Mark Steyn
Mark Steyn's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer when
published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
The Spectator
| Publications: | The Spectator |
Movie Reviews Only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
| 85% | Chicago (2002) |
Chicago is supposed to be cynical about showbiz, not embarrassed by it. Oh, well. There'll be another film musical along around 2008.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 28, 2018
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| 53% | Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) |
The director, Ron Howard, is a grand old heartwarmer (Cocoon, etc.) but the heart of this picture is dead.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 2, 2018
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| 76% | 8 Mile (2002) |
Outside the rap slams, either the acting or the persona is a bit joyless. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 2, 2018
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| 59% | Enduring Love (2004) |
The whole film ... is not thrilling or moving; it is interesting, which is fine by me but will not make it a huge success.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 2, 2018
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| 91% | Hotel Rwanda (2004) |
Remarkably, the director Terry George and his co-writer Keir Pearson have pulled it off, rooting the big picture of anonymous murder in one small precise close-up.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 2, 2018
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| 88% | Mystic River (2003) |
One of its best qualities is that it's dark but not depressing. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 2, 2018
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| 43% | The Village (2004) |
This director is a young dog who needs some new tricks.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 2, 2018
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| 45% | Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003) |
The quaintly hand-painted cityscapes of Syracuse are pretty. It would be nice if there was something going on in the foreground. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 2, 2018
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| 42% | Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005) |
There's an easy confidence about the project.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 2, 2018
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| 38% | Brother Bear (2003) |
Rough rule of thumb: the more an animated movie drones on about the Great Spirit, the less likely it is to have any great spirit. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 2, 2018
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| 66% | Bright Young Things (2004) |
What's good about the movie is the lesser known up-and-corners who play the bright young things themselves, especially the appellatorily appropriate Fenella Woolgar as Agatha‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 2, 2018
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| 69% | Confidence (2003) |
It's the obsession with style that kills this movie. Not that having an obsession with it is the same as having it.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 2, 2018
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| 44% | National Treasure (2004) |
It is ... for all its moments a quintessential Bruckheimer project: a big movie that at its core is just too small.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 2, 2018
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| 87% | A Mighty Wind (2003) |
Aside from Miss Lynch, there are two very sweet performances, by Levy and O'Hara as Mitch and Mickey.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 2, 2018
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| 44% | The Day After Tomorrow (2004) |
As a disaster [movie] ... it's oddly reassuring.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 2, 2018
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| 38% | Sahara (2005) |
To get a franchise going, you need your own style, and this movie hasn't an original thought on anything.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 2, 2018
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| 65% | Death Wish (1974) |
Death Wish is a remarkable social artefact, a valuable record of the day before yesterday - 1974 - when New York and many other American cities seemed in large part ungovernable. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 1, 2018
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| 80% | Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) |
The film is excessively, parochially British at its periphery, yet insufficiently so at its core. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 1, 2018
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| 49% | The Passion of the Christ (2004) |
For millions of people, Mel Gibson shows them their Jesus and their salvation.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 1, 2018
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| 31% | Flight of the Phoenix (2004) |
John Moore decided the time was ripe for a new Phoenix, so he sawed the old movie in two, rewrote one half and tries to get it to take off. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 1, 2018
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| 86% | Collateral (2004) |
If the final destination's a bit of a disappointment, getting there is a lot of fun.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 1, 2018
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| 34% | The In-Laws (2003) |
Fleming and co. were working from a version that had clicked very well in 1979, and such interest as posterity has in this new take will be in its usefulness as a masterclass in how not to remake a movie.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 1, 2018
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| 19% | Autumn in New York (2000) |
You can't help but be aware of the structural flaw in this tale of redemption.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 1, 2018
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| 64% | The Shape Of Things (2002) |
The great theme in LaBute's work is that every man is an island, and true relationships are therefore impossible. The advantage of that is that it's a brilliant allpurpose excuse for the writer's inability to develop character.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 1, 2018
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| 79% | Red Eye (2005) |
Red Eye is the best Hollywood can do: a nifty flick about nothing.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 1, 2018
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| 73% | Elephant (2003) |
Elephant is a cool, distant film, content for the most part to observe the routine of high-school life.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 1, 2018
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| 89% | Kandahar: Le soleil derrière la lune (2001) |
Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the Iranian director, has produced an inside-the-burqa look at women's life under the Taleban. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 1, 2018
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| 29% | Fun With Dick and Jane (2005) |
The final third of this movie isn't a remake of the original film but of the bland sappiness of the original kiddie books.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Feb 1, 2018
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| 85% | The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005) |
The 40-Year-Old Virgin knows what it's doing.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Jan 31, 2018
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| 55% | Madagascar (2005) |
The animation is handsome and has a retro cool but, unless they figure out some way to get a story in there, this genre is showing signs of going the way of the musical.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Jan 31, 2018
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| 76% | Big Fish (2003) |
Big Fish has a hook, a line, but it's a sinker.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Jan 31, 2018
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| 91% | The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002) |
The directors know enough to stay in the background and their one stylistic touch is brilliantly appropriate.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Jan 31, 2018
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| 16% | Alexander (2004) |
When you look at the bloated gleeful paranoia of JFK or the hallucinatory inflation of Natural Born Killers, who would have thought Stone would pick this subject to make a film that's so much smaller than life?‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Jan 31, 2018
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| 39% | Meet the Fockers (2004) |
Every big comic setpiece plays like an idea for a comic setpiece rather than the finished article.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Jan 31, 2018
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| 85% | Mongol (2008) |
So, stunning to look at, but as an engaging, illuminating, convincing piece of cinema? No, not really.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Jan 31, 2018
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| 61% | Blue Crush (2002) |
Stockwell never manages to connect the water footage to the story, to make the waves a character or a metaphor for what's happening on land - except in the sense that this film is never wetter than when it gets out of the ocean and back to the plot.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Jan 31, 2018
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| 86% | The Quiet American (2003) |
You can't capture that prescience in a remake half-a-century on. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Jan 31, 2018
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| 10% | Slackers (2002) |
For Mamie Van Doren's, think Harold and Maude with no humanity. For the whole picture, think American Pie with no laughs.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Jan 31, 2018
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| 46% | Hidalgo (2004) |
The film itself can't seem to decide whether it's a Saturday morning serial for the kids, a new Indiana Jones, or something with a bit more dramatic heft‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Jan 31, 2018
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| 52% | Josie and the Pussycats (2001) |
Actually, it's the dialogue that's jerkin'. The script has a stilted feel, and its funny lines aren't really funny, so that the actors have to stand there and declaim them as if thereby officially designating them as funny. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Jan 31, 2018
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| 50% | The Producers (2005) |
The Producers is a wonderful elegy for a certain kind of comic sensibility.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Jan 31, 2018
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| 33% | Tears of the Sun (2003) |
It has a rare attention to detail and a strong sense of place.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Jan 31, 2018
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| 30% | Hollywood Homicide (2003) |
It's truly sad to see Ford reduced to this.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Jan 31, 2018
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| 95% | Bowling for Columbine (2002) |
Whatever, dude. Unlike Moore, I have homes on both sides of the border and it's the Quebec one I keep locked.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Jan 31, 2018
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| 98% | A Hard Day's Night (1964) |
Victor Spinetti has a terrific time as the temperamental TV director who dreads being exiled to doing the news in Welsh.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Jan 31, 2018
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| 54% | Enemy at the Gates (2001) |
Everything in the movie is obstinately stupid.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Jan 29, 2018
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| 55% | The Mexican (2001) |
From the word go, the film is almost begging to be hailed as 'quirky' and 'offbeat'. It's ironic, but only in a gentle way that hovers between laidback and imperceptible. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Jan 29, 2018
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| 77% | Sin City (2005) |
Here Miller's starting from scratch and, sadly, he's got nothing to say. ‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Jan 29, 2018
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| 80% | The Hours (2002) |
The effect is much cruder than the book: you're aware of the geometric patterns linking the parallel stories; everything seems a little too pat, the emblems of the era a little too obviously emblematic - cake-baking in the Fifties, Aids now.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Jan 29, 2018
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| 43% | Evolution (2001) |
After a while, the insane recklessness of Reitman's slapdash timing begins to assume a weird cool.‐ The Spectator
Read More | Posted Jan 29, 2018
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