Nikki Baughan

Select another critic »
Empire, Screen Daily
For 166 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 63% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 34% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 5.6 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Nikki Baughan's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 71
Highest review score: 100 X
Lowest review score: 30 The Misfits
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 118 out of 166
  2. Mixed: 45 out of 166
  3. Negative: 3 out of 166
166 movie reviews
view
per page
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    The Devil Wears Prada 2
    The Devil Wears Prada has become something of a modern classic, thanks largely to its eminently quotable, whip-smart observations about the world of fashion and its enduring sense of style. It’s unsurprising, then, that this sequel (again directed by David Frankel) is cut from exactly the same cloth, deliberately designed to be a narrative retread – albeit with a few Gen Z updates – that should delight existing fans.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Nikki Baughan
    The Fox
    The Fox doesn’t go far enough, its sombre tone muting its fantastical elements, its weirdness not nearly weird enough to overcome its flaws.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    Extra Geography
    In their scenes together, Clear and Duggan spark beautifully, navigating their characters’ emotional highs and lows with a mix of caustic wit and often moving vulnerability.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    Shelter
    The narrative is often nonsensical, and the dialogue can lean towards the risible, but the action is kinetic and Statham as watchable as ever.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 40 Nikki Baughan
    The Housemaid
    As was the case with the source material, however, glamorous visuals and a kitschy vibe aren’t enough to paper over a threadbare plot, thinly drawn characters, obvious dramatic beats and an ill-advised central conceit.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    Keeper
    It’s certainly got the Perkins style and plenty of genuine chills, but the journey is more satisfying than the destination.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    The Running Man
    This Running Man could have been a powerful anarchist fable for our turbulent times but fun as it is, it runs out of steam before making any lasting impact.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Nikki Baughan
    Black Phone 2
    It remains a superficial exercise in creepy fun, but – like so many horror sequels – retreading familiar ground proves an exercise in diminishing returns.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    The Fence
    Essentially a four-handed chamber piece of sorts, this adaptation deals with powder-keg themes of the colonial psyche, racial tensions and retribution, but ultimately proves too stilted and stagey to pack much of a punch.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 40 Nikki Baughan
    A Big Bold Beautiful Journey
    This high-concept feature tries so hard to charm that it becomes an exercise in wading through sickly sweet treacle.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    Bonus Track
    The two actors manage to capture the vulnerabilities that come with opening yourself up to someone else, particularly at such a delicate age.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Nikki Baughan
    Spinal Tap II: The End Continues
    Perhaps unsurprisingly – and intentionally – Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is a much gentler affair, intended to affectionately lampoon those ageing musicians who struggle to retain their creative spark and trade heavily in nostalgia. There is plenty of that here – the film essentially retreads old ground and gags – but the sharp wit of the original is sadly lacking.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Nikki Baughan
    After the Hunt
    While it may wish to spark debate, the stance it takes on its messaging is troubling – particularly given a stapled-on coda that seems to suggest we should be putting all of this nonsense behind us.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    Friendship
    Part cringe-comedy, part diagnostic study of the modern pandemic of male loneliness, Friendship has several inspired moments, and strong performances from Robinson and Rudd. Ultimately, however, its determination to straddle both camps means it stretches itself rather too thin.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Nikki Baughan
    M3GAN 2.0
    Returning director Gerard Johnstone does not feel the need to rewrite the code, delivering a tried-and-tested mix of action, effects and comedy. Yet the whole thing now feels overly self-aware, resulting in a lumbering actioner that lacks the novelty value of its predecessor.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 40 Nikki Baughan
    Dangerous Animals
    Sean Byrne’s third feature is a messy mash-up of creature feature and serial killer movie whose psychological posturing and gory effects can’t hide the fact that it’s propped up by tired horror tropes.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    The Woman in the Yard
    A raw central performance from Danielle Deadwyler brings some depth to this Blumhouse thriller, which otherwise maintains a creepy atmosphere but mostly trades in familiar psychological horror tropes and an abundance of jump scares.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Nikki Baughan
    Get Away
    Get Away attempts to blend Withnail-like irreverence with Wicker Man-tinged folk horror but, while some of those elements hit their mark, the film’s tonal swerves undermine its more original aspects.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Nikki Baughan
    The Penguin Lessons
    In its determination to maintain a glossy, upbeat tone throughout — even when dealing with an event that, as a final sombre title card tells us, saw ‘over 30,000 people killed or disappeared’ — The Penguin Lessons proves to be neither fish nor fowl.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    Speak No Evil
    This remake of the 2022 Danish-language chiller maintains much of what made the original so effective but, in swapping that film’s shocking ending for a more audience-friendly take, loses some of its bite. Nevertheless, a striking performance from James McAvoy keeps things interesting.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    The Convert
    The Convert promises the potential for plenty of fire and brimstone but, despite some committed performances, lacks the dramatic passion that would have really left a mark.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 40 Nikki Baughan
    Bad Boys: Ride or Die
