Critics » Robert Abele
Robert Abele

Robert Abele

Agrees with the Tomatometer 79% of the time.

Biography:
Film Critic, LA Weekly
Publications:
Chicago Tribune , L.A. Weekly , Los Angeles Times
Critics' Group:
Los Angeles Film Critics Association
Total Reviews:
462

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 50 of 462
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Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date
3/5 —— We Came Home (2013) " "We Came Home" has its amateurish side, but it's effortlessly affecting when showing how music acts as an extended hand across generations and cultures. " — Los Angeles Times
Posted Sep 26, 2013
2/5 —— Cleaver's Destiny (2013) " An earnest but ultimately amateur production on all fronts that misses an opportunity to deal seriously with topics writer-director-star Karl Lentini obviously cares about." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Sep 26, 2013
2/5 42% Zaytoun (2013) " It's just all too breezy to have any real effect." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Sep 26, 2013
2/5 71% C.O.G. (2013) " For Sedaris fans, "C.O.G." is a regrettably patronizing washout." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Sep 19, 2013
2/5 60% Ip Man: The Final Fight (2013) " The overall sense is of a rushed, simplistic installment in a well-worn biography franchise." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Sep 19, 2013
3/5 67% Newlyweeds (2013) " More a series of darkly comic vignettes than a conventional romance, King's exploration of chemically altered human chemistry is amusing if slight, and his two leads are appealingly solid, especially Cheatom." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Sep 19, 2013
2/5 —— Unacceptable Levels (2013) " The movie is not much of an argument to begin with, since there's very little science yet that can give us answers to Brown's or anybody's hand-wringing." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Sep 13, 2013
2.5/5 33% Jayne Mansfield's Car (2013) " By a certain point the deliberate pokiness and lackadaisical attitude toward character development and resolution feels like spilled food that never gets completely wiped up." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Sep 12, 2013
2/5 35% Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) " This busy-yet-dull sequel feels like Wan robotically flexing his manipulation of fright-film signposts, an exercise more silly than sinister." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Sep 12, 2013
3/5 61% My Father and the Man in Black (2013) " Despite the clunky mix of narrative formats, "My Father and the Man in Black" makes for an illuminating alternate history of sorts to the Hollywoodized version of Cash's ascendancy in "Walk the Line."" — Los Angeles Times
Posted Sep 5, 2013
3/5 34% Hell Baby (2013) " Its modest (if occasionally gross-out) stabs at genre parody rarely insult our intelligence and even allow for the kind of retro deadpan silliness Mel Brooks used to underline his louder punch lines." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Sep 5, 2013
2/5 34% Passion (2013) " After the clinically dull first half, it's more desperate pantry raid than feast." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Aug 30, 2013
3.5/5 80% Drinking Buddies (2013) " Swanberg achieves an occasionally heady aura of improvisational flirtatiousness mixed with a churning will-they-or-won't-they suspense." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Aug 30, 2013
2.5/5 —— The United States Of Football (2013) " Made with palpable anxiety for the future of a beloved sport, "The United States of Football" is nevertheless its own missed play." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Aug 22, 2013
1.5/5 75% Paradise: Faith (2013) " With little room to feel for or even understand Anna Maria, "Paradise: Faith" rarely seems more than high art with low intentions." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Aug 22, 2013
3.5/5 75% You're Next (2013) " The surprisingly adept mixture of tones ... is offbeat enough to keep even hardened connoisseurs of body-count entertainment on their toes." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Aug 22, 2013
3/5 55% Now, Forager (2012) " Despite an awkwardly jokey title, Now, Forager has charm, intelligence and a cool passion for its principled characters -- an appealing off-menu slice for hungry indie admirers." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Aug 20, 2013
4/5 92% This Is Martin Bonner (2013) " This Is Martin Bonner takes a magnifying glass to everyday goodness and lingering pain, illuminating their contours and complexities but pulling away before the movie can ever burst into sentimental flame." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Aug 16, 2013
1/5 —— Abandoned Mine (2013) " "Abandoned Mine" is all that its title promises: something generic and empty, with the sense that much has been left behind." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Aug 15, 2013
1.5/5 —— Implanted (2013) " [Dissolves] under the interminable self-importance and narrative laziness of someone overreaching for Christopher Nolan-like mind-bendingness." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Aug 8, 2013
3/5 82% Jug Face (2013) " Kinkle shows welcome restraint in pacing his grimy little tale, even if the sum of its parts never quite feels like more than an admirably rendered campfire yarn." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Aug 8, 2013
2.5/5 28% Drift (2013) " The leads are engaging, and Pollard in particular projects an easygoing, friendly machismo. Where the movie routinely disappoints, though, is in pursuit of a perfect storm of conflict story lines ..." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Aug 1, 2013
2/5 69% Cockneys vs Zombies (2013) " "Cockneys vs. Zombies" might as well be "Babies vs. Zombies" or "Cats vs. Zombies" - strictly for addicts who don't care where their undead fix comes from." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jul 31, 2013
