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Michael Sragow

Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:

Michael Sragow saw the greatest movie ever made, The Wild Bunch, six times in two weeks in 1969 and has been arguing about it and other movies ever since. He has been a movie critic for The Baltimore Sun since 2001 and a regular contributor to The New Yorker since 1989. Prior to writing for The Sun, he was a film critic for Rolling Stone and The San Francisco Examiner, among other publications. He is the author of Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master (Pantheon, 2008).

Critics' Group:

Reviews

Movies 온라인카지노추천 Shows
Withnail and I (1987) 83% 1/4 “Withnail and I tries to take black comedy to the limit and merely ends up black and blue.” – San Francisco Examiner Apr 4, 2025 Full Review Do the Right Thing (1989) 92% 2/4 “In terms of visceral force, the movie works. As an artistic expression of chaos, or even as a treatise, it fails, wretchedly.” – San Francisco Examiner Mar 20, 2025 Full Review Back to School (1986) 81% 3/4 “"Back to School" is a highly enjoyable low comedy...It gives Dangerfield a chance to exploit his persona's blend of cynicism and exuberance and his churning, spluttering delivery without bending the movie's chassis out of shape.” – San Francisco Examiner Feb 27, 2025 Full Review The Breakfast Club (1985) 87% “An appetizing failure. The big climactic confrontation scenes are so embarrassing that audiences ignore them and respond to the fine actors' touches at the edges. At this point in his career, Hughes' greatest gift is his peripheral vision.” – Boston Phoenix Feb 14, 2025 Full Review Beauty and the Beast (1991) 95% 3.5/4 “Beauty and the Beast is a zesty charmer with a solid story and hip filigree. This movie is unceasingly enjoyable: It has the soul of generosity.” – San Francisco Examiner Dec 16, 2024 Full Review Beetlejuice (1988) 83% 2.5/4 “Beetlejuice comes together as the work of a madcap art student with one foot in the gallery and the other in a Saturday matinée. ” – San Francisco Examiner Aug 22, 2024 Full Review Aliens (1986) 94% 3/4 “What a difference an "s" makes -- for the good.” – San Francisco Examiner Jul 30, 2024 Full Review Planet of the Apes (2001) 43% 2.5/4 “Not a remake but a jumbled revision that tumbles out as if from a piñata. ” – Baltimore Sun May 1, 2024 Full Review Postcards From the Edge (1990) 83% 1/4 “[Postcards From the Edge] is the kind of Hollywood movie a clef that Hollywood loves. It's morally double-jointed. The film's smug attitudes and in-jokes are symptoms of the Tinseltown insularity the screenplay tries to attack.” – San Francisco Examiner Apr 30, 2024 Full Review Spaceballs (1987) 52% 2.5/4 “Whatever affection [Brooks] has for sci-fi blockbusters gets mixed up with his bitterness at what they've done to Hollywood. And no matter how many mock-up merchandising items he throws into the screen... the theme is obtrusive, tacked on.” – San Francisco Examiner Apr 12, 2024 Full Review Mean Girls (2004) 84% 2/4 “Luckily, Fey and director Mark Waters put enough tricks up their actor's designer sleeves to keep the in-flights, back-stabs and flirtations from seeming like moldy oldies. ” – Baltimore Sun Jan 3, 2024 Full Review The Duellists (1977) 74% “Scott's images are true to Conrad's sentiments; they have a supernal glow. Their blend of immediacy and romance must be unparalleled in filmed historical fiction.” – Boston Phoenix Nov 21, 2023 Full Review Flags of Our Fathers (2006) 76% “Flags of Our Fathers fails as fact or legend. It's woefully incompetent as narrative moviemaking.” – Baltimore Sun Nov 10, 2023 Full Review Atanarjuat the Fast Runner (2001) 93% 3/4 “This movie's power is cumulative; if you stick with it, you do get attuned to its stark contours and jagged rhythms. And it's blessedly unsentimental about tribal culture. ” – Baltimore Sun Nov 8, 2023 Full Review Goodfellas (1990) 94% 3/4 “This working stiff's version of The Godfather is disappointing: It lacks depth and point of view, and a rich, sustained tone. The skin-deep style is voluptuous... But all that holds the story together is the parade of investigative revelations. ” – San Francisco Examiner Oct 18, 2023 Full Review Predator (1987) 80% 1.5/4 “A brainless brawn extravaganza, a cat-and-louse saga that has little of the Conan movies' outlandishness and none of the compulsive drive and storytelling logic that made The Terminator a B-movie classic. ” – San Francisco Examiner Oct 3, 2023 Full Review Y tu mamá también (2001) 90% “Y tu mama tambien is one of the most cutting and heart-wrenching depictions of adolescent friendship in contemporary movies.” – Baltimore Sun Sep 9, 2023 Full Review White Men Can't Jump (1992) 75% 4/4 “In White Men Can't Jump, Shelton & Co. turn the slam dunk into the stuff of life and art. ” – San Francisco Examiner Aug 31, 2023 Full Review Moulin Rouge (2001) 75% 2/4 “It's less an M온라인카지노추천 offshoot than a gaudy outgrowth of an earlier generation's form of multi-tasking: flipping through a Classics Illustrated comic book while listening to Top 40 AM and peeking at Laugh-In on 온라인카지노추천.” – Baltimore Sun Aug 30, 2023 Full Review Batman (1989) 77% 3/4 “Even on its woefully rickety story level, the movie has emotional force and conviction; it acquires a haunting aura and a pop Wagnerian ring.” – San Francisco Examiner Jul 25, 2023 Full Review Enemy at the Gates (2001) 54% 3/4 “Without its ambitious underpinnings, these virtuoso set pieces wouldn't flicker with emotion. In Enemy at the Gates, gravity has entertainment value, at least to those who can respond to wartime fervor.” – Baltimore Sun Jul 15, 2023 Full Review Back to the Future (1985) 93% “A startlingly funny, enjoyably intricate piece of slapstick satire.” – Boston Phoenix Jun 27, 2023 Full Review The Color Purple (1985) 73% 2/4 “The director heightens Walker's own sentimentality and drowns out her authentic feelings in a barrage of noise and dithering activity... As always, Disney is Spielberg's main mentor. Never has that influence been more unfortunate. ” – San Francisco Examiner May 25, 2023 Full Review Yentl (1983) 69% “You don't have to be Jewish to love Yentl, and you don't have to be a woman. All you have to be is human. ” – Boston Phoenix May 12, 2023 Full Review Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) 77% “With Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, executive producer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg change their course from zesty, imaginative filmmaking to cold, calculating thrillpacking.” – Boston Phoenix Apr 17, 2023 Full Review
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