Critics » Nick Rogers
Nick Rogers

Nick Rogers

""Truly, for some men, nothing is written unless THEY write it." - Sherif Ali, "Lawrence of Arabia." "It's a great thing when you realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself." - Lester Burnham, "American Beauty" "One: never underestimate your opponent. Expect the unexpected. Two: take it outside. Never start anything inside unless it's absolutely necessary. And three: be nice. You be nice ... until it's time to not be nice." - Dalton Voss, "Road House.""

Agrees with the Tomatometer 76% of the time.

Biography:
I have been covering arts & entertainment, as well as writing general features, for the past 13 years at various print outlets in Illinois and have been reviewing films since 1995.
Favorites:
BEST OF RECENT YEARS - There Will Be Blood, United 93, A History of Violence, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, About Schmidt, The Royal Tenenbaums, Traffic, American Beauty, Saving Private Ryan, L.A. Confidential, Sling Blade GUILTY PLEASURES - Deep Rising, Mouse Hunt, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, From Dusk Till Dawn, Jackass: The Movie, Road House, XXX
Publications:
State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) , Suite101.com
Total Reviews:
767
Location:
Lafayette, IN

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 50 of 767
Previous | Next
Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date
3.5/5 67% Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) " Where does it land? A fifth dimension beyond that known to most films. The middle ground between wowing & worthless, between so great & so what, and it lies between the pits of recklessly fatal hubris and the very summit of spirited genre filmmaking." — Suite101.com
Posted Aug 29, 2013
4/5 64% Demolition Man (1993) " Not for nothing does the film open on a screen-filling image of the Hollywood sign in flames, for it torches almost every supposition that a film made to showcase Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes whomping on each other can only be brain-dead." — Suite101.com
Posted Aug 1, 2013
1.5/5 42% Red 2 (2013) " So much of the movie feels on the verge of collapsing into blooper laughs well before the credits roll. It's depressing to watch such once-likable characters and conceits flail with no rescue in sight. Then again, they'd have been better dead than RED 2." — Suite101.com
Posted Jul 18, 2013
4/5 52% So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993) " Everyone quotes the Scottish-accented misanthropy. But at its heart, "Axe" is a sweet, funny romance between people trapped in patterns and freed by a positive paradigm shift. It's also the reason we never see Mike Myers' true face in films anymore." — Suite101.com
Posted Jun 27, 2013
2.5/5 36% The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013) " As a character, Burt Wonderstone runs counter to Steve Carell's inherent sweetness. In Carell's hands, Burt comes off as a 50-calorie Ron Burgundy. When he tightens his vocal cords to hit Ferrell's register, the strain is as visible as it is audible." — Suite101.com
Posted Jun 23, 2013
4.5/5 38% The Purge (2013) " Feels like the speculative offspring from a shotgun marriage between real-life, tenuous policies and discordant bluster. From a political point of view, it invites you to the wedding, lets you decide on which side to sit and avoids any sermonizing." — Suite101.com
Posted Jun 7, 2013
3.5/5 35% The Internship (2013) " Harmlessly middlebrow with the occasionally relatable observation about occupational problems. Despite its flaws, it works as T-shirt-and-jeans comedy - loose-fit casual, with a timeworn plot faded into its fabric like a decade-old salsa stain." — Suite101.com
Posted Jun 7, 2013
4.5/5 39% Last Action Hero (1993) " Driven less by mammoth ego and more by wild, unchecked id, "Last Action Hero" works as a riotous comedy and a rigorous case study of why we go to the movies. It's an inventive valentine made timeless by audacious shamelessness and shameless audacity." — Suite101.com
Posted May 30, 2013
