Benjamin Lee

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The Guardian
For 626 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 29% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 68% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 12.8 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Benjamin Lee's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 53
Highest review score: 100 You Won't Be Alone
Lowest review score: 20 Fifty Shades Freed
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 106 out of 626
  2. Mixed: 475 out of 626
  3. Negative: 45 out of 626
626 movie reviews
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    • 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.
    • 28 Metascore
    • 20 Benjamin Lee
    Infinite
    It’s the worst kind of soulless committee-made product, lazy and risk-free, that need never and will never be thought of again. Infinite? Not even close.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 20 Benjamin Lee
    Awake
    It’s all torturously uninteresting, a plodding retread that never once explains or justifies why it made the leap from “what if?” to actual full-length movie.
    • 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.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
    A handsomely made return to form for a series that had been showing signs of fatigue.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 40 Benjamin Lee
    The Woman in the Window
    Curiosity might bring you here but boredom will drive you away.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 20 Benjamin Lee
    Spiral: From the Book of Saw
    It’s all so rushed and half-assed, like it was cobbled together on the fly rather than intricately plotted out, stupidly written and worst of all increasingly dull, a fitting end to a rotten pile of guts that’s less book of Saw and more novelisation. Game over.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    The Water Man
    Premiering as one of the more proudly mainstream offerings at this year’s Toronto film festival, David Oyelowo’s sweet-natured family adventure The Water Man gives us our first look at a commercial conductor in training, aiming to excite and thrill with adventure while making an unashamed appeal to our emotions shortly after, a Spielbergian combination that many have tried and failed to perfect.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Monster
    It’s in many ways a minor, almost mundane, story with an ending that chooses the small over the big but it resonates just about enough, a quiet scream in the darkness, now able to be heard in living rooms across the world.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Wrath of Man
    Ritchie mostly moves his mixed bag of pieces around the board with flair, showcasing his well-rehearsed knack for gnarly violence and chaos, giving us a sinewy B-movie that warrants a watch on a screen bigger than the one in our homes, another welcome shot of adrenaline for us and for the industry. I’m craving my next dose already.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 40 Benjamin Lee
    Mortal Kombat
    A silly and dated new attempt to transport the classic fighting game to the big screen is a late-night drunk watch at best.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Stowaway
    The focus on the job at hand works until it doesn’t as with just the slightest of characterisation, we’re invested in the problem rather than those solving it and the grip of the first two acts loosens as the finale beckons.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Benjamin Lee
    The Mitchells vs. The Machines
    While some of the in-your-face attempts to combine YouTube videos with animation are jarring at best and annoying at worst, the cautionary stabs about unregulated big tech that come alongside are no bad thing, nestled within the framework of a brightly coloured kids movie. It’s also genuinely funny, a credit not only to the hit-a-minute script but also to a finely picked cast of comic actors
    • 44 Metascore
    • 40 Benjamin Lee
    Voyagers
    It’s all just too sanitised and safe, a journey that stumbles as it takes us from the unknown to the familiar, a film that plods when it should stride. How did a bracing idea about rebellion, sexual awakening and lawlessness turn out so boring?
    • 36 Metascore
    • 20 Benjamin Lee
    The Unholy
    If the devil did exist then surely he’d have the power to destroy films as dull as this.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 80 Benjamin Lee
    Godzilla vs. Kong
    The much-hyped battles deliver the giddy thrills we demand but in the moments when the pair aren’t at war there’s also a staggeringly well-built and extensive universe to explore and one that’s barely been teased in the trailers we’ve seen.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 40 Benjamin Lee
    Tom & Jerry
    Very young kids might find some enjoyment in the brightly hued, fast-paced mania of it all, but those with any real affection for the pair of violently opposed animals will leave unimpressed.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Benjamin Lee
    Nobody
    It’s all very been here, seen that yet there’s something infinitely pleasing about a film doing very little but doing it very well, knowing just how high to aim without aiming any higher, aware of exactly what it can and can’t do. In a tight 91 minutes, without any bloat, Nobody gives us exactly what we want.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 40 Benjamin Lee
    Yes Day
    If you need a charming film headed up by a skilled comic actor about a family going through troubling times then watch Rose Byrne in Instant Family instead because it’s a big no for this one.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Benjamin Lee
    The Last Shift
    It’s a mismatched buddy film, but not entirely unsuccessful thanks largely to Jenkins, who can play a role such as this with his eyes closed, and McGhie who captures a mixture of righteousness and despondency.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 40 Benjamin Lee
    Chaos Walking
    It’s a film that should have been a major disaster but ends up being just a minor one instead, watchable enough in parts, with the lowest of expectations, but not enough to warrant the time and money that’s been funnelled into it.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 40 Benjamin Lee
    Boss Level
    As the umpteenth time loop movie we’ve seen of late, Boss Level never offers a convincing enough argument for the gimmick to be leaned on yet again, a mish-mash of better movies blended into something a little bland.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Raya and the Last Dragon
    While some of the beats might be a little too predictable and while the emotional wallop at the end might be more of a gentle tap, Raya and the Last Dragon works for the most part, a charming, sweet-natured YA-leaning adventure that acts as proof that Disney needs to focus on moving forward rather than continuing to look back.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar
    It’s a breeze of a watch and with the bar for studio comedy being so very low right now, it’s at least mildly inventive and likably goofy, enough to warrant a cautious recommendation (premium rental price: no, next time you’re on a plane: sure).
    • 61 Metascore
    • 40 Benjamin Lee
    John and the Hole
    The crudest way to describe what transpires in John and the Hole would be Home Alone if re-envisioned by Michael Haneke or perhaps Yorgos Lanthimos in the broadest possible terms, a chilly atmosphere successfully evoked but without any of the thought or intellect that both film-makers would also bring to the table.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 40 Benjamin Lee
    Passing
    As compelling and as complicated as this fraught friendship might be, Hall’s script can’t quite find a way to take it – and the other pieces of Larsen’s novel – and turn them into something deservedly substantial.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Benjamin Lee
    On the Count of Three
    While it’s ultimately a little too messy to work quite as well as it could have, given the interesting and ambitious ingredients, On the Count of Three is proof that Carmichael is a director to be excited about, hoping that perhaps he finds time to write his next script himself.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Benjamin Lee
    Mass
    It’s an airless chamber piece, a self-assured gamble that pays off almost instantaneously thanks to the four impeccable performances at its centre, each parent processing, intellectualising and vocalising their anguish in different ways.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 40 Benjamin Lee
    Land
    There’s just not enough here to make it a worthwhile retread through familiar territory, proof of Wright’s basic competency as a director but nothing more.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 100 Benjamin Lee
    Flee
    Flee is a remarkably humanising and complex film, expanding and expounding the kind of story that’s too easily simplified.
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