Phil Villarreal

Agrees with the Tomatometer 72% of the time.

Biography:
Phil Villarreal blogs about movies at becauseitoldyouso.com. His book Secrets of a Stingy Scoundrel is due out Sept. 1.
Favorites:
Waking Life, Swingers, Clerks, Reservoir Dogs, Rocky, True Romance
Publications:
Arizona Daily Star , COEDMagazine.com , OK! Magazine
Critics' Group:
Online Film Critics Society, Phoenix Film Critics Society
Total Reviews:
1851
Total QuickRatings:
88
Location:
Tucson

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 50 of 1851
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Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date
3/4 —— Superman Unbound () " This outing, in which the Man of Steel and Supergirl tangle with nemesis Brainiac, may not be as exciting and deep as some of his others, such as Superman/Doomsday, but it's still an entertaining yarn." — COEDMagazine.com
Posted May 7, 2013
1/4 13% Safe Haven (2013) " Expect to gag early and often, and consider breaking up with anyone who forces you to sit through this. " — OK! Magazine
Posted May 7, 2013
3/4 65% Mama (2013) " The movie is all about its off-putting tone and nonsensical shocks, which are all the more unnerving because of how little sense they make. " — COEDMagazine.com
Posted May 7, 2013
2/4 61% Jack Reacher (2012) " Cruise does his best to keep a straight face and make himself halfway believable as a brainy roughhouser - think of a less intense Jason Bourne - but ridiculous plotting undermines his efforts." — OK! Magazine
Posted May 7, 2013
3.5/4 92% The Great Escape (1963) " This nearly three-hour beast is exhausting to sit through, but an experience every self- respecting male movie-lover must go through before he can call himself a man. " — COEDMagazine.com
Posted May 7, 2013
1.5/4 88% Django Unchained (2012) " Django may be unchained, but his movie could have used some tighter shackles." — COEDMagazine.com
Posted May 7, 2013
3.5/4 92% Silver Linings Playbook (2012) " I don't know about all the Oscar love this romantic comedy/sports flick hybrid (think Jerry Maguire) received, but the funny, poignant and well-acted movie was undoubtedly one of the must-see films of 2012. " — COEDMagazine.com
Posted May 7, 2013
3.5/4 85% Side Effects (2013) " A crafty screenplay and devilishly sexy turns from Mara and Catherine Zeta-Jones keep the movie mesmerizing, and one of my favorite movies released in 2013 so far. " — COEDMagazine.com
Posted May 7, 2013
2/4 78% Iron Man 3 (2013) " Iron Man loses his clothes more often than a Kardsashian." — COEDMagazine.com
Posted May 1, 2013
2/4 30% Broken City (2013) " It takes more than typical tough-guy turns from Wahlberg and Crowe to save the lackluster affair." — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Apr 30, 2013
1.5/4 69% Not Fade Away (2012) " David Chase, who created The Sopranos and brought James Gandolfini along with him to the movie world, can't recreate his HBO magic with this downbeat tribute to 1960s rock. " — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Apr 30, 2013
3/4 38% The Guilt Trip (2012) " Rogen's deadpan misery meshes well with Streisand's oblivious idiocy, making the laughs roll in." — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Apr 30, 2013
3/4 24% Arthur Newman (2013) " OK, so hear me out. This movie is about Colin Firth having hot, dress-up sex with this drifter named Mike." — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Apr 25, 2013
2.5/4 51% Promised Land (2013) " The earnestness of the performances had me digging the story all the way up to the idiotic twist that tries hard to ruin everything that came before. " — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Apr 23, 2013
3.5/4 92% Jurassic Park: An IMAX 3D Experience (2013) " Steven Spielbeg's 1993 tale of an island plagued dinosaurs running amok holds up surprisingly well in the special effects category." — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Apr 23, 2013
4/4 81% The Impossible (2012) " This may well be the best awards bait movie from 2012 that you never got around to seeing. " — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Apr 23, 2013
3/4 32% Gangster Squad (2013) " Deep 1940s detail, stylized, tough-talking dialogue, impressive set pieces and throwback, tough-guy performances from all the leads." — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Apr 23, 2013
3/4 56% Oblivion (2013) " Not bad for a movie released during the pre-summer wasteland, which is usually as bleak as the scorched earth of Oblivion. " — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Apr 17, 2013
3/4 23% The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia (2013) " With such a ridiculous title, I was all prepared to make fun of the ridiculousness the movie surely contained, but I was pleasantly surprised by the surprisingly creepy and robust scare-fest. " — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Apr 16, 2013
3/4 44% Save The Date (2012) " It takes a lot for straight-to-video, wedding-themed romantic comedy to turn my head, but Save the Date managed the trick by snagging the ridiculously talented and underused Alison Brie (Community) and Lizzy Caplan (Party Down) as its leads." — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Apr 16, 2013
2/4 77% 42 (2013) " Robinson did more for dudes with female names' rights than any politician or activist. It's no wonder that every Major League team retired his jersey number, which was... Huh. Can't seem to recall. " — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Apr 12, 2013
2/4 38% Hyde Park on Hudson (2012) " Bill Murray may not be going for laughs as World War II-era President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but he sure gets them in this slice of historical fiction." — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Apr 9, 2013
1/4 —— Lego Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out (2013) " As 22-minute episodes go, it's fine, but the fact that there's nothing else on this disc was enough to send me into a rancor-like rampage." — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Apr 2, 2013
