John Hartl, Film.com
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For 155 reviews, this critic has graded:
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36% higher than the average critic
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5% same as the average critic
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59% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 0.9 points higher than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
John Hartl's Scores
- Movies
| Average review score: | 60 |
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| Highest review score: |
Critic Score
100
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| Lowest review score: |
Critic Score
10
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Score distribution:
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Positive: 74 out of 155
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Mixed: 57 out of 155
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Negative: 24 out of 155
155
movie reviews
- By critic score
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John Hartl 100
A giddy delight, with Michael Douglas delivering what may be the most relaxed and inventive performance of his career, and Tobey Maguire and Robert Downey Jr. trailing not far behind. -
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John Hartl 100
Scathingly hilarious...To Die For could be the "Dr. Strangelove" of its genre, a movie that puts even John Waters' somewhat similar "Serial Mom" in the shade. -
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John Hartl 100
The other key part is Schindler's Jewish accountant, played with self-effacing brilliance by Ben Kingsley, who gives the movie just the touch of warmth and sanity it needs. -
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John Hartl 100
For all its occasional long-windedness and visual dazzle, Brazil may be the "Strangelove" of the 1980s. -
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John Hartl 100
For me, the experience was much like seeing Mike Nichols' "The Graduate" and George Lucas' "American Graffiti" before the hype machines kicked in. -
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John Hartl 90
Affliction could be their (Nolte, Coburn) finest couple of hours on film; they do seem to be father and son, rather than actors playing these roles. -
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John Hartl 90
L.A. Confidential is at the same time his (Hanson) most personal movie and Hollywood filmmaking at its best. -
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John Hartl 90
Practically perfect in its unpretentious way, MGM's Get Shorty is the kind of smart, witty, polished entertainment that restores one's faith in the studio system. -
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John Hartl 90
Sean Penn gives the most riveting, selfless performance of his career. -
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John Hartl 90
Feels like the first truly honest attempt to deal with the horrors of combat - and the terrible responsibility shared by all survivors. -
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John Hartl 90
He (Anderson) simply doesn't allow for dull moments, and his gifts for irony and showmanship are clearly appreciated by a collection of actors who have rarely been better. -
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John Hartl 90
There's a sense of ease and contentment to it that has never been so prominent in Allen's work before. -
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John Hartl 90
Perhaps the primary reason A Room With a View is so involving is that Ivory has cast the film perfectly, and given each of the actors ample room to breathe. Even the characters you're not supposed to like are allowed their moments of vulnerable humanity. -
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John Hartl 90
It's as wise and funny and revealing as anything ever created by Mike Nichols and Elaine May. -
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John Hartl 90
Quentin Tarantino's latest movie puts an epic spin on a favorite genre, taking it to time-tripping levels rarely tested by its forerunners. -
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John Hartl 90
In his finest, funniest, most poignant film to date, Tim Burton plays cinematic alchemist, turning drive-in schlock into movie gold. -
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John Hartl 90
In the hands of Minghella and his star, Matt Damon, Ripley has become a more complex character, in some ways more understandable and approachable, in other ways as enigmatic as ever. -
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John Hartl 90
This is an ambitious movie that attempts too much rather than too little. -
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John Hartl 90
The film has smarts, but what really makes it fascinating is its huge heart...and the film soars because of that. -
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John Hartl 80
The most popular entry in last year's Seattle International Film Festival family series. -
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John Hartl 80
There are some cheap shots, and there's an argument to be made about whether the film is sending up stereotypes or simply perpetuating them. But for every dubious moment, there are plenty that connect. -
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John Hartl 80
As a writer, LaBute is capable of creating long dialogue scenes that never seem stagey or artificial. As a director, he has the confidence to stay with those words. -
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John Hartl 80
The engine that drives Jerry Maguire is Cruise, giving the kind of performance that all but deconstructs his recent series of glib leading-man roles. -
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John Hartl 80
A chronicle of the exasperating circumstances that yield cinema gold -- or lead. It almost doesn't matter which; it's the process that counts here. -
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John Hartl 80
It's the survivors of this tragedy that must make peace with their fate, and the film finally rests with them. -
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John Hartl 80
Grass is often closer to the sobering tone of the PBS show than it is to the silly "Weed," with its stoned, barely literate potheads discussing the quality of their dope. -
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John Hartl 80
So meticulously acted that you feel you're reading the characters' minds. -
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John Hartl 80
(Thornton) does a remarkable job in all three categories, but what you're likely to remember most clearly is his performance. -
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John Hartl 80
The boy (Osment) has an uncanny ability to suggest Cole's secretive, haunted soul, and he seems to have inspired Willis to give perhaps his most self-effacing performance. -
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John Hartl 80
The script also happens to be quite literate and laceratingly funny, and Damon -- no big surprise here -- turns out to be the perfect actor to deliver Will's zingers. -
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John Hartl 80
All of it is vital and involving, and some of it is hilarious...I've rarely seen a group of people in a darkened theater react as viscerally as they do to Reservoir Dogs. -
