Keith Phipps

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The A.V. Club, The Dissolve, The Verge, UPROXX
For 1,277 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 46% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 51% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 5 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Keith Phipps' Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 61
Highest review score: 100 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Lowest review score: 0 A Life Less Ordinary
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 625 out of 1277
  2. Mixed: 463 out of 1277
  3. Negative: 189 out of 1277
1277 movie reviews
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    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Ronin
    Here's a strangely flawed and strangely satisfying movie.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Merrily We Roll Along
    As the record of a landmark staging of a great play, however, this Merrily feels like a gift to all those who wish they could have been there, or want to return.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Thor: The Dark World
    It looks like no other movie, Marvel or otherwise, and it’s populated by characters compelling enough to support a more complex, richer story than this one.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Truth About Charlie
    Though indisputably a thriller, Charlie abandons itself to little cinematic rhapsodies, self-reflexive asides, and montages of Paris locations cued to a soundtrack of cool French pop, all of which often seems more vital than the main order of business.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Jiu Jitsu
    Though any Cage-free attempts at comedy fall flat, the action remains exciting, thanks in large part to Logothetis’ steady-handed, no-frills approach. Who knew putting together a bunch of gifted martial artists and letting them exercise those skills could take an action film so far?
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Ignorant Fairies
    His Secret Life's languid pace and general aimlessness keep getting in the way.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Count of Monte Cristo
    While fleeting moments from Pearce and Luis Guzmán (as Caviezel's loyal servant) suggest the film might have been even more fun had they been allowed to loosen up a bit, the finished product still offers little cause for complaint.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    One Swallow Brought Spring
    Carion and his gifted leads never take the easy way out. Instead, they let the characters get acquainted against the slow change of the seasons, taking their relationship along unexpected turns.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Night of the Comet
    Night Of The Comet borrows freely from everything from The Omega Man to Romero’s zombie films to Repo Man, but it never borrows so heavily as to feel like a rip-off of anything.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Monsieur Ibrahim
    Adapting a novel by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, François Dupeyron uses handheld cameras and some jarring edits, but, prostitutes and all, this is storybook material: heartfelt, pleasant, cuddly, and a little too insubstantial to stick in the mind for long.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Full Frontal
    The fact that Full Frontal comes together so well removes any doubt that anyone other than a master filmmaker is pulling the strings.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    One True Thing
    It's a film whose virtues--particularly its rare, intelligent portrayal of the relationship between two generations of women--outweigh its faults.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Dreamers
    The Dreamers is a universal story, one that captures the thrill of discovering culture, sex, and politics, and the painful twinge of learning that those worlds aren't enough.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Postmen in the Mountains
    Huo never quite finds the filmic vocabulary to tilt the film toward greatness-and the mawkish synth score does little to help-but Postmen In The Mountains ultimately succeeds.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Thumbsucker
    It's a familiar story, but Mills and Pucci treat it as if it were the first time anyone had thought to tell it.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Kingdom of Heaven
    Massoud plays Saladin magnetically, and his arrival only illustrates how many opportunities Kingdom misses. Another, better movie would have made him the focus.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Vodka Lemon
    A dark-humored film about devastation, which makes Vodka Lemon's final rush into comedy in the truest sense all the more refreshing. Even in the wasteland, there might be humor other than the gallows kind.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Mistaken for Strangers
    Mistaken For Strangers, which covers Tom’s time with the band and his subsequent attempts to piece together a movie about that time, is a sweet, funny, and sad film, but also an exceedingly odd one.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Welcome to Me
    Welcome To Me never develops much momentum, doesn’t always know what to do with supporting players like Leigh, and builds toward a finale that plays as a bit too neat. Yet even this doesn’t betray the character’s cracked integrity.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie
    Mike Nawrocki and Phil Vischer, who co-write, co-direct, and supply much of the voice talent, soft-pedal the proselytizing and explicitly Christian elements in favor of gags and gentle lessons, keeping the pace fast and the scenery colorful.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    2 Guns
    Kormákur lets his stars balance the buddy-movie levity with just enough dramatic weight to keep it grounded, and his directing style seems like a conscious corrective to the disorienting cutting and obvious CGI effects that have come to dominate Hollywood action films.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    You're Next
    Though essentially a straight-faced horror film, You’re Next also taps into a rich vein of black comedy.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There
    In one of the film's most persuasive bits, Farley Granger talks about chucking a lucrative film career in order to tread the boards in New York. Maybe it's that kind of magnetic draw that makes an age golden.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
    Black's sadistic streak remains as uncomfortable as it ever was, and his direction is very much in the house style of producer Joel Silver. But both elements perfectly suit the material, which sneaks in a lot of sly stuff beneath the slick surface.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Welcome to Collinwood
    A low-key charmer that balances half a dozen winning performances, Welcome To Collinwood's momentum occasionally stalls, and it doesn't always produce laughs.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Friday Night Lights
    When Friday Night Lights gets to the big games, the time it's spent creates an atmosphere thick with tension, one akin to the real-world experience of watching a favorite team play for its life.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    True Crime
    As disappointing-but-worthwhile films go, you could do a lot worse.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die
    Good Luck feels raggedly put together at times, however precise Verbinski’s filmmaking might be within each scene, but as the story unfolds and the full scope of the threat emerges, a winning sincerity overtakes the film.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Blob
