Sandra Hall Movie Reviews & Previews

Critics » Sandra Hall

Sandra Hall

Agrees with the Tomatometer 76% of the time.

Publications:: Brisbane Times , Sydney Morning Herald , The Age (Australia)

Total Reviews:: 340

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Showing 1 - 50 of 340

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Rating	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date
3/5	17%	Zambezia (2013)	" In the end, the cast proves to be too big, the storyline too muddled." — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Apr 15, 2013
3.5/5	94%	Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel (2012)	" She wanted you to look and look again, and this film is full of images which make you do just that. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Nov 22, 2012
4/5	93%	Shadow Dancer (2013)	" Shadow Dancer is a quietly devastating story of the poisonous effect of northern Irish politics on the life of a single family. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Oct 12, 2012
3/5	21%	Taken 2 (2012)	" This one was done by the aptly named Olivier Megaton, and he's done well with his brief, which requires him to keep the action flowing seamlessly and preposterously while showing off as many tourist sites as possible. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Oct 4, 2012
2/5	61%	Tai Chi Zero (2012)	" None of this is as enchanting as it wants to be -- despite Fung's energetic mixing of styles and references. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Sep 27, 2012
3/5	47%	Bait (2012)	" The film is a throwback to the heyday of the Australian exploitation movie. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Sep 20, 2012
3.5/5	79%	Ruby Sparks (2012)	" So it falls short - which makes it an especially frustrating experience. There's so much to like and so many potentially interesting ideas to embrace that I really wanted it to work. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Sep 20, 2012
3.5/5	26%	Kath & Kimderella ()	" Not since Edna Everage's first film appearance 40 years ago in Bruce Beresford's The Adventures of Barry McKenzie has Australian suburbia been so thoroughly scrutinised, analysed and satirised. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Sep 6, 2012
3.5/5	57%	Love (2011)	" Eubank is not strong on literal explanations - or on the science underpinning his story. He is an impressionist, alert to the waves of nostalgia that can be unleashed by a single visual metaphor." — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Aug 30, 2012
4/5	94%	Moonrise Kingdom (2012)	" There are many echoes of Anderson's earlier films, particularly Rushmore and Tenenbaums. He's an unapologetic romantic and Moonrise Kingdom is a study in wish-fulfillment. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Aug 30, 2012
2/5	31%	Total Recall (2012)	" The physical glory goes to Beckinsale and Biel who slug it out ferociously. The only problem is that in the clinches it's difficult to tell them apart. Not that it matters. Nothing does. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Aug 23, 2012
3.5/5	93%	The Sapphires (2013)	" It is a film with a way of disarming your critical faculties." — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Aug 10, 2012
3.5/5	73%	The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)	" It works well, without being quite good enough to banish the thought that it's all about the box office. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Jul 5, 2012
3/5	50%	Swerve ()	" Once that body tumbles down the mine shaft, we're in a different -- and inferior -- movie." — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Jun 8, 2012
3/5	67%	Friends With Kids (2012)	" There's much to like here but it's a bumpy ride and for all its banter, it takes itself very seriously. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Jun 6, 2012
3/5	86%	Careless Love ()	" It all adds up to a remarkably benign view of a prostitute's life, shot in a Sydney displayed to its best advantage by Kathryn Milliss's dreamy cinematography. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted May 18, 2012
3/5	58%	The Dictator (2012)	" Aladeen makes a witty speech. It details democracy's flaws with emphasis on the American brand, and it almost makes you like him -- which is fatal. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted May 16, 2012
4/5	93%	Marvel's The Avengers (2012)	" Whedon really does know how to handle 3D, combining it with a fluid camera style to lend scale, perspective and drama enough to keep disbelief at bay for astonishingly lengthy stretches of time. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Apr 27, 2012
3.5/5	83%	Wish You Were Here (2013)	" It is tightly plotted with a scary denouement that nails its point about the deadliness of rogue circumstance in a very satisfying way. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Apr 26, 2012
3/5	80%	Spud ()	" You and your kids will have seen it all before but, if you're looking for a less brutal take on the ordeals of adolescence than the one offered by The Hunger Games, this could work. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Apr 20, 2012
4/5	100%	Life In Movement ()	" In every sense, it's a moving story." — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Apr 13, 2012
4/5	67%	Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2012)	" Hallstrom and Beaufoy have no great pretensions. They're out to deliver a feelgood film, but it's a very classy one." — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Apr 4, 2012
3.5/5	50%	Mirror Mirror (2012)	" The whole thing should please kids from seven upwards, and their parents should appreciate Roberts's dirty laugh, which shows itself to be more versatile than I could ever have imagined. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Mar 28, 2012
3.5/5	85%	The Hunger Games (2012)	" Once we're in the arena, the bones of Collins's story ensure an enthralling time. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Mar 21, 2012
