Rick Groen
Rick Groen's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
Globe and Mail
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Groundhog Day (1993) |
Dial your expectations to moderate, burrow in for the duration, and you won't be disappointed -- it ain't exactly springtime, but there are worse things than an amiable outing on a winter's night. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Dec 07, 2022
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Holy Motors (2012) |
Surreal and often disturbing and sometimes poignant and always mesmerizing. Mission accomplished. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Apr 28, 2020
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The Original Kings of Comedy (2000) |
Sorry, but the king has long been crowned -- these funny men are merely pretenders. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Aug 07, 2019
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Threads (1984) |
It's the accumulation of horrific detail that appalls and truly scares us - not just the putrefying bodies but the severing of civilization's entire network, modern man trapped in modernity's ashes. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Apr 17, 2019
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Merry Christmas (2005) |
Unfolding slowly, then building in momentum like the hymns themselves, this entire sequence is tremendously affecting. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Dec 14, 2014
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A Christmas Tale (2008) |
Despite occasional bouts of tedium over the epic course, a surprising buoyancy emerges: Desplechin's methods begin to inform, even brighten, the message. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Dec 06, 2013
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Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) |
A pop epiphany, marking that commercially creative point where the power of Hollywood meets the purity of myth. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Jul 29, 2013
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My Brother the Devil (2012) |
It's an impressive debut by a director blessed with a strong voice and a knack for bringing a specific cultural milieu to vibrant life, defying convention even while working within its strict limits. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Jun 28, 2013
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The Heat (2013) |
If this were funny, The Heat would add up to your average buddy-cop comedy. Except that it's not funny, at least not very and not often. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Jun 28, 2013
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Unfinished Song (2012) |
Vanessa Redgrave and Terence Stamp and those voices - their solos contain this picture like carved book-ends, vintage and lovely and still so profoundly of use. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Jun 28, 2013
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Frances Ha (2012) |
It's a tribute to Gerwig's performance, somehow both clumsy and elegant, that she wins us over despite ourselves, that we come to appreciate her aimlessness in a goal-oriented society ... - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Jun 21, 2013
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The Bling Ring (2013) |
This is consumerism run riot without a moral compass, not the redistribution of wealth, but its pure celebration. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Jun 21, 2013
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Which Way Is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington (2013) |
Sebastian Junger, who worked with Hetherington on the celebrated doc Restrepo, paints a biographical profile that often speaks eloquently to the unique nature both of his late friend and of war itself. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Jun 21, 2013
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Dirty Wars (2013) |
A remarkable documentary as important as it is compelling ... - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Jun 14, 2013
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Before Midnight (2013) |
Having created and aged into their characters, both Delpy and Hawke are superb at doing what professional actors find so difficult - not seeming to act. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Jun 07, 2013
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The Purge (2013) |
Fans, gear up for rock-em-sock-em action, yet don't be disappointed if much of the goonery seems a bit tepid and, dare I say, staged. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Jun 07, 2013
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Lore (2012) |
The young principals here, Malina and especially Rosendahl, are superb at conveying that premature hardening, their elastic minds pummelled by inelastic forces. - Globe and Mail
Read More
| Posted May 31, 2013
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Sightseers (2012) |
It's just not quite funny enough. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted May 31, 2013
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Pieta (2012) |
Fascination returns at the stirring climax, when the plot neatly twists and the film's apparently simple message turns deeper, and blacker. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted May 31, 2013
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Something in the Air (2012) |
A wispy picture, likeable certainly but lacking in crispness and clarity. - Globe and Mail
Read More
| Posted May 24, 2013
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The Hangover Part III (2013) |
Not just bad, but weirdly, fascinatingly bad. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted May 24, 2013
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Fight Like Soldiers, Die Like Children (2012) |
The politicians can posture, the columnists can prattle - the ex-general knows of what he speaks. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted May 17, 2013
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Greetings From Tim Buckley (2012) |
Badgley does a credible take on the signature falsetto that Jeff would later bring to his only album, Grace ... - Globe and Mail
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| Posted May 17, 2013
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The We and the I (2012) |
Credit Gondry, like Tocqueville before him, with at least re-examining tired clichés and scraping the rust off stereotypes. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted May 17, 2013
