Simon Gallagher Movie Reviews & Previews

Critics » Simon Gallagher

Send Email
Official Websites:
http://whatculture.com/author/simon-gallagher

Simon Gallagher

Agrees with the Tomatometer 79% of the time.

Publications:: Film School Rejects , What Culture

Total Reviews:: 45

Location:: London

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 45 of 45

Rating	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date
1.5/5	——	Stop The Pounding Heart ()	" It's not quite The Hills, as there's very much the sense that these characters, or versions of them, do actually exist, and Minervi is clearly fascinated in their realities, but there simply isn't enough here to really engage." — What Culture Posted May 18, 2013
3.5/5	——	Jimmy P. ()	" At its heart a tale of redemption, played through a culture-clash dynamic as the French analyst and his patient build a relationship, and it's hard to resist the similarities with The King's Speech." — What Culture Posted May 18, 2013
3/5	100%	Le passé (The Past) (2013)	" Wonderfully shot, though without obvious or intrusive artifice, and it relies on both strong characters and a twisting, entertaining plot to keep the interest mostly pricked." — What Culture Posted May 17, 2013
3/5	80%	Young & Beautiful (Jeune Et Jolie) (2013)	" Winner of this year's Drive Award for having the most blatantly narrative songs shoe-horned in to reinforce a key message." — What Culture Posted May 16, 2013
4.5/5	88%	Fruitvale Station (2013)	" Michael Jordan's Grant is remarkably sympathetic, and his story develops in a way that adds an awful note to the opening scene, as the arc creeps slowly and painfully towards the final, fatal moment." — What Culture Posted May 16, 2013
1.5/5	56%	The Bling Ring (2013)	" Coppola's latest never seems to know what it wants to be - it works best when it is a blackly comical parody but it too often pulls its punches and is never quite brave enough to be bold." — What Culture Posted May 16, 2013
3/5	50%	The Great Gatsby (2013)	" It's glitzy and glamorous yes, and Luhrmann fans will be delighted with its staging, including the occasionally over-zealous music, but there are a few more misfires in here than they might be used to." — What Culture Posted May 15, 2013
4.5/5	87%	ParaNorman (2012)	" An exceptional Amblin film made for that slightly weird kid with the Nightmare Before Christmas lunch-box and the disconnected snark." — Film School Rejects Posted Sep 15, 2012
1/10	0%	Keith Lemon: The Film ()	" Had it all been done more tongue-in-cheek, it might have worked as a rubbish curio like a more adult Spice World, but instead it's boring, offensive and not funny in the slightest. Like Spice World." — What Culture Posted Aug 29, 2012
—	37%	You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008)	— Film School Rejects Posted May 30, 2012
A-	94%	The Central Park Five (2012)	" The Central Park Five story is enormously engaging, and the presentation, and in particular the editing of this doc are both very accomplished." — Film School Rejects Posted May 28, 2012
B	91%	Gimme The Loot (2013)	" It's a simple film, but an artfully executed one, and it succeeds precisely because it demands very little from the audience." — Film School Rejects Posted May 28, 2012
A	86%	Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)	" Beasts of the Southern Wild is an incredible debut film - overwhelming, engaging, beautifully entertaining, and it deserves to be shared." — Film School Rejects Posted May 28, 2012
C+	62%	Me and You (Io e te) ()	" There is certainly some promise for a return to form, but it was just too meager a project in the context of the director's earlier heavy-weight works." — Film School Rejects Posted May 28, 2012
C+	44%	The Paperboy (2012)	" Despite some fine performances, The Paperboy is a tale of a director getting in the way of fine source material with an artistic agenda that is muddled and inarticulate. " — Film School Rejects Posted May 26, 2012
C-	64%	Cosmopolis (2012)	" Yes Cosmopolis bears a striking gloss, and is shot basically well, but it is way too showy without the necessary substance, and as a result feels fatally hollow." — Film School Rejects Posted May 26, 2012
A	88%	The Angels' Share (2013)	" The Angels' Share is often hilarious, always hugely charming, and carries a wholly appropriate social message." — Film School Rejects Posted May 24, 2012
A+	91%	The Hunt (2013)	" A hugely affecting film, inspiring the full gambit of emotions from humor to fist-clenching rage and a pitch-perfect, chilling crescendo of horror." — Film School Rejects Posted May 23, 2012
C-	45%	On the Road (2012)	" Walter Salles' take is ultimately a failed attempt to adapt the unadaptable." — Film School Rejects Posted May 23, 2012
B+	90%	Holy Motors (2012)	" It's hard to imagine anyone enjoying their popcorn when confronted with a naked man with an erection eating Eva Mendes's hair." — Film School Rejects Posted May 23, 2012
A-	75%	Killing Them Softly (2012)	" Killing Them Softly is an artfully crafted, occasionally very funny satire dressed up in tough-guy leathers and packing a knuckle duster punch." — Film School Rejects Posted May 23, 2012
D+	——	Dracula 3D ()	" Argento doesn't play by conventional rules, including nude scenes for his own daughter in amongst the provocatively kitsch horror moments and ludicrous story elements." — Film School Rejects Posted May 20, 2012
B	93%	The Sapphires (2013)	" Harmless, eschewing provocation in favour of a genuine entertainment factor, and preferring to tell its worthy story in terms of characters and their personal relationships." — Film School Rejects Posted May 20, 2012
