Ray Bennett

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The Hollywood Reporter
For 161 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 47% higher than the average critic
  • 0% same as the average critic
  • 53% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 0.9 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Ray Bennett's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 65
Highest review score: 100 Coriolanus
Lowest review score: 20 Bubble
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 91 out of 161
  2. Mixed: 57 out of 161
  3. Negative: 13 out of 161
161 movie reviews
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    • 71 Metascore
    • 90 Ray Bennett
    Black Book
    It succeeds on almost all fronts. The epic film is a high-octane adventure rooted in fact with a raft of arresting characters, big action sequences and twists and turns galore.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Ray Bennett
    Tsotsi
    Brutal but believable, the film in some ways harks back to early Hollywood, when Jimmy Cagney or Richard Widmark played callow villains out of their depth in everyday life.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 90 Ray Bennett
    Merry Christmas
    With a cast of Scottish, German and French actors all speaking their own language, writer-director Christian Carion has fashioned a deeply moving and uplifting piece.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Ray Bennett
    Eyes Wide Open
    The observational detail is impressive and the two men's growing affection is well-drawn but Takerman's depiction of the conventions and strictures of religion and the impulses of two closeted gay men are too understated to achieve universality.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 90 Ray Bennett
    Babel
    The filmmakers succeed brilliantly in weaving these stories together, taking time to explore depth of character and relationships. The suspense builds throughout as everyone involved becomes lost in a place they don't understand with people they don't know if they can trust.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 70 Ray Bennett
    The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans
    There is a lot of very black humor; and it develops, somewhat surprisingly, into something suggesting a kind of cheerful pessimism.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 70 Ray Bennett
    A Somewhat Gentle Man
    Played for laughs drawn from characters rather than funny lines, the Norwegian film is a charmer with Stellan Skarsgard for once in a role worthy of his attention.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 90 Ray Bennett
    The Edukators
    That rare beast, a terrific movie that boasts intelligent wit, expert storytelling, delightful characters and grown-up dialogue plus suspense and a wicked surprise ending.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 80 Ray Bennett
    Fratricide
    Fierce and tragic tale of lost hope.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 Ray Bennett
    Synecdoche, New York
    Will mesmerize some and mystify others, while many will be bored silly. It's not a dream, Kaufman says, but it has a dreamlike quality, and those won over by its otherworldly jigsaw puzzle of duplicated characters, multiple environments and shifting time frames will dissect it endlessly.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Ray Bennett
    Nowhere Boy
    Strong performances by Kristin Scott Thomas as the stern Aunt Mimi, who raised the future Beatle from the age of 5, and Anne-Marie Duff as his troubled mother heighten the dramatic appeal of what otherwise is quite a dull film.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Ray Bennett
    Workingman's Death
    Astonishingly powerful documentary about really, really hard work.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 40 Ray Bennett
    Whisky
    There is little suspense, however, and while all the attention on the small details of their lives is laudable, it isn't very interesting.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 90 Ray Bennett
    Looking for Eric
    Very funny and a bit sentimental, it's naturalistic comedy of the highest order, with Evets and Henshaw standouts among a terrific cast.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Ray Bennett
    Elegy
    Cruz's performance deserves to be seen widely, and it should place her again in line for prizes, but the story's pretensions and downbeat mood will not endear the film to audiences.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Ray Bennett
    Paris, je t'aime
    Being in Paris is to be inside a work of art, and it is no surprise that in the charming collection of vignettes that make up Paris je t'aime, the art is love.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Ray Bennett
    The PianoTuner of EarthQuakes
    The film is about vanity and pride, and the caging of beauty. Its elaborate fabrication has an intoxicating quality that captures the imagination like all good horror stories.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Ray Bennett
    The Wild Blue Yonder
    Herzog's strangely beautiful film has marvelous music and hypnotic imagery. A documentary for stoners and people who are that way naturally, it is a cautionary tale for wishful thinkers.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 30 Ray Bennett
    Eden Lake
    Eden Lake has the trappings of a low-IQ thriller but it's really a contemptible tract feeding the prejudices of the U.K.'s rightwing tabloids that claim the country is overrun by teenagers wielding knives.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 60 Ray Bennett
    The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
    The film is neither intelligent enough nor silly or grotesque enough to become a lasting favorite.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Ray Bennett
    Scott Walker: 30 Century Man
    Presented as a straight documentary about an American pop singer who had one U.K. hit in the 1960s as a member of a boy band and has gone missing ever since, but it plays like the slyest of spoofs.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Ray Bennett
    Made in Dagenham
    The real-life tale of a group of female machinists who took on the Ford Motor Co. in England and earned equal pay for women gets a rousing and entertaining telling in Nigel Cole's crowd-pleasing Made in Dagenham.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 40 Ray Bennett
    Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker
    A lame and disappointing affair.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Ray Bennett
    Rachel
    The drive to keep alive the name of a young American woman who died beneath a U.S.-made bulldozer driven by an Israeli soldier in Palestine continues in Simone Bitton's sober documentary Rachel.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Ray Bennett
    Adoration
    Shot on beautifully utilized film but employing images vividly from the Internet and mobile phones, it's an examination of the power that false ideas may have on people's imagination and beliefs when they are repeated over and over.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Ray Bennett
    Wolke Neun
    The film may attract older moviegoers curious to see their generation represented onscreen doing what comes naturally for once. It's doubtful that the general audience will be so inclined.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Ray Bennett
    Fifty-Fifty
    The brutality of the fights and Schizo's growing ability to outfox his enemies make for a taut and exciting little picture.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Ray Bennett
    Tamara Drewe
    Jaunty and entertaining.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Ray Bennett
    Dear Frankie
    The movie is filled with small moments of tenderness, insight and considerable wisdom.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Ray Bennett
    Polytechnique
    As much a memorial as it is a docudrama and as such it will interest educators and students, and make for sober television. It's a pity, though, that more of an attempt wasn't made to understand the killer and explain such things as why no one apparently thought to phone for help or hit the fire alarm.
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