Nick Allen

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RogerEbert.com, The Playlist
For 347 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 45% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 51% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 6 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Nick Allen's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 60
Highest review score: 100 Makala
Lowest review score: 0 DriverX
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 197 out of 347
  2. Mixed: 74 out of 347
  3. Negative: 76 out of 347
347 movie reviews
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    • 65 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Leo
    Leo can sometimes have a jolt of energy from its slapstick sequences or its bright color palette, in which Leo the lizard flies through the air, floats on a bubble, or meets other talking animals. But it's all defined by its assembly line animation, in which the spell of watching life-like characters and settings can be easily broken by looking at the backgrounds of shots for just a few seconds.
    • 29 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Silencio
    It's one of the year's most convoluted original screenplays, but is probably best taken as a test in plot summarizing.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Don't Look Up
    A disastrous movie, Don’t Look Up shows McKay as the most out of touch he’s ever been with what is clever, or how to get his audience to care.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    I See You
    As loud and in-your-face as these developments are presented, they're amount to a shabby collection of Blumhouse-lite scenes that would be a parody if it weren’t so dull.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Phil
    A project clearly made by a first-time actor-turned-director, who is most concerned with their own scenes and casting.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    William
    William simply devolves into a drab, moody morality tale for parents about not treating your kids like test subjects.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    The Outsider
    As the story bloats to two hours by mistaking itself for an epic, The Outsider falls into a pit of boredom somewhere between the white savior complex of Tom Cruise in “The Last Samurai” and the much slicker kills by Alain Delon in “Le Samourai.”
    • tbd Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Mighty Oak
    Mighty Oak is clumsy when presenting its darkest stuff, and can't balance that with its sporadic attempts at broad humor.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Best and Most Beautiful Things
    With a documentary as flabby but well-meaning as Best and Most Beautiful Things, you have to savor the small stuff.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Donald Cried
    In the true spirit of this profoundly uninteresting movie, Donald Cried can only shrug through its central notion that men will be sad boys.
    • 26 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Hell Fest
    It’s the closest you can subject people to a horror potluck without being "The Cabin in the Woods." So why can’t the six writers of this story have more fun with this premise?
    • 46 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    The Queen of Spain
    The Queen of Spain can only offer scant entertainment for movie buffs and non-movie buffs alike.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Can You Keep a Secret?
    Can You Keep a Secret? doesn’t elicit warm laughs so much as heavy sighs, even though the film has some zippiness — there’s a slapstick spirit to the movie that doesn’t shine because the jokes are plain, the couple is tough to root for, and the general tension behind this weird situation is on the lazier side of rom-com premises.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    The Last Thing He Wanted
    Dee Rees’ The Last Thing He Wanted is incomprehensible to an almost impressive degree — usually when a movie's narrative gets so out of control, it over-corrects itself at some point before the end. But not here.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Sollers Point
    One can imagine that Sollers Point might be better if its focus expanded to the area's inhabitants, not just Keith.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Tau
    A wannabe-thriller about artificial intelligence with little wit of its own.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Railroad Tigers
    Though it boasts a large scope with its ensemble cast, huge sequences and the star power of the almighty Jackie Chan, Railroad Tigers lacks the vital focus to come together.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Coffee & Kareem
    Coffee & Kareem is stock R-rated buddy-cop comedy shenanigans by way of cuteness, and it ain't "Stuber."
    • 48 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Mercy Black
    If having their own Momo is Netflix’s latest attempt to grab viewers, they’re gonna need a much more disturbing monster.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Euphoria
    Euphoria struggles to be little more than a hum-drum meditation on kicking the bucket.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Shook
    Shook, about an influencer being tormented by a mysterious caller, takes the bait on making a movie about such social media vanity, but its touch-and-go terror hardly offers commentary or cleverness.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    The Lie
    Very little about this movie works, in spite of a certain ambition in telling a story based solely on unfathomable decisions.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Let It Snow
    As a bland addition to the already low-stakes tradition of Xmas rom-coms, Let It Snow could use a whole lot more tinsel.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    I Want You Back
    Jenny Slate and Charlie Day deserve better than “I Want You Back,” a leaden rom-com that gives them a shot at being funny, charming, and sweet, only to squander it scene by scene.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Boarding School
    Boarding School has some edge by being told from a child’s perspective, even though it's not for kids. A lot of great directors have told this kind of story, and while Guillermo Del Toro might be the most popular living one to do it, it’s Louis Malle that comes to mind.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Mean Dreams
    As for Paxton, he enters the story with an edge, establishing the authority and revealing sensitivity of a single father with a powerful job. It’s not a career-topping role by any means but it is a reminder of how the late actor could take on a role with sincerity and breathe some type of life into it.
    • 26 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Survive the Night
    You’ve got to lower the bar for a cliche-at-best thriller like Survive the Night. If it keeps you awake, consider that a success.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Boys from County Hell
    Vampire stories can be so rote that it’s noticeable when the rules are even slightly changed, and that's when Boys from County Hell shows a little spark. But this is more the clear case of a horror movie that forgets to have fun.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Paint
    Ross always preached that there were no mistakes, just happy accidents. A mess like Paint—all broad strokes and no point—proves that he wasn’t always right.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 38 Nick Allen
    Rockaway
    With Rockaway, you don’t have to know all the details of Budion’s life—or have even seen “Stand By Me”—to get a strong feeling of what’s honest here, and what isn’t.
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