Justin Lowe

Justin Lowe's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
Hollywood Reporter
Biography:
Hollywood Reporter film critic.
Publications:
Hollywood Reporter
Critics' Group:
Los Angeles Film Critics Association
Movie Reviews Only
T-Meter | Title | Year | Review | |
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83% | Freaky (2020) |
Chalk it up to an abundance of imagination, but Freaky may just be too clever to be all that much fun. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Nov 4, 2020
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100% | The Boy Behind the Door (2020) |
It's a delicate and memorably successful balancing act that effectively contextualizes some deliberately challenging material. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Oct 21, 2020
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15% | The Vanished (2020) |
Wildly implausible and improbably entertaining. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Aug 22, 2020
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72% | Cut Throat City (2020) |
RZA's trenchant take on the synergistic interaction of poverty and greed gradually loses focus as it devolves into a familiar account of warring gangsters, corrupt politicians and a city struggling for redemption. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Aug 18, 2020
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49% | Four Kids and It (2020) |
This apparent lack of conviction leaves the pic feeling too trivial in comparison to a host of children's literary classics and too innocuous to make much of an impression as a memorable movie. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jun 30, 2020
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67% | The Last Time You Had Fun (2014) |
Blandly risque situations, featherweight banter and a hint of implied sexual impropriety have all the heft of an extended cable sitcom episode. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jun 10, 2020
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47% | Scoob! (2020) |
Deftly melding the movie's origin story with a typically action-oriented adventure, the Scoob! writing team predictably packs the feature with a surfeit of incident. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted May 15, 2020
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No Score Yet | Crushed (2015) |
A solid debut. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted May 14, 2020
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67% | A Faster Horse (2015) |
It may be difficult to escape a sense that the film sometimes plays like an extended product promo, an impression unlikely to deter a potentially global audience of enthusiasts. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted May 12, 2020
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50% | The 4th (2017) |
Unexpected layers of complexity. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted May 12, 2020
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96% | Sour Grapes (2016) |
A fine blend of incisive reporting and lively storytelling. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted May 6, 2020
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80% | Almost Adults (2016) |
It's really more about the ability of Adrianna DiLonardo's script to elicit humor and surprise as the narrative unfolds, but instead it hews principally to predictability. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted May 5, 2020
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27% | Ass Backwards (2013) |
Ill-advised and amateurishly executed, Ass Backwards begins with a passably funny concept and runs it into the ground within 20 minutes. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Apr 27, 2020
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71% | Trolls World Tour (2020) |
More reassuring franchise-builder than innovative sequel, Trolls World Tour covers familiar ground, enhanced with some catchy musical and visual flourishes. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Apr 5, 2020
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67% | Almost Perfect (2012) |
The performances are the film's primary strength, particularly the casting of Hu in a nominally more serious dramatic role than her typical appearances, which she fills out nicely within the limitations of the script. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Mar 13, 2020
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29% | Bloodshot (2020) |
[T]his initial installment consistently struggles to deliver the goods. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Mar 11, 2020
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94% | Faith Based (2020) |
Masciale and screenwriter Luke Barnett, both Funny or Die regulars, have crafted a playfully humorous send-up that's more about poking fun at their characters than tearing down faith-based filmmaking. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Feb 10, 2020
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82% | La leyenda negra (2020) |
Full of heart, but wide of the mark. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jan 27, 2020
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100% | Assassins (2020) |
It's a Kafka-esque and sometimes darkly comic tale of deception and exploitation that makes for a smartly assembled and eminently topical film that arrives at a crucial juncture in world affairs... - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jan 26, 2020
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No Score Yet | 14 Days, 12 Nights (2020) |
A sympathetic study in cultivating compassion. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jan 13, 2020
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93% | Ride Your Wave (2020) |
The filmmakers' reliance on romantic situations throughout the midsection may have some older teens and adults rolling their eyes, but the final scenes over-deliver with a literal flood of action... - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Dec 5, 2019
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No Score Yet | Masquerade Hotel (2019) |
A relatively charming but not especially challenging murder mystery... - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Dec 3, 2019
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No Score Yet | Another Child (2019) |
Kim's rather grim view of adolescent struggle takes a very specific situation and enlarges its significance to question preconceptions about responsibility and family. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Nov 23, 2019
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95% | The Planters (2020) |
Writing, designing, directing and shooting their feature virtually unassisted, the filmmakers grace the production with keen attention to detail and nuance... - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Nov 19, 2019
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No Score Yet | The Gallows Act II (2019) |
Emphatically unimaginative. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Oct 24, 2019
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100% | On the President's Orders (2019) |
A riveting account of the consequences of unfettered demagoguery. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Oct 12, 2019
