Critics » MaryAnn Johanson
MaryAnn Johanson

MaryAnn Johanson

"
  • "It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage." -- Raiders of the Lost Ark
  • "One should not believe in an ism." -- Ferris Bueller's Day Off
  • "It's not that I'm lazy; it's that I just don't care." -- Office Space
  • "There's not a lot of money in revenge." -- The Princess Bride "

    Agrees with the Tomatometer 76% of the time.

    Biography:
    "One of online’s finest" film critics, or so says trade mag Variety, MaryAnn Johanson is a New York City-based freelance writer who loves movies but hates what Hollywood sometimes does to them. She is the webmaster and sole critic on FlickFilosopher.com, founded in 1997 and now one of the most popular movie-related sites on the Internet. She has appeared as a cultural commentator on BBC Radio, and she is a founding member of Cinemarati: The Web Alliance for Film Commentary. She is also an award-winning screenwriter. She doesn’t feel it’s necessary to divulge how many cats she lives with, or the state of their mental health.
    Favorites:
    Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the Eight Dimension, The Princess Bride, This Is Spinal Tap, Ghostbusters
    Publications:
    Apollo Guide , AWFJ Women on Film , Film.com , Flick Filosopher
    Critics' Group:
    Online Film Critics Society
    Total Reviews:
    3249
    Total QuickRatings:
    3
    Location:
    New York City

    • Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

    Showing 1 - 50 of 3249
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    Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date
    25% Machete Kills (2013) " Forget about the socially conscious core that fueled the exploitation engine of the first film. This one is flat-out, no-message action comedy, outrageous and hilarious." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Oct 6, 2013
    —— All Cheerleaders Die () " Twists the high-school revenge story into feminist black magic." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Oct 2, 2013
    91% The Spectacular Now (2013) " Stark and gritty, this may be the most down-to-earth teen romance ever, filled with touches of unpredictable, inescapable reality." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Oct 2, 2013
    57% The Frozen Ground (2013) " In a rote cat-and-mouse cop-and-serial-killer story, Vanessa Hudgens' 'victim' is far more compelling than either cop Nicolas Cage or killer John Cusack." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 30, 2013
    56% Citadel (2012) " A familiar story of sinister creature frights and psychological horror gets a little boost from a gloomy mood of urban decay and isolation." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 30, 2013
    76% The Kings of Summer (2013) " Mashes a heightened sense of the absurd rather awkwardly up against arty pastoral, and the mock-seriousness of the endeavor comes across as unpleasantly snide." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 30, 2013
    75% Dark Touch (2013) " Elegantly atmospheric indie horror drama plumbs typically unseen depths of children's coping mechanisms in the face of terrible real-life experience." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 27, 2013
    31% Austenland (2013) " Austenland, allow me to tell you how ardently I loathe and despise you." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 26, 2013
    8% Runner Runner (2013) " Dull and perfunctory, this is a crime thriller that sets itself up as a revenge story but can't manage to drum up any excitement or suspense, and precious little revenge, either." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 26, 2013
    —— Mystery Road () " Touched by dry humor and elegant action, this is a marvelous blend of classic detective noir and modern Outback Western." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 23, 2013
    42% As I Lay Dying (2013) " If this isn't a deliberate parody of furiously solemn, self-conscious artistic pretension, it's an accidental one." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 23, 2013
    14% The Colony (2013) " A small-scale science-fiction horror story full of big, troubling ideas about what a new Dark Ages might look like." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 23, 2013
    0% Jewtopia (2013) " An appalling array of hideous ethic and gender stereotypes is what passes for 'humor' in this pitiful excuse for a comedy." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 20, 2013
    100% Metro Manila (2013) " One of the most enrapturing experiences I've had at the movies in 2013: fiercely, grandly humanist, and almost unbearably tragic." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 20, 2013
    53% Wasteland (2013) " Smooth, accomplished British crime indie tweaks clichés of the genre in a marvelously satisfying way." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 20, 2013
    44% The Call (2013) " The familiar serial-killer flick gets a welcome shakeup, upending the woman-as-victim cliché and offering a bracing new perspective on an oft-told tale." — Film4
    Posted Sep 20, 2013
    90% Hawking (2013) " An engaging documentary about the world-famous physicist that emphasizes the challenges of his personal life and the resilience of his humor and spirit." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 20, 2013
    58% Cold Comes The Night () " A familiar-feeling crime thriller is enlivened by unexpectedly down-to-earth, hardbitten characters weighed down by the mundane weariness of life on the edge." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 19, 2013
    44% The Call (2013) " Tense, effective popcorn pulp that smashes to smithereens the tired trope of woman-as-victim." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 18, 2013
    80% Prisoners (2013) " Please see this movie. We need to let Hollywood know that there is, in fact, an audience for sophisticated drama for adults." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 16, 2013
    88% Rush (2013) " A thoroughly magnificent film on every level, with astonishing performances by Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl; one of the very best films of 2013." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 16, 2013
    35% Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) " The simple elegance of the first film has been lost in a jumbled mess that sometimes hits on fresh angles on ghost stories but most often is shoddy, sloppy, and lazy." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 16, 2013
    91% In a World... (2013) " A fresh, funny slice-of-life, casually cutting in its feminism and utterly charming in its storytelling." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 13, 2013
    50% White House Down (2013) " It lifts an embarrassing number of beats from Die Hard... but Channing Tatum is no Bruce Willis." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 12, 2013
    100% Red Obsession (2013) " Sly, sometimes funny documentary version of Bottle Shock, with China playing the role of 1970s Napa as it creeps up to smack the snooty Old World wine snobs." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 6, 2013
    92% Museum Hours (2013) " A little bit like a travelogue, a little bit like people-watching, this is simultaneously a relaxing and invigorating cinematic experience. Simply magnificent." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 6, 2013
    62% About Time (2013) " Arbitrary and inconsistent rules of time travel in aid of creepy romantic manipulation and temporal stalking. But hey, at least it's got Bill Nighy!" — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 6, 2013
    60% Riddick (2013) " Dispenses with all pretense that the modern action blockbuster is anything other than the confused, terrified power fantasy of a particularly sheltered and emotionally stunted teenaged boy." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 5, 2013
    44% Bounty Killer (2013) " The genre equivalent of soft-core porn: it doesn't care how strained and derivative it is as long as it is delivering flying bullets, fast cars, and closeups on women's sashaying asses." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 5, 2013
    12% The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013) " Way to give overwrought fan fiction a bad name. No amount of fairy dust can make this bewitching." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Sep 1, 2013
    63% 2 Guns (2013) " Oddly took some advice not intended for movies: 'Be specific but not memorable. Be funny but don't make 'em laugh.'" — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Aug 30, 2013
    34% Passion (2013) " Trashy remake of the brilliant French black comedy strips out the satire and slathers what's left in ridiculous lesbian-erotic-thriller sauce." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Aug 30, 2013
    30% Hammer Of The Gods (2013) " This is what happens when your Lord of the Rings cosplay gets overrun by Method stuntmen." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Aug 29, 2013
    13% The Lifeguard (2013) " Apparently it's hard to be a grownup in today's crazy world without committing consequence-free statutory rape. Ugh." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Aug 29, 2013
    85% Upstream Color (2013) " A confounding intellectual mystery, an enigmatic philosophical science fantasy that's like a cinematic Moebius strip." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Aug 29, 2013
    34% Hell Baby (2013) " I'm actually angry at how little the movie even tries. There isn't enough of anything here to pad out a brief sketch, never mind a feature-length film." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Aug 28, 2013
    85% The Way Way Back (2013) " One of the more achingly poignant stories of awkward (male) adolescence I've seen, and one of the best movies of 2013 (so far). Sam Rockwell steals this movie more than he has ever stolen a movie before." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Aug 28, 2013
    49% Pain & Gain (2013) " A bleak, bitter, wicked pleasure that holds up the underpinnings of modern America - self-help, Jesus, and violence - for ridicule." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Aug 27, 2013
    95% L'ordre et la morale (Rebellion) () " Sporadically exciting French action drama about a 1988 hostage crisis drags more often than it should." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Aug 27, 2013
    97% A Hijacking (2013) " Harrowing drama of modern-day piracy as a sort of illicit corporate takeover; riveting and exhausting." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Aug 27, 2013
    47% Olympus Has Fallen (2013) " A vile propagandistic action flick that shamelessly indulges fears of terrorism while also failing on a basic narrative level." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Aug 26, 2013
    55% The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013) " A provocative, ambitious drama about the unconsidered assumptions that power our cultures, for good or ill." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Aug 26, 2013
    49% The Great Gatsby (2013) " Alternately intriguing and infuriating: it's very like the sort of movie exuberantly excessive Gatsby himself might have made." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Aug 26, 2013
    —— Monsters Wanted (2013) " A rare unromantic look at just how much labor (and risk) goes into a labor of love..." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Aug 26, 2013
    8% Grown Ups 2 (2013) " This is not a movie. This is nothing but Adam Sandler hanging out with his pals and congratulating himself on how awesome he finds himself to be." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Aug 25, 2013
    68% Elysium (2013) " Neill Blomkamp cements his science-fiction credentials as a filmmaker with a genre vision the likes of which we haven't seen since the socially conscious SF of the 1970s." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Aug 23, 2013
    50% Devil's Pass (2013) " A deliciously ooky, X-Files-esque chiller that's a scary-fun hoot and a half; a lean, smart example of the found-footage flick." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Aug 22, 2013
    75% You're Next (2013) " Oh, it's horrific, all right: wooden performances and stilted exposition, punctuated by bouts of random bloody sadism." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Aug 22, 2013
    47% We're The Millers (2013) " Reason No. 34,075 to legalize drugs: it would eliminate painfully unfunny comedies like this one. Comedy shouldn't make you pity the comedians." — Flick Filosopher
    Posted Aug 22, 2013
    Showing 1 - 50 of 3249
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