David Hunter

Tomatometer-approved critic

Publications: Hollywood Reporter, Heat Magazine

Critics' Group: Los Angeles Film Critics Association

movie Reviews Only

Movies

T-Meter	Title \| Year	Review
92%	Shakespeare in Love (1998)	In a little more than two hours, director John Madden, screenwriters Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard and a terrific cast and crew accomplish the miraculous. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 17, 2018
93%	Fargo (1996)	[Frances] McDormand is excellent and has a lot of fun with her tenacious and competent character, who is dedicated to duty and her sweet, supportive husband. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 19, 2018
85%	Bottle Rocket (1996)	The performers look like they're having a lot of fun, but there is a great deal of skill on display. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 21, 2018
63%	From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)	[Robert] Rodriguez pushes the envelope but fails to make any lasting impression except revulsion at the spectacle of acclaimed independent filmmakers wasting their talents on such trash. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 19, 2018
88%	The Matrix (1999)	A technologically stunning movie that furthers the genre and features crowd-pleasing performances to go with the frequent scenes of gunplay and violence. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 3, 2015
22%	Romeo Is Bleeding (1993)	Stylistic but ultimately unsatisfying. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Apr 9, 2008
86%	Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001)	Engaging but decidedly less than earth-shattering. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 2, 2007
80%	Anthem (1997)	This is a documentary that could easily have been overly self-indulgent or fashionably irreverent but instead appeals to one's intelligence and provides glimpses of a dynamic country cruising peacefully toward the millennium. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 24, 2007
50%	The Dogwalker (2002)	Rather than being self-indulgent or pretentious, however, the film comes up with many believable details and changes in direction that enrich the bittersweet central relationship of the two leads. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Aug 25, 2006
48%	Happy Here and Now (2002)	The future is quieter, emotionally subdued and grayly mysterious, at least in the small hop forward imagined by filmmaker Michael Almereyda. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 16, 2005
57%	Passionada (2003)	Goes down smoothly thanks to the trio of lead actors, whose enthusiasm and chemistry help make up for the routine filmmaking. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 31, 2004
93%	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)	Sure to be an Oscar contender in many categories and a breathtaking argument for director Peter Jackson winning every award there is to give, King has none of the usual deficiencies that frequently scuttle third films. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 8, 2003
65%	Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (Kaubôi Bibappu: Tengoku no Tobira) (2003)	The sound effects and musical choices will underwhelm some, but those previously tuned in with the TV series will be happy to see the team of bounty hunters back in action. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Apr 3, 2003
50%	The Safety of Objects (2001)	With a long running time that no amount of nonlinear construction can successfully quicken, Safety does have sequences and whole story lines that are fresh and thoughtfully entertaining. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 10, 2003
67%	Ballad of Bering Strait (2003)	It's a coming-out party of a project that is never less than engaging. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 24, 2003
8%	Gods and Generals (2003)	From the start Gods has a mighty wind of nostalgia and outright historical mythicizing that doesn't go down easily. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 19, 2003
23%	Biker Boyz (2003)	Not without moments of excitement, romance and rubber-burning redemption. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 6, 2003
48%	Final Destination 2 (2003)	A gory good show for fans of R-rated horror mayhem. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 30, 2003
42%	How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)	This boy-meets-girl movie is a chore to sit through. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 28, 2003
66%	Shanghai Knights (2003)	It's the stronger supporting players and script that make Knights a more palatable hybrid than Noon. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 28, 2003
9%	Darkness Falls (2003)	A dreary exercise in cheap shocks aimed at kids. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 23, 2003
24%	A Guy Thing (2003)	A negligible thing at best and a determinedly unfunny thing at worst. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 16, 2003
8%	Kangaroo Jack (2003)	There really is a nice core to the movie, and O'Connell and Anderson are equally adept at getting laughs by playing up the characters' manic drive to keep going. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 15, 2003
37%	Star Trek - Nemesis (2002)	It's good to have the Next Generation crew back in action, and Patrick Stewart is still a commanding presence as Capt. Picard of the USS Enterprise. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 10, 2002
