Benjamin Lee

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The Guardian
For 618 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 28% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 69% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 12.6 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Benjamin Lee's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 53
Highest review score: 100 Moonlight
Lowest review score: 20 The Girl in the Photographs
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 104 out of 618
  2. Mixed: 470 out of 618
  3. Negative: 44 out of 618
618 movie reviews
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    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Relay
    The subdued carefulness of the buildup gives way to rote, poorly staged action and a twist that might fill in a few plot-holes but leaves us otherwise dissatisfied.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Gunpowder Milkshake
    The graphic novel-inspired world of Gunpowder Milkshake isn’t unique, but it’s admirably committed and Papushado edges his film away from the danger of pastiche thanks to an equally committed cast.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    The Dark Horse
    The script could have done without the odd bout of heavy-handed chess symbolism (“a king for a king”) but it’s a solidly entertaining drama with an intriguingly unconventional lead.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Let It Snow
    Let It Snow is a prime example of what happens when the Netflix algorithm machine spews out something that actually feels like a real movie. It ticks all the right buzzword boxes for the platform (YA, Christmas, romcom, cast filled with recognisable faces) but does so with such ebullience that you’ll fail to notice, or at least care about, the many strings being pulled throughout.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Work It
    Work It is a fun, mostly entertaining and easily digestible concoction that does everything you expect but well enough for its lack of ingenuity not to matter.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    The Promise
    There’s something rather dusty about The Promise as George pushes his characters through a string of soapy machinations that feel incredibly familiar.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Prey
    We didn’t need a Predator prequel (have we ever really needed any prequel?) but Prey is a nimble beast, far nimbler than it could have been and while it’s not quite enough to make us crave more from a franchise that’s already given us too much, it’s enough to justify the journey way back.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Good Boy
    Even at a brief 73 minutes, Good Boy can feel stretched, a film that never quite convinces you that a short wouldn’t have worked better. Even though Indy is a remarkably expressive dog, there are only so many variations on dialogue-free scenes of him checking out a weird noise in the dark and the cycle soon gets repetitive, exposing a script that’s a bit on the thin side.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    The Eyes of Tammy Faye
    The Eyes of Tammy Faye’s focus might be all over the place, but our eyes remain trained directly on Chastain.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    You're Cordially Invited
    The real win here is watching Witherspoon and Ferrell show off, both unrestrained by a harder rating and a more raucous script than the norm and while their escalation of bad behaviour might not be quite as bad as it could have been, they both make for wonderfully petty antiheroes.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Roommates
    Roommates might not rival the fizzy, formative teen films it both references (Clueless) and often directly cribs from (Mean Girls) but it still belongs in a different league to what we’re mostly served right now. Could someone possibly tell that to Netflix?
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Kiss of the Spider Woman
    We’re in safest hands with Lopez and Condon when he’s playing in that sandbox as the cell-based scenes can be a little stagey and rushed in comparison.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Until Dawn
    It’s held together by Sandberg, a director who has mastered the art of totally competent studio horror with slick, equally forgettable films like Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation and he again shows himself to be a crisply efficient commercial film-maker again let down by a far less effective script. For a film all about repetition, one viewing will suffice.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Blue Miracle
    It’s the sort of old-fashioned string-puller that when done well is hard to resist even if we know the strings are being pulled, like we’re aware of the bait but powerless to resist.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Spelling the Dream
    While it doesn’t have the same tense grip of Spellbound, it’s an amiable enough diversion.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Will & Harper
    It’s a generous, sensitive study of allyship and what that really means in the day-to-day with Ferrell working out in different, often potentially dangerous, situations how to do the right thing.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    The Royal Hotel
    The hoary sub-genre that is “attractive American tourists find something nefarious on their travels” is given a vigorous polish in thoughtful thriller The Royal Hotel, a film light on exploitation and heavy on interrogation.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Rob Peace
    Rob is turned from stereotype to person, thanks to Will’s incredible work and Ejiofor’s unwavering commitment to capturing a full life, supported by Rob’s mother off screen. It’s an involving yet troubling tribute.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers
    It’s not quite on par with Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, the film it undoubtedly wants to be likened to, but it’s infinitely better than it had any right to be.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Weapons
    Cregger might be expanding and improving his arsenal, using his skills more effectively than he did in Barbarian, but there’s still something crucial missing. Something sharper.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Honey Boy
    For LaBeouf, the script was quite literally a form of therapy for deep-rooted issues he still struggles with and as such, it’s an inventive and admirably introspective exercise. As a film though, it’s only half as successful, not quite as involving or as stirring for us as it surely is for him.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Love, Guaranteed
    There won’t be many viewers who’ll remember it by this time next month but within its swift running time, it just about fits the brief, zipping along at speed buoyed by the charm of its leads, like almost guaranteed instead.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Spider-Man: No Way Home
    It’s flawed for sure but still moves with more deftness than most (arriving after Eternals is a blessing for any Marvel film) and there’s an ending that suggests an awareness of its roots (post-credits scene aside), hinting at a promising way forward rather than back. Consider the curse of sorts sort of broken.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    The Choral
    There are moments of creaky comedy and some bluntly emotional dialogue that one can more easily picture in front of a specifically catered-to live audience.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Brad's Status
    Brad’s Status is a frustrating concoction. There’s a script full of insight but also inanity and while the performances might jump out, the direction falls flat. Stiller is back on the right route but, like Brad, he could afford to take a more daring detour every now and then.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Trigger Warning
    Alba hasn’t always made the strongest impression as an actor but this mode works well for her, convincing both in her many hand-to-hand combat scenes (her weapon of choice is a knife rather than a gun) and as an old-fashioned movie star, light on emotional depth but heavy on charisma.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    The Rip
    A movie to be enjoyed on Friday night and forgotten all about by Saturday morning.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Smile 2
    As stylishly made as these films might be, there’s still not enough of a distinctive identity away from its inspirations and not enough away from the (very loud) sound and fury to give us hope that this is a story worth retelling time and time again.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Don't Move
    The film is at its best when words are secondary to action.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Luca
    It’s string-pulling Pixar formula but done with just about enough effectiveness to work (do their films ever truly fail?). It doesn’t have that emotional kicker of an ending we might expect and hope for, it’s far too slight to evoke an ugly cry, but it’s breezily watchable, low stakes stuff, handsomely animated (on dry land, in water less so) and, like Disney’s spring adventure Raya and the Last Dragon, refreshingly free of romantic diversion, prioritising friendship and self-discovery over getting the boy, girl or sea monster.
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