Rob Salem
Rob Salem's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
Toronto Star
Toronto Star TV critic.
http://www.thestar.com
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Broken City (2013) |
Did these people - or even these people's people - not bother to read the script first? - Toronto Star
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| Posted Jan 20, 2013
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Monsters, Inc. (2001) |
The movie itself stands up well, even from an adult, two-dimensional perspective. - Toronto Star
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| Posted Dec 18, 2012
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Sushi Girl (2012) |
We can't all be Quentin Tarantino, but that doesn't stop some people from trying. - Toronto Star
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| Posted Dec 06, 2012
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Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet (2012) |
What gets you is the smile, which first lights up his face, and then the room, reflected by everyone else who is in it. - Toronto Star
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| Posted Dec 06, 2012
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The Suicide Shop (2012) |
The animation is great, in its stark, mostly monochromatic way, but the music merely serviceable. - Toronto Star
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| Posted Nov 29, 2012
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Irvine Welsh's Ecstasy (2011) |
Ecstasy is to ecstasy what Trainspotting was to heroin. Different times, different drugs, but the Scotland-set story of addiction and redemption is pretty much the same. - Toronto Star
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| Posted Nov 22, 2012
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Ping Pong (2012) |
A charming and even inspirational doc that follows eight medal-winning veterans of the sport on their way to and through the 15th annual World over-80s Table Tennis Championship. - Toronto Star
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| Posted Nov 22, 2012
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MacGruber (2010) |
Another one of those flicks where anything worth laughing at is contained in the commercials. - Toronto Star
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| Posted May 20, 2010
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Shrek Forever After (2010) |
It now requires nothing less than the retroactive destruction of Shrek(TM)s idyllic family life to inject some necessary conflict back into the franchise. If you can(TM)t fix something that isn(TM)t broke, your only recourse is to break it. - Toronto Star
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| Posted May 20, 2010
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Terminator Salvation (2009) |
How could such a great idea go so horribly, horribly wrong? - Toronto Star
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| Posted May 20, 2009
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JCVD (2008) |
The film's odd conceit is its primary strength, with Van Damme in a nakedly honest, bravely candid turn that for the first time in his career can be commended as 'acting'. - Toronto Star
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| Posted Nov 14, 2008
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Max Payne (2008) |
Maybe somebody decided the movie was already so convoluted and leaden that throwing in a few swooping, screeching valkyries could only help. They do not. - Toronto Star
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| Posted Oct 17, 2008
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Ghost Town (2008) |
Through it all there always shone this subtle, gleeful naughty schoolboy charm, not quite a full-on wink at the audience, but a tacit acknowledgement that sometimes even total jerks can exhibit an endearing charm. - Toronto Star
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| Posted Sep 19, 2008
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Balls of Fury (2007) |
The movie's big lug of a lead, Dan Fogler...could be dismissed as a poor man's Jack Black. - Toronto Star
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| Posted Aug 29, 2007
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War (2007) |
All-the-way-through good, from explosive start to bloody finish, without so much as a momentary lag in the action or the story. - Toronto Star
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| Posted Aug 24, 2007
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Talk to Me (2007) |
The characters are brought to vivid life with remarkably compelling performances by two of the screen's most versatile actors: Don Cheadle as the freewheeling Greene; and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Hughes, the aggressively ambitious executive. - Toronto Star
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| Posted Jul 27, 2007
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Evening (2007) |
Evening's visual period splendour, its vivid characterizations and their comfortably clichd relationships somehow draw us in and make us care. - Toronto Star
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| Posted Jun 29, 2007
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Live Free or Die Hard (2007) |
Live Free or Die Hard is indeed a worthy successor to the original -- not perhaps quite as good, but close. - Toronto Star
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| Posted Jun 27, 2007
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1408 (2007) |
Even as haunted hotel King movies go, 1408 is certainly no Shining. Not even the TV-movie version. - Toronto Star
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| Posted Jun 22, 2007
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Golden Door (2006) |
I've got to be honest here. In the interest of full disclosure, I must confess that I was not entirely awake all the way through. - Toronto Star
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| Posted Jun 15, 2007
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Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) |
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is a vast and significant improvement -- if not quite "fantastic," then the next best thing: It does not suck. - Toronto Star
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| Posted Jun 15, 2007
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Surf's Up (2007) |
Surf's Up is quite surprisingly good, going for the subtle chuckle where Happy Feet opted for show-stopping spectacle. - Toronto Star
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| Posted Jun 08, 2007
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Severance (2006) |
Like Shaun of the Dead, the movie enthusiastically embraces all the grotesque clichés we love and have come to expect from the form -- turning several on their ear. - Toronto Star
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| Posted Jun 01, 2007
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Scenes of a Sexual Nature (2006) |
Each vignette is wittily worded by neophyte TV writer Aschlin Ditta, and subtly performed by a large ensemble cast that contains a few fairly recognizable surprises. - Toronto Star
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| Posted May 25, 2007
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Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) |
Relentlessly dense and unfathomable; Depp, the heart and soul of the series, doesn't even show up till several reels in. - Toronto Star
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| Posted May 24, 2007
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Shrek the Third (2007) |
What the characters and satirical situations may lack this time out in a certain fresh vitality, they more than compensate for with a warm, laid-back familiarity ... and the occasional, out-of-left-fjord surprise. - Toronto Star
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| Posted May 18, 2007
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Trailer Park Boys: The Movie (2006) |
A faithful and funny, entirely scripted, feature-length film version of the videotaped and improvised mockumentary series. - Toronto Star
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| Posted Oct 06, 2006
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