M. E. Russell

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Portland Oregonian
For 417 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 65% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 32% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 3.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

M. E. Russell's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 62
Highest review score: 100 Toy Story 3
Lowest review score: 0 Underclassman
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 222 out of 417
  2. Mixed: 159 out of 417
  3. Negative: 36 out of 417
417 movie reviews
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    • 47 Metascore
    • 50 M. E. Russell
    Burlesque
    The drama is telegraphed and glossy and un-fascinating; the edges have been belt-sanded until any camp value is lost. And it's filmed in that "Moulin Rouge"/"Chicago" style where you see half a dance move before the shot cuts -- which somehow makes a lot of difficult, sexy work seem simultaneously frenetic and boring.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 67 M. E. Russell
    Choke
    Rockwell is spectacular here, infusing Victor with a charm that makes you root for him despite the essentially sleazy con-man emptiness of his existence.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 67 M. E. Russell
    Reno 911!: Miami
    By film's end, you've enjoyed a middle-of-the-road episode of the series, basically. And as usual, Deputy Trudy and Lt. Dangle are getting the best lines while about one-third of the jokes hit their marks.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 42 M. E. Russell
    27 Dresses
    The only bright spot is Marsden, a great actor who's always stuck playing the less-desirable romantic rival (see: "The Notebook," "X-Men," "Superman Returns"). He finally gets the fun-guy role for a change and does everything he can to rip it up. He can only do so much.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 58 M. E. Russell
    Ong Bak 2
    Jaa's performance as Tien is mostly wordless and humorless.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 50 M. E. Russell
    The Skeleton Key
    After getting off to a decent, somewhat muted start, Skeleton Key just gets sillier and sillier and sillier until it's yet another one of those stupid, noisy thrillers where everyone's running around in a house, yelling and falling down, and you're mostly wondering why nobody bothered to call the cops.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 42 M. E. Russell
    Lakeview Terrace
    Grabs a fistful of hot-button story elements -- race, sex, politics -- and promptly mixes them into the thriller equivalent of tapioca.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 50 M. E. Russell
    Just Like Heaven
    The leads are just too good to commit fully to something this baldly formulaic. It's sad.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 50 M. E. Russell
    Reservation Road
    Serious Acting Opportunities abound! Unfortunately, sharp dialogue and characters who keep you riveted do not.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 8 M. E. Russell
    The Ringer
    The Ringer is appalling.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 67 M. E. Russell
    The Sorcerer's Apprentice
    Turteltaub has a workmanlike touch and an easy sense of humor here, and he and his team do a better-than-expected job of keeping you interested in the story, despite it being yet another Tale of a Reluctant Young Man With A Supernatural Hero's Calling.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 50 M. E. Russell
    You, Me and Dupree
    A comedy that's only kind of funny some of the time.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 25 M. E. Russell
    She's Out of My League
    Unfortunately, the movie is the worst sort of liar: an unfunny one. Its gormless, assertion-free protagonist offends as a role model for idio youths, and, even worse, offends as drama.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 50 M. E. Russell
    Fast & Furious
    This will personally go down as the flick that really made me realize how much I hate CGI stunts.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 25 M. E. Russell
    Hoot
    It's meant to be funny, but I couldn't help thinking they were figuring out where to plant the pipe bombs.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 75 M. E. Russell
    Beerfest
    It's fun-dumb and definitely not everyone's cup of tea -- I don't want to oversell it -- but Broken Lizard keeps it interesting by refusing to color inside the lines, creating their own silly little universe.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 67 M. E. Russell
    The Break-Up
    It's an ambitious idea that monkeys with your expectations: make a whole movie about the ugly, hurt-feelings part of the relationship that's usually disposed of in a romantic-comedy musical montage. Unfortunately, like a bad boyfriend, The Break-Up has a problem with consistency.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 75 M. E. Russell
    Knight and Day
    If you can settle into its odd, low-key groove, I think you'll find it's a light pop beverage that goes down easy during one of the lamest blockbuster summers in recent memory.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 42 M. E. Russell
    The Exorcism of Emily Rose
    I'm all for hearty theological debate. But this is intellectual suicide. Even worse, it's boring intellectual suicide.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 42 M. E. Russell
    El cantante
    Lopez can't decide if she's playing Lavoe's victim or enabler -- the movie sort of half blames her -- and neither of her characters is likable. The music's lovely, though.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 75 M. E. Russell
    Flipped
    A charming Rob Reiner film that more or less works as intended.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 42 M. E. Russell
    Evening
    The uneven filmmaking renders Minot's ideas impossibly trite.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 25 M. E. Russell
    Hoodwinked!
    It's horrible. It's wretched. It's Limburger pickled in castor oil.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 M. E. Russell
    The Girl from Monday
    As satire, it doesn't add up -- but it's an admirable, if dull, experiment.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 M. E. Russell
    What the Bleep!?: Down the Rabbit Hole
    The new footage adds almost nothing and feels like a lame, double-dipping cash-grab.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 M. E. Russell
    The Invasion
    Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig are adequate leads, but no great actor will be more squandered this year than Jeffrey Wright, who does nothing but speak in vast paragraph blocks of exposition while looking haggard and bored.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 67 M. E. Russell
    Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
    Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, is . . . well . . . not terrible. In fact, "Rise of the Silver Surfer" is roughly 300 percent less cringe-inducing than its predecessor.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 42 M. E. Russell
    Firewall
    Firewall does more to destroy my desire to see a new Indiana Jones movie than anything the aging process could conjure.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 M. E. Russell
    Mr. Brooks
    The movie's not good, strictly speaking, but it is kind of fun.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 58 M. E. Russell
    Valiant
    Competently done and harmless enough to entertain the tots. It's just that the movie's kind of . . . sparse.
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