Jeff Giles
Jeff Giles's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
Bullz-Eye.com
Collider
I'm a freelance music and film critic, which means a lot of people mistake me for Newsweek's Jeff Giles (I even get his mail sometimes). I am not Newsweek's Jeff Giles. Also, I like long walks on the beach.
New Hampshire
http://www.popdose.com
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Rich Hill (2014) |
A movie that will leave you feeling shaken, heartbroken, and probably pretty damn grateful. Not an easy watch by any means, but perhaps a necessary one. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Aug 07, 2014
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Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) |
The whole thing comes zipping and bamming out in a rainbow-hued orgy of sci-fi, action, comedy, drama, and (trust me on this) throat-lumpening pathos. It shouldn't work at all, not for a moment, but it does -- and Gunn makes it look easy. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Aug 01, 2014
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Willow Creek (2013) |
If the end result can't help but disappoint in a number of ways, it's still quite a bit better than one would really have any right to expect. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Jun 06, 2014
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Maleficent (2014) |
Consider Maleficent an old story told at least partially anew, and fairly captivatingly in the bargain. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted May 30, 2014
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X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) |
For a movie that sends an enormous cast hurling around the world and across time, X-Men: Days of Future Past does a pretty darn impressive job of never losing sight of its plot. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted May 23, 2014
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Godzilla (2014) |
One of the few obvious would-be franchise starters that actually gives the audience a reason to hope for something even better the second time around. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted May 16, 2014
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Veronica Mars (2014) |
It's a fun, light watch, with just enough laughs, twists, and beautiful people to keep a viewer engaged for precisely 107 minutes before wafting back into the cloud. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Mar 14, 2014
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The Unknown Known (2013) |
It's entertaining until it isn't, and when it isn't, that's because any movie that takes an honest look at the horrible events covered by this film probably shouldn't be entertaining. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Mar 13, 2014
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Soap Life (2012) |
Whether you're a dedicated soap watcher, a lapsed fan, or someone who's turned up their nose at the daytime dial, Soap Life is worth watching. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Mar 12, 2014
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A Birder's Guide to Everything (2013) |
Very sweet, and not in a cloying way; if anything, its exceedingly low-key charms are a blessed relief in a genre that too often relies on aggressively gauzy nostalgia. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Mar 11, 2014
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Run & Jump (2013) |
This is familiar stuff, but in between the rusty narrative framework, Run & Jump boasts a big, beautiful heart. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Jan 26, 2014
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Old Goats (2010) |
With nowhere to go and no real urgency to get there, it's ultimately more of a dull disappointment than the flash of tender insight it should have been. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Jan 21, 2014
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Zero Charisma (2013) |
A surprisingly thoughtful look at nerd psychology, as well as a subtle indictment of the sort of gleeful ironic detachment that triggers reflexive scorn in the presence of unabashed passion. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Oct 14, 2013
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Escape From Tomorrow (2013) |
A movie that's more interesting than entertaining. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Oct 12, 2013
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Last Love (2013) |
At its most crucial moments, the movie feels arbitrary; you watch people doing things, and rather than be affected by those actions in any way, all you can do is wonder why they're happening. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Oct 11, 2013
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Gravity (2013) |
No matter what kind of film fan you might be, Gravity offers 91 of the most unforgettable minutes you're likely to spend at a theater anytime soon. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Oct 04, 2013
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Muscle Shoals (2013) |
Whether or not you've even heard of Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, or Lynyrd Skynyrd, this is one lovely testament to the the power of the human heart. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Sep 18, 2013
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Blue Caprice (2013) |
It's just a movie, but it might also be a warning. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Sep 17, 2013
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All Is Bright (2013) |
You don't feel like anyone's better off at the end of this film, and none of the characters seem to have learned much of anything. It's just a dark interlude in their lives that ends with a sigh and a shrug. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Sep 16, 2013
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Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay (2012) |
They say information wants to be free, but after watching this delightful documentary, I'm not so sure -- I think what it might really want is to be wanted. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Sep 15, 2013
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I Declare War (2012) |
Anyone with even the faintest memory of their middle-school years should come away feeling bittersweet recognition -- and maybe even a little shaken up, too. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Aug 29, 2013
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Rewind This! (2013) |
Even if you grew up during the VHS era, you may never have connected the dots between the format's '80s home invasion and the entertainment marketplace we live in now -- an evolution Rewind This! traces in fascinating fashion. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Aug 28, 2013
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This Is Martin Bonner (2013) |
If you consider yourself any kind of film fan, I can't recommend This Is Martin Bonner highly enough. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Aug 26, 2013
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Jayne Mansfield's Car (2012) |
Bereft of momentum or purpose, it just sort of putters around on the narrative byways for a couple of hours until it coasts to a stop. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Aug 25, 2013
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Drinking Buddies (2013) |
