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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5/5 | 74% | 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 | 49% | 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 | 13% | 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 | 96% | 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 | 56% | 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 | 85% | 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 | 64% | 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 | 92% | 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 | 56% | 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 | 50% | 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 | 67% | 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 | 67% | 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 | 26% | 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 | 33% | 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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| 94% | Neruda (2016) |
Sweeping, poignant, bizarre, funny and unique.‐ Newsweek
Read More | Posted Apr 20, 2017
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| 2/5 | 74% | The Sense Of An Ending (2017) |
The Sense Of An Ending would be watchable as a Sunday evening TV drama, but there's nothing cinematic about this slight, anti-climactic story of a retired Londoner who is shaken by the death of someone he knew as a teenager.‐ Daily Express (UK)
Read More | Posted Apr 17, 2017
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| 5/5 | 95% | The Handmaiden (Ah-ga-ssi) (2016) |
The Handmaiden is stylish, funny and daring enough to keep you gripped to the end.‐ Daily Express (UK)
Read More | Posted Apr 17, 2017
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| 3/5 | 66% | The Fate of the Furious (2017) |
The action set pieces are several miles over the top... But what makes these sequences work is the bickering banter between Johnson, Statham, Chris Bridges, Tyrese Gibson and the rest of the mismatched cast.‐ Daily Express (UK)
Read More | Posted Apr 17, 2017
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| 4/5 | 44% | Ghost in the Shell (2017) |
The new Ghost in the Shell is a lot more coherent than the old one. Both a nightmarish body horror-movie and a hard-boiled conspiracy thriller, it slots in plenty of images and scenes from the anime, while forging a narrative of its own‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Mar 30, 2017
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| 2/5 | 70% | Beauty and the Beast (2017) |
Beauty and the Beast is simply a cover version of a chart-topping song, played with such anonymous competence that Condon's motto must have been, "It ain't broke, don't fix it." Another motto might have been better: "If it ain't broke, don't remake it."‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Mar 3, 2017
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| 2/5 | 10% | Fifty Shades Darker (2017) |
Dopey romantic fantasy is only a few semi-nude scenes away from being a daytime-TV movie.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Feb 9, 2017
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| 3/5 | 42% | Gold (2017) |
McConaughey gives his considerable all as a wild-eyed desperado, but the rest of Gold can't reach his manic energy levels.‐ Daily Express (UK)
Read More | Posted Feb 5, 2017
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| 5/5 | 93% | Toni Erdmann (2016) |
Worth almost three hours of anyone's time.‐ Daily Express (UK)
Read More | Posted Feb 5, 2017
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| 4/5 | 90% | Loving (2016) |
Loving glows with the kind of decency and humanity that we badly need to be reminded of at the moment.‐ Daily Express (UK)
Read More | Posted Feb 5, 2017
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| 3/5 | 79% | T2 Trainspotting (2017) |
If it's difficult to watch T2 without remembering how much better Trainspotting was, the film's saving grace is its own willingness to comment on this decline.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Jan 23, 2017
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| 1/5 | 18% | Assassin's Creed (2016) |
There's a treat in store for anyone who takes a perverse pleasure in seeing truly terrible films, because Hollywood's latest video-game adaptation, Assassin's Creed, is a Christmas turkey with all the trimmings.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Dec 23, 2016
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| 4/5 | 74% | Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) |
Almost every scene has something ingenious and beautifully designed for you to gasp at, and the supernatural hijinks are all underpinned by Rowling's sincere pro-tolerance message. But it's all at the expense of the supposed protagonists.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Nov 17, 2016
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| 3/5 | 83% | Deepwater Horizon (2016) |
An effective disaster movie ...‐ Daily Express (UK)
Read More | Posted Nov 9, 2016
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| 3/5 | 46% | Free State of Jones (2016) |
By covering so many events in one go, Ross's episodic and exhausting history lesson wastes the remarkable story of Knight's wartime escapades.‐ Daily Express (UK)
Read More | Posted Nov 9, 2016
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| 2/5 | 63% | Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016) |
The plotting of his new film is so convoluted that cinema-goers will need flow charts to stop them being utterly baffled.‐ Daily Express (UK)
Read More | Posted Nov 9, 2016
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| 89% | Doctor Strange (2016) |
Despite focusing on one of the company's less famous and more bizarre characters, it is all too familiar for a film with 'Strange' in the title. Still, none of that stops it being thoroughly enjoyable.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Oct 28, 2016
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| 2/5 | 45% | The Girl on the Train (2016) |
What's frustrating is that if you stare at The Girl on the Train hard enough, you can just about make out what the writer and director were trying to do.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Oct 7, 2016
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| 3/5 | 86% | Hacksaw Ridge (2016) |
As clichéd as it is, Hacksaw Ridge passes muster because it is so uncynical about the man it memorialises. Gibson's reverence, for soldiers and for hardline Christians alike, is disarming.‐ BBC.com
Read More | Posted Sep 9, 2016
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