    Whatever its flaws as a film, a none-too-scary monster chief among them, The Blob is a uniquely compelling monster movie.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Under the City's Skin
    At times, Bani Etemad succeeds only too well at capturing the confusing rush of Adineh's family life--the film presents more subplots than it can follow thoroughly, until its final act snaps all that's come before into sharp focus.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Prince of Egypt
    Rendering in high drama the story of Moses one moment and then underscoring that drama with songs filled with banal "you-can-make-it-if-you-really-try" cliches moves from the sublime to the ridiculous so quickly, you could get the bends.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Secondhand Lions
    Writer-director Tim McCanlies works in broad, kid-friendly strokes, and he's not afraid to lay on the sentiment, but his cast makes sure it's well-earned.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Wind and the Lion
    The film is memorable for its action scenes—from an opening raid that erupts on an eerily quiet day through a Sam Peckinpah-inspired finale—but also for the reflective moments from which those action scenes are born.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Red Violin
    As pleasant stimulation for the eye and ear, it's two hours of sumptuousness, but anyone looking for more won't find it here.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Mule
    As grim as the above might sound, it’s also a spry, funny, moving film that never heads in the direction in which it looks like it’s about to head, kind of like its protagonist.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Moonlight Mile
    Hoffman and Sarandon work well together, and Gyllenhaal, who's carved out a niche for himself as the new face of internalized conflict, fits nicely into a role Hoffman would have made a meal of 30 years ago.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Or
    For long stretches, Or is a dialogue-heavy kitchen-sink drama, but its naturalistic style and unselfconscious performances give it an intensity that only builds as it progresses.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Gods and Monsters
    While McKellen's sharp performance provides the main attraction, the film wouldn't work without both Fraser, who brings something extra to a character who could easily have been a mere lunk, and director Bill Condon's careful integration of larger themes.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    High Art
    Though High Art has more than a few awkward touches--all the male characters take up less than one dimension, for example--it's otherwise a nicely underplayed, memorable, beautifully filmed movie.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    El bonaerense
    As a morality play, it's a one-sided contest, because the question of whether power corrupts is never a question at all. As a queasily thrilling tour of a dirty little corner of the world, however, Trapero's film offers a memorable ride.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Sophie's Choice
    Alan J. Pakula’s 1982 adaptation of William Styron’s 1979 novel Sophie’s Choice is one of those films whose great qualities put its lesser elements in sharp relief.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Star Trek: Insurrection
    In just about every way, Insurrection seems as if everyone involved is still stuck in the weekly grind of turning out the series, but the results don't disappoint too terribly.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Cellular
    The film works by putting the accelerator to the floor and never looking in the rear-view mirror.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Door in the Floor
    Bridges turns in another remarkable performance, and he's well-matched by Foster.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Roll Bounce
    Behind the camera, Lee shows a steady hand and saves his best tricks for the big finale, which generates a lot of excitement out of the collision of disco music and some truly impressive skating.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Amira & Sam
    Starr and Shihabi, a charming newcomer, play off each other beautifully, and even when the film becomes a little too heavy-handed...their relationship keeps it grounded.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Peter Hujar's Day
    The singular word “portrait” isn’t quite right, however. Both Whishaw and Hall deliver lovely, tender performances that capture the friendship between the writer and her subject.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Big Chill
    As generous as the film is to its characters, it also keeps finding ways to criticize their myopia.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The Truman Show
    The film is unfortunately about little more than its potentially mind-boggling plot and structure.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
    Despite a shaky start and the presence of questionable elements throughout, by the time it arrives at its finale -- which copies Return Of The Jedi's triple-climax structure -- The Phantom Menace has won its place alongside the original Star Wars trilogy.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Collateral Damages
    Sauret's approach isn't the most artful, but it doesn't have to be. Hearing his subjects speak for themselves is good enough.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    The X Files
    It's a smart, exciting, involving film that's true to its source, which is all it really needs to be.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Moolaadé
    Though Moolaadé doesn't shy away from the task of educating its viewers about the brutality of "purification," it works equally well as a tribute to righteous defiance wherever it surfaces.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Godzilla
    Edwards’ film doesn’t care much about metaphorical resonance, and cares even less about its human characters, many of which get forgotten for long stretches of the film. But Godzilla has a way with a disaster setpiece, and it cares a lot about providing awesome monster-on-monster action on a mammoth scale.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Polyester
    Polyester splits the difference between Waters’ earlier cult movies and his later mainstream work. A melodrama that touches on everything from punk rock to abortion to pornography.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Shaolin Soccer
    The ridiculously entertaining Shaolin Soccer pulls out all the stops to make sure viewers stay happy.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    WTC the First 24 Hours
    The mostly wordless film simply presents Ground Zero, the dust-covered surrounding areas, and the city's immediate rescue efforts. As a document, it's invaluable, and as a viewing experience, it's somewhat shocking.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Frankenstein
    Once the film finds its true hero, it becomes exactly as good as the idea of a del Toro adaptation promised: the defining 21st century cinematic Frankenstein.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Keith Phipps
    Nouvelle Vague
    That Nouvelle Vague looks like it could have been made alongside Breathless is its most immediately striking feature. From the aspect ratio to the film stock, it’s virtually indistinguishable from a contemporary production. The tone, however, is wry, knowing, and resolutely comic, even occasionally sentimental.
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