Kim Newman

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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
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    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Kim Newman
    From Here to Eternity
    The spectacular last-reel recreation of the bombing makes this, Michael Bay notwithstanding, the Pearl Harbor film to beat, but the unquestioned highlight is the famous on‑the‑beach adultery scene between virile sergeant Lancaster and an unusually unladylike Kerr, with the waves crashing around them to symbolise their unrestrained passions.
    • 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.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Kim Newman
    Cat People
    No mere creature feature, this 1940s classic offers more subtle chills.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Kim Newman
    The Wages of Fear (1953)
    Clouzot achieves an analysis of the human condition at least as bleak as Huston's The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre but without the grandstanding speeches and with more subtle performances.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Kim Newman
    Naked
    Mike Leigh sees a Britain everybody knows exists but would rather not think about, and this is a nightmare journey, at once horrific and funny, through a twilight London of the excluded and the rejected.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 100 Kim Newman
    Atlantic City
    A well observed and deeply tender tale.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    Dragnet
    Fun spoof but it's been surpassed in the TV-series film spoof since then.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 80 Kim Newman
    Wise Blood
    Brad Dourif shows he was always great in one of John Huston's better later films.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Kim Newman
    Blood Simple
    For a change, we're in a privileged position, always knowing more than the characters we're following, understanding their wrong-headed thought processes, appreciating the ironies they miss, seeing where a slightly different bit of behaviour would have saved lives or led to happier endings.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Kim Newman
    Looper
    Intelligent science-fiction sometimes seems an endangered species - too much physics and there's a risk of creating something cold and remote, too many explosions and get lost in the multiplex. Looper isn't perfect, but it pulls off the full Wizard Of Oz: it has a brain, courage and a heart.
    • 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.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Kim Newman
    Under the Shadow
    A quality ghost story with an unusual backdrop and great performances.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Kim Newman
    The Snapper
    Written by Roddy Doyle this was never going to be a depressing tale of single parenthood. Instead we watch through rose-tinted glasses as the ever watchable Colm Meaney bonds with his family over his daughter's pregnancy out of wedlock in Catholic Ireland.
    • 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.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Kim Newman
    20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
    Mason's urbane genius and Douglas' dimpled two-fistedness (and stripy sailor shirt) beef up a floppy script.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Kim Newman
    Hugo
    This is a great director's greatest love story.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Kim Newman
    Serpico
    Al Pacino delivers a powerful performance in this compelling biopic...of a cop and a city's police force.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Kim Newman
    From Russia with Love
    A cracking cold war story.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Kim Newman
    Vera Drake
    Painful for many reasons, but highly recommended.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Kim Newman
    The Phantom
    Despite the pleasant feel and fun performance from Zane there's something missing from this superhero adventure.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Kim Newman
    It Follows
    A first-rate horror movie, It Follows adds a new monster to the pantheon expect pranksters to imitate the Follower for cheap shocks soon — and has a refreshing, unpretentious sense that a meaningful subtext doesn’t undercut spookiness.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Kim Newman
    Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
    Whether horror fans are ready for high-notes or musical buffs will appreciate Dario Argento levels of gore is an open question, but this is a rich, demented experience.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Kim Newman
    Knife in the Water
    Polanski arrived on the scene with an almost super-human knack for tension; one of the great directorial debuts in cinema's history.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Kim Newman
    The Love Witch
    Though a little too languid at two hours, The Love Witch is appropriately seductive.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Kim Newman
    A Quiet Place
    A bravura monster movie which just doesn’t let up, ratcheting tension with nary a word uttered on screen. It also boasts great creature design and a breakthrough performance from young Millicent Simmonds.
    • 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.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Kim Newman
    Downfall
    Solid history, fine cinema. Downfall is gripping, moving, and, in the end, profoundly horrifying.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Kim Newman
    Let the Right One In
    At once a devastating, curiously uplifting inhuman drama and a superbly crafted genre exercise, Let The Right One In can stand toe-to-toe with Spirit Of The Beehive, Pan's Labyrinth or Orphee. See it.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Kim Newman
    La Ronde
    The intricate work of a craftsman, and a beautiful appearance by the beguiling Simone Sigornet.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Kim Newman
    Blow-Up
    An absolute must.
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