79%	Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2003)	Stealthily thought-provoking and brashly entertaining. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 10, 2002
22%	The Hot Chick (2002)	Several degrees shy of the gross-out contests one expects from current teen fare. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 10, 2002
95%	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)	A cinematic flood of spectacular proportions. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 5, 2002
66%	Solaris (2002)	Pleasingly, Soderbergh does not pander much to expectations and more than once evokes Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 22, 2002
100%	Samsara (2002)	Nalin's film has excellent production values and thoroughly transports one to its far-flung world of clear skies, jagged mountains and passionate affairs of the mind and body. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 14, 2002
57%	The Business of Fancydancing (2002)	Where it goes wrong is in the combination of poetic sensibilities and run-of-the-mill narrative cinema. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 25, 2002
21%	Knockaround Guys (2002)	Of interest only to male viewers who are addicts of Scorsese-meets -Tarantino gangster-life frolics. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 11, 2002
54%	The Transporter (2002)	Such a silly slugfest that no amount of surly attitude can hide its skeletal plot or stand in for satisfying characterizations. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 9, 2002
60%	Pantaleon y las Visitadoras (2002)	Wears one down with a long running time and diminishing returns on its wicked premise. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 27, 2002
19%	Just a Kiss (2002)	Stevens' vibrant creative instincts are the difference between this and countless other flicks about guys and dolls. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 26, 2002
40%	American Gun (2002)	Getting a lot of quality cinema out of a tight budget, Jacobs (Just One Night) takes some risks in the storytelling department that result in a film that encourages one to think long and hard about the subject of guns. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 26, 2002
97%	Spirited Away (2002)	Miyazaki is one of world cinema's most wondrously gifted artists and storytellers. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 23, 2002
54%	Invincible (2002)	After one gets the feeling that the typical Hollywood disregard for historical truth and realism is at work here, it's a matter of finding entertainment in the experiences of Zishe and the fiery presence of Hanussen. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 23, 2002
95%	Apollo 13 (1995)	The special effects and many scenes of weightlessness look as good or better than in the original, while the Oscar-winning sound and James Horner's rousing score make good use of the hefty audio system. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 20, 2002
37%	Spun (2003)	Virtuoso cinema that mercilessly holds a light up to wasted lives but also comes down off its high to make us care about these lost souls. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 18, 2002
25%	Heartbreak Hospital (2002)	Other than a mildly engaging central romance, Hospital is sickly entertainment at best and mind-destroying cinematic pollution at worst. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 17, 2002
No Score Yet	Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)	Why have a plot, characters, dialogue? Maybe the sequel will be called Simplistic: Bullets vs. Humans. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 17, 2002
9%	Stealing Harvard (2002)	Seems destined to flop both in theaters and in ancillary manifestations. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 12, 2002
14%	Swimfan (2002)	The project's filmmakers forgot to include anything even halfway scary as they poorly rejigger Fatal Attraction into a high school setting. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 5, 2002
48%	The Banger Sisters (2002)	Clunky plotting and an uninteresting character creep into a potentially funnier and more endearing scenario. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 5, 2002
15%	Smokers Only (2002)	The leads are so unmemorable, despite several attempts at lengthy dialogue scenes, that one eventually resents having to inhale this gutter romancer's secondhand material. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Aug 27, 2002
79%	Washington Heights (2002)	When the film shows the awkwardness of the lead's caregiver relationship with his cranky father, De Villa finds material that's compelling, but such complications as the girlfriend's violent brother going ballistic and tragedy ensuing are rugged cliches. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Aug 24, 2002
78%	Bubba Ho-Tep (2003)	A zinger-filled crowd-pleaser that open-minded Elvis fans (but by no means all) will have fun with. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Aug 21, 2002
48%	XXX (2002)	Pitifully written, with flagrant disregard for reality in the fashion of a spoof. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Aug 5, 2002
80%	Looking for Leonard (2002)	From the performances and wry dialogue to the sets and cinematography, Looking is a film with a lot of things going for it. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 17, 2002
83%	Satin Rouge (2002)	The way Lilia loosens up and learns to dance enticingly for men in a timeless ritual that is empowering and not demeaning is Satin at its most engaging. - Hollywood Reporter EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 17, 2002