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The Great Gatsby (2013) |
It's a terrific adaptation that succeeds not only as a work of cinema but also, wonderfully, as proof of the novel's greatness. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted May 10, 2013
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I Declare War (2012) |
The obvious touchstones are Lord of the Flies and If, with a sprinkling of The Hunger Games added for some contemporary spice. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted May 10, 2013
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Room 237 (2012) |
[A] strange, frustrating, occasionally fascinating doc ... - Globe and Mail
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| Posted May 10, 2013
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Kon-Tiki (2012) |
Most everyone loves a ripping good sea yarn, so why doesn't Kon-Tiki rip? - Globe and Mail
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| Posted May 03, 2013
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The Company You Keep (2012) |
You can't help but applaud the effort, even as it falls short. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Apr 26, 2013
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The Big Wedding (2013) |
A shining example of a dull studio comedy. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Apr 26, 2013
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It's a Disaster (2012) |
The humour may not be wickedly black, but once in a while it's amusingly beige. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Apr 19, 2013
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Molly Maxwell (2012) |
A first feature that, much like its young protagonist, is sometimes awkward and stiff but always refreshingly candid. And honesty is a tonic to even the most tired genre. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Apr 19, 2013
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Oblivion (2013) |
Oblivion is an okay blockbuster, a multimillion-dollar exercise in competence. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Apr 19, 2013
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V for Vendetta (2006) |
This is just darkness played bright, a disposable object but hardly objectionable. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Apr 14, 2013
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42 (2013) |
In the hallowed frames of 42, the legend is front and centre and still inspiring. Too bad the more interesting man is nowhere to be seen. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Apr 12, 2013
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Trance (2013) |
The story draws us in even through the murk. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Apr 12, 2013
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A Place at the Table (2012) |
Hunger in America is not about a shortage of food but an abundance of poverty. This is where the spiral spins downward. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Apr 05, 2013
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Love, Marilyn (2012) |
Remove the comma from the title and Love, Marilyn plays like the command it is. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Apr 05, 2013
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Ginger & Rosa (2012) |
Coming from anyone else, Ginger & Rosa would be a sensitive if predictable coming-of-age tale set in the mists of the distant past. But coming from writer-director Sally Potter, it's a major surprise. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Mar 29, 2013
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Spring Breakers (2012) |
Neon bright and all raw energy, Spring Breakers is a pulsating paradox of a movie, both a tangerine dream and a cultural reality check, a pop artifact that simultaneously exploits and explores the shallowness of pop artifacts. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Mar 29, 2013
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Beyond the Hills (2012) |
If you long for the bleak intelligence of an Ingmar Bergman film, where humankind is deeply flawed and God is indifferently silent and the landscape is cloaked in perpetual winter, then Beyond the Hills promises to be your cup of despair. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Mar 29, 2013
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Admission (2013) |
Some films are electric - Admission settles for alternating current. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Mar 22, 2013
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Yossi (2012) |
Yossi is an early spring breeze of a film - too delicate to be substantial but definitely holding the promise of warmth. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Mar 22, 2013
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The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013) |
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone isn't. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Mar 15, 2013
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Greenwich Village: Music That Defined a Generation (2012) |
Greenwich Village: Music That Defined a Generation behaves altogether too much like the generation that got defined - yep, its starts out energetic and fresh only to age into tedious self-importance. - Globe and Mail
Read More
| Posted Mar 08, 2013
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Cloudburst (2011) |
It's a delight to see Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker, superb talents and Oscar winners both, share almost every frame of Cloudburst. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Mar 08, 2013
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Dead Man Down (2013) |
Yep, there's a whole lot going on here, but this is one of those plot-heavy scripts that carries its weight with confidence - the intricate twists don't cheat. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Mar 08, 2013
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21 and Over (2013) |
This is comedy on a familiar train where every stop is reassuringly predictable. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Mar 01, 2013
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Stoker (2013) |
Talent behind the camera, talent in front, and yet nothing worth watching. What happened? - Globe and Mail
Read More
| Posted Mar 01, 2013
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The Gatekeepers (2012) |
As a political testament, the result is revealing and important. - Globe and Mail
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| Posted Mar 01, 2013
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