Nicholas Barber
Nicholas Barber's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer when
published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
BBC.com,
Newsweek,
Independent (UK),
Independent on Sunday,
Metro (UK),
Daily Express (UK),
TheWrap
Movie Reviews Only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
| 53% | Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) |
An unfocused, overwhelming and ultimately numbing sprawl that seems to drag on forever.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Nov 9, 2018
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| 3/5 | 62% | Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) |
The film just about deserves the review that was given to the group's most memorable single, and which is quoted halfway through: it's "perfectly adequate".‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Oct 24, 2018
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| 4/5 | 92% | Stan & Ollie (2018) |
Stan & Ollie is a film you watch with a lump in your throat, but with a smile on your face.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Oct 23, 2018
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| 2/5 | 29% | Venom (2018) |
Venom is obviously the victim of some brutal editing, and the derivative, sketchily plotted B-movie that's left is as scrappy and hurried as a trailer.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Oct 3, 2018
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| 2/5 | 62% | Suspiria (2018) |
I expected to be peering at the screen between splayed fingers, but instead I was peering at my watch.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| 3/5 | 90% | A Star Is Born (2018) |
Gaga is appealing, open and down-to-earth in her first major role.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Sep 4, 2018
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| 5/5 | 95% | The Favourite (2018) |
Yorgos Lanthimos's The Favourite is a filthy, violent and outrageous period comedy that drips with bad language and worse behaviour, and will appal anyone who is expecting a more conventional royal drama.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Aug 31, 2018
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| 5/5 | 88% | First Man (2018) |
And yet, as restrained as First Man is, this riveting, exhaustively researched and utterly believable film manages to shake you, take your breath away and even pull a few tears from your eyes.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Aug 30, 2018
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| 3/5 | 81% | Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) |
But it's the cheerful fun of the flashbacks which make it bearable to the rest of us.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Jul 18, 2018
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| 81% | Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) |
[Parker] does make it surprisingly watchable, and he manages to overcome some mountainous obstacles.‐ TheWrap
Read More | Posted Jul 17, 2018
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| 3/5 | 97% | Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018) |
Can you enjoy his knockabout adventures? Definitely. But can you care about them? Impossible.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Jul 13, 2018
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| 3/5 | 48% | Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) |
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is good old-fashioned summer entertainment, and it does a cunning job of setting up the next instalment.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Jun 14, 2018
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| 4/5 | 88% | Whitney (2018) |
But perhaps by shining some light into this intergenerational darkness, Macdonald's film will help other suffering children, even in the homes of the rich and extremely famous.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted May 17, 2018
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| 3/5 | 70% | Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) |
But no one need worry about Solo: A Star Wars Story upsetting the apple cart, or indeed the landspeeder: it does exactly what you might predict a prequel featuring Harrison Ford's iconic space-scoundrel would do.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted May 16, 2018
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| 88% | Rafiki (2018) |
The story's simplicity and directness are a big part of its charm.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted May 15, 2018
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| 4/5 | 59% | The House That Jack Built (2018) |
Undoubtedly a bold and stimulating film which no one but Denmark's notorious provocateur-auteur could have made.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted May 15, 2018
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| 4/5 | 100% | Ash Is Purest White (2019) |
Few film-makers are as observant or as poetic as Jia is about the passing of time.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted May 15, 2018
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| 33% | Fahrenheit 451 (2018) |
A six-part TV series might have done the concept more justice.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted May 15, 2018
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| 4/5 | 62% | Everybody Knows (Todos lo saben) (2019) |
Still, with its rich story, its weighty themes, and the beautiful acting of its charismatic stars (and real-life spouses), Cruz and Bardem, it's the classiest soap opera around.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted May 10, 2018
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| 5/5 | 72% | Ready Player One (2018) |
It's dazzling stuff. Recently, a generation of directors has been paying homage to Spielberg's popcorn films, but with Ready Player One he proves with stunning aplomb that no one does Spielberg quite like Spielberg.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Mar 22, 2018
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| 2/5 | 51% | Tomb Raider (2018) |
None of the digitally-assisted stunts will make you gasp, none of the dialogue will make you laugh, none of the twists will shock you, and none of the elaborate subterranean traps will seem as fiendish as they did when Indiana Jones faced them.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Mar 15, 2018
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| 95% | The King's Speech (2010) |
Bonham Carter is a joy as the tender yet sardonic Elizabeth, and the Oscar-bound Firth is both heart-rending and remarkably funny in his best ever role. It's all done so expertly.‐ Independent on Sunday
Read More | Posted Feb 27, 2018
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| 1/5 | 12% | Fifty Shades Freed (2018) |
Fifty Shades Freed is so unarousing that it could be used as therapy in a sex addiction clinic. The complete lack of intelligence and fun has got to be a factor.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Feb 9, 2018
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| 4/5 | 97% | Black Panther (2018) |
Coogler has taken every genre in which black characters are traditionally sidelined, and then, with considerable flair and boldness, he's combined those genres and put black characters right at their heart. ‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Feb 6, 2018
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| 65% | The Karate Kid (2010) |
Smith Jr looks thoroughly bored by Mom and Pop's extravagant gift. I can't say I blame him.‐ Independent on Sunday
Read More | Posted Feb 5, 2018
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| 3/5 | 78% | All the Money in the World (2017) |
Amazingly, there's no sign of last-minute tinkering. Getty is a major character who is seen in numerous settings and alongside numerous other characters, but his scenes never seem rushed or compromised. On the contrary, they're the best.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Jan 4, 2018
