John DeFore

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The Hollywood Reporter
For 1,483 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 45% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 50% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 5.8 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

John DeFore's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 60
Highest review score: 100 Mandy
Lowest review score: 0 The Trouble with Terkel
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 703 out of 1483
  2. Mixed: 632 out of 1483
  3. Negative: 148 out of 1483
1483 movie reviews
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    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 John DeFore
    The First Purge
    Despite the assistance reality continues to give it, making an annual rite of government-sanctioned racial violence seem less far-fetched by the day (or by the tweet), Gerard McMurray's The First Purge still fails to establish a persuasive connection to our own moment in time — its occasional winks to current events serving as limp zingers instead of stinging commentary.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 60 John DeFore
    Tau
    TAU is winningly guileless as it dresses an old story up in new clothes: Sometimes it takes a Creature to understand the depths of Dr. Frankenstein's monstrosity.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 John DeFore
    Rock Rubber 45s
    Though enjoyable as it touches on some of the liveliest scenes in New York City's recent pop-culture history, the doc's appeal is greatly limited by Garcia's blinkered perspective on his own life.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 John DeFore
    Calling All Earthlings
    Earthlings is rather scattered in both its portrait of Van Tassel as a man and its explanation of his cultural impact.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    6 Dynamic Laws for Success (in Life, Love & Money)
    Though stylish in its way and steeped in shadows (director/writer/editor Gregory Bayne also supplied attractive B&W cinematography), the enjoyable 6 Dynamic Laws for Success (in Life, Love & Money) embraces an oddly chipper spirit as its sad-sack protagonist competes with savvier bad guys to find the loot from a long-ago bank robbery.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 John DeFore
    Uncle Drew
    Moviegoers who don't get a kick out of spotting athletes on the screen may be less than enthralled by the otherwise formulaic comeback flick, but sports-loving viewers will likely be more enthusiastic.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    A Skin So Soft
    This doc seeks the vulnerability in subjects who live in pursuit of iron-man ideals many of us find ridiculous.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 30 John DeFore
    SuperFly
    Beyond the obvious complaints about objectification of women, this second feature from the Canadian who calls himself Director X is just a bore.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 John DeFore
    To a More Perfect Union: U.S. v Windsor
    A brief but informative look at a crucial chapter in the fight for marriage equality in America.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 John DeFore
    Discreet
    The picture is mildly unsettling even if its ingredients don't add up to as much as they promise to.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
    Bayona not only nods to the histories of classic monster movies and the legacy of original Jurassic helmer Steven Spielberg; he brings his own experience to bear, treating monsters like actual characters and trapping us in a vast mansion that's as full of secrets as the site of his breakthrough 2007 film The Orphanage.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 John DeFore
    Adrift
    If the part of the film devoted to endurance lacks the harrowing power of, say, 2013's All Is Lost, it at least gives Woodley the opportunity to convincingly sink her teeth into a plum dramatic lead role as a young woman fighting fiercely against the forces of nature (instead of a dystopian civilization).
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 John DeFore
    How Long Will I Love U
    The director and his actors never really make the Gu-Lu connection persuasive.
    • 16 Metascore
    • 20 John DeFore
    Black Water
    This derivative B movie is sure to disappoint fans of prior JCVD/Lundgren outings — which are an awfully low bar to hurdle.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 John DeFore
    The Most Unknown
    With so many discussions to drop in on, each with its own stuff to show off...each sequence can only hint at what's fascinating about its field.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 John DeFore
    Deadpool 2
    There's action aplenty throughout the film, but Deadpool 2 doesn't bog down in it as many overcooked comic-book sequels do. With Reynolds' charismatic irreverence at its core, the pic moves from bloody mayhem to lewd comedy and back fluidly, occasionally even making room to go warm and mushy.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 John DeFore
    One October
    Throughout, Shuman's eye, her editing, and Paul Brill's charming score weave the individual stories Pigeon finds into the tapestry of life on the street
    • 49 Metascore
    • 30 John DeFore
    Always at The Carlyle
    The doc is so eager to tell you who's visited the hotel and eaten at the restaurant (JFK allegedly trysted here, which didn't keep his widow from enjoying the Cobb salad) that it shares very little about the hotel's origins and operations.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 30 John DeFore
    Terminal
    Vaughn Stein's Terminal blends tropes from several sorts of crime flicks into a soundstagey affair that's more brittle than hard-boiled.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 John DeFore
    Measure of a Man
    But the synthesis is underwhelming on screen where it might have resonated in Lipsyte's book. Here, Measure becomes a mildly nostalgic, mildly romantic entry in a genre that, more than most, requires that the viewer feels a personal connection to the misfit protagonist on screen.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 40 John DeFore
    Ray Meets Helen
    Ray meets Helen, all right, but moviegoers expecting a sprightly golden-years romance have come to the wrong place. So have those looking for a moody but credible reflection on decades of regrets.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Becoming Who I Was
    As viewers, we have no idea whether the doc's last act is building toward a triumphant reunion or a big dead end. Suffice to say that the final scenes, never manipulative, achieve an emotional impact appropriate to the scale of this journey.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 50 John DeFore
    Overboard
    First-time directors Bob Fisher and Rob Greenberg start off with a movie so dull it threatens to vanish from the viewer's memory before it's even finished. Things get better midway through, with the directors' screenplay finally playing to the talents of at least one of its stars, Derbez.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Zoe
    A human/robot love story that is less deeply imaginative than Spike Jonze's Her and less heartbreaking than Doremus' own Like Crazy, the picture is nevertheless a beautifully acted, affecting drama that teases some questions society may need to answer sooner than we expect.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    United Skates
    The doc's heart is with ordinary people who have no show-business ambitions.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Stockholm
    Stockholm, which gently massages actual events to serve as a fine vehicle for Noomi Rapace and Ethan Hawke, is far from the first movie to believably show a crime victim coming to sympathize with a criminal. But it's a funny and agile one.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Love, Gilda
    A warm if not quite comprehensive-feeling biography of a performer who, even for a celebrity, elicited an unusually strong personal affection from fans, Lisa D'Apolito's Love, Gilda tells the far too short story of Gilda Radner.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Jonathan
    The debut feature succeeds thanks to a credibly bifurcated performance by star Ansel Elgort.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 John DeFore
    All About Nina
    The premise offers plenty of room for yet another impressive performance by Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
    • 9 Metascore
    • 10 John DeFore
    Supercon
    The action doesn't start until an hour into the picture, and is as unimaginative as everything that has preceded it.
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