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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    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Rugrats in Paris: The Movie - Rugrats II
    The makers of this eclectically animated adventure, a follow-up to "The Rugrats Movie," know their audience, though all the "Godfather" references will be thoroughly puzzling to at least half of it.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    Sweet November
    It's all corny and contrived and usually sensitive. The filmmakers even dare to show the effects of illness--a subject frequently glamorized to the point of being insulting--in a love scene of rare honesty.
    • 20 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Joe Dirt
    This underdog comedy and its title character have considerable charm.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    Alien: Resurrection
    Whedon and director Jean-Pierre Jeunet ("Delicatessen") bend over so far backward to make Weaver's and Ryder's roles beefy that they end up mocking the characters' bravura.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Lisa Alspector
    American Psycho
    The slick satire cleverly equates materialism, narcissism, misogyny, and classism with homicide, but you may laugh so loud at the protagonist that you won't be able to hear yourself laughing with him.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 60 Lisa Alspector
    The Jackal
    Plotted densely enough to make the lulls forgivable, this movie concerns a contract killer (Bruce Willis) who employs several small-business owners to craft his super-high-tech weapons and the many accessories that enable him to assume multiple identities.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 30 Lisa Alspector
    Miss Congeniality
    The kind of ugly-duckling role that's long been ironic for her (Bullock).
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Lisa Alspector
    Beefcake
    Ultimately this is a sharp-focus issue movie, decrying intolerance as it explores the effects of labeling, the complexity of fetishizing, and the differences between business and crime.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Judy Berlin
    Arch yet earnest.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Grizzly Falls
    A series of stunts with bears and lots of stage fighting involving characters who are unambiguously good or evil.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 70 Lisa Alspector
    Inspector Gadget
    A judicious mix of the lightly gory, the generously cartoonish, and the unexpectedly atmospheric makes for action that's scary yet unintimidating.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 60 Lisa Alspector
    Cats & Dogs
    This special-effects animal-action comedy is for heavily identified pet owners.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 80 Lisa Alspector
    Dante's Peak
    This corny and manipulative movie taxes your ability to suspend disbelief and predictably punishes characters for their hubris--earmarks of a great disaster flick, if the tone is just right.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 30 Lisa Alspector
    Me, Myself & Irene
    A kind of idealist fantasy that seems almost hamstrung by its plot.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 80 Lisa Alspector
    American Pie 2
    The simple premise of one scene of table-turning voyeurism is brilliant.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 30 Lisa Alspector
    Outside Providence
    Smug, uninsightful light drama.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Happy, Texas
    Its charm and humor will be overshadowed for some by the exploitation of gay stereotypes--which is ironic, since their arch usage ultimately allows the movie to be progressive, if only slightly.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 Lisa Alspector
    Little Voice
    Many of the elements in this story about a woman who's nearly eclipsed by her overbearing mother are all too familiar, yet the combination is utterly charming.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 70 Lisa Alspector
    Mean Machine
    Mildly exciting sports-in-prison movie.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 20 Lisa Alspector
    Black Knight
    Jamal (Martin Lawrence), starts trying to make the best of a bad situation, which becomes our job too.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 70 Lisa Alspector
    Kirikou and the Sorceress
    The plots of animated features are often excuses for visual showboating, but here the lilting story line, based on west African folktales, complements the alternately sumptuous and austere images.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 30 Lisa Alspector
    What Women Want
    Would have proved the point if it weren't so mechanically scripted.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 60 Lisa Alspector
    Catfish in Black Bean Sauce
    There are enough plot points to fill an entire soap-opera season, but writer-director Chi Muoi Lo, who also plays the son, somehow manages to juggle them all, turning seemingly superfluous elements into workable drama and metaphor.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Lisa Alspector
    A Map of the World
    This eerily dry drama bravely attempts to show, without resorting to the literal staging of contradictory scenarios, how much perceptions of the same situation can vary.
    • 21 Metascore
    • 20 Lisa Alspector
    Wing Commander: Space Will Never Be the Same
    Excruciatingly earnest yet convictionless movie.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Last Night
    The narrative emphasizes coincidences, but they're nicely understated. If it didn't seem gimmicky and self-indulgent...the movie might be more affecting.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 60 Lisa Alspector
    Two Can Play That Game
    Writer-director Mark Brown ruptures and restores the realism in this romantic comedy with ease, dispensing earnest wisdom with a little tongue in cheek instead of undermining it with a lot of irony.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Lisa Alspector
    Pitch Black
    Stylishly realized, but its striking cinematography, nontraditional editing, and consistently reflexive use of genre conceits add up as methodically as a math problem.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Lisa Alspector
    Grateful Dawg
    Grisman presents, with a sense of humor, the apparent contradictions of a complex personality.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Lisa Alspector
    eXistenZ
    Audaciously combining conviction and childish humor, this SF thriller reminds us that the distinction between the tangible and the intangible may be frighteningly arbitrary--an idea that's made too scary ever to seem trivial, no matter how silly things get.
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