Critics » Christopher Orr
Christopher Orr

Christopher Orr

Agrees with the Tomatometer 81% of the time.

Publications:
L.A. Weekly , The Atlantic , The New Republic
Total Reviews:
234

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 50 of 234
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Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date
66% Thor: The Dark World (2013) " Though hardly a must-see, Thor: The Dark World is better than the original: a looser, loopier hybrid of science fiction and fantasy powered by a pair of magnetic performances and leavened with a number of truly witty moments. " — The Atlantic
Posted Nov 8, 2013
97% 12 Years a Slave (2013) " 12 Years a Slave is likely the most painful, clear-eyed feature ever made about American slavery. In that light, it almost seems faint praise to add that it will also likely prove to be the best film of the year." — The Atlantic
Posted Oct 18, 2013
94% Captain Phillips (2013) " Whether or not you find it an inadvertent parable of the political moment (I do), Captain Phillips is a terrific film." — The Atlantic
Posted Oct 11, 2013
97% Gravity (2013) " Unfolding as a series of terrifying object lessons in Newtonian physics, the movie lends new meaning to the phrase "spatial geometry."" — The Atlantic
Posted Oct 4, 2013
88% Rush (2013) " Rush is not a particularly deep film. But more importantly, it is not a film that mistakes itself for deep. And this self-knowledge makes Rush, in some ways, a wiser film than many that aspire to loftier goals." — The Atlantic
Posted Sep 27, 2013
88% Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Season 1 (TV, 2013) " Agents of SHIELD looks ready--at least judging from the pilot--to hew a solid middle path between The Avengers and Buffy. With great power comes.... high expectations. " — The Atlantic
Posted Sep 24, 2013
81% Prisoners (2013) " Ethical exploration or exploitation? In the end, I come down reservedly on the former side: the work done here by Jackman, Gyllenhaal, and especially Villeneuve is simply too powerful to ignore." — The Atlantic
Posted Sep 20, 2013
34% The Family (2013) " A movie with a PG brain and a NC-17 body count, unsuitable for audiences of any age. " — The Atlantic
Posted Sep 13, 2013
73% Populaire (2013) " A genial, knowing throwback-a reminder of that stylish, half-imaginary era that thrived in Hollywood before Mad Men came along and pickled it in gin." — The Atlantic
Posted Sep 6, 2013
98% Short Term 12 (2013) " A compact masterpiece of storytelling that brims equally with ambition and humility. It is, by a wide margin, the best film I have seen so far this year." — The Atlantic
Posted Sep 5, 2013
3% Getaway (2013) " The only participant to emerge with its reputation intact--though not its paint job--is the Shelby Mustang muscle car, which also delivers the film's most nuanced and psychologically complex performance." — The Atlantic
Posted Aug 30, 2013
89% The World's End (2013) " Robert Frost famously mused 'Some say the world will end in fire/Some say in ice.' I prefer Edgar Wright's vision: It will end in a pub." — The Atlantic
Posted Aug 23, 2013
—— Arrested Development: Season 2 (TV, 2004-2005) " Put simply, this is the best sitcom on television, a biting yet somehow endearing exploration of family dysfunction. " — The Atlantic
Posted Aug 16, 2013
68% Elysium (2013) " Though Elysium is a testament to Blomkamp's extraordinary skill as a visual filmmaker, it does not speak nearly so well for his gifts as a writer. " — The Atlantic
Posted Aug 9, 2013
14% The Smurfs 2 (2013) " Yes, this is the point in the summer when I outsource my critical judgment to my kids. " — The Atlantic
Posted Aug 7, 2013
38% Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013) " Yes, this is the point in the summer when I outsource my critical judgment to my kids. " — The Atlantic
Posted Aug 7, 2013
91% Blue Jasmine (2013) " Allen is a famously hands-off director, and while this method succeeds on occasion, too many scenes in Blue Jasmine betray a directorial negligence. " — The Atlantic
Posted Aug 2, 2013
86% The Way Way Back (2013) " An unexpected yet irresistible cross between Meatballs and The Ice Storm, The Way Way Back just may be the best movie of the summer." — The Atlantic
Posted Jul 26, 2013
42% Red 2 (2013) " Willis is self-evidently capable of kicking the asses of men considerably younger than himself. But at some point shouldn't he consider an alternative pastime?" — The Atlantic
Posted Jul 19, 2013
72% Pacific Rim (2013) " Its visual achievements notwithstanding, Pacific Rim's greatest breakthrough may be that it's the first Hollywood blockbuster to sport a title less descriptive of its plot than of its intended market. " — The Atlantic
Posted Jul 12, 2013
31% The Lone Ranger (2013) " Somewhere, around the hour-and-a-half mark, The Lone Ranger makes the fateful decision not to end. Worse, the movie keeps not-ending for another full hour." — The Atlantic
Posted Jul 3, 2013
50% White House Down (2013) " Essentially a louder, sillier version of Die Hard, with John Cale standing in for John McClane, a precocious daughter standing in for the plucky wife, and, alas, no one even much trying to stand in for Alan Rickman's deliciously wicked Hans Gruber." — The Atlantic
Posted Jun 28, 2013
56% Man of Steel (2013) " There's plenty to like in Snyder's hectic, rowdy film. But by the time we reach the bludgeoning excesses of the last half-hour it's hard to shake the sense that this was an opportunity at least partially missed." — The Atlantic
Posted Jun 14, 2013
83% This Is the End (2013) " Crass, flimsily plotted, and self-referential to the point of narcissistic personality disorder. For those willing to tolerate such defects, however, it is also very, very funny." — The Atlantic
Posted Jun 14, 2013