1/4 28% G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013) " The plot is a ludicrous mash-up of half-thought-out ideas." — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Mar 29, 2013
4/4 63% The Sandlot (1993) " For kids of the 1990s, there is no greater baseball movie than this coming-of-age tale about a lonely fifth-grader who makes lifelong friends by playing neighborhood baseball games." — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Mar 26, 2013
2/4 18% Parental Guidance (2012) " A crotchety Billy Crystal earns more shrugs than laughs in this badly overacted family comedy." — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Mar 26, 2013
3/4 89% Lincoln (2012) " Whenever other actors hear Daniel Day-Lewis is making a movie, they can pretty much give up any hopes that they'll win an Oscar that year. " — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Mar 26, 2013
3/4 69% The Croods (2013) " I credit the movie for basing its humor in a subversive real-world setting in caveman trappings." — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Mar 20, 2013
4/4 93% Zero Dark Thirty (2013) " Despite what those silly Oscars would have you believe, it was this movie, not Argo, that was the finest of 2012." — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Mar 19, 2013
4/4 66% The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) " The start of Peter Jackson's second Tolkien universe trilogy seemed to elicit more shrugs than awe, which was odd because the movie stands on par with his monumental The Lord of the Rings films. " — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Mar 19, 2013
3.5/4 52% This is 40 (2012) " Judd Apatow's opus finds laughs and sentiment in middle age suburban ennui." — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Mar 19, 2013
3/4 74% Rise of the Guardians (2012) " A weirdly dark but not-bad-for-a-kiddie-flick action romp." — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Mar 19, 2013
4/4 88% Life of Pi (2012) " Best director Oscar-winner Ang Lee unleashes some serious CGI black magic to create a ridiculously lifelike gang of animals stuck aboard the wackiest life raft trip you're ever likely to see." — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Mar 19, 2013
1.5/4 70% Les Misérables (2012) " The bloated musical is best used as fodder for a drinking game that lets you down a shot every time Russell Crowe sings off-key." — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Mar 19, 2013
3.5/4 63% Hitchcock (2012) " This piece of Oscar bait didn't catch any nibbles, but still stood out as one of the better movies to drop during last year's awards season." — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Mar 12, 2013
4/4 98% Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) " The Looney Tunes-Disney crossover still stands as the best blending of live action and animation. " — OK! Magazine
Posted Mar 12, 2013
1.5/4 20% Identity Thief (2013) " When a straightforward description of the plot is funnier on an ironic level than any joke in the film, you're in for a bad time. " — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Mar 6, 2013
4/4 97% Schindler's List (1993) " The moving film may be arduous to watch, but brilliantly acting and painstaking accuracy make it a must-see." — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Mar 6, 2013
3.5/4 86% Wreck-it Ralph (2012) " I'm bitter that this funny, exciting tribute to old-school gaming was robbed of a best animated Oscar by Pixar's forgettable Brave. " — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Mar 6, 2013
1.5/4 60% Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) " As awful as the movie is, at least there is one truth that it gets just right. Witches be crazy. " — COEDMagazine.com
Posted Mar 6, 2013
2/4 13% Red Dawn (2012) " Chris Hemsworth continues his quest to try to become this generation's Patrick Swayze with this bizarre and unnecessary remake of the 1984 slice of Cold War paranoia." — OK! Magazine
Posted Mar 5, 2013
1.5/4 4% Playing for Keeps (2012) " Gerard Butler once again submits his man card to a brutal ritual sacrifice in pandering, mediocre romantic comedie. " — OK! Magazine
Posted Mar 5, 2013
3/4 95% A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) " The first seven movies of the dreamy 1980s slasher series squeeze on to five discs, looking far better in HD than they did when you first saw them, peeking through a crack in your parents' bedroom door as they watched it on VHS." — OK! Magazine
Posted Mar 5, 2013
23/4 19% Lay the Favorite (2012) " Part invigorating gambling flick, part dull romantic comedy, the movie has trouble establishing a tone, but usually manages to entertain." — OK! Magazine
Posted Mar 5, 2013
1.5/4 26% 21 And Over (2013) " The so-called comedy 21 & Over is offensive. Not because it's racist, sexist, homophobic and cruel, but because it's racist, sexist, homophobic and cruel in a dull, monotonous way. " — OK! Magazine
Posted Mar 1, 2013
1/4 90% Holy Motors (2012) " Beware of this one. It's one of those strange-for-the-sake-of-quirk slices of experimental nonsense that snooty critics fall all over themselves praising." — OK! Magazine
Posted Feb 26, 2013
3.5/4 86% The Master (2012) " Phoenix and Hoffman both put on clinics, and Anderson's story, though meandering, never stalls." — OK! Magazine
Posted Feb 26, 2013
1/4 58% Snitch (2013) " The incredibly moronic premise has no heft or momentum. Not a moment is believable and the whole thing just hurts. " — OK! Magazine
Posted Feb 22, 2013
3.5/4 55% Top Gun (1986) " The unashamedly goofy 1986 dogfighting classic flips on the afterburners to make yet another pass on Blu-ray, this time soaring into the third dimension. " — OK! Magazine
Posted Feb 18, 2013
Showing 1 - 50 of 1851
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