Janice Page

Select another critic »
Boston Globe
For 152 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 50% higher than the average critic
  • 0% same as the average critic
  • 50% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 6 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Janice Page's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 60
Highest review score: 88 Marooned in Iraq
Lowest review score: 12 Alone in the Dark
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 87 out of 152
  2. Mixed: 33 out of 152
  3. Negative: 32 out of 152
152 movie reviews
view
per page
    • 73 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    The Biggest Little Farm
    Think “An Inconvenient Truth” meets “Babe,” or “The Good Earth” meets a biodiverse “Marley & Me,” with a dash of the Food Network’s “Pioneer Woman” tossed in. Among other things, that means furry critters romping to a folksy soundtrack with tubas and banjos employed unironically. It means circle-of-life lessons and sun-dappled everything. It means check your cynicism and snark at the gate, if you dare.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Monkey Kingdom
    New rule: All Disneynature films must be narrated by Tina Fey.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    Blackfish
    What’s on camera is both damning and expertly assembled, a filmmaking effort worthy of standing with 2009’s Oscar-winning documentary about dolphin abuse, “The Cove.”
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Somewhere Between
    Knowlton has landed on four stories that deserve to be told, and she's told them in a straightforward way that gets the job done, with obvious dedication and love.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 50 Janice Page
    Here Comes the Boom
    Kevin James's latest comedy doesn't promise any bing or bang, only boom. Take it at its word.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    China Heavyweight
    Where Wiseman excelled in respecting the broad rhythms and pure storytelling of the ring, Chang's new documentary focuses on the stories of three boxers and weaves them into a compelling narrative that rivals anything Hollywood could script.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Three Stars
    Maybe because Hachmeister has a background in journalism, his movie endeavors to educate by covering a lot of ground in its 90-plus minutes, which is certainly commendable, it's just not that satisfying.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    Ballplayer: Pelotero
    A well-crafted, bravely revealing little film that could be considered essential education for baseball fans. It's just a bonus that the documentary is so entertaining.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    To the Arctic
    More storytelling and less preaching would have served those messages better.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Big Miracle
    It needs only to entertain. And that it does thoroughly, leaving us both charmed and enriched without feeling very preached at. Praise be.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Kung Fu Panda 2
    It's still Black's franchise, though. And part of the problem with this sequel is how little it lets its star just riff with silly abandon, as he did throughout the original.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Born to Be Wild
    Ironically, Born to Be Wild banks solely on its tameness to captivate and inspire, aided by an upbeat, sometimes incongruous soundtrack.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Secret Ballot
    Ride it out, and you will find the rewards modest but meaningful.
    • Boston Globe
    • 37 Metascore
    • 38 Janice Page
    Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties
    Though Murray and Curry gamely deliver some chuckle-worthy one-liners along the way, they're mostly leashed to material as moldy and uninspired as the "Jeffersons" theme song.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Praying with Lior
    There's an honest, unfiltered quality to what you see and hear.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Before the Fall
    Unusually compelling, even if it's treacly enough to be "The Chorus" in goose step.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 50 Janice Page
    Knockaround Guys
    Likable performances are critically wounded by implausible scenarios and derivative-minded direction referencing everything from ''Reservoir Dogs'' to ''Fargo.''
    • 66 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Tattoo
    Maybe Tattoo is creepy and stylized enough to pull you along anyway, but if you like your thrillers to dig below the familiar epidermis, look elsewhere.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Empathy
    At the very least, some of the answers and observations offered up in this hybrid documentary/drama/thesis project will surprise you.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Formosa Betrayed
    As a political thriller, Formosa Betrayed has enough suspense and intrigue to pull viewers along willingly. It doesn’t try too hard, which is refreshing.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 38 Janice Page
    It's All Gone Pete Tong
    Isn't all wrong. But even at its very best, it's just all right.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 38 Janice Page
    Milarepa
    Despite timely and worthwhile subject matter, there is nothing very inspired or inspiring in what makes it to the screen. Maybe they're saving all of that for the sequel, too.
