Rick Groen

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The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
For 1,531 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 43% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 55% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 5.9 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Rick Groen's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 60
Highest review score: 100 Kafka
Lowest review score: 0 The Amityville Horror
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 851 out of 1531
  2. Mixed: 449 out of 1531
  3. Negative: 231 out of 1531
1531 movie reviews
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    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    Tell No One
    The result is a whodunit so nicely crafted that you're tempted to forgive the Byzantine plot -- hell, you're even tempted to pretend you actually understand its twisting obscurities.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    Vicky Cristina Barcelona
    Gotham gives way to Gaudi and the Met to Miro, but the sensibility is the same, the city as a precious treasure, and so is the message: Life may be hard and short, love may be flawed or doomed, but, my, aren't we blessed with lovely distractions.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    Merry Christmas
    For a few fleeting hours, they unlearned those lessons of childhood, laying down their arms to pick up their common humanity.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    The Impossible
    The Impossible looks back at a natural calamity with unflinching honesty. It sees fear and pain, it sees fortitude and bravery, but mainly it sees this: In that raging instant when the sea becomes its own monster, there's precious little to separate the devoured from the spared – nothing but the thin wedge of luck.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    The Muppet Christmas Carol
    YOU'VE gotta love the casting. Defying the skeptics, The Great Gonzo keeps his furious urges in check and transforms himself into none other than the prolific Charles Dickens, popping up on camera to act as our narrative guide through his Christmas Carol classic. For the feisty one, it's a remarkable stretch. [15 Dec 1992]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    • 56 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    The First Grader
    This is potentially compelling, but truncated flashbacks are far too crude a mechanism for exploring not only the intricacies of that tumultuous period in Kenyan history but also its ongoing legacy.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    25th Hour
    Too bad there's also a final 15 minutes that surely ranks among the worst endings an otherwise good movie has ever received.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    Forks Over Knives
    A middling documentary but a magnificent indictment.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    Blue in the Face
    The lows never last too long - something invariably jumps out to recapture our interest or prompt a chuckle.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    The Darjeeling Limited
    As always with Anderson, the comedy is neatly embedded in the jaded banter, where the insecurities and rivalries bubble up -- here, all within the bell jar of that shared sleeping compartment.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    As Good as It Gets
    The result takes the audience on a screwball odyssey that mixes engaging twists with off-putting turns -- often fun, always watchable, but never quite as good as it could be.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    Sin City
    Sin City gives sin a great name -- it's never been more plentiful or looked so gorgeous.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    Farewell My Concubine
    Employing a bizarre love triangle as its base, and blessed with occasional flashes of brilliance, this melodramatic film leapfrogs among the defining moments in China's turbulent past. [29 Oct 1993]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    • 57 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    Snow White and the Huntsman
    Yes, there are many splendid reasons to see Snow White and the Huntsman – enough, maybe, not to care that neither Snow White nor the Huntsman rank high among them.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    Monsoon Wedding
    It's a fascinating babel, and Nair, using the unfolding ritual of the wedding as a centre point, captures the competing sights and sounds with her own unique mix of cinematic borrowings -- think Robert Altman meets Bollywood.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    The History Boys
    This is a piece engineered to run on the high octane of clever dialogue. It's chatty, it's wordy, but a passion for the well-written word lies at the thematic heart of the thing, and cinematic flourishes would only clog the arteries. Purists can rest assured -- there's no clogging.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    Moonrise Kingdom
    Even by his stylistic standards, Anderson has cranked up the artifice.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    Oscar and Lucinda
    In a sometimes misguided narrative, their scenes together are right on track -- they add lightness, even a shimmering hint of humour, to a symbol-laden drama. Theirs is a unique romance that has a sparrow's frail beauty -- it beats with a trembling, fluttering heart.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    Q & A
    If Lumet is travelling familiar ground here, the journey is still worthy because the ground is still muddy. And, as always, he travels it bravely - his Q's are many and far-reaching, his A's few and unsparing. [27 Apr 1990]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    The Secret Lives of Dentists
    The climax, however, is far superior here, open-ended and ambiguous and neatly linked to this film's recurring metaphor: Teeth, of course, which "outlast everything," which survive the death of the body just as marriage can survive the demise of love. They both endure, yellowed and rootless.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    Donnie Brasco
    What better casting than Al Pacino, whose own career, of course, has reflected all the seasonal changes in the gangster saga. Pacino takes the part and runs with it so boldly that he ends up in Arthur Miller land.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    How to Survive a Plague
    Society would do well to remember that, in large part, the most effective redress to the tragedy of AIDS came directly from the people with AIDS. Lest we forget, director David France is intent on reminding us.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    Sugar
    Mainly, though, the film's strength is reportorial, sensitively exploring a theme that has grown ever more prominent with the globalization of sport.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    Rust and Bone
    By turns brutal and tender, Rust and Bone is a bullet train of heightened melodrama that refuses to derail.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    The Hours
    This ranks among the highest concentrations of acting talent brought to any screen. But let's spare no praise for David Hare, whose superb script draws heavily on his playwrighting skills.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary
    A 75-minute tour de force that's often fascinating, sometimes frustrating, but ultimately rewarding. So be patient -- the payoff will come.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    Newsies
    Smooth direction, vigorous performances, competent music, spotty script, and a running time that overstays its welcome. [10 Apr 1992]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    Two Lovers
    Two Lovers is two movies – the complex, alluring one we want, and the simple, pedestrian one we'll settle for.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    Jennifer's Body
    Bloody fun is here to be had.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    Fish Tank
    A half-century ago, "kitchen sink realism" began its harsh existence on the British stage and then migrated to the screen where, over the years, the genre has taken up permanent residence, maturing into a gritty art...Now add Andrea Arnold to the directors' list and Fish Tank to the kitchen. It's classic low-rent realism – you can almost smell the grease on the unwashed dishes.
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