Scott Foundas

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L.A. Weekly, Variety, Village Voice
For 852 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 54% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 44% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 4 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Scott Foundas' Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 62
Highest review score: 100 Inside Llewyn Davis
Lowest review score: 0 Grind
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 447 out of 852
  2. Mixed: 278 out of 852
  3. Negative: 127 out of 852
852 movie reviews
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    • 89 Metascore
    • 50 Scott Foundas
    The Lives of Others
    The Lives of Others wants us to see that the Stasi -- at least some of them -- were, like their Gestapo brethren, “just following orders." You can call that naive optimism on Donnersmarck's part, or historical revisionism of the sort duly lambasted by the current film version of Alan Bennett's "The History Boys." I, for one, tremble at the thought of what this young director does for an encore.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Scott Foundas
    The Place Beyond the Pines
    The Place Beyond the Pines is a much bigger canvas, and scene by scene it can be riveting...But the disparate pieces never quite jell; the movie is all trees and no forest.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 60 Scott Foundas
    Under the Skin
    Glazer has always been longer on atmosphere and uncanny moods than on narrative, but the fatal flaw of Under the Skin isn’t that not much happens; it’s that what does happen isn’t all that interesting.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 60 Scott Foundas
    Star Trek
    The visual effects are predictably excellent -- sometimes, in the case of a three-man free fall through space, unexpectedly lyrical -- but most of the movie's dramatic conflicts feel strictly pro forma.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 50 Scott Foundas
    Captain Phillips
    There is something too dry and austere about Greengrass and Ray’s telescoped vision, which touches only fleetingly on the pirates’ motives, the suffering of the Somali people and the collateral damage of global capitalism.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Scott Foundas
    Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
    Came alive only in the presence of a supposed dead man -- specifically, the nefarious Lord Voldemort.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Scott Foundas
    King Kong
    King Kong isn't terrible, but it's something that none of Jackson's previous movies ever was -- it's enervating.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 60 Scott Foundas
    The Internship
    This big-hearted underdog comedy from director Shawn Levy is, much like its two leads, exceedingly affable and good-natured despite being undeniably long in the tooth.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Scott Foundas
    Z for Zachariah
    Z for Zachariah is a handsome-looking film (shot in widescreen, on remote New Zealand locations, by veteran David Gordon Green d.p. Tim Orr) and it doesn’t lack for provocative ideas, though it never digs quite deep enough into any of them.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 40 Scott Foundas
    Hustle & Flow
    But while some may leave the theater tapping their toes and whistling the lyrics to such inimitable original ballads as "Hard for a Pimp" and "Whoop That Trick," they should hang their heads low and mourn the sorry state of the contemporary African-American movie.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Scott Foundas
    The Island
    Nary an original idea abounds in The Island.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 Scott Foundas
    Emile
    A routine memory piece about long-buried family secrets that bubble back to the surface to wreak havoc.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Scott Foundas
    The Weather Underground
    Assembled in a straightforward, television-style presentation that gets the better of it.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 50 Scott Foundas
    Bukowski: Born into This
    As factoids do-si-do with testimonials from the likes of drinking buddy Sean Penn and fan-boy Bono, the movie all but becomes the very A&E Hagiography for which Bukowski would have had little or no patience.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Scott Foundas
    Pain & Gain
    Bay can be a master of exuberant chaos, but here the violence mostly lands with a sickening thud, which is fitting, one supposes, but also ultimately numbing.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Scott Foundas
    Lords of Dogtown
    Unfortunately, whenever Ledger isn't onscreen, Lords of Dogtown takes a spill.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Scott Foundas
    Nightcrawler
    Touches of apocalyptic comedy run throughout Nightcrawler, but the movie’s overriding tone is one of strident, finger-wagging self-seriousness.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Scott Foundas
    Lady Vengeance
    If this is what qualifies, as some critics have suggested, as an artistic advance for Mr. Park, let us pray for a hasty retreat.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Scott Foundas
    A Foreign Affair
    An odd concoction: an English-language movie made by Dutch filmmakers working with an American cast on location in Russia and Mexico. That strangeness, combined with sharp casting and affectionate performances, is a big part of "Affair's" charm.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Scott Foundas
    DysFunktional Family
    The attempt to draw certain connections between Griffin's material and its autobiographical origins feels slapped together, shortchanging both aspects of the film.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 40 Scott Foundas
    Undertaking Betty
    It's rarely a good sign when a movie feels obliged to add the words "a fable" beneath its main title -- and Undertaking Betty is no exception.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 40 Scott Foundas
    Open Water
    Open Water is just one tedious scene stretched out to feature length. It's terrifying all right, but only for what it says about the extents to which a couple of hungry actors and a bullish director will go to turn themselves into overnight celebrities.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Scott Foundas
    Intolerable Cruelty
    Intolerable Cruelty seems the kind of movie that results from two essentially erudite, anarchic talents playing down to the masses.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Scott Foundas
    Tropic Thunder
    Like this summer's other slapstick cause célèbre, "Pineapple Express," it's a comedy with as high or higher a body count as the movies it purports to be parodying, and the problem isn't the violence per se but rather the fact that neither movie ever finds a satisfactory balance between tongue-in-cheek and guts-in-hand.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Scott Foundas
    Red Eye
    Between them, first-time screenwriter Carl Ellsworth and director Wes Craven don't come up with a single clever way to generate suspense, and the movie's onboard atmosphere is so phony.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Scott Foundas
    Beyond the Gates
    Although in many respects a more stylish, authentic, tougher-minded film than "Hotel Rwanda," director Michael Caton-Jones' respectable and well-intentioned Beyond the Gates (aka Shooting Dogs) still falls into the trap of filtering an inherently African story through the eyes of a noble white protagonist -- in this case, two of them.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Scott Foundas
    The Descent
    Compulsively watchable, with its fair share of effective sledgehammer shocks; it just isn't very good.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 60 Scott Foundas
    Colossus
    Hendrickson shot “Colossus” from a partial script, leaving room for improvisation, and the movie’s loose, shapeless feel and scenes that go on far too long are the telltale signs of a filmmaker who fell so in love with his own material that he couldn’t bring himself to kill his darlings.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Scott Foundas
    Elephant
    As lead Columbine investigator Kate Battan has herself put it, “Everybody wants a quick answer. They want an easy answer so that they can sleep at night and know this is not going to happen tomorrow.” And now they have Gus Van Sant's Elephant.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Scott Foundas
    Bad Santa
    Gets stuck in a rut. Hearing Santa say “f---” isn't nearly as funny the 50th time as it is the first 49.
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