James Rocchi
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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The Well (2014) |
Hammock may have begun his career making worlds for other directors, but given a chance to create his own here, he not only succeeds but excels. - indieWire
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| Posted Feb 12, 2016
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Brand: A Second Coming (2015) |
Timoner's doc seems at its best when asking if a person can grow up, atone for their mistakes, lead people to think and make them laugh, all at the same time and in public. - TheWrap
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| Posted Sep 23, 2015
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The Martian (2015) |
Smart, slick and, yes, funny, The Martian provides a compelling story well-told, with Scott's tendency to excess kept in line by a simple, strong plotline: Survive. - About.com
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| Posted Sep 22, 2015
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The Intern (2015) |
Considering the movie's fortune-cookie-style "insights" that old and young have much to learn from each other, it's only appropriate that De Niro and Hathaway's charms, and those alone, comprise the saving graces of "The Intern." - TheWrap
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| Posted Sep 22, 2015
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Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015) |
There's no flare of strangeness or freshness here, just a pile of images and ideas stolen from smarter people's second-hand bin banged into each other for a numbingly dull 132 minutes. - TheWrap
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| Posted Sep 17, 2015
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Captive (2015) |
A Lifetime movie shoved into a cage and fattened with sermons and platitudes until it is ready to be served up cold and bland. - TheWrap
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| Posted Sep 17, 2015
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The Perfect Guy (2015) |
"The Perfect Guy" - which was, it must be pointed out, deliberately not screened for critics prior to release - is a perfect example of how lame, lazy material strands good actors, resulting in a movie that looks great and feels less so. - TheWrap
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| Posted Sep 11, 2015
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The Visit (2015) |
Startling but never terrifying, "The Visit" may make a little money, but it does not mark a return to long-lost greatness for Shyamalan. It's more of the same, presented on a smaller, cheaper canvas where you can see every flaw all the more clearly. - TheWrap
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| Posted Sep 09, 2015
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The Transporter Refueled (2015) |
The original "Transporter" films were hardy filet mignon - more like Hamburger Helper. "The Transporter Refueled" feels even more bulked up and bland, Hamburger Helper Helper, a re-launch of a franchise that didn't really need, or deserve, one. - TheWrap
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| Posted Sep 03, 2015
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Z for Zachariah (2015) |
The last human beings alive will still be human; that reality, and that realism, is what makes Z is For Zachariah both compelling and worth seeing. - About.com
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| Posted Aug 24, 2015
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No Escape (2015) |
No Escape isn't a hard-hitting drama about the uneasy relationships between local needs and international commerce: It's a geopolitical snuff film, where hundreds die before our eyes but wind up not mattering one bit. - About.com
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| Posted Aug 24, 2015
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The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015) |
Sleek, seductive and equally dedicated to horseplay and gunplay, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. may not be deep, but its shallowness contains vast pleasures. - About.com
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| Posted Aug 14, 2015
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Cop Car (2015) |
Like To Kill a Mockingbird or The Night of the Hunter or the under-seen Undertow, Cop Car runs -- or, in this case, drives -- with the storytelling idea of innocent kids being caught up in less-than-innocent events, and goes to fascinating places. - About.com
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| Posted Aug 06, 2015
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Fantastic Four (2015) |
Fantastic Four is trapped between the unique look of its iconic characters and the all-too-familiar storytelling structure of the modern superhero film; it's a $100-million movie that gets found sorely wanting in comparison to 50-cent comic books. - About.com
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| Posted Aug 06, 2015
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Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet (2014) |
"Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet" is achingly well intentioned, but not especially well executed, and its failings as a film can't be overlooked. - TheWrap
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| Posted Aug 04, 2015
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Straight Outta Compton (2015) |
Underneath the gunshots and the battle raps, "Straight Outta Compton" is a fairly conventional movie about a music group, somewhere between hero-making and the honest truth. - TheWrap
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| Posted Jul 31, 2015
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Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation (2015) |
A spy adventure with champagne-fizz style and double-shot-of-scotch action sequences, Mission: Impossible -- Rogue Nation is a perfect demonstration that sequels can aim higher in places other than just the box office, and to everyone's benefit. - About.com
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| Posted Jul 29, 2015
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Vacation (2015) |
Vacation may not be the worst comedy of the summer -- Adam Sandler was busy, after all -- but it's a pretty lame, loud and lazy attempt to wring cash and cachet out of the dried-up husk of a movie from 30 years ago. - About.com
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| Posted Jul 28, 2015
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The Gift (2015) |
Nothing here feels cheap or hasty, which is why the horror, when it comes, is all the more chilling and grim. Slick, sharp and terrifying, "The Gift" is a truly brilliant thriller - and, one hopes, the first of many features from Edgerton to come. - TheWrap
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| Posted Jul 22, 2015
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Pixels (2015) |
When you run the equation that made Pixels into a feature -- a 3-minute short about 8-bit creatures times 90 minutes and divided by a 2-bit script -- it's us who are on the losing side of this loud, boring game thanks to Sandler's smug smirk. - About.com
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| Posted Jul 22, 2015
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The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015) |
Disturbing, honest and compelling, "The Stanford Prison Experiment" turns a well-known story into must-see storytelling, depicting the ugly truth through gorgeous filmmaking. - TheWrap
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| Posted Jul 14, 2015
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Mr. Holmes (2015) |
After his recent string of what feels like too many comic-book blockbusters, social-media memes and chat-show appearances, it's nice to see McKellen in a role that actually demands - and rewards - his acting abilities. - TheWrap
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| Posted Jul 14, 2015
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Trainwreck (2015) |
Trainwreck is worth seeing and worth talking about, but it's too managed and well-conducted; hopefully, next time, Schumer will really go off the rails and show us something truly worth looking for in the wreckage. - The Playlist
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| Posted Jul 14, 2015
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Jenny's Wedding (2015) |
"Jenny's Wedding" isn't ill-intentioned or actively bad; it's just a little too familiar, a little too safe and a little too satisfied with itself. - TheWrap
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| Posted Jul 13, 2015
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Boulevard (2014) |
"Boulevard" consistently evokes the road not traveled, but doesn't particularly stand out alongside other dramas that have explored the same terrain. - TheWrap
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| Posted Jul 08, 2015
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Magic Mike XXL (2015) |
During the dancing sequences, women hurl dollar bills at our heroes; there are no corresponding shots of someone, anyone, picking it up. In Soderbergh's first film, the money is what matters-- which is why the first film is better than the 'fun' sequel. - About.com
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| Posted Jul 01, 2015
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Terminator Genisys (2015) |
In 1984's "The Terminator," machines came back from the future to wipe out humanity; with "Terminator Genisys," a whole franchise comes back from the past to water down summer moviegoing. - TheWrap
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| Posted Jun 24, 2015
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Escobar: Paradise Lost (2014) |
"Escobar: Paradise Lost" plays more like Greek tragedy than the kind of drug-war tale we'd get in a broader, bigger film, and that is no small part of the many reasons it works. - TheWrap
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| Posted Jun 24, 2015
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Inside Out (2015) |
Inside Out is a neurological fable; it's a children's story about the soul; it's a bright comedy about our darkest feelings. The miracle isn't merely that it works; the miracle is that it works amazingly well. - About.com
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| Posted Jun 17, 2015
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Madame Bovary (2014) |
Watching "Madame Bovary," you find yourself wishing that Barthes had done something, anything with Flaubert's novel other than slap it up on the screen as Wasikowska's less-than-enthralling and slow-paced journey from dissatisfaction to disaster. - About.com
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| Posted Jun 11, 2015
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Runoff (2014) |
Runoff may never quite cohere as the broadness of some of the writing but as a demonstration of real talent -- and real passion -- it's a strong and superbly-shot debut for director-writer Levin. - indieWire
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| Posted Jun 10, 2015
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Jurassic World (2015) |
I can understand anyone who nitpicks Jurassic World -- Who does keep insuring this place? -- but I can't join in with them: Jurassic World is a hell of a ride, and maybe the most boldly knowing meta-fun summer sequel since Terminator 2. - About.com
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| Posted Jun 10, 2015
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Aloha (2015) |
Aloha is the kind of movie a name-brand director makes on their way to being a name-bland director; Crowe's the Tim Burton of twee romance, taking much of the shine off his past glories by recycling them into modern, middling mistakes. - About.com
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| Posted Jun 03, 2015
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Spy (2015) |
The best thing Feig and McCarthy have done, a comedy with stupid brilliance and loving mockery in every frame, where the insults fly as fast and hard as the bullets do. - About.com