    • 29 Metascore
    • 38 Janice Page
    L.A. Twister
    Serves up a silly story and clunky dialogue that gets better than it deserves from Jennifer Aspen as Lenny's would-be girlfriend.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Evelyn
    Isn't just a feel-good movie; it's a feel-good-and-righteous movie. And audiences will forgive its flaws.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    Mean Creek
    Adults should find its simmering drama at least as compelling as teens will, even if parental figures are only slightly more present here than in a " Peanuts" comic strip.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Mongolian Ping Pong
    In Mongolian Ping Pong the point is to look under the majestic vistas and see value in ordinary things -- ping-pong balls included.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Manito
    Because Manito is really just an opera without the violins or Viking hats, you probably don't need to have everything spelled out. Its Spanish-English script is secondary to the universal language and timeless drama of family, community, dreams made and dreams dashed.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Janice Page
    Ramona and Beezus
    Ramona and Beezus the movie, should not be confused with "Beezus and Ramona'' the book.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 50 Janice Page
    Dear John
    Unfortunately for Tatum and Seyfried, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams did a far more convincing version of this same basic dance in “The Notebook.’’
    • 36 Metascore
    • 38 Janice Page
    Poster Boy
    An overwrought story of American politics and image-making that really only gets interesting in the final act.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Love and Diane
    fully devotes itself to painting a family portrait seldom allowed such rich cinematic detail.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 38 Janice Page
    Underdog
    Underdog! Rest assured, there is no superhero cliche left unchewed; they even manage to slide in a "Lady and the Tramp" homage while they're at it.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    The Blood of My Brother
    Combines an insider's perspective with what can only be described as gutsy cinematography.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Chaos
    The best that can be said of the men in Coline Serreau's Chaos is that some of them are pimps.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    The Backyard
    The most disturbing thing about this grass-roots-inspired extreme-wrestling documentary by Paul Hough is how much worse you expect the violence to be.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Janice Page
    Shrek Forever After
    To see this final installment is to know: It’s time.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    The Weight of Water
    Though it never rises to its full potential as a film, still offers a great deal of insight into the female condition and the timeless danger of emotions repressed.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    The World's Fastest Indian
    The film is at its best in Utah, both because in David Gribble's exhilarating cinematography we finally get to feel the full power and intoxication of the sport.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Look Both Ways
    The debut live-action feature of Australian animator Sarah Watt has several other things to recommend it as well, including a black-humored screenplay, realistic performances, eye-catching artwork, and a few creative turns on some well-worn themes.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?
    A rousing, sometimes funny, frequently depressing documentary.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Janice Page
    Winter Solstice
    Ultimately undercut by its fictional elements and its flat characters.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie
    The movie's heart is in the right place, but all its messages of tolerance might resonate better if the Spanish-accented pirate didn't get drawn with a gold tooth and the turban-wearing Khalil wasn't an opportunistic rug merchant.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 38 Janice Page
    The Event
    Dukakis gets off some of the film's best lines and keeps the worst from sinking the whole affair; Polley's role is limited, but her character's audition for a feminine hygiene commercial is by far the best thing here.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Earth
    This Earth doesn't really have anything new to say, but it does present some newly entertaining ways of saying it.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    The Warrior
    What really makes 'The Warrior worthwhile is its indomitable soul.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 38 Janice Page
    Mr. Woodcock
    The film logs almost all of its laughs when it's at its crudest, meanest, and most unfiltered. Everything else - and that is to say most of the movie - is a big, fat, derivative waste of time.
    • 25 Metascore
    • 25 Janice Page
    Venom
    If ridiculous, hackneyed, gratuitously violent slasher movies aren't your thing, don't go near Venom with a 10-foot snake pole.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    Piccadilly [re-release]
    As casually insensitive and careless as you might expect from a film of this era, but it's also surprisingly crafty about finding ways to incite discussion
    • 66 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    October Country
    What results is both real and surreal, giving and self indulgent. That’s the country we all live in.