B	——	Mystery ()	" A very modern murder mystery,replacing the traditional detective figure with other involved characters to add a claustrophobic feel and emotional weight to its revelations." — Film School Rejects Posted May 20, 2012
B+	65%	Antiviral (2013)	" For Cronenberg fans, the prodigal son's debut will be a revivalist bodyshock gem, and for everyone else, it'll seem more than a little weird." — Film School Rejects Posted May 20, 2012
C-	74%	Laurence Anyways (2013)	" An infuriating mix of shattered expectations and self-important artistic masturbation, with the successful elements cruelly washed away in a torrent of ill-conceived artifice." — Film School Rejects Posted May 20, 2012
A+	67%	Lawless (2012)	" An artfully crafted film with subtle elegance, a moonshine drenched aesthetic and a set of performances that lift it well beyond many other Prohibition stories." — Film School Rejects Posted May 20, 2012
4/5	60%	Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)	" The overall effect is of sort of Steam Punk Toulouse Lautrec portrait, intricately designed, occasionally visually dazzling, and well-acted throughout." — What Culture Posted May 20, 2012
B-	89%	Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir ()	" Sycophancy is an ugly thing at the best of times, and when the subject is shouldering the story-telling burden without it, it's even worse." — Film School Rejects Posted May 19, 2012
B+	79%	Reality (2013)	" Reality is effectively Garrone's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,cruelly trapping Charlie in a perpetual hunt through Wonka bars for his one big shot." — Film School Rejects Posted May 19, 2012
C-	62%	Paradise: Love (2013)	" Grotesque and too openly provocative for its own good." — Film School Rejects Posted May 19, 2012
A	82%	De rouille et d'os (Rust and Bone) (2012)	" Cotillard and Schoenaert both give award worthy performances, in a film that grips from the very outset without the need for vulgar spectacle." — Film School Rejects Posted May 17, 2012
A-	94%	Moonrise Kingdom (2012)	" Hugely charming, and featuring both typically excellent cast performances, and some wonderful technical flourishes." — Film School Rejects Posted May 16, 2012
2.5/5	58%	The Dictator (2012)	" If the state of comedy is so desperate that a baby with a merkin has to be played for laughs, then it is perhaps time to start again from the top." — What Culture Posted May 10, 2012
4.5/5	93%	Marvel's The Avengers (2012)	" The Avengers is a statement of form: this is not only what all superhero movies should be, it is what all so-called blockbusters should be" — What Culture Posted Apr 19, 2012
1.5/5	26%	Green Lantern (2011)	" Thinks it is more impressive than it actually is. Faced with over-blown effects, characters look flat and disappear into the background without a whimper, thanks to an insipid script and the film-makers' unwillingness to flesh out anyone but Hal Jordan. " — What Culture Posted Jan 2, 2012
2/5	33%	The New Daughter (2009)	" Unfortunately for all of the good work, like the good-looking cinematography, and Costner's performance, it doesn't quite land the punch it needs to stand out as one of the better horrors of recent years." — What Culture Posted Jan 2, 2012
2/5	0%	Reuniting The Rubins (2012)	" Reuniting the Rubins is harmless, unspectacular comedy, let down by a poor script and light-weight direction, which might have been more at home on a Sunday on ITV. It isn't the worst thing you'll see this year, but it will be difficult to remember." — What Culture Posted Jan 2, 2012
3/5	55%	The Conspirator (2011)	" The Conspirator deserves a lot more praise than it got on initial release: yes it is slow in parts and even provocatively tentative, but it is intricately crafted, a wonderful example of precision and attention to detail." — What Culture Posted Jan 2, 2012
3.5/5	75%	Everything Must Go (2011)	" Everything Must Go is a pleasantly engaging, entertaining human portrait - a journey that doesn't physically stray very far, but which treads a million metaphorical miles within its main character as he attempts to go from broken man to redeemed man." — What Culture Posted Jan 2, 2012
3/5	38%	Cars 2 (2011)	" With Cars 2 it seems Pixar may have fallen on the self-made sword of success. But even for adult audiences, it is no more than middling - it is neither terribly good nor terrible, but it still out-performs the majority of rival animation studios' output." — What Culture Posted Jan 2, 2012
1/5	24%	Conan the Barbarian (2011)	" The film lacks any magic, and indeed any of the spirit that grabbed a cult audience for the original: the direction lacks any kind of showmanship, and the script is a dilluted version of what it undoubtedly could have been." — What Culture Posted Jan 2, 2012
4.5/5	82%	Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)	" The substance of the film is simply mesmerising: the way in which it prioritises story over spectacle, saying so much without explicit over-statement is a triumph, and it is for good reason that it is one of my picks for Best Film at next year's Oscars." — What Culture Posted Jan 2, 2012
—	37%	Restless (2011)	— Film School Rejects Posted Sep 17, 2011

Showing 1 - 45 of 45

Sort by Rating:

Sort results by this critic's rating. This option is only available for critics with a rating system (4 star, letter grade, 1-10, etc.)
Sort by T-meter:

Sort results by the Tomatometer (percentage of critics recommending a certain movie)