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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    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Walter Addiego
    Boy
    The New Zealand feature Boy almost pulls off the trick of merging cartoonish humor and '80s pop culture with a story glancing at deeper family issues. The film has an appealing 11-year-old hero, but in the end feels half baked.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Walter Addiego
    Friends with Kids
    Good chemistry between the lead actors and nice supporting performances help Friends With Kids survive a formulaic story and just-OK filmmaking.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    The Forgiveness of Blood
    The nonprofessional cast is convincing, especially Lacej, whose Rudina registers more strongly than Nik.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Crazy Horse
    If nothing else, you'll surely relish the extravagant rhetoric used by Ali Mahdavi, the club's artistic director, to describe what is basically a tasteful nudie revue.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 25 Walter Addiego
    Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie
    For Tim and Eric, what's funny is what's odd, ultra-cheap, pathetic or scurvy - and what's funniest of all is that some people just don't get it.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Walter Addiego
    Bullhead
    There seems to be a pretty good film lurking around inside Bullhead, which makes what we actually see on the screen all the more frustrating.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Roadie
    A lot of what takes place in Roadie feels overly familiar, and the film could have been a wallow in pathos except for the performances, especially that of Eldard.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Walter Addiego
    Thin Ice
    With a handful of blackly humorous jolts and some game performances by a good cast, Thin Ice is a watchable, if not terribly original, piece of Midwestern noir.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Chico & Rita
    The film boasts an original score by Cuban pianist and composer Bebo Valdés, who was featured in "Calle 54."
    • 81 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Hell and Back Again
    The documentary Hell and Back Again may be the closest most civilians ever get to the reality of the war in Afghanistan.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Walter Addiego
    The Swell Season
    There are some compelling performance moments, and it's sad to watch these talented and basically nice people drift apart. But overall the film seems like a collection of bits and pieces, and it's hard to see how it could have much resonance for non-fans.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Miss Bala
    Bala, by the way, means "bullet." Laura Zúñiga, the real-life beauty queen on whom the film is loosely based, was called "Miss Narco" in the Mexican press.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Addiction Incorporated
    The film's subject, a whistle-blowing research scientist who played a key role in the fight to regulate tobacco, deserves to be celebrated.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 50 Walter Addiego
    The Flowers of War
    Affecting at times, but finally feels overblown and heavy-handed.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey
    A breezy account of a man whose obsession began early.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    The Woodmans
    It's impossible to listen to Francesca's parents, deadly serious about art as a higher calling, without feeling both saddened and disturbed.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    El Bulli: Cooking in Progress
    A fly-on-the-wall look at the inner workings of the famed Spanish palace of avant-garde gastronomy that closed its doors in July. If you're passionate (and open-minded) about food, you'll be fascinated.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Walter Addiego
    Oka!
    The plot is somewhat pedestrian and the dialogue needs more zip. But it's amusing to watch the Bayaka poke good-natured fun at the gangly Larry, who has only their best interests at heart.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Walter Addiego
    Finding Joe
    Campbell's admirers will probably enjoy the documentary, but I don't think it will do much for anyone else.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Happy, Happy
    The curdled Norwegian comedy-drama Happy, Happy, which dissects a pair of poisoned marriages, is sometimes heavy-handed (like its title) but has much to recommend it.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 50 Walter Addiego
    Connected: An Autoblogography About Love, Death & Technology
    Your heart will go out to Shlain, who clearly adored her father. But other parts of Connected may remind you of an Al Gore lecture.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Mysteries of Lisbon
    We are told at the film's beginning that we are about to see a "diary of suffering," and it is that, but the effect, after four-and-a-quarter hours, is exhilarating.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 25 Walter Addiego
    Restless
    The film is morbid and mawkish, and packed with enough forced whimsy to make you scream.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Aurora
    The film takes its time detailing his mundane activities, often withholding the kind of information audiences usually expect, and it's Puiu's talent to transform it all into a highly disturbing portrait - both of an individual and a society.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Mozart's Sister
    The film perhaps shines brightest when it depicts two telling relationships Nannerl has outside her family. The first is with Louis XV's 13-year-old daughter, Louise...The other relationship is with Louise's troubled brother, the dauphin.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    Chasing Madoff
    The movie is anything but flawless. There are flourishes that seem plucked from Errol Morris' work but aren't as good, and some re-creations of past events are hokey. It's the film's content that packs a punch.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 75 Walter Addiego
    The Interrupters
    An intense and chilling documentary.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 50 Walter Addiego
    Motherland
    Filmmaker Doris Yeung tries to mix a whodunit with a story of explosive family dynamics, but the effort succumbs to a weak script and a one-note lead performance.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Walter Addiego
    Griff the Invisible
    Perhaps the film's greatest strength is the performance by Kwanten, who appears in HBO's "True Blood" and may be familiar from his lead role in the big-screen Aussie thriller "Red Hill." Dermody also does well.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Walter Addiego
    Amigo
    In Amigo, a story of the Philippine-American War, veteran filmmaker John Sayles allows his political convictions to get the better of him. The movie is a heavy-handed attack on U.S. imperialism with little to compensate in the way of character interest and genuine drama.
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