Steve Persall

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Tampa Bay Times
For 1,125 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 65% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 33% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 1.5 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Steve Persall's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 67
Highest review score: 100 Vertigo
Lowest review score: 0 The Last Airbender
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 708 out of 1125
  2. Mixed: 310 out of 1125
  3. Negative: 107 out of 1125
1125 movie reviews
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    • 65 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    My Week with Marilyn
    This is a slight movie, but it's Williams' all the way (possibly to an Oscar nod) while the rest of the cast supports her well.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Man Bites Dog
    Man Bites Dog is a strange, undeniably powerful hybrid of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and This is Spinal Tap; a jaw-dropper that takes your breath away with its scabrous mayhem, then replaces it with an uneasy chuckle. [5 Nov 1993, p.7]
    • Tampa Bay Times
    • 73 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    The Raid: Redemption
    Remember that ultra-violent scene in "Old Boy" when the dude plowed through a subway platform of bad guys and was the only one left standing? Multiply it by four or five and that's The Raid: Redemption.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Serial Mom
    Turner cuts a hilarious swath across the screen in a courageously over-the-top performance that perfectly fits Waters' twisted vision. [15 Apr 1994, p.6]
    • Tampa Bay Times
    • 59 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Dawn of the Dead
    Dawn of the Dead is very much its own movie, and a disturbing one at that. But it also realizes we're in the theater to have fun, either grotesquely or cleverly.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    21 Jump Street
    This movie embraces everything that should make it lousy, calling out itself for aping the source's bad ideas then flipping the script with meta precision.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    The Great Gatsby
    As a purely sensory experience at the movies you're hard-pressed to find anything more dazzling than the first 90 minutes of The Great Gatsby, when Luhrmann's riotous amusements make anything possible.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted
    While the result isn't the greatest show on Earth, it certainly is a lot of fun.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Another Earth
    Another Earth is stealthily effective, with silences often counting more than words.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Rio 2
    Choosing any unwieldy subplot to trim from Rio 2 is tough, as they're each so vibrantly rendered.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Star Trek Beyond
    Lin siphons elements of his previous gig into this one. More precisely, he accentuates the existing "family" dynamic of Star Trek, leading to genuinely earned lumps in Trekker throats.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Philomena
    Philomena is simply one of those small, true stories that astonish in print and inspire good movies.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Scream 4
    It's about time that another Scream flick came along to gouge the new cliches out of their sockets. Scream 4 does it in grandly Guignol style.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Wild
    This is a performance without ego or modesty, for a character without self-respect, played by Witherspoon as unvarnished as any pampered movie star can be expected.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Red Army
    Gabe Polsky's movie about the dynastic Soviet Union hockey team is surprisingly light on its skates, despite being a Cold War history lesson and conventional sports documentary.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Heaven Is for Real
    Heaven Is for Real works in mysterious ways for a faith-based movie. It actually leaves room for doubt, in a genre founded on Christian absolutes. Tears aren't jerked; bibles aren't thumped. Believing gets easier.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    The Infiltrator
    The Infiltrator is an evocative crime drama, anchored by Cranston's gift for playing internal conflict with wordless expression and that deep, clinched voice.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    August: Osage County
    There's a pervasive cruelty, a condescension toward common folks like the Westons that's frequently off-putting, even as we're laughing.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Inception
    A sensory and intellectual overload from start to finish, a brawny, brainy summer movie that may infuriate as many viewers as it enraptures.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    The Other Guys
    This summer's funniest movie.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Neighbors
    There's a subtle wisdom to this screenplay that complements its exceedingly bad taste, small lessons among the laughs.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Avengers: Age of Ultron
    As usual, psychological anguish is a key element of Marvel heroes. Age of Ultron boasts a cast of actors that "serious" filmmakers would kill for, so the gravitas they're capable of conveying amid such outlandish fantasy is the franchise's stealth advantage.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    The Founder
    Even in repetitive or undernourished moments Keaton, Offerman and Lynch always entertain. Their performances have fallen through the cracks of awards season.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    The Avengers
    The Avengers is as brawny and lamebrainy as any comic book movie deserves to be, capped by a 40-minute assault pummeling senses as few action sequences ever have.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Lore
    The images captured by cinematographer Adam Arkapaw are more dreamy than nightmarish as if his camera — like the children — doesn't fully understand the dangers.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    The Net
    Even when The Net goes off-line, Bullock's captivating presence is a screen saver. [28 July 1995, p.6]
    • Tampa Bay Times
    • 72 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Doctor Strange
    A nice balance of solemn myth making and genre irreverence lifts Doctor Strange to Marvel's first tier of movie franchises.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    A Late Quartet
    How many surprises and peaks can Walken possibly have left, after so many movies and memorable roles? Well, there's this one.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Demolition
    Vallée's movie itself begins falling apart after being so artfully put together. Yet Gyllenhaal's performance is the center that holds, making Davis' melancholic obsession and irrational acts seem like the sanest things anyone could do. His disintegration is the actor's triumph.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 83 Steve Persall
    Spring Breakers
    Tampa Bay wears fringe nihilism well, including wet-fever dreams of trigger-happy angels floating on cannabis clouds and dusted with cocaine like beignets waiting to be licked clean. Or drug gangstas sporting cornrows and gold-grill teeth, living large and thinking three-ways. Film as a fetish tool, that's what Spring Breakers is all about, y'all.
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