David Pirie

David Pirie
David Pirie's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s): Time Out
Publications: Time Out

Movie Reviews Only

T-Meter Title | Year
71% Taps (1981) A fascinating first hour is drowned in the clichés of siege cinema. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Dec 3, 2018
47% The Sentinel (1977) The only frightening thing about The Sentinel is its director's mind. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 27, 2018
93% Theater of Blood (Theatre of Blood) (Much Ado About Murder) (1973) Comedy horror that really does give Vincent Price a chance to do his stuff, with deliciously absurd results. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 24, 2006
51% Cruising (1980) Opening with some powerful moments, Cruising soon drifts into bloody Village People-type caricature. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 24, 2006
98% Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1982) Miller's choreography of his innumerable vehicles is so extraordinary that it makes Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark look like a kid fooling with Dinky Toys. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 24, 2006
57% California Suite (1978) Quick and varied comedy, highly suited to Neil Simon's machine-gun gag-writing. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 24, 2006
53% King Kong (1976) The results of this technological bonanza are pretty mixed. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 24, 2006
52% The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977) Only Michael York's metamorphosis into a beast has any impact, and the film predictably fails to follow through even on that. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 24, 2006
90% Blade Runner (1982) The android villains are neither menacing nor sympathetic, when ideally they should have been both. This leaves Scott's picturesque violence looking dull and exploitative. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 24, 2006
90% Mad Max (1979) The tone sometimes wavers into self-parody, and there are occasional crude patches, but overall this edge-of-seat revenge movie marks the most exciting debut from an Australian director since Peter Weir. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 24, 2006
88% Terms of Endearment (1983) Then The Illness strikes, and the film changes gear completely, pulling out all the stops and almost incidentally delivering one of the best-acted, most moving death-bed scenes in recent memory. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 24, 2006
100% The Clowns (I Clowns) (1970) Fellini's documentary celebration of the dying art of the clown is his best film in years. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Jun 24, 2006
60% The Cars That Ate Paris (1974) The tone is beautifully sustained throughout, hovering just on the right side of conviction, with superbly understated comic performances from Camilleri and Meillon (the latter as a cosmically impotent mayor). - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 9, 2006
71% Black Sunday (1977) Unfortunately, all the major characters have a whiff of Hollywood artifice, largely because (as has happened too often before in his career) Frankenheimer gets carried away by their verbosity. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 9, 2006
73% The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974) The effects aren't simply fascinating for their own sake -- they genuinely convey a sense of the magical and otherworldly. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 9, 2006
86% Poltergeist (1982) It is consistently redeemed by its creator's dazzling sense of craft. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 9, 2006
61% Cujo (1983) This adaptation on a modest budget from Stephen King's bestseller about a rabid St Bernard is a pleasing illustration of the filmic simplicity at the heart of King's better writing. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 9, 2006
100% The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari) (1920) Undoubtedly one of the most exciting and inspired horror movies ever made. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 9, 2006
93% Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) Has distinct limitations, but the current return to a cinema of spectacle and wonder is wholly encouraging. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 9, 2006
60% Conquest of Space (1955) A fascinating relic. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 9, 2006
97% Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) The first film in years to give its audiences a tingle of shocked emotion that is not entirely based either on fear or on suspense. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Feb 9, 2006
93% Dawn of the Dead (1979) Undoubtedly the zombie movie to end 'em all. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 26, 2006
86% The Omen (1976) This apocalyptic movie mostly avoids physical gore to boost its relatively unoriginal storyline with suspense, some excellent acting (especially from Warner and Whitelaw), and a very deft, incident-packed script. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 26, 2006
93% Wanda (1971) The film is all the more impressive for its refusal to get embroiled in half-baked political attitudinising. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 26, 2006
92% Village of the Damned (1960) The atmosphere and pace are superbly handled, and the performances of the sinister, inhumanly intelligent 'children' never falter. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 26, 2006
98% E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) Although conclusively demonstrating Spielberg's preeminence as the popular artist of his time, E.T. finally seems a less impressive film than Close Encounters. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 26, 2006
80% Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) Full of the sensual mysteriousness which Hammer used to achieve so effortlessly during their long occupation of Bray Studios. - Time Out EDIT
Read More | Posted Jan 26, 2006