Soren Andersen

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The Seattle Times
For 373 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 2.1 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Soren Andersen's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 63
Highest review score: 100 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Lowest review score: 12 Norm of the North
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 224 out of 373
  2. Mixed: 75 out of 373
  3. Negative: 74 out of 373
373 movie reviews
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    • 42 Metascore
    • 75 Soren Andersen
    Suburbicon
    The Coen brothers’ section, derived from a script they sent to Clooney in the late 1990s, is much more impactful, with Damon giving a performance that renders his character downright chilling and Jupe doing heart-rending work as a child emotionally buffeted by the grievously flawed behavior of the adults who are supposed to love and protect him.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 75 Soren Andersen
    Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House
    Neeson’s Felt is deeply conflicted about being a turncoat. He’s also deeply flawed, a man who authorized illegal activities to track down members of the terrorist Weather Underground.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 88 Soren Andersen
    Only the Brave
    Under the direction of Joseph Kosinski (“Oblivion”), a large cast headed by Josh Brolin and Miles Teller bring great vitality and sensitivity to their performances.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 88 Soren Andersen
    Blade Runner 2049
    In terms of the imaginative ways it expands on the themes of the first movie, it is the rare sequel that is at least the equal of its iconic original.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 75 Soren Andersen
    Kingsman: The Secret Service
    At heart, “Kingsman” is a comedy, though granted, one with abundant dismemberments and literally mind-blowing violence. And I mean “literally” in the very strictest sense of the term.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Soren Andersen
    American Made
    Cruise and company wanted to make American Made a fun and often funny ride, but there’s something oddly joyless about the whole enterprise. Its overweening cynicism leaves a curdled aftertaste.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 75 Soren Andersen
    The LEGO Ninjago Movie
    There is fun to be had here. Adults can appreciate the verbal byplay. For the kids, there’s frenzied noise, and those toys.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 63 Soren Andersen
    Kingsman: The Golden Circle
    Sequelitis has Vaughn in its grip. The follow-up to his 2014 hyperviolent, boundlessly inventive spy-movie sendup gives the impression it’s trying a little too hard to surpass its predecessor.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 100 Soren Andersen
    First They Killed My Father
    Jolie draws restrained, naturalistic performances from her all-Cambodian cast, particularly young Sareum Srey Moch. There’s a stillness and a stoicism in her portrayal that makes her an unforgettable figure in this unforgettable movie.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 63 Soren Andersen
    American Assassin
    Director Michael Cuesta and a platoon of credited screenwriters have dutifully checked all the usual spy-thriller boxes but bring nothing new to the party.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 38 Soren Andersen
    It
    Childhood: courtesy of Mr. King. Filtered through the pedestrian sensibilities of director Andy Muschietti, who seemingly never met a horror-movie cliché he couldn’t incorporate into his adaptation of King’s thousand-page-plus mega-opus.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 100 Soren Andersen
    Crown Heights
    What Warner undergoes in Crown Heights is difficult to watch. Yet in the end, remarkably. there is triumph. And, finally, justice.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 75 Soren Andersen
    The Hitman's Bodyguard
    Reynolds is playing what amounts to the straight man to Jackson’s bad boy, and the back-and-forth between the two, with his character stewing and steaming in exasperation at the killer’s taunts, gives The Hitman’s Bodyguard its special fizz.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 88 Soren Andersen
    13 Minutes
    Freidel illuminates the inner struggle Elser goes through as, buttressed by his conscience and his Catholic faith, he finds within himself a strength of character and brave defiance that defines him as a hero in the truest sense of the word.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 75 Soren Andersen
    The Dark Tower
    In the vast canon of King-derived movies, “Tower” belongs in the upper ranks.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Soren Andersen
    An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power
    An Inconvenient Sequel is both a rebuttal and a rebuke to the voices who vociferously disparage him and his cause.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 25 Soren Andersen
    Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
    There is absolutely nothing new under the many suns in Besson’s universe. This is a voyage not worth taking.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Soren Andersen
    War for the Planet of the Apes
    Serkis again proves that in the highly specialized realm of performance-capture acting, he has no peer.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 88 Soren Andersen
    Spider-Man: Homecoming
    The special-effects sequences are up to the usual high standards of Marvel excellence, but by far the best elements of “Homecoming” are the writing, which brims with humor, and the performances.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 63 Soren Andersen
    Despicable Me 3
    It’s a standard kiddie cartoon: noisy, colorful and forgettable.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 38 Soren Andersen
    Transformers: The Last Knight
    When words fail in The Last Knight, the crunching and crashing and KLANKing of the special-effects scenes take up the slack. Punishingly overwrought in every aspect, Last Knight is a KLANK! KLANK! KLUNKER.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 50 Soren Andersen
    The Book of Henry