4/5 50% Now You See Me (2013) " If a trick really is something a whore does for money, "Now You See Me" is a cut-above illusion that plays fanciful, fast and loose, but more or less fair. Its only knock is not having much up its sleeve for any actors playing the Four Horsemen." — Suite101.com
Posted May 30, 2013
4.5/5 69% Fast & Furious 6 (2013) " "Furious 6" elevates the franchise into saga territory -an automotive "Avengers" as suffused with sincerity as it is bereft of pretenses. Its sweet, nostril-filling tang is unwise to inhale too often, but it's worth a good whiff every couple years." — Suite101.com
Posted May 23, 2013
1.5/5 41% Parker (2013) " Calling "Parker" run-of-the-mill insults the pleasures of the potboilers it's trying to emulate. It feels like the product of misfits who broke into a mill shuttered on the edge of town and fired up the machines without understanding how they work." — Suite101.com
Posted May 20, 2013
4.5/5 75% This Boy's Life (1993) " The film demands ominous electricity between Dwight and Toby, the latter of whom endures various and sundry humiliation and harm at the former's hands. And there are times when DiCaprio doesn't just go toe-to-toe with De Niro but feels just as tall." — Suite101.com
Posted May 5, 2013
2/5 32% Gangster Squad (2013) " Although it's blunt and brisk in its own inoffensive way, "Gangster Squad" is meathead cinema - the sort that cuts hard from a splattered brain to spatula-pressed hamburger. Unlike that grilled patty, the movie is mostly sizzle, little steak." — Suite101.com
Posted May 5, 2013
3.5/5 65% The Outsiders (1983) " Ultimately, "The Outsiders" feels like two movies awkwardly thrown together - one a tough-acting antiseptic to the sanitized-suburbia Spielberg fantasies that ruled the era's box office, the other a besotted valentine to widescreen epics of old." — Suite101.com
Posted May 5, 2013
4.5/5 61% Jack Reacher (2012) " McQuarrie deftly intermixes observations on human nature - aware that in life, as in all great mysteries, people are not so easily described as "killer" and "victim." Part of why you root for Jack Reacher is his empathy for these foibles and follies." — Suite101.com
Posted May 5, 2013
4/5 54% Oblivion (2013) " The narrative's heart races neither as rapidly nor poetically as it should, and it's almost pathologically derivative. But ultimately, director Joseph Kosinski's curious, compelling combination of analog patience and digital prowess saves the film." — Suite101.com
Posted Apr 18, 2013
3.5/5 80% Videodrome (1983) " Here, Cronenberg is a provocateur only to a point - boldly striding past boundaries of comfort but getting the heebie-jeebies upon approaching true profundity. But he wasn't too far from figuring out which incisions could cut the deepest." — Suite101.com
Posted Feb 28, 2013
4/5 60% The Last Stand (2013) " A legendary star back on his game. Clever humor. Hellacious setpieces. The smarts to not take things too seriously. When it comes to what you need for a clever, entertaining live-action "Looney Tunes" episode, ble, ble, ble, that's all, folks." — Suite101.com
Posted Jan 17, 2013
5/5 93% Zero Dark Thirty (2013) " Catharsis is infrequent. Victories are few. The clash between statistics and instincts yields casualties. And heart, as often defined by Hollywood, here becomes just a physiological midpoint between brain and gut - trusted at the risk of peril." — Suite101.com
Posted Jan 10, 2013
3/5 19% Texas Chainsaw (2013) " In such slabs of beef, there's always going to be gristle. At least Luessenhop and company cut around most of it and sear in enough seasoning to serve something that, as cheapie-roadside cinematic meals go, is surprisingly digestible." — Suite101.com
Posted Jan 4, 2013
3/5 75% Killing Them Softly (2012) " Terrific performances, but it too often feels like a referendum on Brad Pitt's disappointment in President Obama, much like George Clooney's "The Ides of March." Unlike "Ides," it strains mightily to Say Something Big about political bread & circus." — Suite101.com
Posted Dec 4, 2012
3/5 12% Red Dawn (2012) " A technically proficient, matinee time-waster, but not the palpable, clammy-palmed geopolitical nightmare that could have been. It trades not on current U.S. anxieties, but the bankability its stars acquired as the film languished on studio shelves." — Suite101.com
