Kerry Lengel

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Arizona Republic
For 176 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 61% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 37% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 2.8 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Kerry Lengel's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 63
Highest review score: 100 Too Late to Die Young
Lowest review score: 20 Peterloo
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 86 out of 176
  2. Mixed: 86 out of 176
  3. Negative: 4 out of 176
176 movie reviews
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    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
    While it is a perfectly serviceable placeholder in the larger series, its contributions to the Potterverse are disappointingly minor.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    Boulevard
    Despite his roots as an over-the-top stand-up comedian, Williams long ago proved himself to be one of those rare actors who can truly inhabit a role, and “Boulevard” is no exception. But that’s not always enough to keep the viewer’s eyes glued to the screen.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    Before I Go to Sleep
    Kidman and Firth both deliver compelling performances, although this kind of plot-driven fare is no real challenge to their considerable acting talents.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    The Girl Who Played with Fire
    Despite the lethal force that inevitably gets applied to poor Lisbeth, we never really fear for her safety, but we do fear for her future happiness. That is where the real drama lies.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    The Highwaymen
    Directed by John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side, Saving Mr. Banks), it’s a well-crafted procedural, but it’s also a whole lot of familiar tropes put together in familiar ways.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    Escobar: Paradise Lost
    After a predictable opening hour, Paradise Lost manages to deliver a surprise or two as it switches gears into a full-on thriller. But it never gets close to the epic heights to which it aspires.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    Risk
    Artfully shot and mooded-up with a jittery ambient soundtrack, Risk is compelling because the enigma of Assange is compelling.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    Insidious: Chapter 3
    Insidious: Chapter 3 is almost more a spoof of a classic like "The Exorcist" than it is an homage. It's not scary horror, it's silly horror, and the audience is in on the joke.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    The Angry Birds Movie
    Screenwriter Jon Vitti and first-time directors Fergal Reilly and Clay Kaytis certainly give it a try, but their bag of tricks is mostly recycled and their sense of humor is aimed squarely at 12-year-old boys.
    • 28 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas
    A Madea Christmas, for all its narrative shortcomings, also has plenty of laughs.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
    Even though Five Armies is the shortest Hobbit movie, it also is the least thrilling as it chugs toward the finish line weighted down with all the added characters and confusing subplots that have been tacked on along the way.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    Deli Man
    There's nothing particularly earth-shattering here, but maybe that's appropriate for a film honoring food that aims to be mouthwatering but unpretentious.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    The Man Who Invented Christmas
    It lays on the pathos, moralizing and forced whimsy thicker than figgy pudding, but it’s still entertaining, heart-warming family fare, thanks in large part to charmingly sincere performances.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    Avengers: Endgame
    For fans, counting up how many superheroes can emerge from the clown car of one three-hour movie is half the fun. For casual moviegoers — say, those who might skip minor installments such as “Ant-Man and the Wasp” — it accounts for half the exhaustion, a bit of world-building fatigue to go along with the sensory overload of a fantasy realm that seems stuck in perpetual apocalypse.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
    The best thing about the film is neither the top-notch CGI nor the shallow moral lessons but the performance of Will Poulter ("Son of Rambow") as Lucy and Edmund's insufferable cousin Eustace Scrubb.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    No Place on Earth
    The film is not without its flaws, but the story it tells is both terrifying and inspiring.
    • 29 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    Ratchet & Clank
    It’s cute and entertaining, in a Saturday morning cartoon kind of way, but this one is just for the kiddies.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    Annie
    Annie has never been the most sophisticated of children's stories. The latest version is formulaic and predictable, but it has its charms, not the least of which is Wallis' easy smile and sassy screen presence.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    Carnage
    If anything, Carnage does too little to adapt to the new medium, and the result is a film that makes its audience feel as trapped as its characters.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    Ender's Game
    Character development, dramatic tension and emotional resonance all get short shrift in the checklist exposition by writer-director Gavin Hood.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    Bohemian Rhapsody
    If it doesn’t have the family drama of “Walk the Line” or the psychodrama of “The Doors,” Bohemian Rhapsody does deliver what any music biopic must: convincing characters and some kick-butt simulated concert experiences.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    Sarah's Key
    Shown in flashbacks, the story of 10-year-old Sarah Starzynski is powerful, thanks in large part to the luminous screen presence of young Mélusine Mayance.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    Shaft
    In the end, this may be a case of a pop-culture icon being dragged down by the weight of trying remain relevant past its prime. It’s not woke, but you can’t call it racist. Maybe racist-ish. Misogynistic-ish. Entertaining-ish.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    Don't Let Go
    The plot is ingeniously engineered, but the narrative is like a low-res image. It gets the idea across, but without the kind of details that make it memorable.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    The Devil's Double
    By the time the film reaches its implausible climax, it is far too late to rescue the story from the limbo that lies between ugly history and slick entertainment.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    The Nutcracker and the Four Realms
    Fans of fancy period costumes and supernatural effects both get plenty to gawk at, but the story offers no real surprises, and that includes the big plot twist.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    Venus in Fur
    The performances are certainly compelling.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    Wild Grass
    Wild Grass retains a literary feel with the help of an unseen narrator, who offers intriguing poetic observations. And Resnais' visuals are equally lyrical. What can you say: The French sure know how to make pretty pictures.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    In the Name of My Daughter
    Téchiné's fidelity to the facts delivers a disappointing denouement to an intriguing character study.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 60 Kerry Lengel
    Cats
    I guess I was charmed in spite of myself. I’m reminded of a quote from Alexander Pope I had to memorize as a kid, which gave me fair warning about the likes of Andrew Lloyd Webber and “Cats”: “Vice is a monster of so frightful mien / as to be hated needs but to be seen; / Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, / We first endure, then pity, then embrace.” Did I tear up a little? Maybe. Do I ever need to see “Cats” again? Nah, I’m good.
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