Ben Nicholson

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CineVue, The Film Verdict
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. Mixed: 73 out of 142
  3. Negative: 0 out of 142
142 movie reviews
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    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    The Riot Club
    It makes for entertaining viewing but its power is undermined by a ultimate lack of insight amongst the debauchery.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Ben Nicholson
    The Magnificent Seven
    Richard Wenk and Nic Pizzolatto's screenplay completely lacks the interpersonal vibrancy that a film like this needs and this is glaring given that it maintains the slow-build tension of the original.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story)
    Husson sketches teenage ennui well, and crafts complicated and watchable characters around which to base the core of her drama. The slip-up comes in a final act that bows out of the previously constructed conflict in disappointingly obvious fashion.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    The Amazing Spider-Man 2
    Although it fundamentally has many of the same issues as the first film, the strengths are enhanced in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and it's certainly a step forward for the franchise. Now, let's give the web-head a villain worthy of his attention.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Samba
    That Sy and Gainsbourg's love story never quite inflames the heart ultimately means that Samba remains a pleasant, rather than an enduring watch.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Ben Nicholson
    X-Men: Apocalypse
    The problem is that Apocalypse's highlights feel like moments of serenity amidst two-and-a-half-hours of lumbering, inconsequential chaos.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Ben Nicholson
    Woman in Gold
    Woman in Gold is ultimately a worthy endeavour even when it is not entirely successful.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    White Bird in a Blizzard
    Araki does manage to give Kasischke's ending a subversive little twist, but the scenario has spawned numerous complex questions and while they may be given traction throughout, the rushed and forced conclusion leaves one simultaneously nonchalant and conflicted, much like Kat.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Ben Nicholson
    Hardcore Henry
    The visuals are undeniably impressive at times, as Henry parkours around the city or during a particularly tense shoot-out, but they also struggle with inevitable motion sickness of the frenetic handheld camerawork.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Partisan
    A deliberate almost-thriller that provokes many questions, but leaves answers equivocally out of focus right through to its conclusion.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 40 Ben Nicholson
    How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can't Change
    There's no doubt that the people that Fox singles out are worthy of his cameras attention, but it doesn't equate to a coherent feature film as much as an enormously wasted opportunity.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    Blair Witch
    It's an enjoyable jumpy imitation.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Ben Nicholson
    Kill Your Friends
    It's a rancid cocktail of misogyny, homophobia, and much more besides, that never convinces as scathing satire as much as back-slapping celebration.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Ben Nicholson
    Two Night Stand
    Neither player wins the audience's allegiance during the oft-strained game of seduction - much less convinces as a human being.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 40 Ben Nicholson
    Salt and Fire
    Like much of his recent scripted work, it's a mannered affair that's vague and clumsy.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 40 Ben Nicholson
    Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
    Everything looks incredible, but the players are all just ciphers for ideas that Snyder lacks the wherewithal to execute.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 40 Ben Nicholson
    American Pastoral
    A drab and airless affair, it effectively ignores the substantial political commentaries inherent in its story, and fails to land the emotional punches of the one it's intent on telling.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 40 Ben Nicholson
    Suicide Squad
    Despite its claims to zaniness and colouring outside the lines, probably the most damning indictment of the silly Suicide Squad is that it's unrelentingly bland.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 40 Ben Nicholson
    The Gunman
    With no fun to be had, The Gunman also lacks essential thrills. If Sean Penn is winging for an action-hero renaissance like Neeson's, he'll be in need of material a lot more compelling than this.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 40 Ben Nicholson
    A Second Chance
    There is a tender story about paternal love and the desire to do right by one's family within A Second Chance but, regrettably, Bier's brand of melodrama derails it before it begins.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    The Whispering Star
    The Whispering Star may not be Sono at his most assertive - it certainly suffers in its middle section from the lack of thrust - but its imbued with tremendous resonance.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Ben Nicholson
    A Cambodian Spring
    Kelly eschews talking heads or expert testimony, and only rarely to characters flesh out the skeleton provided by occasional intertitles. When this style is employed for a single, short-term conflict, it can be incredibly powerful (just think of Sergei Loznitsa’s Maïdan) but Kelly’s film effectively drops the audience in situ at specific events within a much broader six-year framework without any context.
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