Luke Y. Thompson

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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
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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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 75 Luke Y. Thompson
    Hypnotic
    Hypnotic isn’t just refreshingly straightforward for Rodriguez, but for Ben Affleck too.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 91 Luke Y. Thompson
    Wildcat
    Wildcat may have a tiny fraction of Avatar’s budget, and the bad guys—loggers, mostly—remain off-camera. But at heart, it has the same appeal. Get back to nature, put others first, be as good to your family as you can, but let them go their own way.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 83 Luke Y. Thompson
    Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio
    Carlo Collodi’s serialized story for kids may have inspired it, but del Toro isn’t going for fealty. He very much has a take, and if he creeps you out with it, so much the better.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Luke Y. Thompson
    Piggy
    As much as Piggy certainly has points to make about passive-aggressive status quo maintenance versus open violence, it unabashedly delivers enough terror, tension, and gore before it’s done.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 75 Luke Y. Thompson
    Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile
    The result is a movie likely to appeal as much to anyone who enjoys pop-scored animal hijinks on TikTok as to anyone who actually remembers the books.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 67 Luke Y. Thompson
    Pretty Problems
    The humor in Pretty Problems isn’t often laugh-out-loud funny, but the observational satire is astute: it highlights how charity may be a performative act for donors, but that makes the need no less urgent for recipients, while acknowledging how far wealth distances some people from reality.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Luke Y. Thompson
    Smile
    It’s obvious that Finn draws heavily from his own favorites, but Smile suggests that their skill and effectiveness have successfully been passed along to him.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 83 Luke Y. Thompson
    Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon
    It’s less a story of the supernatural than one about a party on the wrong side of town, with hints of danger, interesting strangers to meet, and an overall cool vibe that even lingers the morning after.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 75 Luke Y. Thompson
    Blank
    When the all-important moment of catharsis that every good scary movie requires comes around, it’s palpable. But writers, and other creative types, just might feel it a little bit extra.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 67 Luke Y. Thompson
    About Fate
    Despite the off-putting blandness of its poster, soundtrack, and setup, About Fate proves surprisingly charming. Old pros (especially for their relatively young ages) Mann and Roberts manage to sell some significant character flaws.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 91 Luke Y. Thompson
    A Love Song
    On the surface, there’s little more simple than a story of two people trying to make a connection. On an emotional level, however, few things are more complicated. Like life, A Love Song offers no easy conclusions—just simple realizations. In expert hands, that’s enough.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 75 Luke Y. Thompson
    Alone Together
    While we may soon tire of movies using the pandemic as a narrative catalyst (if we haven’t already), Katie Holmes’ Alone Together feels vitally of-the-moment at a time when so many films are ignoring the poignancy of that moment altogether.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 67 Luke Y. Thompson
    This Is GWAR
    For all the documentary reveals about the band, it leaves you asking further questions, and wanting much more—an apt metaphor for a band that created an impressive legacy, and yet whose members rarely came to a consensus.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 83 Luke Y. Thompson
    The Gray Man
    Gosling’s one of those actors for whom a recurring action hero role somehow feels long overdue, and the Russos have taken advantage of more than just his good looks and smoldering gazes.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 83 Luke Y. Thompson
    Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe
    Beavis And Butt-head Do The Universe is pretty much what you expect—and it’s, uhhhhh, pretty cool.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 67 Luke Y. Thompson
    Watcher
    Without spoiling, this is one movie where it’d be extremely interesting to know what happens five minutes after the final scene. But while the subsequent events may be up for vigorous debate, the film’s message is crystal clear: Screw you if you ever doubted a woman afraid for her safety.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Luke Y. Thompson
    The Innocents
    Childhood is hard, and childhood grudges run harder. The Innocents pulls no punches in turning that fact into horror.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 91 Luke Y. Thompson
    Vortex
    Vortex looks unsparingly at characters at the end of life, and finds their experiences as scary as any traditional horror tale.
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