Richard Haridy
Richard Haridy's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
Quickflix
Australia
http://blog.quickflix.com.au/author/richardharidy/
Movies reviews only
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Starred Up (2013) |
Starred Up may cover familiar ground but it's executed with such arresting authenticity that it's hard to not be drawn in and ultimately excited. This is prison melodrama done amazingly well with sharp performances and visceral attention to detail. - Quickflix
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| Posted Dec 07, 2014
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Devil's Knot (2013) |
If anything positive can be gained from Devil's Knot, it's that hopefully it will lead new viewers to the magnificent experiences that await them by watching the superior Paradise Lost trilogy and the conclusive West of Memphis - Quickflix
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| Posted Dec 07, 2014
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Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) |
Transformers: Age of Extinction is as close to an incoherent mess of movement & noise as cinema gets. Michael Bay is slowly perfecting his brand of blockbuster, and to be honest it's getting quite compelling to watch him fall down this rabbit hole - Quickflix
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| Posted Dec 07, 2014
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A Most Wanted Man (2014) |
A Most Wanted Man concludes on a bleakly prescient note, not only in offering an extraordinarily trenchant critique of American foreign policy but also as a moody send off to Hoffman himself. - Quickflix
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| Posted Dec 07, 2014
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The Infinite Man (2014) |
This is nothing less than one of my favourite Australian pictures in quite some time - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 01, 2014
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The Armstrong Lie (2013) |
The Armstrong Lie has several insightful moments but is most interesting in how it shows us a filmmaker usually committed to finding the absolute truth in his subjects, suffering when he comes across a story where lies and truth constantly intertwine. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 01, 2014
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Ida (2013) |
A black & white Polish film about a nun in the 1960s exploring her family origins is about as tough as art-house pitches come. Yet, Ida has a remarkable lightness of touch and focus of vision making it impossible not to widely recommend. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 01, 2014
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Life After Beth (2014) |
Life After Beth is an irritatingly undeveloped project. A charming cast and a few moments of inspired lunacy make it passingly worthwhile for genre fans. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 01, 2014
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Non-Stop (2014) |
For a good 80 minutes, Non-Stop delivers exactly what the title promises - an escalating series of exciting set-pieces with a great, mysterious backbone. This is top grade Hollywood entertainment. - Quickflix
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| Posted Jul 23, 2014
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Pompeii (2014) |
Sure, every character beat is hammy and predictable, but hey, not everything can be fine dining. Sometimes you just want a good cheeseburger and fries. - Quickflix
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| Posted Jul 23, 2014
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Tokarev (2014) |
If you are going to make a B-grade exploitation piece you need to go for excess and insanity. Tokarev commits the ultimate movie sin: it makes a Nicolas Cage revenge thriller simply boring. - Quickflix
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| Posted Jun 25, 2014
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3 Days to Kill (2014) |
3 Days to Kill is a frequently bizarre, never boring mash-up that doesn't come together yet perfectly encapsulates everything both good and bad about Luc Besson's recent output - Quickflix
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| Posted Jun 25, 2014
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Cutie and the Boxer (2013) |
Cutie and the Boxer is an often quiet, almost fragile piece of cinema that presents us with a spiky and unglamorous relationship, still full of love. It's a beautiful and humane documentary. - Quickflix
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| Posted May 14, 2014
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The Spectacular Now (2013) |
Every time the film teeters on the precipice of a generic plot point it satisfyingly withdraws into more subtle and nuanced territory that ultimately coalesces in a final act that is sentimental without being sugary. - Quickflix
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| Posted May 14, 2014
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The Color of Time (2012) |
The most pertinent take away from Tar is simply how influential the Terrence Malick aesthetic has become. A fascinating failure, it works better as a class experiment than as a watchable piece of cinema. - Quickflix
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| Posted May 14, 2014
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The Book Thief (2013) |
Ultimately not much more complex than the moment in which two children yell "I hate Hitler" across a lake, it imparts the message that Nazis are bad, books are good, and Geoffrey Rush would make a great dad even in WWII Germany - Quickflix
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| Posted May 05, 2014
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Homefront (2013) |
When Jason Statham stops to pat a kitten after MacGyvering up the bad guy's meth-lab to explode when the lights are switched on, you will either groan or giggle... if you are inclined towards the latter you may find quite a bit of enjoyment in Homefront. - Quickflix
