>
Mark Kennedy
Mark Kennedy's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
Associated Press
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Leave the World Behind (2023) |
The acting is first rate and it needs to be -- this is a drama of manners and secrets, and each sigh or glance reveals so much. We haven’t seen a nasty Roberts character in a while and Ali balances sophistication and slyness artfully. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Dec 05, 2023
|
|
|
|
Eileen (2023) |
By sanding off all the dark human quirks from their deeply human heroine, the filmmakers have left us a film that’s just filling the space. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Nov 29, 2023
|
|
|
|
Next Goal Wins (2023) |
In Waititi’s hands, it becomes a sloppy, quirky, pop culture-studded frothy comedy that gently apes other underdog sports movies but doesn’t offer much but a mildly funny respite from reality. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Nov 15, 2023
|
|
|
|
Rustin (2023) |
Director George C. Wolfe, a theater legend, keeps this biopic intriguing, making it almost feel like a caper. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Nov 01, 2023
|
|
|
|
Five Nights at Freddy's (2023) |
Caught between PG and R, as well as lost at the crossroads of inadvertent comedy and horror, the PG-13 Five Nights at Freddy’s has to go down as one of the poorest films in any genre this year. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Oct 26, 2023
|
|
|
|
Old Dads (2023) |
A meandering, unfunny assault on PC culture that would seem perfectly in place in the 1990s alongside “Illiberal Education” by Dinesh D’Souza and the rantings of Pat Buchanan. It’s so dated there’s even a mention of Halliburton. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Oct 20, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Royal Hotel (2023) |
The Royal Hotel is a horror movie but don’t expect any jump-cuts, scary masks or serial killers. It’s more like the horror that dawns on a frog when it realizes it is being boiled alive. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Oct 04, 2023
|
|
|
|
Carlos (2023) |
It’s lovingly told -- and intimate. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Sep 27, 2023
|
|
|
|
Dumb Money (2023) |
The little guy -- or at least the little guy with a few hundred bucks to sink into the stock market -- gets a movie to cheer with Dumb Money. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Sep 20, 2023
|
|
|
|
A Million Miles Away (2023) |
Biopics with outsized heroes can lay it on thick, but A Million Miles manages to keep its hero’s feet firmly on earth before his space shot, largely thanks to star Michael Peña as Hernández and Rosa Salazar as his wife. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Sep 12, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Nun II (2023) |
A movie that seems destined to pound a nail into this franchise’s undead coffin. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Sep 07, 2023
|
|
|
|
Golda (2023) |
It’s not clear why smoking is so important to the filmmakers. Perhaps it’s to show Meir’s stubbornness or single-mindedness or stress release, but it just becomes a filmmaking crutch, like real nicotine. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Aug 24, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Eternal Memory (2023) |
The loving, lyrical Maite Alberdi -directed documentary is the story of one man’s decline due to Alzheimer’s disease, but it’s so much more. It’s a stronger love story and one that tries to say things about a country’s collective memory, too. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Aug 10, 2023
|
|
|
|
Talk to Me (2023) |
There’s no doubt the Philippou brothers have possessed us. Born and raised on YouTube, they’ve crashed the party with a great debut. Welcome them warmly, just don’t shake their hands. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Jul 26, 2023
|
|
|
|
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One (2023) |
If you do give in, you’re in for a treat -- a heart-pounding, never dragging, mission accomplished. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Jul 13, 2023
|
|
|
|
Insidious: The Red Door (2023) |
Whether or not you’ll want to push this door open may depend on how much of a completist you are. For many, leaving it shut may be just fine. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Jul 07, 2023
|
|
|
|
Extraction 2 (2023) |
Chris Hemsworth returns as the sad-sack, gun-for-hire Rake in Extraction 2 and you’ll thank the giant streamer for such a nifty bit of resurrection because this franchise is pure cinematic adrenalin. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Jun 15, 2023
|
|
|
|
Flamin' Hot (2023) |
... It’s a winning tale of perseverance, family love, proud heritage and blue-collar success, told with a wink, some Cheetos dust and a ton of love by Eva Longoria, in her directorial debut. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Jun 07, 2023
|
|
|
|
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023) |
Look, maybe we should be anxious. ChatGPT clearly could have a written a better movie. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Jun 06, 2023
|
|
|
|
About My Father (2023) |
Not only leans into stereotypes — working-class Italians on one side, WASPs on the other — but plows the field with them. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted May 25, 2023
|
|
|
|
Fast X (2023) |
With a foot in the past, one in the future and one on the gas, “Fast X” is pure popcorn lunacy. Was that too many feet? Oh, excuse us, you wanted logic? - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted May 17, 2023
|
|
|
|
Little Richard: I Am Everything (2023) |
He never really got the crown he deserved. That’s the persuasive case made by Lisa Cortés’ documentary Little Richard: I Am Everything, an insightful biography of an unlikely hero who emerged in the buttoned-down Eisenhower era. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Apr 20, 2023
|
|
|
|
Showing Up (2022) |
Director Kelly Reichardt, who also penned the film with her regular screenwriter, Jonathan Raymond, has created a tiresome bubble inside a bubble, focusing their lens to pointless effect on a group of low-level artists in Portland, Oregon. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Apr 05, 2023
|
|
|
|
Rye Lane (2023) |
[A] sweet, down-to-earth, funny and thoughtful rom-com. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Mar 30, 2023
|
|
|
|
John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) |
A sequel which elevates and expands the franchise. The fourth installment is more stylish, more elegant and more bonkers - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Mar 23, 2023
|
|
|
|
Scream VI (2023) |
"Scream VI" is less a sequel and more a stutter-step, a half-movie with some very satisfying stabbings but no real progress or even movement. It's like treading water in gore. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Mar 08, 2023
|
|
|
|
Cocaine Bear (2023) |
Aping other genres of filmmaking, this one never finds its own voice or a way to integrate the ultra-violence with the dark comedy. It’s like a parody of a parody that director Elizabeth Banks has turned limp and pointless. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Feb 23, 2023
|
|
|
|
Your Place or Mine (2023) |
This Valentine’s Day, it hits the spot if you’re in the mood for pretty people acting insecure and clueless. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Feb 10, 2023
|
|
|
|
80 for Brady (2023) |
That hissing sound you hear in the theater is not footballs losing air but an audience deflated. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Feb 02, 2023
|
|
|
|
You People (2023) |
Hill and “black-ish” creator Kenya Barris have written a rom-com with teeth, a film not afraid to air long-simmering cultural grievances. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Jan 24, 2023
|
|
|
|
Missing (2023) |
[A] superbly constructed and satisfying thriller from the director-writer team of Will Merrick and Nick Johnson. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Jan 18, 2023
|
|
|
|
The Pale Blue Eye (2022) |
This is a film wonderfully grounded in its time and space, where you hear creaking wooden floorboards and owls hooting and darkness cloaks everything. You feel the 1830s and the greasy, unkempt hair and heavy woolen uniforms. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Dec 22, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Whale (2022) |
This is a film that stays with you and changes you. It is heavy, indeed.
- Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Dec 08, 2022
|
|
|
|
Violent Night (2022) |
Few films have earned their R rating better. All that’s missing is you as long as you think it’s time to add a little blood to Christmas? - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Nov 30, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Son (2022) |
If you don’t have children, you will likely walk out of The Son shaken and deeply moved. If you do have kids, you may have to be eventually pulled to your feet after collapsing into a fetal ball for several hours. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Nov 23, 2022
|
|
|
|
Devotion (2022) |
Ultimately, this is a weird way to honor a man who would posthumously receive the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal and the Purple Heart. In many ways, framing his heroics beside a white wingman undermines the singularity of Brown. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Nov 21, 2022
|
|
|
|
The Fabelmans (2022) |
The focus sometimes gets a bit blurry, to be honest and the whole thing often doesn’t add up to much. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Nov 08, 2022
|
|
|
|
Wendell & Wild (2022) |
In many ways, this film has the creepiness of The Nightmare Before Christmas fused with the girl-power of Coraline but for less pay-off than either. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Oct 26, 2022
|
|
|
|
Black Adam (2022) |
Director Jaume Collet-Serra and the design team do a great job in every department but are let down by a derivative and baggy screenplay by Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani that goes from one violent scene to another like a video game. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Oct 18, 2022
|
|
|
|
Amsterdam (2022) |
Welcome to Amsterdam, writer and director David O. Russell’s answer to the question: Can some of the top actors in the world mange to elevate poor material? The answer is a dull no. It becomes a slaughterhouse. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Oct 05, 2022
|
|
|
|
Bros (2022) |
It’s not a perfect film, but name us a perfect rom-com. This one has what the best have: heart, good faith and good old fashioned love. Welcome, “Bros,” to the canon. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Sep 28, 2022
|
|
|
|
Sidney (2022) |
The filmmakers have a charismatic change-maker as their focus, but credit to them for also exploring when he missed his high ethical standards. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Sep 23, 2022
|
|
|
|
See How They Run (2022) |
Whodunits are hot. But if you’ve see this one, you’ve definitely seen them all. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Sep 14, 2022
|
|
|
|
Barbarian (2022) |
Barbarian marks the auspicious feature film debut of director-writer Zach Cregger, someone well-versed in film tropes and with a subtle skill at social satire approaching Jordan Peele levels. He will also somehow make you laugh hard. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Sep 08, 2022
|
|
|
|
Post Malone: Runaway (2022) |
... An hourlong music video, with some 10 songs — “Take What You Want,” “Wow” and “Rockstar,“ among them — captured with shaky, distorted camera angles, interspliced with backstage glad-handing and tons of beer pong. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Aug 16, 2022
|
|
|
|
Mack & Rita (2022) |
Virtually no one associated with this film should be congratulated in any way, having ruptured any bridges between Hollywood and senior citizens or for the shocking misuse of Diane Keaton’s considerable skills. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Aug 12, 2022
|
|
|
|
Thirteen Lives (2022) |
There are pockets of diffusive heroes everywhere and that means a lack of tautness or through-line. Neither the divers nor kids, government officials nor families and volunteers really come into focus, staying as murky as the miles of submerged cave. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Aug 03, 2022
|
|
|
|
A Love Song (2022) |
As a viewer, you may leave the theater with more answers than when you arrived -- and that’s refreshing. Walker-Silverman has no interest in putting pretty bows on things, loads of past histories or sentimentality. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Jul 26, 2022
|
|
|
|
Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (2022) |
Paramount’s limp, animated remake actually triggers new stereotypes in the service of trying to expose racism for a pre-teen audience. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Jul 14, 2022
|
|
|
|
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) |
The whipsaw from death and suffering to idiocy is staggering, with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson credited alongside Waititi for a script that seems like it was pasted together after gerbils ripped up a bag of words. - Associated Press
Read More
| Posted Jul 05, 2022
|