    The Book of Henry launches itself into cloud cuckooland and never returns to Earth.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 88 Soren Andersen
    Cars 3
    Solid storytelling, a longtime strength of the best Pixar pictures, elevates Cars 3 into the pantheon with the studio’s finest.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 50 Soren Andersen
    It Comes at Night
    With all of Shults’ dark-night-of-the-soul mood manipulations, the film promises more than it delivers. Its buildups are impressive, but in the end its frights are mild.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 88 Soren Andersen
    Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie
    The friendship of George and Harold is celebrated, and the cheery vocal work of Hart and Middleditch gives the picture its sprightly spirit.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 38 Soren Andersen
    Baywatch
    It’s all just a day at the beach, harmlessly fun and instantly forgettable.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Soren Andersen
    Alien: Covenant
    You come to an “Alien” movie with certain expectations: creepy thrills, impressive production design, chest busters, acid saliva. Going back to basics, Scott delivers what we’ve come to expect in “Covenant.” And how.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 63 Soren Andersen
    The Wall
    Taylor-Johnson’s agonized performance holds the audience’s attention, but his portrayal doesn’t really take the character anywhere.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 63 Soren Andersen
    Chuck
    Thanks to its two central performances, Chuck is a solid contender.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 38 Soren Andersen
    Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
    It’s a rare misstep for the usually sure-footed folks behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 88 Soren Andersen
    Voice from the Stone
    With her wonderfully expressive face, Clarke carries the picture, navigating her character’s gradual transformation with grace and conviction.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 88 Soren Andersen
    Guardians of the Galaxy
    "Guardians” stands apart because it’s somehow truer to a comic book’s essence than any Marvel or DC-derived picture you can name. Which is to say it’s pulpy, kind of cheesy and giddily exaggerated (and aware of it) in a way that, say, the “Thors,” the “Captain Americas” and Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies are not.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Soren Andersen
    The Lost City of Z
    Hunnam speaks in low tones, practically murmuring his lines in many scenes, which seem at odds with the underlying fierceness of Fawcett’s resolve. His manner is almost diffident, yet he’s steadfast in his purposefulness.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Soren Andersen
    Free Fire
    Its take-no-prisoners pacing [takes] it up a notch from the average low-budget shoot ’em up.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 88 Soren Andersen
    Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo
    What the movie makes clear is that that deeply spiritual moment represented a triumph of management.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 50 Soren Andersen
    The Assignment
    Weaver’s Kay is a fanatic.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Soren Andersen
    Ghost in the Shell
    It’s somehow only fitting that with Scarlett Johansson in the lead role, Ghost in the Shell leaves you with the feeling that something has been lost in translation.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 25 Soren Andersen
    The Boss Baby
    It’s all very bizarrely, pointlessly complicated.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 100 Soren Andersen
    T2 Trainspotting
    T2 is a sequel that is at least the equal of the revered original.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 38 Soren Andersen
    Life
    In space, everyone can hear you yawn.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 75 Soren Andersen
    My Life as a Zucchini
    Along with the kids’ sorrow, Barras works uplift and lightness into the story, and there are moments of great joy. In the end, it’s positivity that prevails.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Soren Andersen
    Logan
    Jackman and Stewart give perhaps the most heartfelt performances that they’re ever brought to an “X-Men” movie. Though the tone of the movie is pervasively downbeat, they’re both going out on a very high note.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Soren Andersen
    The Girl with All the Gifts
    What distinguishes “Girl” from most zombie pictures is Nanua’s appealing performance and a chilling scene toward the end.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 25 Soren Andersen
    Fist Fight
    What a pestilential little picture is Fist Fight.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 63 Soren Andersen
    John Wick: Chapter 2
    It’s all kind of funny, actually, and deliberately so. Director Chad Stahelskii, a former stunt man, stages a flailing fight down a seemingly endless flight of stairs that is like something out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 25 Soren Andersen
    The Space Between Us
    The nonstop silliness of this picture leaves one choking on stifled laughter.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 25 Soren Andersen
    xXx: Return of Xander Cage
    xXx: Return of Xander Cage is the movie equivalent of cotton candy: all empty calories. Excessive consumption of this product is likely to give a body the queasies.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Soren Andersen
    Live by Night
    Affleck sports plenty of snappy ’20s fashions, tailored double-breasted suits, often cream-colored, and elegant Borsalino-style fedoras. He’s dressed to kill for sure. Too bad his movie is so deadly dull.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 38 Soren Andersen
    Monster Trucks
    The main monster communicates in noises that sound like belches. Appropriate for a picture that’s the equivalent of a cinematic burp: gassy and inconsequential.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 88 Soren Andersen
    Silence
    The silence in Silence is deep and profound.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 25 Soren Andersen
    Why Him?
    What say we tiptoe quietly away and pretend this movie never happened?
