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FlickFilosopher.com

film criticism by maryann johanson | handcrafted since 1997

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ET The Extra-Terrestrial

Abominable movie review: a bit of a snow job

Sun, Oct 13, 2019
no comments yet

Lovely animation and gentle, kid-pitched life lessons can’t quite overcome the familiar feel of this E.T. retread, nor the forced sense of wonder that is more convenient crutch than anything organic.

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Us movie review: a new kind of horror for a newly precarious world

Wed, Mar 20, 2019
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An anxious moan, a looming disquiet of a reckoning coming for America. This is horror as weird, funny, damning, and more disconcerting the more you think about it, finding fear right in front of us.

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Bumblebee movie review: floats like a butterfly…

Wed, Dec 19, 2018
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Nostalgic without being mindlessly retro; a sweet, heartfelt girl-and-her-alien-robot-car action-adventure buddy dramedy that hits all the right notes. Hailee Steinfeld is terrific, and there’s not a whiff of Michael Bay to be found.

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The Predator movie review: pointless retro junk

Thu, Sep 13, 2018
20 comments

Garbage. A bad excuse for a movie, even for the pulpy disposable popcorn nonsense it wants to be. Incoherent and illogical, cheap and shoddy. Wannabe sci-fi action horror that can’t pull off any of it.

| 20 Comments

The Post movie review: printing truth to power

Fri, Dec 29, 2017
2 comments

Crackles with life and energy, depicting a grand adventure in journalism from almost half a century ago with vigor, suspense, and an urgent relevance for today.

| 2 Comments

It movie review: a series of unfortunate events

Fri, Sep 08, 2017
248 comments

The Goonies, Stand by Me, and Poltergeist went into a blender with a pinch of E.T. and John Hughes to smush into a mess of retro 80s mush.

| 248 Comments

Monster Trucks movie review: what a car-tastrophe

Wed, Jan 04, 2017
24 comments

What if “monster trucks” actually meant — wait for it — that there were monsters in the trucks? From an idea by a four-year-old (really), and it shows.

| 24 Comments

Pete’s Dragon movie review: big friendly dragon

Mon, Aug 08, 2016
11 comments

More like a pleasant walk in a redwood forest with a boy and his dragon than a rollicking adventure, but its serenity and warm heart are infectious.

| 11 Comments

The BFG movie review: that sense of wonder where it all went wrong

Thu, Jun 30, 2016
3 comments

Fantasy meandering twists into something more action-oriented, and there’s little magic in it. This is not what we expect from a master cinematic fantasist.

| 3 Comments

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows movie review: shell schlock

Mon, May 30, 2016
87 comments

Leaden and witless, though it obviously believes there is humor in its loud, chaotic juvenility. It would be an insult to cartoons to call this cartoonish.

| 87 Comments
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