Mary Elizabeth Williams
Mary Elizabeth Williams's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer when
published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
L.A. Weekly,
Salon.com
| Publications: | L.A. Weekly, Salon.com |
Movie Reviews Only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
| 99% | Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018) |
As Oscar winner Morgan Neville's timely, tear-duct lubricating documentary "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" makes clear, the easily parodied, often underestimated icon of children's television was a total badass.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jun 14, 2018
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| 99% | Get Out (2017) |
By focusing the storyline on a particular form of racism -- the kind that's often disguised as peculiar envy -- Get Out reveals something more insidious.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Mar 27, 2017
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| 30% | Austenland (2013) |
It says weirdos deserve romance too, and that Austenland isn't so much a page in a book or a place on a map, but a corner of your heart.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Aug 16, 2013
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| 85% | You've Been Trumped (2012) |
As Baxter demonstrates with agonizing, unflinching clarity, the result was a community and a land that were literally rolled over in the name corporate greed - and with the apparent blessing of the local authorities.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Aug 3, 2012
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| 4% | A Little Bit Of Heaven (2012) |
A moment of silence, please, for Kate Hudson's career.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted May 3, 2012
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| 93% | 50/50 (2011) |
What ensues is "Beaches" meets "Pineapple Express." Which, I've got to tell you, is pretty much what living with cancer is like.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Sep 30, 2011
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| 16% | I Don't Know How She Does It (2011) |
What the hell happened to Sarah Jessica Parker?‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Sep 15, 2011
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| 90% | Bridesmaids (2011) |
It's a movie that succeeds, often beautifully, not by forcing its characters to be as naughty and gross and pathetic as men are. It soars by letting them be as naughty and gross and pathetic as women are. Three cheers for equality.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted May 10, 2011
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| 60% | Water for Elephants (2011) |
The problem isn't just miscasting or the cheesiness of the material. It's Pattinson's increasingly predictable, dour persona.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Apr 21, 2011
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| 65% | The Karate Kid (2010) |
It was resonant in the gung-ho '80s, and it's a notion every generation deserves to discover anew. Based on the young Smith's considerable wattage, this Kid may just surpass the original.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jun 11, 2010
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| 57% | Shrek Forever After (2010) |
Like last year's Up, this isn't merely a cute kid's movie with funny one-liners and adorable critters. It's a soulful meditation on the age-old question: Is that all there is?‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted May 21, 2010
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| 41% | Letters to Juliet (2010) |
Letters to Juliet is a by-the-numbers romantic comedy -- and I mean that in a good way.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted May 13, 2010
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| 67% | Date Night (2010) |
What comes as a welcome surprise is how Date Night manages to make sport of romantic movie conventions without being mean about them.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Apr 9, 2010
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| 49% | Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010) |
When the movie slows down to catch its breath, there's very little of the heart and soul -- and wry wit -- that make the Riordan books so beloved.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Feb 11, 2010
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| 12% | Did You Hear About the Morgans? (2009) |
While it fails on nearly every conceivable level, as a textbook case in everything contemptible in the studio system, Did You Hear About the Morgans? is as good as it gets.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Dec 21, 2009
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| 85% | The Princess and the Frog (2009) |
The sweetest, most sincere romantic comedy to come along in ages, and a luminous love letter to a great American city.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Nov 24, 2009
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| 54% | Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009) |
Have we learned nothing from The Klumps?‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Nov 5, 2009
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| 35% | Pride and Glory (2008) |
What makes the characters in Pride and Glory real -- and raises the movie above the standard corrupt-cop fare -- is their capacity to live and die in shades of gray.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Oct 24, 2008
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| 37% | How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008) |
Like the characters it portrays, How to Lose Friends eventually becomes the very thing it mocks, its delectable naughtiness sacrificed to sentiment and audience appeal.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Oct 3, 2008
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| 18% | Righteous Kill (2008) |
Director Jon Avnet generously puts the actors together as often as possible, and the sheer satisfaction of watching Michael Corleone and Travis Bickle spark off each other almost mitigates the utter hokum that permeates every other element of the film.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Sep 12, 2008
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| 13% | The Women (2008) |
You go, girls. Preferably as far away as possible.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Sep 12, 2008
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| 18% | The Happening (2008) |
Shyamalan's such an eager recycler, grinding out the same ideas and images again and again. The man who showed such promise less than a decade ago has been leaving a diminishing creative footprint ever since.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jun 13, 2008
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| 27% | What Happens in Vegas (2008) |
You'd think the combination of Diaz, Kutcher and Vegas would be good for at least a little sexy, silly fun. But don't bet on it.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted May 9, 2008
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| 79% | Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! (2008) |
doesn't have the brisk economy of the original book, but the animated Horton feels nevertheless close to the sweet, quirky heart of Dr. Seuss.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Mar 14, 2008
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| 71% | Definitely, Maybe (2008) |
Definitely, Maybe isn't a particularly good movie. It's hard to make either romance or comedy out of relationship wreckage, not to mention career ennui, and the pace is often meandering and sulky.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Feb 14, 2008
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| 40% | 27 Dresses (2008) |
The biggest disappointment of 27 Dresses is that it inhabits a Harlequin romance New York City, one remarkably short on homosexuals and divorce.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jan 18, 2008
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| 19% | The Invasion (2007) |
Gratuitously violent [and] soullessly brain dead.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Aug 16, 2007
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| 7% | License to Wed (2007) |
Despite its fuzzy, getting-to-know-you message, the movie itself offers zero motivation for any of its protagonists.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jul 6, 2007
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| 71% | Baby Boy (2001) |
[Jody's] lessons on growing up and moving on never ring more than halfhearted and false.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jul 6, 2001
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| 63% | Music of the Heart (1999) |
Another utterly bland lump of Hollywood crapola.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jan 1, 2000
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| 96% | The Iron Giant (1999) |
The metal-machine sci-fi cartoon delivers robot action, retro nostalgia and stony metaphysics.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jan 1, 2000
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| 77% | Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1999) |
We've heard it all before, and usually with a slightly more comprehensible accent.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jan 1, 2000
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| 16% | Dudley Do-Right (1999) |
In the end, it's neither Dudley Do-Right nor Do-Wrong, but merely Dudley Do-Just-So-So.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jan 1, 2000
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| 48% | The Way of the Gun (2000) |
McQuarrie has inserted some of the most groan-worthy dialogue outside of the porn world.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jan 1, 2000
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| 45% | Holy Smoke (2000) |
Campion, who co-wrote the script with her sister Anna, appears to have spent so much time and energy creating Ruth that she didn't have anything left over for rest of the characters.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jan 1, 2000
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| 92% | Election (1999) |
A tart study in teacher-student relations, adolescent pecking orders and the nasty vicissitudes of living in a world of haves and have-nots.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jan 1, 2000
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| 10% | Woo (1998) |
Woo may be as skimpy as a sequined halter top, but it's undeniably appealing nonetheless.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jan 1, 2000
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| 80% | Slums of Beverly Hills (1998) |
Dark, bitingly funny!‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jan 1, 2000
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| 45% | Mickey Blue Eyes (1999) |
Uninspired, recycled!‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jan 1, 2000
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| 9% | The Bachelor (1999) |
The Bachelor doesn't generate enough laughs or sighs to hold together.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jan 1, 2000
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| 53% | Original Gangstas (1996) |
Where Original Gangstas works is in its understanding that the stars are playing the characters they created 25 years ago as their older selves.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jan 1, 2000
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| 3% | The Mod Squad (1999) |
Is it possible to try too hard without making any effort whatsoever? Because that seems to be the one slim accomplishment of The Mod Squad.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jan 1, 2000
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| 80% | Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996) |
The illusion that it's just a bunch of wiseguys making fun of a movie is what prevails. It's a pretty impressive special effect.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jan 1, 2000
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| 74% | The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) |
By sticking faithfully to the broader themes of Hugo's story -- those of desolation and desire, of trust and betrayals thereof -- the creators have fashioned the most poignant and deeply moral story to roll off the Disney storyboards in decades.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jan 1, 2000
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| 61% | American Pie (1999) |
Some of it does manage to be quite funny; some of it just lies there, all by itself, without even trying to wrap itself around a joke.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jan 1, 2000
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| 64% | Anywhere but Here (2000) |
Sarandon is good, but Portman is astonishing.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jan 1, 2000
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| 85% | Billy Elliot (2000) |
A surprisingly wise and funny meditation on the nature of what it truly means to be a man.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jan 1, 2000
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| 9% | Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000) |
It's predictable, gratuitous and just self-referential enough to believe itself hip and knowing.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jan 1, 2000
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| 32% | Superstar (1999) |
Superstar may not be the most unnecessary movie of the year, but it's got to rank right up there.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jan 1, 2000
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| 38% | Psycho (1998) |
Van Sant clearly knows that if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and his own smooth touch is neatly sympathetic with his predecessor's.‐ Salon.com
Read More | Posted Jan 1, 2000
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