    • 9 Metascore
    • 12 Janice Page
    Alone in the Dark
    Think of the lamest horror movie you've ever seen. Now think of Tara Reid in the lamest horror movie you've ever seen. See how much worse it could have been?
    • 69 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Friday Night
    Has a sultry and complex psychological intent all its own, yet it's reminiscent of some earlier Denis works, including ''Nenette and Boni.''
    • 40 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Margaret Cho: Assassin
    Assassin is funnier and less awkward than her last concert film, 2004's ''CHO Revolution," but nowhere near as consistently gut busting as 2002's ''Notorious C.H.O." or (first and still best) 2000's ''I'm the One That I Want."
    • 56 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    After Midnight
    Can be quite amusing and enjoyable to watch.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Janice Page
    Everyone's Hero
    Everyone's Hero is sincere and heartwarming; sometimes it's funny.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 38 Janice Page
    One Last Thing...
    Dylan and Nikki are an awkward match at best, and their combined story is about as creative/convincing as a Hallmark card.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Janice Page
    Pretty Persuasion
    Isn't so much awful as it is self-conscious, overdone, shallow, and just not up to the level of its star.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 50 Janice Page
    Never Again
    There are moments, too, where the forced hipness falls aside and the two lead characters just plain relate, realistically and maturely, with a seasoned playfulness that is truly charming.
    • 23 Metascore
    • 50 Janice Page
    Darkness Falls
    So much schlock and melodrama find their way into Darkness Falls that when an exasperated character shouts near the end ''All this over a [expletive] tooth!,'' you know how he feels.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 38 Janice Page
    Sahara
    In the end, the thing that Cussler's fans will probably object to most is the nonsensical way Sahara manhandles his story.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    My Sister Maria
    Artful, especially in the ways it avoids sentimentality and employs vintage film clips of truly riveting performances...But Maximilian's narcissistic examination of his theatrical family -- can be boring, and his creative license with the truth is kind of troubling.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    Marooned in Iraq
    As full of joy as pain, it's a perspective we need to see more often.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 38 Janice Page
    Hide and Seek
    Ignore the hype. You won't find anything startling or memorable in the derivative Hide and Seek.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Janice Page
    Eat This New York
    So, how's the food? The camera never even goes up close. That's the kind of restaurant documentary this is.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    NASCAR: The IMAX Experience
    It is at least an "experience" that has to be labeled exhilarating.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 38 Janice Page
    Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine
    No one in the film offers a shred of real proof that IBM cheated.
    • 6 Metascore
    • 25 Janice Page
    National Lampoon's Gold Diggers
    Put it this way: National Lampoon's Gold Diggers makes "The Anna Nicole Show" look sophisticated.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Air Guitar Nation
    A semiserious documentary about a cult of performance art that until recently was never meant to be taken seriously.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Three of Hearts: A Postmodern Family
    One of the smartest things Kaplan does, besides getting talented Boston folk singer Catie Curtis to contribute to the soundtrack, is hang around long enough to see how this three-headed relationship plays out.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Janice Page
    Chronicles
    For a movie about serial killings and media sensationalism, Cronicas sure is wimpy.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 38 Janice Page
    Untraceable
    It's a warmed-over suspense thriller that's more disturbing than it is surprising or scary.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Cradle 2 the Grave
    This is a ride, a video game, a soundtrack -- unapologetic and clearly labeled as such. It has no middle speed.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 50 Janice Page
    Who Is Cletis Tout?
    Ladling in so much schmaltz that even his in-house critic says, ''This thing's worse than `Terms of Endearment.'''
