Peter Travers
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
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Murder Mystery 2 (2023) |
Ever since Knives Out snapped the whodunit back to wicked life, it’s harder to accept a lazy, dim-witted mystery that wastes Sandler and Aniston on 89 minutes of sequel piffle. One of those new AI bots could have coughed up a script with more personality. - ABC News
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| Posted Mar 31, 2023
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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) |
Video games make lousy movies, right? Not this time. Thanks to Chris Pine and a cast of merry pranksters, especially Hugh Grant and a chubwub dragon, the big-screen D&D cuts through the digital chaos to create a goofball fantasy even a non-gamer can love. - ABC News
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| Posted Mar 31, 2023
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John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) |
Where Wick-haters find only brutal monotony, the rest of us will revel in the fourth chapter’s state-of-the-art action fireworks led by a hypnotically-Zen Keanu Reeves as the hitman who treats kung fu fighting like a dance tableau. Unmissable? Hell, yeah! - ABC News
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| Posted Mar 24, 2023
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Boston Strangler (2023) |
It’s frustrating that this immense, immersive true-crime story has been squeezed into a two-hour movie instead of a series about the two women reporters—superbly played by Keira Knightley and Carrie Coon—who broke a notorious case the police could not. - ABC News
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| Posted Mar 17, 2023
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Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023) |
The tossed-off charm of the original suffers from bloated sequelitis. It's mostly stupid kid stuff, but Zachary Levi’s comic-book invitation to shake your sillies out will be hard to resist for underserved family audiences. - ABC News
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| Posted Mar 17, 2023
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Boys on the Side (1995) |
After the mawkishness sets in, you keep thinking what a different, wilder and better Boys might have been made if these three live wires had taken off and invented their own feminist farce with no frills and no bull. - Rolling Stone
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| Posted Mar 14, 2023
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All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) |
Oscar time is ideal for catching up with Edward Berger’s ferocious anti-war epic about young German soldiers dying in WW1 trenches. The German-language film boasts a wow nine nominations, including Best Picture, and tragically its message never gets old. - ABC News
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| Posted Mar 10, 2023
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Creed III (2023) |
Michael B. Jordan returns as star and now director to play the boxing champ who comes out of retirement to take on a fierce new contender (a dynamite Jonathan Majors). Even when the overcrowded plot stumbles, this clash of the titans is worth cheering. - ABC News
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| Posted Mar 03, 2023
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Luther: The Fallen Sun (2023) |
The impossibly magnetic Idris Elba brings his iconic series TV character, London copper John Luther, to thunderous life on the big screen and suddenly all is right with the world. So what if the serial-killer plot can’t get a grip, Elba is pure pow. - ABC News
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| Posted Feb 24, 2023
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Cocaine Bear (2023) |
A bear does cocaine and kills people. Director Elizabeth Banks revels in deliciously cheap thrills, but then treats her overqualified actors (Keri Russell, the late Ray Liotta) like bear chewtoys while the overcrowded script drifts into hibernation. - ABC News
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| Posted Feb 24, 2023
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Sharper (2023) |
Even though the ending fizzles out, the star power of Julianne Moore and Sebastian Stan turns this tale of con artists on the hustle among Manhattan one-percenters into a sleek, sexy sophisticated thriller with twists that won’t quit. - ABC News
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| Posted Feb 17, 2023
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Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (2023) |
The once playful runt of the Marvel litter has come down with a case of bloated excess and despite likable Paul Rudd as Ant-Man and a pow villain in Jonathan Majors, the third time is not the charm for a sequel that ignores its own rule -- less is more. - ABC News
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| Posted Feb 17, 2023
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Magic Mike's Last Dance (2023) |
Despite the lusty efforts of Channing Tatum and Salma Hayek, Mike’s final whirl as a stripper is a pale, generic copy of the wow that was. The new focus on female empowerment is admirable, but gender politics are no substitute for naked, guiltless bliss. - ABC News
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| Posted Feb 10, 2023
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Knock at the Cabin (2023) |
M. Night Shyamalan can be too fuzzy and full of himself. But this doomsday thriller starring a never-better Dave Bautista as a modern horseman of the apocalypse confirms that the Sixth Sense maestro knows how to fill the screen with tension and squeeze. - ABC News
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| Posted Feb 03, 2023
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To Leslie (2022) |
This week’s shockerOscar nomination for British actress Andrea Riseborough as an alcoholic single mother from West Texas who squanders her $190,000 lottery win on booze turns a movie no one ever heard of into an absolute must-see. Prepare to be wowed! - ABC News
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| Posted Jan 27, 2023
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You People (2023) |
Kenya Barris disastrously trades cutting social satire for romcom pablum when a Jewish podcaster (Jonah Hill) and his Black fiancé (Lauren London) break up after her dad (Eddie Mirphy) and his mom (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) turn a wedding into a race war. - ABC News
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| Posted Jan 27, 2023
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The Big Lebowski (1998) |
