Martin Tsai

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Collider, Los Angeles Times, The A.V. Club, TheWrap
For 320 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 35% higher than the average critic
  • 12% same as the average critic
  • 53% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 16 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Martin Tsai's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 50
Highest review score: 100 The Emperor's New Clothes
Lowest review score: 0 Christmas Eve
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 92 out of 320
  2. Mixed: 132 out of 320
  3. Negative: 96 out of 320
320 movie reviews
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    • 36 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    Uncle Nick
    Demski and director Chris Kasick wrap up the story neatly — in both senses of that word — by suggesting that we can all feel better at somebody else's expense.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 50 Martin Tsai
    Revenge of the Green Dragons
    Fredric Dannen's reportage, which appeared in a 1992 issue of the New Yorker and serves as the film's basis, contains lurid details that leap off the page in a cinematic way. The "Dragons" script by Michael Di Jiacomo and co-director Andrew Loo preserves many, but few register on-screen.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    Contracted: Phase II
    Novice screenwriter Craig Walendziak has followed England's template, charting the daily worsening of the symptoms. But he doesn't get that the 2013 "Contracted" was special because it was much more than a zombie flick.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    Poker Night
    Francis has a few moments of inspiration, nonchalantly deploying visual gags. If he were going for cult status, perhaps gonzo is the way to go. The rest of his stylistic flaunts, plot twists and contrivances are joyless.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 20 Martin Tsai
    Listening
    To call it amateurish would be kind.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    Default
    Director Simon Brand devotes so much running time to fear-mongering and grotesque stereotypes that a last-ditch effort at moral ambiguity and a critique on muckraking barely register.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 20 Martin Tsai
    The Longest Week
    Like so many filmmaking wunderkinds who could have used a course in common sense, Glanz is technically assured but emotionally hollow.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    The Possession of Michael King
    Although this film doesn't miss the whole point of found footage as the recent "Into the Storm" did, Jung does little to help suspend our disbelief.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    Boys of Abu Ghraib
    The film hardly scratches Abu Ghraib's surface.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    The Christmas Candle
    The Christmas Candle" seems destined to be a Hallmark movie of the week. But in spite of the hammy histrionics requisite for the genre, it is not at all a turkey.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 20 Martin Tsai
    War of the Worlds: Goliath
    War of the Worlds: Goliath is just a few cereal commercials shy of a pointlessly cartoon marathon — violent, messily drawn and lifelessly dragging.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 40 Martin Tsai
    Air
    The film is most effective when Bauer and Cartwright are battling the surroundings instead of each other.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    Rabindranath Tagore: The Poet of Eternity
    It's essentially a glorified PowerPoint presentation that juxtaposes archival footage — an echo chamber of interviews, readings and performances taken entirely out of context — with amateurish stock footage and a short running time.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    Broken Horses
    While Chopra attempts to crack the American market with a slice of cinematic apple pie, he holds up a mirror to how Hollywood's tried-and-true narrative of vigilantism connotes who we are, at home and overseas.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    Black November
    There's little going on in the final product other than good intentions, as Jeta Amata always seems overreaching for the right buttons to push.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    The Curse of Downers Grove
    The Curse of Downers Grove seems to be jumping on that 1990s teen slasher bandwagon two decades too late.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 70 Martin Tsai
    Hit by Lightning
    An offbeat rom-com that ventures down the film-noir path, Hit by Lightning manages to make dark comedy fresh by combining two formulas.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    Inside the Mind of Leonardo
    Though billed as a 3-D experience, Leonardo is flat in more ways than one.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 50 Martin Tsai
    One Candle, Two Candles...
    One Candle, Two Candles proves worthwhile at least as a cultural curio.
    • 29 Metascore
    • 50 Martin Tsai
    Jamesy Boy
    The screenplay by Lane Shadgett and director Trevor White relies far too much on telling rather than showing.
    • 29 Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    Meet the Mormons
    The film operates under the assumption that the average Joe associates Mormonism more with "Sister Wives" than Mitt Romney, so the film will be an eye-opener only for subscribers to such stereotypes.
    • 29 Metascore
    • 40 Martin Tsai
    Hector and the Search for Happiness
    Hector may indeed learn that narcissism stands in the way of happiness, but he also walks away with his privileges intact and unchallenged.
    • 29 Metascore
    • 45 Martin Tsai
    Poolman
    The film never fully commits itself to neo-noir beyond the plot.
    • 28 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    Fifty Shades of Black
    "Black” foregoes too much scene-setting, chronology and logic to stand completely on its own. As a piece of cultural criticism, however, it painstakingly eviscerates nearly every scene in “Grey” and skewers latent sexism, classism and ludicrous sexual innuendoes, as well as the original’s numerous plot holes.
    • 28 Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    McCanick
    Familiar paternal regret gets ratcheted up here with an illogical and gratuitous investigative exercise.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 70 Martin Tsai
    Bound to Vengeance
    Even jaded viewers who have gathered vague ideas from clues planted by screenwriters Rock Shaink and Keith Kjornes about how things will ultimately play out might find a genuine surprise or two in store.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    Nightlight
    Filmmakers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods water down the element of surprise, even if they get the found footage shtick down to a science.
    • 26 Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    Safelight
    First-time filmmaker Tony Aloupis, formerly frontman of the New Jersey rock band Shadows of Dreams, serves up Americana like a stale slice of apple pie.
    • 25 Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    Americons
    Director Theo Avgerinos seems preoccupied with making the film look expensive, but no amount of flair could make it less vacuous.
    • 25 Metascore
    • 20 Martin Tsai
    After
    After catalogs so many clichés in the dysfunctional family at its center that the film could be taught in a screenwriting class as a lesson in what not to do.
    • 25 Metascore
    • 20 Martin Tsai
    Monday at 11:01 A.M.
    Agron's screenplay and Harvey Lowry's direction seem more concerned with scattering bread crumbs than fashioning credible characters and an engaging story.
    • 24 Metascore
    • 50 Martin Tsai
    Dumbbells
    With verbal jabs and sight gags in equal measure, the script proves serviceably funny. As the film progresses, though, the hilarity does not escalate along with the outrageousness.
    • 24 Metascore
    • 0 Martin Tsai
    Christmas Eve
    Who knew a movie seemingly meant to spread holiday cheer could be so off-putting in an almost sadistic way?
    • 24 Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    The Pyramid
    The obnoxious sound design and score divest the film of much of its suspense, and perhaps more important characters have no survival instincts. The audience never has a chance to build some false hope that someone might make it out alive.
    • 24 Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    Unfreedom
    In writer-director Raj Amit Kumar's heavy-handed political theater, characters are little more than avatars of opposing cultural currents.
    • 23 Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    Pay the Ghost
    Tidbits that would make the film interesting have been squandered. Instead, we get the standard-issue haunted-house fodder. The ghosts manifest in so many different ways that it seems like the movie is grasping for straws.
    • 22 Metascore
    • 20 Martin Tsai
    The Legend of Hercules
    If you admire Kellan Lutz's chiseled body, The Legend of Hercules does offer plenty of that in 3-D glory.
    • 17 Metascore
    • 50 Martin Tsai
    A Haunted House 2
    Some instances of impiousness work better than others.
    • 14 Metascore
    • 20 Martin Tsai
    Cabin Fever
    It doesn't help that what passes for acting here seems more like a table read.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 20 Martin Tsai
    Two: The Story of Roman & Nyro
    The fact that Child and Shaw share writing and producing credits here almost assures it will be a self-aggrandizing puff piece.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 20 Martin Tsai
    DSKNECTD
    It is a series of free-associating non sequiturs underscored by nonillustrative graphics and an intrusive soundtrack.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    Friend 2: The Legacy
    Little parallelism or consequence can be gleaned from Kwak's narrative that crosscuts points between 1963 and 2010. Seeing as his surrogate in the first film is absent in the sequel, the shared cultural memory has also given way to genre exercise.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    Hollywood Seagull
    When a director merely goes through the motions, even Chekhov can be reduced to daytime soap.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    A Stranger in Paradise
    Corrado Jay Boccia's directorial debut strikes as almost passable, with a relatively known cast and elaborate stunts. But his inexperience rears its ugly head as the film never musters real suspense and urgency.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 20 Martin Tsai
    Southern Baptist Sissies
    Irrational camera work and editing render Southern Baptist Sissies more fitting for the theater merchandise stand than for theatrical distribution.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 Martin Tsai
    Tiger & Bunny: The Rising
    The mash-up of the superhero and buddy-cop genres turns out fresh and vital, offering glimpses of a future where reality television and drones proliferate and where conglomerates with bottom lines underwrite crime fighters.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 10 Martin Tsai
    Poseidon Rex
    The filmmakers forget the fundamentals of B-movie 101: Skin-baring spring breakers make for the most qualified carnage.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Martin Tsai
    Unclaimed
    Ngoc and Faunce certainly make fascinating subjects, and the film persuasively argues to give them the benefit of the doubt. But one can't help but think that in the hands of a shrewder filmmaker like Errol Morris, this stranger-than-fiction account would have been absolutely riveting.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Martin Tsai