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| Posted Apr 22, 2014
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Nurse (2014) |
Nurse is one of those modern, pre-fabricated cult movies like The Human Centipede or Sharknado, designed to be talked about amongst friends though never truly satisfying as a genuinely interesting piece of exploitation cinema. - Quickflix
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| Posted Mar 31, 2014
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Magic Magic (2013) |
If you're like me and enjoy horror films that make you feel odd, unsettled and generally unpleasant, then this is one of the best feel-bad experiences you could have. - Quickflix
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| Posted Mar 18, 2014
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Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) |
It's not gory, but relies on ceaseless weirdness with scores of jump scares and even an odd Back To The Future 2-style subplot that's undeveloped yet still adds to the overall sense of crazy. Love or hate it, this is pretty effective modern scare cinema. - Quickflix
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| Posted Mar 11, 2014
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Milo (2013) |
The idea of watching Ken Marino argue with a giant haemorrhoid monster that has just popped out of his butt seems like a crazy must-see moment. Unfortunately, it comes across as flat and uninspired. - Quickflix
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| Posted Mar 05, 2014
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Why Stop Now? (2012) |
It descends into a series of mawkish, over-melodramatic scenes that are entirely unearned and often unpleasantly noisy. It's never especially funny or dramatic and leaves the viewer feeling unsure of what the filmmakers were really trying to achieve. - Quickflix
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| Posted Mar 04, 2014
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Alan Partridge (2013) |
Unlike almost all other English TV comedy adaptations (Bean, Guest House Paradiso, The Inbetweeners) Alpha Papa fulfils the comedic promise of a much loved icon and results in one of the funniest films of the past twelve months. - Quickflix
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| Posted Feb 13, 2014
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Afternoon Delight (2013) |
Soloway teases rather than fully develops several different fascinating ideas in Afternoon Delight and while the flick doesn't ultimately cohere into a wholly satisfying single entity it's still an incredibly compelling experience. - Quickflix
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| Posted Feb 04, 2014
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Contracted (2013) |
Contracted is an efficiently icky, gross-out exercise in body horror that should please fans of this kind of thing. Still, the lack of any substance below the surface is ultimately too frustrating to ignore. - Quickflix
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| Posted Feb 04, 2014
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Reality (2012) |
Reality is a little too thin to be truly satisfying. However, Garrone's elegant visual palette and Arena's remarkable central performance shift a potentially trite message into a gloriously warm and novel experience. - Quickflix
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| Posted Jan 17, 2014
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The Frozen Ground (2013) |
The Frozen Ground is trying its best to act as a genuine tribute to the victims of a horrible crime. Unfortunately it falls short... Though still functioning as a solid genre piece, the chasm between intention and execution is embarrassingly apparent. - Quickflix
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| Posted Dec 10, 2013
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The English Teacher (2013) |
In a perfect encapsulation of form and content, The English Teacher tells a story of an artist who reluctantly adds a happy ending to his play while the movie itself forces a happy ending into a story that is laced with underlying sadness. - Quickflix
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| Posted Dec 03, 2013
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The Comedy (2012) |
As a portrait of a generation that's almost collectively sociopathic, this is frightening. For the right audience it's also damn funny. If I wasn't so emotionally stunted and able to enjoy things unironically I'd say I loved it. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 25, 2013
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A Few Best Men (2011) |
From most vantage points, A Few Best Men seems like a real movie. It has a "story," "characters," & even scenes that superficially appear to contain "jokes," but many sketches are ultimately just that; sketches that stop short of offering moments of wit. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 25, 2013
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John Dies at the End (2012) |
This is a gloriously gonzo trip packed with enough odd narrative tangents to fill half a dozen features. While not always successful, this energetic mash-up so genuinely wants to entertain that it's hard not to be won over by its barrage of absurdity. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 25, 2013
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Everybody Has a Plan (2012) |
Mortensen's pensive, Gothic brooding makes this an entirely watchable but ultimately unsuccessful piece of art-house swamp-noir. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 25, 2013
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Broken (2012) |
Shot with a lovely warm hue by Rob Hardy, Broken has enough great moments to make it worthwhile. Yet, the naggingly problematic final sequences leave a bitter taste. Do they undo a solid first hour? That's up to the individual viewer. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 25, 2013
