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Paul Povse

Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:

Columnist, The State Journal-Register

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
Raising Helen (2004) 25% 2.5/4 EDIT “Raising Helen is competent, commercial, square-as-square-can-be popular entertainment.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) May 27, 2004 Full Review The Prince & Me (2004) 28% 3/4 EDIT “It's a fairy tale in the best sense of the word, though the movie is far too hip and Julia Stiles' Paige too independent the heroine for any pat, happily-ever-after endings.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Apr 1, 2004 Full Review Taking Lives (2004) 21% 2/4 EDIT “At a certain point, Taking Lives gives up any pretense toward sense and starts piling up insanely improbable extravagances.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Mar 18, 2004 Full Review Touching the Void (2003) 93% 3.5/4 EDIT “The film concentrates, in awe-inspiring detail, on the almost incomprehensible rigors of mountain climbing and evolves into a philosophical, even spiritual adventure movie.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Mar 12, 2004 Full Review The Butterfly Effect (2004) 34% .5/4 EDIT “When it's all said and done, there comes a not half-bad twist. But by this time, we've endured too many reprises of canine flamb, plus Eric Stoltz as a drooling pervert.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Feb 3, 2004 Full Review Along Came Polly (2004) 27% 1.5/4 EDIT “There is something cruelly funny about getting dumped on your honeymoon, but that was done far better in Elaine May's The Heartbreak Kid.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Jan 23, 2004 Full Review Big Fish (2003) 76% 3/4 EDIT “Burton has a big payoff up his sleeve. In a movie practically schizophrenic in mood, he manages to present the inevitability of death with a touching beauty and elegance.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Jan 15, 2004 Full Review Calendar Girls (2003) 73% 3/4 EDIT “Gentlemen - you whose significant other may hold the weekend movie choice card - keep a stiff upper lip. You'll get through Calendar Girls just fine.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Jan 9, 2004 Full Review Cold Mountain (2003) 69% 3/4 EDIT “It's a dichotomy of appearance, the forging of nature's splendor defiled by base human behavior. That said, I wish it had stayed truer to the fatalistic mood it works up.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Jan 2, 2004 Full Review Something's Gotta Give (2003) 72% 2/4 EDIT “Nancy Meyers is like some grandma who keeps hugging you harder than you want to be hugged.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Dec 11, 2003 Full Review The Human Stain (2003) 41% 3/4 EDIT “Even when The Human Stain founders, the skill and professionalism of those trying to communicate Philip Roth's mood is undeniable.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Dec 5, 2003 Full Review Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) 85% 3.5/4 EDIT “Master and Commander has a full arsenal primed to wash over you, in more ways than one.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Nov 20, 2003 Full Review In the Cut (2003) 35% 1.5/4 EDIT “In the Cut demonstrates that miserable taste and artistic miscalculation hardly are the exclusive domain of male filmmakers and actors.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Nov 6, 2003 Full Review Beyond Borders (2003) 14% 2/4 EDIT “Beyond Borders can be wrenching and vigorously committed, but it's also occasionally tasteless and calculating. Think Doctor Zhivago with landmines.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Oct 30, 2003 Full Review Runaway Jury (2003) 73% 1.5/4 EDIT “Normally, I subscribe to the theory that Hoffman and Hackman - and Cusack, too - elevate any movie they grace and are worth following anywhere. In this case, I declare a mistrial.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Oct 23, 2003 Full Review Intolerable Cruelty (2003) 76% 3/4 EDIT “Clooney and Zeta-Jones have a level of antagonistic banter recalling the best of the Hepburn-Tracy chemistry. Now, this is what is meant by the term movie star.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Oct 16, 2003 Full Review Out of Time (2003) 65% 3/4 EDIT “A peppy and perspiring timewaster, but we don't mind.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Oct 8, 2003 Full Review Under the Tuscan Sun (2003) 62% 3/4 EDIT “This movie, benign and conventional as it is, needs a gutsy performance to keep it from sheer sogginess. The biggest surprise the movie generates is why it's taken this long for Lane's career to take off.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Oct 1, 2003 Full Review Anything Else (2003) 40% 1.5/4 EDIT “In a single sentence, Allen's character invokes Camus and Henny Youngman. If an unfunny joke is told in the forest and nobody hears it, it's still an unfunny joke.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Sep 25, 2003 Full Review Cold Creek Manor (2003) 12% 2/4 EDIT “Cold Creek Manor is cautious to the point of inert.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Sep 25, 2003 Full Review Swimming Pool (2003) 84% 3/4 EDIT “This is sophisticated, sultry noir for those who fancy this sort of thing, but then, who doesn't?” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Sep 18, 2003 Full Review Matchstick Men (2003) 82% 3/4 EDIT “Matchstick Men is so good when it is good that it's somewhere between exasperating and galling when it undermines our invested goodwill with a monster contrivance out of deep left field.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Sep 18, 2003 Full Review The Order (2003) 10% .5/4 EDIT “The Order is scuzzy and lazy, such a muddle that no one really need be offended. Actually, no one need even bother with it all. That's why I'm being paid in this space, to spare you the temptation.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Sep 11, 2003 Full Review Le Divorce (2003) 35% 2/4 EDIT “I have to admit I thought I'd sooner see a Wendy's bacon cheeseburger in Le Divorce before a slit, bloody wrist.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Sep 4, 2003 Full Review My Boss's Daughter (2003) 7% 1/4 EDIT “In My Boss's Daughter, there is no gee-whiz factor, only one Herculean whiz. A pox on this scatological scourge, I say. Let us all together put down the seat and flee for our sanities.” – State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) Aug 28, 2003 Full Review
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