Posted Nov 21, 2012
2/5 60% Never Say Never Again (1983) " Can we just consider 1983 a lost year for James Bond? First, "Octopussy," then Sean Connery's return in a depressing dilution of the 007 brand - one that ends with a fourth wall-breaking wink indicative less of arch fun, more of bored indifference." — Suite101.com
Posted Nov 11, 2012
1.5/5 27% Casino Royale (1967) " Proponents of this dreadfully indulgent cabaret, which thumbs its nose at coherence, have called its nigh-impenetrable plot the sincerest form of satire. That's like citing the indecipherable nature of Zapf Dingbats as a foremost send-up of language." — Suite101.com
Posted Nov 11, 2012
4.5/5 92% Skyfall (2012) " The last scenes reshuffle the deck with a tipped cap to tradition and a clear eye on the future. They suggest Bond has learned all he must to persevere. Perhaps he can go forth defined less by those he's lost and have a little fun in doing so." — Suite101.com
Posted Nov 8, 2012
3.5/5 49% The Man With the Iron Fists (2012) " Equal parts Jack Burton and Richard Burton, Russell Crowe bellows and bloviates through the entire movie. That's a compliment to this lovingly cheeky and aggressively choreographed, if not overly exciting, valentine to shabby-grindhouse martial arts." — Suite101.com
Posted Nov 3, 2012
4/5 57% Die Another Day (2002) " There was absolutely no choice but to dial it down afterward but not because "Die Another Day" is an abomination of which to be ashamed. Alongside "You Only Live Twice," it's Bond at his most aggressively outlandish and shamelessly entertaining." — Suite101.com
Posted Oct 20, 2012
1.5/5 24% Paranormal Activity 4 (2012) " At a Thursday-night screening meant for the diehards, one man was loudly sawing logs by the 60-minute mark and the final "shock" stinger was met largely with laughter. Para-snore-mal activity, indeed." — Suite101.com
Posted Oct 20, 2012
1.5/5 51% The World Is Not Enough (1999) " Austin Powers seems to have made the Broccolis gun shy about letting Bond have too much fun, lest "World" be mentally lumped alongside an aggressively bawdy parody. Sterile, sluggish and halfheartedly suspenseful, it's the second-worst 007 film ever." — Suite101.com
Posted Oct 14, 2012
4/5 57% Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) " A thrill machine akin to one of the canon's more cleverly naughty entendres, uttered here: "You always were a cunning linguist, James." Obvious and crass to please everyone's inner schoolboy, but presented with just enough eloquence and ingenuity." — Suite101.com
Posted Oct 14, 2012
4.5/5 82% GoldenEye (1995) " It doesn't completely lay Bond's psychological complexities naked, cold and bare. But "GoldenEye" can hardly be faulted for occasional concessions to casual entertainment - especially with a superior villain, taut action and an all-time Bond girl." — Suite101.com
Posted Oct 14, 2012
3.5/5 74% Licence To Kill (1989) " No quips. No smirks. No innuendoes. Just raw, exposed nerves. The traits for which Dalton gets dinged are those looking past the character's admittedly alluring surface pleasures. Women aren't the only things that keep 007 awake at night, you know." — Suite101.com
Posted Oct 14, 2012
4/5 75% The Living Daylights (1987) " Dalton is a dapper, dashing and dangerous Bond. And although "Casino Royale's" sophisticated blend of thrills and personal turmoil slightly eludes "Daylights," it's a sign that the producers then had the right instincts if not the full initiative." — Suite101.com
Posted Oct 14, 2012
3/5 36% A View to a Kill (1985) " Contrary to historical opinion and some truly awful movies, Moore conjured roguish magic over his 12-year tenure. His Bond cast the spell that initially charmed me as a kid - one perhaps so intoxicating to him that it was simply hard to let go." — Suite101.com
Posted Oct 13, 2012
2.5/5 43% Octopussy (1983) " James Bond is old. Wrinkled-forehead old. Lecherous-coot old. Strategic-hairstyle old. Senior meal-discount old. Simply ... old. That's the biggest takeaway from Roger Moore's second-worst outing as 007, hot on the heels of his second-best. " — Suite101.com
Posted Oct 13, 2012