    Ultimately, Ride Or Die is such a relentless bombardment of bombastic effects whipped up by a pounding soundtrack, rapid-fire editing and frenzied camerawork — which, at times, emulates a first-person video game — that it becomes exhausting, rather than exhilarating.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    June Zero
    This earnest drama wears its politics very much on its sleeve — and makes no apologies for doing so — although its intimate take on an overwhelming moment in history can make for some compelling drama.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 Nikki Baughan
    Mothers' Instinct
    While a committed Chastain and Hathaway do their utmost to inject some gravitas into proceedings there are some moments which border on the absurd, particularly as it reaches its frenzied climax. Still, there is some fun to be found in the arch campness of it all and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the film looks gorgeous.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    Eternal You
    Eternal You acts like a modern day Wizard Of Oz as it lifts the curtain on the intricate processes of bringing the dead to life.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 50 Nikki Baughan
    Argylle
    This tale of a bestselling spy novelist who finds herself embroiled in real life espionage has some fun moments, an impressive cast and explosive set pieces (not to mention some strong echoes of classic eighties adventure series Romancing The Stone) but, in its attempts to keep audiences guessing, ties itself up in knots.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    Good Grief
    The chemistry between these three is the film’s greatest strength, and Good Grief plays best as a love story between friends.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 40 Nikki Baughan
    The Exorcist: Believer
    Exorcist: Believer has none of the creeping dread of the original.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    One Life
    This is an undeniably moving story, and Winson — who died in 2015 aged 106 — a man worth honouring, but One Life comes across as an orchestrated tearjerker.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    The Boogeyman
    While The Boogeyman — based on the 1973 Stephen King short story about a closet-dwelling stealer of souls — is as narratively generic as its on-the-nose (and oft-used) title may suggest, British director Rob Savage brings an innate humanness and playful spirit that lifts this otherwise-rote monster movie.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Nikki Baughan
    The Little Mermaid
    While this story of a mermaid who gives up her enchanted life to follow her heart onto the land has been given the full cutting-edge CGI treatment, the slow pacing, often-overwrought emotion and undeniably outdated story mean that it fails to make much of a splash.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 40 Nikki Baughan
    Book Club: The Next Chapter
    Bright, colourful and relentlessly frothy, Book Club: The Final Chapter is not so much a film as a series of inspirational posters and Italian postcards stitched haphazardly together.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 50 Nikki Baughan
    The End of Sex
    It could just all have benefited from a more delicate touch.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    Scream VI
    While that familiarity is Scream VI’s major strength, it has also become its fundamental flaw. The location may have changed, the kills may be increasingly inventive, but underneath all that window dressing it’s the same as it ever was.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 Nikki Baughan
    Manodrome
    Eisenberg impresses in a role which requires him to keep a great deal beneath the surface. But the screenplay locks up some elements of his character rather too tight and, as dramatic motivations for what follows, they are unpersuasive and somewhat cliched.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Nikki Baughan
    Sharper
    There are some fun moments in Sharper, not to mention its attractive production and costume design, and Moore is clearly having a blast with a character who is sexy and smart in equal measure. But with the story broken down into obvious individual character-focused jigsaw pieces, viewers won’t need many of their own wits about them to guess where this tale is headed.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 40 Nikki Baughan
    The Pale Blue Eye
    Rather than lean into the increasingly gothic elements of this spiralling yarn (which reach a fever pitch worthy of Poe’s own work) the film takes itself far too seriously as a character study of a tortured man.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    Nitram
    Exceptional performances, particularly from Caleb Landry Jones in the lead, and a sensitive touch from director Justin Kurtzel can’t shake the unease of giving yet another cinematic spotlight to a real-life mass murderer.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    White Building
    While the film is contemplative, intimate and visually arresting, its deliberately slow pace lessens its dramatic impact.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    The Mole Agent
    A moving exploration of the realities of growing old, Maite Alberdi’s documentary effectively blends documentary with dramatic elements to charming, if not always transparent, effect.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    Yes, God, Yes
    Successfully mining the awkward humour of the adolescent experience, Karen Maine’s coming-of-age feature makes the most of a strong central performance from Natalia Dyer.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    Stage Mother
    Jacki Weaver is excellent in this colourful culture-clash comedy which, despite an uneven tone, offers a welcome message about the power of love and acceptance.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    The Tobacconist
    Freud aside, this is a fairly straightforward boy-to-man narrative, but that it plays out during such a turbulent time in Austrian history brings additional texture.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    Pet Sematary
    As with all Stephen King stories, there are resonant universal themes running through Pet Sematary; guilt, grief and trauma fuel this tale of a family who move to the countryside and become embroiled with an ancient evil. Yet these are buried deep under a mudslide of horror cliches — jump scares, creepy kids, expositional newspaper headlines — that reduce this to just another run-of-the-mill horror remake.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Nikki Baughan
    The House with a Clock in Its Walls
    Despite a fantastical premise and some truly eye-popping effects, The House With A Clock In Its Walls suffers from post-Potter fatigue; there’s simply nothing here, visual or thematic, that hasn’t been done before.

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »