Lisa Alspector

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Chicago Reader
For 550 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 44% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 54% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 13.3 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Lisa Alspector's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 52
Highest review score: 100 Tarzan
Lowest review score: 0 Bless the Child
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 178 out of 550
  2. Mixed: 239 out of 550
  3. Negative: 133 out of 550
550 movie reviews
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    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Illuminata
    Insights about romance are enhanced by the novel production design, which includes puppetry, but the story's reflexivity is smug and cloying.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Rush Hour 2
    This action comedy transforms LAPD detective Chris Tucker from an intolerably annoying egotist into a practically lovable intolerably annoying egotist.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    The Best Man
    Nicely toned.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Mystery, Alaska
    Nothing's wrong with this movie--the hockey footage is exciting, the characters quirky, the subplots idiosyncratic--but nothing's special about it either.
    • 18 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Valentine
    Lightweight slasher.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Arlington Road
    The idiosyncratic instrumentation and melodies in the score by Angelo Badalamenti ("Blue Velvet") and a masterful opening scene are wasted on this pathetic thriller.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Pootie Tang
    The shtick based on whether other people understand him is subtle enough for 79 minutes.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Agnes Browne
    The movie's strength is in its comedy; a tragic subplot feels merely manipulative.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Earth
    Unfortunately the allegory tends to overpower the characterizations even as it deepens them.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Senseless
    Big laughs are few and far between in this 1998 movie, which is more successful as motivational anecdote than as comedy.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Kiss of the Dragon
    The new sexism -- the old sexism plus the idea that everything is ironic -- is getting old.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie
    With minimalist and universal fantasies as their points of departure, the superheroic deeds evolve only incrementally beyond the realistic -- a deeply satisfying process.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Cotton Mary
    Doesn't quite support the weight of its allegory.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Godzilla 2000
    For all the high-tech allusions and middle-tech illusions, the movie--the 23rd in an immortal series--draws its power from its grittiness and unresolved allegory.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    The Animal
    Mild gross-out comedy integrates a non sequitur -- a running joke made by a sidekick -- into the plot, providing some payoff.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    A Life Less Ordinary
    All this is accompanied by a too-emphatic pop sound track that turns almost every scene into a bad music video.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Chop Suey
    It's a pleasing but shallow hodgepodge.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    28 Days
    Shows her transition to sobriety as many ensemble stories do--mainly through the development of other characters, the quirkier the better.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Evolution
    Demands to be treated with conviction as parody if not as science fiction.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    The Bone Collector
    This mild thriller's consistently dark atmosphere makes the scene-of-the-crime tableaux...transcend exploitation and even suggest a kind of feminist odyssey.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Croupier
    The twists and revelations of this rigorous noir reduce it to canned psychodrama.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    The Closer You Get
    An open-mindedness in the plotting of this romantic comedy set on Ireland's Donegal coast adds a couple of mild surprises to the story.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Final Destination
    Disturbing--if less sophisticated than the best SF (science fiction)-horror TV.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Tortilla Soup
    The script, which infantilizes one of the older siblings as much as the father does, undermines its own admonitions against parents and adult children meddling in one another's lives.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Luminarias
    The lawyer is marvelously played by Evelina Fernandez, who wrote the screenplay based on her play.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Palmetto
    Because so many female characters spend so much time trying to seduce Harrelson (usually successfully), the notion that multiplicity enhances intrigue is pretty worn out by the time any duplicity is revealed.
    • 29 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Snow Dogs
    I never thought I'd see a slapstick animal action movie about the beauty of interracial relationships and nonmarital sex, but that's what this is, and kids seem to love it.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Go Tigers!
    Takes too long to get its themes and characters out on the field.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    A Piece of Eden
    Has the enthusiasm and naivete of a first feature.
    • 20 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Vegas Vacation
    The Griswolds, headed by Chevy Chase, are taking what could be one of their last family vacations.
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