Joe Williams

Select another critic »
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
For 820 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 60% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 36% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 1 point higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Joe Williams' Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 67
Highest review score: 100 Samsara
Lowest review score: 0 The Divergent Series: Insurgent
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 597 out of 820
  2. Mixed: 156 out of 820
  3. Negative: 67 out of 820
820 movie reviews
view
per page
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    Addiction Incorporated
    While it's satisfying to see fat cats tamed by science and an enraged public, the movie misses the opportunity to sustain the pressure.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 63 Joe Williams
    Crazy, Stupid, Love
    Directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra were weaned on earthy comedies like "Bad Santa," and every moment of mature insight in Crazy, Stupid, Love is answered by a scene of formulaic farce.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 63 Joe Williams
    The Conjuring
    With its forked tongue planted loosely in cheek, this haunted-house flick is enjoyably retro in both style and substance.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 88 Joe Williams
    We Need to Talk About Kevin
    Refusing to hold our hands, director Lynne Ramsay ("Morvern Callar") pushes far beyond the boundaries of topical drama into the realm of the surreal.
    • 95 Metascore
    • 88 Joe Williams
    A Separation
    Although it's slow to unfold, this courtroom drama is so timelessly humane and even-handed it feels like it came from the dockets of Solomon - by way of Sidney Lumet.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    God's Pocket
    You can tell by some loose threads and hurried workmanship that God’s Pocket is a knock-off, but it’s so stuffed with value, it’s an offer you can’t refuse.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Joe Williams
    Land Ho!
    Land Ho! is a tepid little movie that goes almost nowhere, and if I had to sit in that rental car for one more boob joke, I’d rather jump into a volcano.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    Maps to the Stars
    An entertaining tour of Tinseltown served with poisoned popcorn.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 38 Joe Williams
    John Wick
    Sorry, Keanu, but you stole my time and you murdered my brain cells. By the sacred oath of WHOA, there will be blood, and this time it’s personal.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    The Way, Way Back
    Aiming for a middle path between drama and comedy, The Way Way Back is so overloaded with jokes that it could sink in the water hazard, but on the final scorecard, sure enough, it’s in the hole.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 88 Joe Williams
    Chef
    Best of all is Favreau. Instead of mass-producing another superhero epic, he has given the overfed public a dish of right-sized comfort food.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    Rise of the Planet of the Apes
    It's faint praise to say that this is the best of the "Planet of the Apes" movies, because the evolution of special effects and makeup was predictable. But the unexpected strength of the film is its heart.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times
    Given the turbulent water of world affairs and sea changes in the media, a follow-up a year from now might be titled "Gray Lady Down" if the Times does not chart a new course.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 88 Joe Williams
    Paris
    This is a kaleidoscopic valentine to a great city from a director who knows and loves his subject.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    Departures
    Sometimes macabre and sometimes manipulative, but the way it speaks to the spirit is miraculous.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 88 Joe Williams
    Neighbors
    It’s a party where we want to stay, until we’re dragged out kicking and screaming.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    Noah
    If we want a bigger picture, we’ll have to wait for God to green-light “Noah: The Next Generation.”
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    Whip It
    What Barrymore brings is good-natured, girl-powered subversion, a sense of when to flaunt clichés and when to flip them over the rails.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    The Housemaid
    Im Sang-soo has crafted an erotic thriller whose cool beauty speaks for itself.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 63 Joe Williams
    The Girl on the Train
    Although this stylish and ominously paced vehicle starts with a full itinerary, it never makes a vital connection.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 63 Joe Williams
    Shutter Island
    This quasi-horror film has the great director's usual craftsmanship and a stellar cast, but ultimately it's an infuriating trick that makes its most provocative ideas disappear.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    Kung Fu Panda 2
    This well-executed sequel is sneaky. While it distracts us with Chinese backdrops and buffoonish humor, it sucker punches us with a message about belonging.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 63 Joe Williams
    Robot and Frank
    Ultimately a movie that could have been a little jewel is unpolished.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 88 Joe Williams
    This Is the End
    A one-joke movie, but it’s a joke whose recurring rimshots grow as loud as our laughter.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    The Armstrong Lie
    On a moral-justice level, we’d like to see this worm squirm a little more over his treatment of ex-colleagues before we let him off the hook to say that everyone else was cheating too.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 88 Joe Williams
    Perfect Blue
    It would be a disservice to describe "Perfect Blue" as a well-made cartoon. It is simply one of the richest and most suspenseful films of the year. [03 Aug 2001, p.E2]
    • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Joe Williams
    Limitless
    Rooted in empty materialism, but it never evokes the heady rush of a guilty pleasure or the precipitous payback of a thriller.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Joe Williams
    Closed Circuit
    Closed Circuit is not a tense thriller about the new era of surveillance — it's a tepid thriller about the old notion that no leader can be trusted.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Joe Williams
    The Ides of March
    If you want to see a great movie about a political campaign, starring the smartest heartthrob of his era, rent "The Candidate." If you want see a very good one, buy a ticket for The Ides of March.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 63 Joe Williams
    The Perks of Being a Wallflower
    Too modest to become a worldwide phenomenon, but sensitive teens and their older kin who pine for the '90s may want to take it for a spin on the dance floor.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »