Critics » Peter Howell
Peter Howell

Peter Howell

Agrees with the Tomatometer 78% of the time.

Publications:
Toronto Star
Critics' Group:
Broadcast Film Critics Association, Toronto Film Critics Association
Total Reviews:
1576

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 50 of 1576
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Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date
2.5/4 42% All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2013) " It's a time trip worth taking, with moody lensing and a suspenseful script (by Jacob Forman) that offers more than just the usual bloodbath." — Toronto Star
Posted Oct 3, 2013
2/4 46% Parkland (2013) " Peter Landesman's bland Parkland approaches history by way of mediocrity." — Toronto Star
Posted Oct 3, 2013
3.5/4 98% Wadjda (2013) " Wadjda captures Saudi life on the cusp of serious change, but it's by no means a solemn drama. Al-Mansour writes and directs with a light touch and hopeful aspect." — Toronto Star
Posted Oct 3, 2013
3.5/4 98% Gravity (2013) " Not since 2001: A Space Odyssey has a film so vividly and realistically transmitted the feeling of being lost in the cosmos." — Toronto Star
Posted Oct 3, 2013
2.5/4 93% Muscle Shoals (2013) " The film runs a tad long (just under two hours) and could stand another edit, but Mick, Keith, Bono and Aretha are on a roll, man." — Toronto Star
Posted Oct 3, 2013
3/4 89% After Tiller (2013) " After Tiller takes a compassionate look at a highly impassioned situation." — Toronto Star
Posted Oct 3, 2013
1.5/4 16% Baggage Claim (2013) " Baggage Claim is the lost luggage of rom-coms." — Toronto Star
Posted Sep 26, 2013
3/4 88% Rush (2013) " This is no mere thrill ride by two real-life rival speedsters, although it is certainly that. The film also provides a sobering look at what it takes to be a true champion." — Toronto Star
Posted Sep 26, 2013
2.5/4 95% Enough Said (2013) " Gandolfini's achingly honest work is at odds with the rest of Enough Said, which should have been titled Not Enough Said." — Toronto Star
Posted Sep 26, 2013
2.5/4 —— Watermark () " It's meant to inspire us to think about our relationship with water and how we use it, and in this it succeeds admirably." — Toronto Star
Posted Sep 25, 2013
3/4 96% Cutie And The Boxer (2013) " More than anything, the film expresses - at an almost subconscious level - the difficulties of discerning not only what real art is, but also what true love is all about." — Toronto Star
Posted Sep 19, 2013
2.5/4 60% Filthy Gorgeous: The Bob Guccione Story () " The film's talking heads format grinds on at times, but at least the quotes are good and occasionally even shocking." — Toronto Star
Posted Sep 19, 2013
3.5/4 80% Prisoners (2013) " Prisoners uncoils with a serpent's stealth - and strikes just as suddenly." — Toronto Star
Posted Sep 19, 2013
2.5/4 34% Salinger (2013) " Salerno's 10-year trawl through Salinger's closely guarded life gets repetitive, since there are no known film interviews or audiotapes of the author to draw on." — Toronto Star
Posted Sep 19, 2013
99% The Wizard of Oz (1939) " Knowing that it was made without a single computer, and entirely by human ingenuity, makes it all the more worthy of marveling at, 75 years and an added dimension later." — Toronto Star
Posted Sep 19, 2013
2.5/4 62% Les salauds (The Bastards) () " The most noteworthy thing isn't the pictures but rather the hypnotic soundtrack, a vibrant club mix." — Toronto Star
Posted Sep 14, 2013
4/4 97% 12 Years a Slave (2013) " Believe the Oscar buzz. Britain's Steve McQueen (Hunger, Shame) nails the horror of America's slavery shame but also finds humanity in one man's determination to free himself and return to his family. " — Toronto Star
Posted Sep 14, 2013
1.5/4 34% Adore (2013) " There's an undeniable "ick" factor to this film that overwhelms the justifiable cougar angle. Even worse is the boredom that soon sets in." — Toronto Star
Posted Sep 5, 2013
91% Our Nixon (2013) " Our Nixon shows that while the stooges were good at scheming (up until Watergate, at least) they sucked as filmmakers." — Toronto Star
Posted Aug 29, 2013
0.5/4 3% Getaway (2013) " The only real benefit of Getaway is pointing out the likely winners of the next Razzie Award for Worst Screen Couple. Come on down, Hawke and Gomez, you certainly deserve it." — Toronto Star
Posted Aug 29, 2013
3.5/4 46% Closed Circuit (2013) " Closed Circuit will engage you from the explosive opening frames. It may also leave a deep impression about the limits of personal freedom in a society where electronic eyes are everywhere." — Toronto Star
Posted Aug 28, 2013
2.5/4 74% The Grandmaster (2013) " Ip Man's story has been told many times before by other filmmakers. Wong builds upon it, establishing the noble fighter as a reflective but still ferocious grandmaster in 1936 in Foshan, Ip Man's home city in southern China." — Toronto Star
Posted Aug 23, 2013
3/4 75% You're Next (2013) " Satisfies the expectations of Midnight Madness gore hounds - and then it happily goes about exceeding those expectations." — Toronto Star
Posted Aug 23, 2013
3.5/4 89% The World's End (2013) " This movie isn't just smart, it's also wise." — Toronto Star
Posted Aug 22, 2013
