- Critic Score
- Most active
- Publication
- Most clicked
-
80An intriguing, visually startling murder mystery that showcases the virtuosity of Samuel L. Jackson.
-
75To watch Samuel L. Jackson in the role is to realize again what a gifted actor he is, how skilled at finding the right way to play a character who, in other hands, might be unplayable.
-
75Holds less water as a mystery because its plot holes - and choppy pacing - make it seem as disconnected from reality as its hero. But Jackson is so frighteningly effective, and affecting, as Romulus that you're sucked in anyway.
-
75So suggestively atmospheric is Amelia Vincent's cinematography and Robin Standefer's art direction that mood -- and of course Jackson's performance -- sustains the movie.
-
70If anyone can sell the idea of ... some psycho "Sherlock Holmes," it's Samuel L. Jackson.
-
67There is pleasure in giving oneself up to the gusty swirls of the film's imagery, and especially to the handsome grandeur of its star.
-
67Never quite shakes itself free of the tired cliche that street people are quirky, sometimes cute, and somehow privy to a spiritual purity lost to us social folk.
-
63The movie loses its magic by the time the solution is revealed.
-
63The details of the story, crucial in a picture that's at least partly a mystery, remain a tangled blur.
-
60Overall it's a frustratingly uneven movie, delicate at one moment and bluntly obvious the next.
-
60Deserves an A for ambition, but the final product is a pastiche of too many predecessors.
-
60Works as everything but a mystery, yet it is intriguing in a number of ways. And the ending is as resolute as you might have hoped for. It lets Romulus and the movie retain their integrity.
-
50More psychological realism and less showy cinema would have made this offbeat melodrama more memorable.
-
50Offers a dazzling showcase for Samuel L. Jackson.
-
50Dramatically speaking, The Caveman's Valentine is a dead end.
-
50From the start, this movie sets the bar high -- then, unfortunately, runs smack into it.
-
42An unsteady and uneven film, which bangs up against its ambitions gracelessly and distractingly.
-
40As impressive as Jackson is and as thought-provoking as director Kasi Lemmons' movie is, it's ultimately satisfying neither as a genre piece nor as an art film.
-
40You couldn't ask for a better pair of wild eyes than Jackson's.
-
38Calling a cave of rocks home while spouting invective worthy of the Juilliard attendee he once was, homeless-by-choice Samuel L. Jackson worms his way into one of the least compelling mysteries in years.
-
30It hovers somewhere in that never-never land of movies that try to do too much and don't quite live up to any of their ambitions.
-
30It may have a good liberal conscience, and genuine sympathy for the rare perspective of a homeless person, but this movie is a fundamentally sentimental exercise.
-
30Kasi Lemmons directed this tepid thriller, whose only genuinely creepy aspect is its cavalier and uninformed use of mental illness and classical music to heighten the meager suspense.
-
25A wildly implausible thriller.
-
20Especially disappointing that Lemmons, who in "Eve's Bayou" gave us insightful glimpses into the emotional world of black adults, has lost her balance, elevating formula over revelation.
-
20Despite Jackson's typically bravura turn, this Valentine massacre marks a step backward for the gifted director of Eve's Bayou.
-
10Valentine isn't exploitative or trendy in the manner of so many indie films. Rather, it seems like the kind of art film that might have been dreamed up by a feverish high schooler.
prev
next
Page:
- 1
There are no user reviews yet.