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Maclean's Magazine

Tomatometer-approved publication.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Clyde Gilmour The best yet in the science fiction cycle.
Posted Jan 15, 2026  Edit critic review
Postcards From the Edge (1990) Brian D. Johnson Mercurial and caustic, Streep displays brilliant comic timing.
Posted Apr 29, 2024  Edit critic review
Dog Day Afternoon (1975) John Hofsess Dog Day Afternoon derives its strength from telling the truth about its characters' desperate lives.
Posted Apr 07, 2024  Edit critic review
Amélie (2001) Brian D. Johnson Although it's too long for a film so slight, it transports us to a Paris that's as irresistible as it is unreal.
Posted Feb 13, 2024  Edit critic review
Grease (1978) Lawrence O'Toole Grease's pop sociology is plainly unconscious, since the film is totally unable to show the difference between noting camp and being it.
Posted Feb 08, 2024  Edit critic review
Alien (1979) Lawrence O'Toole Often unintentionally funny, plotted more for convenience than sense, motivated by nothing other than money, Alien is expensive, silly, schlock.
Posted Nov 16, 2023  Edit critic review
Diamonds Are Forever (1971) John Hofsess Only the British apparently (judging by dozens of unfortunate imitations) can make a crude sex-and-violence formula yield such refined, exhilarating entertainment as this.
Posted Oct 24, 2023  Edit critic review
The Last Picture Show (1971) John Hofsess The Last Picture Show is the finest American film of 1971, and a completely accessible film to Canadian audiences as it portrays an American era that was purposive and sensible.
Posted Oct 24, 2023  Edit critic review
Miller's Crossing (1990) Brian D. Johnson The violence, like the rest of Miller's Crossing, is poetically staged, and strangely tasteful. But the movie's real firepower is the staccato slang of its script.
Posted Oct 18, 2023  Edit critic review
Goodfellas (1990) Brian D. Johnson Funny and frightening, unpredictable and provocative, GoodFellas may be the most authentic Mafia picture ever made. The acting is superb, and so natural that no one -- least of all De Niro -- seems to be performing.
Posted Oct 18, 2023  Edit critic review
Taxi Driver (1976) Marni Jackson The film is a triumvirate of a strong, psychologically healthy script, visceral acting, and direction so supple and seamless that the action moves like an alley cat. Above all, Robert De Niro's performance as Travis Buckle meets the challenge.
Posted Oct 06, 2023  Edit critic review
Mulholland Dr. (2001) Brian D. Johnson As a puzzle of merged (and submerged) identity, Mulholland Drive casts a spell reminiscent of Vertigo and Persona. The pieces never quite fall into place. But, like a dream, it's a movie that invites multiple interpretations -- and multiple viewings.
Posted Jul 11, 2023  Edit critic review
Armageddon (1998) Joe Chidley Director Michael Bay misses no opportunity to crank up the effects. But amid the mayhem, the characters do provide a compelling, human-scale drama. Best of all, the movie never loses its sense of humor.
Posted Jun 21, 2023  Edit critic review
The Color Purple (1985) Lawrence O'Toole The Color Purple is the story of one woman's growth against incredible odds. But Spielberg glosses over his heroine's transformation. Instead, he has concentrated on making his movie pretty and palatable.
Posted May 25, 2023  Edit critic review
An American Tail (1986) Lawrence O'Toole Designed to appeal primarily to children, An American Tail is a film that grown-ups will also enjoy.
Posted May 18, 2023  Edit critic review
Superman II (1980) Lawrence O'Toole Both the writing and the opticals are fiendishly clever and chock-full of dry, sly wit that is never gratuitously employed.
Posted May 03, 2023  Edit critic review
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Lawrence O'Toole It sends your mind on vacation, allowing you to submit without a care to the sensual. That sensuality, surrounding its audience in a way that the visual and aural puniness of TV never can, is as big and busy as the circus, and as grand as opera.
Posted May 03, 2023  Edit critic review
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) Brian D. Johnson Spielberg, the consummate show-off, keeps upstaging his stars with the relentless firepower of his action sequences. A brutal 10-minute scene in which a tank chases Jones around the desert seems interminable.
Posted May 01, 2023  Edit critic review
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) Lawrence O'Toole Temple of Doom attempts to be light entertainment. But its soul is dark, and it never stops to recognize any spontaneous emotion.
Posted Apr 18, 2023  Edit critic review
Strictly Ballroom (1992) Brian D. Johnson Strictly Ballroom is a ball -- a buoyant, crowd-pleasing musical with an irreverent wit.
Posted Dec 21, 2022  Edit critic review
Groundhog Day (1993) Brian D. Johnson Occasionally, Groundhog Day buries its head in dumb-comedy clichés. But the film-makers have depended mostly on witty dialogue, and on the simple elegance of the premise -- which could be about anyone whose days all start to seem the same.
Posted Dec 21, 2022  Edit critic review
Platoon (1986) Fred Bruning What brings to mind the phenomenon of “ringing true” is the Vietnam movie Platoon, which indeed resonates with such thunderous authenticity that one fairly expects chandeliers in the theatre lobby to shatter.
Posted Aug 22, 2022  Edit critic review
Thief (1981) Lawrence O'Toole As the fearless thief who doesn’t give a damn, Caan gives a sturdy, well-felt performance. And Thief, except for an aggressive and benumbing score by Tangerine Dream, delivers the action goods with style.
Posted Jul 07, 2022  Edit critic review
Tess (1979) Lawrence O'Toole [Tess] is as good an adaptation of Hardy as one is likely to get, or for that matter want. Beauteous and with the flowing rhythms of the novel, Tess apprehends Hardy’s tragic and theatrical view of life with consummate ease.
Posted Jun 16, 2022  Edit critic review
John and Mary (1969) Larry Zolf The problem with John and Mary is that in this case the fruits of sin make for a rotten film.
Posted Jun 15, 2022  Edit critic review
Z (1969) Larry Zolf It is a fast-paced, relentless action thriller and a political allegory that both underlines and transcends the modern Greek tragedy of Junta fascism. As political satire, Z is the kind of film that only hurts you when you laugh.
Posted Jun 15, 2022  Edit critic review
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) Larry Zolf When Hollywood decides to devote its full arsenal of production-value shlockerai to bring to cinematic life a cheat-and-tell tale of two fatuous couples, full of sexual fury signifying nothing, it comes up with Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.
Posted Jun 15, 2022  Edit critic review
The Death of a Lumberjack (1973) John Hofsess Any film by Gilles Carle is worth seeing, even one that is off the gold standard, but with Death Of A Lumberjack it becomes clear that the greatest enemy of Carle’s bright promise is his tendency to be careless.
Posted Jun 15, 2022  Edit critic review
The Day of the Jackal (1973) John Hofsess Day Of The Jackal is not a great film, but it’s a damn good one, one of the very few films released this year that is worth all the trouble and expense of going out to the movies.
Posted Jun 15, 2022  Edit critic review
Kid Blue (1973) John Hofsess Kid Blue is the kind of film you’ve seen even if you haven’t seen it. It’s not even a particularly brisk stirring of familiar movie making ingredients.
Posted Jun 15, 2022  Edit critic review
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) John Hofsess Dylan’s presence is so slyly subversive that the film -- as a Western -- barely survives. Instead it becomes an unintentional comedy, which is great for Dylan’s fans but an unforgivable casting gaffe if you’re a Peckinpah enthusiast.
Posted Jun 15, 2022  Edit critic review
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) Brian D. Johnson A water-into-wine miracle on screen. Visually breathtaking and intellectually scorching, the movie represents an extraordinary feat of film-making. But what it attempts is so ambitious that, in the end, it is a gloriously imperfect masterpiece.
Posted May 06, 2022  Edit critic review
The Last Starfighter (1984) John Bemrose Watching Starfighter, with its two-dimensional characters and its flood of enemy spaceships, is like peering into a videogame -- initially exciting but ultimately static.