A hilarious pop-culture hash. The Big Lebowski is the best movie ever set mostly in a bowling alley. - Rolling Stone
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| Posted Jan 24, 2023
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Alice, Darling (2022) |
A riveting Anna Kendrick brings her own experience with a psychologically abusive relationship to this tale of a young woman who learns to stand her non-violent ground against a male predator through female friendship. The result is quietly devastating. - ABC News
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| Posted Jan 20, 2023
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The Son (2022) |
Hugh Jackman acts his heart out as a parent unable to cope with his clinically depressed son, but even he can’t save this poor relation to The Father from descending into two hours of misery porn. - ABC News
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| Posted Jan 20, 2023
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A Man Called Otto (2022) |
As always, Tom Hanks is in there pitching. But the cliched plot about a reformed grumpy old man is so obvious you can see it from outer space. - ABC News
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| Posted Jan 13, 2023
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Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. (1992) |
Harris is a bracing new voice; she keeps her big little movie brimming with the pleasures of the unexpected. - Rolling Stone
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| Posted Jan 10, 2023
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The Pale Blue Eye (2022) |
Christian Bale tries to solve a murder at West Point, circa 1830, with the help of young cadet Edgar Allen Poe (Harry Melling). But what should be a gothic mesmerizer ends up a dreary exercise to doom and gloom that’s an endurance test for audiences. - ABC News
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| Posted Jan 06, 2023
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M3GAN (2022) |
Move over Chucky, here’s the killer robot doll thriller we’ve been waiting for. This jolt of fun and fright stars a sensational Allison Wllliams as the inventor of a babysitting android with a bloody flaw that makes M3gan he first banger hit of 2023. - ABC News
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| Posted Jan 06, 2023
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White Noise (2022) |
Noah Baumbach honors Don DeLillo’s virtuoso novel about the comic-absurdist chaos of consumerism with too cautious respect. The result is his most constricted film, which only breaks free when costars Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig fly on their own wings. - ABC News
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| Posted Dec 30, 2022
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Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022) |
Naomi Ackie acts and lip-synchs her heart out as the longbird legend, but Whitney deserved a much better movie than this patchwork, cobbled-together biopic that barely skims the professional highs and personal lows that made up her tragically short life. - ABC News
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| Posted Dec 30, 2022
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Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical (2022) |
Just the blast of wicked fun we need, using song and dance to enhance Dahl’s timeless tale of naughty children vs uncaring adults distilled as bookish Matilda (Alisha Weir is a one-girl talent explosion) battles with Emma Thompson’s hellish headmistress. - ABC News
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| Posted Dec 23, 2022
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Babylon (2022) |
There's about an hour of terrific movie in this love-hate look at lurid Old Hollywood. Too bad it’s trapped in three hours of self-indulgent bloat. Even the starshine of Robbie and Pitt dissipates as Damien Chazelle rabidly bites the hand that feeds him. - ABC News
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| Posted Dec 23, 2022
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Living (2022) |
Bill Nighy delivers a master class in acting as a stifled Brit bureaucrat who decides to seize the day before it's too late. Working in miniature to achieve major truths, this deeply human drama has the power to sneak up and knock you sideways. - ABC News
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| Posted Dec 16, 2022
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Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) |
Weigh the flimsy story against eye-popping, shoot-the-works visuals that fill the screen to bursting and the choice is clear: Cameron’s 3D sequel to his biggest hit is the ultimate in-theater thrill ride. You’ve never seen anything like it in your life. - ABC News
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| Posted Dec 16, 2022
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Emancipation (2022) |
After the infamous slap that sidelined his career, Will Smith returns as a runaway slave in a sorry but noble misfire that offers the disgraced actor pitifully few chances to bring dimension to a script that traps in a swamp of misery-porn cliches. - ABC News
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| Posted Dec 09, 2022
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The Whale (2022) |
Brendan Fraser is on the march to Oscar. That's how astonishing he is as a morbidly obese recluse in this deeply moving character study. Accusations that wearing a fatsuit diminishes his tour de force performances are nonsense. This is essential viewing. - ABC News
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| Posted Dec 09, 2022
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Bones and All (2022) |
A love story about two pretty young cannibals won’t strike everyone as an appetizing dish. But you won’t be able to take your eyes off Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell as they try to reconcile romance with killer impulses on a road trip through hell. - ABC News
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| Posted Dec 02, 2022
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Women Talking (2022) |
So what if it’s talky. Sarah Polley’s vital film gathers together eight women—acted with heat and heart by a miraculous cast—to debate what to do about male sexual predators. Doing nothing is not an option in this unique and unforgettable film landmark. - ABC News
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| Posted Dec 02, 2022
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Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022) |
You’ve never seen a Pinocchio like this one, a funny, touching and vital masterpiece from del Toro that uses stop-motion animation to create a world of beauty and terror to get lost in. The Oscar for best animated feature belongs right here. - ABC News
