Stephen Kelly

Stephen Kelly's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s): Guardian PopMatters Total Film SFX Magazine

Publications: Guardian, PopMatters, Total Film, SFX Magazine

movie Reviews Only

Movies
TV

	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Review
3/5	92%	The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl (2018)	The farce is infectiously fun and visually joyous. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 3, 2017
3/5	89%	Dennis Skinner: Nature of the Beast (2017)	Affectionate yet meandering, it lingers too long on minutiae. Still, Skinner is a funny, fascinating man, explored here with fervency. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 5, 2017
5/5	97%	In This Corner of the World (Kono sekai no katasumi ni) (2017)	An exquisite portrait of Hiroshima before the bomb that conjures a powerful sense of what - and who - was lost. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Jun 26, 2017
4/5	96%	The Salesman (Forushande) (2017)	Sparse and intricate, it's a study of judgement, of 'honour', of Emad's own fragile masculinity; one paralleled cleverly by his role in a production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 16, 2017
1/5	No Score Yet	Precious Cargo (2016)	[A] contender for blandest heist movie ever made. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 2, 2017
3/5	70%	The Killing$ of Tony Blair (2016)	It's slick and spirited but reveals nothing sensational, and is inevitably hindered by Galloway's ego -- his anecdotes and clunky one-liners only serve to weaken the polemic. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 2, 2017
5/5	100%	Ivan's Childhood (Ivanovo detstvo) (1962)	No one paints a stark landscape like Tarkovsky, but we're not just talking surface beauty; the director shows a rare understanding of the consequences of combat. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 2, 2017
1/5	8%	Exposed (2016)	A story which makes little to no sense, with huge sub-plots (all involving black or Latino characters) either abandoned or stitched awkwardly together. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 2, 2017
2/5	70%	Central Intelligence (2016)	The leads have chemistry, but there's only so far they can elevate such obvious material. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 2, 2017
3/5	78%	Traders (2015)	Takes a while to click, and there's a clunky voiceover, but this is an eye-catching debut. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2017
4/5	93%	Johnny Guitar (1954)	Not too many westerns culminate in a six-gun showdown between two women -- but then Nicholas Ray wasn't your average filmmaker. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2017
2/5	16%	The Wild Life (2016)	If you're old enough to read this then you're probably too old for this bright and child-friendly animation. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 1, 2017
4/5	No Score Yet	Streetdance Family (2016)	Cinemas are practically popping with hip-hop dance dramas, but this low-budget doc is the real thing. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 30, 2016
4/5	100%	A Beautiful Planet (2016)	This is a short but overwhelming experience: a doc exploring not just Earth's magnificence, but how we take it for granted. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 30, 2016
2/5	52%	Risen (2016)	It's a novel take on a Biblical classic, but CSI: Judea only lasts for about 30 minutes before Clavius discovers "Yeshua" (Cliff Curtis) alive and grinning. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 28, 2016
3/5	71%	Reset (Relève: Histoire d'une création) (2017)	For dance fans this is a fascinating study of the time, effort and logistics that go into a big production. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 27, 2016
2/5	33%	Operation Chromite (2016)	Entertaining in its own way, though probably not in the way intended. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 27, 2016
3/5	88%	The Coming War On China (2016)	Interesting, but hardly subtle. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 5, 2016
2/5	No Score Yet	The Heritage of Love (Geroy) (2016)	Soaring strings and dramatic glances tell you they are in love, but director Yuriy Vasilev never really shows it. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 1, 2016
3/5	No Score Yet	The Search For Simon (2014)	There's a scrappy, amateurish charm to this sci-fi comedy, a story about a man (director Martin Gooch) who's convinced that his long-lost brother has been abducted by aliens. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 1, 2016
3/5	89%	Bill (2016)	A Horrible Histories film by any other name, Bill sees the cast of the popular CBBC show unite for a daft, affectionate take on the rise-to-fame years of William Shakespeare. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 31, 2016
3/5	82%	Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016)	Scares are still rudimentary, but rooted in a sharper script. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 19, 2016
3/5	82%	Kate Plays Christine (2016)	A surreal, layered look at the nature of truth. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 13, 2016
3/5	90%	A Good American (2017)	A sensational claim, but it lacks hard evidence or opposing perspectives. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 27, 2016
3/5	64%	K-Shop (2016)	It may not be the most subtle take on 'binge Britain', but first-time writer/director Dan Pringle has a gift for the gruesome. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 27, 2016
