's more like Chicken With Plums -- and the Kitchen Sink." — Austin Chronicle Posted Sep 21, 2012
2.5/5	51%	Trouble with the Curve (2012)	" Many are the film's hackneyed scenes, although Eastwood and Adams always make them at least enjoyable to watch. Trouble With the Curve doesn't hit the ball out of the park, but neither is it a compete shutout." — Austin Chronicle Posted Sep 20, 2012
2/5	77%	Samsara (2012)	" I'd be happy to have the lovely, 70mm images of Samsara as my computer screensaver, but I can't pretend that they combine for more collective substance than a series of adorable cat pictures." — Austin Chronicle Posted Sep 14, 2012
3/5	87%	Arbitrage (2012)	" There's a touch of Hitchcockian flavor to the Arbitrage's cat-and-mouse thrills, yet the film clearly announces that there's now a third gifted Jarecki brother (in addition to Eugene and Andrew) to contend with in the moviemaking business." — Austin Chronicle Posted Sep 13, 2012
2/5	58%	Red Hook Summer (2012)	" There's little drama or sense of progression in the movie until the bombshell hits, and then it just whimpers along for another half-hour until the end." — Austin Chronicle Posted Sep 7, 2012
2.5/5	88%	Neil Young Journeys (2012)	" These two world-renowned and individualistic artists from the worlds of music and film clearly bask in each other's company. We, the audience, would be fools to respond otherwise." — Austin Chronicle Posted Sep 7, 2012
3/5	56%	For a Good Time, Call... (2012)	" Graynor has delivered reliable comedic backup before, stealing the show in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and the otherwise dreckful What's Your Number?. Here, she's second to no one." — Austin Chronicle Posted Sep 7, 2012
1/5	20%	Thunderstruck (2012)	" Headlining a less-than-mediocre kids' movie taints one's brand rather than enhancing it. Just ask Shaq." — Austin Chronicle Posted Aug 31, 2012
2.5/5	44%	The Last Ride (2012)	" The Last Ride squanders its potential, much like its tragic subject." — Austin Chronicle Posted Aug 31, 2012
2.5/5	67%	Lawless (2012)	" Although it slides down easily, there's very little kick to this moonshining picture." — Austin Chronicle Posted Aug 30, 2012
3.5/5	100%	The Invisible War (2012)	" Even if you do not see this movie yourself, please encourage any young woman you know who is considering enlistment to watch this movie first." — Austin Chronicle Posted Aug 24, 2012
2/5	76%	Premium Rush (2012)	" The action is neither cathartic nor supremely exhilarating. Bullitt on a bike this film is not." — Austin Chronicle Posted Aug 23, 2012
2.5/5	52%	Where Do We Go Now? (2012)	" It's a "what if" story that's hopeful but doesn't ring true." — Austin Chronicle Posted Aug 17, 2012
2.5/5	34%	The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012)	" A stupendous cast is completely wasted in underwritten roles as various family members and employers in the town's sole enterprise: pencil production." — Austin Chronicle Posted Aug 16, 2012
3.5/5	97%	Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry (2012)	" Though we might wish for more insight or explanation, Klayman's film remains an incredible document of a courageous individual who the Chinese officials would prefer to make disappear." — Austin Chronicle Posted Aug 10, 2012
2.5/5	79%	Ruby Sparks (2012)	" It all pretty much exists on an even keel, and that's not really the provenance of love and magic." — Austin Chronicle Posted Aug 3, 2012
1.5/5	82%	Bill W. (2012)	" Despite the filmmakers' efforts to humanize Wilson, however, Bill W. still dabbles in hagiography, valorizing the man while also painting him as a reluctant hero." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jul 27, 2012
2.5/5	79%	Klown (2012)	" Frank and Casper (the characters and the writers both) err by devoting themselves to building up these sorry specimens of masculinity rather than deconstructing them to see what makes them tick -- or throb, as the case may be." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jul 27, 2012
2.5/5	68%	Extraterrestrial (2012)	" On the whole, Extraterrestrial is slight, filled with lots of bark but little bite." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jul 13, 2012
3/5	51%	Savages (2012)	" Savages provides us with a glimpse into the Oliver Stone of yore -- the director of lurid, visceral, and menacing crime stories." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jul 6, 2012
1/5	21%	Madea's Witness Protection (2012)	" The film is slapdash entertainment not meant to be further contemplated after leaving the theatre." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jul 6, 2012
2/5	76%	The Do-Deca-Pentathlon (2012)	" The brothers' bickering can be amusing at times but even at 76 minutes, the movie feels repetitive and overly long." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jul 6, 2012
3/5	83%	Your Sister's Sister (2012)	" The film's conceits may be a bit too contrived and conventional, but nothing about these characters' interactions are forced. Your Sister's Sister is a welcome guest." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jun 29, 2012
3/5	80%	Magic Mike (2012)	" Magic Mike is sure to be one of the guilty pleasures of the summer. To paraphrase the old Dorothy Arzner movie: Dance, boys, dance." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jun 28, 2012
3/5	55%	Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)	" Vacillating between unpredictability and ordinariness, Seeking a Friend doesn't exactly go out with a whimper, although a little more vitality wouldn't hurt." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jun 22, 2012
2/5	21%	That's My Boy (2012)	" If you expect That's My Boy to be the Bad Dad equivalent of Bad Santa, you'll be sorely disappointed." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jun 22, 2012
1.5/5	41%	Rock of Ages (2012)	" For all the decent performances, Rock of Ages plays like canned spectacle." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jun 14, 2012
2.5/5	46%	Beyond The Black Rainbow (2012)	" Comprehensibility does not appear to be one of this writer/director's goals, but if someone is able to help Cosmatos marshal his raw visual talent, I'll be first in line to see his second film." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jun 8, 2012
2/5	38%	Crooked Arrows (2012)	" These aspects provide the film with a novel focus, even though all of its events are entirely predictable." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jun 8, 2012
3/5	79%	Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012)	" The circus acts and the rehearsals, which are set to Katy Perry's "Fireworks," make the greatest use of the movie's 3-D capacities." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jun 7, 2012
1.5/5	18%	For Greater Glory (2012)	" You'll be forgiven (on earth if not in heaven) should you find yourself humming "Onward, Christian Soldiers" as you exit the theatre." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jun 1, 2012
1/5	27%	High School (2012)	" No contact high is acquired." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jun 1, 2012
2.5/5	67%	God Bless America (2012)	" The problem with the film is that it starts at such a lethal pitch there is nowhere believable it can build toward." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jun 1, 2012
2.5/5	22%	Darling Companion (2012)	" A listless excursion into the luxurious problems of rich, white people." — Austin Chronicle Posted May 18, 2012
2.5/5	58%	The Dictator (2012)	" There are several jokes that overplay their hands, as if something that was only vaguely funny the first time around will become hilarious on its fourth repetition." — Austin Chronicle Posted May 17, 2012
2.5/5	78%	The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012)	" The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel represents genteel filmmaking at its finest." — Austin Chronicle Posted May 11, 2012
2.5/5	38%	Dark Shadows (2012)	" The film is not an out-and-out comedy, nor is it a supernatural spooker: It can't out-camp the original and it doesn't make us fear the creatures of the night. However, Dark Shadows is not without some delightful moments." — Austin Chronicle Posted May 10, 2012
2.5/5	75%	Sound of My Voice (2012)	" In the end, the film doesn't add up to much of anything, but its individual parts are sometimes greater than its whole." — Austin Chronicle Posted May 4, 2012
3.5/5	97%	Monsieur Lazhar (2012)	" Monsieur Lazhar remains tight-lipped about his private life, but the audience comes to learn about the great human loss and danger of deportation that clouds his life." — Austin Chronicle Posted May 4, 2012
3/5	86%	The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012)	" Young and old alike love a good pirate yarn and the stop-motion specialists at Aardman Animations deliver the goods." — Austin Chronicle Posted Apr 27, 2012
2.5/5	75%	Damsels in Distress (2012)	" The authorial voice in Damsels in Distress lacks definition." — Austin Chronicle Posted Apr 27, 2012
2.5/5	53%	Think Like a Man (2012)	" Even though Think Like a Man is better than it has any right to be, that's a far cry from saying that the movie is particularly good." — Austin Chronicle Posted Apr 27, 2012
3.5/5	95%	Marley (2012)	" Marley finally gives the world an authoritative, nonhagiographic survey of Marley's life." — Austin Chronicle Posted Apr 20, 2012
4/5	96%	The Kid with a Bike (2012)	" How the Dardennes, time and again, turn gritty, mundane subjects into transcendent moments of honesty and truth is one of the great cinematic wonders." — Austin Chronicle Posted Apr 13, 2012
1/5	22%	October Baby (2012)	" The filmmaking is lugubrious and heavy-handed, and the dramatic arc stagnant and airless." — Austin Chronicle Posted Apr 13, 2012
1.5/5	38%	Blue Like Jazz (2012)	" The primary problem with Blue Like Jazz is that there is no believable character development." — Austin Chronicle Posted Apr 13, 2012
3.5/5	90%	Footnote (2012)	" This is a film that skims the surface layer of politesse from human interactions and reveals us as the blustering bundles of ego that we all are." — Austin Chronicle Posted Apr 13, 2012
4/5	92%	The Cabin in the Woods (2012)	" This Cabin may not be the Parthenon, but it's definitely a place to worship the gods of horror." — Austin Chronicle Posted Apr 13, 2012
1.5/5	82%	The Salt of Life (2012)	" So hyperbolic are his fantasies that it's clear that not only will they never come true, but they never were true to begin with. Seems to me that's a better place to begin than end." — Austin Chronicle Posted Apr 6, 2012
3.5/5	88%	Boy (2012)	" A performer and comedian before becoming a filmmaker, Waititi uses his comic sensibilities to keep Boy from becoming mawkish or clichéd. He has created a coming-of-age tale that is truly original." — Austin Chronicle Posted Apr 6, 2012
3/5	96%	Undefeated (2012)	" Even though the film relies on many of the clichés of the form, Undefeated is a masterfully crafted work that honestly scores a touchdown." — Austin Chronicle Posted Apr 6, 2012
2.5/5	84%	The Raid: Redemption (2012)	" The Raid: Redemption definitely delivers everything that international action fans want. The question I have is whether the laws of supply and demand are adequate tools for evaluating a movie's worth." — Austin Chronicle Posted Mar 30, 2012
2/5	——	Wild Bill ()	— Austin Chronicle Posted Mar 24, 2012
2.5/5	53%	Being Flynn (2012)	" On the whole, the film feels detached and morose, just like its characters." — Austin Chronicle Posted Mar 23, 2012
3/5	86%	Sound of Noise (2012)	" The film's joke is kind of one-note, although it maintains an exhilarating beat throughout. If Sound of Noise is the rhythm of the new city symphony, play on." — Austin Chronicle Posted Mar 23, 2012
2.5/5	85%	21 Jump Street (2012)	" For all the personal growth that our two boys in blue are supposed to experience during the course of their mission, you might think that lessons about callous expressions of misogyny and homophobia might fit into the mix. " — Austin Chronicle Posted Mar 15, 2012
2.5/5	44%	Casa de mi padre (2012)	" The film is amusing but not wildly funny." — Austin Chronicle Posted Mar 15, 2012
2.5/5	67%	Friends With Kids (2012)	" Friends With Kids is little more than a well-written and nicely delivered feature-length sitcom." — Austin Chronicle Posted Mar 8, 2012
3/5	76%	Kill List (2012)	" Although Kill List is a dark and creepy film, it is also very funny at times." — Austin Chronicle Posted Mar 3, 2012
2/5	25%	Act of Valor (2012)	" Like many a mission, I'm sure, Act of Valor sounds better on paper than it plays on film." — Austin Chronicle Posted Mar 3, 2012
2/5	32%	Tyler Perry's Good Deeds (2012)	" The melodramatic film has numerous light and comical touches, and the performances are uniformly good. The film's pace, however, has the consistency of molasses." — Austin Chronicle Posted Mar 3, 2012
2/5	37%	Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie (2012)	" Their Billion Dollar Movie will not win new converts, and their stretched-out routines demonstrate the old saw about less sometimes being more." — Austin Chronicle Posted Mar 1, 2012
3/5	54%	Dr Seuss' The Lorax (2012)	" The film's zippy and buoyant framework, however, make the lessons seem not like medicine." — Austin Chronicle Posted Mar 1, 2012
