Rick Groen, The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
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For 1,272 reviews, this critic has graded:
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44% higher than the average critic
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2% same as the average critic
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54% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 1 point higher than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Rick Groen'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
0
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Score distribution:
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Positive: 744 out of 1272
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Mixed: 364 out of 1272
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Negative: 164 out of 1272
1,272
movie reviews
- By critic score
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Rick Groen 75
Delightful as it often is, the picture suffers fom the same structural and thematic tidiness, even smugness, that it nominally opposes. -
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Rick Groen 75
An integrated work whose form clearly mirrors its content. Often, looking into that mirror is dreadful; but, often enough, it's also dreadfully revealing. -
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Rick Groen 75
This ranks among the highest concentrations of acting talent brought to any screen. But let's spare no praise for David Hare, whose superb script draws heavily on his playwrighting skills. -
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Rick Groen 75
The Canadian film "Atanarjuat" travelled back to the past to meet an ancient legend on its own ground and treated the tale realistically. Whale Rider whisks its legend up into the present, and then adds a touch of lyricism. -
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Rick Groen 75
Just when the movie seems set to soar, there's a drag factor -- it keeps getting weighed down, if not sunk, by an anchor of ponderousness. -
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Rick Groen 75
So this is a first-level, unironic fright film, the sort whose tongue is removed from its cheek, coated in gore, and pointed right at the audience. -
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Rick Groen 75
The movie's main attraction isn't hard to find. It's essentially a character study, but one where the nature of the study is as unique as the stature of the character. -
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Rick Groen 75
Happily, the climax races to our rescue... Beyond the grasp of most directors, this is tour de force stuff -- definitely meriting the price of admission and almost worth the three-year wait. -
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Rick Groen 75
Sylvia the movie competently shows us how; but, as always, it's Sylvia the writer who brilliantly tells us why -- then, now and tomorrow, her foreboding words are her finest legacy. -
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Rick Groen 75
In this journey, [Crowe] wears the uniform, the accent and the derring-do with consummate panache. Have him strike a muscular pose on the ship's prow, which Weir does more than once, and the manly sight puts that wussy DiCaprio to titanic shame. -
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Rick Groen 75
In the end, is In America slight in its sentimentality and manipulative in its moral? Sure, but that's the job of any fable or myth. -
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Rick Groen 75
It isn't an exciting work of art so much as a contemplative reverie on the nature of art -- and what's wrong with a smart essay that unfolds like a sweet dream? -
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Rick Groen 75
All the signs pointed to a major movie achievement...And it does -- sometimes, and dazzlingly so. But the dazzle doesn't add up to the sustained act of brilliance I'd been expecting. -
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Rick Groen 75
The story in Japanese Story grabs you precisely because it's so wonderfully hard to define. -
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Rick Groen 75
The lows never last too long - something invariably jumps out to recapture our interest or prompt a chuckle. -
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Rick Groen 75
Jeunet manages a terrific pass in an extended underwater sequence, but, beyond that, he runs out of ideas as we run out of patience. -
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Rick Groen 75
You'll be rewarded with a terrific finale. The twists here are the rare sort that seem both narratively surprising and emotionally engaging. -
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Rick Groen 75
You may well watch this film and not buy into a single frame. Me, I couldn't help myself. -
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Rick Groen 75
So much cinematic majesty perched precariously atop so little common sense. But, hell, maybe Quentin's right; relax, enjoy -- a castle with a shaky foundation is still quite a sight. -
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Rick Groen 75
Apparently, the faith that can move mountains is detectable in the microscopes that can track electrons. If so, the metaphoric is real and, to me, that thought is as scary as it is thrilling -- but what the bleep do I know? -
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Rick Groen 75
Thrown into exalted company, Zellweger easily holds her own in the film's most difficult role. -
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Rick Groen 75
A good film prevented from being a great film by an act of well-intentioned but misguided casting. -
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Rick Groen 75
Girotti is especially evocative, his face an alternating current that switches from emptiness to alarm and back again. -
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Rick Groen 75
After a solid start and a strong buildup through two acts, the movie fumbles the resolution. Ethical lines that were convincingly wavy suddenly straighten out, too quickly and too neatly. -
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Rick Groen 75
The older John Kerry, today's candidate, is conspicuous both by his absence (he's not interviewed here) and by the contrast between then and now, between the hero he was and the politician he's become. That contrast gives the film a nostalgic yet palpable sadness. -
