Jessica Reaves
Jessica Reaves's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer when
published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
Chicago Tribune,
Los Angeles Times
| Biography: |
Chicago Tribune staff reporter
|
| Publications: | Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Metromix.com |
Movie Reviews Only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3/4 | 66% | The Brothers Bloom (2009) |
An awfully good time.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted May 5, 2009
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| 1.5/4 | 25% | Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009) |
If there is a single bright spot in the financial crisis, it is the possibility that one day producer Jerry Bruckheimer will run out of money.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Feb 13, 2009
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| 3/4 | 63% | Marley & Me (2008) |
The book, like the movie it inspired, is a sweet, surprisingly moving chronicle of a young couple's struggle to simultaneously build a family, advance their careers and maintain their sanity.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Dec 24, 2008
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| 3/4 | 64% | Plus Tard (One Day You'll Understand) (Later) (2008) |
This is not a movie of big, dramatic revelations; in fact, the notionally elusive truth is pretty obvious from the movie's outset, which makes Victor's quest less about facts and more about principles.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Nov 13, 2008
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| 3/4 | 93% | Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story (2008) |
By the end of Forbes' brisk, economical portrait, Atwater has been revealed as a repugnant and pathetic soul--and a political visionary, among the first to fully understand and harness the raw power of voters' fears.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Oct 31, 2008
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| 2/4 | 58% | The Secret Life of Bees (2008) |
Sweat and good intentions, however, will take you only so far. And they take Bees right up to the threshold of entertaining%u2014but not one step further.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Oct 20, 2008
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| 2/4 | 70% | America the Beautiful (2008) |
Despite the occasional flash of insight, and a few semi-shocking factoids, most women are going to find this movie roughly as illuminating as a remedial math class might be for a Nobel-prize winning physicist.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Oct 18, 2008
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| 1/4 | 38% | Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? (2008) |
Morgan Spurlock is a living, breathing cautionary tale. Take a good, long look, kids: This is what happens when society validates really annoying people.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Oct 18, 2008
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| 3.5/4 | 65% | The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (2008) |
Like its predecessor, Sisterhood 2 is based on two radical ideas: namely, that young women's stories are about more than the pursuit of men, and that happiness isn't something someone else gives you -- it's something you have to find for yourself.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Aug 7, 2008
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| 2.5/4 | 79% | Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008) |
I predict with great confidence that the big-screen debut of the American Girl brand will be a resounding success. This rosy prediction is based partly on the fact that Kit Kittredge is a solidly made movie...and partly on the fact that the America‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Jun 19, 2008
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| 3/4 | 45% | The Strangers (2008) |
Anchored by convincing performances from Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler, both of whom elevate their roles above the standard horror-movie caricature, this is an enormously unsettling movie.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted May 29, 2008
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| 3.5/4 | 49% | Sex and the City (2008) |
Witty, effervescent and unexpectedly thoughtful, the big-screen iteration of the HBO series stands up beautifully (and somewhat miraculously) to the twin pressures of popular expectation and critical assessment.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted May 28, 2008
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| 3/4 | 84% | The Singing Revolution (2007) |
As far as the plot goes, widespread lack of familiarity with Estonia's recent history actually works in the film's favor: Suspense born of ignorance lends the unfolding drama the urgency of a political thriller.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted May 22, 2008
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| 3/4 | 79% | How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer (2008) |
Unlike so many of her peers who depend on music to do everything but deliver the dialogue, [director] Riedel isn't afraid of silence; early in the film there's a solid minute of noiselessness as the camera lovingly pans the town, establishing the story's‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted May 15, 2008
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| 2/4 | 49% | Before the Rains (2008) |
The problem isn't just that the material is cliched and vaguely offensive....It's more that the plot is incredibly predictable, the score is manipulative and the denouement completely unsatisfying.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted May 15, 2008
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| 2/4 | No Score Yet | America the Beautiful (2001) |
On behalf of every woman who's ever turned down that second piece of cake or spent far too much on anti-aging creams, I want to say: Welcome, Darryl. I hope you'll invite other men on your overdue journey to Obvious Town.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted May 8, 2008
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| 3.5/4 | 88% | Young@Heart (2007) |
A chorus (average age 80) prepares for a springtime tour, putting their signature spin on classics--classics like The Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go."‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Apr 18, 2008
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| 2.5/4 | 79% | Teeth (2007) |
Given how thoroughly all the subtext spells out the message, then, it seems unnecessary to make the actual text so raw, grotesque and graphic. Granted, a horror movie about vagina dentata was probably never destined to be tasteful, but Lichtenstein's comp‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Mar 27, 2008
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| 2.5/4 | 64% | Stop-Loss (2008) |
Peirce's obvious respect for the returned soldiers should prevent Stop-Loss from being dismissed as a Hollywood anti-war screed. It's more accurately described as an anti-war movie with a resolutely pro-troop message.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Mar 27, 2008
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| 3/4 | 98% | The Band's Visit (2007) |
You can watch The Band's Visit for its political idealism, or you can watch it for entertainment value alone. In either case, it doesn't disappoint.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Mar 6, 2008
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| 2.5/4 | 42% | The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) |
Sticklers for historical accuracy are forewarned: This glossy production plays fast and loose with the facts, abbreviating, altering and excising entire character arcs and plot lines.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Feb 28, 2008
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| .5/4 | 5% | The Hottie and the Nottie (2008) |
Heidi Ferrer's screenplay...succeeds at just one thing: trumpeting one of the most anti-feminist messages in recent film history.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Feb 7, 2008
