Michael Dequina Movie Reviews & Previews

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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:: 3006
Total QuickRatings:: 442

Location:: Southern California (the LBC)

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 50 of 3006

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Rating	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date
2.5/4	78%	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	68%	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
3.5/4	53%	The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013)	" The film not only functions well as a thriller and an exploration of post-9/11 paranoia and prejudice, but a thoughtful look at fickle, knee-jerk human psychology of judgment in the wake of tragedies." — TheMovieReport.com Posted May 6, 2013
3/4	77%	42 (2013)	" Even if it may not necessarily read on Helgeland's more surface-skimming page, it subtly yet deeply reads in Boseman's eyes Robinson's wrenching day-to-day struggle to maintain almost superhuman composure amid literally, viciously in-his-face prejudice." — TheMovieReport.com Posted May 6, 2013
2/4	9%	The Host (2013)	" Catnip for the cooing teen female set but far less engaging and rewarding for anyone else." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Apr 23, 2013
3.5/4	92%	Free Angela & All Political Prisoners (2013)	" An all too sobering reminder of how, in the purported land of the free, any voices deemed radical and hence dangerous can lead the powers that be to find any remote angle to silence them by whatever force and means they deem necessary." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Apr 22, 2013
3/4	93%	The Sapphires (2013)	" A surefire crowdpleaser with all the ingredients for the type of little-movie-that-could sleeper success that Harvey Weinstein has nurtured in years and award seasons past." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Apr 22, 2013
3.5/4	36%	LUV (2013)	" Common more than pulls off the tough task in a revelatory, award-worthy turn." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Apr 9, 2013
3/4	88%	Django Unchained (2012)	" It's a testament to Foxx and Washington's talent, presence, and proven rapport that they keep the central emotional hook strongly present as their underwritten roles are continually pushed to the sidelines by Tarantino's overwriting for others." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Apr 1, 2013
3.5/4	52%	This is 40 (2012)	" The most satisfying example yet of why Judd Apatow's become such a formidable comedy brand in recent years." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Apr 1, 2013
3/4	92%	Silver Linings Playbook (2012)	" Jennifer Lawrence is the only aspect of the film that truly lives up to the trumped-up awards buzz and hype, but being a perfectly enjoyable light comedy with heaps of heart is no small feat in itself." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Mar 31, 2013
3.5/4	67%	Talaash (2012)	" A moving and quietly powerful study of the ongoing yet not always obvious damage suffered in the long wake of loss." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Mar 31, 2013
3.5/4	96%	Argo (2012)	" The film, for all its ample smarts and solid academic craft, is just a great time at the movies." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Mar 31, 2013
1/4	23%	Ready to Rumble (2000)	— rec.arts.movies.reviews Posted Jan 22, 2013
3/4	49%	The Man With the Iron Fists (2012)	" RZA's obvious and infectious affection for the genre carries the film past its equally obvious rough spots. " — TheMovieReport.com Posted Nov 13, 2012
3.5/4	79%	Flight (2012)	" Shows how much Robert Zemeckis's well-balanced expertise in the technical elements as well as in story and character have been missed in the live action cinema the last ten-plus years." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Nov 3, 2012
3.5/4	83%	Barfi! (2012)	" A moving work that is at once bittersweet and uplifting, and altogether charming." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Oct 29, 2012
3.5/4	87%	Middle of Nowhere (2012)	" Its unadorned simplicity belies the exquisite thought, craft, and heart that only could have made such an accomplishment possible." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Oct 29, 2012
3/4	55%	Beloved (2012)	" The songs may not be particularly memorable; however, they serve their purpose in bolstering the emotional drive of the piece, and the film's effect would be neither as unique nor as lasting had they not been there." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Aug 22, 2012
2/4	34%	The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012)	" Just whom exactly is this movie for?" — TheMovieReport.com Posted Aug 18, 2012
3/4	——	Englewood: The Growing Pains in Chicago ()	" To simply dismiss the film as derivative is to discount the distinctive perspective and personality of Cochran's work." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Aug 18, 2012
3/4	58%	Sparkle (2012)	" An ideal example of how a remake should be, not necessarily supplanting the original film but nicely complementing it." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Aug 18, 2012
3/4	42%	The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)	" Irresistibly salacious soap opera, teeming with lust, scheming, backstabbing, and some outrageously overheated plot twists." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Aug 12, 2012
