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James Berardinelli

Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:

I was born in September 1967 in the town of New Brunswick, New Jersey (USA). I started writing when I was about 9 years old, and suffered through the traumatic experience of reading chapters from my stories in front of my entire fourth grade class. However, although my "first love" was writing, too many tales of starving authors scared me off that path, so I decided to become an engineer instead. I attended the University of Pennsylvania from 1985 through 1990, obtaining both a BS and an MS in Electrical Engineering. Putting my education to use, I went to work for a company called Bellcore, which pays well enough for me to keep up the mortgage, maintain a home theater, finance film festival trips, and buy the 25-30 gallons of gasoline I need each week to attend screenings. As for my "film history"... As a child, I did not attend many movies. In fact, the first one I remember going to was JAWS, at a drive-in. During my junior high and high school years, I rarely ventured into a theater, but my interest in movies escalated while I was at college. In 1991, the year before I started reviewing, I saw about 30 films. The number jumped up to 180 in 1992, when I wrote capsule reviews for my own use. Starting in 1993, the year I "went public" on the Usenet newsgroups, I began seeing between 220 and 250 theatrical releases per year.

Publications:
Critics' Group:
Location:

New Jersey, US

Official Website:

http://www.reelviews.net

Reviews

Movies 온라인카지노추천 Shows
The Accountant 2 (2025) 78% 2/4 “The movie works when focused on character interaction and buddy-movie tropes, but the action elements are perfunctory at best and boring at worst. Bill Dubuque’s script is never able to balance out the ledger.” – ReelViews Apr 25, 2025 Full Review Sinners (2025) 98% 3/4 “...Ryan Coogler has far too much to say for one movie but, instead of opting for another medium in which to present the story or shaving off the portions that don’t work in this context, he opts for this approach. The result is a glorious mess...” – ReelViews Apr 19, 2025 Full Review Drop (2025) 84% 2.5/4 “[Director Christopher] Landon does a good job generating suspense and keeping the viewer guessing. But every movie needs an ending and this production might have been better without one. Or at least without this one.” – ReelViews Apr 16, 2025 Full Review The Amateur (2025) 61% 2/4 “It’s essentially Jason Bourne on Vicodin with a little Death Wish sprinkled on top. It’s slow, with long stretches where not a lot happens, steeped in grief, and unable to deliver a legitimate catharsis.” – ReelViews Apr 16, 2025 Full Review Tommy Boy (1995) 42% 2/4 “Farley is magnetic and charismatic throughout but most of the rest of the film is simply wretched.” – ReelViews Apr 7, 2025 Full Review A Minecraft Movie (2025) 48% 2/4 “...A Minecraft Movie never finds its groove, constantly veering from one set-piece to another with a scattershot storyline and whiplash-inducing tone inconsistencies.” – ReelViews Apr 4, 2025 Full Review A Working Man (2025) 49% 2.5/4 “Although overlong and littered with unnecessary exposition and dead-end subplots, A Working Man functions primarily as an opportunity for Statham to do what he does best: kill bad guys while taking a licking himself.” – ReelViews Mar 28, 2025 Full Review Death of a Unicorn (2025) 54% 3/4 “Death of a Unicorn is essentially a one-joke movie but that’s okay because the joke is pretty good and the movie never relies too heavily on the hit-and-miss comedy.” – ReelViews Mar 27, 2025 Full Review The Alto Knights (2025) 40% 2.5/4 “Perhaps too many stories have already been told about this era of organized crime that the need to find new material has resulted in something watered-down, talky, and only fitfully compelling.” – ReelViews Mar 27, 2025 Full Review Disney's Snow White (2025) 40% 2.5/4 “Snow White is not the abomination some naysayers hoped it would be. It’s competently made and proves to be an adequate diversion for adults who like movie musicals. ” – ReelViews Mar 21, 2025 Full Review Ash (2025) 74% 2.5/4 “Ash is at its best when it focuses on things like the unreliability of memory and the stress imposed by isolation and paranoia....The visuals are trippy, although there a few times when the ambitious special effects come across as fake.” – ReelViews Mar 20, 2025 Full Review Locked (2025) 65% 2/4 “Alas, the disappointingly straightforward screenplay drags things out too long, relies on banal, rambling dialogue, and offers little in the way of twists or turns. ” – ReelViews Mar 20, 2025 Full Review The Electric State (2025) 15% 1.5/4 “[The Electric State is] not well-written, well-casted, well-acted, or well-paced. The special effects, although solidly crafted, don’t justify the stratospheric budget. ” – ReelViews Mar 19, 2025 Full Review Black Bag (2025) 96% 3.5/4 “Black Bag has its share of big moments and bigger reveals but many are presented in a decidedly low-key manner that works perfectly because it rewards the attentive viewer for figuring things out in sync with the characters. ” – ReelViews Mar 14, 2025 Full Review Novocaine (2025) 81% 2.5/4 “As origin stories go, Novocaine has potential but if this proves to be a stand-alone rather than the start of a franchise, it will go down as being a little undercooked.” – ReelViews Mar 12, 2025 Full Review In the Lost Lands (2025) 24% 1.5/4 “ The film has a strong aesthetic – the dusty monochrome is pervasive – and the special effects are mostly effective but the narrative is so slight and the performances so artificial that the whole thing feels like an extended cut-scene from a video game.” – ReelViews Mar 10, 2025 Full Review Mickey 17 (2025) 77% 2/4 “A mostly failed attempt to merge sci-fi with satire, Mickey 17 suffers from a fragmented narrative and a scenery-chewing performance from Mark Ruffalo that belongs in a different movie (perhaps Poor Things).” – ReelViews Mar 7, 2025 Full Review Riff Raff (2024) 59% 2.5/4 “It’s a perfectly adequate thriller with bleakly comedic overtones but, with a cast this accomplished, it’s reasonable to have expected something better.” – ReelViews Mar 3, 2025 Full Review Last Breath (2025) 80% 2.5/4 “There’s nothing about Last Breath that cries “must see.” The production is workmanlike...but it feels more like a good made-for-온라인카지노추천 (or made-for-streaming) production than an immersive big-screen experience.” – ReelViews Mar 3, 2025 Full Review The Monkey (2025) 79% 3/4 “The film has a delicious fetish for different forms of violent death and works well as a catalog of offbeat ways to deliver servings of blood and viscera to the audience.” – ReelViews Feb 24, 2025 Full Review Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (2025) 88% 2.5/4 “Attempts at wit and humor seem half-hearted at best. Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy isn’t a terrible movie; it’s mediocre at worst. But it never should have been made.” – ReelViews Feb 20, 2025 Full Review Captain America: Brave New World (2025) 48% 2/4 “Brave New World isn’t the worst offender but it’s a reminder that the formulas upon which the MCU was built are no longer effective. An adjustment is needed but it doesn’t come here.” – ReelViews Feb 14, 2025 Full Review The Gorge (2025) 63% 2.5/4 “The Gorge’s second hour is like a fusion of elements cobbled together from various zombie movies and grafted onto the exoskeleton of Aliens. It feels derivative right up to the unremarkable ending.” – ReelViews Feb 13, 2025 Full Review Beyond Utopia (2023) 100% 3.5/4 “Beyond Utopia falls short of masterpiece status but it is a powerful and affecting piece of filmmaking – one that highlights not only the horrors of living inside North Korea but illustrates the dangers and difficulties of escaping.” – ReelViews Feb 10, 2025 Full Review Heart Eyes (2025) 81% 3/4 “It’s self-aware and unafraid to poke fun. The rom-com elements deliver a little sincerity and saccharine while there’s plenty of gore to keep horror fans engaged.” – ReelViews Feb 10, 2025 Full Review
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