Derek Smith

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Slant Magazine
For 336 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 15% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 83% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 14.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Derek Smith's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 51
Highest review score: 88 Everything Everywhere All at Once
Lowest review score: 0 The Last Face
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 133 out of 336
  2. Mixed: 74 out of 336
  3. Negative: 129 out of 336
336 movie reviews
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    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
    To Ritchie’s credit, he keeps his film moving along at a consistently brisk clip, but that breeziness is also the cause of its weightlessness, rendering its vision of historical events as outright cartoonish, down to the often clownish portrayals of Nazis and the flawless execution of nearly every element of March-Phillips’s plans.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    The Nowhere Inn
    The film is elevated by funny, cleverly staged sequences, but it too often hammers the notion that fame destroys authenticity.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    Naples '44
    It’s far too scattershot, bouncing from one topic to the next with the carelessness of someone flipping through a book and reading from a random page.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    The Boogeyman
    Ultimately, The Boogeyman is like so many other modern horror films that prioritize mood above all else.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    Song Sung Blue
    Song Sung Blue is content to pendulum-swing from triumph to tragedy and back again with all the self-control of a drunk driver.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    Theater Camp
    The film feels like sitting through extended acting exercises where everyone is giving it 110% every take.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    The Lost City
    The Lost City is proof that star power and chemistry can only take a film with a mediocre script so far.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    13 Minutes
    Aside from further vilifying the Nazis, the film's ideological endgame remains a bit too slippery.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    Anyone But You
    Will Gluck’s rom-com doesn’t bother to create a compelling world around its charming leads.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    Breathe
    The film is an easily digestible replica of the truth, bathed in honeyed cinematography and sentimentalized adulation.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    Anna and the Apocalypse
    The film's biggest problem is its inability to lend its clichés and tropes any dramatic thrust or satirical bite.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    The Tomorrow Man
    The film is content to peddle the naïve notion that love is the panacea for all that ails you.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    Little
    Its most amusing moments are in the interplay between the central characters as they adjust to an abruptly shifting reality.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    Bitch
    Initially offbeat, Bitch awkwardly pivots toward a more inspirational story of regret and reconciliation.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    A Simple Favor
    A Simple Favor haphazardly vacillates between suburban satire, goofy comedy, and dark, twisted psychological thriller. Which is to say that the film doesn't evince the seamlessness of presentation of its clearest antecedent: David Fincher's "Gone Girl."
    • 42 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    The Wolf Hour
    The film is all surface, and its depiction of trauma becomes increasingly exploitative and hollow as it moves along.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    John Wick: Chapter 4
    In the gradual development and expansion of the Wickaverse, the filmmakers seem to have lost the thread of what makes the first and, at times, second film in the series work so well.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    House of Gucci
    Ridley Scott’s tale of greed and revenge practically begs for melodramatic excess.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    Nobody 2
    Behind the violence and gore, Nobody 2 only offers the skeleton of a narrative.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    Don't Look Up
    Like Vice before it, the film too often uses satire as a tool of castigation rather than as a means of truly attacking the status quo.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    Kidnap
    Ultimately, Kidnap is an efficient vehicle for the delivery of some lean action that's frequently weakened by a scarcely whip-smart script.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    The Lovebirds
    Once the film shifts into a broader comedic register, it no longer capitalizes on Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae’s gift for gab.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    Embattled
    The film muddies its sense of moral righteousness by suggesting that violence and vengeance can only be defeated by more of the same.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    Wendy
    Wendy veers awkwardly and aimlessly between tragedy and jubilance, never accruing any lasting emotional impact.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    The One and Only Ivan
    The charitable representation of Bryan Cranston’s character greatly diminishes the emotional resonance of the film’s dramatic turns in the final act.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
    The only past that Dial of Destiny is interested in plundering is the glory of its predecessors.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    Blindspotting
    The film takes aim at myriad targets and bluntly satirizing them in disparate styles that never mesh into a cohesive whole.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    Napoleon
    More times than not, the film’s bursts of humor clash awkwardly with the far more frequent attempts at gravitas that the filmmakers strive for when our protagonist is in battle or engaged in political discussions.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    Mary Queen of Scots
    As effective as director Josie Rourke is at exposing the emotional and physical toll of reigning as queen when exploring Mary and Elizabeth's relationship, her portrait of an endless string of betrayals ends up as simply faceless and impersonal.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Derek Smith
    Teen Spirit
    In the end, the film is all too ready to transform into just another shiny pop object indistinguishable from so many others before it.
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