3/5	75%	In Search of Haydn (2012)	" Grabsky does have a great gift for showing how a piece is put together. The music is the thing." — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Mar 15, 2012
2/5	51%	John Carter (2012)	" Stanton should go back to making machines talk. He puts much more humanity into them than he manages to extract from Burroughs, even with all that nostalgia working for him. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Mar 9, 2012
3/5	59%	Any Questions for Ben? ()	" The whole thing made me nostalgic for Working Dog's sharper days when they would surely have perpetrated all sorts of wickedness at Ben's expense. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Feb 10, 2012
1/5	3%	Jack and Jill (2011)	" Adam Sandler has succumbed to the Eddie Murphy syndrome. He's afflicted with the belief that we can't get enough of him. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Dec 1, 2011
4/5	75%	The Tall Man ()	" The story that emerges is a tragedy with no end in sight, and which has its roots buried deep in the island's ugly past. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Nov 17, 2011
	96%	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)	" If you're not already on board, you scrabble around as best you can, and this means hard work, which is something rare -- and yes, exhilarating -- in a modern blockbuster." — smh.com.au Posted Nov 15, 2011
3.5/5	83%	Warrior (2011)	" Its three leads certainly deserve consideration for their artfulness in being able to infuse it with intimations of quality. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Oct 26, 2011
3/5	26%	The Cup (2012)	" It's a shamelessly old-fashioned picture but if you like horses and fancy cantering off into the land of wish-fulfilment for a couple of hours, why not? " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Oct 13, 2011
2.5/5	58%	Red State (2011)	" In its efforts to accommodate Smith's argument the storyline gets decidedly messy. The slacker has become didactic and it doesn't suit him one bit. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Oct 12, 2011
3/5	71%	Footloose (2011)	" Footloose is an anodyne example of Hollywood's fixation on remakes but it is slightly better than I expected. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Oct 6, 2011
1/5	4%	Abduction (2011)	" The finale sets up a sequel but if Singleton is on board, I suspect they'll have to pay the supporting cast a mountain of money to make up for the embarrassment of taking part. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Sep 23, 2011
2/5	38%	Monte Carlo (2011)	" Its excess of spun sugar presents a distinct health hazard." — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Sep 21, 2011
3.5/5	58%	The Eye of the Storm (2012)	" At times, I felt as if I were watching a series of splendidly realised set-pieces arranged like showcases for watching actors act." — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Sep 14, 2011
4/5	87%	Submarine (2011)	" All of this makes it sound as if Ayoade is trying much too hard but the gentleness of his touch succeeds in keeping pretentiousness safely out of the picture." — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Sep 9, 2011
.5/5	14%	Zookeeper (2011)	" To produce something as emphatically unfunny as this, the script's five-man team must have whipped themselves into a state of mutual delusion." — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Sep 7, 2011
1/5	70%	Horrible Bosses (2011)	" he trio's hysteria mounts in a manner conspicuously designed to conjure up comparisons with the panic experienced by the boys in The Hangover. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Aug 31, 2011
3.5/5	79%	Chalet Girl (2011)	" It's an unassuming film but a surprisingly beguiling one. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Aug 31, 2011
2/5	16%	Priest (2011)	" Bettany is a great actor who does melancholy very well, he also has a sense of mischief. It would be nice to see it shine a bit before it, too, fades to grey." — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Aug 25, 2011
4.5/5	95%	Pina (2011)	" It's a performance film that crystallises Bausch's style in a series of dance pieces amplified by interviews about her personality, methods and inspirations." — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Aug 19, 2011
4/5	81%	Red Dog (2012)	" These days, when the market in family films is so thoroughly dominated by the wonders of CGI, it comes as a cheering surprise to find one that makes such beguiling work out of an idea that goes all the way back to the adventures of Lassie and Rin Tin Tin." — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Aug 3, 2011
4/5	79%	Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)	" It's for anyone who can respond to the thrill of a big, bold adventure movie with a sense of fun." — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Jul 27, 2011
1/5	0%	Big Mamma's Boy ()	" As for Lotito, he plays every scene as if it's another stand-up routine. He's yet to become acquainted with the news that movies are all about connection." — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Jul 25, 2011
2.5/5	44%	Bad Teacher (2011)	" While a few of Diaz's scenes with Timberlake and his gift for the deadpan seem as if they're going to amount to something, the script's dialogue fails them. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Jul 19, 2011
4/5	96%	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 (2011)	" David Yates and his crew have hauled Harry Potter and friends out of the vale of depression where they languished during the previous film and pitched them into an exhilarating series of cliffhangers." — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Jul 13, 2011
2/5	36%	Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)	" [Bay's] firmly committed to the cinema of the short attention span. In Transformers, he's found his metier. " — Sydney Morning Herald Posted Jun 30, 2011

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