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John Hartl 80
This long, sometimes hard-to-watch movie is a challenge, but it has authority and raw power. -
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John Hartl 80
If Unforgiven occasionally overstates its case, this is the best work Eastwood has done as a director since The Outlaw Josey Wales 16 years ago. -
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John Hartl 80
Altman lucked out when he cast a singer, Ronee Blakley, in a major role in "Nashville," but he has not been as fortunate here with Annie Ross and Lyle Lovett, who lack Blakley's soulful dramatic presence. -
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John Hartl 70
The story moves beyond the limitations of its setting, transforming itself into an affecting parable about the lengths to which parents will go to protect their children from trauma, cruelty and knowledge of evil. -
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John Hartl 70
A sweet, funny exercise in nostalgia, though it's also self-congratulatory and awfully calculating. -
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John Hartl 70
There's an almost natty precision about this picture that's so rare these days in American movies that it provides satisfaction in itself. -
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John Hartl 70
It's not a profound film, but it is heartfelt, and Burns has done his best to keep it clear and emotionally direct. -
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John Hartl 70
Warm and fuzzy and amusing enough to be slightly more than an innocuous baby-sitter for the kids. -
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John Hartl 70
(Morris) sees Leuchter's story as more personal, more about one individual's self-absorption and folly, than an indictment of a particular system. -
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John Hartl 70
For all the cynicism on the soundtrack and the occasional lapses in tone, this is a remarkably generous comedy. -
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John Hartl 70
Best of all is a Halloween party where the Falls are complimented on their "costume," then outed. -
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John Hartl 70
Before it finally twists itself into a pretzel in the third act, this paranoid thriller creates a scary mood and allows its leading actors to go all the way with it. -
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John Hartl 70
The darkly comic tone is often just right, and the casting occasionally pays off. -
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John Hartl 70
The graphic battles may grow repetitious toward the end, the final scenes are almost sadistically drawn out, and the script often lacks humor. But this movie moves. -
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John Hartl 70
Closer to "M*A*S*H" than "Dr. Strangelove," which in itself wouldn't be a bad thing. But for all its engaging qualities, Three Kings doesn't seem to know what kind of beast it is. -
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John Hartl 70
Norton's performance, which is every bit as varied as his Oscar-nominated work in Primal Fear, once more demonstrates that he's one of the most remarkable chameleons working in film. -
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John Hartl 70
So campy that it almost plays like a sendup of the series. It is to Alien what "The Bride of Frankenstein" was to other 1930s Frankenstein movies, and it even shares some of the same themes. -
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John Hartl 70
Even as you question the central premise, Brooks makes you want to buy into it. -
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John Hartl 70
This might have been a very good movie if it had lost about one of its three hours. -
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John Hartl 70
A movie that keeps you wondering about its characters' true feelings and motives long after you've left the theater. -
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John Hartl 60
Goes out of its way to suppress most natural dramatic conflict, so it's left to the actors to carry the day. -
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John Hartl 60
Entertaining as it often is, Outside Providence feels as if it were a collection of installments from an unusually raunchy television series. -
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John Hartl 60
It's a terrific showcase for Richard Gere, Shelley Long, Farrah Fawcett and a number of other actors who almost seemed to have been written off. -
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John Hartl 60
The evidence Herzog serves up is impossible to dismiss. -
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John Hartl 60
An OK debut effort, but like so many "Pulp Fiction" wannabes, it lacks freshness and energy. -
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John Hartl 60
Gitai, a veteran documentary director, refuses to find an easy resolution to the story, and that will frustrate as many people as it pleases. -
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John Hartl 60
Somewhere around the beginning of Hour Two, the narrative loses momentum, and Pino Donaggio's molasses-thick score begins to drag everything down with it. The ending also lacks the surprise twist that seems to be promised . -
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John Hartl 60
Livingston is especially good at capturing Peter's passive rebelliousness, which suggests the suddenly uncooperative worker who defies employer logic in Herman Melville's "Bartleby." -
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John Hartl 60
All the ingredients are here for both a smashing courtroom drama and a legitimate tearjerker, but the film ultimately doesn't have the technique or the heart to deliver either. -
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John Hartl 60
Unfailingly energetic, 10 Things is like a puppy that can't stop wagging its tail, begging for attention...Even more than "Cruel Intentions," this movie plays like an awkward high-school production of a classic. -
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John Hartl 60
Has its clunky and wince-worthy moments, it does explore some new territory, and there are moments when it's quite fresh and moving. -
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John Hartl 50
The ride in this road movie isn't always as smooth as it could be, but even the bumps have some charm. -
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John Hartl 50
Compared to such current television shows as ''Sex and the City" and ''Action," this menage-a-trois tale seems downright tame. -
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John Hartl 50
You might not want to pay top dollar for The Skulls, but at the right price, it delivers. -
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John Hartl 50
What rescues the movie, time and again, is the strength of Jones' and Jackson's performances. -
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John Hartl 50
Crowe gives the kind of thoughtful performance that suggests what Mystery, Alaska could have been if it had stayed in focus. -
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John Hartl 50
Not a conventional love story, and perhaps it's not a love story at all. After more than two hours, you're left wondering what it is. -
