Peter Canavese Movie Reviews & Previews

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Peter Canavese

""I got a good mind to join a club and beat you over the head with it." ?Groucho Marx in Duck Soup "

Agrees with the Tomatometer 81% of the time.

Biography:: Since 1987, Peter "Groucho" Canavese has been writing film reviews and articles in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he is a member of the San Francisco Film Critics Circle. Peter authors and maintains an exhaustive website called GrouchoReviews and is the chief film critic for monthly ON Magazine (since 1995), and Celluloid Dreams, a weekly radio show devoted to film (Celluloid Dreams runs on KSJS?90.5 FM?every Monday at 5pm). Since 2009, he has regularly contributed film reviews to Palo Alto Weekly. His reviews have also appeared in the San Jose Mercury News (1991-1994), in Bay Area weekly Alternate101 (2007-2008), and on Portland's 1190 KEX drive-time show Mark & Dave (2008).
Favorites:: Citizen Kane, Brazil, Duck Soup, Ikiru, North by Northwest, 8 1/2
Publications:: Groucho Reviews , ON Magazine , Palo Alto Weekly

Total Reviews:: 1765
Total QuickRatings:: 3

Location:: San Jose, CA

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 50 of 1765

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Rating	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date
2.5/4	93%	Zero Dark Thirty (2012)	" By most cinematic measures, Zero Dark Thirty is one of the best-made films of 2012. It also probably shouldn't exist." — Groucho Reviews Posted Jan 3, 2013
3/4	78%	The Impossible (2012)	" Takes dicey material—the story of one privileged family's suffering during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami—and transcends its political incorrectness by focusing on the human condition." — Groucho Reviews Posted Jan 3, 2013
3/4	71%	Les Mis�rables (2012)	" A mixed bag of suitable and not-so-suitable choices. On balance, though, it's about as compelling a screen version of Les Mis as we have any right to expect...Pop a dramamine and you'll be fine." — Groucho Reviews Posted Dec 26, 2012
.5/4	18%	Parental Guidance (2012)	" The Baby Boomer teaming no one was asking for—Billy Crystal and Bette Midler—melded to that most moribund of genres, rugrats "comedy"..." — Groucho Reviews Posted Dec 26, 2012
3.5/4	89%	Django Unchained (2012)	" There's a case to be made that blood-spattering revenge pictures, no matter how evil the villain, are cultural poison, but if this is what it takes to [get] Don Johnson as a dyed-in-the-wool racist done up as Colonel Sanders, well, so be it." — Groucho Reviews Posted Dec 25, 2012
2.5/4	51%	This is 40 (2012)	" Mostly succeeds on its own merits...[but] many comedic and musical distractions pad the 134-minute running time and stray from the implicit promise of that title: the film has little to say about middle age..." — Groucho Reviews Posted Dec 21, 2012
2/4	37%	The Guilt Trip (2012)	" Silly and nice, basically unfunny but basically innocuous—so as satisfying as your average leftovers." — Groucho Reviews Posted Dec 21, 2012
2.5/4	61%	Jack Reacher (2012)	" [McQuarrie] spreads a unearned veneer of intelligence over...a plot one character aptly describes as 'grassy-knoll ludicrous.'" — Groucho Reviews Posted Dec 21, 2012
2.5/4	96%	Chasing Ice (2012)	" While more detailed scientific analysis and greater discussion of impacts would have been welcome, the film's visual rhetoric is solid." — Groucho Reviews Posted Dec 13, 2012
3.5/4	90%	Holy Motors (2012)	" As playful as it is...Holy Motors has the power to haunt as much as to amuse." — Groucho Reviews Posted Dec 7, 2012
.5/4	4%	Playing for Keeps (2012)	" Another day at the Romantic Comedy Factory: '...Pull me down a Gerard Butler and a Jessica Biel, will ya?'" — Groucho Reviews Posted Dec 7, 2012
3.5/4	——	Star Trek: The Next Generation - A Celebration Of Season 2 (2012)	" Trek became famous in large part for its (often corny) science-fiction morality plays...Few episodes of either series achieve this goal more elegantly than Melinda Snodgrass' 'The Measure of a Man.' [Blu-ray]" — Groucho Reviews Posted Dec 3, 2012
3.5/4	99%	Finding Nemo 3D (2012)	" Though some scary parts may make the very young fret unduly, the film also puts forward some thoughtful messages for both children and their parents. [Blu-ray 3D]" — Groucho Reviews Posted Dec 3, 2012
2/4	66%	Hitchcock (2012)	" Reenactment cinema...On balance, Hitchcock is about as entertaining and as trustworthy as a tabloid." — Groucho Reviews Posted Nov 29, 2012
2.5/4	74%	Rise of the Guardians (2012)	" Even if the cause and effect of the plot proves fairly impenetrable...one can't deny the film is frequently visually resplendent and imaginative..." — Groucho Reviews Posted Nov 21, 2012
2/4	62%	Anna Karenina (2012)	" Who's for 130 minutes of alienation?...We're able to intellectualize why we should care (those social strictures are crushing hearts!), but we're too distracted to be moved." — Groucho Reviews Posted Nov 21, 2012
1.5/4	11%	Red Dawn (2012)	" John Milius' 1984 original may not have been a paragon of clear-headed foreign policy, but...Dan Bradley's remake predictably sidesteps-and, in one case, mocks-its source material's most interesting moments..." — Groucho Reviews Posted Nov 21, 2012
3.5/4	89%	Life of Pi (2012)	" In the hands of Ang Lee, a true film artist, Life of Pi elegantly walks Martel's philosophical line while also brilliantly using every modern cinematic tool to spin an epic yarn." — Groucho Reviews Posted Nov 21, 2012
3.5/4	89%	A Royal Affair (2012)	" Supplements its palace intrigue with the good old-fashioned pull of romance and costume drama...Mikkelsen's magnetism and sly expression hold the film's center with a quiet potency." — Groucho Reviews Posted Nov 16, 2012
2/4	48%	The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (2012)	" Heavenly shades of night are falling: it's Twilight time...[for a series which] has always been borderline comical in its moments of greatest sincerity..." — Groucho Reviews Posted Nov 15, 2012
2.5/4	80%	Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)	" 'Be excellent to each other.' Out of the mouths of babehounds... [Blu-ray]" — Groucho Reviews Posted Nov 14, 2012
3.5/4	92%	Skyfall (2012)	" Playful...the most conspicuously repeated word is 'game,' the most dangerous of which Bond typically is, pursues, or plays." — Groucho Reviews Posted Nov 7, 2012
3/4	——	Company (2012)	" This version...won't be remembered as a major one-it's too faithful and too wobbly for that-but it's an entertaining novelty version, largely justified by the casting and Gemignani's slavish devotion to the original Broadway orchestrations. [Blu-ray]" — Groucho Reviews Posted Nov 7, 2012
3/4	77%	Flight (2012)	" Despite...misguided commercial instincts, Flight offers much that's productively unsettling, anchored by Washington's old-school movie-star performance..." — Groucho Reviews Posted Nov 1, 2012
3/4	88%	Wreck-it Ralph (2012)	" Built for fun...in its dazzlingly elaborate production design and kinetic 3D action...perfect casting...Who Framed Roger Rabbit-esque video-game-character cameos, and a cramming of clever comic touches..." — Groucho Reviews Posted Nov 1, 2012
3/4	93%	The Sessions (2012)	" Gets it right, in the essence of its true story as well as the social discomforts surrounding disability and sane discussion of sexuality." — Groucho Reviews Posted Nov 1, 2012
2.5/4	55%	Simon and the Oaks (2012)	" Foreign-film comfort food...at its best in exploring the psychology of the adopted." — Groucho Reviews Posted Oct 25, 2012
2.5/4	33%	Chasing Mavericks (2012)	" There’s a nobility in a well-made teen movie, not least because of the rarity of the breed...[this] sports movie concerned with the physical, emotional, and moral development of a young man fruitfully aspires to the likes of Breaking Away." — Groucho Reviews Posted Oct 25, 2012
1/4	64%	Cloud Atlas (2012)	" The Wachowskis and Tykwer are determined to make you understand eternity, and in that and only that, they succeed: by the time you get to the film's endless series of endings, you'll feel as if you've lived lifetimes." — Groucho Reviews Posted Oct 25, 2012
1/4	29%	Pocahontas II - Journey to a New World (1998)	" Strikes familiar notes of how the true 'savages' are the Englishmen...but in the end, the princess gives herself over to an Englishman and literally drifts away in the wrong direction of history. [Blu-ray]" — Groucho Reviews Posted Oct 15, 2012
2.5/4	56%	Pocahontas (1995)	" It's hard to excuse the reconception of the eleven or twelve-year-old Pocahontas...as a statuesque supermodel, especially as kids don't need their stories to be hung on romance to deem them, err, shapely. [Blu-ray]" — Groucho Reviews Posted Oct 15, 2012
3/4	81%	Seven Psychopaths (2012)	" Smart enough to work on multiple levels: as a witty salute to masculine '70s cinema...as a deconstruction of same...and as an existential consideration of the role of self-expression in ascribing meaning to life..." — Groucho Reviews Posted Oct 12, 2012
2/4	39%	The Paperboy (2012)	" Like Anatomy of a Murder, The Graduate, and Daniels' own Precious rolled into one wacked-out bloody Southern Gothic that's considerably less than the sum of those parts..." — Groucho Reviews Posted Oct 12, 2012
3/4	58%	Magical Mystery Tour (1967)	" Entirely larky...for Beatlefans, what's not to like? [Blu-ray]" — Groucho Reviews Posted Oct 10, 2012
3/4	89%	Frankenweenie (2012)	" Flipping the cautionary themes of Mary Shelley’s original source material, Frankenweenie plays out as a primarily pro-science parable...goes out of its way to encourage free-thinking square pegs to avoid gaping round holes." — Groucho Reviews Posted Oct 5, 2012
1.5/4	21%	Taken 2 (2012)	" The ludicrous plot devices that allow Mills to go from point A to point Z insult the intelligence of the character and the audience." — Groucho Reviews Posted Oct 5, 2012
0/4	0%	General Education (2012)	" What have I learned? High school movies can be duller—and more sour—than previously thought possible...The least generic element of General Education is its openly hostile attitude toward gay people. [Blu-ray]" — Groucho Reviews Posted Oct 2, 2012
3/4	85%	The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)	" Observe the white, middle-class American Catholic teenager in his natural habitat...Though we have, perhaps, never flaunted the fetching eyelashes and perfect skin of these curious creatures...have we not, in a sense, been there?" — Groucho Reviews Posted Sep 28, 2012
2/4	40%	The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964)	" You know, for kids! Best to repeat that mantra-style if you’re an adult sitting down to watch 1964’s kiddie flick The Incredible Mr. Limpet. [Blu-ray]" — Groucho Reviews Posted Sep 24, 2012
2.5/4	73%	Clue (1985)	" If Clue falls a bit short of the mark, it remains a likeable artifact of talented people giving a ridiculous task the old college try... [Blu-ray]" — Groucho Reviews Posted Sep 23, 2012
3/4	51%	Where Do We Go Now? (2012)	" Part religiopolitical satire, part smalltown sitcom, with a hint of romance, Where Do We Go Now? is pleasingly populated with "characters" and light farce that occasionally breaks out into a movie musical. " — Groucho Reviews Posted Sep 23, 2012
2.5/4	85%	End of Watch (2012)	" The milieu End of Watch introduces as "Once upon a time in South Central" may feel a bit old hat..." — Groucho Reviews Posted Sep 21, 2012
3.5/4	85%	The Master (2012)	" The Master begs for a reorientation of the viewer, perhaps requiring more than one viewing...there's nothing easy or conventional about this account of a doomed search for external meaning, doubling as a meditative tone poem on human frailty." — Groucho Reviews Posted Sep 21, 2012
3/4	84%	Arbitrage (2012)	" Playing a character that's almost entirely unsympathetic, Gere demonstrates the outward charm that's allowed Miller to accumulate his wealth and status, as well as the abyss-staring soul his showmanship conceals." — Groucho Reviews Posted Sep 19, 2012
3/4	89%	Compliance (2012)	" This psychodrama of ill-advised behavior may well leave you feeling dirty...for what you've watched helplessly and perhaps for what you've countenanced as an American citizen." — Groucho Reviews Posted Sep 7, 2012
2/4	22%	The Words (2012)	" A fairly straightforward yarn with bluntly articulated themes of Regret, Guilt, Misplaced Trust, and the Vagaries of Fate." — Groucho Reviews Posted Sep 7, 2012
3.5/4	100%	Quadrophenia (1979)	" An anti-musical...based on The Who's 1973 "rock opera" concept album...all the more brilliant for this seemingly counter-intuitive approach. [Blu-ray]" — Groucho Reviews Posted Sep 4, 2012
3/4	67%	Lawless (2012)	" Tough-minded...In recounting "the Great Franklin County Moonshine Conspiracy," Lawless does not lack for local color and local legend." — Groucho Reviews Posted Aug 30, 2012
3/4	68%	The Rescuers Down Under (1990)	" Tweaks the formula with a brisker pace, and development of leading characters...and action sequences... [Blu-ray]" — Groucho Reviews Posted Aug 24, 2012

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