Xan Brooks

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The Guardian, The Independent, The Observer (UK)
For 194 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 45% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 53% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 3 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Xan Brooks' Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 69
Highest review score: 100 Riefenstahl
Lowest review score: 0 Melania
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 100 out of 194
  2. Mixed: 91 out of 194
  3. Negative: 3 out of 194
194 movie reviews
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    • 83 Metascore
    • 40 Xan Brooks
    Locke
    Full credit to Hardy and Knight for making a film such as Locke. Low-budget film-makers could learn a lot from their method. And yet – having stripped away all but the bare necessities, having reduced the components to a car and a man – they make a classic error of overcompensation.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Xan Brooks
    Beautiful Creatures
    The plot is wildly silly and shot full of holes, maundering endlessly on its slow trawl towards the climax. But the cast at least play it like they mean it, and keep it honest for a spell.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 40 Xan Brooks
    All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
    Mandy Lane feels bogus and compromised: an unreconstructed horror romp in the guise of a nerdish intellectual.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 40 Xan Brooks
    Old Henry
    Old Henry is a determinedly low-aiming affair.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 40 Xan Brooks
    Guilty of Romance
    The pungent, ponderous final chapter of Sono's "Hate" trilogy (following Love Exposure and Cold Fish) bows out with lots of bangs and plenty of whimper.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 40 Xan Brooks
    Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
    It’s a likable exercise in nostalgia; a joyride through old haunts. Burton’s underworld caper contains plenty of second-hand spirit; what it craves is fresh blood. What it needs is some substance.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 40 Xan Brooks
    Dark Horse
    There is little in the film's pitch-black interior that wasn't tackled better – with more bite, wit and abandon – in "Happiness," "Welcome to the Dollhouse," or "Storytelling."
    • 48 Metascore
    • 40 Xan Brooks
    Bullet to the Head
    Even Stallone's rumbling voiceover possesses the drooping tone of a lullaby – like 45rpm vinyl played at 33. And if you think that reference is retro, you should see the actual movie.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 40 Xan Brooks
    Suburbicon
    Suburbicon is too lightweight and mannered; it lacks proper fury. Watching it is like having your trouser-leg savaged by an energetic small dog.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 40 Xan Brooks
    How to Talk to Girls at Parties
    What an extravagantly muddled, borderline incontinent film this is. You might call it genre-hopping, except that this would imply some degree of intent and control.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Xan Brooks
    Renfield
    Your standard vampire film would have put Cage centre stage. Renfield, God help it, elects to bury the lede and drive a stake through his heart.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 20 Xan Brooks
    Assassin Club
    By the end, his getaway car is almost as riddled with holes as the plot itself.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 20 Xan Brooks
    A Fantastic Fear of Everything
    Crispian Mills's London-based horror-comedy is so spectacularly bungled that it leaves the viewer in a state of advanced petrification.
    • 5 Metascore
    • 0 Xan Brooks
    Melania
    It’s one of those rare, unicorn films that doesn’t have a single redeeming quality. I’m not even sure it qualifies as a documentary, exactly, so much as an elaborate piece of designer taxidermy, horribly overpriced and ice-cold to the touch and proffered like a medieval tribute to placate the greedy king on his throne.
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