Mark Jenkins

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NPR, Slant Magazine, Washington Post
For 383 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 46% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 52% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 3.4 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Mark Jenkins' Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 62
Highest review score: 90 Drug War
Lowest review score: 5 Grown Ups 2
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 221 out of 383
  2. Mixed: 133 out of 383
  3. Negative: 29 out of 383
383 movie reviews
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    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Mark Jenkins
    Payback
    Ultimately, this intriguing but scattershot movie turns on the incompatibility of two worldviews - the corporate-financial vs. the environmental-spiritual.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Mark Jenkins
    Shame
    It was frantic sex that earned Shame an NC-17 rating, but this arty drama is mostly slow and methodical. And thoroughly unsexy.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 60 Mark Jenkins
    The Sorcerer and the White Snake
    This China/Hong Kong co-production flips the formula: The fantastic images are solid, but the action is less substantial.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Mark Jenkins
    Faust
    German history and culture are among Sokurov's concerns in this visually compelling, intellectually scattershot movie.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Mark Jenkins
    The Boys Are Back
    The effect is weirdly lulling. Viewers with a special connection to this story, or a weakness for little boys and single dads, may find The Boys Are Back moving. For everyone else, the movie is merely picturesque.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Mark Jenkins
    For Ellen
    By concentrating so intently on the psychically unattached Joby, Kim hinders dramatic and character development. Her "Treeless Mountain," the Korea-set saga of two young sisters, was also quiet and open-ended. But the interplay between the two girls provided warmth and depth. For Ellen feels both colder and slighter.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Mark Jenkins
    A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop
    As "Blood Simple" fans should expect, Noodle Shop is a comedy of presumed deaths and unexpected revivals, with some victims flat out refusing to stay in their shallow graves.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 60 Mark Jenkins
    Womb
    An incestuous payoff might be expected, given the casting of Green; she first attracted widespread attention in Bertolucci's "The Dreamers," as a young woman who is unusually close to her brother. But whatever happens, Womb is more melancholy than erotic.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Mark Jenkins
    Hanna
    The movie has more sensibility than sense, but it seems cunning next to such silly tough-girl fare as "Kick-Ass" and "Sucker Punch."
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Mark Jenkins
    The Look of Love
    Winterbottom's 2004 film "9 Songs" is the most sexually explicit picture ever to get general release in Britain. Oddly, given its subject matter, The Look of Love turns out to be much tamer; as Raymond's shows and magazines become raunchier, the director sidesteps or actively censors the steamiest material.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Mark Jenkins
    Circumstance
    Circumstance is best during its simpler, more naturalistic moments. In one, Mehran rebuffs a junkie who stumbles into the mosque, only to see that an Islamic hardliner is more compassionate.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Mark Jenkins
    Buffalo Girls
    In a rare bit of explication, the movie notes that "buffalo" has two connotations in Thailand. For rural folks, it refers to the strength and perseverance of the large animals, called "kwai" in Thai. To urbanites, however, a buffalo is a hick.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Mark Jenkins
    The House I Live In
    The House I Live In shows Nannie Jeter as she hopefully watches Barack Obama's 2008 electoral victory, but doesn't analyze the current president's apparent reluctance to significantly alter anti-drug policies.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Mark Jenkins
    Pink Ribbons, Inc.
    Provocative yet far from definitive, Pink Ribbons, Inc. is a critique of "breast-cancer culture." It could even be called a blitz on pink-ribbon charities and their corporate partners - though to use that term would be to emulate the war and sports metaphors the documentary rejects.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 55 Mark Jenkins
    Bidder 70
    DeChristopher's primary concern is climate change, which is no small issue. But Bidder 70 would be more compelling if it had used the U.S. government's assault on the ad hoc activist to also discuss threats to the American political environment.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 55 Mark Jenkins
    The Perks of Being a Wallflower
    It's populated by characters who are just too good to be plausible.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 55 Mark Jenkins
    A Good Old Fashioned Orgy
    A Good Old Fashioned Orgy deserves credit for not entirely wimping out.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 55 Mark Jenkins
    Love Exposure
    It's a campy rampage that runs a few minutes shy of four hours, dooming what otherwise would likely be a bright future as a midnight movie.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 55 Mark Jenkins
    Sarah's Key
    The glib story and hectoring structure undermine the filmmakers' best intentions.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 55 Mark Jenkins
    Limitless
    Directed by Neil Burger, whose "The Illusionist" also pulled an upbeat coda out of a hat, Limitless is entertaining for much of its running time. It's glib, and it's overly fond of hyperdrive pans, psychedelic montages and swift rack-focus shifts.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 55 Mark Jenkins
    Where Do We Go Now?
    It's the sort of well-meaning fable that's ultimately more admirable than persuasive.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 55 Mark Jenkins
    Out of the Furnace
    Cooper does slow the action and set it in the least glamorous of circumstances, which drains the pleasure from the thriller conventions. But just because Out of the Furnace isn't much fun doesn't make it profound.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 55 Mark Jenkins
    Man of Tai Chi
    Basically the anti-"Kill Bill." Both movies are quilted together from their auteurs' favorite Asian action flicks, but where Tarantino's was overheated, Reeves' is elegantly iced.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 55 Mark Jenkins
    Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
    The film was shot entirely in South Africa, and revels in golden light on dry yellow grasslands. But it's still a very British movie, a respectful view from a suitable distance.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 55 Mark Jenkins
    Europa Report
    While Europa Report recalls such small-ensemble stuck-in-space flicks as "Moon" and "Sunshine," it's basically "The Blair Witch Project" relocated to the vicinity of Jupiter.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 55 Mark Jenkins
    Orchestra of Exiles
    Orchestra of Exiles will interest anyone who's concerned with European Jewry or classical music in the first half of the 20th century. But it provides mostly the facts of Huberman's legacy and little of the flavor.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 55 Mark Jenkins
    Magic Trip
    For those already somewhat familiar with the subject, the directors' distillation of these 40 hours of film will expand their knowledge - if not their consciousness. But other viewers may spend the whole movie wondering exactly when the merry magic is going to kick in.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 55 Mark Jenkins
    Boys of Abu Ghraib
    Shot in New Mexico on a limited budget, Boys of Abu Ghraib is a credible depiction of the tedium, frustration and humiliation of wartime service. (Jack gets coated in human excrement not once but twice.) Naturalistic scenes of boxing, bantering and masturbation, set to a rap and hard-rock score, emphasize that these boys are young American everymen.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 55 Mark Jenkins
    Jobs
    So the principal point of controversy involved here is not Jobs himself, but Ashton Kutcher, who plays him. The actor's approach is to ape Jobs' speech and movements, which he does quite well. Whether mimicry qualifies as characterization is a question for Jobs' viewers to answer for themselves.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 55 Mark Jenkins
    Lee Daniels' The Butler
    Many of the White House scenes are jarringly motley, as Whitaker maintains Gaines' dignity against a series of performances that range from bland (James Marsden's JFK) to cartoonish (Liev Schreiber's LBJ). It comes as a relief when Daniels reduces Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford to TV clips — though that strategy makes the film even more of a stylistic jumble.
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