Brian Lowry

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Variety
For 153 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 46% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 49% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 13.1 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Brian Lowry's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 53
Highest review score: 100 The Pelican Brief
Lowest review score: 10 Cool World
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 153
  2. Mixed: 104 out of 153
  3. Negative: 17 out of 153
153 movie reviews
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    • 48 Metascore
    • 20 Brian Lowry
    The Last Mercenary
    After about 15 minutes of The Last Mercenary, though, even if you can't do splits like Van Damme the temptation is to split -- and to paraphrase "Scarface," say goodbye to him and his little friends.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Brian Lowry
    Stillwater
    Anchored by an impressive performance from Matt Damon, Stillwater confounds expectations in mostly frustrating ways.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 60 Brian Lowry
    The Green Knight
    The Green Knight's sheer originality makes the film worth considering for anyone with a taste for such material.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 70 Brian Lowry
    Jungle Cruise
    Jungle Cruise delivers about as ably as it possibly could, creating a light-hearted adventure that owes as much to “The Mummy” as anything in Disney’s fleet.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 85 Brian Lowry
    Val
    Val Kilmer joins the ranks of celebrities that fastidiously documented their lives via video, then shared that in documentary form. But Val feels more deeply personal and fascinating than most, catching its star in the wake of a terrible illness and exploring the "difficult" label he bore as an actor, one whose career choices didn't always serve him well.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Brian Lowry
    Woodstock 99: Peace Love and Rage
    Woodstock 99 makes a compelling case that the sewage from that weekend didn't stop flowing when the music stopped, metaphorically if not literally.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 40 Brian Lowry
    Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins
    As much as the movie appears to yearn to jump-start the franchise, it seems to have forgotten to bother with a coherent script, leaving one to wonder how a film with this much action somehow manages to be so boring.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 40 Brian Lowry
    Old
    M. Night Shyamalan is up to his old tricks in "Old," but after his heralded breakthrough with "Split," he's back on a downward trajectory. While the premise again has an eerie "Twilight Zone"-type quality, the long journey to a payoff -- littered with pretty awful dialogue -- might be picturesque, but it's no walk on the beach.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 35 Brian Lowry
    Space Jam: A New Legacy
    Debates over LeBron James' greatness compared to Michael Jordan on a basketball court will continue in perpetuity, but "Space Jam: A New Legacy" won't fuel much chatter about who's the better actor. Putting James in Jordan's shoes, as it were, isn't a bad idea in theory, but despite the odd moment of inspired Looney Tune-acy, this reboot shoots a very loud and thudding airball.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 70 Brian Lowry
    Gunpowder Milkshake
    Offering a weird mix of over-the-top violence and dark humor, Gunpowder Milkshake weds the spaghetti western with the colorful visuals of anime, enhancing that with an inordinately good cast for such a silly movie. The net result provides considerable fun.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Brian Lowry
    Black Widow
    What really defines the film is meeting the title character's other "family," whose members are equal parts colorfully eccentric and lethal.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Brian Lowry
    The One and Only Dick Gregory
    The One and Only Dick Gregory highlights Gregory's particular knack for getting people to laugh with him, and more significantly, the sacrifices he made in pursuit of greater objectives than the roar of a crowd and that nightly paycheck.
    • 96 Metascore
    • 90 Brian Lowry
    Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
    Thompson really lets the music play in order to appreciate the artists, augmenting that by interviewing people who attended the festival, reacquainting them with a time of cultural awakening during their youth.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Brian Lowry
    No Sudden Move
    No Sudden Move fares better with the quirky, unpredictable nature of the characters, the impeccable period touches -- from the overall look to the music -- and disarmingly witty bits of dialogue.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Brian Lowry
    The Tomorrow War
    Watching Chris Pratt fight to save the future has a certain appeal, but in the here and now, he can't even save the movie.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 30 Brian Lowry
    The Forever Purge
    The Forever Purge's once-over-lightly politics don't merit much of a fuss, playing like a cynical exploitation of real-world issues.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 40 Brian Lowry
    America: The Motion Picture
    For the most part, America: The Motion Picture seems too pleased with itself, an indulgence in silliness that feels woefully stretched at close to 100 minutes.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Brian Lowry
    Wolfgang
    Wolfgang nicely demonstrates how its namesake fundamentally impacted the world of cooking – and especially how high-end food is perceived – while carving out a pretty sweet life for himself in the process. For that alone it’s worth watching, even if, as documentaries go, it’s less a main course than an appetizer.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 40 Brian Lowry
    The Ice Road
    Simply put, Neeson has been in a bit of a rut, one that Ice Road exemplifies almost literally, since at several points in the movie the challenge involves extricating big trucks from slushy situations.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Brian Lowry
    F9: The Fast Saga
    After a year where people could pause and rewind to catch missed dialogue, this is one of those movies where missed lines don’t matter, and the only direction this vehicle goes is forward, even when it’s just spinning its wheels.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Brian Lowry
    Fatherhood
    The appeal of Fatherhood really boils down to its title, the resilience of the human spirit, and Hart being bold enough -- like his alter ego -- to think that he can do this. And like Matt, by the time it's over, he's demonstrated that he pretty well can.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Brian Lowry
    Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It
    Like everything else she's done, Rita Moreno is an exceptional storyteller, turning Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It -- an "American Masters" documentary hitting theaters first -- into a dazzling look at the much-adorned star's career, and the doors left shut, despite her success, by being a Latina in Hollywood during the days of the studio system.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Brian Lowry
    Luca
    Pixar movies have a habit for finding simple truths and tugging at the heartstrings, and Luca accomplishes some of that deftly enough before it's over.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 50 Brian Lowry
    The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard
    An expanded role for Salma Hayek is the newish wrinkle here, although that's hardly cause for an encore, or even an extra apostrophe.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 90 Brian Lowry
    In the Heights
    Big and vibrant, In the Heights provides summer movie-going with a joyous jolt of adrenalin, wedding the sensibilities of Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical with "Crazy Rich Asians" director Jon M. Chu's mouth-watering imagery.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Brian Lowry
    Plan B
    Every year seems to bring some new teen comedy that breaks through the clutter, showcasing new talent, and in this case, speaking to the times in a very specific way. 2021 is still young, but unless or until something better comes along, "Plan B" lays a pretty strong claim to that mantle.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 75 Brian Lowry
    Oslo
    Directed by Bartlett Sher and adapted by the play's author J.T. Rogers, "Oslo" serves as a haunting portrayal of what was, and a sobering reflection on conditions as they currently exist.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Brian Lowry
    A Quiet Place Part II
    A Quiet Place Part II manages to be perfectly fine, and unsurprisingly, a more generic affair -- one that offers less for audiences to cheer, quietly or otherwise, beyond the renewed sensation of being frightened in the dark.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 75 Brian Lowry
    Cruella
    "Cruella" confounds expectations in mostly delightful ways, particularly for what amounts to a supervillain origin-story prequel inspired by a 60-year-old animated movie. Credit much of that to a twin dose of Emma power -- as in Stone and Thompson -- in a movie that might owe its life to "101 Dalmatians," but which centers around a tasty cat fight.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Brian Lowry
    Final Account
    The "important" label can weigh heavily on a documentary, but the description applies to "Final Account," director Luke Holland's decade-long odyssey to capture and preserve the memories of Germans who lived through the Holocaust, acknowledging their complicity to varying degrees. While much has been done to chronicle survivors' stories, this sobering companion belongs on the shelf alongside them.
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