4/5 73% For Your Eyes Only (1981) " There are quite a few individual pieces of "For Your Eyes Only" that don't quite fit. But to borrow from its Olympic theme, its gymnastic flexibility sure lets it excel in the all-around. " — Suite101.com
Posted Oct 13, 2012
1.5/5 62% Moonraker (1979) " James Bond would have to go back to Earth in "For Your Eyes Only" because "Moonraker" is truly a stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder. " — Suite101.com
Posted Oct 13, 2012
2.5/5 83% Seven Psychopaths (2012) " Ultimately, the experience of watching "Seven Psychopaths" is akin to watching a dog like Bonnie chase its tail: It's only funny until you realize that the running in circles isn't ever really going to stop. " — Suite101.com
Posted Oct 13, 2012
4.5/5 78% The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) " In a tremendous film that shows Moore's Bond still has the old razzle-dazzle, "Nobody Does It Better" isn't just a theme song. It's a forceful and fun statement of purpose, and "Spy" offers the franchise the definitive jolt it so sorely needed." — Suite101.com
Posted Aug 10, 2012
3/5 46% The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) " Why did a tale that could've been a bit ragged - and a nice stretch for Moore - become simply a so-so romp? Chalk it up to the franchise's nervous need to capitalize on other genres' zeitgeist -first, blaxploitation, and here, martial arts." — Suite101.com
Posted Aug 10, 2012
3.5/5 65% Live and Let Die (1973) " In the longest tenure of any James Bond performer, Roger Moore would certainly have higher highs and lower lows. And while it strays from Bond formula in ways good and bad, it's a fine introduction to a 007 more prone to crack wise than crack heads." — Suite101.com
Posted Aug 10, 2012
2/5 65% Diamonds Are Forever (1971) " Thanks to the clarity and cut of past 007 films, Sean Connery will sparkle forever. But with a dearth of action and only a fat paycheck as motivation, "Diamonds" feels less like a triumphant return and more like a cheesed-up cabaret version of Bond." — Suite101.com
Posted Aug 10, 2012
3.5/5 81% On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) " An odd interruption in the Bond canon that's neither an unsung masterpiece nor an unmitigated disaster. It's half terrific, half terrible -the former most often when George Lazenby shuts up and Peter Hunt's masterful action instincts take over." — Suite101.com
Posted Aug 10, 2012
4.5/5 71% You Only Live Twice (1967) " What seems like a floundering follow-up to the canned, constrained "Thunderball" rights the ship with imaginative storytelling, impeccable production design and furious filmmaking flourishes that introduce the Bond hallmarks of stunts and spectacles." — Suite101.com
Posted Aug 10, 2012
2/5 85% Thunderball (1965) " Turgidly paced and overly reliant on less-than-thrilling underwater sequences, it's the "Moonraker" of Sean Connery's run -a misstep defined by heyday technology that the producers thought would look cool in the era but feels hopelessly stale today." — Suite101.com
Posted Jun 30, 2012
4/5 96% Goldfinger (1964) " Gone is any and all idea of James Bond's vulnerability. However, "Goldfinger" swaps in a gaudier, glitzier subtext directly related to how this blockbuster took aim almost squarely at an American audience." — Suite101.com
Posted Jun 24, 2012
5/5 96% From Russia With Love (1964) " It has more in common spiritually with Le Carre than Fleming. Only after James Bond's vulnerabilities have been further exploited than in "Dr. No" does he succeed. "Russia" is about as far as it gets from the biggest Bond, but it's easily the best." — Suite101.com
Posted Jun 17, 2012
4/5 98% Dr. No (1962) " In the end, it's more gumshoe mystery than action-adventure and, comparative to almost everything that followed, very low-key. But legends must start somewhere, and looking back at its reminders of how Bond wasn't always "Bond" are fascinating." — Suite101.com
Posted Jun 11, 2012
2.5/5 19% Chernobyl Diaries (2012) " You get the sleazy fatalism you pay for, albeit with production values and scare tactics more atmospheric, restrained and artistic than you might expect. " — Suite101.com
Posted May 25, 2012
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