3/5	44%	Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)	For the most part a surprisingly fun, bloody take on Jane Austen's classic - but it does turn stale as the final reckoning approaches. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 8, 2016
3/5	47%	Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015)	Rather than Maze Runner 2: We're Gonna Need A Bigger Maze, Scorch Trials ambitiously opens up its world with mixed results: gripping action, so-so script. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 9, 2015
3/5	88%	Straight Outta Compton (2015)	It's fun for fans of west coast hip-hop but suffocates any hope of depth; what, for example, about the group's lyrical misogyny and homophobia? - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Aug 24, 2015
2/5	75%	Watermark (2014)	With no narration or context, its subject matter comes across as dry, while the enviro-message is undermined by a yawn-inducing lack of urgency. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 1, 2014
4/5	73%	The Congress (2014)	Featuring a career-best performance from Robin Wright and some tremendously twisted animation, The Congress is a weird and wonderful sci-fi satire that maybe shoehorns more ideas than it knows what to do with. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Aug 11, 2014
1/5	7%	Paranoia (2013)	It's a premise that stands or falls on the tense fate of a charismatic lead and dialogue that does not clang right off the screen; a woeful lack of both ensures Paranoia more than falls -- it collapses. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 23, 2014
2/5	No Score Yet	The Anomaly (2015)	It's a nifty idea - especially in terms of structure - but that's about it, with Clarke's direction proving as flat as his performance. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 11, 2014
	7%	Mrs. Brown's Boys D'Movie (2014)	Will leave even the most fervent of fans disappointed by its abattoir of wit. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 3, 2014
4/5	83%	The Double (2014)	It's the boldly uncompromising approach that makes The Double such enjoyably smart satire. - SFX Magazine EDIT Read More \| Posted Apr 17, 2014
3/5	51%	Stalingrad (2014)	A solid enough war flick, but Spielberg doesn't have too much to worry about yet. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 17, 2014
4/5	100%	Moon Man (2013)	Light and subtly satirical, it's a refreshing reminder that sometimes less can be more. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 23, 2013
1/5	21%	The Christmas Candle (2013)	A festive faith-based film with two distinct target audiences: Christians and fans of the hilariously hammy. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 9, 2013
2/5	19%	The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia (2013)	Obtuse characters, flimsy narrative and an over-reliance on horror clichés. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 29, 2013
4/5	83%	Drinking Buddies (2013)	After Smashed and The World's End, the run of drinking movies stays for one more round - a romcom that refreshes the parts others don't reach, with Olivia Wilde on stellar form. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 29, 2013
3/5	43%	Closed Circuit (2013)	It's a slow-burning, well-acted thriller that's only really let down in its third act: an unsatisfyingly limp denouement that fails to convey what's at stake with any sort of suspense. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 24, 2013
2/5	7%	Runner Runner (2013)	Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck give their best poker faces but ultimately fail to convince you to gamble your cash away on this limp, unoriginal story of a man out of his depth. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 24, 2013
3/5	50%	Jadoo (2013)	Let down by some erratic, repetitive plotting. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 2, 2013
4/5	75%	Borrowed Time (2012)	First time out, the writer/director looks a very exciting prospect. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Aug 12, 2013
1/5	23%	009 Re: Cyborg (2013)	Ambitious, perhaps, but hardly entertaining. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Jun 3, 2013
	86%	Hasta la Vista (Come as You Are) (2013)	Director Geoffrey Enthoven treats his characters as people, with a three-dimensional sense of empathy and good-natured humour. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted May 31, 2013
3/5	85%	Snabba cash (Easy Money) (2012)	The premise is hardly original and suffers from a story that, by its third act, feels padded out; nonetheless, this is a slick, tense and brutal portrait of a man out of his depth. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted May 14, 2013
1/5	No Score Yet	12 in a Box (2009)	[An] abysmally made, catastrophically clunky attempt at comedy ... - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 19, 2013
2/5	28%	Reincarnated (2013)	First-time director Andy Capper observes the star without judgement as he desperately tries to court Jamaican acceptance as a modern-day Marley. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 15, 2013
4/5	96%	Gangs of Wasseypur (2014)	Give it a chance and you'll never look at Bollywood the same way again. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 17, 2013
3/5	70%	Jianyu (Reign of Assassins) (2010)	This is fun and well-paced with fight sequences that, while not exactly screaming "Woo", still manage to dance off the screen. - Total Film EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 4, 2013

Best Reviewed Movies

5/5 Ivan's Childhood (Ivanovo detstvo) 5/5 In This Corner of the World (Kono sekai no katasumi ni) 4/5 Johnny Guitar 4/5 Wreck-it Ralph 4/5 Shut Up and Play the Hits