Stephen Dalton

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Film Journal International, The Film Verdict, The Hollywood Reporter
For 252 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 36% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 59% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 3.8 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Stephen Dalton's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 62
Highest review score: 100 Fatherland
Lowest review score: 20 Unhinged
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 132 out of 252
  2. Mixed: 101 out of 252
  3. Negative: 19 out of 252
252 movie reviews
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    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    Asako I & II
    A banal and patronizing cautionary sermon for lovestruck ladies torn between heart and head, sexy-dangerous bad boys and dependably dull husband types.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    Alita: Battle Angel
    While not exactly a misfire, Rodriguez and Cameron's joint effort lacks the zing and originality of their best individual work.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    Mary Magdalene
    Mary Magdalene is an uneasy viewing experience, ponderous and disjointed in places, but also crafted with conviction and a strong aesthetic vision.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    The Mercy
    This unresolved maritime mystery feels oddly flat and functional, diluting a tragic tale full of unanswered questions into an anodyne middlebrow weepie.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    DAU. Natasha
    Big on atmosphere but low on drama, DAU. Natasha is fascinating conceptually but weak cinematically.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    Junction 48
    While the fuzzy take-home message of peaceful coexistence is something most viewers can get behind, it is also too simplistic and banal to sustain an entire movie.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    Northern Soul
    Constantine’s skills as a first-time dramatist are a serious weakness here. Though the subject matter is rich and the soundtrack terrific, character and plot take a back seat.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    No Escape
    No Escape is a pedestrian but modestly gripping nerve-jangler from writer-director John Erick Dowdle.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    Born to be Blue
    Hawke is natural casting as Baker, sharing enough facial similarities to capture some of the late jazz icon's chiseled, hollow-cheeked, fallen-angel beauty. He gives an unshowy and vanity-free performance, all soft-spoken mischief and brittle arrogance, but laced with just enough blood, sweat and tears.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    War on Everyone
    War on Everyone is a little too keen to advertise its own cleverness. The characters feel more like random collections of quirky tics than real people.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    King of Thieves
    This prosaically competent comedy-thriller turns a rich true story into a tonally uneven blend of lukewarm laughs and low-level suspense.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    And Their Children After Them
    A small-town coming-of-age story blown up to rock-opera dimensions, And Their Children After Them puts a roaringly romantic widescreen frame around some well-worn dramatic themes, but never quite hits the epic emotional high notes it strains to reach.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    In Full Bloom
    Of course, ravishing Malick-esque visuals cannot quite excuse muddled plotting, portentous dialogue and wobbly performances. But In Full Bloom is still an impressively polished debut feature, admirably ambitious and elegantly crafted.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    Miss Lovely
    Ahluwalia has striven for a very self-consciously arty aesthetic here, more Gus Van Sant than Michael Mann. This is a commendably bold way to approach material that might otherwise have drifted into routine lowlife crime-thriller territory, but it also drains a rich story of narrative momentum and emotional punch.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    Free Fire
    Wheatley's riotous Looney Tunes action comedy is a sporadically amusing assault on the senses, but it looks like it was more fun to make than to watch.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    The Festival
    Unashamedly formulaic and relentlessly puerile, The Festival is no better than it needs to be, which may be as much commercial calculation as artistic limitation.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    Yourself and Yours
    Hong has a distinctive voice and an interesting track record, but his latest exercise in flimsy whimsy is for indulgent hardcore fans only.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    High-Rise
    Rarely have so many classy ingredients added up to such a muted, muddled, multi-story mess. Of course, it is still better to make an ambitious failure than a boring success. A true disaster movie, in all senses, High-Rise is ultimately an ambitious, brilliant failure.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    The Fencer
    [A] blankly heroic, clunkingly predictable portrait.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    The Autopsy of Jane Doe
    Not for the squeamish, Ovredal's chilly slab of body horror ultimately proves less than the sum of its forensically fileted parts.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    A Dog Called Money
    There are teasing glimpses of artistic genius in A Dog Called Money, but eccentric choices and muddled intentions, too. A talent as strong and singular as Harvey deserves a more probing, less indulgent film than this.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    Happy New Year, Colin Burstead.
    Originally teased with the droll but less marketable title Colin You Anus, Wheatley’s sporadically amusing semi-farce has a lively rhythm and some fine performances, but the baggy screenplay never delivers the emotional grace notes and knockout revelations it promises.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    Farming
    Closely based on the director's own troubled youth, Farming is rooted in rich, complex, potentially gripping material. But Akinnuoye-Agbaje slaps this story together with so little subtlety, he ends up seriously diluting its dramatic power.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    Churchill
    Australian director Jonathan Teplitzky has fashioned a small-scale chamber drama from huge historical events, with a functional script and modest budget that fails to match the grand sweep of its story.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    Overdrive
    Untaxing as drama, thin as entertainment, but modestly enjoyable as a revved-up caper movie, Overdrive is pure escapist fluff with a light French accent. Which still makes it smarter, leaner and cooler than any of the Fast and the Furious films it shamelessly mimics.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    Quincy
    Quincy is an unapologetically partisan insider's portrait. The material is rich and the cast list starry, but the overall package veers a little too close to gushing vanity project in places.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    All Cheerleaders Die
    With its splashy paintbox palette and jaunty pop soundtrack, All Cheerleaders Die just about hangs together as a cheerfully goofy romp.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    The Last Witch Hunter
    In its favor, The Last Witch Hunter boasts some terrific production design and digital effects.... Less impressively, Eisner’s movie is clogged with cardboard characters, flat dialogue and a sluggish middle act that gets lost in too much fabricated witchy folklore.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Stephen Dalton
    I, Olga Hepnarová
    Olszanska gives an impressively intense performance, if a little too mannered at first, but neither she nor the filmmakers ever get beneath the character's skin.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 40 Stephen Dalton
    Breathe
    Breathe is clearly aiming for the same heart-wrenching emotional heights as James Marsh’s Oscar-winning Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything. But this is very much a crude copy, its noble intentions hobbled by a trite script, flat characters and a relentlessly saccharine tone that eventually starts to grate.
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