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| 3/5 | 55% | The Greatest Showman (2017) |
... [Hugh Jackman's] feel-good new film, The Greatest Showman, is where he truly gets to unleash his inner trouper, and he barely stops singing, dancing and flicking around a top hat from beginning to end.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Dec 28, 2017
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| 4/5 | 91% | Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) |
The most intelligent film in the franchise by several light years, The Last Jedi can be seen as the space-opera equivalent of Clint Eastwood's revisionist western, Unforgiven.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2017
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| 4/5 | 91% | The Disaster Artist (2017) |
The Disaster Artist is still approximately 783 times better than the film it's lampooning. Intoxicating fun, it deserves to be on a double bill with The Room whenever the so-called 'Citizen Kane of bad movies' is shown.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Nov 30, 2017
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| 4/5 | 84% | Darkest Hour (2017) |
There is definitely greatness in the way Oldman takes a role that has already been played by so many actors, and makes it utterly his own. Don't bet against him flashing that 'V For Victory' sign on Oscar night.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Nov 22, 2017
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| 3/5 | 57% | Murder On The Orient Express (2017) |
It's this generous, crowd-pleasing impulse that makes Murder on the Orient Express so fizzingly enjoyable. But it's also one reason why that enjoyment tails off, and the film runs out of steam before it reaches its destination.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Nov 9, 2017
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| 100% | Paddington 2 (2018) |
A sure-footed, sweet-natured family comedy which isn't set at Christmas, but which glows with so much warmth and fun that it might well be a staple of festive television for years to come. ‐ TheWrap
Read More | Posted Oct 31, 2017
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| 4/5 | 92% | Thor: Ragnarok (2017) |
Thor: Ragnarok is the wittiest and most straightforwardly enjoyable of Marvel's blockbusters.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Oct 19, 2017
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| 1/5 | 8% | The Snowman (2017) |
Take away all of the Scandi-noir signifiers -- patterned woolly jumpers, Volvos, frozen fjords, and lots and lots of bridges -- and The Snowman melts away, leaving nothing but a puddle.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Oct 12, 2017
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| 3/5 | 63% | Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017) |
The film's director, Simon Curtis, and its screenwriters, Frank Cottrell Boyce and Simon Vaughan, have made a timely and bravely unsparing cautionary tale about the poisonous effects of sudden and unwanted stardom.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Sep 28, 2017
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| 2/5 | 52% | Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) |
It's not that The Golden Circle isn't fun... It's just that it isn't doing anything new. And without that thrilling sense that Vaughn is breaking all the rules, it becomes a lot harder to overlook the production's fundamental amateurishness.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Sep 21, 2017
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| 5/5 | 91% | The Shape of Water (2017) |
The Shape of Water is one of the most delightful films of the year. And it is definitely the best film ever to be a romantic comedy, a melodrama, a spy thriller, a heist caper, a superhero blockbuster and a monster movie all at once.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Sep 7, 2017
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| 3/5 | 66% | Victoria & Abdul (2017) |
Stephen Frears knows how to keep the culture-clash comedy bright and sprightly, and Lee Hall has written a script which can be charming fun while having a few digs at racism and snobbery along the way.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Sep 7, 2017
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| 4/5 | 28% | Suburbicon (2017) |
It's fizzingly entertaining. Clooney and his team revel in their pastiche of the all-American 1950s lifestyle that still obsesses certain US citizens, and the actors revel in their roles.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Sep 7, 2017
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| 2/5 | 55% | Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014) |
Watching a man hunched over his laptop, muttering about money transfers, isn't very thrilling.‐ Metro (UK)
Read More | Posted Sep 6, 2017
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| 4/5 | 49% | Downsizing (2017) |
Everyone will agree that Payne and his co-writer, Jim Taylor, have paid close attention both to the big picture and the tiny details.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Aug 31, 2017
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| 2/5 | 16% | The Dark Tower (2017) |
It comes across as a cash-in that someone scribbled on the back of an envelope after seeing Return of the Jedi.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Aug 17, 2017
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| 2/5 | 93% | War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) |
Too gloomy to provide many summer-blockbuster thrills, but too silly to be a serious art-house allegory, the film is best left to completists. It just isn't a very profound or moving film - although it does sometimes ape one.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Jul 7, 2017
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| 4/5 | 92% | Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) |
Considering that it's the sixth Spider-Man movie in 15 years, and that it features the third actor in the title role, it's amazing that it's as distinctive and enjoyable as it is. You might even say that it's a marvel.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Jul 6, 2017
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| 1/5 | 15% | The Mummy (2017) |
There are a few amusing lines and creepy moments, but, between the headache-inducing flashbacks and hallucinations, the narrative would be easier to follow if it were written in hieroglyphics.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Jun 8, 2017
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| 4/5 | 86% | Okja (2017) |
A slightly shorter, slightly more disciplined Okja might have been better, but the one Bong has made is still a joy.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted May 25, 2017
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| 2/5 | 66% | Wonderstruck (2017) |
Haynes' cabinet of wonders is exquisitely carved, inlaid and varnished, but it has precious little inside.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted May 19, 2017
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| 3/5 | 66% | Alien: Covenant (2017) |
It's clear that Scott is no longer inspired by long-headed, scaly-tailed beasties; the characters who fascinate him are the philosophical replicants who were in his second science-fiction classic, Blade Runner.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted May 11, 2017
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| 1/5 | 25% | Unlocked (2017) |
John Malkovich enjoys hamming it up as her exasperated boss. Everybody else is taking this silly pot-boiler far too seriously.‐ Daily Express (UK)
Read More | Posted May 7, 2017
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| 2/5 | 34% | A Dog's Purpose (2017) |
The problem which, ahem, dogs the film is that while the loyal hound is naturally devoted to each of its owners, they never really interest the rest of us.‐ Daily Express (UK)
Read More | Posted May 7, 2017
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