John Hartl

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Film.com, The Seattle Times
For 544 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 52% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 44% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

John Hartl's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 64
Highest review score: 100 The Innocents
Lowest review score: 10 Drop Dead Gorgeous
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 340 out of 544
  2. Mixed: 113 out of 544
  3. Negative: 91 out of 544
544 movie reviews
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    • 83 Metascore
    • 75 John Hartl
    Intervista
    The mixture of nostalgia, surreal fantasy, self-parody and contemporary satire is seamlessly Fellini-esque. The style has become so recognizable that it's become difficult to separate Fellini from the national postwar cinema he helped create. [17 Jun 1993, p.E5]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 John Hartl
    Rounders
    It's "The Hustler with poker and without soul...For all its flash and occasional sizzle, "Rounders" is a disappointment.
    • Film.com
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 John Hartl
    Dr T and the Women
    It's a terrific showcase for Richard Gere, Shelley Long, Farrah Fawcett and a number of other actors who almost seemed to have been written off.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 63 John Hartl
    The New Age
    The movie ends up playing like a series of skits and one-liners, some of them pointed and funny, that strain to achieve structure, substance and a workable ending. Fortunately, Judy Davis and Peter Weller are Tolkin's stars, and they're capable of providing a center for almost anything. [23 Sept 1994, p.H3]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 John Hartl
    The Rescuers Down Under
    This new animated feature has a more exciting story line than the first film, a stronger score, sharper dialogue and a more noticeable visual flair. [16 Nov 1990, p.28]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 36 Metascore
    • 38 John Hartl
    Bird on a Wire
    Cynical, over-hyped and enthusiastically brainless, Bird on a Wire demonstrates the programmed, soul-less bankruptcy of the Hollywood hit-making system in the early 1990s. [18 May 1990, p.28]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 John Hartl
    The Swan Princess
    The Swan Princess may be derivative but it clicks, as ex-Disney animator Don Bluth's latest films ("Thumbelina," the video-bound "Troll in Central Park") have not. With just one movie in release, Rich is starting to look like the only other animation game in town. [18 Nov 1994, p.G33]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 John Hartl
    Richie Rich
    This jokey fantasy-comedy is so formulaic that even its wittier lines and casting choices aren't enough to overcome a numbing sense of deja vu. [21 Dec 1994, p.E4]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 60 Metascore
    • 40 John Hartl
    Illuminata
    Its pretensions eventually undo it.
    • 97 Metascore
    • 100 John Hartl
    A Streetcar Named Desire
    Perhaps more than ever, Marlon Brando's brutish Stanley seems the most attractive and honest character; he's also bewitchingly funny. He cuts through Blanche's lies and illusions, he satisfies Stella's sexual urges, and the fact that he does so with deliberate cruelty seems not to register. [Director's Cut; 4 Feb 1994, p.D21]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 54 Metascore
    • 63 John Hartl
    Life Stinks
    The script may be a fantasy about late-19th-century American poverty, derived more from old movies than fresh observations. But at least Brooks doesn't sweep the subject under the rug, and just enough of his jokes sting. [26 July 1991, p.20]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 35 Metascore
    • 50 John Hartl
    The Guardian
    As recent horror movies go, The Guardian isn't terrible - it's more suspenseful and coherent than Nightbreed or Leatherface, and Friedkin's flair for the genre does surface here and there. But it's hard to care about the outcome when the people are such sticks. [27 Apr 1990, p.20]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 John Hartl
    The Craft
    Ultimately there's more guilt than pleasure to be found in The Craft. [03 May 1996]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 36 Metascore
    • 38 John Hartl
    Striking Distance
    Striking Distance wants to be a whodunit, a buddy movie, a serial-killer thriller, a romantic drama, a story about one honest cop fighting a corrupt department - and the ultimate car-and-boat chase movie. It is all of these, and so much less. [17 Sept 1993, p.D16]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 John Hartl
    Arlington Road
    Before it finally twists itself into a pretzel in the third act, this paranoid thriller creates a scary mood and allows its leading actors to go all the way with it.
