Michael Dequina

Michael Dequina

""Let me tell you first, from the bottom of my heart, that I couldn't care less about your feelings.... I hate feeling and you can lash out at me all you want, because it only makes me stronger. You see, I'm not here for sisters... I'm here for POWER. I thirst for strength, battle skills, and determination... and when I am filled with those qualities... I will flat out destroy those who have hurt me and take back what is mine. I will find selfness when I am standing on the corpses of my enemies." --Dr. Kimberly Shaw (Marcia Cross), MELROSE PLACE"

Agrees with the Tomatometer 79% of the time.

Biography:
Although I wrote my first movie review in the 8th grade (on 1990's TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES), I did not start writing reviews on a regular basis until 1991, when I became the resident critic for my high school newspaper, Long Beach Polytechnic's HIGH LIFE. It was during my HIGH LIFE tenure that I received my first recognition for my work; in 1993 and 1994 I was named "Best High School Critic in California" by the Southern California Journalism Educators Association (SCJEA). After graduation in June 1994, I effectively "retired" from the reviewing biz, only to return to the field the following April with the launch of THE MOVIE REPORT, my weekly E-mail movie newsletter. MR. BROWN'S MOVIE SITE, the WWW companion to the MR, was launched that November. In addition to my personal reviewing ventures, I write the review column "Film Flam Flummox" for MOVIE POOP SHOOT and contribute reviews to CINEMAREVIEW MAGAZINE, FILM THREAT, the AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE BOOK CLUB and EPINIONS. If I'm known for anything besides my review work and my infamous two-time rejection from UCLA film school, it's for my interest in Michael Jordan; I was Michael's chat forum host at his official site from 1998 to 1999.
Publications:
Film Threat , Movie Poop Shoot , Quick Stop Entertainment , rec.arts.movies.reviews , Reel Site , TheMovieReport.com
Critics' Group:
Online Film Critics Society
Total Reviews:
3013
Total QuickRatings:
442
Location:
Southern California (the LBC)

