Helen O'Hara

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Empire, The Telegraph, Time Out
For 278 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 51% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 46% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 3.5 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Helen O'Hara's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 62
Highest review score: 100 Avengers: Endgame
Lowest review score: 20 The Brothers Grimsby
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 88 out of 278
  2. Mixed: 187 out of 278
  3. Negative: 3 out of 278
278 movie reviews
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    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Helen O'Hara
    Another Simple Favor
    Even the slightest wisp of critical thought will bring the house-of-cards plot tumbling down, but avoid thinking too much and it’s a frothy, sun-drenched bit of fun.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Helen O'Hara
    The Penguin Lessons
    If you do pick up a penguin, you could do worse than experience Michell’s kind of spiritual and moral awakening. Still, the film is thankfully sharper and less cute than it initially appears.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Helen O'Hara
    Sinners
    An idiosyncratic, thematically dense twist on the vampire myth that’s oddly paced but beautifully played. One to sink your teeth into.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Helen O'Hara
    The Woman in the Yard
    It's well performed, and Collet-Serra knows his way around a beautifully timed scare, but what's most haunting is the sense that the same idea has been done better before.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 40 Helen O'Hara
    Last Breath
    A curiously bloodless account of a real-life disaster that has moments of gripping tension punctuating long stretches of fatally understated business as usual.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 40 Helen O'Hara
    Snow White
    It’s at its best when it’s an old-fashioned song-and-dance princess story, with Zegler and Gadot broad but effective, and at its worst in any scene involving the digital dwarves.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 40 Helen O'Hara
    Marching Powder
    It’s occasionally funny, but the moments of sincerity are undermined by the unformed sense of grievance and bitterness at the whole wide world.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 60 Helen O'Hara
    Opus
    Maybe art does demand something profound of us all, but here the big, interesting ideas have been chipped away in favour of subpar scares, leaving this film’s own cult appeal looking rather limited.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Helen O'Hara
    Dog Man
    It's all very, very silly. That, combined with the relentless pace, should ensure that it delights its target audience of under-tens, but the adults shouldn’t fear this dog’s bark too much.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Helen O'Hara
    Mickey 17
    Like Mickey himself, it’s goofy and a little inconsistent, but it’s also funny, thoughtful and more plausible than we might like. A charming space oddity for these unusual times.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 40 Helen O'Hara
    Kinda Pregnant
    Deeply misconceived and steadily unfunny, this feels longer than its running time. A few moments of emotional honesty between mothers are the only bits worth watching, but they're too scant to save this mess.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 60 Helen O'Hara
    Captain America: Brave New World
    Pacy and punchy, this is a promising first official outing for the new Captain America, even if some awkward and inconsistent moments hold it back from greatness.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Helen O'Hara
    William Tell
    This old-fashioned tale of folk heroism and hardy underdogs benefits from solid performances and spectacular vistas, but it loses points for a sequel-baiting ending. 
    • 59 Metascore
    • 80 Helen O'Hara
    We Live in Time
    It feels real, and honest, in a way that too few romantic films manage.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Helen O'Hara
    That Christmas
    The stories are all individually charming, but overly familiar animation and underwhelming character-design blunt the effect. 
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Helen O'Hara
    Wicked
    Chu amps up the colour and spectacle to extraordinary, almost overwhelming heights, but the real magic comes from Erivo and Grande as the frenemies at the story’s heart. 
    • 50 Metascore
    • 40 Helen O'Hara
    Hot Frosty
    With so-so performances and an immensely dumb conceit, this is snow Christmas classic. Still, it’s less naughty, more ice than we might have expected. 
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Helen O'Hara
    Small Things Like These
    A deliberate film that uses small moments to examine one of the great questions of our time: how good people let bad things happen, and how we might push back against the dark.  
    • 34 Metascore
    • 40 Helen O'Hara
    Red One
    There’s a little bit of heart here, in the story of two people who have lost faith in Christmas for very different reasons, but more often this feels engineered in a lab to provide seasonal spectacle.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Helen O'Hara
    Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
    It’s delightful to see these characters again, particularly the long-suffering Gromit, and if the jokes don’t come quite as thick and fast as before, the beating heart beneath the clay remains intact.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Helen O'Hara
    Never Let Go
    As with many high-concept horrors, it falls apart as it grasps for an ending, but there's still enough dread, and three great central performances, to just about carry it through.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Helen O'Hara
    My Old Ass
    Smart, and sharp enough to balance the sweetness of its simple yet profound message. All we have is time, and this film reminds us, movingly, that it matters how we spend it.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Helen O'Hara
    Transformers One
    It’s consistently pretty entertaining, even if it takes a while to get going.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Helen O'Hara
    The Critic
    McKellen has fun as the bitter, biting Erskine, but the plot takes so long to come together that at times he’s the only thing holding the audience’s interest.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Helen O'Hara
    Sing Sing
    Brimming with compassion and punctuated by humour, this is a moving look at prison and prisoners. It’s both infuriating and inspirational to see so much beauty in such a harsh environment.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Helen O'Hara
    Close to You
    Savage directs with a light hand, and sometimes you wish for a little more shape to the baggier scenes.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Helen O'Hara
    Babes
    An awkward mix of gross-out comedy and big emotional sincerity, which may be authentic to the experience of pregnancy but feels clumsily balanced between these two characters.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 40 Helen O'Hara
    Harold and the Purple Crayon
    It’s well-intentioned and manages some nicely judged messaging by the end, but Harold’s mugging and his animal companions’ antics aren’t nearly as cute as the film thinks they are.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 40 Helen O'Hara
    Freud's Last Session
    It’s not the fault of either star, but the half-baked script makes this an unsatisfyingly thin exploration of the weighty themes it seeks to cover. More intellectual cut-and-thrust and fewer flashbacks would have helped.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 60 Helen O'Hara
    Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1
    It's fine for an epic to sprawl, but you want a sense of purpose at the same time, and this one sometimes loses its way. Still, it’s handsomely shot and well performed, a throwback to the glory days of event-movie horse operas.
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