Todd Gilchrist

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IGN, Screen Rant, The A.V. Club, The Playlist, The Wrap, TheWrap, Variety
For 154 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 68% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 29% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 1.7 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Todd Gilchrist's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 67
Highest review score: 100 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Lowest review score: 20 Leatherface
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 102 out of 154
  2. Mixed: 39 out of 154
  3. Negative: 13 out of 154
154 movie reviews
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    • 58 Metascore
    • 65 Todd Gilchrist
    Happy Death Day
    Landon, who wrote four of the “Paranormal Activity” films, knows a lot about reverse engineering scary scenarios from mundane situations, but as with later installments of that series, he overcomplicates the logistics and mythology of the premise, aiming for something more raucous (and fun) in tone but lacking the intensity — or inevitability — to make its repetition feel truly chilling.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 84 Todd Gilchrist
    Barracuda
    Cortlund and Halperin (“Now, Forager”) demonstrate a gift for not only creating beautiful images in unexpected moments, but also avoiding narrative shortcuts or tonal clichés to tell a story that covers familiar territory while ultimately defying easy categorization.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 65 Todd Gilchrist
    1922
    Zak Hilditch’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novella of the same name feels overlong or maybe underfed, fleshing out the character’s mental deterioration in handsome but unsurprising detail.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 82 Todd Gilchrist
    First They Killed My Father
    Jolie can’t decide whether she wants to be a poet or a field reporter, and the combination results in an important story that’s frequently, breathtakingly beautiful but ultimately more admirable than affecting.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 65 Todd Gilchrist
    American Assassin
    For those without strong feelings for the Harrison Ford-era Clancy adaptations, which were polished but largely unmemorable, American Assassin works best as a little-league version of one of those or, in more contemporary terms, as an unsurprising origin story for what the filmmakers obviously hope is the beginning of a franchise.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 40 Todd Gilchrist
    I Do... Until I Don't
    Where “In A World…” felt intimate and focused, delightfully dysfunctional but relentlessly hopeful, “I Do” is noisy and meandering.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Todd Gilchrist
    The Hunger Games
    Ultimately, Ross hasn’t just successfully mounted an adaptation of a hot literary property, or even launched a film series that earns the right to be a franchise. He’s produced an engaging, thoughtful, populist piece of entertainment that transcends gender, genre or source material.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Todd Gilchrist
    Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
    Ghost Protocol is a fun but mostly empty adventure story that operates with the rote predictability of a middling ‘90s James Bond movie rather than a benchmark-setting actioner or even seasonal “event movie.”
    • 62 Metascore
    • 75 Todd Gilchrist
    Bad Turn Worse
    Ultimately as harrowing as any backwoods horror story but enhanced by a humanity those stories will almost never have, We Gotta Get Out Of Here is a terrific film, precisely because it takes the components of a traditional thriller, approaches them from a less-frequently explored perspective, makes them feel relatable and then elevates them with the right amount of style.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 80 Todd Gilchrist
    Kelly & Cal
    It's a film that takes its characters and their crises seriously, allowing them to fully explore their situation before providing them (and the audience) a genuine roadmap for finding their way through.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 72 Todd Gilchrist
    The Signal
    Although the film's ultimate payoff feels a little too big, and too insufficiently explained, to justify all of the obfuscation that led up to it, the script keeps the audience engaged and guessing right up to the end.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 83 Todd Gilchrist
    Muppets Most Wanted
    For a movie that insists that sequels are never better than their predecessors, Muppets Most Wanted at least suggests it’s possible for them to be equal – well, almost.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 67 Todd Gilchrist
    Divergent
    Because there’s some genuinely great ideas in the film, and some terrific character work, but it’s given such uneven attention, alternately languished upon and glossed over, that the portrait Burger creates feels complete without, well, making us feel a whole lot else.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 67 Todd Gilchrist
    The Art of the Steal
    The Art of the Steal won’t trick audiences into thinking they’ve seen anything new, but it’s just clever enough to keep them distracted from realizing that they haven’t.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 91 Todd Gilchrist
    Grand Piano
    An expertly timed, painstakingly assembled and endlessly engaging game of cat and mouse, Grand Piano succeeds as a whole for the same reasons that Selznick does—namely, because Mira brings all of its elements to work together in concert, and then executes them like a virtuoso.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 83 Todd Gilchrist
    American Hustle
    Although movies like “Goodfellas” are indisputable forebears for Russell’s decadent tale of crime and punishment, the filmmaker distinguishes himself by creating a complex and compelling web of manipulation between the characters that eventually supersedes any of their scheming or con artistry.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 91 Todd Gilchrist
    The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
    Catching Fire is a monumental achievement, a massively entertaining crowd-pleaser that is thought-provoking and personally inspiring in all of the ways that it aspires to be.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 58 Todd Gilchrist
    The World's End
    As a film whose central theme emphasizes the dangers of living in the past, Wright, Pegg and Frost become fatally distracted by nostalgia, eventually paying too much homage to previous classics—especially their own—to create another film that deserves to stand alongside them.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 67 Todd Gilchrist
    G.I. Joe: Retaliation
    Retaliation is no masterpiece, but it’s a movie whose fun doesn’t feel like a four-letter word -- popcorn entertainment that not only rivals what you see during summer, but surpasses what you see from Sommers.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 75 Todd Gilchrist
    In Our Nature
    As prophetic as it is provocative, exploring dysfunction, in a recognizable but no less satisfying way.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 50 Todd Gilchrist
    The Words
    The Words fails to surpass dramatically the bland lack of specificity in its title while still offering a solid roundup of performances from its talented ensemble cast.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 67 Todd Gilchrist
    The Expendables 2
    As a film that even passingly acknowledges the disposability of stars in a genre whose artistic merits are considered negligible (if they're considered at all), The Expendables 2 is indispensable entertainment.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 42 Todd Gilchrist
    Total Recall (2012)
    A pastiche of almost too many movies to count as a remake of just one, Total Recall is mindless, middling fare that fails to utilize – much less expand – the provocative concepts at the core of its iconic 1990 predecessor.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 58 Todd Gilchrist
    Goats
    Overall, it's not that Neil's directorial debut is boring or even disappointing, it's that it's just unexceptional – almost exactly the sort of dime-a-dozen growing-up story that's become a Sundance/ independent film world cliché.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 75 Todd Gilchrist
    Red Hook Summer
    Ultimately, Lee's clarity of vision hasn't been this sharp or unique since before "Crooklyn," and it's thrilling with Red Hook Summer to witness a return to the technique – and most of all, emotional wallop – that even today continues to give his films an enduring life as both entertainment, and enlightenment.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 42 Todd Gilchrist
    The Babymakers
    Overall, Chandrasekhar's first tentative venture towards something slightly more sincere is undermined by, quite frankly, his irresistible urge to take the piss out of every sequence that might have been played even remotely seriously.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 83 Todd Gilchrist
    Compliance
    Compliance is as much a meta-textual gauntlet as it is a movie; its subject matter not only deserves, but demands to be discussed and argued about, rather than being simply accepted at face value.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Todd Gilchrist
    The Imposter
    The Imposter is a great commentary on the subjectivity of any event, and one that probes deeply into the motivations of its subjects.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 67 Todd Gilchrist
    Dredd
    Dredd is a video game procedural tied to great visuals, but one without deeper substance to make its experience remotely meaningful.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 100 Todd Gilchrist
    The Dark Knight Rises
    A cinematic, cultural and personal triumph, The Dark Knight Rises is emotionally inspiring, aesthetically significant and critically important for America itself – as a mirror of both sober reflection and resilient hope.
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