2.5/5 53% Wasteland (2013) " It creates two admirably entertaining storytelling strands - one a friendship saga, the other a robbery caper - yet can't merge the two successfully." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jul 25, 2013
1/5 0% Stranded (2013) " "Stranded" stops at being merely seriously dull and trite, rather than tipping into train-wreck silliness. " — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jul 25, 2013
2/5 —— The Rooftop (2013) " "The Rooftop" is a restless boy-fights-for-girl fantasia, too stylistically bulbous a misfire to allow for easy enjoyment as either a demented throwback or a genre hybrid." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jul 18, 2013
2.5/5 65% Nicky's Family (2013) " There's a great story at the heart of Matej Minac's documentary "Nicky's Family," if only it were allowed to be told unvarnished." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jul 17, 2013
1/5 10% Killing Season (2013) " The pretentious, preposterous, dueling-dialect flameout called "Killing Season" has to stand as one of the biggest missed opportunities in iconic matchups." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jul 11, 2013
3.5/5 62% Iceberg Slim: Portrait Of A Pimp (2013) " It's briskly pieced together from interviews and archival footage, including snippets of Slim that easily hint at his authoritative, brooding magnetism." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jul 11, 2013
2/5 36% The Hot Flashes (2013) " A post-"Bridesmaids" case of raunch lite, a change-of-life comedy that could have used a change of scripts." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jul 11, 2013
3.5/5 86% Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013) " Often an engrossing example of the sweeping, stirring biography." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jul 11, 2013
4/5 100% The Crash Reel () " Walker captures a seesaw exhilaration between the thrill of pushing one's limits and the pain of dreams cut short." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jul 4, 2013
3.5/5 93% Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me (2013) " Overall, it's still a skillfully rendered narrative that should satisfy fans and pique the interest of the uninitiated." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jul 3, 2013
2/5 63% Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain (2013) " [Not] as strong as such previous dispatches as "Seriously...Funny."" — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jul 3, 2013
4/5 96% A Band Called Death (2013) " If ever a movie about punk deserved to be called legitimately sweet and life-affirming, it's the documentary "A Band Called Death."" — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jun 27, 2013
1/5 47% Maniac (2013) " It's not clear what exactly merited an updating of William Lustig's 1980 "Maniac" - a cheapo urban grimeball about a serial killer - but like a rash's unwelcome return, we got it anyway." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jun 27, 2013
1/5 60% Detention Of The Dead (2013) " Is there anything worse than a horror movie that isn't scary? Yes - a horror-comedy that's neither scary nor funny." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jun 27, 2013
3.5/5 67% Downloaded (2013) " As iffy as the coulda-been premise is, "Downloaded" is still a vigorous retelling of Fanning's and Parker's wildfire achievement and its ethical pitfalls ..." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jun 27, 2013
1/5 22% Rushlights (2013) " If ever a movie signaled that the Quentin Tarantino copycat age of empty-headed wink-wink genre rehashing is still with us, "Rushlights" is that movie." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jun 19, 2013
2.5/5 64% Unfinished Song (2013) " A movie so geared toward hitting its spots, it amounts to emotional Muzak rather than something truly played live." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jun 19, 2013
2/5 25% The Guillotines (2013) " A historical action epic set during the Qing dynasty that amounts to a bait-and-switch for wuxia fans stoked for steel-meets-flesh mayhem." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jun 12, 2013
4/5 54% Post Tenebras Lux (2013) " Moviegoers beholden to clean narrative may feel they need their own explanatory GPS and audio guide. But the richer reward lies in allowing oneself to be led by this gifted director's instinct for lyrical, sensory exploration." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jun 6, 2013
4/5 63% The Prey (2013) " Like a bullet train, the French thriller "The Prey" is a model of breathless efficiency, its stuffed cargo of chases, brawls and twists delivered with admirable speed." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jun 6, 2013
2/5 38% The Purge (2013) " A routine home invasion movie more interested in B-horror tropes and bloodletting than a thought-provoking look at "Hunger Games"-ish class warfare." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jun 6, 2013
3.5/5 82% Dirty Wars (2013) " As a connect-the-dots narrative, "Dirty Wars" is eye-opening, a fierce argument that there are chilling ramifications to endless, vague aggression." — Los Angeles Times
Posted Jun 6, 2013
2/5 20% I Do (2013) " A sweet, sincere, yet ultimately tepid story ..." — Los Angeles Times
Posted May 31, 2013
2.5/5 81% Shadow Dancer (2013) " The character mechanics ... leave the viewer always feeling a step ahead of the story and its too-late-to-excite twists." — Los Angeles Times
Posted May 30, 2013
2/5 —— Vampire (2013) " The storytelling that veers between amateurishness and the kind of oddball dreams you wake up scratching your head about." — Los Angeles Times
Posted May 23, 2013
4/5 75% Pieta (2013) " Expectedly gruesome in some of its details. But it's the explicitness about capitalism's emotional wreckage that gives this micro-budgeted drama a gut-punch heft." — Los Angeles Times
Posted May 17, 2013
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