Kim Newman

Select another critic »
Empire, Screen Daily
For 667 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 61% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 36% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 0.6 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Kim Newman's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 66
Highest review score: 100 The Killing
Lowest review score: 20 Movie 43
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 312 out of 667
  2. Mixed: 327 out of 667
  3. Negative: 28 out of 667
667 movie reviews
view
per page
    • 93 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    Late Spring (1949)
    Not as affecting as Ozu's classic Tokyo Story, Late Spring still charms with it's similar theme of development of the parental bond as the children mature and become more independent. Although well acted, the visual are equally arresting but when the themes are so similar a new approach is required to keep it interesting.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    Pulse
    While not exactly reaching Ring-levels of terror, it's certainly one for connoisseurs of the weird.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 40 Kim Newman
    Friday the 13th
    Unlucky for almost everyone. It's a sad day when a Friday the 13th remake is shown up by a My Bloody Valentine remake – couldn't they at least have sprung for 3-D?
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    Lord of War
    It would like to be "Traffic" with guns, but comes out more like "Blow" with bullets.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Kim Newman
    Copycat
    It must be hard for actresses as unconventional and gutsy as Weaver and Hunter to find scripts worth making. Although this offers them both meaty parts with plentiful neuroses and snappy lines, it is otherwise a completely mechanical load of old cods.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    Thunderball
    Connery [is] cruising by this point and the movie doesn't quite match the swagger of Goldfinger, but still effortlessly plies the glory Bond years, concluding with a stunning underwater battle.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    Dragnet
    Fun spoof but it's been surpassed in the TV-series film spoof since then.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    13 Assassins
    A decent historical drama, with one of the best extended battle scenes (a full half of the movie is the face-off in the 'village of death') in recent memory.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    The Curse of Frankenstein
    In its best scenes, it adds dynamism and British grit to a genre that had previously tried to get by on atmospherics and mood alone. It manages to be shocking without being especially frightening, and its virtues of performance and style remain striking.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    The Phantom
    Despite the pleasant feel and fun performance from Zane there's something missing from this superhero adventure.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    Devil in a Blue Dress
    Compared to similar genre offerings, this ain't much cop. But standing alone, it's an entertaining and amiable film.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 40 Kim Newman
    Super Mario Bros.
    The first film to be adapted from rather than into a Nintendo cartridge, Super Mario Bros, is a shrill, hectic and tiresome fantasy with little story, less excitement and no imaginable audience.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    Fresh
    The strength of the piece is that it realises which aspects of its genre have been seen too many times, always coming back to Nelson's blank but expressive stare as he watches terrible things the director doesn't need to shove in our faces.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 40 Kim Newman
    44 Inch Chest
    44 Inch Chest gets by on the quality of its performances.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    To Live and Die in L.A.
    The main problem is that the supposed good guys are all such reprehensible toads it’s impossible to care whether they get to bring down Willem Dafoe’s charismatic, polo-necked super-crook.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    Peyton Place
    Effective melodrama with some satisfying emotional confrontations, particularly from Lana Turner.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    Nosferatu the Vampyre
    A competent, atmospheric remake, but, considering the quality of Murnau's masterwork, is it necessary?
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    Maggie
    It feels a little like ‘a very special episode of The Walking Dead’ and might be a tad low-key for its field, but Schwarzenegger and Breslin are good and the payoff is affecting.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    Harvey
    Great performances lifts this movie above its stilted script and production.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    Police Story (1985)
    The fantastic action scenes featuring Chan in his pomp are slightly let down by comic overkill.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 40 Kim Newman
    Sugar Hill
    Sugar Hill wants to be very different to the other Boyz in the Hood style films by using a second rate Spike Lee approach but sadly it doesn't make the film any better, only highlighting its failures. With the market heavily saturated with these 'hood' gangster films, this fails to stand out.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    Menace II Society
    It sets some sort of record for use of the expressions "nigga" and "muthafucka".
    • 16 Metascore
    • 40 Kim Newman
    Beverly Hills Cop III
    It's now become Hollywood gospel that if a high concept film is reasonably successful, then make a sequel and if that raises any interest at all, then, hey why not try one more. It's a shame that here the studios just don't know when to stop with this episode ruining the name of what was once an enjoyable franchise.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    Rango
    A certain percentage of the audience will instantly sieze on this as their favorite movie of all time, and a small, but not insignificant demographic will have nightmares. Verbinski and Depp probably like it that way.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    Easy Money
    There's plenty here to show why director Daniel Espinosa caught Hollywood's eye, even if this pre-Safe House crime drama holds few surprises.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    REC
    Even thought it's the third such effort to employ handheld camera in a zombie flick, this has more than enough shocks to hold its own.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    Convoy
    A noisy but enjoyable destruction derby of a film, sadly with none of the subtlety, invention or skill of Spielberg's Duel.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    Ju-on: The Grudge
    Still creepy, ooky, mysterious and spooky, but trying to follow the storylines is like sorting spaghetti.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    Lancelot of the Lake
    Paying attention to religious impulses which are all but incomprehensible in the 20th Century, Bresson conjures up a God-bothered middle ages that is harrowing but not, it must be said, terribly exciting.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Kim Newman
    The Devil's Rejects
    It’s uncomfortably the work of someone who thinks mass murder is cool and has no feeling for regular humans.
prev
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »