Rita Kempley

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Washington Post
For 1,005 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 42% higher than the average critic
  • 1% same as the average critic
  • 57% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 9.6 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Rita Kempley's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 56
Highest review score: 100 City Hall
Lowest review score: 0 Boxing Helena
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 432 out of 1005
  2. Mixed: 329 out of 1005
  3. Negative: 244 out of 1005
1005 movie reviews
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    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    School Ties
    Doubtless better than it deserves to be, thanks to Fraser, whose Costner-esque dash serves as an antidote to the dated material. Director Robert Mandel, best known for the flashy techno-thriller "F/X," brings a surprisingly sensitive touch to this earnest story of intolerance. Meant to serve as a "Gentleman's Agreement" for the '90s, it's actually got much more in common with "The Outsiders" or even "Pretty in Pink." The moral is the same whether you're a greaser, a tomboy, a gentile or a Jew. You've got to be you.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
    Director Joe Johnston, a veteran of Industrial Light and Magic, brings a wry Rube Goldberg approach to his first-ever feature. The sets are definitely plastic, but that slightly homemade look is refreshing in the hardware movie decade.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    When We Were Kings
    Though the Oscar-nominated documentary captures the fight and the fighters, it also explores Ali's role in reintroducing black Americans to their African culture.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not
    Wickedly clever.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    The Horse Whisperer
    The movie is not only a better version of the book, it's a work unto itself.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    Miami Blues
    For all its commonplace ingredients, Miami Blues is uncommonly entertaining, thanks in large part to Ward, Baldwin and Leigh, who give gutty, energetic performances
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    Analyze This
    Ramis...does extract every last yuk from this lively clash of id and superego, this spoofy buddies' odyssey from underworld to Prozac nation.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    The Full Monty
    Along with witty, appropriately rough-hewn repartee and genuine poignancy, writer Simon Beaufoy manages to sustain suspense to the last gyration.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    Bend It Like Beckham
    You seldom leave a theater walking on air, much less float all through a movie. But the joyous Bend It Like Beckham never lets you down.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    The Fifth Element
    An entertaining tangle of pop aesthetic and comic book myth that occasionally bogs down, but manages to be ingratiating for all its defects.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    What About Bob?
    Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss star in this hilarious brain-teaser about a patient who suffers acute separation anxiety when his psychiatrist goes on vacation.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    Night and the City
    A film that gets in your face and stays there, it ultimately subverts all that effort with its improbably upbeat conclusion. Still, the performances are technically knockouts, the kind that leave your underbelly churning.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    Driving Miss Daisy
    The story holds a potential for sap that is mostly unfulfilled thanks to Beresford's stately approach, the stars' better judgment and the protagonists' sharp wits. Admirably, Driving Miss Daisy takes the road less traveled.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    Tough Guys
    Sexy and 70ish, Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas strut their stuff as grey foxes in the giddy, gag-happy gangster spoof for golden-agers, Tough Guys. These rough-and-tumblers seem to be drinking from that fountain of youth the seniors sought in "Cocoon."
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    In & Out
    Hilarious ... It's dishy, but not swishy.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    The Prince of Tides
    Barbra Streisand's lovely adaptation of Pat Conroy's bestseller echoes the novel's seductive cadences, the cries of summer gulls, the slapping of the Atlantic on the South Carolina shores. An emotionally satisfying film, The Prince of Tides loses some of the stuff readers hold dear, but the pull of the sea, its saltiness too, lingers. As a story of rebirth through self-exploration, it seems ideally suited to this season of illumination.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    Behind Enemy Lines
    War is hellishly entertaining, especially in Behind Enemy Lines, a 21-gun salute to the commitment and preparedness of the U.S. military.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    The Ballad of Bering Strait
    It isn't wildly imaginative, but its subjects are novel enough in their own right. They're a little bit country and a little bit Rachmaninoff.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    The Age of Innocence
    Though lovely to behold, this film isn't meant to send you home with a song in your heart.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    Guinevere
    Affecting, gloriously acted.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    Welcome to the Dollhouse
    Writer-director Todd Solondz is far from clueless when it comes to the agonies of early adolescence, which he mercilessly re-creates in his caustic suburban comedy Welcome to the Dollhouse.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    The Widow of Saint-Pierre
    A compelling French Canadian drama.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    Liar Liar
    Carrey is not only under control, but funnier than ever.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    City of Angels
    Though far from a seamless work, the film is gorgeously crafted, and Silberling obviously has a passion for angels. But then these days, who doesn't?
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    The Royal Tenenbaums
    This is not a movie that wraps up its story in a tidy bow, but it's a lot more fun than most of the ones that do.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    Leaving Las Vegas
    Doesn't go down smooth, but it doesn't promise to.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
    This is painless sexual politics, a fiendish comedy full of prickles and pain and the bright shiny pinks of a matador's cape. The farce falters from time to time, the pace is imperfect, but who can resist this "Twilight Zone" of limitless coincidences?
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    Mississippi Masala
    An utterly infectious romance between an African American and an Indian African emigre, this seductively funny film measures the pull of roots against the tug of heartstrings. It is also a lesson in the pitfalls of color-consciousness.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    Nobody's Fool
    Whatever its faults, it is humble, adult fare and welcome in this age of grandiose children's games.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Rita Kempley
    East Is East
    An edgy, irreverent, thoroughly winning comedy.
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