3/4 91% In a World... (2013) " This feature debut by writer/director Lake Bell, who also takes the lead role, finds a bastion of previously unexplored male chauvinism that makes for grand mirth." — Toronto Star
Posted Aug 16, 2013
1.5/4 30% Kick-Ass 2 (2013) " It no longer seems very smart (the YouTube and texting references are so 2010) and it's also not much fun anymore." — Toronto Star
Posted Aug 15, 2013
2.5/4 73% Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013) " The film covers a lot of ground with many players, sometimes risking collapse, but it never lets us forget the quest for wholeness at the heart of the story." — Toronto Star
Posted Aug 15, 2013
2/4 54% Lovelace (2013) " Co-directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman never quite pull it off - although you can see how they might have." — Toronto Star
Posted Aug 8, 2013
2.5/4 68% Elysium (2013) " Damon's presence greatly alleviates the been-there feel of this Elysium excursion, which starts to run out of steam when the usual explosive heroics kick in." — Toronto Star
Posted Aug 8, 2013
3.5/4 100% The Deep () " Even knowing the outcome ... doesn't diminish the intensity and awe of watching it recreated in this deftly framed docudrama by prodigious Icelandic auteur Kormakur." — Toronto Star
Posted Aug 8, 2013
3/4 83% Berberian Sound Studio (2013) " Radishes, cabbages and melons meet horrific ends in Berberian Sound Studio, a down-the-earhole psychodrama where what you hear is more terrifying than what you see." — Toronto Star
Posted Aug 1, 2013
1.5/4 14% The Smurfs 2 (2013) " The Smurfs 2 has everything you hated about the first movie, and more." — Toronto Star
Posted Jul 31, 2013
3.5/4 83% Computer Chess (2013) " Presenting itself as a sort of found-footage movie for geeks, this amusing and thoughtful oddity by writer-director-editor Andrew Bujalski is upfront in form but more stealth in content and intent." — Toronto Star
Posted Jul 26, 2013
2.5/4 86% The Conjuring (2013) " This is a horror film where a pair of suddenly clapping hands gives you the heebie-jeebies, and Wan doesn't cheat with his jump scares." — Toronto Star
Posted Jul 19, 2013
1/4 40% Only God Forgives (2013) " It's possibly the least glamorous and also least interesting role Gosling has ever had. It's not likely to expand his fan base much, or Refn's for that matter." — Toronto Star
Posted Jul 18, 2013
3.5/4 95% The Hunt (2013) " It leaves us not only with an unforgettable final image, but also the troubling thought that witch hunts, like war, will always be with us - all the more so in the modern era of instant communication. " — Toronto Star
Posted Jul 18, 2013
3/4 72% Pacific Rim (2013) " Even if you smirk at the plot conceit of mind-linked humans inside skyscraping robots fighting blockbuster sea beasts, the technical prowess on display can't help but impress." — Toronto Star
Posted Jul 11, 2013
2.5/4 93% Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me (2013) " The film certainly gives the band its due, but it will likely appeal more to Big Star cultists, ones eager for minutia about recording and business deals." — Toronto Star
Posted Jul 4, 2013
3/4 99% 20 Feet From Stardom (2013) " You know all those doo-doo-doos and whoa-whoas-whoas you hear in pop hits? Without them, supplied by the likes of Darlene Love and Merry Clayton, you likely wouldn't be singing along to the songs you hear on your car radio." — Toronto Star
Posted Jul 4, 2013
2/4 47% I'm So Excited! (2013) " An airborne trifle that passes for Pedro Almodóvar's new film." — Toronto Star
Posted Jul 4, 2013
2/4 31% The Lone Ranger (2013) " Who, exactly, was this bipolar oater made for?" — Toronto Star
Posted Jul 3, 2013
2.5/4 75% Despicable Me 2 (2013) " The beguiling basics are still there, including the goofy gadgets and sly references to other films." — Toronto Star
Posted Jul 2, 2013
85% Terms And Conditions May Apply (2013) " It presents a terrifying reality -- the future is now! -- where all of the things we consider to be personal and private in our lives are easily accessible to anyone anywhere with a few clicks of a keyboard" — Toronto Star
Posted Jul 1, 2013
2/4 65% The Heat (2013) " The cookie-cutter plot might have worked if the jokes were good." — Toronto Star
Posted Jun 27, 2013
2/4 50% White House Down (2013) " White House Down has exactly what you'd expect from [Emmerich] and from the genre, only louder and dumber. " — Toronto Star
Posted Jun 27, 2013
3/4 90% Storm Surfers 3D (2013) " It's as real as a blast of saltwater to the face, and the film's moments of human self-doubt are as fascinating as the superhuman antics on view." — Toronto Star
Posted Jun 27, 2013
2/4 59% The Bling Ring (2013) " It has nothing to say about kids who had nothing better to do than to thieve from the rich and famous." — Toronto Star
Posted Jun 21, 2013
2.5/4 78% Monsters University (2013) " Everything's okay. Good, even. Pixar has nobody to blame but itself for making us expect more." — Toronto Star
Posted Jun 20, 2013
2.5/4 67% World War Z (2013) " The whole movie seems in many ways like a fortunate accident. But there's no doubting the deliberate wisdom of making a star of Pitt's talent and stature the lead." — Toronto Star
Posted Jun 20, 2013
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