Posted May 03, 2022  Edit critic review
Mississippi Masala (1991) Brian D. Johnson Like Choudhury, Mississippi Masala seems utterly fresh and charming. But it is also profoundly interesting.
Posted Apr 15, 2022  Edit critic review
Midnight Cowboy (1969) Larry Zolf The sad fact is that John Schlesinger’s latest masterpiece of seeking is more creaking than reeking.
Posted Mar 10, 2022  Edit critic review
In the Heat of the Night (1967) Wendy Michener Odd as it may seem, this movie with its surefire entertainment values and affectionate, almost farcical, humor will probably do more to weaken prejudice and soften hatred than any number of outraged documentaries.
Posted Feb 02, 2022  Edit critic review
Excalibur (1981) Lawrence O'Toole Excalibur is a miracle of pacing and seductive rhythm.
Posted Jan 03, 2022  Edit critic review
Wolf (1994) Brian Bethune [Wolf] is deliciously rich entertainment -- with elements of a scary thriller, a Beauty and the Beast romance, a corporate satire and a witty inquiry into the nature of disease and sexual aggression.
Posted Dec 22, 2021  Edit critic review
Wyatt Earp (1994) Brian Bethune Quaid, who lost 43 pounds for the role, looks like the original cowboy junkie, a hollow-cheeked spectre. And every moment he is onscreen, he injects such delightful venom into his scenes that the flatness of the film around him becomes all too obvious.
Posted Dec 22, 2021  Edit critic review
The Secret of NIMH (1982) Lawrence O'Toole A delicately etched, old-fashioned movie such as The Secret of NIMH seems reassuring and somewhat refreshing right now; it connects to the past.
Posted Nov 09, 2021  Edit critic review
L.A. Confidential (1997) Brian D. Johnson While the characters ricochet through a maze of intrigue, a whip-smart script keeps the plot clear, the action sexy and the humor shrewd.
Posted Oct 19, 2021  Edit critic review
Bullitt (1968) Alan Edmonds Good as it is, Bullitt inevitably leaves one wondering: Why doesn't somebody make a movie about the real social significance of cops-and-robbers: police brutality?
Posted Mar 13, 2021  Edit critic review
The Man With the Golden Arm (1955) Clyde Gilmour The earthly purgatory of a drug addict (sensitively portrayed by Frank Sinatra) adds up to a strong and shocking movie, although the bitter ending of Nelson Algren's novel has been sugared for the screen.
Posted Dec 22, 2020  Edit critic review
Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954) Clyde Gilmour A prehistoric man shaped fish falls in love with screaming Julia Adams in an Amazon backwater, but his courtship is a failure. So is the movie.
Posted Oct 13, 2020  Edit critic review
The Invisible Man (1933) Candida The Invisible Man is not on the whole as terrifying as the rest of the hobgoblin genre... But it is considerably more entertaining at least from the point of view of those of us who can get only a limited pleasure out of being scared to death.
Posted Oct 08, 2020  Edit critic review
The Bodyguard (1992) Brian D. Johnson With a soap-opera plot that triggers alarms of incredulity, The Bodyguard remains no more than a serviceable thriller.
Posted Sep 09, 2020  Edit critic review
All the Right Moves (1983) Lawrence O'Toole Although the characters are not especially interesting in themselves, their predicament is, and it is one that untold others share.
Posted Sep 08, 2020  Edit critic review
Cyrano de Bergerac (1950) Clyde Gilmour The magnificent acting of José Ferrer and the clarion rhetoric of Edmond Rostand's semi-classic drama are not quite enough to conceal the central weaknesses of the story.
Posted Sep 02, 2020  Edit critic review
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) Clyde Gilmour Although a good deal less penetrating in its close-up of "the real Hollywood" than it pretends to be, this is a smooth and enjoyable comedy-drama.
Posted Aug 31, 2020  Edit critic review
Superman III (1983) Lawrence O'Toole The film's predecessors were extremely smooth renderings of the comic strip material, but Superman III looks as chintzy as a Grade-B movie serial.
Posted Aug 13, 2020  Edit critic review
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