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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    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Derek Elley
    Waking Ned Devine
    Bannen and the gawky Kelly, whose screen chemistry is vital to the film's success, make a delightful pair of stumbling shysters, and Jones' script weaves a sizable tapestry of other characters to flesh out the village.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Elley
    Outlander
    Not helped by a wooden perf from Jim Caviezel as a humanoid alien who accidentally imports a real alien to eighth-century Earth.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Derek Elley
    Paradise Now
    Handsomely shot in widescreen, mostly on actual West Bank locations, and well-played by the cast, pic lays out the issues in an accessible but rather too over-correct way, seemingly eager to please all parties at the expense of real passion.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    Pulse
    Result is always watchable, occasionally creepy and teasingly pitched halfway between a genre riff and a genuine scarefest.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Derek Elley
    Pride & Prejudice
    A movie for the age, and a keeper for the ages, Pride & Prejudice brings Jane Austen's best-loved novel to vivid, widescreen life, as well as making an undisputed star of 20-year-old Keira Knightley.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    The Way Home
    Utterly unsentimental but profoundly moving,The Way Home" is a tiny gem from South Korea.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 40 Derek Elley
    Spring Fever
    Overlong and very Euro-flavored.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Derek Elley
    Read My Lips
    Engaging chemistry between leads Emmanuelle Devos and Vincent Cassel.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Derek Elley
    Climates
    Immaculately shot and composed as always, and moving at Ceylan's usual measured pace, this one is slightly enlivened by more likable perfs and a trim 98-minute running time.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Elley
    Very Bad Things
    Basically a very conventional movie gussied up with a few jaw-dropping moments. Unlike genuinely amoral pics such as "Heathers" or "Shallow Grave," it never seems really comfortable with its characters' actions.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    Tau man ji D
    Super-slick street-racing pic, based on a Nipponese manga series and set in Japan, is aimed squarely at the East Asian market, which it has conquered in spades since late June release.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Derek Elley
    Children of Men
    Picture more than delivers on the action front -- not in bang-for-your-buck spectacle but in the kind of gritty, doculike sequences that haul viewers out of their seats and alongside the main protags.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    Longing
    Big emotional themes come hidden in a deceptively small package in Longing, a mightily impressive feature debut by German writer-director Valeska Grisebach.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 20 Derek Elley
    Dancer in the Dark
    A 2½-hour demo of auteurist self-importance that's artistically bankrupt on almost every level.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Derek Elley
    Wolke Neun
    Overall tone lies somewhere between Mike Leigh and Ken Loach in performances and look, with a modest tech package.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    Save the Green Planet!
    Though certainly not to everyone's tastes, this looney-tunes pic about a deranged serial killer who thinks he's helping Earth by killing off supposed aliens works on a variety of levels, from gruesome slapstick comedy through social critique to genuinely chilling Grand Guignol.
    • 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.
    • 18 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Elley
    Mr. Nanny
    Cross Uncle Buck with Home Alone, stir in the Hulkster, and you've got Mr. Nanny, a gonzo comedy-actioner that should entertain the under-12 and couch-potato sets.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 20 Derek Elley
    Bollywood/Hollywood
    Depressingly parochial.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Elley
    Snow Cake
    Boosted by a delish performance from Carrie-Anne Moss as a local vamp who helps unthaw the Englishman, but holed beneath the waterline by a gratingly miscast Sigourney Weaver as the persnickety autistic.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 40 Derek Elley
    Love the Hard Way
    Doesn't ring true as a love story between a cocky scam artist and a clever biology student, despite a game effort by Charlotte Ayanna in an impossible role and Adrien Brody at his loosest.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Elley
    The Ghost Writer
    What the picture most needed was a complete cinematic rethink and, yes, even some action to move it along.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Derek Elley
    Est - Ouest
    Too often caught between trying to be a sweeping period drama and intimate love story at the same time, with a script that's never fully satisfying on either count.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Derek Elley
    Ginger Snaps
    A quietly subversive my-sister-is-turning-into-a-werewolf movie that doesn't wimp out at the end.
    • 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).
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Derek Elley
    The Cave of the Yellow Dog
    Davaa's strong visual sense, engaging cast and respect for basic film grammar make this slim exercise in managed reality go the distance.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Elley
    Quitting
    What gives Quitting its freshness is its setting in a country that often denies it has such problems and the decision to anchor the film strongly within the Chinese family fabric.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Derek Elley
    Shaun of the Dead
    A classic example of a clever idea that could easily have run out of steam halfway. However, co-scripters Pegg and Wright structure it as a classic three-acter (set-up, journey, finale) with enough twists, character development and small set pieces to keep the comedy boiling.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Derek Elley
    Veronica Guerin
    The supporting perfs provide the real drama, especially Hinds' excellent turn as the outwardly macho but inwardly broken Traynor, and McSorley's simmering portrayal of the psychotic Gilligan
    • 65 Metascore
    • 40 Derek Elley
    Air Doll (2009)
    Japanese helmer Hirokazu Kore-eda’s ongoing interest in love, loss and souls in limbo is stretched way too thin in Air Doll, a beautifully lensed (by Taiwanese ace Mark Lee) and charmingly played (by South Korean icon Bae Du-na) modern fairy tale about an inflatable doll who takes on a life of her own. Recut to a trim 90 minutes, this fragile yarn would work perfectly and have a chance of an afterlife as a specialty item. In its present form, pic may not get much farther than the fest netherworld.
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