Maitland McDonagh

Select another critic »
Film Journal International, TV Guide Magazine
For 2,280 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 43% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 53% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 10.7 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Maitland McDonagh's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 55
Highest review score: 100 Devil in a Blue Dress
Lowest review score: 0 The Hottie & the Nottie
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 738 out of 2280
  2. Mixed: 1,265 out of 2280
  3. Negative: 277 out of 2280
2280 movie reviews
view
per page
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    Lumumba
    Utterly enthralling even for viewers unfamiliar with the Congo's complicated political history.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    Love Actually
    Frequently funny, generally fizzy and occasionally piercingly perceptive about the price love exacts.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    Face/Off
    Unlike Woo's successful but rather disappointing "Broken Arrow", this brutal, stunningly choreographed spectacle weaves together lyrical beauty, blasphemy, sadistic cruelty and grotesque sentimentality with breathtakingly smooth assurance.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    The Manchurian Candidate
    In a story driven by questions of loyalty and allegiance, no candidate is identified by party. It's a bipartisan nightmare from which no one escapes unscathed.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    Millions
    This cheeky fable rests on the slender shoulders of Etel and McGibbon, and the lovely, natural performances Boyle elicits from them are the film's real miracle.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    Bad Education
    By turns enthralling, seductive and deeply disturbing.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    A Walk on the Moon
    This intimate, bittersweet romance is proof that a familiar story and the trappings of a done-to-death era can still seem fresh and engaging in the right hands.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    Titanic
    It's both the shortest 3 1/2 hours you'll ever spend at the movies and spectacle of such magnitude that it's hard to imagine feeling you didn't get your time and money's worth.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport
    Both informative and intensely moving.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    Chicago
    Non-musical scenes that move the narrative forward are staged realistically, while the lavish production numbers reflect the star-struck imagination of one-time chorine Roxie, for whom all the world ought to be a stage.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    Hustle & Flow
    Craig Brewer's sweaty, feel-good story about a small-time pimp and dope dealer making one last, desperate grab at his long-deferred dream is driven by longtime supporting player Terrence Howard's subtle, go-for-broke performance as Memphis mack Djay.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    Me Without You
    Anchored by Friel and Williams's exceptional performances, the film's power lies in its complexity. Nothing is black and white, starting with the girls' complicated relationships with their parents, which are simultaneously nurturing and fraught with psychological peril.
    • 94 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
    Despite its length, the film only starts feeling as long at the end -- or, more correctly, ends. Serious fans of the novels will be prepared for the serial codicils, but the uninitiated are likely to think the film is over several times before it actually is.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    The Eyes of Tammy Faye
    Whatever the complicated truth about PTL, Tammy Faye's homespun charisma is undeniable; if only the Lord would give her the strength to say, "Get thee behind me, false eyelashes!"
    • 90 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    The Incredibles
    The result is truly a family film, not a kiddie time-waster that throws the occasional sop to adults; whether you like or love it is a function of how vividly the material reflects your own childhood fantasies.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    The Wings of the Dove
    Henry James's novel of social-climbing, forbidden love, friendship and betrayal, given a lush treatment that neglects neither the elaborate period trappings nor the story's intensely contemporary emotional underpinnings.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    Sexy Beast
    The main event is the Mamet-esque battle of foul words between vintage hard-case Ray Winstone and the seething sociopath played by Ben Kingsley.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    The Truman Show
    A cool indictment of television's near-irresistible pandering to the inner peeping tom.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    Big Fish
    Such astringent details as a banjo player plucking a few ominous notes from "Dueling Banjos" when Ed first lays eyes on the Norman Rockwellian beauty of Spectre ensure that the story's fundamental sweetness never becomes cloying.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    Marion Bridge
    Story of small triumphs and everyday sorrows is never maudlin or sentimental.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    All About My Mother
    Classic melodrama given a thoroughly modern, utterly Almodovarian face-lift.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    Girlfight
    Kusama's impressive feature debut is an affecting coming-of-age drama whose story is familiar without being hackneyed.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    Lipstick & Dynamite, Piss & Vinegar: The First Ladies of Wrestling
    Generous, slyly tough-minded documentary.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    Thirteen Conversations About One Thing
    It starts slowly, but this contemplative drama's cumulative effect is genuinely haunting.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    The Gift
    Blanchett's quietly radiant performance anchors even the most outrageous plot developments, and she's well-supported on all sides.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine
    The competition between man and machine is fogged by distrust and obfuscation. And for now, the result is a draw.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    Read My Lips
    Hailed as a clever exercise in neo-Hitchcockianism, this clever and very satisfying picture is more accurately Chabrolian.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    Stir of Echoes
    A scary, intelligent thriller that remains haunting long after it's over...features what has to be one of the creepiest first half-hours in recent film history.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    The Tao of Steve
    So adorable you don't ever mind that the story's so slight it's in danger of shriveling up and blowing away, or that it drags a little in the middle.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Maitland McDonagh
    Intolerable Cruelty
    A collaboration between the notoriously offbeat Coen brothers and thoroughly mainstream screenwriters Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone, this piquant romantic comedy is both resolutely generic and bristling with barbs that go down with a delicious fizz and leave behind a refreshing blast of tartness.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »