Critics » Mary F. Pols » Movies
Mary F. Pols

Mary F. Pols

Agrees with the Tomatometer 72% of the time.

Biography:
Film Critic, Contra Costa Times
Publications:
Contra Costa Times , MSN Movies , TIME Magazine
Critics' Group:
San Francisco Film Critics Circle
Total Reviews:
857
Total QuickRatings:
857

Movie Reviews Only

Showing 1 - 50 of 857
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Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date
46% Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) " Rare among the recent fairy tale adaptions (from Mirror Mirror to the dreadful Red Riding Hood) the invigorating Snow White and the Huntsman actually breathes new life into an old story." — TIME Magazine
Posted May 31, 2012
68% Men in Black III (2012) " Its opening sequences are a near marvel of confusion, mayhem and embarrassments for its actors. If it was a person, you'd worry it had dementia." — TIME Magazine
Posted May 24, 2012
28% Girl In Progress (2012) " The mystery of Eva Mendes' slow-simmering career continues." — TIME Magazine
Posted May 10, 2012
38% Where Do We Go Now? (2012) " Director and co-writer Nadine Labaki has a careful, delicate hand when it comes to balancing the precious and the poignant." — TIME Magazine
Posted May 10, 2012
76% The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012) " There are brutal truths about the declining years in Best Exotic, from loneliness to financial woes that can't be solved by getting a new job, but they are amply padded with comedy and cheery messages about acceptance; this is no bitter pill to swallow." — TIME Magazine
Posted May 4, 2012
96% First Position (2012) " At least half of these young dynamos and their families, all vying for coveted scholarships and spots in ballet companies, could brighten the most forlorn perspective on the state of the American dream." — TIME Magazine
Posted May 3, 2012
74% Sound of My Voice (2012) " The movie explores the basic debate over faith, the idea that we can feel a sense of relief in cynicism realized and turn around and face the horror of our lack of faith in the next moment." — TIME Magazine
Posted Apr 26, 2012
62% The Five-Year Engagement (2012) " By the 90-minute mark, I was ready for a divorce, but based on the steady squeals of laughter around me at a preview screening, may have been in the minority." — TIME Magazine
Posted Apr 26, 2012
90% Bernie (2012) " You would be hard pressed to find a film that feels more true to a reporter's experience of an event. This isn't necessarily a good thing, at least not cinematically." — TIME Magazine
Posted Apr 25, 2012
20% The Lucky One (2012) " Efron acquits himself reasonably well. Is he sexy enough to make credible a scene where Beth seems to have an orgasm while washing dishes and watching him lift bags of dog food? Maybe not, but, honestly, who could?" — TIME Magazine
Posted Apr 19, 2012
21% Darling Companion (2012) " As bland and soft as a nice bowl of oatmeal." — TIME Magazine
Posted Apr 19, 2012
74% Chimpanzee (2012) " It has plenty of charm and is filled with astonishingly intimate footage worth seeing on the big screen but is sketchy on details and dumbed down by cutsy, anthropomorphizing narration." — TIME Magazine
Posted Apr 19, 2012
90% The Cabin in the Woods (2012) " Cabin goes beyond the parody of the Scream franchise into darker, richer territory." — TIME Magazine
Posted Apr 11, 2012
75% Damsels in Distress (2012) " Gerwig is the heart of the movie. She gives a beautifully contained performance as Violet." — TIME Magazine
Posted Apr 6, 2012
52% Detachment (2012) " Everywhere you turn in Detachment, someone is trying to make you feel like hell." — TIME Magazine
Posted Mar 22, 2012
46% Casa de mi padre (2012) " About five minutes of its mercifully short 84 minutes would make a nice sketch on Ferrell's Funny or Die." — TIME Magazine
Posted Mar 15, 2012
98% Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2012) " It's beautifully photographed and explained at every stage from market to table, a foodie's dream night at the movies. The gentle shaping of the fish and sushi could lull you into a trance. A hungry trance." — TIME Magazine
Posted Mar 9, 2012
68% Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2012) " Salmon Fishing was a novel first and you can see how all these juggled balls could stay in the air on the page, but in movie form, many of them just seem extraneous." — TIME Magazine
Posted Mar 9, 2012
42% Silent House (2012) " Sarah does any number of silly things while scurrying through this not-so-silent house, but keeps the audience on her side; you want her to get out of the house immediately but you don't get annoyed with her when she can't." — TIME Magazine
Posted Mar 8, 2012
64% Friends With Kids (2012) " I can't think of a better onscreen depiction of the feeling of being forsaken and forgotten by the ultimate clique - parents - than the one in writer/director Jennifer Westfeldt's bright, quick-witted Friends with Kids." — TIME Magazine
Posted Mar 8, 2012
55% Being Flynn (2012) " A tale of failed fatherhood intertwined with issues of addiction and homelessness." — TIME Magazine
Posted Mar 1, 2012
59% Wanderlust (2012) " A comedy that looks way better than it actually is set amidst the dreck of late winter releases..." — TIME Magazine
