Brian Lowry
Select another critic »For 148 reviews, this critic has graded:
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47% higher than the average critic
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4% same as the average critic
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49% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 11.9 points lower than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Brian Lowry's Scores
- Movies
- TV
Average review score: | 53 | |
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Highest review score: | The Pelican Brief | |
Lowest review score: | Fatal Instinct |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 31 out of 148
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Mixed: 102 out of 148
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Negative: 15 out of 148
148
movie
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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- Brian Lowry
Elegant, occasionally adorable and at times quite emotional, series creator Julian Fellowes still knows how to pluck the right strings – upstairs and downstairs – to play a symphony with his sprawling cast.- CNN
- Posted May 20, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
A new do-over that can barely generate enough heat to qualify as a thriller.- CNN
- Posted May 13, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
Top Gun: Maverick soars higher than it has any right to, constructing a mostly terrific sequel 36 years later (including a Covid release delay), using a good movie, not a great one, as its jumping-off point. That might not be enough to take your breath away, but as brawny summer entertainment goes, it comes shockingly close.- CNN
- Posted May 12, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
The sense of violation that this story entails is almost palpable, and "Our Father" certainly conveys that. If only the filmmakers had trusted the audience enough to present it in a more unadorned manner.- CNN
- Posted May 11, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
The film thus operates on multiple levels, playing like an old-fashioned caper as well as a window into history. And like its inspiration, if there are hiccups here and there, when the smoke clears it's hard to consider this delicious "Operation" anything but a rousing success.- CNN
- Posted May 11, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
Part valentine to the theater, part unconventional love story, Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Known celebrates the show and its original cast, while also providing a broader look at the issues of teen rebellion and alienation that turned the musical into a sensation.- CNN
- Posted May 6, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” might be the most insanely Marvel movie ever, for good and ill. Unleashing the infinite possibilities of the multiverse throws open the studio’s toybox, but the anything-goes aspects of that can be alternately thrilling, disorienting and occasionally, a little silly. All told, this sequel proves highly entertaining, if not quite worthy of the pent-up demand for it.- CNN
- Posted May 3, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
Watching The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe serves as a reminder, to paraphrase Elton John’s musical tribute, that her candle burned out long before the exploitation of her ever did.- CNN
- Posted Apr 27, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
The underlying story is better than the movie in “The Survivor,” but that material is so harrowing as to win on what amounts to a split decision. Timed to Holocaust Remembrance Day, the film isn’t equal to the awards bait HBO has traditionally offered in the TV-movie genre, but it should inspire plenty of googling about the remarkable tale of Harry Haft.- CNN
- Posted Apr 27, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
Director/co-writer Robert Eggers ("The Lighthouse") has sought to make the definitive Viking movie, and while the film issues a guttural cry for theatrical viewing, it is built around such a basic revenge plot as to blunt those simple charms.- CNN
- Posted Apr 21, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
Like "The Crimes of Grindelwald," "Secrets of Dumbledore" is handsomely done but ultimately too much of a dumble-snore. And somehow, its appealing pieces, old and new, again add up to a less-than-magical movie.- CNN
- Posted Apr 15, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
Strange, surreal and unexpectedly sentimental, Everything Everywhere All at Once is genuinely and wildly original -- the kung fu/science fiction/metaphysical action comedy that you didn't know you needed, but just might love.- CNN
- Posted Apr 8, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
Apatow serves up some clever lines, but they're mostly lost in the overall noise and manic tone. While it's not necessarily too soon for a funny Covid movie, The Bubble labors to achieve a sought-after level of zaniness right up until the ending.- CNN
- Posted Apr 6, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
It's a gauzy indulgence in nostalgia that sweetly captures a very specific time and place, which should broadly speak to Linklater's contemporaries who somehow survived childhood before our society adopted most of the pesky rules designed to ensure that they do.- CNN
- Posted Mar 31, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
As Marvel movies go, "Morbius" is more a sip than a gulp, a relatively small-boned Jekyll-and-Hyde tale that moves another Spider-Man villain into the spotlight. Significantly better than "Venom" but still somewhat lacking in bite, this origin story perhaps inevitably grows more pallid toward the end but until then proves just tasty enough to merit the giving it a shot.- CNN
- Posted Mar 31, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
How to Survive a Pandemic is a poor title for a mostly fascinating documentary, whose flaws reflect its slightly fragmented nature. Yet at its core this HBO presentation captures the race to produce a vaccine amid political pressures imposed by a president preoccupied with his reelection, offering fly-on-the-wall access to many of the key players.- CNN
- Posted Mar 29, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
It's the uninspired writing, more than the general template, that keeps the movie from finding its stride.- CNN
- Posted Mar 25, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
While the movie falls apart toward the end, the mystery -- and crackling central performances -- cruises along at a low boil much of the way.- CNN
- Posted Mar 18, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
Reuniting star-producer Ryan Reynolds and director Shawn Levy after their winning collaboration on "Free Guy," The Adam Project has the generic feel of a project created by committee, combining action, humor and smart-alecky one-liners in a way that's at best aggressively okay. That's probably enough for Netflix coming off a success with Reynolds in "Red Notice," but like the film's plot, this amounts to rehashing history.- CNN
- Posted Mar 10, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
Wherever one sees it, Turning Red delivers an exquisitely animated story that's moving as well as funny -- welcome evidence that creatively speaking, at least, Pixar hasn't lost its golden touch.- CNN
- Posted Mar 7, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
Lucy and Desi puts a big heart around Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, not only as the beloved stars of "I Love Lucy" and one of Hollywood's great power couples, but as TV pioneers. Drawing upon personal recordings and home videos, director Amy Poehler has served up a warm valentine that leans into celebrating their lives and away from the tabloid fodder.- CNN
- Posted Mar 4, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
In Pattinson, the producers have found a Dark Knight worthy of the hoopla, while creating a Gotham much in need of him. As new chapters go, it's a strong beginning; if only it had known when to end.- CNN
- Posted Feb 28, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
Thanks to the cast (which also includes Ben Mendelsohn, near-unrecognizable as the villainous De Guiche), Cyrano is worth seeing, either now or later. But it's a relatively modest addition to the title's storied history, one where the music subtracts at least as much as it adds to the story's inherent poetry.- CNN
- Posted Feb 25, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
Uncharted drops toward the wrong end of the chart every time Holland and Wahlberg engage in juvenile bickering, which alas is all too often. The one strange thing is that the funniest insult they exchange appears in the trailer but not the actual movie, and any good dialogue here is too rare to wind up on the cutting-room floor.- CNN
- Posted Feb 23, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
Designed to showcase Jennifer Lopez playing a character that could hardly be called a reach, Marry Me trades in the "meet cute" rom-com formula for "meet dumb." Lopez still gets ample opportunities to sing a hummable soundtrack, but even within the genre's parameters, the silly premise deals the movie a blow from which it never entirely recovers.- CNN
- Posted Feb 10, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
There's obviously a bit of calculation in introducing more depth to Poirot, making him more interesting for Branagh to play. Yet the filmmakers manage to incorporate that without detracting from the central mystery, and the pace chugs along briskly enough, with plenty of stunning scenery when outside those stuffy cruise rooms.- CNN
- Posted Feb 8, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
While some might find it possible to have fun by surrendering to the silliness, this bad moon doesn't quite rise even to the level of a guilty pleasure.- CNN
- Posted Feb 3, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
Although it's nice to see the show's creative team afforded one final swing, it's too bad they don't knock it out of the park.- CNN
- Posted Jan 14, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
Always meta in its nods to the genre's quirks, the latest "Scream" is so self-referential as to risk swallowing its own tail. Yet this quarter-century-later "requel" (a term specifically explained in the movie) turns out to be a great deal of fun, cleverly wedding familiar faces with new stars in what isn't exactly a remake or reboot but rather plays like a refresh.- CNN
- Posted Jan 12, 2022
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- Brian Lowry
Showcasing a thrown-together international team of female spies, "The 355" mostly feels like the pilot for a TV series, just with an inordinately good cast. Any movie in this genre that name-checks James Bond can't be all bad, but in terms of justifying a trip to the theater, nor is it good enough.- CNN
- Posted Jan 6, 2022
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