Robert Denerstein
Robert Denerstein's reviews (from any publication) always count toward the Tomatometer
because this critic is a Tomatometer-approved critic.
| Publications: | Denver Rocky Mountain News, Movie Habit, Seattle Post-Intelligencer |
| Critics' Group: | Broadcast Film Critics Association |
Movie Reviews Only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
| 93% | Fences (2016) |
Both Washington and Davis scale their performances somewhere between stage and screen, and in his role a director, Washington clearly keeps allegiance with the rapid-fire exchanges in Wilson's text.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 23, 2016
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| 31% | Passengers (2016) |
Passengers is stranded in a world full of cooked up plot points and, at key times, a lack of gravity.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 23, 2016
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| 71% | Café Society (2016) |
Though hardly a knockout, Cafe Society qualifies as a showcase of sorts, less for Allen than for his production designer, Santo Loquasto, and his cinematographer, Vittorio Storaro.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 55% | Jason Bourne (2016) |
It would have been nice if the filmmakers had been able to make this Bourne revival better than the movies that spawned it.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 71% | Our Kind of Traitor (2016) |
Our Kind of Traitor reminded me of the kind of movie pleasures I'd lately been missing, namely characters who find themselves in situations they couldn't possibly have anticipated and which prove morally taxing.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 69% | Swiss Army Man (2016) |
Swiss Army Man plays like Samuel Beckett Lite, a wobbly, repetitive two-actor journey into the absurd.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 77% | Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016) |
I wanted to laugh. And I often did, but Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping isn't uproariously funny and its cascading series of musical parodies certainly can't touch the winner and still champion mock-doc satire, This is Spinal Tap.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 89% | The Lobster (2016) |
Lanthimos wrings emotion out of human interaction in ways that are both bizarre and funny.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 48% | X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) |
I can't say that I hated watching Apocalypse. It unreeled with the usual fury, but its playbook evolves over two-and-a-half hours without finding much that's inspired.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 89% | A Bigger Splash (2016) |
Tilda Swinton plays rock star Marianne Lane in A Bigger Splash, a thriller posing as a vacation posing as a commentary on what happens when two men fix their attentions on the same woman.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 62% | Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016) |
Director Nicholas Stoller doesn't do much to keep the movie from looking like what it is, a sloppy second helping that, for all its attempts to capture a 2016 zeitgeist, is really just more of the same.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 84% | The Meddler (2016) |
Sarandon gives a committed and sometimes touching comic performance as a woman whose good intentions are inseparable from her desire to involve herself in the lives of others.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 57% | Money Monster (2016) |
Money Monster flirts with thriller and satirical elements without providing enough of either, and despite the presence of appealing stars George Clooney and Julia Roberts, the movie short sells character development.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 73% | Miles Ahead (2016) |
Cheadle -- who co-wrote the script with Steven Baigelman -- may have been trying to be worthy of Davis, who at one point in the movie says that if you're going to do something, it's best to do it with attitude.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 76% | Elvis & Nixon (2016) |
I don't know who decided to team Shannon and Spacey in a comedy called Elvis & Nixon, but whoever it was deserves credit for a masterstroke.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 22% | The Boss (2016) |
Te movie's principal strategy (streaming profanity in inappropriate places) feels so familiar, it's a non-starter.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 86% | Everybody Wants Some!! (2016) |
For the most part, Everybody Wants Some!! is a shambling, rambling look at young people who have yet to become interesting. Judging by the movie, they may never actually achieve that status.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 20% | I Saw the Light (2016) |
The movie misses the unaffected magic of Williams' best songs.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 27% | Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) |
Remember when comic book movies were fun? Well, you'll have to use your memory because there's not much fun to be found in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 95% | Eye In The Sky (2016) |
Taut and chastening, Eye in The Sky leaves you saddened and shaken.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 97% | Embrace Of The Serpent (El Abrazo De La Serpiente) (2016) |
I suppose, then, that it's possible to characterize Embrace of the Serpent, which seems aimed at western audiences, as an instructive and necessary act of trespass.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 90% | 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) |
Before it's done, 10 Cloverfield Lane takes an unexpected turn or two. So don't be fooled by a bit of rope-a-dope pacing; by the end, the movie delivers a strong punch.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 83% | The Wave (Bolgen) (2016) |
As a good, old-fashioned hunk of big-screen disaster, you could do a lot worse than The Wave, say last year's far more expensive and less involving San Andreas.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 98% | Zootopia (2016) |