    • 26 Metascore
    • 38 John Hartl
    Millennium
    The script earns a few points for trying to deal with the puzzles inherent in time-travel stories, and it's not surprising that the author is John Varley, who has won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for his science-fiction novels. But he needed a more inspired director than the plodding Michael Anderson. [15 Mar 1990, p.D5]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 67 Metascore
    • 25 John Hartl
    Man Bites Dog
    This wildly overpraised Belgian mock-documentary might have been a lacerating 10-minute Swiftian satire of the media's never-ending thirst for blood. Instead, it's a 95-minute reiteration of the obvious that manages simultaneously to offend and bore. [11 June 1993, p.24]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 41 Metascore
    • 25 John Hartl
    Career Opportunities
    It manages to combine the least appealing qualities of several previous Hughes productions - the obnoxiousness of the central character in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," the tedium of the teen-age confessionals in "The Breakfast Club," the gimmicky plotting of "Home Alone." And it has nothing fresh to add in terms of casting, storyline or the kinds of comic insights about suburban life that sustain Hughes' best scripts. [30 March 1991, p.C5]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 62 Metascore
    • 88 John Hartl
    The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
    Greenaway keeps his wits about him. His vision of human evil is as droll as it is unrelenting. Trained as a painter, he can't help making this particular hell look gorgeous. "The Cook, the Thief, etc." is, paradoxically, a beautiful, drily witty film about monstrous vulgarity and ugliness. [6 Apr 1990, p.22]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 John Hartl
    A Room with a View
    Perhaps the primary reason A Room With a View is so involving is that Ivory has cast the film perfectly, and given each of the actors ample room to breathe. Even the characters you're not supposed to like are allowed their moments of vulnerable humanity.
    • Film.com
    • 77 Metascore
    • 100 John Hartl
    The Best Intentions
    Warmer and more forgiving than Bergman's own work, it is one of the most moving films ever made about the exacting, full-time job of living with another person.[31 Jul 1992, p.17]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 John Hartl
    The Naked Prey
    Cornel Wilde directed and stars in this nearly wordless 1966 story of a stripped white man hunted by African natives. It has several elements in common with Passion in the Desert. [09 Jul 1998, p.E3]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 John Hartl
    Fallen
    Part of the problem with "Fallen" is the relentless dumbing down of Nicholas Kazan's script. [16 Jan 1998]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 John Hartl
    A Civil Action
    All the ingredients are here for both a smashing courtroom drama and a legitimate tearjerker, but the film ultimately doesn't have the technique or the heart to deliver either.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 John Hartl
    Serial Mom
    Serial Mom isn't much of an ensemble piece. More so even than Waters' Divine pictures, it's a star vehicle. The other actors rarely get a chance to do much more than register stupidity, yet it works out because Turner so craftily tunes into Waters' rarefied wavelength. [15 Apr 1994, p.D3]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 57 Metascore
    • 63 John Hartl
    Benny & Joon
    Although it too often succumbs to the kind of whimsical sentimentality about the mentally ill that has afflicted movies from King of Hearts to The Fisher King, this filmed-in-Spokane comedy-drama is almost salvaged by its excellent cast. [16 Apr 1993, p.3]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 John Hartl
    Guncrazy
    If Guncrazy ultimately fails to be quite as wild and bleak as the 1949 Gun Crazy, or as zeitgeist-distinctive as Badlands and Bonnie and Clyde, it's still a most promising first effort. Davis' black-comedy touches, her careful casting and her confident handling of actors all suggest a filmmaker to watch. [20 Feb 1993, p.C5]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 John Hartl
    Exodus
    Based on the Leon Uris bestseller, the movie itself remains a leisurely, unevenly acted yet fascinating history lesson that helps put recent Middle East events in perspective. [01 Oct 1992, p.G3]
    • The Seattle Times
    • 13 Metascore
    • 30 John Hartl
    Down to You
    A Boring Young Couple.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 63 John Hartl
    School Ties
    Earnest, well-acted and occasionally compelling, School Ties gets an A for effort and a C-plus for achievement. At best, it's like a well-mounted, feature-length afterschool special about prep-school anti-Semitism in the mid-1950s. With hate crimes on the rise, it's unfortunately timely now, and its heart is always in the right place. At worst, it's a single-minded exploration of the subject, with too many aspects left untouched. [18 Sept 1992, p.26]
    • The Seattle Times
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