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 15.9 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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    • 81 Metascore
    • 65 Martin Tsai
    Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
    Johnson freely bounces around buzzwords like “disruptors” and “influencers” with dripping mockery, but he stops way short of satire. He never entices us to take an active interest in this new cast of characters, and there isn’t much suspense or high stakes to speak of even when things start to head south.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 65 Martin Tsai
    Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power
    The information presented in “Lowndes County” is absolutely vital, but all the archival interviews it surfaces make one wonder if a better documentary on the same subject exists.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    Pump
    As far as documentaries go, the film is exhaustively researched, interviewed and documented.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears
    Above all, its gratuitous graphic gore and exploitative nudity are unmistakably giallo. What "The Strange Color" lacks is the heart that separates a good film from a great one.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    To Live and Die and Live
    Basir’s script is ambitious and thoughtful, though flawed. The regrettable characterizations of women aside, some of the dots don’t quite connect.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    The Frontier
    Despite a few contrivances like the impending romance between Nina and Tennessee, The Frontier remains for the most part refreshing and astute.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    Island of Lemurs: Madagascar
    Even at a meager 40 minutes, the film feels padded... But so long as the jubilance brought about by lemurs can compel more protection for the near-extinct species, the film will have served its purpose.
    • 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.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    Rubble Kings
    Fascinating as it may be, the film could have used outside perspectives to provide more context.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    The Wanted 18
    Imaginatively interspersing testimonials with reenactments, comic panels and Claymation, the film plays out like an entertaining absurdist satire.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    Copenhagen
    The will-he-or-won't-he question becomes the focus of director Mark Raso's film, and how William responds under the mercy of Effy's whims ultimately determines whether he can emerge from his self-absorption at long last.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    City Slickers Can't Stay with Me: The Coach Bob Larsen Story
    His runners' successes speak volumes, but the film never ventures outside of his inner circle to gain more perspective.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    Zombeavers
    Despite the deliberately schlocky effects and puppetry, other aspects of the filmmaking are surprisingly satisfactory. It needs to be only one notch more bonkers to help its chances for cult status.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    Steak (R)evolution
    Ribière and Le Bourdonnec get almost hypertechnical with all the cattle breeds, feeds, grades, cuts, marbling, dry-aging and preparation. Nevertheless, most any carnivore would find this absolute torture on an empty stomach.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    Leave No Trace
    Leave No Trace tackles an urgent topic and relays essential truths.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    The Midnight Swim
    The film reveals frustratingly little about the sisters themselves.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    Time Lapse
    Director Bradley King and his co-writer, B.P. Cooper, manage to overcome their shoddy premise as the plot progresses assuredly and persuasively.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    Art and Craft
    Landis has acknowledged mental issues in interviews, and it registers so much more on film. The constant scrutiny of a camera seems exploitative and cruel, even if you are at all suspicious when he rationalizes his behavior as childlike mischief.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    Dark Star: HR Giger's World
    Dark Star might have been more fascinating had Sallin delved deeper into his place as an artist.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    Poached
    Director Timothy Wheeler manages to wrangle for interviews some active and reformed egg offenders along with authorities, conservationists and volunteers. Some are quite the characters, indeed.
    • 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.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
    "Massive Talent” goes full fan service–y, tapping into the cult of personality shrouding its lead actor. But the actual finished product feels too inside-baseball; it takes a true Cage aficionado to be in on all the jokes.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    Wild City
    Fans will be thrilled that the auteur hasn't missed a beat with Wild City, although he appears to be making the same concessions to the Chinese market as his contemporaries.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    The Taking of Tiger Mountain
    Tsui will try anything once in 3-D. Splatters of blood travel in bullet-time, and the requisite ridiculousness — like action scenes with skis and zip-lines — characterize Tsui's work. But bookending the story with the 2015-set prologue and epilogue turns out to be his most inspired touch.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    An American in Hollywood
    There's a lot of truth in writer-director Sai Varadan's observant depictions of the battle of the sexes, the East Coast-West Coast cultural clash and struggling artists in soul-crushing showbiz. Too bad he isn't particularly sympathetic or fair toward his female characters, because there's much to commend otherwise.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    The Fatal Encounter
    Veteran television director Lee Jae-kyoo balances the most engrossing aspects of the South Korean telenovela with grandiloquent Hong Kong-influenced fight scenes.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    Jim: The James Foley Story
    Foley's family members, colleagues and prison cell mates vividly recount his 2011 imprisonment in Libya, his difficulty reacclimating to home life in sleepy New England after his release, before leaving again for Syria and enduring imprisonment by ISIS.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    Toad Road
    The home-movie vérité style of the early scenes pays dividends when inexplicable occurrences suddenly take us by surprise.
    • 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.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Martin Tsai
    The Room Next Door
    Given Almodóvar’s established penchant for melodrama and that the subject is euthanasia, the film is strangely aloof. It never reduces the proceedings to Lifetime territory or patronizes moviegoers in the process. It does, however, leave you to wonder a bit about the indifference you might ultimately come away with yourself.
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