Steve Persall Movie Reviews & Previews

Critics » Steve Persall

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Steve Persall

Agrees with the Tomatometer 78% of the time.

Publications:: Tampa Bay Times
Critics' Group:: Florida Film Critics Circle, Southeastern Film Critics Association

Total Reviews:: 345

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 50 of 345

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Rating	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date
C-	46%	Pain & Gain (2013)	" Pain & Gain is a shockingly amoral movie yet occasionally rambunctious enough to make viewers overlook that." — Tampa Bay Times Posted May 3, 2013
A-	93%	The Sapphires (2013)	" Even when it seems contrived The Sapphires is a feel-good movie in the most positive meaning of that term, thanks to the Motown music and O'Dowd's cheeky charm. Like the Temptations, I loved every sugar pie, honey bunch moment. I can't help myself." — Tampa Bay Times Posted May 3, 2013
B-	78%	Iron Man 3 (2013)	" Iron Man 3 is missing that old Tony Stark spark. Not from Robert Downey Jr., who is still the best thing about this overblown show, with his smarter-than-thou charisma intact even while his character emotionally falls apart. " — Tampa Bay Times Posted May 3, 2013
A-	81%	The Place Beyond The Pines (2013)	" The Place Beyond the Pines has an unpretentious power that sneaks up on viewers; it's over before you realize it's one of the year's finer films so far." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Apr 11, 2013
B+	68%	Trance (2013)	" Even when the plot goes completely bonkers, bat-guano off the rails, "Trance" is a perfect title for this dazed and confusing movie. See it but don't dare explain it to anyone. Then see it again and realize you would have been wrong." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Apr 11, 2013
A	77%	42 (2013)	" The movie is a home run, and Ford is a grand ham." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Apr 11, 2013
B	92%	No (2013)	" Larrain does a fine job of making No look and sound authentic to its time period, although the VHS-quality photography, all washed-out with colors bleeding together as camcorders did in the '80s, is an occasional irritant." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Apr 4, 2013
B-	62%	Evil Dead (2013)	" In an admirably self-aware decision, this overhaul of the splatter classic The Evil Dead doesn't have the "the" in its title. This isn't "The" Evil Dead but another one, a lesser, nastier one, with all of the original's high-camp fun hemorrhaged out." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Apr 4, 2013
B+	94%	Room 237 (2013)	" I can't buy into the notion of Stanley Kubrick faking Apollo 11's moon landing but he definitely helped Shelley Duvall fake a movie career." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Apr 2, 2013
D	28%	G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)	" This movie never realizes how ridiculous anything it does truly is, right up to the last-second promise of another sequel." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Apr 2, 2013
C-	9%	The Host (2013)	" The Host doesn't strive for social allegory, as previous body snatcher flicks did... it's merely a teenage girl's fantasy checklist for prom: Which "me" should I be, which guy should I go with, and can we get one of those shiny sports cars to drive?" — Tampa Bay Times Posted Apr 2, 2013
B-	60%	Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)	" It took courage to believe anything could and should be added to The Wizard of Oz. It took brains to create such a sumptuous fantasia with pixels and keyboard swipes. Now, if it only had a heart." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Mar 19, 2013
B-	38%	The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013)	" Now you laugh at it, now you don't." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Mar 19, 2013
B+	66%	Spring Breakers (2013)	" Tampa Bay wears fringe nihilism well; wet-fever dreams of trigger-happy angels floating on cannabis clouds and dusted with cocaine like beignets waiting to be licked clean....Film as a fetish tool, that's what Spring Breakers is all about, y'all." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Mar 19, 2013
B-	31%	Emperor (2013)	" Donning aviator sunglasses and jamming a corncob pipe in his mouth completes Jones' impression of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, in a movie needing more scenes with him doing it." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Mar 7, 2013
A-	95%	West of Memphis (2012)	" In the end it won't matter if this is the fourth movie about the same subject; you can never learn its lessons often enough." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Mar 1, 2013
B+	58%	Snitch (2013)	" Snitch is a movie that doesn't play its marquee star cheap. Dwayne Johnson leaves his preening pro wrestling persona at the door, never doffing his shirt or lifting an eyebrow while playing a guy in way over his head. " — Tampa Bay Times Posted Mar 1, 2013
B-	52%	Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)	" Paraphrasing the giant: Fee fi ho hum." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Mar 1, 2013
B	26%	21 And Over (2013)	" Any movie beginning with two dudes wearing nothing but tube socks (and not on their feet), welts on their buttocks and branded sorority logos to boot has nowhere to go but down. 21 and Over does that gladly, and in a demented way gracefully at times." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Mar 1, 2013
A	93%	Amour (2012)	" This is a movie almost too painful to watch at times, yet so masterfully composed and acted - Riva absolutely deserves her Oscar nomination, while Trintignant was robbed - that it's impossible to turn away. " — Tampa Bay Times Posted Feb 19, 2013
B	45%	Beautiful Creatures (2013)	" Beautiful Creatures gives supernatural teenage romance a good name, or at least a better one than the entire Twilight Saga offered." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Feb 19, 2013
C-	15%	A Good Day To Die Hard (2013)	" One Russian bad guy actually and unintentionally sums up the movie and its makers: "You guys, so arrogant. It's not 1986, you know." Or even 1988, when Die Hard was a fresh take on action flicks." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Feb 19, 2013
	94%	The King's Speech (2010)	" See it, then say it for yourself: The King's Speech is the best movie of 2010." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Feb 16, 2013
B-	38%	Hyde Park on Hudson (2012)	" Apparently Franklin Delano Roosevelt's polio paralysis didn't include everything below his waist. At least that's the impression left by Hyde Park on Hudson, which paints the president as a horn dog in chief... This isn't Lincoln, by a longshot." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Feb 9, 2013
A	93%	Zero Dark Thirty (2013)	" We know the ending, yet remain mesmerized by familiar details, filmed with a harrowing sense of urgency. It's as close to being in the White House situation room that night, watching a closed-circuit broadcast, as anyone could expect." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Feb 9, 2013
A-	85%	Side Effects (2013)	" Nobody in Side Effects except perhaps the victim is who they seem to be, while Soderbergh and Burns tease and tug the rug from under the audience, never yanking it. Smart moves, smart movie." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Feb 9, 2013
C+	20%	Identity Thief (2013)	" A road movie with its creative lanes clogged, and a Mack truck comedian barreling through, anyway. Melissa McCarthy, pound-for-pound the funniest woman in show biz these days, carries this cruel and usual raunchfest practically by default. " — Tampa Bay Times Posted Feb 9, 2013
B	63%	Hitchcock (2012)	" Hitchcock is at its best when not taking its subject seriously, when you can detect Hopkins' tongue firmly jabbed into his phony cheeks." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Dec 5, 2012
B	64%	Anna Karenina (2012)	" Knocking some stuffiness out of Leo Tolstoy's lit-class hurdle, Wright atones for previously turning theaters into staid libraries.... replaced by a creative tack that's fairly exciting until the novelty wears off." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Nov 29, 2012
B-	76%	Killing Them Softly (2012)	" ... a procession of shoot-ups and beat-downs filmed with fetish. If you're into seeing people die stylishly messy, this is the movie for you." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Nov 29, 2012
B	84%	Smashed (2012)	" Alcoholism and the movies go together like gin and tonic, with recurring lost weekends of wine and roses enabling actors to shine. Smashed is no different, with Mary Elizabeth Winstead's portrayal of a grudgingly recovering drunk leading the way." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Nov 21, 2012
B	74%	Rise of the Guardians (2012)	" Rise of the Guardians offers an amusing contrast, designed like a reverent Hallmark holiday card that you open to find a Shoebox joke inside." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Nov 21, 2012
C-	13%	Red Dawn (2012)	" After a while all you notice are the head-slapping moments, like an odd bit of product placement when in the midst of street warfare a Subway store is open for brisk business, with the Wolverines grabbing cold cuts and cheese." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Nov 21, 2012
A	92%	Silver Linings Playbook (2012)	" Russell crafts a Baker Act romance playing loose and eccentric with the genre. The banter is spikier, wacky sidekicks have issues, too, and Pat and Tiffany's obstacles aren't fluff. The screws are tighter, and the movie is a ball." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Nov 21, 2012
