Simon Abrams
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Furies (2023) |
Dynamic action filmmaking does a lot of heavy lifting in the otherwise lumpy Vietnamese beat-em-up “Furies,” a barely related prequel to the 2019 martial arts knockout “Furie.” - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Mar 23, 2023
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Full River Red (2023) |
A few snappy comedy routines and a perpetually escalating mystery plot ensure that Zhang’s latest never slows down nor retraces its steps long enough to feel monotonous. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Mar 17, 2023
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Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023) |
It’s schtickier and less assured than the first “Shazam!” but these leftovers still reheat well enough. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Mar 17, 2023
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Tetris (2023) |
“Tetris” skims the surface of a genuinely curious “true story” thriller, which too often plays out like a Disney-ified version of “The Social Network.” - TheWrap
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| Posted Mar 16, 2023
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Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam (2023) |
It’s a pleasure to watch such a poised and formally ambitious filmmaker simultaneously recall other formative modernists—Federico Fellini and Tsai Ming-liang both came to mind. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Feb 24, 2023
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Hidden Blade (2023) |
Gorgeous and empty. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Feb 18, 2023
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Pacifiction (2022) |
De Roller’s banal and unrevealing behavior also eventually reflects his creators’ shallowness. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Feb 18, 2023
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She Came to Me (2023) |
Good intentions only go so far, and “She Came to Me” often looks as frazzled and unfortunate as its nervous characters. - TheWrap
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| Posted Feb 16, 2023
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In Fabric (2018) |
Strickland frequently tests viewers' patience, but his off-putting sensibility is powerful enough to make In Fabric as mesmerizing as its subject: salesmanship as a sinister, inescapable form of hypnosis. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Feb 15, 2023
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Daughter (2022) |
While this drama within the drama recalls “Dogtooth,” an acknowledged influence, nothing else about “Daughter” feels so distinctive. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Feb 10, 2023
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Godland (2022) |
There’s just enough room for viewers to wander about Godland and maybe even get lost in its pregnant pauses thanks to Maria von Hausswolff’s stunning cinematography. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Feb 03, 2023
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Pathaan (2023) |
An amateurish Indian super-spy thriller that’s never as well-executed as it is conceptually goofy and politically dubious. - TheWrap
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| Posted Jan 29, 2023
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New Gods: Yang Jian (2022) |
While the first hour of “New Gods: Yang Jian” is about as attractive as it is surreal, the back half only works if you care about the destinies of its undistinguished protagonists. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Jan 25, 2023
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The Wandering Earth II (2023) |
A sturdy prequel. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Jan 25, 2023
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The Deepest Breath (2023) |
McGann’s keen eye for experiential detail really puts “The Deepest Breath” over the top and effectively justifies the director’s reframing of Zecchini and Keenan’s shared story as a tragic adventure. - TheWrap
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| Posted Jan 22, 2023
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That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond (2022) |
Mainly feels underwhelming because its creators don’t seem to know how to translate their show’s ever-mutating high-concept appeal into a feature-length movie. - TheWrap
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| Posted Jan 19, 2023
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Sick (2022) |
Sick is exactly what it looks like, and a lot of mean-spirited fun at that. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Jan 13, 2023
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The Apology (2022) |
A grim and mostly satisfying locked-room thriller. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Dec 16, 2022
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The Sparring Partner (2022) |
A pulpy and engrossing courtroom thriller. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Dec 09, 2022
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Christmas Bloody Christmas (2022) |
Like Begos’ last couple of movies, Christmas Bloody Christmas plays out like a fuzzy, half-remembered recreation of the psychotronic cinema of Begos’ adolescence. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Dec 09, 2022
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Four Samosas (2022) |
There's simultaneously too much and not enough Wes Anderson in the Indian-American comedy Four Samosas, a warm-but-flat heist pic. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Dec 02, 2022
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The Quintessential Quintuplets Movie (2022) |
Has all of the melodramatic revelations and puppy-love intrigue of the preceding anime series, based on Negi Haruba’s manga comics. - TheWrap
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| Posted Dec 01, 2022
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Tantura (2022) |
Schwarz does a fine job of selectively expanding the scope of Katz’s story from a highly subjective he-said/they-said dispute into a bigger story about cultural amnesia. - TheWrap
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| Posted Nov 28, 2022
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Strange World (2022) |
Strange World breezes through a checklist of formulaic plot points and canned emotional revelations with enough style and sensitivity to make it work. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Nov 23, 2022
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Leonor Will Never Die (2022) |
The ending feels like a capitulation to the meta-limits of Escobar’s story. Leonor says goodbye on her own terms, but it doesn’t feel like a meaningful conclusion to her work or her life, just another rote tribute to the magic of the movies. - TheWrap
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| Posted Nov 23, 2022
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Blood Relatives (2022) |
Segan’s efforts to be both sensitive and knowing are commendable, even if the rest of the movie sometimes isn’t. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Nov 22, 2022
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Nocebo (2022) |
A dreadful psychological/supernatural horror pic about a fashion designer who can’t get her mind around a recent trauma. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Nov 04, 2022
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Meet Me in the Bathroom (2022) |
A short-sighted, soundbite-intensive remembrance of the New York City post-punk/indie pop rock scene of the early aughts. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Nov 04, 2022
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One Piece Film Red (2022) |
Ado and Nakata’s music does, however, make Uta sound like a real pop star, as opposed to the polished but underwhelming songs used in this year’s other musically-themed anime features, like “Belle” or “Inu-Oh.” - TheWrap
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| Posted Nov 04, 2022
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The Lair (2022) |
The Lair checks off some genre fans’ qualitative boxes, thanks in part to co-writer/director Neil Marshall’s knack for top-this violence, post-spaghetti-western war movie repartee, and general eye for action filmmaking. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Oct 28, 2022
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Slayers (2022) |
Slayers is more of a scattershot airing of grievances than a horror-themed media spoof. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Oct 21, 2022
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The Loneliest Boy in the World (2022) |
The gags tend to be so broad and lazy that it’s hard to imagine how this movie’s retro-bait sensibility will appeal to anyone other than the targets of this poisoned-apple crowdpleaser’s toothless criticism. - TheWrap
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| Posted Oct 10, 2022
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Project Wolf Hunting (2022) |
[A] by-the-numbers body count flick that too often looks like an overproduced video game. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Oct 07, 2022
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Hellraiser (2022) |
[Bruckner's Hellraiser] evokes Barker’s original adaptation in the same way a good cover song recalls its source material: with love, intelligence, and an inevitably crushing sort of redundancy. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Oct 07, 2022
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Vesper (2022) |
Vesper commands viewers’ attention because of its exceptionally well-realized costume, sound, and production design, as well as some well-utilized, Cronenberg-icky creature and special effects. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Sep 30, 2022
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Spirit Halloween: The Movie (2022) |
There’s nothing wrong with the idea of setting an all-ages haunted house-style chase movie in a corny bulk retail store. The main thing holding back “Spirit Halloween: The Movie” is that its young stars never get to convincingly act their age. - TheWrap
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| Posted Sep 28, 2022
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Drifting Home (2022) |
The conception of Drifting Home is so stunted that its only memorable thing is its untapped potential. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Sep 16, 2022
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Confess, Fletch (2022) |
An average scene in “Confess, Fletch” features several different kinds of humor, including callbacks, running jokes, physical comedy, and character-driven wordplay, all of which either flatter the actors or show off how well they work with their co-stars. - TheWrap
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| Posted Sep 14, 2022
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Good Night Oppy (2022) |
Fils to make the most of his primary pieces of dramatic evidence, making it even harder for viewers to share his interview subjects’ well-earned excitement. - TheWrap
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| Posted Sep 13, 2022
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Brahmāstra Part One: Shiva (2022) |
Neither the action scenes nor the musical numbers stand out, and none of the characters or their performers transcend their expected roles. - TheWrap
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| Posted Sep 09, 2022
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Medieval (2022) |
This crash course in Czech history is often compelling for its intricate details, but rarely for its characterizations, dialogue, or dramatic tension. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Sep 09, 2022
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Barbarian (2022) |
Cregger keeps developing his twisty plot well after he sets everything up. Messing with viewers seems to be his guiding dramatic principal, from playful camerawork to unpredictable plot twists. Bless ‘im. - TheWrap
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| Posted Sep 08, 2022
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Burial (2022) |
Burial has a hard enough core, both in terms of its central premise and its pulpy tropes, that for about 30 minutes, it almost works as a decent B-movie, right before it unceremoniously falls apart. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Sep 02, 2022
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Who Invited Them (2022) |
A staid home invasion thriller about a timid married couple who are bullied by two flirtatious strangers. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Sep 01, 2022
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Alienoid (2022) |
The amazing thing is, as dorky and overstuffed as the plot tends to be—Alienoid is also often fast enough to keep pressing forward. What a rush; what a headache. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Aug 26, 2022
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Emergency Declaration (2021) |
A lumbering and desperate ode to our common humanity that also tries to scare and thrill viewers into submission. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Aug 12, 2022
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INU-OH (2021) |
Yuasa's adaptation of Furukawa’s book is half-thrilling and half-underwhelming. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Aug 12, 2022
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Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero (2022) |
Fans of both the “Dragon Ball” and “Dragon Ball Z” anime will probably be the ideal audience, but open-minded viewers might also enjoy “Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero,” given its playful dialogue and dynamic fight scenes. - TheWrap
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| Posted Aug 11, 2022
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Blue Island (2022) |
Blue Island features a lot of great footage, but a lot of it either doesn’t hang together or flow seamlessly from one episodic scene to the next. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Jul 29, 2022
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Hypochondriac (2022) |
A rather good psychodrama about repressed childhood trauma that’s also an underwhelming horror movie about mental illness. - RogerEbert.com
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| Posted Jul 29, 2022
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