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 50 of 3013
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Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date
3.5/4 63% Things Never Said (2013) " The familiar themes of escaping abuse and self-actualization/redemption/salvation through art become, in Murray and his cast's hands, something uniquely and memorably moving and exhilarating." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Oct 5, 2013
3/4 31% The Lone Ranger (2013) " A sense of joy in Verbinski's action runs through and energizes the entire film, and it's an ingratiating quality that should not be so easily and quickly dismissed." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Oct 1, 2013
3.5/4 88% Rango (2011) " Delivers the western genre goods along with generous laughs and some impressive animation--and some brazenly warped sensibilities." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Oct 1, 2013
3/4 54% Oblivion (2013) " Kosinski's totality of vision may not look or feel entirely original but is striking and memorable all the same." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 29, 2013
3.5/4 87% Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (2009) " Where else can you find the varied likes of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Bruce Campbell, and--yes--Mr. T together and all on their A game?" — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 29, 2013
3/4 16% Baggage Claim (2013) " There's so much sincere sweetness and flighty fun that writer-director David E. Talbert, star Paula Patton, and all involved earn their old-fashioned happily ever after." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 27, 2013
3/4 95% Enough Said (2013) " Simple, quiet, unassuming, but with loads of warmth and heart." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 27, 2013
3/4 31% Austenland (2013) " The hook consistently gives the whole film a most welcome dose of knowingly cheeky and absurdist humor, lending a most distinctive personality to the more conventional genre formula." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 25, 2013
4/4 —— Lootera (2013) " It's not at all trite to state that by the hauntingly bittersweet end, everything magically falls into place, for there is true magic in Motwane's mastery in crafting a such a poetic, passionately felt, and perfectly realized work of art." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 18, 2013
3.5/4 86% The Conjuring (2013) " A carefully, masterfully crafted and ever-so-crescendoing exercise in atmospheric dread." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 15, 2013
3/4 22% Country Strong (2011) " A rawer, realer, and far more believable and compelling portrait of a self-destructive country artist's attempt at recovery than CRAZY HEART." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 15, 2013
3/4 52% Tron Legacy (2010) " A simple sci-fi thrill ride, in terms of action, visuals, and unpretentious fun." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 15, 2013
3.5/4 96% True Grit (2010) " A fascinating study in how two films can follow the same source material fairly closely but come up with interpretations so tonally, spiritually different--but equally valid." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 15, 2013
2/4 49% The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010) " What's been missing from the series since the first film is a strong, memorable adversary." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 15, 2013
1/4 35% Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) " Falls short, especially when much of the would-be frights shoulder on Wilson's overwrought and rather embarrassing attempt at echoing Jack Nicholson in THE SHINING." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 15, 2013
3/4 75% You're Next (2013) " A thriller that indeed does thrill through suspense and wit, particularly in its rather inspired spins on all-too-familiar genre tropes." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 15, 2013
3/4 63% Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain (2013) " The laughs are frequent, with Hart's energy and timing having grown and been honed to more than fill the vast, cavernous space of Madison Square Garden." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 14, 2013
3.5/4 84% This Is the End (2013) " That Rogen and Goldberg make one of the Backstreet Boys' more annoying yesteryear hit singles something you giddily sing along to is a measure of just how on point the satire is--that, or that it truly *is* the end of the world." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 14, 2013
3.5/4 65% The Heat (2013) " The sparks that fly between the two have that much more sting, thanks to the acidically hilarious banter and Bullock and McCarthy's complete, fearless abandon." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 14, 2013
3/4 81% Una noche (One Night) (2013) " Not only a portrait of the frustrations and yearnings of Cuban youth, but a universally relevant one of any people striving for more and better than their current stifling existences." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 14, 2013
2.5/4 15% Winnie Mandela (2013) " The end credits song's beautifully delivered, full-throttle emotional bombast only serves as a dismaying reminder of how much the film otherwise lacks any similar passion and soul." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 13, 2013
3/4 56% Man of Steel (2013) " Snyder delivers the type of undeniable, overwhelming charge with which he's become Sny-nonymous, and his affinity for spectacle strongly courses throughout." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 13, 2013
1.5/4 26% Jobs (2013) " One can see Kutcher acting, valiantly trying oh-so-hard as his every answer to any requirement for emotional intensity unilaterally comes off as merely shrilly raising the volume of his voice." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 12, 2013
3/4 86% Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013) " Farhan Akhtar's performance here puts his still-young acting career on equal weight with his justly celebrated one as a writer, director, and producer." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 9, 2013
2.5/4 64% One Direction: This Is Us (2013) " Like their music, the film proves to be inoffensively genial, if surface-deep. " — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 9, 2013
3/4 46% Closed Circuit (2013) " A lot of classy talent is involved--and so expectedly on point are their efforts that one almost overlooks the overall rote and mechanical workings." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 9, 2013
1.5/4 27% Planes (2013) " Plays like the cheap DisneyToons small screen cash-in effort it clearly was conceived and always meant to be." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 2, 2013
3/4 63% 2 Guns (2013) " The film may be as formulaic as the prosaic title suggests, but the name also reflects the fundamentally straightforward and undeniable appeal of it." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 2, 2013
3/4 38% Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013) " A brisk and fun stand-alone adventure that again blends in clever nods to familiar Greek mythology as well as plants promising seeds for larger arcs." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 2, 2013
2/4 14% The Smurfs 2 (2013) " The early-elementary-school-age kids in the auditorium will certainly shut up for ninety minutes, but just about anyone outside of that demographic will find attention wandering." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Sep 2, 2013
3/4 69% Fast & Furious 6 (2013) " Shamelessly traffics in mind-numbing contrivance and formula and owns them with such stylish verve it doesn't matter a damn." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Aug 31, 2013
2/4 11% After Earth (2013) " Shyamalan's worst habits end up overwhelming the most formidable assets at his disposal: the Smiths." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Aug 31, 2013
2/4 19% The Hangover Part III (2013) " It's really apparent that outside of the originally established formula, Phillips and company really had no clue where to take the Wolfpack." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Aug 31, 2013
2/4 4% Paranoia (2013) " If there's anything most conspicuously in short supply in this thriller it's a strong sense of exactly that, paranoia." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Aug 31, 2013
2.5/4 12% The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013) " In the end it comes off as rather inoffensively been-there, done-that--except for Jamie Campbell Bower, that is, who is strictly WTF." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Aug 31, 2013
3.5/4 73% Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013) " Whitaker's ever-observing, ever-expressive eyes tell the tale of how he actively processes, thinks, and feels even if outwardly he may appear as nothing more, as his job requires, than a virtually invisible bystander." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Aug 31, 2013
3/4 100% Big Words (2013) " The nuances and layers the actors bring to these complicated, all too real characters and dynamics between them speak far more loudly than any written or spoken word, no matter how big." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Aug 29, 2013
3.5/4 44% To The Wonder (2013) " In its conventionally alienating extremes, this is probably Malick's most pure expression of his uniquely impressionistic, almost extra-sensory cinematic gifts, transporting one to a meditative wavelength of emotional experience." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Aug 29, 2013
2/4 40% Only God Forgives (2013) " Refn has stated that the effect he was going for was an acid trip, and he's succeeded maybe a bit too well, as the initial surface trance wears off to reveal not much else going on." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Aug 29, 2013
3/4 49% Pain & Gain (2013) " The closest Michael Bay's natural style for flash really feels like an organic extension and expression of the material's narrative and characters rather than mere surface gloss." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Aug 29, 2013
3/4 —— Shootout At Wadala (2013) " As with Sanjay Gupta's other work, so galvanizing and alive is his high style that it becomes the film's substance." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Aug 28, 2013
3/4 87% Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) " Cumberbatch, with his otherworldly aura of menace and basso profundo rumble of voice, makes a worthy and memorable Big Bad in the annals of Trek lore." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Aug 28, 2013
3/4 67% The Iceman (2013) " 'Big bad' with a side dish of bats--t crazy is the specialty of Michael Shannon, and so scarily good he is in mining this wheelhouse that one does not dare to complain about him repeating himself." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Aug 28, 2013
3/4 49% The Great Gatsby (2013) " Boils down to its essence of pure feeling, in every sense--from literal stimulus and sensation to the emotions, in all their seething, loving, consuming, destructive passions, that drive the characters and their actions." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Aug 28, 2013
3.5/4 94% Fruitvale Station (2013) " Coogler shows the storytelling maturity and restraint to keep the focus squarely on the characters, not so much on the actual act of bloodshed itself but the wounds exacted upon the direct victims, witnesses, and families alike." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted Jul 14, 2013
2.5/4 79% Iron Man 3 (2013) " Like the suits Tony Stark pilots by remote throughout the film, it feels like an empty shell, all sleek and shiny and looking the part on the surface but hollow at the core." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted May 6, 2013
2/4 16% Temptation (2013) " Smollett-Bell, Gross, and Brandy work hard to bring an emotional authenticity to their characters and relationships--an authenticity that is ultimately negated by questionable choices in Perry's script and direction." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted May 6, 2013
3/4 69% Trance (2013) " The unpredictable journey through fluid and malleable concepts of reality and identity is consistently gripping." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted May 6, 2013
2.5/4 45% Filly Brown (2013) " However much earnest commitment and passion that the cast lend to their roles, it ultimately cannot overcome the routine structure and approach to the overall execution." — TheMovieReport.com
Posted May 6, 2013
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