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No Score Yet | 10 Minutes Gone (2019) |
Wearing the same pained expression the actor adopts for most of these low-budget features, Willis seems to grimace through every scene only as long as necessary to collect a paycheck. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 26, 2019
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70% | Haunt (2019) |
With a simultaneous theatrical and digital release, Haunt's pedigree, underlined by Eli Roth's participation as producer, should prove a draw for both devoted horror fans and the simply curious. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 13, 2019
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80% | And We Go Green (2019) |
[W]hat Stevens and co-director Malcolm Venville have achieved is even more effective, a thoroughly involving electric vehicle motorsports documentary, with all of the thrilling action, colorful personalities and imminent danger that the genre implies. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 8, 2019
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62% | Satanic Panic (2019) |
The feature lacks the deft touch required to make disembowelments and virgin sacrifices actually seem amusing, although gore-hounds will certainly get their fill. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 6, 2019
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96% | Red Penguins (2020) |
Polsky crafts an engaging, in-depth examination of the intersection of politics and hockey as Russia struggles to gain its balance following the demise of the Soviet Union. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Sep 5, 2019
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No Score Yet | Creating Woodstock (2019) |
Although clearly a labor of love, Creating Woodstock only incrementally augments the event's already considerable legacy, suggesting that lifelong fans, but perhaps few others, will uncover occasional revelations. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Aug 14, 2019
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15% | A Score to Settle (2019) |
Eminently forgettable. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Aug 2, 2019
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83% | Second Star On The Right (2019) |
Caudeli's choice of formats does more to emphasize the shortcomings of the narrative than convey any type of bold stylistic statement. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jul 29, 2019
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No Score Yet | Celebrity Crush (2019) |
Although the movie's broadly satirical tone isn't lost on audiences, rather than amusingly spoofing a cherished period of low-budget horror releases, Robins' film ends up as an exercise in self-ridicule that's often squirmingly awkward to watch. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jul 9, 2019
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64% | Annabelle Comes Home (2019) |
The thrills and shocks gradually become repetitive, as the writer-director recycles his own material, forcing the girls to evade the same threats again and again. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jun 24, 2019
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No Score Yet | Chance Has No Empathy (2019) |
Watching a consistently tiresome character feebly struggle with violent impulses for 90-plus minutes holds limited appeal almost any way you look at it. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jun 20, 2019
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68% | Head Count (2019) |
Favoring psychological chills over blood-soaked mayhem, Callahan's impressively crafted debut nods to recent horror classics while displaying an eminently distinctive vision of its own. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jun 15, 2019
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No Score Yet | Vault (2019) |
If Palminteri ever gets another vehicle as suited to his talents as The Usual Suspects it'll be equally memorable, but this isn't it, evidenced by his laidback coasting through most of his scenes. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Jun 14, 2019
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86% | Yellow Rose (2020) |
Affecting on almost every level. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted May 27, 2019
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88% | Rock Steady Row (2018) |
Trevor Stevens' stylish first feature should strike a chord with youthful audiences and genre enthusiasts alike. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted May 26, 2019
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87% | We Have Always Lived in the Castle (2019) |
Emotionally high-stakes drama. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted May 17, 2019
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75% | CRSHD (2019) |
Irrepressibly inventive and often impulsively unrestrained, Emily Cohn's CRSHD guilelessly celebrates digital youth culture and its sometimes messy inconsistency with abundant energy and attitude. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted May 1, 2019
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100% | Our Time Machine (2020) |
Intriguingly grounds the creative process in the specificity of individual experience. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Apr 29, 2019
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71% | Stray Dolls (2020) |
An emotionally driven crime drama following two disenfranchised young women determined to seize control of their lives on their own terms. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Apr 28, 2019
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67% | Body at Brighton Rock (2019) |
Benjamin doesn't quite succeed in demonstrating her premise that life-or-death situations can empower an unwilling victim to become an unexpected hero. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Apr 25, 2019
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88% | Metal Heart (2018) |
With a light touch and a knowing regard, O'Conor manages to avoid the genre's most egregious cliches and simplistic life lessons, instead focusing on the sisters' often amusing rivalry and their ultimately unshakable familial bond. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Feb 23, 2019
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No Score Yet | Kifaru (2019) |
Effectively confronts the challenges of the ongoing wildlife conservation crisis. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Feb 20, 2019
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42% | Lost Holiday (2019) |
Gives the impression of an in-joke that never quite lands. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Feb 14, 2019
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42% | What Men Want (2019) |
Henson evinces a tremendously humorous, and human, capacity for grasping Ali's personal desperation and professional determination as she forges them into a semi-coherent strategy for success. - Hollywood Reporter
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| Posted Feb 7, 2019
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