Stephen Kelly

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

Movie Reviews Only

T-Meter Title | Year
3/5 90% 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 73% 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 71% 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 80% 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 17% 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 53% 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 40% 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 82% 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 67% 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 46% 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 89% 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 77% 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
6% 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 50% 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 86% 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 84% 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 58% Jadoo (2013) Let down by some erratic, repetitive plotting. - Total Film EDIT
Read More | Posted Sep 2, 2013
4/5 77% 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
88% 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 86% 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 97% 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