    How We Got Away with It
    By performing narrative gymnastics, the film sacrifices any possibility for viewers to identify with the characters. Although the film does answer the myriad questions it raises along the way, it would have benefited from more straightforward storytelling.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    The Girl on the Train
    Writer-director Larry Brand is all too eager to show off his cleverness. Bad dialogue and Cinemax aesthetics make all the clichés seem even more clichéd.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    K Missing Kings
    Making sense was never a top priority for "K," and its sequel is just as much of a hot mess.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 20 Martin Tsai
    Raw Cut
    Aside from the film's double-entendre title and typical slasher-movie poster, director Quist and screenwriter Ponickly have given us nothing to fear.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    37: A Final Promise
    37: A Final Promise comes off as a paranormal and schizophrenic take on a Lifetime movie with themes of terminal illness and assisted suicide.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 Martin Tsai
    Pay 2 Play: Democracy’s High Stakes
    The documentary Pay 2 Play lays out a compelling case against corporate personhood and money as free speech.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Martin Tsai
    The Rule
    More objectivity would have made this case study a lot more persuasive.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Martin Tsai
    The Pirates
    It's a derivative trove of swashbuckling action, romance, comedy, special effects and revisionist history — the kind of film that would be pitched to studio execs as "Pirates of the Caribbean" meets "Free Willy."
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Martin Tsai
    Tazza: The Hidden Card
    The film seems to have an entire deck of cards up its sleeve, and they're dealt out with more tedium than fun.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Martin Tsai
    Lakay
    The mood is somber, as cued by the contemplative voice-over narration. Sights of rubble, tent cities and an orphanage are devastating. But these seem to be mere backdrop for a very different movie.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    The Hadza: Last of the First
    The film proves most valuable when Hadza subjects candidly discuss their clashes with modernity.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    Blood Ransom
    Dela Torre tinkers with some of the undead's best-known traits, yet his reinvented wheel still feels like a retread.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 30 Martin Tsai
    The Aviation Cocktail
    There are rich veins to mine here had writer-director David R. Higgins bothered.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Martin Tsai
    Calloused Hands
    Filmmaker Jesse Quinones challenges certain racial and ethnic stereotypes while reinforcing others. When the script falls short, though, Royo and Haggard act up a storm.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Martin Tsai
    Work Weather Wife
    With a 21/2 -hour running time, Work Weather Wife does not lack ambition. But for a film deliberately channeling Bollywood, its scope seems rather Lilliputian.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 Martin Tsai
    Little White Lie
    Schwartz's first-person narrative proves moving. But given that the film is barely an hour long, one can't help but feel that parts could have been developed more — perhaps a deeper exploration of her gravitation toward one identity over another.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Martin Tsai
    25 to Life
    Brown spent nearly four years so that we would witness Brawner's transformation firsthand. Rather than the after-school special that this film easily could have been, we get so much more out of it.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Martin Tsai
    Uzumasa Limelight
    Drenched in nostalgia, this loving tribute to the unsung heroes of cinema has immense appeal.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Martin Tsai
    Es El Chapo?
    [Minn] runs around with a microphone in hand like an if-it-bleeds-it-leads ambulance chaser, playing out that local news reporter stereotype often spoofed in mockumentaries.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 10 Martin Tsai
    Muck
    Rather than evincing any expertise or affinity for the genre, Wolsh's effort seems glib and hollow.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 80 Martin Tsai
    PK
    A biting, whip-smart satire on the thorny subject of organized religion, the Bollywood musical "PK" enlightens and provokes through outrageous slapstick.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 20 Martin Tsai
    Two Hundred Thousand Dirty
    Writer-director Timothy L. Anderson mistakes foul language for wit, and the result is all painfully humorless.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Martin Tsai
    Three Night Stand
    The messy relationships and sexual predilections make for an equally messy plot, which distracts from the film's strength — depicting the truths of a romantic relationship that's past the initial excitement and the selective memories of love lost.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 20 Martin Tsai
    Pretty Rosebud
    Tiu finds absolutely nothing redeemable in Cissy's upbringing. Her wholesale rejection of her parents' values isn't the enlightenment filmmakers would have you believe; it's internalized racism — conditioned by a lifetime of exposure to stereotypical depictions and cultural colonialism — to think that Asians' heritage and culture necessarily deprive them of happiness and fulfillment.
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