B+	79%	A Late Quartet (2012)	" Best of all there's Walken, masterfully subdued by Peter's sophistication and illness, yet still eccentric enough to deflect pity.... How many surprises can Walken possibly have left, after so many memorable roles? Well, there's this one. " — Tampa Bay Times Posted Nov 15, 2012
B	68%	This Must Be The Place (2012)	" Feels like a cult movie waiting to happen, or perhaps a mad experiment gone wrong. Either way, it's worth watching Penn, perhaps unwittingly, taking Jeff Spicoli to the burned-out end we might have guessed for him back at Ridgemont High." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Nov 15, 2012
A	94%	The Sessions (2012)	" Not just another weepy drama of overcoming odds, a My Left Foot with a different appendage. The Sessions is often brazenly funny, not from shocking dialogue but characters reacting the way people do, especially with such a flustering subject as sex." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Nov 15, 2012
B	89%	Lincoln (2012)	" Daniel Day-Lewis' portrayal (is) a marvel of physical resemblance and thoughtful acting choices. You could probably pass a counterfeit $5 bill with his picture on it without much trouble." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Nov 15, 2012
B	33%	Little Red Wagon (2012)	" Not many 14-year-olds have movies made about their lives. Zach Bonner is an exception, always has been, and that's why Little Red Wagon is such a sweetly inspiring story.... It's a nice movie, probably too much so for viewers seeking meatier drama." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Nov 9, 2012
A	92%	Skyfall (2012)	" Let's lay the baccarat cards on the table: Skyfall is the greatest James Bond adventure since Goldfinger. If that seems impossible after 50 years, 23 movies and six actors playing the secret agent, think of how thrilling it is to watch it happen." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Nov 9, 2012
A-	79%	Flight (2012)	" Denzel Washington's boldest, against-type role since Training Day... a tightly wound production, Zemeckis' first live-action work since Cast Away and, after admirably failing to make motion-capture animation the next big thing, one of his finest." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Oct 31, 2012
B+	86%	Wreck-it Ralph (2012)	" A delightful contrast to Moore's frenetic adventure is offered by an accompanying short subject Paper Man... the reason for the "plus" in my grade, and a likely Oscar nominee in the animated short film category." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Oct 31, 2012
D	68%	Cloud Atlas (2012)	" Do you remember The Matrix? So does everyone who invested in any movie directed since by the Wachowskis. They have proven to be suckers through two lousy sequels, Speed Racer and now Cloud Atlas, the most incoherent waste of time and money this year." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Oct 26, 2012
B-	5%	Atlas Shrugged: Part II (2012)	" New viewers aren't expected to jump into the dense story now, and anyone coming back for seconds is predisposed to believing this is the most important movie of the year. Sean Hannity or another right-wing mouthpiece told them so." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Oct 12, 2012
C-	63%	Sinister (2012)	" Give the makers of Sinister credit for one thing: They don't attempt to pass off this supernatural malarkey as based upon or inspired by true events. Doesn't make it a better movie, only a more honest one than usual for a genre that just won't die." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Oct 11, 2012
C	39%	Here Comes the Boom (2012)	" It's the combination of Warrior and Mr. Holland's Opus nobody asked for, but here it comes anyway, landing with a thump." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Oct 11, 2012
B-	82%	Seven Psychopaths (2012)	" McDonagh serves up gems of audaciously violent humor but never makes a bracelet. It'll play better on DVD where chapters and psychopaths can be selected according to taste (I'd suggest Nos. 1, 2, 5 and 7). In a theater intact, it's a bloody mess." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Oct 11, 2012
A	96%	Argo (2012)	" Argo is a supremely constructed popcorn flick, a political thriller taut as piano wire and a Hollywood satire funnier than most comedies on the subject." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Oct 11, 2012
B+	87%	Frankenweenie (2012)	" Frankenweenie is stitched together with love and a bit raggedy, like Sparky the dog in question. It's essentially spare parts from Burton's filmography, which makes sense since the original established his darkly comical vision." — Tampa Bay Times Posted Oct 5, 2012

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