Mick LaSalle

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San Francisco Chronicle
For 3,800 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 52% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 46% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 4.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Mick LaSalle's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 61
Highest review score: 100 Sound and Fury
Lowest review score: 0 Nightbreed
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,063 out of 3800
  2. Mixed: 1,037 out of 3800
  3. Negative: 700 out of 3800
3800 movie reviews
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    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Mick LaSalle
    Much Ado About Nothing
    I like to think that sometimes when a film maker takes no shortcuts but does everything truthfully and sincerely, with an interest in nothing but the creation of something wonderful, he can be visited by a muse or a spirit that comes out of nowhere and, as a kind of reward, infuses his film with that extra element that can't be earned or whipped up from a recipe: magic. Much Ado About Nothing is a wonderful, beautiful film. It's not a perfect film -- it has Keanu Reeves in it. But it has that kind of magic. Very early on, from the first scene, really, it lifts up off the ground; and there it stays till the last shot, when the camera itself lifts off, and we in the audience look down on lots of happy people dancing in an elaborate Italian garden. [13 May 1993, p.E1]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Mick LaSalle
    Reservoir Dogs
    A brutal movie, brutal in all the right ways -- brutally stark, brutally funny, brutally brutal. [30 Oct 1992]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
    • 79 Metascore
    • 25 Mick LaSalle
    Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
    It’s awful. But it could be where movies are going — into a wasteland.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Mick LaSalle
    Skyfall
    Skyfall is a different kind of Bond movie, one that works just fine on its own terms, but a steady diet of this might kill the franchise. One Skyfall is enough.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 50 Mick LaSalle
    Melancholia
    If only Lars von Trier took into account that audiences might actually want to enjoy Melancholia, rather than endure it, or sift through it, or submit to the director's will, he might have made something extraordinary.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Mick LaSalle
    Mikey and Nicky
    Elaine May (left), known for making comedies, wrote and directed this brilliant crime film, which easily ranks among the best movies of 1977. [09 Jan 2005]
    • San Francisco Chronicle
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Mick LaSalle
    Paprika
    It's not a film for children, and it's not even something children would like. It's challenging and disturbing and uncanny in the ways it captures the nature of dreams -- their odd logic, mutability and capacity to hint at deepest terrors.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Mick LaSalle
    Hairspray
    Movie magic.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 25 Mick LaSalle
    King Kong
    On its own terms, the film is overlong, repetitive and lacks impact. Even if this were the first gorilla-in-love movie ever made, audiences would come away vaguely dissatisfied, suspecting there was an intriguing idea buried somewhere in here, but it didn't quite come off.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Mick LaSalle
    Chicago
    The movie is a total blast, and what a surprise.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 75 Mick LaSalle
    Charlie St. Cloud
    A delicate film - not flimsy, but fragile - that holds together on the strength of Efron's physical presence and performance.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Mick LaSalle
    Midnight in Paris
    A movie that's loving and wistful and often hysterically funny.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Mick LaSalle
    The Guardians
    The performances are extraordinary, as they often are in Beauvois’ films, with Baye a study in quiet suffering and Bry wonderfully enigmatic — seemingly simple, but hinting at a soul capable of expansion and adaptation.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Mick LaSalle
    Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning
    Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One may not be a great movie, but it’s a special movie deserving of its own kind of event and worth appreciating. Only Tom Cruise makes movies like this, and you either understand why this is pretty wonderful or you should give yourself the chance to find out why.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Mick LaSalle
    Benediction
    Benediction is an awesome combination of wildness and control. Davies is out there all by himself, speaking a cinematic language that is his own and that has little to do with plays or literature.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Mick LaSalle
    Living
    Because Living is all about unexpressed emotion — and an unexpressed life — there are times when we’ll feel impatient with the characters; we’ll want them to throw off their restraints and say everything they’re thinking. Just don’t be in a hurry. Living gets where it needs to go, and gets its characters where they need to be, in its own good time.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Mick LaSalle
    Chaos
    A fable about women struggling to free themselves from that myth, and even at its most obvious, it's exhilarating.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Mick LaSalle
    The World's End
    The result is an original picture, not entirely successful, but successful enough, and delightful in its ability to surprise viewers, and juggle tones and keep every ball in the air. The World's End has the aura - and this might only be an attractive illusion - of something imagined whole, in a burst of inspiration, rather than as something labored over.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Mick LaSalle
    Ford v Ferrari
    Ultimately, Ford v Ferrari is about art versus commerce, devotion versus cynicism, and inspiration versus deadness. It’s one of the year’s great films, and of all the great films so far, the most accessible.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Mick LaSalle
    Flight
    The plane crash in Flight must go down as one of the strongest single scenes of 2012: It's extended, detailed, technically and emotionally realistic, and beyond that, it reveals character.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 50 Mick LaSalle
    Silver Linings Playbook
    As a movie about mental illness, Silver Linings Playbook is more lightweight than lighthearted. But thanks to Lawrence, it does one good thing most movies don't do. It actually gets better as it goes along.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 50 Mick LaSalle
    Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me
    All this is interesting, or interesting enough, depending on how you feel about Elaine Stritch. If you're a particular fan, this documentary is a must-see. But for everyone else, a little of Elaine's personality goes a long way.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 25 Mick LaSalle
    The Flash
    The Flash gets credit for effort, because this superhero movie isn’t trying to be stupid and convoluted. It gets there by accident.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 50 Mick LaSalle
    Midway
    From the beginning, Midway has awkward dialogue and an atmosphere that seems a bit too 2019, but for a time, the movie’s high stakes make up for that.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 50 Mick LaSalle
    The Martian
    The new Ridley Scott movie is fascinating and charming and crammed and overstuffed, and it’s a curious case, too. It gets all the seemingly hard things wonderfully right, but then caves in at points that should have been easy.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Mick LaSalle
    Wendy and Lucy
    A film that might have seemed faintly academic six months ago becomes an anxious expression of its historical moment.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Mick LaSalle
    The Wrestler
    The movie has the simplicity and confidence of a Johnny Cash song.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 100 Mick LaSalle
    The Hours
    The result is something rare, especially considering how fine the novel is, a film that's fuller and deeper than the book.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Mick LaSalle
    After the Wedding
    There’s a Danish film called “After the Wedding” which was released here in 2007 and nominated for the foreign film Oscar. It didn’t win — it had the bad luck to be nominated against “The Lives of Others,” which was even better. But it’s a great film. The new After the Wedding is the American remake, and it’s fascinating. That is, it’s fascinating in that it’s not even close to great, despite using the same scenario. Indeed, it would be a real lesson in filmmaking to watch both movies back to back, just to see how to do things and how not to do things. And, just to clarify, the new After the Wedding would be in the “how not to do things” category.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 50 Mick LaSalle
    The Internship
    This vaguely funny film is also the saddest and most depressing movie of 2013.
    • San Francisco Chronicle
      • Posted Jun 5, 2013
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