Mark Olsen

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L.A. Weekly, Los Angeles Times
For 210 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 50% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 46% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 9.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Mark Olsen's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 56
Highest review score: 100 Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets
Lowest review score: 0 21 and Over
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 81 out of 210
  2. Mixed: 91 out of 210
  3. Negative: 38 out of 210
210 movie reviews
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    • 42 Metascore
    • 50 Mark Olsen
    The House That Jack Built
    Von Trier has managed to cobble together just enough of interest — odd moments, pieces of performance, stray ideas and the simple audacity of putting this mess out into the world, that it feels like there may be something there worth considering, a maddening possibility. And that may be his cruelest prank of all.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 60 Mark Olsen
    Corpse Bride
    There is much clattering and clanking plus a couple of songs; some of the gothic-inspired, neo-Victorian visuals are quite arresting; and the corpse bride herself is, dare one say, surprisingly hot. But the whole thing just isn’t much fun.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 90 Mark Olsen
    Train Dreams
    Told with an unassuming, gentle simplicity that grows into an accumulating emotional power, the film manages to feel very small and specific while also vast and expansive.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Mark Olsen
    Everybody Wants Some!!
    The ostensible college comedy Everybody Wants Some!! is like a stream that looks shallow but once you're in the middle of it reveals an unforeseen depth.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Mark Olsen
    Stalker
    The film has a hypnotic pull, drawing the viewer deeper and deeper into its enigmatic adventure by crafting a world all its own.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Mark Olsen
    Barbershop: The Next Cut
    "The Next Cut" manages to be entertaining and thoughtful, harmless fun but just serious enough not to seem frivolous.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 90 Mark Olsen
    Between the Temples
    A comedy about learning to live with grief, Between the Temples has a lot going on in its head and heart.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Mark Olsen
    Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets
    The most important thing is that it is genuinely great, a singular and moving glimpse of loneliness, community and finding the strength to face another day.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Mark Olsen
    Hit Man
    Hit Man makes for an undeniable good time. Sometimes all you really need is a couple of impossibly attractive people enjoying each other’s company, captured by a filmmaker who knows when to stay out of their way. And if that’s not a movie, well, then, I don’t know what is.
    • 26 Metascore
    • 40 Mark Olsen
    Supercross
    When huge chunks of character development and narrative exposition are relegated to a track announcer's running commentary, it can never be a good sign.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Mark Olsen
    Big Words
    Drumming is able to swing from lighter comedic moments to dramatic insights while making it seem effortless.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 80 Mark Olsen
    Intact
    The story is bound together with gaming set pieces that are strange, inventive and mesmerizing.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Mark Olsen
    The Assassin
    Combining Hou's patient, observant style with a historical martial arts tale, the film is a fascinating hybrid of craft, genre and story. Beautiful to look at and with deeply felt emotions, the film has a meditative aura punctured by sharp bouts of fighting.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Mark Olsen
    Sicario
    By turns thrilling, disorienting and draining, Sicario exists in a border zone seemingly of its own devising between the art film and the action movie.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 70 Mark Olsen
    A Man Called Otto
    The film is made with a level of craft and simple competence that has become shockingly rare. A genuine movie star is allowed to radiate charisma and charm, and all the performances have character nuance and emotional depth.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Mark Olsen
    The World's End
    Audacious and witty, The World's End is a strange brew.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Mark Olsen
    The Testament of Ann Lee
    A most unusual musical and a genuinely remarkable movie.
    • 24 Metascore
    • 20 Mark Olsen
    The New Guy
    Various actors deserving of better (including Zooey Deschanel, Eddie Griffin and Lyle Lovett) suffer through the undercooked material, while love interest Eliza Dushku gamely gets through both a bikini-modeling montage and a mechanical bull ride, but none of their efforts can save this film.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 90 Mark Olsen
    Nosferatu the Vampyre
    No disrespect to Bela Lugosi, but Klaus Kinski delivers a mesmerizing performance as the original vampire in Werner Herzog's hypnotic adaptation of the horror classic. [16 Feb 2014, p.D1]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 57 Metascore
    • 80 Mark Olsen
    France
    In part because of the depth of Seydoux’s performance, the film becomes less an allegory of a nation and more a gripping character study, a portrait of a mask of personal and professional regard slowly slipping away.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Mark Olsen
    The Memory of a Killer
    Director Erik Van Looy has filmmaking chops to spare, and while he has created a sharply shot and crisply paced film, he isn't able to make it all cohere.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Mark Olsen
    Love Exposure
    The film's maximalist storytelling, both expansive and precise, snatching specific emotions from its torrid swirl, is best exemplified by the fact that the title card doesn't appear until an hour in.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 Mark Olsen
    Love Lies Bleeding
    The film is pleasantly reminiscent of ’90s neo-noirs in both style and storytelling, but with a narrative fearlessness and visual imagination that makes it totally fresh.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 100 Mark Olsen
    Calvary
    The film is then not so much a meditation but a reverie, a swirl of emotions and ideas, managing to be both calmly reflective and skittishly anxious at the same time. Calvary is a serious comedy, a funny drama, a ruminative film about life and a lively film about death.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 90 Mark Olsen
    Code Black
    McGarry has created something that feels personal, vital and revelatory, allowing the rest of us behind the curtain.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 90 Mark Olsen
    We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks
    Make no mistake, "We Steal Secrets" is a sprawling, ambitious, major work — a gripping exploration of power, personality, technology and the crushing weight that can come to bear on those who find themselves in its combined path.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Mark Olsen
    10 Cloverfield Lane
    It is designed to be fun, efficient and accessible and delivers precisely and exactly on that and nothing more.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Mark Olsen
    Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
    A project such as Operation Homecoming should shed light on their experiences, but Robbins' film just falls short. [06 Apr 2007, p.E17]
    • Los Angeles Times
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Mark Olsen
    Yourself and Yours
    Though it is only now receiving a U.S. release, it says something about the ever-prolific filmmaker’s consistency and extremely high level of proficiency that the film still seems fresh and enchanting, by turns delicate, romantic, mysterious, witty and crushing.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Mark Olsen
    Extraction
    Extraction would be better if it just doubled down on being dumb. Instead, although the movie does indeed have some dazzling action sequences, they are interspersed with dramatic scenes that feel increasingly belabored, giving the movie a peculiar stop-start rhythm as it makes its way to a lumbering, extended gun battle final set piece.
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