Ben Nicholson

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For 142 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 40% higher than the average critic
  • 6% same as the average critic
  • 54% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 2.9 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Ben Nicholson's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 69
Highest review score: 100 Arabian Nights: Volume 3, The Enchanted One
Lowest review score: 40 The Gunman
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 69 out of 142
  2. Negative: 0 out of 142
142 movie reviews
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    For a film that vocally questions convention, it's perhaps a shame that Miller and co. played it so safe with a fairly cookie-cutter origin story, but it's really just there to give Reynolds ammunition to riff on. Whether the studio might be willing to push the character further into the leftfield in the future will depend on whether Deadpool warrants sequels.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Ben Nicholson
    As this is only inspired by the real events, there are perhaps one too many threads neatly tied into a bow, but all of them work in concert with the main event.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Despite being lethargic at times, it's a rich portrait of people and place.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    The politics serves as footnote to the aesthetic for Wheatley and High-Rise is certainly style over substance. For fans of the British director, that may well be more than enough.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    The two stars stay on their game but their relationship is largely sidetracked in favour of fending off ghouls. While the heart rate may increase the creepiness dissipates, though The Autopsy of Jane Doe remains good genre fun - if little more.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Ben Nicholson
    It's a sparse and ravishing meditation on faith.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    A compelling re-telling of the singer's story.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    There is meaning beneath the madness, but Men & Chicken is best recommended to those who are prepared to sit through the deeply sinister absurdity.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Di Giacomo doesn’t build sequences to heighten tension, although some is unavoidable. Often, the film follows the relatively mundane work of the Franciscan Father Cataldo Migliazzo, the film’s primary protagonist, and the otherwise everyday lives of those who come to him for help.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    It might seem unlikely that something so narratively simplistic and ultimately childish could sustain its runtime but the chaos and comedy of the haphazard gunplay is such that it only suffers from a handful of lulls.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    In only ever managing to skim the surface, the spirit of their crusade is never really evoked. What's left is ultimately a handsome, and at times heart-stopping voyage that never lives up to its classic forebears.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Certain sequences are handled exceptionally... but others feel overblown and some characters underwhelm. That’s not to say that Black Sea is not an enjoyable – and at times, enthralling – aquatic adventure, it just never quite thrills as much as it spills, and flounders during some of its more emotional beats.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Ben Nicholson
    As an entry into the Scandi police procedural genre, The Keeper of Lost Causes disappoints. As a TV pilot, however, it's serviceable yet unremarkable; the kind of thing that you'd probably give a couple more episodes in the vain hope that things will pick up.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    It's not just some science-fiction about rodents preying on humans; it's a documentary about it. "They will literally kill us," explains a lecturer early on in what the filmmakers frame as a fully-fledged horror complete with jump-scares, an ominous score, and all manner of squeamish moments.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Ben Nicholson
    It's an undeniable hoot that plays very much to a specific audience but a word of warning: even those that are fans of this kind of ridiculous and farcical actioner might find themselves checking out of Yakuza Apocalypse before their stay is up. Again, with emphasis on the word 'might'.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Ben Nicholson
    This undeniably silly, but raucously entertaining, off-the-wall transhumanist actioner is an absolute riot.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Shim directs well, but he lacks the verve for this to sail through on its visuals and although the denouement returns to the unconventional (discounting the unnecessary coda), the climax reduces the impact of what was otherwise an enthralling voyage.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Besides the overt journey for Christopher Robin of rediscovering some childhood joy, this film is a poignant exploration of the way in which we sideline important friendships at the behest of professional advancement.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Shock and awe are both present - as is Escalante's intense style - but Heli lacks the ideas or formal dexterity to constitute a state of the nation address in any but the most cursory of ways.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Salvo ends up feeling like a very bright start for its creators but never quite finds a narrative or thematic drive to match its artistic verve.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 80 Ben Nicholson
    From Pteranodon's dive-fishing to Raptors pack-hunting, Jurassic World is in its element when it's using its assets, and though they can't recreate that awe of twenty-two years ago, this is finally a sequel worthy of the title.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 80 Ben Nicholson
    Not only is The Voices uproariously funny throughout, but it's actually far cleverer than one might expect.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    The political commentary feels far more explicitly pointed and widely integral than in previous incarnations which adds a bold new dynamic where perhaps the same re-inventive verve is lacking in the film's formulaic story. Fortunately, Greengrass and Damon are so in command of this material it's rarely too much of a concern. Even when little of substance seems to be happening, the narrative feels propulsive.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 80 Ben Nicholson
    Quieter moments do punctuate the tension - though the mood never sheds the lingering stench of impending death - and the characters are allowed time to breathe and inject a little colour to their long-standing relationships.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Ben Nicholson
    Gordon-Levitt is perfectly fine as Snowden, getting the voice and cadence fairly spot on and he looks almost right. The problem is that he's such an introvert and blank slate - that's pretty good for espionage but not especially compelling for a character arc.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 80 Ben Nicholson
    All of the film is handled in such a way: from the beautiful monochrome photography that only extends the disconnection Olga feels with the world, to the understated and haunting performances, particularly Olszanska's.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    This is the fourth instalment in the Guest mockumentary 'canon' and it's evidence that the format has now solidified into a template that needs refreshing, as much gentle enjoyment as it might bring.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 80 Ben Nicholson
    Joy
    It's a banana flambé with extra rum that brazenly throws together folksy storytelling, arch soap opera melodrama and a typically eccentric cast into a golden Hollywood crack at the American Dream.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    There are undoubtedly kinks to iron out - the film has a particular problem with pacing during a section that requires careful handling - but this is a handsome and assured feature and certainly suggests a bright future behind the camera for Portman, who also stars.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    The sheer insanity of the premise alone is enough to make Tusk a surreal hoot.

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