Tom Russo

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Boston Globe
For 366 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 55% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 42% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 7.3 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Tom Russo's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 58
Highest review score: 100 Richard III
Lowest review score: 25 The Food of the Gods
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 200 out of 366
  2. Mixed: 113 out of 366
  3. Negative: 53 out of 366
366 movie reviews
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    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Tom Russo
    Flower
    The film is quite the showcase for Zoey Deutch (“Before I Fall”), giving her loose-scripted freedom to play brazen, breezy, even soulfully vulnerable. Still, her selectively promiscuous hellion is so off-putting so much of the time — as are most of those around her, and their lurid plots and predicaments — it’s hard to see the point of it all.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Tom Russo
    7 Days in Entebbe
    A serviceable thriller that might have been something more.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Tom Russo
    Thoroughbreds
    A story steeped in emotional remoteness manages to command our attention in Thoroughbreds, first-time filmmaker Cory Finley’s darkly satirical portrait of the young and disconnected in old-money Connecticut.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 75 Tom Russo
    Red Sparrow
    A hard-R espionage thriller heavy on themes of sexual degradation and graphic, sometimes sadistic violence.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 63 Tom Russo
    Nostalgia
    The film can be naggingly vague and patchily written where precision seems called for, but the familiar procession keenly digging into the wistful material does hold interest.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 50 Tom Russo
    Game Night
    For all the energy that Rachel McAdams, Jason Bateman, and their castmates pour into their gimmicky comedy, there’s too often a feeling that they’re straining to pump up flat material.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 75 Tom Russo
    Peter Rabbit
    If the freneticism gets repetitious, the target audience won’t mind, at least not judging by a preview crowd’s delirious reaction to a recurring electrified-doorknob gag.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Tom Russo
    Maze Runner: The Death Cure
    Where we hoped for a narrative rebound, we get instead another pedestrian, overlong post-apocalyptic entry that fails to capitalize on some decent character dynamics.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 63 Tom Russo
    12 Strong
    Danish photojournalist-turned-director Nicolai Fuglsig channels his experience into a credibly stark snapshot of war, one that helps audiences further grasp why the region has been so hellishly problematic for American troops.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 63 Tom Russo
    The Commuter
    Neeson’s financially strapped character might vent even more convincingly if he didn’t somehow still have a BMW parked back at the depot, but we’re on board with him all the same.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 63 Tom Russo
    Pitch Perfect 3
    The numbers just aren’t as dynamic as we might have hoped for from director Trish Sie, whose credits include alt-rock act OK Go’s “treadmill video” and other addictively innovative shorts.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 75 Tom Russo
    Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
    The group’s thematically, comedically broad inversion of the source material is consistently entertaining, and squeezes in some nicely played character growth to boot.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 63 Tom Russo
    Ferdinand
    The good news is that while the movie is susceptible to some pandering, it also takes the story’s charming core elements and gives them a contemporary luster.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 63 Tom Russo
    The Man Who Invented Christmas
    Consistently intriguing as all the lit-process tidbits are, the film struggles to mesh footnotes and somber notes.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 50 Tom Russo
    Daddy's Home 2
    Returning director Sean Anders strings together mayhem-filled moments that just aren’t the howlers that they’re clearly scripted to be, never mind the fatherly foursome’s chemistry, or the tobacco-stained guffaws Gibson keeps busting out to sell these bits.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 63 Tom Russo
    Thor: Ragnarok
    Thor’s bloodsport detour diverts an inordinate amount of the filmmakers’ attention, and ours, from the whole end-of-days buildup. Hopkins gets short shrift, as does Idris Elba’s returning interdimensional gatekeeper, Heimdall.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Tom Russo
    Thank You for Your Service
    What’s most compelling is the near-documentary quality of Teller, Koale, and Bennett’s characters playing against a VA backdrop of prosthetic limbs and catheter bags, of desensitized clerks and overwhelmed therapists.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Tom Russo
    Only the Brave
    The film concerns itself more with beauty shots of the region’s rugged, intimidating vastness than with “Backdraft”-rivaling imagery of combustion as art.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Tom Russo
    The Foreigner
    If the movie can’t maintain its interest in Chan, why should we? This narrative splice job simply doesn’t hold together. Call it a taut mess or a hot mess, take your pick.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 Tom Russo
    The Mountain Between Us
    The film feels as if it’s drawing its characterizations far more from the appeal of its stars than from any prose.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 75 Tom Russo
    Kingsman: The Golden Circle
    With its inventively nutso action, youthful vibe, and subversive topicality, the “Kingsman” franchise feels more relevant than even Daniel Craig’s James Bond. Screen espionage doesn’t come any hipper these days.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Tom Russo
    The LEGO Ninjago Movie
    A sharper script would have been the real ultimate weapon.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Tom Russo
    American Assassin
    Trouble is, the movie’s dopiness isn’t in fact something you can get past. “American Assasinine” is frequently more like it.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 38 Tom Russo
    Home Again
    Home “again”? It seems that first-timer Meyers-Shyer isn’t setting so much as a piggy toe beyond familiar territory, and this listless rom-com shows it.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 63 Tom Russo
    It
    Ultimately, cast and crew conjure up horror that’s more efficient than terrifying.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 Tom Russo
    Leap!
    As an orphan who dreams of joining the Paris Opera Ballet in the animated feature Leap!, Elle Fanning really hears it about the artistry and precision required to become a prima ballerina. The makers of this cheery but subpar confection probably should have been taking notes in addition to scripting them.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 63 Tom Russo
    Dave Made a Maze
    There aren’t sufficient words to describe the remarkable visual environment; suffice it to say that the production designers are the stars here as much as the cast. More so, really.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 63 Tom Russo
    Brigsby Bear
    Sincerity turns out to be the default tone for Brigsby Bear, making this indie’s odd concept of an accidental man-child wrapped up in a Teddy Ruxpin fantasy world feel odder still in the execution.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 75 Tom Russo
    13 Minutes
    Hirschbiegel and Friedel win credibility points for painting Elser as noble without painting him as a saint.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 63 Tom Russo
    Despicable Me 3
    The laughs here are more about the colorfully zany action than the ho-hum material the cast gets.
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