3/5	56%	In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011)	" Jolie, however, shows great promise as a visual storyteller, even though this love story is stretched too thinly." — Austin Chronicle Posted Feb 24, 2012
2/5	——	Deep in the Heart (2012)	" Gries is one of those greatly underappreciated actors, so to see him here in almost every frame of the film is a delight." — Austin Chronicle Posted Feb 17, 2012
3.5/5	87%	Bullhead (2012)	" This movie grabs the bull by the horns and takes viewers on a surprising ride." — Austin Chronicle Posted Feb 16, 2012
4.5/5	99%	A Separation (2011)	" Smart, provocative, and brimming with ungovernable human emotions." — Austin Chronicle Posted Feb 10, 2012
3.5/5	79%	The Grey (2012)	" The film is an intelligent study of the will to live." — Austin Chronicle Posted Feb 3, 2012
3.5/5	85%	Chronicle (2012)	" Chronicle may go over the top with its climax, but for such a giddy film, it's remarkably down to earth." — Austin Chronicle Posted Feb 3, 2012
2.5/5	65%	The Woman in Black (2012)	" It turns out that Daniel Radcliffe did not bring his sorcerer's wand with him when he graduated to his first adult film role since the conclusion of the Harry Potter series. Too bad." — Austin Chronicle Posted Feb 2, 2012
1.5/5	34%	Joyful Noise (2012)	" The film feels about as genuine and spontaneous as its evident lip-synching." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jan 12, 2012
3/5	51%	Contraband (2012)	" Contraband is a tidy little thriller that makes up in execution what it lacks in originality." — Austin Chronicle Posted Jan 12, 2012
2.5/5	67%	We Bought a Zoo (2011)	" By trying too hard to stay on this side of hip and the other side of sentimental, Crowe winds up with a zoo that's neither fish nor fowl." — Austin Chronicle Posted Dec 22, 2011
2.5/5	77%	War Horse (2011)	" A horse is a horse (of course, of course), and it might be said that the folly of War Horse is its expectation of emotional resonance to derive from a fairly expressionless equine visage." — Austin Chronicle Posted Dec 22, 2011
2/5	74%	Mozart's Sister (2011)	" It's not clear, however, what it is that René Féret wants to tell us about Nannerl." — Austin Chronicle Posted Dec 16, 2011
3/5	80%	Young Adult (2011)	" Young Adult one of the freshest and most original movies around right now, though caveat emptor: This may not be enough to make it likable." — Austin Chronicle Posted Dec 16, 2011
0/5	12%	Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (2011)	" Ratatouille aside, our children should not be playing with disease-carrying rodents." — Austin Chronicle Posted Dec 16, 2011
2.5/5	98%	Project Nim (2011)	" There is no question Nim was exploited for human gain, yet there are important aspects which Marsh leaves unexplored." — Austin Chronicle Posted Dec 9, 2011
3/5	97%	Tomboy (2011)	" Tomboy captures a delicate moment in time before issues of sexuality so much more complicated and calculated." — Austin Chronicle Posted Dec 9, 2011
2/5	66%	The Women on the 6th Floor (2011)	" Charming performances and the naivete of the characters go a long way toward smoothing over the characters' perpetuation of class distinctions and patronizing attitudes." — Austin Chronicle Posted Dec 2, 2011
4/5	94%	Hugo (2011)	" This love letter to the movies is something to cherish." — Austin Chronicle Posted Nov 28, 2011
2.5/5	84%	My Week with Marilyn (2011)	" This indifferently shot film winds up being another in a long line of creative works by men that exploit the legacy of Marilyn Monroe for their own satisfaction and little public good." — Austin Chronicle Posted Nov 26, 2011
4/5	77%	Melancholia (2011)	" Melancholia is the best film of von Trier's storied career." — Austin Chronicle Posted Nov 18, 2011
2/5	45%	Happy Feet Two (2011)	" Although appealing to look at, Happy Feet Two is noisy, busy, and unable to spark much emotional involvement in the viewer other than fear for the characters' well-being and a touch of existential angst by way of a couple of krill." — Austin Chronicle Posted Nov 17, 2011

Showing 51 - 100 of 2550

Previous | Next

Sort by Rating:

Sort results by this critic's rating. This option is only available for critics with a rating system (4 star, letter grade, 1-10, etc.)
Sort by T-meter:

Sort results by the Tomatometer (percentage of critics recommending a certain movie)