Wally Hammond

Wally Hammond's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s): Time Out Time Out Sydney

Biography:

Time Out film critic.

Publications: Time Out, Time Out Sydney

Movie Reviews Only

Movies
TV

	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Review
4/5	53%	The Craft (1996)	... deliciously dangerous excursions into adolescent self-discovery. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 5, 2018
	24%	Van Helsing (2004)	What's left is a world of industrial Gothicism, nightmare morphing effects, ahistoric gadgetry and Breughel-lite grotesquerie. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 1, 2018
	100%	We Went To War (2012)	Something of an exemplary documentary on the effects of combat on three individuals with experience of one specific war. - Sight and Sound EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 31, 2018
	85%	You've Been Trumped (2012)	The very smallness, independence and even parochialism of Baxter's film seems suitable and never detracts from its considerable ability to inform and, surprisingly, move. - Sight and Sound EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 31, 2018
5/5	94%	Contempt (1964)	A knowing, tragic-comic aria for love and moviemaking. - Little White Lies EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 29, 2015
4/5	97%	Goodbye, Children (Au Revoir Les Enfants) (1987)	Not the director's best work, but far, far from being his worst either. - Little White Lies EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 29, 2015
2/5	69%	A Magnificent Haunting (Magnifica presenza) (2012)	In the Ozpetek canon, this one is non-essential. - Little White Lies EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 24, 2013
5/5	81%	Something in the Air (2013)	This might just be Assayas' masterpiece. - Little White Lies EDIT Read More \| Posted May 23, 2013
4/5	82%	De jueves a domingo (Thursday Till Sunday) (2012)	What distinguishes Castillo's film is the facility and accuracy with which she understands, remembers and recreates the fish-bowl vistas and claustrophobic intimacy of a long car-bound journey. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Apr 4, 2013
4/5	67%	Keyhole (2012)	A bravura journey into a noirish nightmare world and a lock that even paid-up Maddinites won't be able to pick on a single viewing. - Little White Lies EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 13, 2012
5/5	96%	The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1928)	One for Hitch fans, one for thriller fans, one for cinema fans. Do not miss. - Little White Lies EDIT Read More \| Posted Aug 9, 2012
4/5	94%	The Apartment (1960)	Directed by Wilder with attention to detail and emotional reticence that belie its inherent darkness and melodramatic core, it's lifted considerably by the performances. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Jun 8, 2012
5/5	96%	The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)	Staggering and heartbreaking. Still. - Little White Lies EDIT Read More \| Posted May 17, 2012
3/5	85%	Angel & Tony (Angèle et Tony) (2010)	This is a sprightly and economical debut from French former journalist and writer-director Alix Delaporte. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted May 3, 2012
2/5	73%	Hadewijch (2010)	- Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 16, 2012
3/5	90%	Waitress (2007)	Funny, gentle, unpatronising, if occasionally naive and quirky. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 18, 2011
5/5	87%	I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (2007)	- Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 18, 2011
3/5	67%	The Incredible Hulk (2008)	A more satisfactory adaptation of the spirit of Stan Lee's Marvel character. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 18, 2011
4/5	77%	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)	Performances are more mature, the soundtrack (by Nicholas Hooper) less grandiose, and Yates executes some thrilling set-pieces. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 17, 2011
3/5	85%	Frownland (2007)	- Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 16, 2011
4/5	No Score Yet		- Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 16, 2011
3/5	79%	I Served the King of England (2008)	- Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 16, 2011
	92%	Drive (2011)	A more or less conventional Los Angeles-set hot-rod/getaway-driver movie with neo-noir decoration -- albeit satisfying enough on its own terms. - Sight and Sound EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 27, 2011
4/5	88%	Post Mortem (2012)	Larraín's clever use of almost humorously unconventional framings, expressively washed-out colour tones and mysterious low-key performances brings together human comedy and historical tragedy to unique, and surprisingly emotional, effect. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 7, 2011
4/5	84%	Gianni e le donne (The Salt of Life) (2012)	Wittily observed, humorously understood and keenly felt. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Aug 9, 2011
2/5	86%	Kill The Referee (les Arbitres) (2010)	Even for footy fans, the film's a game of guesswork. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Aug 3, 2011
3/5	91%	Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo (2009)	No, not a Toho creature feature, but a diverting, slightly meandering, mini- DV-shot documentary on the Japanese love for insects. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Jun 28, 2011
	95%	Animal Kingdom (2010)	An ambitious and effective thriller. - Sight and Sound EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 1, 2011
3/5	49%	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)	Provides rousing enough young family entertainment - though there's less to engage maturer Lewis fans and possible disappointment for older teenagers. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 9, 2010
2/5	65%	Tamara Drewe (2010)	The dullness of British mainstream cinema is epitomised by this Stephen Frears -- didn't he used to be an auteur? -- adaptation of Posy Simmonds's gently teasing 2005-2007 Guardian comic strip about rural goings-on. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 8, 2010
3/5	83%	Black Dynamite (2009)	The portentous dialogue, two-track-recorded soundtrack (by Adrian Younge) and eager performances are all highly diverting. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Aug 12, 2010
4/5	97%	Rapt (2011)	A tense hostage-thriller with a difference. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 15, 2010
3/5	91%	London River (2011)	In the film's latter stages, Blethyn's heart-on-the-sleeve acting style finally combines with the marvellous Kouyaté's watchful intelligence and frail dignity to moving effect. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 8, 2010
4/5	90%	Colossal Youth (Juventude Em Marcha) (2006)	You need a bit of patience with director Pedro Costa. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 6, 2010
4/5	54%	The Killer Inside Me (2010)	This again-atypical film from Winterbottom is a much more sober affair than its early, controversial press might suggest. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Jun 2, 2010
4/5	40%	The Killer Inside Me (1976)	This again-atypical film from Winterbottom, the genre-swapping director of A Mighty Heart, Genova and The Road to Guantanamo, is a much more sober affair than its early, controversial press might suggest. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Jun 2, 2010
2/5	27%	Remember Me (2010)	Be warned, if you're vulnerable to outrageous, cringe-inducing implausibilities -- not least the ludicrous stand-up row between Tyler and his father in the latter's Twin Towers boardroom -- you'd best give this one a miss. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Apr 1, 2010
3/5	75%	Tony (2009)	Not a reassuring vision, for sure, and no tourist plug for Dalston, Hackney or Haggerston, but the film's a fair calling card for Johnson's talent. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 5, 2010
2/5	56%	Edge of Darkness (2010)	Scriptwriters William Monahan and Andrew Bovell have sadly sacrificed some of the original's cultural specificity and its slow-burn quality. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 2, 2010
3/5	76%	OSS 117: Rio ne répond plus (Lost in Rio) (2010)	It's the grooving to composer Ludovic Bource's fab xylophone beats and Dujardin's hyena laugh and heroic self-regard you'll remember. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 15, 2010
2/5	41%	44 Inch Chest (2010)	Aiming for black comedy and a redemptive satire on self-deluding male machismo, ham fisted debut director Malcolm Venville instead gives his cast enough rope to hang themselves rather than the characters they play. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 15, 2010
4/5	95%	Hofshat Kaits (My Father My Lord) (2008)	You could say this film is at once a secular fable on a religious dilemma and an almost religious parable about an all-too-human tragedy. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 5, 2010
5/5	100%	Tokyo Story (Tôkyô monogatari) (1953)	This remains one of the most approachable and moving of all cinema's masterpieces. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 5, 2010
3/5	54%	Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009)	Cinematographer Robert Presley and the design team provide many instances of graphical triumph, influenced by silent cinema. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 6, 2009
4/5	96%	BirdWatchers - La terra degli uomini rossi (2008)	Writer-director-producer Marco Bechis's absorbing story of struggle and survival carries its committed ethnographic and political passions lightly. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 18, 2009
3/5	63%	Chiko (2008)	Impressive directorial skills, if a trite plotline, are on offer in Turkish-German writer-director Özgür Yildirim's occasionally violent debut feature. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Aug 21, 2009
3/5	94%	Home (2009)	A first film of laudable ambition and Meier's directorial confidence suggests promise for the future. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Aug 7, 2009
2/5	29%	Mad, Sad & Bad (2009)	A disconcerting fluctuation in tone - from sorrowful satire to cheesy sitcom - proves the film's fatal flaw. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 31, 2009
3/5	73%	Kærlighed på Film (Just Another Love Story) (2007)	Ambitious cross-cutting and occasional bursts of strident music hint at psychologically complex parallels and readings that the film fails to deliver. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 24, 2009
5/5	97%	35 Rhums (35 Shots of Rum) (2008)	Denis magically evokes a liberal meditation on family, harmony, loyalty and belonging and their corollaries - loss, transgression, loneliness and separation - and achieves a sweet unity. - Time Out EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 10, 2009