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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    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Elley
    Lust, Caution
    Too much caution and too little lust squeeze much of the dramatic juice out of Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, a 2½--hour period drama that's a long haul for relatively few returns.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Derek Elley
    City of Ghosts
    Despite a name cast, with Dillon playing an insurance crook, pic is holed by a plot-heavy script that's unsatisfying at a character level and plays like a cut-down version of a much longer, more ambitious saga.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    The Emperor's New Clothes
    Pleasant rather than rollicking entertainment.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Elley
    Together
    The plucky music student who overcomes adversity is a staple subgenre of mainland cinema and, though Chen Kaige directs with greater slickness and more finesse and humor, there's still little to differentiate Together from any other state-studio pic.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Elley
    Blind Mountain
    Low on drama and originality, and high on deja vu, sophomore outing by writer-director Li Yang ("Blind Shaft," 2003).
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    Gloomy Sunday
    The iconic '30s song "Gloomy Sunday" gets a distinctive celluloid setting in this well-played, cleverly scripted pic in which music and character are inextricably combined.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    Brassed Off
    This well-played, often very sparky dramedy about the shenanigans in a northern brass band composed of miners threatened with pit closure gets a bad attack of social realism in the latter stages that rocks the crowded craft.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Derek Elley
    Calendar Girls
    Though the film is never dull, and playing by the cast is spirited, it's actually a surprisingly gentle movie, with no big "Full Monty"-like finale to send auds buzzing into the street.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Elley
    Unveiled
    Several large leaps of faith take some of the dramatic steam out of Unveiled, an otherwise well-acted and accessible lesbian drama that also flirts with issues like loss of identity and anti-Muslim tensions.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    Go for Zucker
    Picture lets loose an experienced cast of vets on a well-honed script that has broad appeal.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    The Experiment
    A solid slice of entertainment without reaching the psychological depths promised by the subject matter.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Derek Elley
    The Princess Blade
    A martial arts fantasy in modern dress, but set in an unidentified country and era, The Princess Blade is a tough toasted sandwich with a soft filling.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    Ip Man
    Ip Man will be manna for those who like their kung fu straight and wireless, their villains Japanese and their heroes unconflicted Chinese patriots.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    Bang Rajan
    Visceral and sweat-drenched, but also attaining a genuinely epic stature in its final reels.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 30 Derek Elley
    The Wisdom of Crocodiles
    Starts intriguingly but ends up thrashing around as a toothless wonder.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Elley
    Pirate Radio
    Picture generally stays afloat on the strength of its characters but sometimes threatens to sink under its overlong running time and vignettish structure.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Derek Elley
    Quantum of Solace
    Stripped of "Royale's" humor, elegance and reinvented old-school stylishness, Quantum has little left except its plot, which is rudimentary and slightly barmy, in the line of the Roger Moore pics of the '70s and '80s.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    Lost in Beijing
    Money (and maybe a little bit of love) makes the world go around in Lost in Beijing, an involving, highly accessible portrait of an emotional menage a quatre in the modern-day Chinese capital.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Elley
    Distance
    There’s almost none of the generous, involving humanity (and warm humor) of the previous film, nor any clear take on the personalities in the slackly structured script, largely improvised by the actors.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Elley
    Storm
    A potentially gripping legal thriller about what happens when Western Europe attempts to solve Central European problems ends up as dull entertainment in Storm.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Derek Elley
    Free Radicals
    An often compelling drama, marbled with dry humor and flecked with the supernatural, that provides food for thought but doesn't quite reach the brass ring.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Derek Elley
    Lila Says
    Easy on the eye but light on originality.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Derek Elley
    A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop
    Western audiences familiar with "Blood Simple" will get a kick out of the reinventions.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 40 Derek Elley
    The Hole
    Cool it may be, but scary (or even mildly shudder-inducing) it ain’t, even in 3-D.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    16 Years of Alcohol
    The highly directed film adopts a semi-impressionistic approach more European than British in flavor, aided by a terrific central performance by Kevin McKidd and painterly lensing by John Rhodes.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Derek Elley
    Kinky Boots
    A London drag queen and a bunch of Midlands working stiffs find common ground and, uh, mutual respect in Kinky Boots, a slick, cross-tracks Britcom whose stride is hampered by its desire not to offend.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 80 Derek Elley
    Yat luk che
    An utterly charming retro romancer set against a background of '70s movie going. Full of lovely touches and well-etched performances, and flawed only by a bland male lead.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Derek Elley
    Gandhi, My Father
    Classy production values and a textured lead performance by Darshan Jariwala are undercut by a lack of real drama in Gandhi My Father.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Elley
    John Rabe
    Despite the emotive subject matter, picture is often too sluggish dramatically, and never knits together its stock Western characters into a satisfying whole.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Derek Elley
    Backstage
    With its booming soundtrack of songs -- written by Laurent Marimbert and sung by Seigner herself -- and good chemistry between Le Besco and Seigner, pic at times has an operatic emotional intensity that will turn off some viewers but provide a guilty pleasure for others.
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