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| Posted Jun 02, 2015
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Entourage (2015) |
I live in L.A.; if I want to see dumb dudes who don't deserve success enjoy being rich, I don't have to go to the movies, I can just go to brunch. And frankly, my going to brunch would have more conflict than Entourage. - About.com
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| Posted Jun 02, 2015
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San Andreas (2015) |
San Andreas may CGI-shake the digital earth, but it's really stray bits inside a hollow shell, and the Dolby howl of the sound design is just to mask the empty rattle of the film, a flimsy shell filled with cliches and summer-dumb spectacle. - About.com
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| Posted May 29, 2015
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Tomorrowland (2015) |
As busted-but-pretty inspirational sci-fi epics of the recent past go, I'll take Tomorrowland and its wacky, zippy action over Interstellar; Tomorrowland isn't that bad a place to visit, but it's hard to imagine wanting to live there. - About.com
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| Posted May 22, 2015
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I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story (2014) |
Not a definitive story of Sesame Street, but it's a superb portrait of one of its longest residents, and a peek behind the scenes well worth taking for anyone who grew up with one of pop culture's most identifiable and most long-lived children's icons. - About.com
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| Posted May 22, 2015
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The Human Centipede III (Final Sequence) (2015) |
The thing that wrecks "The Human Centipede III" isn't how the film is disgustingly, degradingly unclean; instead, Six's work is ruined by how his film is desperately, depressingly unclever. - TheWrap
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| Posted May 19, 2015
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Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) |
Potentially 2015's best action film, with both mayhem and meaning in a brutal flight to survive. - About.com
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| Posted May 13, 2015
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Black Souls (2014) |
Solemn, strong Italian film about family, crime and the deep roots of revenge offers widescreen visions and intimate murders, making for a very different Mafia saga. - TheWrap
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| Posted May 06, 2015
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The D Train (2015) |
Black gives a career-highlight performance as an all-too-regular-guy tripped up by fame, fear, bad high school memories and a diabolically charming James Marsden in a strange, sharp comedy. - TheWrap
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| Posted May 06, 2015
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Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) |
Like the worst superhero movies, Avengers: Age of Ultron often feels like not-very-bright kids playing with action toys, holding them up by the ankles and making them fight or kiss or feud at whim and at length. - About.com
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| Posted Apr 29, 2015
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Ride (2014) |
Anyone sniffing that "Ride" looks like wish fulfillment for women of a certain age would do well to consider how many wretched films we sit through in the name of wish fulfillment for young men; a little equality in entertainment goes a long way. - TheWrap
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| Posted Apr 28, 2015
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The Age of Adaline (2015) |
A middling romance intended as counter-programming before a summer of world-savers and life-takers, The Age of Adaline is an adequate way to kill a few mortal hours in the theater for romance fans. - About.com
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| Posted Apr 23, 2015
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Adult Beginners (2014) |
Another indie comedy seemingly inspired by Robert Frost's verse from "The Death of the Hired Man" about how "home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in," "Adult Beginners" has everything going for it aside from a reason to exist. - TheWrap
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| Posted Apr 21, 2015
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Child 44 (2015) |
A Soviet-era slog through crime and corruption, painted in grim shades of muck, blood, moss and bark, director Daniel Espinosa's "Child 44" turns a best-selling period-piece procedural into a slow, tedious thriller almost totally devoid of thrills. - TheWrap
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| Posted Apr 15, 2015
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Ex Machina (2014) |
With uncommon intelligence and the even more uncommon ability to look without blinking, Garland's made the one of the best sci-fi films of the past several years, a wicked and wise parable of the near-now that's honed to a gleam. - About.com
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| Posted Apr 08, 2015
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Furious 7 (2015) |
The nicest thing I can say about Furious 7 is that if it were the end of the franchise, it'd be a fine and fitting one. - About.com
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| Posted Apr 02, 2015
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Get Hard (2015) |
Get Hard is just smart enough and funny enough to make you realize that with a little actual effort it might have been much more funny. But why bother writing jokes or a plot when it's easier to talk about how much anal rape goes on in prison? - About.com
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| Posted Mar 26, 2015
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