Derek Elley

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Variety
For 400 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 45% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 52% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 3.6 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Derek Elley's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 62
Highest review score: 100 Atonement
Lowest review score: 10 Thomas and the Magic Railroad
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 199 out of 400
  2. Mixed: 178 out of 400
  3. Negative: 23 out of 400
400 movie reviews
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    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Derek Elley
    Warlords
    Laden with gritty action, but with an emotional undertow that carries the drama even through its weaker moments, picture reps a strong comeback by Hong Kong helmer-producer Peter Chan.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    Fearless
    Manages to pack a satisfying emotional punch.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Derek Elley
    Eklavya: The Royal Guard
    The pic often plays like a Cliffs Notes version of a longer movie: Pacing and continuity aren't choppy, but there's enough material here for a full-length drama that would go deeper into the characters and their backgrounds. Eklavya is good as it is, but lacks tragic heft.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Elley
    Dung che sai duk
    The temptation of artists to fiddle with their earlier works brings predictably mixed results in Ashes of Time: Redux.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Derek Elley
    I Went Down
    Though McDonald and Gleeson pair off well as the unlikely fellow travelers, and have some funny moments of physical shtick, the picture mostly springs to life when either Caffrey, as Grogan, or the excellent Doyle, as French, are onscreen.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    Little Lili
    Works as both an adaptation and a movie in its own right
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Derek Elley
    Little Voice
    A small picture with a big heart.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Elley
    Nathalie...
    An intellectual-cum-sexual teaser whose twist is apparent far too early on.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    Jodhaa Akbar
    A long-limbed story that is utterly simple in structure, but decorated with enough character interplay and side plots to keep the movie ticking over to a powerful finale.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Derek Elley
    Goyangileul butaghae
    Engaging, highly accessible movie that marks a slick feature debut by helmer Jeong Jae-eun.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    The Good, the Bad, the Weird
    East meets West meets East again, with palate-tingling results, in The Good the Bad the Weird, a kimchi Western that draws shamelessly on its spaghetti forebears but remains utterly, bracingly Korean.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Derek Elley
    Ong Bak
    Strongly recalls Hong Kong kung-fu movies of the late '60s and '70s, with physical grit, over-the-top heroics and inventive fight choreography providing the entertainment.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 40 Derek Elley
    Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
    Talky, repetitive and largely covering the same ground with no new thoughts, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence is a major let-down.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Derek Elley
    Henry Fool
    Poetic, bawdy, contemplative, often side-wrenchingly funny and finally quite touching, this tale about a nerdy garbage man whose life is changed by an egocentric hobo philosopher is flawed only by its length.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    The Luzhin Defence
    A smoothly made period romancer that's elevated by strong playing from its whole cast, led by John Turturro and Emily Watson as the starstruck lovers.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Derek Elley
    Heaven
    Sports a lustrous performance by Cate Blanchett that gives the movie much of its final sheen but still can't keep it on the rails as the already flimsy story starts to disintegrate in the final act.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Elley
    Mad Detective
    A neat idea that doesn't quite hit the bull's-eye.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Derek Elley
    Notting Hill
    Has buckets to spare of that rarest screen commodity — genuine, engaging charm.
    • Variety
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Elley
    Purple Butterfly
    An often remarkable, often infuriating lateral spin on genre material that desperately needs another sesh at the editing table.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Elley
    Warriors of Heaven and Earth
    A handsome although dramatically muddled Noodle Western.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Derek Elley
    Reykjavík
    A funny, touching, off-the-wall relationer that's one of the freshest helming debuts in world cinema this year.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    Chak De India!
    Shaky handheld lensing, terrific cutting and uplifting music build to a grandstand finish in which the main characters are bound tightly into the physical drama. It ain't subtle, but it packs a punch at a simple emotional level.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    Jude
    Technically, pic is top-drawer, with restless, fluid cutting by Trevor Waite that adds to the unstarchy look, and a copious musical score by Adrian Johnston that gives a separate "sound" to the many locations (a folksy drone for Marygreen, High Baroque music for academic Christminster, and so on).
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Derek Elley
    The President's Last Bang
    South Korean cinema finally gets its first full-blown political satire with The President's Last Bang, a virtuoso slice of sustained black humor.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 90 Derek Elley
    An Ideal Husband
    Shines like a freshly minted coin in Oliver Parker's adaptation.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Derek Elley
    Young Adam
    All of the promise that was evident in Scottish helmer David Mackenzie's flawed freshman feature, "The Last Great Wilderness" (2002), is richly achieved in his second pic, Young Adam, a resonant, beautifully modulated relationships drama.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
    Though Ritchie’s screenplay scores a 10 for sheer complexity and cleverness, it rates much lower down the scale for comprehensibility and audience involvement.
    • Variety
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Derek Elley
    Veer-Zaara
    Though it doesn't quite match recent classics like "Kabhi khushi kabhie gham" in sheer technique and production sheen, in-depth star casting and thorough entertainment values make this a must-see for Bollywatchers.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    Brothers of the Head
    Feature debut by Yank duo Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe isn't so far from their engrossing docus on Terry Gilliam's filmic adventures, "The Hamster Factor" (1996) and "Lost in La Mancha" (2001), except here the madness and exploitation is part of the music scene.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Elley
    The Goebbles Experiment
    A man whose name has become a byword for pure evil gets a disarming makeover in The Goebbels Experiment. Far from being the horror show expected from its title, Lutz Hachmeister's cool, almost anti-dramatic docu paints a portrait of an insecure manic-depressive solely through extracts from Joseph Goebbels' own voluminous diaries.
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