    • 70 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    Donkey Skin (re-release)
    It's practically a primer on how to rework a literary classic into an impressively restrained movie with something fresh and intelligent to say.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 38 Janice Page
    Chloe
    It can’t be recommended even to people who mostly just want to see Amanda Seyfried naked.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Paper Clips
    Inspirational.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 38 Janice Page
    Play the Game
    Fienberg’s film spends most of its time trying to convince us that true love starts when you stop playing games. Then, in the final minutes, it reverses itself and puts gamesmanship back up on another wobbly pedestal. The result is hard to cheer.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Janice Page
    Open Season
    As cartoon rip-offs go, Open Season can be surprisingly entertaining, in a made-for-6-year-olds kind of way.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 38 Janice Page
    The Ex
    The next time Grodin attempts a comeback, it would be so great if he avoids movies where he might be upstaged by a sandwich stunt.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Janice Page
    Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
    It's mostly flat, despite being presented in 3-D, and the writing is so unimaginative that at one point a character yells out "yabba dabba doo!"
    • 67 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Jesus, You Know
    Whatever blend of fact and fiction is really at work in this latest offering from ''Dog Days" director Ulrich Seidl -- known, by the way, for playing fast and loose with the documentary format -- the irony-laced ''Jesus, You Know" does persuade viewers to sit up and take notice of its inspired conceit.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 50 Janice Page
    Till Human Voices Wake Us
    Despite being well acted and sweetly moving when it strips down to the tender poem at its heart, Till Human Voices Wake Us spends too much time playing to an otherworldly suspense that simply isn't there.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Wolf Creek
    Wolf Creek is ultimately all about the torture and the trauma. Happy holidays.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Janice Page
    Roll Bounce
    This nostalgic licorice whip of a movie assumes there's still an audience for a straight-faced, family-friendly salute to the 1970s heyday of competitive roller disco.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    Shaolin Soccer
    As goofy action comedies go, Shaolin Soccer is one of the best.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Self Medicated
    It's worth noting that the movie's spiritual underpinnings are sometimes fairly subtle and other times veer into "Touched by an Angel" territory. The third act is downright Bible-thumping.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 38 Janice Page
    Black Cloud
    But this film, with its many cliches and borrowed substitutes for creativity, suggests his (Schroder) career in the boxing arena might have peaked with ''The Champ."
    • 36 Metascore
    • 50 Janice Page
    On_Line
    Weintrob's stylish visuals mimic Web technologies, which succeed in making his characters seem all the more removed from reality. Now if someone would find a way to equip theater seats with a ''delete'' key, we could be rid of them completely.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Kings of Pastry
    Kings of Pastry, goes inside an intense event that few Americans know much about - a kind of tradesmen's Olympics.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 50 Janice Page
    Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London
    Muniz has better secret-agent toys to play with, funnier lines and sidekicks helping him out, and a bit more discerning director in Kevin Allen ("The Big Tease").
    • 34 Metascore
    • 38 Janice Page
    Basic
    Falls flat on two fronts: It's neither deep and interesting enough to be a brainteaser nor sufficiently thrilling to count as a mindless diversion.
    • 23 Metascore
    • 12 Janice Page
    Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
    If all the first "Deuce" had going for it was a regular-guy approach to over-the-top humor, that's completely absent in this follow-up.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Alias Betty
    Miller is certainly faithful to the spirit of Rendell's psychologically probing, class-dissecting novels, even if his probing doesn't go nearly as deep and his storytelling isn't as compelling.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    China Blue
    A poignant, all-too-common tale of casual abuse in a workplace that is candidly labeled "better than most."
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Janice Page
    Been Rich All My Life
    A so-so documentary about another fascinating, underreported piece of Harlem history.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 38 Janice Page
    Igor
    You can't blame John Cusack for jumping at the chance to play Igor.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 88 Janice Page
    Godzilla
    A definitive, low-tech stomping of every sci-fi clone that has sprung up in the original's wake.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Janice Page
    The Boys & Girl from County Clare
    Highly unoriginal tale.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    The Cats of Mirikitani
    It takes a special first-time director to stick her neck out, personally as well as professionally. As much as anything else, The Cats of Mirikitani is a testament to good breeding.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Janice Page
    Home
    Meier’s soft touch with the offbeat material is surprisingly mature, to the point of maybe being a bit too reserved.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 63 Janice Page
    Cherish
    The cast is up to the challenges of that arc, but the plot doesn't always keep them afloat.
prev
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »