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 5.8 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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    • 42 Metascore
    • 50 Rick Groen
    The Perfect Game
    As the title loudly hints, ultimate victory assumes the flawless shape of the star pitcher’s perfect game, a rarity anywhere yet especially at the Little League level. In getting to that climax, the recreated game action is a bit tepid and the child actors too precociously cute, but the true tale in the midst of the fabrication remains a guaranteed heart-warmer.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Rick Groen
    The Bedroom Window
    DELIGHTING the senses but leaving the emotions unscathed, a stylish thriller delivers exactly the same punch as a frantic roller-coaster ride - ambling up here, speeding down there, twisting, turning, big finish and off. The goal is nothing more (or less) than fun pure and simple. [16 Jan 1987]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    The Aristocrats
    The structure of the film mirrors the changes in the joke which in turn reflect the moral of the story -- hey, it's all a matter of perspective.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 38 Rick Groen
    Oh, God! Book II
    The original Oh, God was a one-note joke that the irresistible George Burns managed to turn into an engaging film. However, even Burns' charm is insufficient to sustain that note through the inevitable sequel. [07 Oct 1980]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Rick Groen
    Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
    Between the swash and the buckle, Reynolds comes up completely dry - the connecting scenes lack any rhythm or pace. And Costner looks every bit as uncomfortable as he sounds - the British actors, especially Rickman, blow him off the screen. [24 June 1991]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    • 40 Metascore
    • 50 Rick Groen
    Sleepwalking
    The whole picture plays like a pop-up book in a welfare agency.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 88 Rick Groen
    Apollo 13
    The direction may not be flashy, but it is controlled and confident; the frames unfold with a no-nonsense, nuts-and-bolts realism that, in this era of laser-blazing Batplanes, seems downright welcome.
    • 14 Metascore
    • 38 Rick Groen
    Rollerball
    What's up with director John McTiernan? The man has got to get a career of his own -- sponging off the pale leavings of Norman Jewison just won't do.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 50 Rick Groen
    Dead Poets Society
    Beneath the polished surface, Dead Poets Society is moribund at the core - too pat, too safe and too hypocritical, as conformist as the conformity it so easily decries.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 50 Rick Groen
    He's Just Not That Into You
    Pretty routine, pretty forgettable. Don't know how else to say this, so best to be frank: I'm just not that into He's Just Not That Into You.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Rick Groen
    Bon voyage
    The result is nothing if not a curiosity piece.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 38 Rick Groen
    In the Mix
    Forgettable.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles
    The look is fine, the effects are special, the cast is solid, and Jordan (in company with Rice) makes a commendable effort to add a cerebral dimension to a visceral genre.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 63 Rick Groen
    Bob Roberts
    Great satire (read most anything by Swift) must be capable of doing more than preaching to the converted, and, measured by that lofty standard, Bob Roberts may fall a bit short. [18 Sep 1992]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    • 68 Metascore
    • 63 Rick Groen
    Honeydripper
    A contemplative fable, Honeydripper locates the moment but misses the heart-pounding, gut-wrenching explosion -- the history is there, the thrill isn't.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Rick Groen
    Enchanted April
    Thanks to a superb cast it's great fun indeed. [7 Aug 1992]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    • 57 Metascore
    • 38 Rick Groen
    Scent of a Woman
    Instead, you get a nominal character study that boasts a single mighty performance and one nifty scene; alas, both performance and scene exist in a narrative vacuum - the plot is non-existent and the pace makes the ice age seem hasty.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Rick Groen
    The Lake House
    We also know the last time Keanu and Sandra shared the screen together. That was yesterday and Speed. This is today and Snail. I'm not betting on a tomorrow.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 63 Rick Groen
    North Dallas Forty
    Despite these advantages, North Dallas Forty's descents into farce and into the lone man versus the corrupt system mentality deprive it of real resonance. It's still not the honest portrait of professional athletics that sport buffs have been waiting for. It is, though, a stylish cut above most films of this type. [4 Aug 1979]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Rick Groen
    The Go-Getter
    This is a fairly well-made picture that's just been fairly well-made too many times before, a knock-off of a thousand other knock-offs.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Rick Groen
    Notorious
    Notorious isn't, not even remotely.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 25 Rick Groen
    Wild Things
    This picture breaks through the limits and goes way beyond the pale -- it seems to enjoy irking us for the sheer hell of it.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Rick Groen
    The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
    Only an actor of Moore's calibre could begin to add a bit of credible flesh to these hallowed bones.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 63 Rick Groen
    Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles
    My mood kept fluctuating, as did my reaction when the end credits rolled: This is seriously lovely; this is fluff; this is seriously lovely fluff.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 38 Rick Groen
    Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit
    Whoopi (a beleaguered figure these days) single-handedly cranks up the volume now and again, earning a chuckle or two, but then settles lazily back, apparently content to bank on the formula and imagine the box- office. [10 Dec 1993]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    • 83 Metascore
    • 88 Rick Groen
    Adaptation.
    Duelling roles are an actor's dream, and Cage takes full advantage. He and that face of his -- hang-dog homely one minute, vibrantly macho the next -- are perfectly cast. So is Streep as the sophisticated Manhattanite drawn into a steamy realm of Southern discomfort.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 25 Rick Groen
    Village of the Damned
    His take on metaphor is painfully literal, his approach to style is hilariously Hollywood. In lieu of black-and-white realism, we're given visual shtick. [02 May 1995]
    • The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    • 78 Metascore
    • 63 Rick Groen
    Eve's Bayou
    So what's the problem? Just that the plot seems a bit too schematic, the characters a little too pat, and the imagery altogether too convenient -- for a tale that means to explore the elusiveness of truth, Lemmons sure likes to sew things up neatly.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 38 Rick Groen
    Ask the Dust
    This story, like many of Towne's own, does not come with a happy ending. Or beginning, for that matter, because it's almost immediately clear that Ask the Dust bites the dust -- his dream movie is stillborn.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 63 Rick Groen
    Abandon
    Don't abandon Abandon. In the movies' long weekly line-up, it stands apart -- innocent of banality, and guilty of nothing more damning than intelligent effort that falls a tad short.
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