Even though you might look at Drinking Buddies' poster and blanch at the memory of rental fees lost to low-grade exercises in '90s indie cinema, it's actually got a lot more going for it. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Aug 21, 2013
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Europa Report (2013) |
If the sum is rather less than its parts, those parts are often more entertaining than you might expect. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Aug 01, 2013
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Charles Bradley: Soul of America (2011) |
Aside from making you want to dance, sing, hug Charles Bradley, and buy all his records, the movie makes you think. This is an important film -- and one that treats the viewer to a damn fine soundtrack in the bargain. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Jul 31, 2013
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The Conjuring (2013) |
For much of its running time, Wan gets a lot of mileage out of toying with the audience's expectations using subtle feints followed by jump-in-your-seat jolts. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Jul 19, 2013
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Pacific Rim (2013) |
In the long run, the fact that a director like del Toro felt compelled to make it probably says deeply troubling things about the future of the studio system. But for at least two hours and 11 minutes, it's a heck of a lot of fun. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Jul 12, 2013
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Monsters University (2013) |
You can see it as a poignant tribute to dreams denied and outsiders pressured to fit in, or you can simply soak it in the way my kids (7 and 5) did: "That was the best movie ever because it was funny." - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Jun 21, 2013
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Man of Steel (2013) |
Proves, once again, that big explosions are not an adequate substitute for genuine epic scale. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Jun 14, 2013
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20 Feet From Stardom (2013) |
Their enduring faith in the redemptive power of song offers a subtle, exultant rebuttal to the American Idol dream of overnight fame as a means to its own end. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Jun 07, 2013
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Now You See Me (2013) |
The whole movie ends up coming across like Wallace Shawn's character in The Princess Bride: so smug in its belief that it's already outwitted you that it ends up poisoning itself before the story's halfway over. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Jun 01, 2013
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Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) |
Expertly wields impressive CGI effects and boffo set pieces in service of a strong message, confidently expressed with some of the best acting and dialogue in Trek history. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted May 17, 2013
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Iron Man 3 (2013) |
In spite of some killer set pieces and some genuinely funny moments, the whole thing feels awfully hollow in the end. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted May 03, 2013
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Amour (2012) |
One of the most thoughtful, tenderly wrought ruminations on love in recent memory. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Dec 19, 2012
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This Is 40 (2012) |
It has a terrific cast and a rich premise. So why doesn't This Is 40 feel like much of a movie? - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Dec 16, 2012
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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) |
By the end, An Unexpected Journey has undeniably taken you on a ride -- it's just a much bumpier one than you might have expected. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Dec 16, 2012
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Rise of the Guardians (2012) |
Unless you have a serious bias against major holiday mascots, you'll be hard pressed to resist the occasional chuckle or wistful sigh. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Nov 22, 2012
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The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (2012) |
Taken on its own merits, it's a woefully uneven mess; if you've never understood the appeal of The Twilight Saga, nothing you see here will change your mind, but you probably weren't going to see it anyway. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Nov 18, 2012
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Skyfall (2012) |
A lithe, brutal case study in how characters can stay vital no matter how many stories they've already told. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Nov 10, 2012
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Wreck-It Ralph (2012) |
Wreck-It Ralph addresses its themes with more honesty and wit than we've come to feel we have any right to expect from family-friendly Hollywood. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Nov 02, 2012
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Argo (2012) |
Uses old-fashioned Hollywood formula to demonstrate exactly why, in the right hands, old-fashioned Hollywood formula always works. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Oct 15, 2012
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Looper (2012) |
Only Johnson's third film, Looper's something like a modern masterpiece, and he'll be hard-pressed to follow it up -- but it should be our pleasure to watch him try. - Movies With Butter
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| Posted Sep 29, 2012
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Best Worst Movie (2009) |
Stephenson has made a fun film, and there's nothing wrong with that -- but it's tempting to wonder what a more objective director might have done with this. - Collider
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| Posted May 12, 2010
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Forrest Gump (1994) |
Even if its success was overblown, so was the backlash. - Bullz-Eye.com
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| Posted Jan 20, 2010
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Mary and Max (2009) |
Like Mary and Max's friendship, this movie is an act of tenderness that will linger long after the closing credits roll. - Collider
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| Posted Oct 19, 2009
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The Rocker (2008) |
Perhaps The Rocker's most annoying feature is that it isn't completely terrible. - Collider
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| Posted Jan 08, 2009
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Feast of Love (2007) |
Let Google point you to this movie's finer moments, and leave the rest. It's really that bad. - Bullz-Eye.com
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| Posted Oct 18, 2008
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Man on Wire (2008) |
Petit showed us that a dream, no matter how risky or dangerous, is often its own reward. It's an important lesson, but one that's obviously easy to forget, and Man on Wire is a stunning reminder. - Bullz-Eye.com
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| Posted Jan 22, 2008
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