Catherine Bray

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Empire, The Guardian, Time Out, Time Out London, Variety
For 101 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 54% higher than the average critic
  • 10% same as the average critic
  • 36% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 1.3 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Catherine Bray's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 64
Highest review score: 100 Anselm
Lowest review score: 40 Madame Web
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 43 out of 101
  2. Mixed: 58 out of 101
  3. Negative: 0 out of 101
101 movie reviews
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    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Catherine Bray
    It's a Wonderful Knife
    It’s a Wonderful Knife is diverting enough to start with, as the plot clicks efficiently into motion with the requisite stabbings and impalings. Unfortunately, there’s not enough fuel in the engine – the characters don’t have quite enough to do, we can’t care quite enough about them, and the world-building is nearly-but-not-quite convincing.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Catherine Bray
    Touch Me
    The cherry on top of this admittedly weird cocktail is a strong streak of genuine sensuality – if it’s your first encounter with tentacle sex on screen, you might be surprised how appealing Heimann and his cast have managed to make it seem.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Catherine Bray
    Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
    Riper than the ripest of ripe Brie, this crime caper provides a ridiculous vehicle for the talents of pretty much everyone involved, all of whom appear to be having a splendid time. Taken on these terms, viewers probably will too.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 40 Catherine Bray
    It's Only the End of the World
    Unfortunately, because it's so cinematically inert, all that craft and talent seems wasted. Let's hope his next film sees him working on another Dolan original.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 70 Catherine Bray
    The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die
    Where “Seven Kings Must Die” is most interesting, however, is in its approach to religion, sexuality and culture. While it’s tempting to see our current era as unprecedented in its social blending of diverse faiths and identities, early medieval England gives contemporary Western society a run for its money in this respect.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 Catherine Bray
    Happiness for Beginners
    Well-behaved to a fault, Happiness for Beginners is sweet but a little tentative.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 40 Catherine Bray
    Cash Out
    Chalk it up to an insufficiently distinctive screenplay and underwhelming plot, but for Travolta, Cash Out feels more like a mercenary case of cashing in.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 60 Catherine Bray
    The Pope's Exorcist
    It’s not just the demonic possession victims whose eyes will be rolling back in their skulls – none of this should work, really, and yet the film just about gets away with it, proving the Lord truly does move in mysterious ways.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Catherine Bray
    DogMan
    I’m sure there’s a way to make this theoretically fun premise work better, but regrettably Besson hasn’t found it.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 60 Catherine Bray
    A Minecraft Movie
    Full-throttle star turns from Jack Black and Jennifer Coolidge raise laughs but don’t help the perfunctory plotting in this screen take on the game franchise.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 40 Catherine Bray
    Comandante
    De Angelis offers some muscular film-making, with decent action sequences.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 60 Catherine Bray
    Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.
    As a thriller, this is not really thrilling enough. And as a biopic, it’s not necessarily representative of the spirit of the man. But it’s solid enough film-making in a traditional no-frills mode that will always find an audience – even if it’s not particularly trendy.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 60 Catherine Bray
    Two Tickets to Greece
    Despite occasional detours into darker themes, this is fundamentally a relaxing trip for an audience — ideal for women of a similar age to the main characters who might fancy treating themselves to a trip to the Greek islands without actually having to get on a flight.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 80 Catherine Bray
    Something in the Water
    Audiences hoping for lashings of graphic violence may be disappointed that not all of these problems involve gallons of blood – this is a relatively gore-free thriller – instead, it’s all aboard and anchors aweigh for some larky tension between likable characters who find themselves plunged into a nightmare scenario.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 60 Catherine Bray
    Consecration
    The world of the film feels real, a splendid argument for less green screen, more green fields – kudos to veteran British horror helmer Christopher Smith (Severance).
    • 40 Metascore
    • 60 Catherine Bray
    The Astronaut
    The Astronaut has a lot going for it, but, like the lead character in the opening scenes, it doesn’t quite stick the landing.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 40 Catherine Bray
    Mary
    Alas, you have to sit through a lot of turgid Bible studies dramatisations of bits of scripture to get to the good stuff.
    • 26 Metascore
    • 40 Catherine Bray
    Madame Web
    Madame Web isn’t much worse than the rest of the SPUMC, give or take, but it’s not really better, either. Its minimal saving grace is that it doesn’t require much familiarity with the wider universe.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 90 Catherine Bray
    Fraud
    Fleischer-Camp and editor Jonathan Rippon’s subtle recontextualizations illuminate the family’s attempt to live their lives as outlined in omnipresent commercials as both illogical and understandable — this is not a film intent on hanging its subjects out to dry.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Catherine Bray
    Bobcat Moretti
    It’s as if the film doesn’t quite trust its original moments to stand alone, and instead feels the need to signpost everything.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Catherine Bray
    Journey to Bethlehem
    If you feel the need to watch a faith film, you could do far, far worse than this one, a decently staged musical treatment of the nativity that feels like a Christian version of a live action Disney movie.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Catherine Bray
    Last Straw
    It’s encouraging to see low-budget early-career film-making with ambition.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Catherine Bray
    Leo
    Directed with verve and enthusiasm by 37-year-old former bank employee Lokesh Kanagaraj, who moved into directing after winning a short film competition, the influence of the likes of Quentin Tarantino on all of this is very much evident.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Catherine Bray
    The Shift
    For every bright spot in The Shift, and every moment where it has value as a cultural curio or object of camp intrigue, you unfortunately have to sit through a fair amount of blathering on about Kevin’s mission.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Catherine Bray
    Damaged
    Damaged isn’t trying to be a meme, it’s playing things completely straight, and trying to be a serious police procedural in the vein of 90s thrillers such as Se7en or Primal Fear. That sincerity, and the apparent genuine commitment of top-tier performers like Jackson, is what makes this ripely absurd film at least half-worth watching.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Catherine Bray
    You Can't Run Forever
    Veteran actor JK Simmons (Whiplash) is the main reason to watch this basic horror-thriller, which isn’t as horrific or thrilling as one might hope.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Catherine Bray
    Ghost: Rite Here Rite Now
    These guys know how to hammer out a riff, with traditional chord progressions underpinning melodies that are easy to listen to but equally easy to forget afterwards.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Catherine Bray
    Place of Bones
    It’s pretty evident that this is a fairly low-budget film, with that faint sense of hired costumes about the western gear. But it’s entertaining enough and keeps you guessing.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Catherine Bray
    Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie
    It’s all manically enjoyable, especially for the core demographic (my seven-year-old niece said she would give the film four stars). For general viewers, it may not pack as much of an emotional punch, but like SpongeBob himself, it’s thoroughly absorbing.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Catherine Bray
    Haunted Heart
    Matters would have been improved from the audience’s point of view, however, if said digging had happened a little sooner; the film takes its sweet time to get to where we sense it’s going, and then quickly runs out of steam when it does.
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