David Chute
David Chute's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer when
published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
Film Comment Magazine,
L.A. Weekly,
Los Angeles Times,
Village Voice,
IFilm
Movie Reviews Only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
| 57% | Ta Ra Rum Pum (2007) |
The film is so single-mindedly determined to be light and comfortable, to not raise a sweat, that it forgoes even the mildest surprises. The only things that get heavy here are the viewer's eyelids.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted May 3, 2007
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| 86% | Eklavya (2007) |
This is robust storytelling, with blood and thunder pumping through its veins, and real whiskers on its face.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Feb 15, 2007
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| 86% | Black Friday (2005) |
The underused Indian actor Kay Kay Menon is perfectly cast as a crisply correct detective keeping a tight lid on his seething anger in Black Friday, a rigorously naturalistic docudrama about a complex police investigation.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Feb 15, 2007
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| No Score Yet | Traffic Signal (2007) |
A skillfully woven multicharacter drama, Traffic Signal is a methodical depiction of a stratified alternative society cobbled together by the group of Bombay street people.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Feb 8, 2007
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| No Score Yet | Salaam-e-Ishq (2007) |
Writer-director Nikhil Advani cuts with crisp elegance between six passionate love stories in this master-class, South Asian extreme version of a tear-streaked Bollywood music drama.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Feb 1, 2007
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| 91% | Guru (2007) |
The film is a triumph of casting: In a role that is often about the sheer steamrolling force of his character's personality, Abishek Bachchan's attention to detail makes Guru accessible rather than intimidating, admirable but also plausible.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Jan 19, 2007
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| 0% | Kabul Express (2006) |
Kabul Express is the first foreign production shot in Afghanistan since the war, but [writer-director Kabir] Khan makes surprisingly little of his unique opportunity.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Dec 22, 2006
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| 66% | Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) |
In the end, Curse also looks alarmingly like a dry run for the opening and closing ceremonies Zhang has been hired to direct for the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Dec 20, 2006
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| 90% | Dhoom: 2 (2006) |
A movie meal as satisfying as this one can make you feel that nothing else matters.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Nov 30, 2006
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| No Score Yet | Umrao Jaan (2006) |
At three and a half hours, J.P. Dutta's lugubrious period melodrama Umrao Jaan defeated me. It feels endless.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Nov 9, 2006
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| No Score Yet | Don (2006) |
Working to keep the home audience interested in a story it knows by heart, Akhtar adds so many additional betrayals and secret identities to an already far-fetched plot that the real world becomes a distant memory, and happily so.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Oct 26, 2006
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| 50% | Jaan-e-Mann (2006) |
Viewers who are not already Bolly-heads are likely to be appalled.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Oct 26, 2006
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| No Score Yet | A Dirty Carnival (2011) |
Ha Yu, the young director of the sleek Korean gangster drama A Dirty Carnival, walks the genre-movie tightrope like a master: He keeps us guessing but never gets so hot for novelty that he disrespects the ground rules of the form.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Oct 12, 2006
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| No Score Yet | Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006) |
Squanders most of the goodwill generated by Part 1, banishing nearly all of its supporting characters to the Shadow Zone and starting all over again from scratch.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Sep 7, 2006
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| 64% | Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006) |
Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (Never Say Goodbye) contains set pieces so spine-chillingly effective that people may still be talking about them 20 years from now.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Aug 17, 2006
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| 100% | Krrish (2006) |
Hearty pulp cinema that really sticks to your ribs.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Jun 29, 2006
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| 22% | Typhoon (2006) |
Every gesture feels synthetic, from the back story about North-South separation to massage the emotions of the home audience, to the 24-style globe-hopping nuclear-terrorism premise.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Jun 1, 2006
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| 100% | Fanaa (2006) |
The sheer exuberant star power of this movie's early scenes of romance and lip-synching among the national monuments is irresistible.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Jun 1, 2006
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| 91% | Water (2005) |
... hitches some of the most irresistible conventions of Hindi movie melodrama to an earnest agenda of social protest.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Apr 28, 2006
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| No Score Yet | Taxi Number 9211 (2006) |
Crisp, fast editing and some expert sound effects goose this clash of social opposites as it escalates into a slapstick battle of wits.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Mar 2, 2006
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| 83% | Rang De Basanti (Paint it Yellow) (2006) |
Already a cultural phenomenon in India, this reformist melodrama by Rakesh Omprakash Mehra (Aks) uses razor-sharp technique and an eavesdropper's ear for dialogue to update the patriotic fervor of Bollywood's golden age.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Feb 2, 2006
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| No Score Yet | Zinda (2005) |
Zinda (Alive) isn't quite as gripping or as flamboyant as it should be.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Jan 19, 2006
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| No Score Yet | Shikhar (2005) |
Not even a third-act rescue from a burning building can prevent the tension from going up in smoke.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Jan 5, 2006