Directors Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Jared Bush do a fine job of keeping Zootopia amusing for kids and equally enjoyable for the adults who accompany them to theaters.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 61% | Race (2016) |
Given all its volatile and exhilarating ingredients, it's disappointing that Race doesn't have greater impact.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 85% | Hail, Caesar! (2016) |
Hail Caesar! may not rank at the top of Coen's impressive list, but it should do nothing to sour anyone on their work. My advice: Treat the movie as a smorgasbord. Pick what you like; forget the rest.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 81% | The Revenant (2015) |
The Revenant provides Iñarritu with an opportunity to present a view of the frontier as a place of nearly unrelieved brutality and looming death, all augmented by Lubezki's brilliant cinematography.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 90% | The Lady In The Van (2015) |
It may be more anecdotal than epic, but Lady in the Van should be welcomed for giving Smith an opportunity to add another memorable character to an already substantial portfolio.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 97% | 45 Years (2015) |
To make this quiet drama work as well as it does requires actors who can operate in the subtlest of modes. For that, director Andrew Haigh has chosen well.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 63% | The Finest Hours (2016) |
The movie's ocean sequences are good enough to make The Finest Hours an acceptable -- if not great -- piece of January entertainment.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 14% | Ride Along 2 (2016) |
This second helping does little more than add a bit of Miami glitz to a formula that wasn't especially inspired to begin with.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 98% | Mustang (2015) |
An appealing young cast gives the movie a sense of sustained and authentic life, even as Erguven explores the necessary defiance of young women who refuse to be shackled by the rules of a culture that demands submission.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 100% | Court (2015) |
To borrow a phrase from a David Bowie song, Court is moviemaking at the speed of life, providing you still remember how life felt when moving at less than 100 miles an hour.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 52% | Demolition (2016) |
Although the movie deals with important issues surrounding the devastations of grief, it strains for metaphorical significance at nearly every turn, even as it tries to temper its seriousness with offbeat expressions of humor.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 98% | Moonlight (2016) |
Whether you see Moonlight as a perfect movie or not, it's difficult to imagine that you won't be moved by the way Jenkins interprets and reimagines Tarell Alvin McCraney's play.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 71% | Bleed For This (2016) |
In fight-movie terms, I'd call it a draw.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 70% | Touched With Fire (2016) |
Honest and affecting.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 90% | A War (Krigen) (2016) |
Deeply troubling and appropriately ambiguous, A War is a fine and sobering movie.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Dec 12, 2016
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| 96% | Spotlight (2015) |
A terrific film about true team work and the good journalists can do‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Jan 3, 2016
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| 70% | The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015) |
Kudos to Lawrence for helping bring a satisfactory conclusion‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Jan 3, 2016
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| 95% | Creed (2015) |
Ryan Coogler's sequel follows a "Rocky" road‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Jan 3, 2016
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| 97% | Brooklyn (2015) |
A flower named Saoirse Ronan grows in Brooklyn‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Jan 3, 2016
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| 73% | Trumbo (2015) |
Cranston commands the screen, but this biopic is regrettably wooden‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Jan 3, 2016
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| 42% | In the Heart of the Sea (2015) |
You'll be better off re-reading Moby-Dick than watching this soggy adaptation of the source material‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Jan 3, 2016
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| 60% | Sisters (2015) |
More wit would be welcome, but Fey and Poehler keep things humming‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Jan 3, 2016
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| 92% | Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015) |
Yes, the Force really awakens‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Jan 3, 2016
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| 41% | This Is Where I Leave You (2014) |
Not as bad you might think, but definitely burdened by formula‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Jul 31, 2015
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| 82% | Ivory Tower (2014) |
Lots of sympathy, but few answers to the problem of the high price of college‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Jul 31, 2015
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| 81% | The Fault In Our Stars (2014) |
The Fault in the Stars is what my late mother's generation used to call a three-handkerchief ‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Jul 31, 2015
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| 91% | Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow (2014) |
Edge of Tomorrow feels like it's about something more than action. Neat trick.‐ Movie Habit
Read More | Posted Jul 31, 2015
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