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FlickFilosopher.com

film criticism by maryann johanson | handcrafted since 1997

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Mark Strong

Shazam! movie review: unmarvelous

Tue, Apr 02, 2019
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Nothing matters in this literal adolescent-male power fantasy, a cheesy mishmash of nonsense and low stakes. Anyone who needs at least a bit of meat in their superhero tales will be disappointed.

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Miss Sloane movie review: what a piece of work is she

Mon, Dec 05, 2016
1 comment

A hugely gripping thriller about politics and money that offers a grim object lesson: Are progressives and liberals gonna have to start fighting dirty?

| 1 Comment

Approaching the Unknown movie review: no life on the way to Mars

Tue, Jun 07, 2016
4 comments

I wish I could figure out what this would-be trippy space odyssey wants to say. I was hoping for sci-fi philosophy. I got nothing but lifeless nonsense.

| 4 Comments

Grimsby (aka The Brothers Grimsby) movie review: grim indeed

Fri, Mar 04, 2016
9 comments

A soul-crushing experience: lazy, cheap, lurid, and stupid. Painfully unfunny and pointless. Sacha Baron Cohen now panders to those he once rightly mocked.

| 9 Comments

Kingsman: The Secret Service movie review: forgets its manners

Fri, Jan 30, 2015
414 comments

I cannot recall a film that left me with such a sour taste in my mouth by its end. Does the movie deliberately defy itself with obnoxious intent?

| 414 Comments

Before I Go to Sleep movie review: memento worry

Fri, Sep 05, 2014
5 comments

When it finally collapses under the weight of its own preposterousness, this would-be elegant thriller becomes a cheap retrograde melodrama.

| 5 Comments

fun stuff from FlickFilosopher stats week of Jan 19-25 2013

Sat, Jan 26, 2013
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Actual unretouched phrases that people plugged into search engines this week that led them to this site (with some commentary from me)…

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John Carter (review)

Tue, Mar 06, 2012
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This dreary Disneyfied inconsequence features all the bigotries of century-old pulp fiction and none of the romance, neither the sexual nor the adventurous kind…

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Black Gold (aka Day of the Falcon) (review)

Wed, Feb 29, 2012
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There’s a lot of golden-age Hollywood in this tale of the earliest days, in the 1930s, of the Arab oil kingdoms. Some of it is just plain fun; some of it is cornball old-fashioned…

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Arrietty (aka The Secret World of Arrietty) (review)

Sat, Feb 18, 2012
2 comments

While perfectly pleasant and an entirely suitable option for anyone looking to take small children to the movies, it is a disappointingly minor entry in the annals of Studio Ghibli…

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