Posted Feb 24, 2012
95% Undefeated (2012) " I wanted it blow my mind, to flatten me. Demanding, I know." — TIME Magazine
Posted Feb 17, 2012
25% This Means War (2012) " Technically, movies don't give off a scent, but This Means War is so smarmy that it seems to reek of cheap cologne." — TIME Magazine
Posted Feb 16, 2012
42% Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012) " Blithely idiotic..." — TIME Magazine
Posted Feb 9, 2012
78% The Innkeepers (2012) " The Innkeepers makes such youthful passivity seem nearly as treacherous as opening the cellar door." — TIME Magazine
Posted Feb 3, 2012
74% Big Miracle (2012) " There may not be a second of say, Whale Rider's lyricism (that's still the best whale movie out there), but this energetic family movie is less insipid than it looks." — TIME Magazine
Posted Feb 2, 2012
55% Albert Nobbs (2012) " With its unpredictable sexual politics and quirky little hero/heroine Albert Nobbs has the edge of quinine, a peculiar taste that won't entice everyone but worked for me." — TIME Magazine
Posted Jan 26, 2012
31% Man on a Ledge (2012) " The movie stays aloft on the sparks provided by Banks, Ed Burns (playing a skeptical cop), Anthony Mackie (as a cop to be skeptical about) and particularly, Bell and Rodriguez." — TIME Magazine
Posted Jan 26, 2012
38% Red Tails (2012) " A feature film that falls much closer to the goofy Hogan's Heroes in the spectrum of World War II-focused productions than Saving Private Ryan." — TIME Magazine
Posted Jan 19, 2012
45% Albatross (2012) " The performances are compelling (although Jones is underused) but the thin narrative is less instructive of the strange way female friendships operate than of the way stories get recycled." — TIME Magazine
Posted Jan 12, 2012
51% Contraband (2012) " Contraband's sense of humor is charmingly macho, real meat and potatoes stuff. Literally." — TIME Magazine
Posted Jan 12, 2012
95% Pariah (2011) " Pariah should be a special, important film for gay teens and their parents." — TIME Magazine
Posted Dec 28, 2011
55% In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011) " The most compelling, heartfelt movie Jolie has made in years. She isn't in it, but she's all over it." — TIME Magazine
Posted Dec 22, 2011
47% Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2012) " Horn breaks through the movie's manipulative scrim simply through the sheer force of his emotions." — TIME Magazine
Posted Dec 21, 2011
23% The Sitter (2011) " The Sitter is predicated on a belief that chunky Jonah Hill, or at least the persona he presents, is secretly supercool. While it turns out to be a wisp of a movie, on that front at least, it is persuasive." — TIME Magazine
Posted Dec 8, 2011
76% We Need to Talk About Kevin (2012) " We Need To Talk About Kevin doesn't just bring you to the outskirts of a parent's worst nightmare; this fever dream of guilt and loss takes you straight inside." — TIME Magazine
Posted Dec 8, 2011
7% New Year's Eve (2011) " Neither nicely written, nor nicely acted nor nicely made." — TIME Magazine
Posted Dec 8, 2011
96% The Muppets (2011) " During the movie's best moments, I recalled exactly what my long-gone father's roars of laughter sounded like." — TIME Magazine
Posted Nov 23, 2011
92% Arthur Christmas (2011) " Both Nighy and Broadbent do wonderful, richly funny voice work." — TIME Magazine
Posted Nov 22, 2011
83% My Week with Marilyn (2011) " Williams locates a central truth, the contradictory allure of this utterly impossible woman - mercurial, vain, foolish, but also intelligent in some very primal way and achingly vulnerable." — TIME Magazine
Posted Nov 22, 2011
25% Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (2011) " This is Meyer's worst offense -- her disturbingly Victorian attitudes about sex and love, which this particular movie falls modestly in lockstep with, even though it concludes years of cinematic foreplay." — TIME Magazine
Posted Nov 17, 2011
— 17% The Son of No One (2011) — TIME Magazine
Posted Nov 15, 2011
3% Jack and Jill (2011) " More than 24 hours has passed since I watched the new Adam Sandler movie Jack and Jill and I am still dead inside." — TIME Magazine
Posted Nov 10, 2011
68% Tower Heist (2011) " It's hard to go completely wrong when you've got Broderick shuffling around in a bathrobe and Murphy scampering in black leather." — TIME Magazine
Posted Nov 3, 2011
4/5 73% Like Crazy (2011) " There's not an extraneous scene, and even the smallest moments - such as when Jacob goes to a London pub with Anna and stands around awkwardly - are ripe with meaning." — TIME Magazine
Posted Oct 27, 2011
47% Anonymous (2011) " Oliver Stone's JFK looks reasonable compared to this." — TIME Magazine
Posted Oct 26, 2011
89% Margin Call (2011) " Margin Call might have lost me completely if it weren't for Spacey, who delivers his meatiest, most nuanced work in years." — TIME Magazine
Posted Oct 20, 2011
40% The Big Year (2011) " It's like an Easter egg hunt for adults, joyous and sweet. The Big Year competition may be fierce, but the movie is as soft as a bunny." — TIME Magazine
Posted Oct 13, 2011
60% Real Steel (2011) " The story remains sadly mired in botdom, which leads to some boredom." — TIME Magazine
Posted Oct 7, 2011
Showing 1 - 50 of 857
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