GoldbergBlog

Reviews: 50/50, WHAT’S YOUR NUMBER?, REAL STEEL, and THE IDES OF MARCH

50/50 (Rating: B)

The Ides of March (Rating: B+)

Real Steel (Rating: B-)

What’s Your Number? (Rating: F)

Reviews: MONEYBALL, KILLER ELITE, and PUNCTURE; Plus a Personal Note

Moneyball (Rating: B)

Killer Elite (Rating: D)

Puncture (Rating: D)

On a related and personal note, I have now been working as a professional film critic for five years.  It’s kind of crazy when I stop to consider that I’ve been writing movie reviews since I was in high school, and that somehow after writing for Columns (the Galloway High School paper) and The Oberlin Review (Oberlin’s newspaper), I now get paid to write reviews and thousands of people read them.

Last week (and within a 24-hour time span), I was offered membership in OFCS (Online Film Critics Society) and SEFCA (Southeastern Film Critics Association).  It was a tremendous honor and it blows my mind a little to think that I’ll get to have my say in what both groups choose as their best film of the year and put my two cents into the awards’ race.  That’s not to say that we’re determining the Academy Award winner (last year almost every critics society chose The Social Network as best picture, but The King’s Speech took home the Oscar), but adding my voice to many lets me have a say.  It’s a tremendous honor to be accepted into not one but two critics organizations and it makes what I’ve been doing for five years feel a little more real.

Now if you’ll excuse me, someone in the comments section of my Puncture review “was not impressed by your scathing commentary and grading.”

Reviews: CONTAGION and TIFF 2011 Films

Contagion (Rating: B)

And here’s the full list of movies I reviewed at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival:

• The Artist (A-)
• Rampart (A-)
• The Descendants (A-)
• Shame (B+)
• The Awakening (B+)
• You’re Next (B+)
• Sleepless Night (B+)
• The Ides of March (B+)
• Melancholia (B)
• Moneyball (B)
• A Dangerous Method (B)
• The Skin I Live In (B)
• I’m Carolyn Parker (B)
• Goon (B)
• Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (B-)
• Anonymous (B-)
• Hysteria (C+)
• Violet & Daisy (C+)
• Sleeping Beauty (C+)
• Friends with Kids (C)
• Butter (C)
• Jeff, Who Lives at Home (C)
• Pina (C)
• Twixt (C-)
• The Hunter (C-)
• Faust (C-)
• Killer Joe (D+)
• Ten Year (D)
• 360 (D)
• Alps (D)
• God Bless America (D-)
• Into the Abyss (D-)
• Restless (F)
• Hick (F)
• That Summer (F)

Reviews: CONAN THE BARBARIAN, FRIGHT NIGHT, and ONE DAY

Fright Night (Rating: B)

Conan the Barbarian (Rating: F)

One Day (Rating: C+)

Reviews: 30 MINUTES OR LESS, THE HELP, and Other Movies

30 Minutes or Less (Rating: B)

Bellflower (Rating: D)

The Change-Up (Rating: B-)

The Help (Rating: B-)

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Rating: B+)

Reviews: COWBOYS & ALIENS and CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE.

Cowboys & Aliens (Rating: D)

Crazy, Stupid, Love. (Rating: C+)

Reviews: HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS – PART 2 and WINNIE THE POOH

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (Rating: A-)

Winnie the Pooh (Rating: B+)

Reviews: HORRIBLE BOSSES and PROJECT NIM

Horrible Bosses (Rating: A-)

Project Nim (Rating: A)

Reviews: LARRY CROWNE and TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON

Larry Crowne (Rating: C)

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Rating: B-)

Reviews: MIDNIGHT IN PARIS and SUPER 8

Midnight in Paris (Rating: A-)

Super 8 (Rating: B-)