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| No Score Yet | Bluffmaster (2005) |
despite the excellence of its large ensemble, Bluffmaster still feels like a star vehicle, and a solidly convincing one at that.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Dec 22, 2005
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| No Score Yet | Neal 'N' Nikki (2005) |
The normally sharp instincts of Yash Chopra, the executive producer and distributor of this strident sex comedy, seem to have deserted him this time.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Dec 15, 2005
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| 83% | Salaam Namaste (2005) |
A watchable, but conventional, romantic comedy about negotiating domestic peace agreements in the shadow of an unexpected pregnancy.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Sep 15, 2005
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| 91% | The Rising (Mangal Pandey) (2005) |
The movie never finds the right balance between momentum and exposition, and way too much historical information has been crammed into voice-over narration.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Aug 18, 2005
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| 90% | Kung Fu Hustle (2005) |
An almost exhaustingly inventive action comedy that uses every available trick.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Apr 6, 2005
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| 78% | Shiza (2005) |
An earnest also-ran.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Mar 31, 2005
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| 15% | Miss Congeniality 2 - Armed and Fabulous (2005) |
The premise of the first Miss Congeniality is unrepeatable by definition, and Gracie is much less interesting as a now-fashion-savvy agent in Las Vegas.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Mar 24, 2005
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| 88% | Turtles Can Fly (2005) |
Ghobadi's genius seems supercharged rather than weighed down by his higher calling, and his imagery is so boilingly alive that we come away from it feeling exhilarated rather than depressed.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Feb 17, 2005
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| 95% | Masculin Feminin (1966) |
A withering satire.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2005
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| 86% | Ong-Bak (Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior) (2005) |
Tony Jaa is the real thing.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Feb 10, 2005
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| 25% | Appurushîdo (Appleseed) (2004) |
The supposedly human face of our metal-plated robocop's partner -- the inevitable curvy female in a leather jump suit -- is an inexpressive, glossy doll mask, untouched by human hands.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Jan 12, 2005
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| 55% | Wonderful Days (2004) |
A soulless piece of product, an ungainly hybrid of sketchy hand-drawn characters in blocky CGI environments, derivative at just about every level.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Dec 30, 2004
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| 68% | The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004) |
This man without qualities is a concept rather than a man, an ambitious rich actor's condescending fantasy of a colorless suburban schmo.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Dec 30, 2004
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| 39% | Meet the Fockers (2004) |
Feels like a big-budget Dharma & Greg episode with toilet jokes.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Dec 16, 2004
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| 88% | House of Flying Daggers (2004) |
The most seamless piece of sensuous expressionism Zhang has created since Ju Dou.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Dec 2, 2004
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| 94% | Vodka Lemon (2004) |
Hiner Saleem achieves the droll absurdity of a folktale with a vein of magical realism in this exceedingly dry and precise and slow-paced comedy set in a depressed, tiny village in northern post-Soviet Armenia.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Nov 17, 2004
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| 18% | After the Sunset (2004) |
Instantly forgettable.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Nov 11, 2004
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| 97% | The Incredibles (2004) |
The Incredibles creates so seamless a mood of exhilaration that we resent being pulled out of it.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Nov 4, 2004
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| 66% | Saints and Soldiers (2004) |
The triumph here is a matter of craftsmanship rather than art, but it's rare enough even on that level for a film to be worth celebrating.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Oct 14, 2004
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| 50% | Woman Thou Art Loosed (2004) |
The uniformly excellent actors, many of whom have been working beneath their gifts for years on UPN sitcoms, clearly relished the complexities. You will too.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Oct 1, 2004
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| 11% | Thérèse (2004) |
Skip the movie, stay home, read the book and say three Hail Marys.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Oct 1, 2004
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| 64% | Ghost in the Shell 2 - Innocence (2004) |
This sophomoric stuff is pure self-indulgence, a drone to accompany the admittedly eye-popping sound-and-light show.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Sep 15, 2004
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| 68% | Warriors of Heaven and Earth (Tian di ying xiong) (2004) |
It's well worth seeing just for the embellishments.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Sep 2, 2004
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| 79% | Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War (2004) |
While it comes on like a flag-waver, it actually delivers something more nuanced.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Sep 2, 2004
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| 72% | Gozu (2003) |
The various disruptions Miike visits upon his stories, and upon his audience, serve mainly to focus attention on the manipulating intelligence behind the scenes. They're a fancy way of yelling, 'Look at me!'‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Aug 12, 2004
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| 36% | Returner (2002) |
A fourth-generation Terminator hand-me-down.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Oct 22, 2003
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| 41% | Bollywood/Hollywood (2003) |
Feels cramped and constrained at just about every level.‐ L.A. Weekly
Read More | Posted Oct 2, 2003
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