Luke Y. Thompson

Select another critic »
Dallas Observer, New Times (L.A.), The A.V. Club, Village Voice
For 520 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 55% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 41% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 8 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Luke Y. Thompson's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 58
Highest review score: 100 Dragon Inn (1967)
Lowest review score: 0 Slackers
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 204 out of 520
  2. Mixed: 228 out of 520
  3. Negative: 88 out of 520
520 movie reviews
view
per page
    • tbd Metascore
    • 75 Luke Y. Thompson
    How to Rob a Bank
    Where visuals of certain events are unavailable, like Scurlock writing in his journal at night, fully colored and animated storyboards fill in the gaps. It’s an odd semi-glorification, even as How To Rob A Bank throws in a few token mentions of robbery survivors with PTSD at the end, and offers a sense that Scurlock fell into the Butch Cassidy trap of being so hooked on robberies he never knew when to quit.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 91 Luke Y. Thompson
    Abigail
    Once intended as a remake of Dracula’s Daughter, Abigail evolved into its own thing, and fans of original horror ought to applaud. The former, honestly, isn’t all that great; the latter, figuratively and literally, dances rings around it.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 67 Luke Y. Thompson
    Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2
    This is cinema at its most punk rock—a raucous, unpolished, cheap, sacred-cow shredding middle finger to the mainstream with just enough raw talent inside to keep it from being dismissable.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Luke Y. Thompson
    Sleeping Dogs
    Crowe is quite capable of being compelling even when doing banal stuff—the highlight here is a variation on the “falling off the wagon” trope, as he captures the sheer delight of a guy who has literally forgotten how much he loves whiskey. The end point, like the movie’s, feels inevitable, but the journey there contains small joys.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 58 Luke Y. Thompson
    Hundreds of Beavers
    Hundreds Of Beavers is one of the most distinctive movies you’ll see all year, and one made for midnight viewings if ever anything was.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 42 Luke Y. Thompson
    Ricky Stanicky
    In the wrestling ring, Cena used to wear a shirt which read “Rise Above Hate,” and indeed, he does so here. It would be better if he found a project where he didn’t have to.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 58 Luke Y. Thompson
    Land of Bad
    If you can get through a rough first act, you’ll see both absurd military superheroics and the greatest grocery run ever.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 91 Luke Y. Thompson
    Orion and the Dark
    Though Orion And The Dark appears to go through the motions of a family flick, it throws some serious curves en route to a loving yet emotionally devastating resolution.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 83 Luke Y. Thompson
    Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
    It’s rare to see family animated films as purely focused on fun as this one.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 91 Luke Y. Thompson
    The Boy and the Heron
    If The Boy And The Heron is indeed Miyazaki’s final film, it can serve as both a victory lap and a plea for a successor to arrive and take up the mantle of trying to make the world a better place through art.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 58 Luke Y. Thompson
    Five Nights at Freddy's
    Yes, there are kills, but they’re often as comical as they are scary, and deliberately so. It’s a fun gateway horror movie for kids—and the easily scared who want to test their limits lightly.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 75 Luke Y. Thompson
    Saw X
    Fans who tune in mainly for the insane timeline twists won’t get them, but otherwise, this is the most satisfying Saw installment since the first three. Also, be sure to stick around for a mid-credits scene.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 33 Luke Y. Thompson
    The Nun II
    At least the jump scares are effective, especially in IMAX theaters where the headrests rumble every time Valak makes a sudden move. That, and a couple of decent makeup tricks are pretty much all The Nun II has. The character deserves better, and so do you really.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 67 Luke Y. Thompson
    Retribution
    Unlike Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates, what you’re going to get from this box of travel sweets is usually something you can expect. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be effectively tasty in the moment.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 83 Luke Y. Thompson
    Sympathy for the Devil
    Cage may hate that people quote his over-the-top moments out of context, but since this entire movie is one, you can’t really take any of it the wrong way.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 42 Luke Y. Thompson
    Haunted Mansion
    The movie at times feels like an eternal cycle of the nine-minute ride, which loses its luster after 123 of those minutes. It offers you this chilling challenge—find a way out! Better yet, refrain from being the mortal foolish enough to enter in the first place.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 33 Luke Y. Thompson
    God Is a Bullet
    Cut God Is A Bullet down to a tight 90 minutes, and it might at least consistently deliver the cheap thrills and nihilistic kick it only occasionally achieves.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 67 Luke Y. Thompson
    Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story
    It certainly captures a side of the man, and maybe that’s all anyone would ask of it. But it’s hard to shake the feeling there’s an even better movie waiting to be made from all this material.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 50 Luke Y. Thompson
    The Machine
    Hamill, however, is the MVP, continuing to deliver some of his best work as an older man. When he leaves the action for a spell, the energy leaves the movie.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 75 Luke Y. Thompson
    Hypnotic
    Hypnotic isn’t just refreshingly straightforward for Rodriguez, but for Ben Affleck too.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 33 Luke Y. Thompson
    Ghosted
    There’s a funny notion in Chris Evans effectively playing a damsel in distress, but like everything else in Ghosted, the filmmakers have no idea how to play it.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Luke Y. Thompson
    The Pope's Exorcist
    It’s impossible to take any of this remotely seriously, or find it particularly frightening. But it is its own sort of fun, at least for a while.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 50 Luke Y. Thompson
    Murder Mystery 2
    It’s a set-up too contrived to feel real, yet not quite over-the-top enough to be hilarious.
    • 22 Metascore
    • 25 Luke Y. Thompson
    Children of the Corn
    There’s no reason a movie with this premise couldn’t be better. Just not in these folks’ hands.
    • 16 Metascore
    • 50 Luke Y. Thompson
    Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey
    To say that Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood And Honey delivers everything a slasher movie should is higher praise than it used to be. Marketing alone would have guaranteed this movie a certain percentage of curious eyeballs, but Frake-Waterfield made sure that what genre fans see is everything they expected.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 83 Luke Y. Thompson
    Magic Mike's Last Dance
    Since more moviegoers are likely coming to a Magic Mike movie for the moves than the plot, let it be stated the moves are outstanding, even if the movers remain mostly blank slates.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 42 Luke Y. Thompson
    You People
    For the first half-hour, Netflix has a high-concept hit on its hands. Pause it there, and imagine the rest—you won’t do any worse than Barris and Hill’s script at conceiving an ending.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 67 Luke Y. Thompson
    Alice, Darling
    Nighy feels like she’s finding her way in a new format. She’s got the hard part down, pulling off effective emotional beats even when the story seems to be operating on screenwriting 101 paradigms. All that remains is to find a script that’s up to the rest of it.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Luke Y. Thompson
    The Drop
    The Drop isn’t really about dropping a baby. But it’s not about much else, either.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 58 Luke Y. Thompson
    House Party
    To its credit, and this isn’t damning with faint praise, the new House Party is frequently very funny. (The R-rated language and creative insults are a great asset, even if they might restrict the potential teen audience.) What it has in humor, though, it lacks in pace.
prev
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »