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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    • 67 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    Ronin
    Not even supercool Robert De Niro can enliven this boring tale about a team of mercenary operatives.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    Liberty Heights
    Told from too many perspectives, the narrative puts suspense above substance, and its social consciousness seems contrived.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    Dude, Where's My Car?
    Writer Philip Stark ("That '70s Show") and director Danny Leiner ("Freaks and Geeks") apply mature comic instincts to an adolescent genre.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    Boys Life 3
    The best short on this program of five is Bradley Rust Gray's 18-minute "Hitch."
    • 21 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    Held Up
    Sweetly mediocre.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    200 Cigarettes
    Sappy.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    Clay Pigeons
    Its blurring of the line between parody and exploitation only makes it totally innocuous.
    • 28 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    Stigmata
    This serious if assaultively stylish meditation on faith uses traditional elements of religion-based horror in a way that's more innocent than calculating.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    Everything Put Together
    Instead of a credible main character this 1999 button pusher has lots of showy cinematography and generic dread.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    Payback
    The comic timing and Gibson's mugging are skillful, but the movie fulfills expectations of plot twists and ironic atmosphere only after having made clear that it won't be offering much else.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    Life as a House
    Big, schmaltzy melodrama with mini melodramas.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    The Whole Nine Yards
    Bruce Willis's marvelous performance as a contract killer only makes everything else about this comedy seem more pathetic.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    Up at the Villa
    The plot is more convenient than intriguing, the characters more cartoonish than iconic--especially the heroine, who grapples with feminism in a way that should have been fascinating.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    Flubber
    The more pathetic the role, the more evident Robin Williams's conscientiousness--but his professionalism doesn't make this fantasy worthwhile.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    Glamour
    Time and space are condensed by means both elegant and crafty, and rarely are any of the characters made to be more--or less--than allegorical.
    • 26 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    Phantoms
    All the movie's free-form horror phenomena might have been more interesting if the plot didn't keep insisting on a systematic explanation for them.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    The Tigger Movie
    Somewhat depressive anecdote drawn out to feature length.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    The 13th Warrior
    Overwhelmingly grisly.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    Monkeybone
    The scenes set on earth--messy, predictable satire about the commercial exploitation of fevered genius. The unconscious/underworld scenes may be boring because neosurrealism is a cliche.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    My Best Friend's Wedding
    The draggy narrative of this 1997 comedy is tough to sit through--there are even several overproduced musical numbers--but it does have an intriguing subversive element that I don't want to give away.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    The Crew
    The acting--especially Dreyfuss's ability to roll with the mood swings--is impressive if not redemptive.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    Center Stage
    An ounce of self-awareness about its almost gleeful use of cliches would have improved this dance soap opera.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    The Waterboy
    Geek-triumphs-after-all comedies can be charming, but in this one the triumphing begins so early it's hard to feel for the geek.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    In Too Deep
    This earnest yet cynical drama makes the gang-infiltration genre seem exhausted.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    U-571
    Yet another unironic war movie.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    Fantasia 2000
    The rest of these animated sequences...depend on gimmickry, cuteness, or facile ideology, and don't come close to demonstrating the complex relationship between sound and image found in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice."
    • 49 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    Gang Related
    Shakur’s performance get increasingly intriguing as his character becomes disenchanted with his partner’s tactics, but Belushi is in way over his head.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    The Tao of Steve
    The clunky plot is set in Santa Fe, and includes a foil character who might as well wear a sign on his forehead.
    • 18 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    8 Heads in a Duffel Bag
    Pesci proves he can act his way through anything.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    The Opposite of Sex
    This 1998 movie is essentially a compilation of things-aren't-what-they-seem games played on the viewer; all its little tricks, including Ricci's snide and smart-alecky voice-overs about movie conventions, are really old--except one. But it's not worth the wait.
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