Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes
Critics list

Philip Marchand

Philip Marchand's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at Tomatometer-approved publication(s).
Publications:

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
The Rocker (2008) 40% 2.5/4 EDIT “The Rocker is an amiable comedy, so efficiently constructed that you can practically see the computer software on how to write comedy screenplays at work. Nonetheless it is an enjoyable construction.” – Toronto Star Aug 20, 2008 Full Review Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008) 59% 2/4 EDIT “If 3D is indeed the future of movies, we're going to need something more substantial than Journey to the Center of the Earth to convince us.” – Toronto Star Jul 11, 2008 Full Review Encounters at the End of the World (2007) 94% 3.5/4 EDIT “In his latest documentary, Encounters at the End of the World, Herzog -- who warns the viewer at the outset not to expect any 'fluffy penguins' -- deals with the men and women who perform scientific research in Antarctica.” – Toronto Star Jun 27, 2008 Full Review The Promotion (2008) 54% 3/4 EDIT “The Promotion works as a comedy because, in the depths of our dark hearts, we enjoy seeing the woes that beset our comic antagonists.” – Toronto Star Jun 27, 2008 Full Review Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (2008) 11% 1.5/4 EDIT “Don't expect any serious debate here about God and evolution. This documentary is like watching a paranoiac making fun of a hysteric.” – Toronto Star Jun 27, 2008 Full Review Global Metal (2008) 2.5/4 EDIT “Dunn's movie is an indulgent presentation of metal and its devotees -- it even implies the world will be a better place when adolescents everywhere have a chance to bang their heads.” – Toronto Star Jun 20, 2008 Full Review Before the Rains (2007) 51% 3/4 EDIT “India has rarely looked so beautiful onscreen. Against the anguish of his human characters, director Santosh Sivan juxtaposes a tranquil, green world in the hills of the southwestern state of Keralain 1937, 10 years before independence.” – Toronto Star Jun 20, 2008 Full Review Irina Palm (2007) 65% 2.5/4 EDIT “A pleasingly sentimental British domestic drama.” – Toronto Star Jun 13, 2008 Full Review The Happening (2008) 17% 2/4 EDIT “Shyamalan seems to have lost his sense of the fine line between the disturbingly grotesque and the outright ridiculous. The film even seems to be a parody of the scientific method.” – Toronto Star Jun 13, 2008 Full Review My Brother Is an Only Child (2007) 84% 2.5/4 EDIT “The linkage in this movie between politics and family dynamics is a point well taken, but the movie -- whose sense of frenetic activity going nowhere is captured by Luchetti's buoyant camera -- does go on and on before anyone learns anything.” – Toronto Star Jun 6, 2008 Full Review Finn's Girl (2007) 1/4 EDIT “Score several political points for this cheaply manufactured romantic fantasy.” – Toronto Star Jun 6, 2008 Full Review The Children of Huang Shi (2008) 29% 3/4 EDIT “It's a compelling story, with only a few jarring notes.” – Toronto Star Jun 6, 2008 Full Review You Don't Mess With the Zohan (2008) 37% 2/4 EDIT “There's a lot to be said for consumerism as a salve for historic wounds. Of course, there's also a drawback to our free market ways -- we get shoes made in China and movies like You Don't Mess with the Zohan.” – Toronto Star Jun 6, 2008 Full Review Mister Lonely (2007) 45% 2.5/4 EDIT “Korine has found an evocative subject, but he remains entirely too cavalier in this attitude towards narrative coherence.” – Toronto Star May 30, 2008 Full Review This Beautiful City (2007) 14% 2/4 EDIT “A sense of coherence is not helped by an arty, handheld-camera feeling.” – Toronto Star May 23, 2008 Full Review The Edge of Heaven (2007) 90% 3/4 EDIT “As a director [Akin] is clearly a humanist, championing the virtues of forgiveness and relying on strong narrative and deep sympathy for his characters to drive his movies.” – Toronto Star May 23, 2008 Full Review Flight of the Red Balloon (2007) 82% 3/4 EDIT “The story of these people is certainly engaging. The conundrums of art and reality, of reflection and mirror images, presented by the movie are another matter - they seem at times gratuitous. But at least the movie does give us something to think about.” – Toronto Star May 16, 2008 Full Review The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008) 66% 2/4 EDIT “Something human is missing here, amidst all the centaurs and talking bears and mobile trees. It's the art of storytelling, which knows when to allow characters time for heartfelt interaction, when to build suspense, when to mount a climax.” – Toronto Star May 16, 2008 Full Review A Previous Engagement (2008) 37% 2/4 EDIT “This is a romantic comedy where the romance is too fraught with implications for a comedy, and the treatment of character is too flippant for a romance.” – Toronto Star May 9, 2008 Full Review The Stone Angel (2007) 46% 2.5/4 EDIT “These elemental forces fuel a compelling narrative, but the second half of the movie starts to drift.” – Toronto Star May 9, 2008 Full Review Speed Racer (2008) 42% 2.5/4 EDIT “The movie, unfortunately, doesn't make that leap from sensation to art, but it suggests fascinating possibilities for moviemakers interested in using the latest techniques seriously to explore the world -- the fairyland we have made with our technology.” – Toronto Star May 9, 2008 Full Review What Happens in Vegas (2008) 25% 3/4 EDIT “Here's a romantic comedy that is goofy, highly implausible, sometimes over the top, often in bad taste, and resolutely empty-headed. In short, it's the best example of its genre to appear on the screen this year.” – Toronto Star May 9, 2008 Full Review Made of Honor (2008) 15% 2/4 EDIT “Somewhere in the shades of Hollywood, the ghost of Cary Grant is shaking his head.” – Toronto Star May 2, 2008 Full Review The Visitor (2007) 89% 3.5/4 EDIT “The story of Vale's revitalization and his grief is compelling but simple, free of any sentimentality, and marked by powerful performances from Jenkins and Hiam Abbass, who plays Mouna Khalil, Tarek's mother.” – Toronto Star Apr 25, 2008 Full Review War, Inc. (2008) 29% 2/4 EDIT “It all adds up to a fast pace, lots of shooting, and a movie that, in its heart, is as corrupt as the politics it attempts to satirize.” – Toronto Star Apr 25, 2008 Full Review
No Reviews Yet
Load More