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| Posted Nov 23, 2022
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Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) |
Let’s give thanks for this wicked, whacked-out whodunit sequel.. Daniel Craig is back as southern-fried detective Benoit Blanc and all is right with this crazy world as a cast of merry pranksters (yay Janelle Monae) turns murder most foul into comic gold. - ABC News
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| Posted Nov 23, 2022
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The Menu (2022) |
Foodie culture gets hilariously torched as a celebrity chef, acted to pretentious perfection by Ralph Fiennes, holds his customers, except for a deliciously defiant Anya Taylor-Joy, to the fire at his restaurant from hell. It’s all delectably unhinged. - ABC News
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| Posted Nov 18, 2022
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She Said (2022) |
Despite pokey pacing, the human drama of how two female reporters, superbly acted by Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan, persuaded women to go on the record about being sexually harassed by producer Harvey Weinstein is the year's most gripping detective story. - ABC News
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| Posted Nov 18, 2022
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The Fabelmans (2022) |
Bring out the Oscars for the year’s best movie, a personal best from Steven Spielberg about his own coming of age as a teen torn between his love for movies and family (Michelle Williams is incandescent as his troubled mom). You won’t forget this classic. - ABC News
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| Posted Nov 11, 2022
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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) |
It can’t top the original and the absence of Chadwick Boseman hurts real bad, but Ryan Coogler’s sequel proves to be more than cringey franchise building by putting women of color in charge (yay to Angela Bassett and Letitia Wright) and watching them fly. - ABC News
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| Posted Nov 11, 2022
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Aftersun (2022) |
Cheers to Scotland’s Charlotte Wells for making the best movie of the year by a first-time writer-director. And cheers to Paul Mescal and young Frankie Corio for bringing this unforgettable father-daughter story to such funny, touching and vital life. - ABC News
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| Posted Nov 06, 2022
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Till (2022) |
Danielle Deadwyler gives the breakout performance of the year as a Black activist mother who used the 1955 lynching of her son Emmett Till to galvanize the civil-rights movement. Chinonye Chukwu crafts this emotional powerhouse into essential viewing. - ABC News
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| Posted Oct 28, 2022
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Ticket to Paradise (2022) |
In a valiant effort to bring back the romcom, George Clooney and Julia Roberts sprinkle their stardust on a stale storyline that Rock Hudson and Doris Day might have found retro in the last century. Their hearts are in it, though, and that’s something. - ABC News
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| Posted Oct 21, 2022
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Black Adam (2022) |
Question for Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson: What happened, dude? How did your passion project playing a Black DCEU posterboy for anger management become a humorless, chaotic bummer that leaves you holding the bag for an epic failure to launch? - ABC News
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| Posted Oct 21, 2022
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The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) |
Ignited by career-best performances from Colin Farrell and Bredan Gleason, this new classic from son of Ireland Martin McDonagh brims over with dark comic magic and jolts of bloody scary hell. Fasten your seatbelts for one of the best movies of the year. - ABC News
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| Posted Oct 14, 2022
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Halloween Ends (2022) |
Jamie Lee Curtis bows out of her iconic role with slashing feminist fire, but if you believe maniac Michael Myers is really hanging up his mask in this divisive scam of an ending then you don’t know how greed powers Hollywood’s knack for resurrection. - ABC News
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| Posted Oct 14, 2022
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Tár (2022) |
Start engraving the name Cate Blanchett on the Oscar for Best Actress. As a virtuoso classical music conductor blindsided by cancel culture, she is an absolute stunner in a Todd Field spellbinder that belongs on every list of the best movies of 2022. - ABC News
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| Posted Oct 07, 2022
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Amsterdam (2022) |
David O. Russell’s strands an A-list cast —Bale! Robbie! Washington! De Niro!— in a pokey and problematic mystery romp. You can feel Russell’s cage-rattling intensity, but only in fits and starts as the convoluted conspiracy plot goes out in a fizzle. - ABC News
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| Posted Oct 07, 2022
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The Good House (2021) |
Sigourney Weaver deserves awards attention for turning what could have been a cliched dramedy about a real-estate agent, who’s a functioning alcoholic, into something funny, touching and vital. And cheers to Kevin Kline as the dazed dude who loves her. - ABC News
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| Posted Sep 30, 2022
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Hocus Pocus 2 (2022) |
Anything for Halloween? You bet. Lock up the children—the Sanderson Sisters are back in a bewitching sequel that returns Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy to the roles they created in 1993 just in time to put a funny-scary spell on you. - ABC News
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| Posted Sep 30, 2022
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Blonde (2022) |
Ana de Armas is raw and riveting as Marilyn Monroe in Andrew Dominik’s surreal journey through a star’s subconscious that leaves out the fun parts to cloak her life in abject misery. The nearly three hour result is hard to watch, but impossible to forget. - ABC News
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| Posted Sep 23, 2022
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