John P. McCarthy

John P. McCarthy Boxoffice Magazine Apr 20, 2021 3.5/5 What starts out as an audaciously polemical, radically inventive film project ultimately feels more like the most elaborate and earnest art history lecture ever delivered. Go to Full Review Rembrandt's J'Accuse (2008) 100% 77%

John P. McCarthy America Magazine Aug 4, 2015 Werner Herzog has a well-deserved reputation for tackling difficult, risky subjects. It took courage to enter the Lone Star State and wade into the mire of capital punishment. Go to Full Review Into the Abyss (2011) 92% 76%

John P. McCarthy America Magazine Jan 6, 2015 Cumberbatch brings his immense talent and intelligence -- and not too much glamour -- to the socially awkward, notoriously disheveled protagonist. Go to Full Review The Imitation Game (2014) 89% 91%

John P. McCarthy America Magazine Jan 6, 2015 All in all, Ivory Tower is balanced and comprehensive. Go to Full Review Ivory Tower (2014) 84% 87%

John P. McCarthy America Magazine Apr 28, 2014 Ejiofor's low-key, naturalistic acting mode is ideal for conveying Northup's self-control and intelligence. And Fassbender avoids turning the malevolent Epps into a one-note nemesis. Go to Full Review 12 Years a Slave (2013) 95% 88%

John P. McCarthy America Magazine Apr 28, 2014 Maxwell and Kauffman merit praise for acknowledging historical complexity, but the film's moral and aesthetic limitations keep Copperhead from entering this realm. Go to Full Review Copperhead (2013) 21% 45%

John P. McCarthy America Magazine Apr 28, 2014 Intense and imagistic, sensual and rather salacious, this is a wild, fascinatingly bleak adaptation that seizes on the book's more lurid motifs. Go to Full Review Wuthering Heights (2011) 70% 47%

John P. McCarthy America Magazine Apr 28, 2014 Watching Wes Anderson quietly and unsentimentally make Zero the hero of The Grand Budapest Hotel should win over some of the director's detractors. Go to Full Review The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) 92% 91%

John P. McCarthy ReelTalk Movie Reviews Oct 5, 2012 There's not enough tension for the humor to diffuse. What we're left with is a bland dramedy featuring a strong cast. Go to Full Review The Oranges (2011) 30% 32%

John P. McCarthy Boxoffice Magazine Jul 29, 2011 3/5 You can't help but appreciate the food's visual beauty -- and the physical, mental and emotional energy that went into creating it -- but you don't come away feeling you have to taste any of Adri's food before you die. Go to Full Review El Bulli: Cooking in Progress (2010) 60% 50%

John P. McCarthy Boxoffice Magazine Jun 21, 2011 1.5/5 Strictly bush league, save for a few bravura performances. Go to Full Review The Best and the Brightest (2010) 26% 30%

John P. McCarthy Boxoffice Magazine Jun 7, 2011 2/5 This ho-hum offshoot of Megan McDonald's book series earns negative "thrill points" as it chronicles the mirthless backyard shenanigans of a suburban Pippi Longstocking. Go to Full Review Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer (2011) 22% 41%

John P. McCarthy Boxoffice Magazine May 24, 2011 2.5/5 Its sense of fun-loving camaraderie feels forced and tinged with buzz-killing danger. Go to Full Review The Hangover Part II (2011) 35% 52%

John P. McCarthy Boxoffice Magazine May 14, 2011 2.5/5 Guilt and glossiness form the foundation of the slick production, which, despite the best intentions of all those working under director Justin Chadwick, exudes a mildly patronizing vapor that dampens the emotional affect and any historical incisiveness. Go to Full Review The First Grader (2010) 62% 76%

John P. McCarthy Boxoffice Magazine Apr 26, 2011 3.5/5 Is any filmmaker more comfortable moving between the didactic and the lyrical, between quotidian facts and profound speculation? Go to Full Review Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) 96% 73%

John P. McCarthy Boxoffice Magazine Apr 12, 2011 0.5/5 The barely coherent Footprints seems bent on erasing any nostalgia one might have for Hollywood's heyday. Go to Full Review Footprints (2009) 41% 71%

John P. McCarthy Boxoffice Magazine Mar 10, 2011 3.5/5 Cary Joji Fukunaga's romantic thriller Jane Eyre is to19th-century literature what Black Swan is to ballet: a thoroughly cinematic, occasionally exhilarating reimagining of a repertoire standard. Go to Full Review Jane Eyre (2011) 85% 76%

John P. McCarthy Boxoffice Magazine Feb 19, 2011 2/5 We Are What We Are is a superficially provocative movie that tries way too hard to be memorable. Go to Full Review We Are What We Are (2010) 72% 48%

John P. McCarthy Boxoffice Magazine Feb 19, 2011 0.5/5 Big Momma has laid a gigantic egg. Go to Full Review Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son (2011) 5% 58%

John P. McCarthy Boxoffice Magazine Feb 15, 2011 3/5 Without resorting to sensationalism, gratuitous gore, false spirituality, or any extraneous artificiality, Trapero has fashioned an emotionally involving picture. Go to Full Review Carancho (2010) 88% 72%