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| 2/4 | 13% | First Sunday (2008) |
The movie's total lack of focus and its unimpressive script should render it totally unwatchable. Weirdly, that doesn't quite happen.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Jan 11, 2008
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| 2.5/4 | 74% | The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (2007) |
A sweet, familiar story, beautifully filmed and lovingly told.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Dec 25, 2007
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| 2.5/4 | 74% | The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (2007) |
But for all the movie's good cheer, it's never dull. What it lacks in edginess, it more than makes up for with stunning scenery, a breathless finale and an irresistibly hopeful message.‐ Metromix.com
Read More | Posted Dec 24, 2007
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| 2/4 | 24% | P.S. I Love You (2007) |
Snippets of sharp, witty dialogue are lost in a sea of sappy clichés and too-cute-for-words plot twists.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Dec 21, 2007
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| 3.5/4 | 89% | The Savages (2007) |
Assured and sharp, The Savages is only Jenkins' second feature-length film. You'd never know it.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Dec 20, 2007
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| 3/4 | 87% | Starting Out in the Evening (2007) |
While the film shares the novel's stealth appeal ... on the whole it's better: sharper, leaner and less sentimental.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Dec 14, 2007
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| 3/4 | 57% | What Would Jesus Buy? (2007) |
It's a wickedly effective indictment of America's consumer compulsion, our mindless shopping and the multinational corporations controlling it all.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Nov 29, 2007
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| 3/4 | 98% | For the Bible Tells Me So (2007) |
This is a compelling, thought-provoking portrait of a quiet challenge rising within America's churches.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Nov 29, 2007
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| 1/4 | 12% | Broken (2007) |
[The] script is so uneven that the result is like watching four different, equally bad, movies.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Nov 12, 2007
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| 1/4 | 35% | P2 (2007) |
The same old grim game of cat and mouse. Sure, we hope the mouse gets away. But mostly we just want the whole thing to end.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Nov 8, 2007
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| 2.5/4 | 67% | Wristcutters: A Love Story (2007) |
Wristcutters is quite a bit darker than most mainstream romantic comedies. As you might not expect, it's also quite a bit more inventive and far wittier than most mainstream romantic comedies.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Nov 1, 2007
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| 2.5/4 | 33% | Music Within (2007) |
A well-intentioned biopic about disability crusader Richard Pimentel that starts strong but eventually collapses under its weighty sense of responsibility.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Oct 25, 2007
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| 2.5/4 | 68% | Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman (2007) |
Despite [director] Fox's excruciating level of self-involvement, she manages, more than once, to lay bare critical questions that are at once familiar and compelling.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Sep 13, 2007
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| 3/4 | 53% | Across the Universe (2007) |
If you can get past its relatively minor failings, it's hard not to be seduced by the big heart of this chaotic, colorful movie.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Sep 13, 2007
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| 2/4 | 13% | Mr. Woodcock (2007) |
[A] marginally promising -- but ultimately unfunny -- comedy.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Sep 13, 2007
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| 1.5/4 | 54% | Manufacturing Dissent (2007) |
Manufacturing Dissent comes across less as an expose of a polarizing public figure than as the realization of a personal and not especially interesting grudge against a once-admired colleague who has moved on to bigger things.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Aug 30, 2007
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| 3/4 | 61% | Them (2007) |
Taut and remorseless, Them, which is allegedly based on actual events, is the perfect antidote to the stomach-churning gore served up by so many in the current crop of horror films.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Aug 23, 2007
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| 2/4 | 40% | Hot Rod (2007) |
Some hilarity does, in fact, ensue, but the laughs are interspersed with long stretches of dead air.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Aug 2, 2007
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| 3/4 | 27% | Evening (2007) |
If you've not read Susan Minot's 1998 bestseller Evening, you will be happily oblivious to the movie's glaring departures and free to settle into this languid, gorgeously shot film, which bears only a passing resemblance to the novel.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Jun 28, 2007
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| 3/4 | 82% | Live Free or Die Hard (2007) |
The usual pyrotechnics are intact, the corpses pile up and McClane even gets to spit out his signature battle cry.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Jun 26, 2007
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| 3/4 | 49% | We Are Marshall (2006) |
'Restrained' and 'tasteful' are not words normally associated with McG, the director best known for countless music videos and the Charlie's Angels movie franchise. We Are Marshall could change that.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Dec 21, 2006
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| 2.5/4 | 50% | Ever Again (2006) |
What makes this movie worth seeing, is, ironically, exactly what may deter potential audiences: It's a rigorous, almost academic examination of a venomous hatred rooted in the past, primed to poison the future.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Dec 7, 2006
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| 3/4 | 63% | 10 Items or Less (2006) |
Silberling demonstrates an unerring ear for the natural, often discomfiting rhythm of two strangers tentatively forging a connection.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Nov 30, 2006
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| 2.5/4 | 46% | Bobby (2006) |
A daring, messy and strangely rewarding patchwork that's straining at the seams.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Nov 22, 2006
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| 1.5/4 | 6% | Deck the Halls (2006) |
... Deck the Halls has little to recommend it.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Nov 21, 2006
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| 3/4 | 32% | Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006) |
A revelatory, challenging and deeply affecting portrait, anchored by what may be Kidman's most profoundly moving performance to date.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Nov 16, 2006
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| 2/4 | 26% | A Good Year (2006) |
It's no surprise that you can see A Good Year's plot twists and clunker of an ending from a mile away.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Nov 9, 2006
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| 2.5/4 | 83% | Come Early Morning (2006) |
It's a solid, if flawed, effort by Adams.‐ Chicago Tribune
Read More | Posted Nov 9, 2006
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