    • 36 Metascore
    • 50 Soren Andersen
    Assassin's Creed
    The picture has an undeniable rough stylishness...but in terms of coherence of storytelling it leaves the audience choking on all that swirling dust.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Soren Andersen
    Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
    The action sequences, both on the ground and in space, are rousingly staged. But the losses incurred in those sequences are sobering. The stakes in the “Star Wars” rebellion are high indeed.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 75 Soren Andersen
    Burn Country
    The performances are first rate, particularly Rains’ work in the lead role.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Soren Andersen
    Old Stone
    Director Ma has made a quietly merciless picture, a horror movie, really, about a decent man, an ordinary man, left alone, bereft, embittered, ruined by his act of decency.
    • 28 Metascore
    • 25 Soren Andersen
    Man Down
    Offering only an atmosphere of deepening gloom and a premise of utter hopelessness, Man Down is like movie antimatter: It repels interest.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 38 Soren Andersen
    The Love Witch
    Weirdest. Feminist. Movie. Ever.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 12 Soren Andersen
    Bad Santa 2
    If ever there was a movie that should never have been made, Bad Santa 2 is that movie. It’s vile, like something written by a pen dipped in bile.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Soren Andersen
    Rules Don't Apply
    Beatty directed and wrote the script, but from a man who made the weighty epic “Reds” and the corrosively funny “Bulworth,” Rules Don’t Apply feels curiously weightless and as forgettable as its title.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Soren Andersen
    Moana
    Everything in the picture, from the characters’ clothes and hairstyles to the vessels they sail, bear the stamp of authenticity. But Moana’s greatest strength is the verve in which they move the action along and the sheer joyousness evident in every aspect of their storytelling.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 88 Soren Andersen
    Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
    The acting and script are so strong that the picture is an outstanding achievement even in the 2D version that most people will see.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Soren Andersen
    Bleed for This
    In the central role, Miles Teller is impressively bulked up, but there’s a flatness in his performance. It’s a dogged, rather than an inspired, portrayal. The best work is done by Aaron Eckhart, who plays Vinnie’s trainer, Kevin Rooney.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 88 Soren Andersen
    Aquarius
    At 2½ hours, Aquarius is about a half-hour too long for the story it tells, yet it feels like a privilege to be in the presence of such a powerful character and such a quietly commanding performance.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Soren Andersen
    Hacksaw Ridge
    With Andrew Garfield in the lead role and Mel Gibson in the director’s chair for the first time in 10 years, “Hacksaw” is an incredibly powerful picture once it gets to the battle scenes.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 38 Soren Andersen
    Trolls
    Coerced jollity is the order of the day in the kingdom of trolldom in this animated kids movie from DreamWorks. And I do mean order.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Soren Andersen
    Doctor Strange
    Director/co-screenwriter Scott Derrickson generally keeps the massive enterprise moving smoothly along. The trip’s the trip here, and it’s well worth taking.
    • 92 Metascore
    • 88 Soren Andersen
    Tower
    The interweaving of animation and nonanimated footage gives the picture a kind of surreal quality that befits the sense of the survivors of how unreal the event seemed to them.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 50 Soren Andersen
    Inferno
    The chase, chase, chase pace is tiring, not least because it’s not clear who many of these people are and what agendas they’re following. Mixed-up confusion is the result.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 88 Soren Andersen
    Miss Hokusai
    The spell Miss Hokusai casts is a powerful one that lingers long after the lights go up in the theater.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 38 Soren Andersen
    In a Valley of Violence
    Writer-director Ti West brings not an iota of originality to his handling of this material. Plods, the picture does, through its predictable paces.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 50 Soren Andersen
    Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
    With anybody other than a superstar like Tom Cruise in the title role, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back would just be a routine potboiler. With superstar Tom Cruise in the title role, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is … a routine potboiler.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 38 Soren Andersen
    Keeping Up with the Joneses
    There’s no problem keeping up with these Joneses. The audience is way ahead of them every step of the way.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 12 Soren Andersen
    The Greasy Strangler
    The best thing about The Greasy Strangler: that title. The worst thing about The Greasy Strangler: everything that follows that title.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 88 Soren Andersen
    London Road
    All in all, a brilliant piece of work.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 88 Soren Andersen
    The Accountant
    The premise of accountant as action hero might seem absurd, but The Accountant makes it credible and fascinating.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 38 Soren Andersen
    Phantasm: Ravager
    It’s a mishmash in which characters are thrown from dimension to dimension and from dream to dream. The main character, played by Bannister, is forever baffled as to what his actual reality is. His bafflement is shared by the viewer.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 63 Soren Andersen
    Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience
    It’s essentially a plotless montage, a spellbinding filmic tapestry. Its visuals are out of this world, quite literally in the early going, as it presents the story of the creation of the universe.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 38 Soren Andersen
    Masterminds
    There are some genuinely funny bits but, alas, far too few.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 63 Soren Andersen
    The Lovers and the Despot
    Directors Rob Cannan and Ross Adam have made a picture that’s technically rough-edged but absorbing.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 63 Soren Andersen
    Deepwater Horizon
    The picture’s pyrotechnics are first rate, and the acting by the principals is more than serviceable.
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