Steve Persall, Tampa Bay Times
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For 385 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 67% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 31% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 6.8 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Steve Persall's Scores

  • Movies
Average review score: 66
Highest review score:
Incendies
Critic Score 100
Lowest review score:
The Watch
Critic Score 0
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 257 out of 385
  2. Mixed: 82 out of 385
  3. Negative: 46 out of 385
385 movie reviews
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    • Metascore: 70
    • Steve Persall 83
    Cedar Rapids
    This movie embraces its inner yokel.
    • Metascore: 69
    • Steve Persall 83
    The Avengers
    The Avengers is as brawny and lamebrainy as any comic book movie deserves to be, capped by a 40-minute assault pummeling senses as few action sequences ever have.
    • Metascore: 69
    • Steve Persall 83
    Chronicle
    Chronicle is so clever about the absurd, and so much fun to watch, that I'm almost disappointed the ending doesn't leave room for a sequel.
    • Metascore: 69
    • Steve Persall 83
    21 Jump Street
    This movie embraces everything that should make it lousy, calling out itself for aping the source's bad ideas then flipping the script with meta precision.
    • Metascore: 68
    • Steve Persall 91
    Potiche
    The plot is a piffle but Ozon's presentation is gloriously romantic.
    • Metascore: 68
    • Steve Persall 100
    The Adventures of Tintin
    In a movie year of more than two dozen animated films, this and "Rango" tower over all others. Welcome to America, Tintin. It's great getting to know you.
    • Metascore: 68
    • Steve Persall 91
    The Place Beyond the Pines
    It's a story languorously told in three chapters, the first two in the late 1980s and the third 15 years later. Each could be a movie unto themselves. Together they prove Cianfrance to be an effectively unobtrusive storyteller, crafting without artifice what book critics would call a page turner.
    • Metascore: 67
    • Steve Persall 91
    Robot and Frank
    Robot & Frank occasionally strains for emotion and stretches credulity, even for such fantasy circumstances. But it has two hearts - one human, one not - in the right place, and intelligence that is anything but artificial.
    • Metascore: 67
    • Steve Persall 83
    A Late Quartet
    How many surprises and peaks can Walken possibly have left, after so many movies and memorable roles? Well, there's this one.
    • Metascore: 67
    • Steve Persall 91
    Kung Fu Panda 2
    Part two is even more gorgeous to behold, and deeper in substance.
    • Metascore: 67
    • Steve Persall 83
    The Ides of March
    As a director, Clooney makes his most straightforward movie yet, although it's static at times due to the stage origins of Willimon's material.
    • Metascore: 67
    • Steve Persall 83
    The Hunger Games
    Leaner than "Harry Potter's" adventures, meaner than the "Twilight" saga, The Hunger Games lives up to its source if not entirely the hype.
    • Metascore: 67
    • Steve Persall 100
    The Perks of Being a Wallflower
    I adore The Perks of Being a Wallflower for its honest, unsentimental feel, which gets stretched a bit in the revelatory finale, but by then I didn't mind.
    • Metascore: 67
    • Steve Persall 91
    The Sapphires
    A feel-good movie in the most positive meaning of that term, thanks to the Motown music and O'Dowd's cheeky charm.
    • Metascore: 66
    • Steve Persall 83
    Another Earth
    Another Earth is stealthily effective, with silences often counting more than words.
    • Metascore: 66
    • Steve Persall 83
    Premium Rush
    Working in tandem they (Gordon-Levitt/Shannon) make Premium Rush a movie that's off the chain, as the kids say.
    • Metascore: 66
    • Steve Persall 91
    Splice
    It's a refreshing change from run-of-the-kill horror. Nothing in Splice feels done merely for the moment -- it's to creep you out later.
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    • Metascore: 66
    • Steve Persall 83
    The Way Back
    This is old-school monumental filmmaking, without CGI tricks or many soundstage comforts for a dedicated cast. David Lean would probably approve.
    • Metascore: 65
    • Steve Persall 83
    The Debt
    Christensen plays him with Lecter-like intensity; the unsettling calmness of someone capable of anything.
    • Metascore: 65
    • Steve Persall 83
    The Runaways
    The Runaways isn't just about rock 'n' roll; it IS rock 'n' roll, as loud, sexy, sometimes sloppy and ultimately exhilarating as the music can be.
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    • Metascore: 65
    • Steve Persall 83
    My Week with Marilyn
    This is a slight movie, but it's Williams' all the way (possibly to an Oscar nod) while the rest of the cast supports her well.
    • Metascore: 65
    • Steve Persall 100
    I Love You Phillip Morris
    Think "Catch Me If You Can" mashed up with "Brokeback Mountain" if Mel Brooks directed and you'll get the idea.
    • Metascore: 65
    • Steve Persall 83
    Made in Dagenham
    When she's (Hawkins) on camera, I'd swear the screen bends into a smile.
    • Metascore: 65
    • Steve Persall 91
    Prometheus
    Scott briskly blends the high-minded stuff with impressive boo-and-goo sequences, ratcheting tension in tight spots and dark caverns.
    • Metascore: 64
    • Steve Persall 83
    The Way
    They're an entertaining foursome, and Estevez guides them through lovely scenery, clever sight gags and personal confessions with leisurely skill.
    • Metascore: 64
    • Steve Persall 83
    Dolphin Tale
    Director Charles Martin Smith presents the kind of movie that gives squeaky-clean a good name.
    • Metascore: 64
    • Steve Persall 100
    A Better Life
    The weight of Carlos' world shows on his rugged face, even with rare half-smiles. This is a masterfully understated performance that should be remembered during awards season.
    • Metascore: 64
    • Steve Persall 83
    The Other Guys
    This summer's funniest movie.
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    • Metascore: 63
    • Steve Persall 83
    Friends with Benefits
    It works because Timberlake and Kunis are totally in control of their damaged characters without winking at the audience, as if to say: "Aren't we cute, behaving so naughty?" Their sex is amusingly awkward, and their repressed longings more so. It's the kind of chemistry that comes along once in a generation.
    • Metascore: 63
    • Steve Persall 83
    Spring Breakers
    Tampa Bay wears fringe nihilism well, including wet-fever dreams of trigger-happy angels floating on cannabis clouds and dusted with cocaine like beignets waiting to be licked clean. Or drug gangstas sporting cornrows and gold-grill teeth, living large and thinking three-ways. Film as a fetish tool, that's what Spring Breakers is all about, y'all.
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