11% After Earth (2013) " A film in which the text and subtext-an effortlessly gifted father presses his less-talented son to follow in his footsteps-are in perfect alignment. Alas, only in one of the two does the story end happily." — The Atlantic
Posted May 31, 2013
87% Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) " For all its chasing and falling and fighting-and the movie supplies a great deal of each-Star Trek Into Darkness is at its best when the Enterprise crew are merely bickering and bantering among themselves: less space opera than soap opera." — The Atlantic
Posted May 17, 2013
49% The Great Gatsby (2013) " The central problem with Luhrmann's film is that when it's entertaining it's not Gatsby, and when it's Gatsby it's not entertaining. " — The Atlantic
Posted May 10, 2013
79% Iron Man 3 (2013) " Shane Black excels at writing witty, self-referential, pop-infused banter, and there is no actor working today who is better suited to delivering it than Robert Downey Jr." — The Atlantic
Posted May 3, 2013
68% Trance (2013) " Trance is to Danny Boyle more or less as Side Effects was to Steven Soderbergh: an arty spin on a trashy B-movie, engineered to showcase the director's particular gifts. " — The Atlantic
Posted Apr 12, 2013
62% Evil Dead (2013) " A stylish and worthy homage: inventive even as it is derivative, never quite jokey but never taking itself too seriously, and clocking in at an entirely appropriate 91 minutes. Any longer would be unmerciful; any shorter, ungenerous." — The Atlantic
Posted Apr 5, 2013
38% Admission (2013) " What is most distressing about Admission is that it serves as further evidence that Tina Fey, despite her dominance of the small screen, has not yet mastered the big one." — The Atlantic
Posted Mar 22, 2013
69% The Croods (2013) " The animation is first-rate, with moments of genuine visual imagination, and the story, while unremarkable, is entirely adequate. " — The Atlantic
Posted Mar 22, 2013
69% Stoker (2013) " Stoker is a cunning exercise in transgression. But one can't help but wonder what kind of film Park might have made if he'd had the full creative control to which he's accustomed in Korea." — The Atlantic
Posted Mar 15, 2013
84% Side Effects (2013) " A crafty teaser that presents itself as one kind of film before gradually evolving into another kind altogether. I, for one, enjoyed both enormously. " — The Atlantic
Posted Feb 11, 2013
81% Warm Bodies (2013) " Though R's mind is nimble in (very witty) voiceover, out loud he can only express himself in a series of groans and grumbles--as touching a metaphor for love-struck adolescence as we may see at the movies this year. " — The Atlantic
Posted Feb 1, 2013
29% Broken City (2013) " What follows is not a review; it's an autopsy...one long (illustrated!) spoiler." — The Atlantic
Posted Jan 22, 2013
70% Les Misérables (2012) " Committed fans of the musical are likely to have their affections reaffirmed. The less devout, however, may conclude that in this case more is less, and fidelity not always a virtue." — The Atlantic
Posted Dec 25, 2012
93% Zero Dark Thirty (2013) " A powerful, morally complicated work on an urgent subject. It is a film that deserves-that almost demands-to be seen and argued over." — The Atlantic
Posted Dec 19, 2012
65% The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) " It frequently seems as though Jackson was less interested in making The Hobbit than in remaking his own fabulously successful Lord of the Rings series." — The Atlantic
Posted Dec 14, 2012
75% Killing Them Softly (2012) " Like its source material, the movie is stylish, profane, intelligent, and eminently diverting. But as much as it is a delight that Dominik has disinterred Higgins's work, it is a mild disappointment that the result is not more substantial." — The Atlantic
Posted Nov 30, 2012
74% Rise of the Guardians (2012) " A children's fable reimagined as a superhero flick--a peculiar but delightful hybrid that just may be the best animated offering of the year." — The Atlantic
Posted Nov 22, 2012
92% Silver Linings Playbook (2012) " With Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell has again recalibrated, and achieved the quirky yet poignant balance of his best early work. " — The Atlantic
Posted Nov 16, 2012
92% Skyfall (2012) " Among the most ambitious imaginings of Bond to date: dark, supple, and punctuated with moments of unanticipated visual brilliance. " — The Atlantic
Posted Nov 9, 2012
89% Lincoln (2012) " Lincoln is a film about the arts of suasion-one that encompasses oratory and extortion, conciliation and conspiracy, arms twisted and cheeks turned. It is a film, in short, about politics. " — The Atlantic
Posted Nov 9, 2012
86% Wreck-it Ralph (2012) " Unlike the Pixar films toward which it aspires-which marry sophisticated conceits to straightforward storylines-Wreck-It Ralph consistently gets lost in its own intricate plot mechanics." — The Atlantic
Posted Nov 2, 2012
66% Cloud Atlas (2012) " An eminently peculiar mismatch of substance and form, like a Hallmark card written by David Foster Wallace." — The Atlantic
Posted Oct 26, 2012
83% Seven Psychopaths (2012) " Each time it appears that McDonagh, who also directed, has written himself into a cul de sac, he off-roads the movie (sometimes literally) into fresh territory." — The Atlantic
Posted Oct 12, 2012
87% Frankenweenie (2012) " Burton's best film since 1994's Ed Wood or even 1990's Edward Scissorhands." — The Atlantic
Posted Oct 10, 2012
55% V/H/S (2012) " I came, I saw, I hunkered." — The Atlantic
Posted Oct 5, 2012
93% Looper (2012) " A mind-bending ride that is not afraid to slow down now and again, to explore themes of regret and redemption, solitude and sacrifice, love and loss. It's a movie worth seeing and, perhaps, going back to see again. " — The Atlantic
Posted Sep 28, 2012
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