Amy Biancolli

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San Francisco Chronicle
For 217 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 50% higher than the average critic
  • 1% same as the average critic
  • 49% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 6 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Amy Biancolli's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 60
Highest review score: 100 The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Lowest review score: 0 Vanishing on 7th Street
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 99 out of 217
  2. Mixed: 78 out of 217
  3. Negative: 40 out of 217
217 movie reviews
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    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Amy Biancolli
    The Invisible War
    Make no mistake, this is advocacy cinema; interviews with Defense Department and military officials notwithstanding, there's not much effort, on Dick's part or anyone else's, to consider any point of view besides the victims' and those who love or speak for them. That's what makes it difficult to watch. And that's what makes it necessary.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 75 Amy Biancolli
    Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
    Sweet and serious as it is, the second chunk of Seeking a Friend is the lesser of the two - and hard to reconcile with the more acidic comic outlook in the film's first half. The obvious movie referent is Lars von Trier's "Melancholia," a much nastier film in a much lovelier wrapping: This one lacks an eight-minute Wagner montage.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 25 Amy Biancolli
    Tonight You're Mine
    The script is as bland as they come.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Amy Biancolli
    Turn Me On, Dammit!
    The film's editing and pacing are appealingly straightforward, not to say blunt, and the humor runs from dry to bone-dry to parched.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 75 Amy Biancolli
    Rock of Ages
    Doesn't require anyone to love metal, or even like it. It only requires us to laugh at it - and other exemplars of bloated '80s pop, from Starship to Journey - and it does so with a campy and attitudinous spirit that's hard to resist.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 25 Amy Biancolli
    Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding
    The fact that Grandma is played by Jane Fonda, flouncing around in natural fabrics, should tell you something. It should tell you there is no casting decision or character nuance or plot turn too obvious to indulge.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Amy Biancolli
    Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted
    Even within the rules of its own peculiar world - a world well stocked with talking savanna denizens and monkey-powered superplanes - the film is completely irrational.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 25 Amy Biancolli
    High School
    The screenplay is so cognitively impaired that the filmmakers might have been better off hacking up "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," "Dazed and Confused" and "Dude, Where's My Car?" and then sticking together random bits with masking tape. At least that would have made some sense.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Amy Biancolli
    Moonrise Kingdom
    The formality of Moonrise Kingdom - the orderly structure and dreamlike perfection of it all - is as poetic as any film I've seen this year.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 75 Amy Biancolli
    Men in Black III
    If you're looking for cinema verite, look elsewhere. If you're looking for a fun, fizzy sequel in a franchise left for dead 10 years ago, have at it.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 25 Amy Biancolli
    Battleship
    It's loud, it's large, it's stupid, and its best gag involves a chicken burrito.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 75 Amy Biancolli
    The Dictator
    The Dictator's over-the-top rant against the rank lunacy of authoritarianism deploys comedy like an act of violence; it's outrageous, quick and leaves us breathless, whether from laughter or shock.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Amy Biancolli
    Last Call at the Oasis
    One can argue the movie's finer points, but in the end, there's no escaping its creeping pile-up of evidence that Mother Earth is critically dehydrated - and we need to do something, fast.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Amy Biancolli
    God Bless America
    At no point during the movie does it strike him that mass extermination might be classified as "rude." No, Frank has the courage of his convictions, which include the belief that most of America has already flushed itself down the toilet.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Amy Biancolli
    Sound of My Voice
    Given the number of real-world cults that have ended in major bloodshed, there's some irony - and no small narrative coquetry - in any drama on the subject that ducks out so pointedly at the finish.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 100 Amy Biancolli
    The Avengers
    There are moments of genuine pathos, genuine humor, genuine surprise. As much as the film adheres to the strictures of the standard comic-book movie, it also pops with a knowing, loving, Whedon-world jokiness that keeps everything barreling along.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 75 Amy Biancolli
    Natural Selection
    The results are often comical, but Pickering who made the film in tribute to his mother, the real Linda White - imbues them with faith in something, maybe dignity, maybe love, maybe just the simple human urge to keep on moving.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Amy Biancolli
    The Pirates! Band of Misfits
    That the film happens to be in 3-D, with digitized settings and backgrounds, doesn't detract from the timeworn charm of watching blob-like characters lurch erratically through harebrained comic pratfalls.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Amy Biancolli
    Safe
    None of this bears much or any resemblance to the real world, but the violence crunches, the editing snaps and the humorous one-liners pop at well-timed junctures.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 25 Amy Biancolli
    The Lucky One
    Supposedly he's suffered, supposedly there are demons lurking within, but guess what: This is a movie. If we can't see it, it's not there.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 50 Amy Biancolli
    Life Happens
    Coiro, who directed and co-wrote the film with Ritter, has a firm hold on snappish humor and bookish references, but the whole thing sags under a creaky narrative structure.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 25 Amy Biancolli
    American Reunion
    American Reunion isn't a total wash. Its one saving grace is Eugene Levy as Jim's dad.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 25 Amy Biancolli
    Intruders
    If you don't guess the big twist in the first 30 minutes, Intruders is half of a good movie. If you do, it's about a third of a good movie. Either way, there's a whole lot of bad movie to contend with.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Amy Biancolli
    Footnote
    Israeli writer-director Joseph Cedar imbues his tale of academic maneuvering, misunderstanding and mystery with the zest of passion and the zing of intrigue, It's a vivacious film, having its little fun with suspense-flick conventions (including Amit Poznansky's bouncing score) that build to a climactic finish.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Amy Biancolli
    The Hunger Games
    This is better than any of the "Twilights." It features a functioning creative imagination and lots of honest-to-goodness acting by its star, Jennifer Lawrence.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 50 Amy Biancolli
    Apart
    Apart is an attractive-looking piece of work, and I'll always admire any genre film that errs on the side of understatement.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Amy Biancolli
    Casa de mi Padre
    It's really strange, and it's really subtitled.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 75 Amy Biancolli
    Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
    The film's emotional complexities don't allow for much of the canned sentiment that normally gets dished out in romantic dramas; what emerges instead, over several reels, is endearingly tender and complicated.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 50 Amy Biancolli
    Dr. Seuss' The Lorax
    You know what? The whole thing is harmless.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 50 Amy Biancolli
    Project X
    With most movies, the question for viewers is: Who should see it? With Project X, the most pressing issue is: Who shouldn't see it?
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