3/4	53%	Penelope (2006)	" This quirky, snarky contemporary fairy tale could have been a family blockbuster." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Aug 12, 2012
2.5/4	51%	Nim's Island (2008)	" The material isn't up to the level of the film's lead, Abigail Breslin." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Jul 26, 2012
2/4	19%	Doom (2005)	" Just feels like The Rock marking time and paying more dues until the more interesting and challenging offers come his way." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Jul 25, 2012
3/4	54%	Mamma Mia! (2008)	" It would be easy to underrate the deceptively effortless master acting class that Meryl Streep puts on here." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Jul 24, 2012
4/4	94%	The Dark Knight (2008)	" Thank Warner Bros. for letting Nolan make such a smart, thrilling, emotionally involving, just terrifically well rounded and fully realized entertainment that challenges and elevates notions of what a so-called 'summer blockbuster' can do." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Jul 24, 2012
3/4	86%	Buried (2010)	" Director Rodrigo Cortes continually achieves the seemingly impossible." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Jul 23, 2012
2.5/4	27%	Step Up 2 the Streets (2008)	" Too bad much crap is needed to be waded through to get to the rather terrifically done finale." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Jul 23, 2012
3/4	46%	Step Up 3-D (2010)	" *With each successive film, whatever passes for story becomes all the more shallow and trite--and the movies as a whole actually get better." — TheMovieReport.com* Posted Jul 23, 2012
3/4	76%	The Do-Deca-Pentathlon (2012)	" The wisest choice of all is to cast talented unknown actors, who make these characters and the absurd goings-on feel that much more real--and hence all the more funny." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Jul 21, 2012
2/4	5%	30 Beats (2012)	" A clever storytelling structure can easily be reduced to a mere gimmick when there's no story of worth to tell." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Jul 21, 2012
3.5/4	87%	The Dark Knight Rises (2012)	" 'The legend ends' makes for a most inaccurate tag line for the film, for this ambitious, largely satisfying wrap-up only further ensures that Nolan's legendary achievement with this three-film cycle will long live on." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Jul 20, 2012
3/4	51%	Savages (2012)	" When Stone finally achieves a comfortable balance between the pretty young things and the cornucopia of crazies, the film truly comes to full life as the lurid, down and dirty entertainer one hopes for." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Jul 20, 2012
2/4	29%	Red Lights (2012)	" Overblown and nonsensical, even for this type of thriller." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Jul 20, 2012
3.5/4	67%	Trishna (2012)	" Pinto's piercingly expressive eyes tell the whole story--the excitement of not only first love but the new, and that innocent hope and romantic idealism slowly, inevitably bled dry." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Jul 20, 2012
2.5/4	——	Valley of the Sun (2012)	" The generally groan-worthy humor makes the film far from the rollicking romp the premise would suggest." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Jul 17, 2012
1.5/4	——	The Jerk Theory (2010)	" It's in the 'comedy' aspect that this teen rom-com goes all wrong." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Jul 16, 2012
2.5/4	80%	Life in a Day (2011)	" All too well summed up by its closing bit, where a young woman bemoans how she hoped for an eventful day but ended up with another rather mundane one." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Jul 16, 2012
2/4	——	3 (2012)	" Writer-director Aishwarya R. Dhanush is not quite up to the task of the difficult, delicate subject matter she chooses to tackle." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Jul 13, 2012
3.5/4	73%	The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)	" Respectful and satisfying, and if it feels somewhat by-the-book safe, the basic foundation now effectively recemented, it solidly paves the way for bigger thrills and greater dramatic, cinematic heights." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Jul 9, 2012
3/4	77%	Katy Perry: Part of Me (2012)	" Has more stand-alone substance and resonance than anticipated." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Jul 5, 2012
2.5/4	56%	Albert Nobbs (2012)	" One's admiration for Close's work becomes more for her versatility and fearlessness than a connection with the character she portrays." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Jul 2, 2012
2/4	63%	The Woman in the Fifth (2012)	" Too many questions are left unaddressed, much less unanswered, in its rush to a meager non-payoff." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Jul 2, 2012
3/4	56%	People Like Us (2012)	" The formidable talent of the cast believably turns the contrivance-navigating characters into (yes) people like us. " — TheMovieReport.com Posted Jul 2, 2012
3/4	35%	Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)	" If there's anything more radical and outrageous than the very title and concept, it's how focused and committed director Timur Bekmambetov and writer Seth Grahame-Smith are to its execution." — TheMovieReport.com Posted Jul 2, 2012

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