Donald Clarke

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The Irish Times
For 572 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 53% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 43% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 2.1 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Donald Clarke's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 68
Highest review score: 100 Amour
Lowest review score: 20 You, Me & Tuscany
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 290 out of 572
  2. Mixed: 261 out of 572
  3. Negative: 21 out of 572
572 movie reviews
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    • 56 Metascore
    • 20 Donald Clarke
    Deadpool & Wolverine
    The creators of Deadpool will argue, lamely in my view, that by admitting the puerile nature of the humour they inure themselves to criticism in that area, but no such excuses are offered for the onanistic self-regard. After two hours of this infantile mugging, one is left longing for the genuinely upending humour of the Batman TV series from 60 years ago. Awful. Just awful.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Donald Clarke
    Skywalkers: A Love Story
    Nobody will walk away from Skywalkers: A Love Story raving about its soap-opera shenanigans. But as an exercise in physical unsettlement it could hardly be bettered.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Donald Clarke
    Twisters
    Twisters feels no need to offer footnotes and variation on its predecessor. It’s a big fat summer movie in its own right. And that’s something these days.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Donald Clarke
    Sleep
    If nothing else, this fine debut feature from Korean director Jason Yu – hitherto assistant director to Bong Joon-ho – counts as a small masterpiece of tone.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Donald Clarke
    Longlegs
    Yes, the pulpy mythologies sometimes overshadow that carefully maintained mood. But it remains quite a mood. Hokum as high art.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 80 Donald Clarke
    Hounds
    A grim thrill rounded off with a chilling last shot.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Donald Clarke
    Blue Lock the Movie -Episode Nagi-
    Though largely for already-persuaded aficionados, Blue Lock The Movie: Episode Nagi has enough imaginative zing to make up for its somewhat monotonous storytelling. This is football reimagined as a heightened form of futuristic warfare. Those who already know they like it will like it very much.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Donald Clarke
    Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
    Murphy reminds us, albeit at a lower temperature, what caused so many heads to laugh themselves off shoulders during his pomp.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Donald Clarke
    A Quiet Place: Day One
    The set pieces are well handled, but this prequel stands out most for its commitment to fleshy humanity.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Donald Clarke
    Kinds of Kindness
    It is plainly the work of talented individuals, but it ultimately leaves you with little to show for your patience other than a pounding headache.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 40 Donald Clarke
    Something in the Water
    Unfortunately the characterisation is so thin and the dialogue so clunky that the thing plays more like one of those 1960s surf horrors – Cannibal Martians at Wipeout Cove – that invited drive-in audiences to speculate about which beach denizen deserved to get eaten first (usually a hard question to answer).
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Donald Clarke
    The Bikeriders
    Most contemporary westerns end up mourning a vanished era of compromised freedom. The Bikeriders doesn’t quite believe in that myth, but it still finds time to dampen a handkerchief as its shadow recedes. A flawed, fascinating film.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Donald Clarke
    Inside Out 2
    There is, as there was in the first film, a profound sadness at the heart of Inside Out 2.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Donald Clarke
    Apocalypse Clown
    The miracle is that most of it sticks. Kane is a fine craftsman.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Donald Clarke
    Bad Boys: Ride or Die
    The downside to all this is that it reminds us that video games tend to manage cleaner storytelling than the makers of Bad Boys: Ride or Die do. The film plays as a muddle of set pieces – some impressive, most unintelligible – that fail to form any kind of coherent line. One almost longs for Bay’s return. His satanic mayhem at least had a consistency to it.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 60 Donald Clarke
    The Beast
    The film has its flaws, but worriers will find much with which to identify.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Donald Clarke
    Sting
    All in all, a diverting entertainment that, unlike so much contemporary horror, is prepared to have a good time. Fun for all the family.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Donald Clarke
    Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
    The seat-of-the-pants grit of the first film seems as distant as kitchen-sink verite.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Donald Clarke
    Bird
    Not everyone will approve of the big swing here. But few will resist the richness and fullness of [Arnold's] characterisation.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 60 Donald Clarke
    IF
    If comes together nicely in a moving denouement that almost makes sense of the fantastic clutter. Often touching. Often infuriating.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Donald Clarke
    Much Ado About Dying
    This is often a difficult film to watch. The subject’s physical frailty is palpable, and his resistance to even the least intrusive advice is infuriating. The atmosphere of fug, filth and peril is suffocating. But Chambers selects the footage cunningly to always allow whispers of charm to filter through the stubbornness.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Donald Clarke
    Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
    The film is good enough to deserve the sequels towards which it there gestures.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 40 Donald Clarke
    Unfrosted
    Oh, well. Perhaps the best response to junk food is junk cinema.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Donald Clarke
    Love Lies Bleeding
    What keeps it ticking is the fiery gut-clenched romance between the two leads.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Donald Clarke
    I.S.S.
    If the film has a significant flaw, it is that it doesn’t get the room to breathe. Another 10 minutes to flesh out plots and subplots would have been nice.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Donald Clarke
    Challengers
    A real stonker of an entertainment.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Donald Clarke
    All You Need Is Death
    All You Need Is Death, craggy and rough-edged, may be in constant conversation with the distant past, but it also puts up signposts to the future for Irish horror cinema. It’s about time somebody found a name for this artistic movement (if it is yet that).
    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Donald Clarke
    The Sweet East
    There is a sense here not just of Vietnam-era experimental cinema but of contemporaneous postmodern novels by the likes of Thomas Pynchon and the recently late John Barth. Smart and dumb. Fascinating and frustrating. An absolute blast.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Donald Clarke
    Civil War
    Civil War is wan as satire. But it’s an action stormer for the ages.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 60 Donald Clarke
    Back to Black
    Sure, you will learn more – and hear more of the original recordings – in Asif Kapadia’s great documentary Amy, but Taylor-Johnson does a decent job of making a tight drama from the same tragic yarn.
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