G. Allen Johnson

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San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner
For 523 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 54% higher than the average critic
  • 1% same as the average critic
  • 45% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 1.7 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

G. Allen Johnson's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 67
Highest review score: 100 Fire of Love
Lowest review score: 0 The Out-Laws
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 345 out of 523
  2. Mixed: 83 out of 523
  3. Negative: 95 out of 523
523 movie reviews
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    • 58 Metascore
    • 25 G. Allen Johnson
    Cry Macho
    But Eastwood is undercut by the unbearably weak screenplay by Nick Schenk, who adapts a 1975 novel by N. Richard Nash. Schenk has turned in good work for Eastwood before, including “Gran Torino” and “The Mule,” but here his strategy seems to be having his characters explain everything that they’re doing and feeling, much of which should be delivered visually. Action is character, after all.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 75 G. Allen Johnson
    Stepmom
    About as warm, pleasing and inviting as a film about divorce, infidelity and terminal cancer can be.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 25 G. Allen Johnson
    Moana 2
    Moana 2 is finally here, ready to assault audiences this holiday season with one of the most ill-conceived sequels in Disney history. It took three directors to sink this movie — Dana Ledoux Miller, Jason Hand and David Derrick Jr. — and it’s so bad it feels like they did it on purpose.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 63 G. Allen Johnson
    The Legend of 1900
    What could have been an insightful, irresistible movie is instead a simple, self-contained fable, pleasing to look at but meaningless
    • San Francisco Examiner
    • 58 Metascore
    • 75 G. Allen Johnson
    The Hummingbird Project
    The Hummingbird Project — is at once an offbeat comedy and a satisfyingly weird thriller.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 25 G. Allen Johnson
    The One and Only Ivan
    The One and Only Ivan has within it a much more interesting film waiting to break out that really could have been for the whole family, but alas it is trapped within the cement walls of Disney’s cookie-cutter formula.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 88 G. Allen Johnson
    The Yards
    Classic in feel and loaded with sumptuous performances.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 G. Allen Johnson
    Pet Sematary
    Isn’t bad, but it seems unnecessary. It’s even a little bland.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 75 G. Allen Johnson
    Dicks: The Musical
    It’s a deliriously demented LGBTQ+ riff on “The Parent Trap” about accepting love in all forms, repairing broken families and finding your true self, but it accomplishes all of that in the raunchiest way possible.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 75 G. Allen Johnson
    The Wedding Guest
    Like the best noirs, The Wedding Guest is an efficient crime thriller that clocks in at around 90 minutes. It’s a B movie with style — the stuff that dreams are made of.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 G. Allen Johnson
    Bossa Nova
    Like sitting on the beach under a cozy, warm afternoon sun. The view is beautiful, but not much is happening and soon you drift peacefully to sleep.
    • San Francisco Examiner
    • 57 Metascore
    • 75 G. Allen Johnson
    Chemical Hearts
    What makes Chemical Hearts so good is it’s unafraid of its feelings. It tackles complicated emotional issues such as depression, suicide, sex and love with a straightforward honesty. For once, a film about young people is completely free of snark and irony.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 75 G. Allen Johnson
    Lorne
    Lorne makes it clear that nearly everyone in the entertainment industry who is known for creating laughs owes a debt of gratitude to the master.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 75 G. Allen Johnson
    Jules
    Marc Turtletaub’s gentle, winning comedy Jules is technically a science-fiction film, but it is actually about loneliness and aging, much like the classic ’80s audience-pleaser “Cocoon,” which this film often resembles.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 75 G. Allen Johnson
    Breakthrough
    The story is well-told, but what makes it interesting is that each character confronts his or her own crisis — even Tommie, the paramedic who rescued him. It also drives home the point that a seemingly small tragic event can affect an entire community.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 25 G. Allen Johnson
    The Bride!
    When you walk out of the theater feeling more empathy for the tortured monster than his Bride, the experiment has failed.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 G. Allen Johnson
    Mufasa: The Lion King
    Working from a script by Jeff Nathanson, Jenkins, who got his filmmaking start in San Francisco and directed the best picture-winning “Moonlight” (2016), efficiently tells a simple story very well, although his style isn’t that much different from that of Jon Favreau, who directed the first computer-animated film.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 G. Allen Johnson
    Infinite Storm
    Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska (“The Other Lamb”) directs for the big screen, with eye-pleasing mountain visuals (the Slovenian Alps subs for Mount Washington) and a well-executed adventure. But when the setting is in civilization, the drama grinds to a halt.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 G. Allen Johnson
    The Eyes of Tammy Faye
    Showalter’s The Eyes of Tammy Faye, which credits the documentary as its inspiration, recreates some of the doc’s scenes almost verbatim. But while imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, Abe Sylvia’s ambitious but shallow script has something spiritually missing — namely, a point to it all.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 75 G. Allen Johnson
    Tom of Finland
    A good, strong movie, but never threatens to be great. One salivates at the adventurous directions the film could have explored.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 75 G. Allen Johnson
    Hocus Pocus 2
    Ultimately, Hocus Pocus 2 operates as a cheerful throwback to the 1980s/early ’90s genre of plucky kids saving small-town America from existential danger, a vibe tapped into by not just the original “Hocus Pocus” but such classics as “Gremlins,” “Back to the Future” and “The Goonies.”
    • 56 Metascore
    • 75 G. Allen Johnson
    Wolf Creek
    What's Christmas Day without a good serial killer movie?
    • 56 Metascore
    • 75 G. Allen Johnson
    The Croods: A New Age
    So there’s a lot going on here, and director Joel Crawford and his teams efficiently keep the story moving along. There’s a wonderful “Flintstones” versus “Jetsons” vibe, the characters are, as usual, appealing.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 75 G. Allen Johnson
    Boss Level
    It’s nothing groundbreaking, just good-humored bloody action directed at a frenetic pace, clocking in at about an hour and a half. Sometimes you need a little bit of fun, and Boss Level delivers.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 G. Allen Johnson
    The Running Man
    It’s hard to make a two-plus-hour chase movie like this compelling, but Wright gives it a go by peppering the cast with brief appearances by characters far more interesting who help Ben along his way.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 75 G. Allen Johnson
    Prefontaine
    But then, just when it appears the race is lost, Steve James' love for his character and art form kicks in and wins the day, and, though flawed, Prefontaine is an engrossing portrait of a complex figure.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 25 G. Allen Johnson
    The Fall of the American Empire
    So politics and social commentary aside, we are left with a crime film. One that isn’t very suspenseful or particularly clever.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 25 G. Allen Johnson
    Arkansas
    Most of Arkansas — Duke’s home state, by the way — just falls flat, despite individual scenes here and there that work.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 G. Allen Johnson
    The Tobacconist
    Nikolaus Leytner’s competent, watchable but uninspired adaptation of the best-selling novel by Robert Seethaler does have a few attractions, chiefly a heartwarming farewell performance as Freud, the famed psychoanalyst, by the great Bruno Ganz, who died last year not long after filming.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 38 G. Allen Johnson
    Playing by Heart
    What a cast! What a waste!
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