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Peter Ackroyd

Peter Ackroyd's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at Tomatometer-approved publication(s).
Biography:

(Photo Credit: James Keyser / Contributor/ The LIFE Images Collection /Getty Images)

Publications:

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
The Color Purple (1985) 73% EDIT “The Color Purple is, as they say in the newspapers, 'a good night out.'” – The Spectator May 30, 2023 Full Review Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) 77% EDIT “It is of course mindless fun -- but what other kind of fun is there?” – The Spectator Apr 18, 2023 Full Review Marilyn: The Untold Story (1980) EDIT “None of this would matter -- or work on the screen -- without the performance of Catherine Hicks as Monroe. She is almost as good as the real thing.” – The Spectator Dec 22, 2020 Full Review Places in the Heart (1984) 90% EDIT “Places in the Heart is not an altogether memorable film, but what strength it possesses comes from the fact that it has the courage of its orthodox convictions.” – The Spectator Apr 7, 2020 Full Review Mommie Dearest (1981) 50% EDIT “Mommie Dearest becomes a kind of homage to the monster herself -- the emotions are so splendid, the scenes so dramatic, the experiences so incandescent.” – The Spectator Jun 3, 2019 Full Review Wise Blood (1979) 88% EDIT “Wise Blood would have worked, at least as a piece of local grotesquerie, if it had remained at an impressionistic farcical level. But it tries to encompass more than this.” – The Spectator Mar 20, 2019 Full Review The Amityville Horror (1979) 32% EDIT “The Amityville Horror is just another indication that the trail left by The Exorcist has now become too faint to be worth following.” – The Spectator Mar 20, 2019 Full Review Melvin and Howard (1980) 91% EDIT “Everything is all right really -- it tells us -- as long as there are good guys like Melvin to add a little human decency and a touch of naive fun to the great game show of life. I found this melancholy, however, rather than inspiring.” – The Spectator Mar 29, 2018 Full Review This Is Elvis (1981) 89% EDIT “Although the film resembles a child's drawing of a life, it is enlivened by the use of documentary material which, if it does nothing else, at least recreates that era When 'rock-and-roll' was seen as the harbinger of things to come.” – The Spectator Mar 29, 2018 Full Review Rough Treatment (1979) EDIT “The development of the central theme carries its own conviction, and the acting throughout is excellent, remaining so close to the texture of ordinary emotional life that the larger statements of the film gain an otherwise elusive credibility.” – The Spectator Mar 29, 2018 Full Review City of Women (1980) 68% EDIT “Stylists are only interesting when they consciously choose to forego substance. Fellini can't make that choice. And, when he tries to be serious, he succeeds only in becoming meretricious.” – The Spectator Mar 29, 2018 Full Review The Blood of Hussain (1980) EDIT “Blood of Hussain is simple propaganda and, however well-intentioned or honourable it may be, it differs very little from Russian films about happy workers or American films about happy housewives. The only real blood spilled here is that of the truth.” – The Spectator Mar 29, 2018 Full Review EDIT “Since the nodal point is Teresa herself, it is a tribute to the acting of Daysi Granados that she remains a real and even sympathetic figure throughout.” – The Spectator Mar 29, 2018 Full Review Blood Feud (1979) EDIT “It is as if Lina Wertmuller shot some comic scenes, and then changed her mind about the film; she shot some serious scenes, and then changed her mind again. In her confusion, she forgot to edit the film properly and somehow mislaid a vital 15 minutes.” – The Spectator Mar 29, 2018 Full Review Atlantic City (1980) 100% EDIT “It combines French discipline and nonchalance with an American generosity and high spirits. The dialogue is precise and often witty, qualities it shares with the acting.” – The Spectator Mar 29, 2018 Full Review 9 to 5 (1980) 70% EDIT “The three women rise up against the oppressive male establishment, and systematically humiliate and abuse their boss in a number of not terribly funny scenes.” – The Spectator Mar 28, 2018 Full Review The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) 83% EDIT “Nothing is left to chance; which means that the responses of the audience aren't left to chance, either. It was as if something were being put over on us. We were in some obscure way, being cheated. The director had reacted for us in advance.” – The Spectator Mar 28, 2018 Full Review The Constant Factor (1980) EDIT “(Krzysztof Zanussi) takes prevailing social conditions and presents them in so cold a light that they seem harder and clearer -- in the way that water changes to ice.” – The Spectator Mar 28, 2018 Full Review In God We Trust (1980) EDIT “The essential problem seems to be that it is centred around Mr Feldman himself, and he is not yet able to sustain the level of intensity and interest which is required.” – The Spectator Mar 27, 2018 Full Review The Long Good Friday (1980) 97% EDIT “The film lingers in the mind as an exposure of one man's illusions about himself and his world. Reality intrudes upon him like the hands around someone's neck.” – The Spectator Mar 27, 2018 Full Review Raging Bull (1980) 92% EDIT “This is, I suppose, a film about a slob, a violent and stupid man whose few brains are knocked even further sideways every time he enters the ring. But, somehow, he becomes intriguing in the telling.” – The Spectator Mar 27, 2018 Full Review American Pop (1981) 68% EDIT “Although the plot, like the music itself, can be somewhat too strident, the animation is remarkably successful in delineating the sad geography of the human body and the massive backgrounds of American cities.” – The Spectator Mar 27, 2018 Full Review From the Life of the Marionettes (1980) 64% EDIT “The film is very restrained, rather cool, and with an unabashed fluency of direction which prevents it from becoming enmired in the stickier reaches of the Scandinavian soul.” – The Spectator Mar 27, 2018 Full Review The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) 79% EDIT “Because there is no consistency of character, and therefore of meaning, the plot lurches around, to the evident bewilderment of the audience; the closing scenes are a terrible mess.” – The Spectator Mar 27, 2018 Full Review Quartet (1981) 44% EDIT “Quartet itself adopts the characteristics of the life which it celebrates -- elegant, reticent, with a deep respect for cinematic conventions and for the life of surfaces.” – The Spectator Mar 27, 2018 Full Review
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