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Steve Simels

Tomatometer-approved critic

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
North (1994) 12% D EDIT “A ridiculously obvious satirical fable about a sixth grader on a global quest to find a new set of parents, North is lousy with cultural stereotypes, and top-heavy with gratuitous celebrity casting.” – Entertainment Weekly Jan 23, 2026 Full Review The Sure Thing (1985) 84% EDIT “Because director Reiner coaxes believable and accomplished performances out of his costars, The Sure Thing registers as one of the funniest and best observed coming-of-age movies in memory.” – Video Review Jan 8, 2026 Full Review Phantasm (1979) 72% A EDIT “Low budget, influential, and unforgettable.” – Entertainment Weekly Oct 15, 2025 Full Review Re-Animator (1985) 88% A EDIT “Low budget, influential, and unforgettable.” – Entertainment Weekly Oct 15, 2025 Full Review Tron (1982) 60% C+ EDIT “A badly scripted mess whose truly groundbreaking computer animation looks pretty cheesy on a TV set.” – Entertainment Weekly Oct 2, 2025 Full Review Dollman (1991) 50% EDIT “Unfortunately, while there's enough gross shoot-out stuff to mollify genre fans, the picture's miniature effects are mostly laughable.” – Entertainment Weekly Dec 23, 2021 Full Review Def by Temptation (1990) 76% C+ EDIT “Def by Temptation is a relatively classy affair, redeemed by good performances.” – Entertainment Weekly Oct 26, 2020 Full Review National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) 72% EDIT “Chase's befuddled Dad remains a genuinely amusing creation, and the sight gags are impeccably timed.” – Entertainment Weekly Aug 12, 2020 Full Review Hardball (2001) 42% 1/4 EDIT “It's clichéd, tacky and cynical.” – TV Guide May 13, 2020 Full Review Invisible Agent (1942) 67% A EDIT “... a lively sequel” – Entertainment Weekly Feb 26, 2020 Full Review Tremors (1990) 89% EDIT “Unlike the typical movie homage, Tremors actually improves on the B-movies that inspired it.” – Entertainment Weekly Jan 22, 2020 Full Review Pokémon: The First Movie (1998) 17% 1/5 EDIT “[I]t's pretty hard to sit through this feature-length expansion of the wildly popular kids cartoon series without having dire thoughts about late 20th century capitalism's apparently boundless ability to make people buy utter crap.” – TV Guide Jan 15, 2019 Full Review Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)? (2010) 85% 3/5 EDIT “On the one hand, the film is a cautionary too-much-too-soon story that was a clich even before what Casey Kasem refers to as the Rock Era; on the other hand, it also has enough touching, amusing and/or appalling episodes to make it compulsively watchable” – Boxoffice Magazine Sep 10, 2010 Full Review Nobody Knows About the Persian Cats (2009) 95% 2.5/5 EDIT “On one level, Nobody Knows About Persian Cats is just another story about a bunch of indie-rock wannabes, but writer/director Bahman Ghobadi's vaguely vrit look at the underground music scene in contemporary Iran has a certain built-in drama factor.” – Boxoffice Magazine Apr 16, 2010 Full Review The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story (2009) 91% 3/5 EDIT “Film buffs and cineastes will find the doc's inside-show biz stories a real treat.” – Boxoffice Magazine May 29, 2009 Full Review Milton Glaser: To Inform & Delight (2008) 80% 3/5 EDIT “Even casual filmgoers should be intrigued, while film buffs and cineastes will find the doc's inside-show biz stories a real treat.” – Boxoffice Magazine May 22, 2009 Full Review Scott Walker: 30 Century Man (2006) 87% 3.5/5 EDIT “Director Stephen Kijak's profile of reclusive pop icon Scott Walker is one of the most remarkable music documentaries in ages.” – Boxoffice Magazine Mar 5, 2009 Full Review Cadillac Records (2008) 66% 2.5/5 EDIT “The problem with the film, mostly, is that it's overstuffed with historical incidents that don't really cohere into a convincing story beyond the usual rise-fall-rebirth stuff.” – Boxoffice Magazine Dec 5, 2008 Full Review Whaledreamers (2006) 50% 2.5/5 EDIT “Scattershot, often beautiful to look at and just as often earnest to the point of self-parody.” – Boxoffice Magazine Sep 26, 2008 Full Review Forever Strong (2008) 30% 2/5 EDIT “Gives the word "forgettable" a bad name.” – Boxoffice Magazine Sep 26, 2008 Full Review Das Fraulein (2006) 69% 2.5/5 EDIT “Easier to admire than actually enjoy.” – Boxoffice Magazine Sep 19, 2008 Full Review Greetings From the Shore (2007) 70% 2.5/5 EDIT “Reasonably affecting despite uneven performances and a certain overfondness for familiar stock characters.” – Boxoffice Magazine Sep 15, 2008 Full Review The Pool (2007) 94% 2.5/5 EDIT “Chris Smith's low-key coming-of-age film/slice of contemporary Indian life takes forever to get where it's going, which turns out to be pretty much nowhere.” – Boxoffice Magazine Sep 3, 2008 Full Review The Rocker (2008) 40% 2.5/5 EDIT “The real problem, of course, is that Fish isn't all that interesting a protagonist.” – Boxoffice Magazine Aug 19, 2008 Full Review Patti Smith: Dream of Life (2008) 68% 3/5 EDIT “Insufferable, endearing, pretentiously arty, bracingly direct, humorless, hilarious, oddly distant and strangely touching, but always compulsively watchable -- in other words, a fabulous contradictory mess, much like Smith herself.” – Boxoffice Magazine Aug 8, 2008 Full Review
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