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I Spit on Your Grave 2 (2013) |
With I Spit on Your Grave 2, director Steven R. Monroe returns and reveals that everything he seemingly did right in his first remake must have been accidental, for this horrifically misguided sequel is everything you pray a movie like this would not be. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 25, 2013
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War Witch (2012) |
...rich in anthropological specificity, Nguyen's film is unexpectedly sensitive and anchored by some amazing performances. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 25, 2013
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Aftershock (2012) |
With a nihilistic ending tacked on because hopelessness is seemingly cool, cheap special effects, clunky dialogue, a bizarre ten-second cameo from Selena Gomez, and some genuinely mediocre filmmaking, Aftershock is too amateurish to be truly awful. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 25, 2013
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Byzantium (2012) |
As the feature jumps backwards and forwards in time, and stories within stories coalesce, a striking tapestry is woven illustrating a world where eternal beings struggle with great change. Jordan's vampiric universe is bloody, adult, and melancholy. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 25, 2013
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Olympus Has Fallen (2013) |
Let's be upfront. Olympus Has Fallen is dumb, violent, overlong, jingoistic, racist, predictable, derivative, and whatever other adjectives those with no sense of B-grade fun wish to throw at it. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 25, 2013
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A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III (2012) |
It's rare to witness a film with such a profound disconnect between the director's intention and the final product. It's clear Coppola is striving for some kind of meaningful sublime statement but in reality he has created an interminably vacuous picture. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 25, 2013
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Antiviral (2012) |
With an obsession for close-ups of needles piercing skin, Antiviral leaves one with a OCD-style desire to wash ones hands... the overreaching success of the film lies in its believable depiction of a culture slowly rotting at the core. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 25, 2013
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21 and Over (2013) |
21 & Over is lifeless, forgettable, and bland. It's the type of film you can walk in on halfway through and not only figure out what is happening in 30 seconds, but become bored 30 seconds later. It's as close to fast food as cinema gets. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 25, 2013
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Elles (2011) |
Elles is undeniably challenging, courageously delving into some immensely messy issues surrounding sexuality and the ways men and women barter in relationships. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 25, 2013
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Dead Europe (2012) |
Director Tony Krawitz certainly can't be faulted for his ambition, yet, despite some magnificent technical credits, his cinematic adaptation of this controversial book ends up muddled and misguided. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 25, 2013
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House of My Father (2012) |
Fundamentally, it seems the big joke of Casa de Mi Padre is that it was produced at all, and as a weird Dadaist joke it is indeed satisfying. It's hard, however, to recommend a film that feels like a giant prank. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 25, 2013
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Red Dawn (2012) |
... intricately designed to not offend any subset of its audience. It's as impotent as Milius' original was ballsy, and despite a brief running time and passable action, it ends up a frustratingly pointless experience. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 25, 2013
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Butter (2011) |
The final result, however, is a complete oddity that is less an interesting political satire and more the piercing examination of butter carving competitions that no one ever asked for. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 25, 2013
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Sightseers (2012) |
Uncomfortably lurching from broad slapstick to dark and sharp gore - often in the space of a single scene - Sightseers adds up to a rather jumbled whole, despite the punchlines hitting as often as they miss. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 25, 2013
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Laurence Anyways (2012) |
It's bold, brash, and frequently successful, but also repetitive and ultimately arduous. There simply isn't enough story here to justify the inflated running time and, for many, Laurence Anyways will wear out its welcome. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 25, 2013
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Hitchcock (2012) |
There are a multitude of sordidly fascinating directions a biopic on Alfred Hitchcock could take. So, when Sacha Gervasi's flat and frothy Hitchcock concludes, it's inevitably frustrating to find this film takes such a conventional path. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 25, 2013
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A Haunted House (2013) |
A Haunted House is technically inept, monotonous, and stiflingly cheap-looking. How this cost $2.5 million dollars to produce is beyond me. - Quickflix
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| Posted Nov 25, 2013
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