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Sean Burns

Sean Burns

Agrees with the Tomatometer 73% of the time.

Biography:
Since 1999 Sean Burns has been Philadelphia Weekly's lead film critic, and also currently writes for The Improper Bostonian. His work has previously appeared in The Boston Metro, Matinee Magazine, The Nashville Scene, Time Out New York and The House Next Door. Burns was a recurring guest on the late David Brudnoy's WBZ 1030 AM Radio Show, and in 2002 received an award for Excellence in Criticism from the Society of Professional Journalists. His writing has been called "jocular but serious, more like a 1940s daily reporter pounding out columns on a manual typewriter than a typical 21st century navel-gazing film critic." Burns has also been told that he "smokes too much and drives like an old lady." He and his cat live in Stoneham, MA.
Publications:
Philadelphia Weekly
Total Reviews:
764

Best Reviewed Films

Showing 1 - 50 of 757
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Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date
A 64% Cosmopolis (2012) " Like all the best Cronenberg pictures, Cosmopolis is a pitch-black comedy about man's foolhardy attempt to impose systems of order on nature's chaos." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Aug 22, 2012
B+ 75% Damsels in Distress (2012) " I still loved it, sometimes not just in spite of its flaws but because of them." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Apr 18, 2012
B+ 83% The Double Hour (2011) " What a surprise and delight then is first-timer Giuseppe Capotondi's The Double Hour." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Jun 2, 2011
86% Inception (2010) " A huge movie full of meaty ideas and eye-popping special-effects, yet much like Dark Knight, the go-for-broke ambition becomes a bit of a grind." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Jul 13, 2010
80% Cyrus (2010) " John C. Reilly gives his most naturalistic, human-scaled performance since his '90s work with P.T. Anderson." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Jul 13, 2010
82% Solitary Man (2010) " A bit too-neatly designed as The Ultimate Michael Douglas Experience, it's an irresistible one-man show of arrogant entitlement and aching vulnerability." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Jul 13, 2010
87% Please Give (2010) " Nobody loves messy, human imperfections quite like writer-director Nicole Holofcener." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Jun 2, 2010
84% The Good, the Bad, and the Weird (2010) " Pours a ton of genre influences into the archetypal Cuisinart, pureeing everything from chop-socky cheapies to The Road Warrior in a gargantuan, cheerfully anachronistic romp. " — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Jun 2, 2010
76% Kick-Ass (2010) " Finally, a comic-book superhero movie for people who are sick to death of comic-book superhero movies." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Jun 2, 2010
96% Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2009) " Stop me if you've heard this one, but sometimes politicians get us into wars that last forever and go nowhere under false pretenses." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Jun 2, 2010
95% Mother (Madeo) (2010) " Do we laugh or do we cry? In Bong Joo-ho films, the two reactions need not be mutually exclusive." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Mar 19, 2010
97% A Prophet (Un prophete) (2010) " He's Michael Corleone for our new 'post-racial' era. The Scarface Obama." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Mar 19, 2010
97% Ajami (2010) " Copti and Shani are promising talents, but they're a bit too clever for their own good." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Mar 19, 2010
90% Fish Tank (2010) " A cockney Precious with the volume turned down..." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Mar 19, 2010
85% The White Ribbon (Das weisse Band) (2009) " National Socialism: The Prequel." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Mar 19, 2010
70% Sherlock Holmes (2009) " "The most pleasant surprise I've had at the movies since Star Trek."" — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Mar 19, 2010
56% It's Complicated (2009) " Meyers doesn't have to do much besides put these silly dynamos next to one another and let them enjoy riffing." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Mar 19, 2010
76% Invictus (2009) " Freeman's Mandela is deeply flawed, single-minded when it comes to his job, and has a way with one-liners. In short, he's an Eastwood hero." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Mar 19, 2010
91% Up in the Air (2009) " One of the things that makes George Clooney a great movie star is that he's always letting us know just how much fun he's having being George Clooney." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Mar 19, 2010
88% Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) " A tragedy replayed as farce, and probably the funniest film I've seen all year." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Mar 19, 2010
90% The Messenger (2009) " The first warning bell sounds when Woody boasts of his AA membership, as I don't believe anybody has ever seen Harrelson stay sober for an entire movie... or even an afternoon." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Mar 19, 2010
73% Where the Wild Things Are (2009) " What stays with you is the sadness. There's an almost unbearable undertow of melancholy in director Spike Jonze's awkward, arty adaptation of Maurice Sendak's 1963 picture book." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Oct 27, 2009
89% A Serious Man (2009) " Grappling with massive cosmic mysteries on a deceptively mundane stage, it's a film about the silence of God, seething with profound existential panic... viewed through the hilariously cracked prism of everyday suburban minutiae." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Oct 27, 2009
90% Zombieland (2009) " It has a lot more in common with Little Miss Sunshine than just Abigail Breslin." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Sep 29, 2009
78% The Informant! (2009) " The sublime Damon has a ridiculous moustache, a bad toupee and carries himself with the supreme confidence of a man who has no idea he's acting like an imbecile." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Sep 15, 2009
85% Der Baader Meinhof Komplex (The Baader Meinhof Complex) (2008) " Hustling like a blockbuster action flick, it's a crash course in domestic terrorism as rock n' roll adrenaline rush." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Sep 8, 2009
89% World's Greatest Dad (2009) " Brilliantly cynical in dealing with grief as a fashion statement... exposing the vanity of mourning in public and our often absurd sanctification of the dead." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Sep 3, 2009
71% Husbands (1970) " Cassavetes' most dangerous and unfiltered expression of masculine anxiety -- a raw, deliberately off-putting masterpiece." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Aug 25, 2009
91% District 9 (2009) " After you've watched a doomed alien race become obsessed with cat food and Nigerian prostitutes, gunfights don't seem all that impressive anymore." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Aug 18, 2009
75% Julie & Julia (2009) " Streep nimbly apes that famous warbly voice and bemused laugh, clomping around the set like a delightful giantess." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Aug 6, 2009
68% Funny People (2009) " Bitterly clear-eyed about the consequences of Apatowian perpetual adolescence, it's a dark movie that comes from somewhere deeply personal." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Aug 6, 2009
71% Tetro (2009) " A dazzling mess... it throbs with an excess of emotion and idealistic, cuckoo daring." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Jul 25, 2009
68% Public Enemies (2009) " A wonky art-house curio disguised as a summer blockbuster... it's also one hell of a Western." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Jul 25, 2009
90% Moon (2009) " There's a marvelous sense of isolation in the picture's cold, aloof setting and classical, still frames." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Jul 25, 2009
50% Whatever Works (2009) " David's human sandpaper delivery gives a full, deep voice to Allen's reckless misanthropy." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Jul 25, 2009
51% Chéri (2009) " What a drag it is getting old." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Jul 25, 2009
92% Drag Me to Hell (2009) " Not a movie likely to be enjoyed by cat lovers..." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Jun 3, 2009
95% Star Trek (2009) " More than any Trek project in decades, this one conjures the camaraderie, the easy humor and most important the swagger we associate with headstrong Jim Kirk and his logical, pointy-eared pal." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted May 5, 2009
84% Tyson (2009) " It's like a Spalding Gray monologue performed by a maniac." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted May 5, 2009
64% Crank 2: High Voltage (2009) " Bigger, dumber and even sicker than the rotgut original... I had a blast, but don't say you weren't warned." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Apr 21, 2009
93% Sugar (2008) " Of course, calling a movie 'too humane' isn't really all that much of a complaint..." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Apr 21, 2009
90% Amarcord (2009) " Watching the movie feels like flipping through a cartoon sketchbook of Fellini's vivid remembrances and formative experiences." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Apr 14, 2009
88% Adventureland (2009) " Like a John Hughes movie directed by Francois Truffaut...gangly, deeply felt and just lovely." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Mar 31, 2009
72% Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) " It's not great -- but it's not bad -- and it's the first DreamWorks animated flick that won't feel dated by the time it hits home video." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Mar 24, 2009
64% Duplicity (2009) " A fluffy, comedic sequel to CLOSER... breezy, delightful and bitterly hilarious." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Mar 18, 2009
82% Two Lovers (2008) " While I'll concede that on some level it's fairly absurd, I also found it impossible not to be swept up in the film's gonzo sincerity..." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Feb 24, 2009
97% The Class (2008) " This is a marvelous film." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Feb 10, 2009
58% Taken (2009) " Junk, reactionary father-knows-best-because-he-used-to-murder-people-for-a-living nonsense, implicitly reinforcing all sorts of xenophobic paranoias and insidious patriarchal hierarchies. It's also absurdly entertaining." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Jan 28, 2009
98% The Wrestler (2008) " Welcome back, Mickey. It's been too long." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Jan 6, 2009
80% Gran Torino (2009) " Clumsy and crude, yet preposterously entertaining throughout -- the movie plays like catnip to longtime Clint Eastwood fans." — Philadelphia Weekly
Posted Dec 25, 2008
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