Walter Addiego

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San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner
For 620 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 42% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 54% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 2.6 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Walter Addiego's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 63
Highest review score: 100 The Tarnished Angels
Lowest review score: 0 Deck the Halls
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 354 out of 620
  2. Mixed: 210 out of 620
  3. Negative: 56 out of 620
620 movie reviews
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    • 54 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Closer to God
    Don’t expect profundities on the ethics of cloning. And don’t expect Oscar-worthy acting. Senese’s accomplishment — and it’s done with a certain restraint — is to replicate the look and feel of ’70s horror films, which had become more assaultive on audience sensibilities than their predecessors, breaking taboos and borrowing techniques from exploitation films.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Max
    The handsome and appealing Max, by the way, is played by five dogs. For the record, he is a Belgian Malinois, a breed that in real life is often used in police and military work.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Live From New York!
    The film may work best as a supplement to the underwhelming three-hour-plus extravaganza broadcast in February to celebrate “SNL’s” 40th anniversary.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    When Marnie Was There
    The film’s depiction of loss, isolation and reconciliation, and the rewards of friendship, grows more touching as the story builds to its highly emotional conclusion.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Jauja
    There are more enigmas than answers in Jauja, an artsy South American Western directed by Lisandro Alonso, an Argentine filmmaker who delights in undermining movie conventions.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    About Elly (2009)
    Both as writer and director, Farhadi is skilled at depicting the spiraling growth of social malignancies, as duplicity and uncertainties beget confusion, fear and anger. It’s an incisive portrait of a particular society, but it should resonate everywhere.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Walter Addiego
    Dark Star: HR Giger's World
    By showing so many examples of his art, the film attests to Giger’s real gift for startling images. But it’s hard not to see, in addition, elements of repetitive adolescent provocation.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story
    Spinney owns the character, down to the last feather.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Iris
    The chief virtue of Iris is its amiability — it’s a delight to spend time in Apfel’s company, and thanks to Albert Maysles, we can.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 50 Walter Addiego
    Little Boy
    The film has a good cast, and is competently made in a plain-vanilla way, but its greatest appeal will be to those who share its endorsement of traditional religious values.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Lambert & Stamp
    There’s already a small library of films about the Who and its music, but this is the first I know of that examines the men who almost accidentally wound up managing one of the most incendiary of ’60s rock groups.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter
    In the title role, Kikuchi is impressive, easily handling Kumiko’s comic and more somber sides and never allowing us to settle into a single or simple interpretation of the character.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 50 Walter Addiego
    The Duke of Burgundy
    This is highly skilled filmmaking, but the movie is not for everybody — the relationship involves dominance and submission, sexual games played at a high pitch. This material falls short of pornographic, but still packs plenty of erotic punch.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Paddington
    Suffice it to say that this is good family fare with plenty of decent gags (visual and otherwise), and it’s nicely acted by all the principals. In addition, Julie Walters, Peter Capaldi and Jim Broadbent turn up in smaller but still lively roles.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Walter Addiego
    Pioneer
    The movie isn’t really bad, just tepid, and it’s partly redeemed by a good lead performance.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 50 Walter Addiego
    Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
    This film is mainly for “Night at the Museum” diehards.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Walter Addiego
    Point and Shoot
    The film raises significant questions about manhood and offers a few gripping sequences, but isn’t fully satisfying.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Antarctica: A Year on Ice
    In all, it’s an absorbing, straightforward look at a truly alien environment. The film could be nicely paired with Werner Herzog’s “Encounters at the End of the World” (2007), a much more idiosyncratic view of Antarctic strangeness.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Penguins of Madagascar
    There’s plenty here to tickle the kids, and that’s what counts.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Plot for Peace
    The quiet machinations of this Frenchman and commodities trader helped win the release of Nelson Mandela from prison and bring an end to South Africa’s apartheid system.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Art and Craft
    The filmmakers employ an offbeat and effective technique to get Landis to explain himself.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Walter Addiego
    Last Days in Vietnam
    A film of great sadness, but also a galvanizing depiction of heroism.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Starred Up
    A potent and disturbing experience. Fortunately it’s much more, offering sharp performances and genuine drama.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 50 Walter Addiego
    This Is Where I Leave You
    Bateman comes off well, humanizing his character with a strain of melancholy that’s one of the movie’s genuinely touching elements. Fey is all right, though she falls back on her patented shtick. Driver makes the most of his hipsterish role, nicely playing off the other siblings’ tension.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    A Walk Among the Tombstones
    For a good, straight-ahead noirish crime thriller, you could do a lot worse than A Walk Among the Tombstones.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    My Old Lady
    My Old Lady is affecting, even if many of the revelations and high-voltage speeches occur at predictable moments. But if you can look past this formulaic side, it's a movie worth seeing.
    • 25 Metascore
    • 25 Walter Addiego
    The Identical
    Earnest and well-intentioned, The Identical is based on a "what if" that straddles the line between ingenious and loopy.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    The Notebook
    It's a nightmare fairy tale that can be very difficult to watch.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Love Is Strange
    See Love Is Strange for its sensitivity and understated jokes, but mainly for Lithgow and Molina's expertly modulated work, which pulls the movie back when it threatens to stray into melodrama or heavy-handedness.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 25 Walter Addiego
    If I Stay
    Moretz is an appealing young woman whose star is rising. She'll probably have an exceptional career, but If I Stay won't be a highlight.
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