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The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer® when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Kathi Maio.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) Kathi Maio Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is undeniably a watershed in animation and a truly classic film. How he adapted the story is a topic that has been critiqued and debated with almost as much passion as the original folktale.
Posted Dec 19, 2022  Edit critic review
Mission to Mars (2000) Kathi Maio ...despite the repeated sentimental trope of true loves lost, the film loses its simple humanity along the way, and it never fills the void with either the action or humor that have long been the saving grace of filmic space operas.
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
Red Planet (2000) Kathi Maio There are plenty of elements to the story, and it even manages to throw in a shipboard romance before the credits roll. But more plot frippery does make for a more hospitable Red Planet.
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
Zootopia (2016) Kathi Maio If you only want to view Zootopia as a cheery little feature cartoon, full of the frolicking anthropomorphic critters Disney excels in creating, it works perfectly well on that level...
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
The Lobster (2015) Kathi Maio The Lobster is like nothing you have ever seen before. I predict that your response will be an intense one.
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
Eye in the Sky (2015) Kathi Maio The debate is passionate and intelligent, and it is punctuated with tense on-the-ground action to contain the danger...
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) Kathi Maio The suspense of 10 Cloverfield Lane would never have worked without the subtle performance of John Goodman in the role of Howard.
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
Mars Attacks! (1996) Kathi Maio Mars Attacks! plays its loony action for intentional laughs.
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars (2001) Kathi Maio ...a low-budget throwback to the gorefest action sf of the sixties.
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
The Martian (2015) Kathi Maio The Martian is a story about people working together but thinking for themselves. It is also a first class piece of cinematic entertainment...
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) Kathi Maio The Incredible Shrinking Man is definitely a film designed to appeal to thoughtful adult viewers, as well as pure escapism science fiction fans.
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
Interstellar (2014) Kathi Maio Interstellar is, all in all, a very fine science fiction film.
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014) Kathi Maio ...this is one film that deserves the descriptor of tour de force.
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
Starry Eyes (2014) Kathi Maio Equal parts occult horror and slasher flick, Starry Eyes is definitely a B movie, but fairly well done, as such.
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
Downsizing (2017) Kathi Maio Downsizing fails because it is neither fish nor fowl. It can't commit as a science-fiction film and it never becomes the biting social satire the first act seems to intimate.
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
Arrival (2016) Kathi Maio [The] movie-one of the best and brainiest sf films in recent memory-depicts the linguistic and scientific challenge of human scholars to understand and be understood by creatures from another world.
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
Merchants of Doubt (2014) Kathi Maio Mr. Kenner knows how to keep his films visually interesting, as well as intellectually stimulating. And the story he tells in Merchants of Doubt is about as important as they come.
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
Self/less (2015) Kathi Maio I do wonder what Singh and writers Alex and David Pastor might have done if they had avoided the trite, explosive tropes of an action film for something that actually touched upon the many issues raised by their basic body swap plot...
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
Advantageous (2015) Kathi Maio Advantageous is a quiet and affecting film that contains a good bit of (not too pointed) social commentary. But it is primarily a meditation on human identity and the delicate nature of familial relationships.
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
Seconds (1966) Kathi Maio There is a lot to think about while watching Seconds, and that is the point. The acting, photography, and editing (by Ferris Webster and David Newhouse) all help make for a most unsettling film experience, but ultimately a very satisfying one.
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
About Time (2013) Kathi Maio ...one of the ways in which the filmmaker defuses the questionable gender politics of his primary love relationship is by widening the focus of his movie...
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
The Hunger Games (2012) Kathi Maio Although the casting of a relative unknown like Jennifer Lawrence in the crucial role of Katniss was a bit controversial, in the hindsight of her Oscar win and status as hottest young thing in Hollywood, the choice seems brilliant.
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) Kathi Maio The story is more complex, and director Francis Lawrence did an even better job of integrating taut action and convincing special effects into a developing plot...
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
Divergent (2014) Kathi Maio Divergent suffers in comparison to Hunger Games. But when judged alone, Divergent makes a strong case for the entertainment value of an empowered young female hero attempting to survive and resist in a dystopian society.
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
Free Birds (2013) Kathi Maio Much can be overlooked if such a movie is rollicking good fun. But Free Birds isn't even that. That's right, I'm going to say it. It's a turkey-and not one of the time-traveling freedom-fighter species, either.
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
Snowpiercer (2013) Kathi Maio It is a big, complex, bloody, noisy and quite sophisticated motion picture. It was meant to be seen on a large screen with surround-sound rumbling and roaring around you.
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
How I Live Now (2013) Kathi Maio How I Live Now is a simpler tale about a young girl who finds her own power in a hostile world. In the battle-scarred world that is the movie business, this film deserves to find a place.
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
I Origins (2014) Kathi Maio A quieter and more cerebral science fiction film, it will probably satisfy many a viewer who discovers it through a recommendation algorithm at a movie streaming service...
Posted Mar 11, 2020  Edit critic review
The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005) Kathi Maio ...the nadir of the Oz adaptations...
Posted Mar 10, 2020  Edit critic review
Life of Pi (2012) Kathi Maio ...in the end, we must abandon ourselves to the storytelling. With a gorgeous film like Life of Pi, that's not hard to do.
Posted Mar 10, 2020  Edit critic review
(undefined) Kathi Maio The Library of Congress has called The Wonderful Wizard of Oz "America's greatest and best-loved homegrown fairy tale." That tale has not been well-served by its latest adaptation.
Posted Mar 10, 2020  Edit critic review
GasLand (2010) Kathi Maio GasLand shows ordinary Americans setting their formerly potable kitchen tap water on fire, it looks like a special effect, but sadly isn't.
Posted Mar 10, 2020  Edit critic review
Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) Kathi Maio One wonders what L. Frank Baum would think of movies like Oz the Great and Powerful. He'd appreciate the technical innovations of modern cinema, most likely. But I doubt that he'd appreciate how his characters have been "updated."
Posted Mar 10, 2020  Edit critic review
Pacific Rim (2013) Kathi Maio Pacific Rim goes those classic B-movies one better, with giant, pilot-driven, twenty-five-story robots specifically designed to do battle with the mega-monsters.
Posted Mar 10, 2020  Edit critic review
The Bay (2012) Kathi Maio I wouldn't call The Bay a great piece of filmmaking. But as found-footage eco-terror thrillers go, it both entertains and delivers its intended message.
Posted Mar 10, 2020  Edit critic review
R.I.P.D. (2013) Kathi Maio R.I.P.D. is a movie that suffers from a passel of lost opportunities.
Posted Mar 10, 2020  Edit critic review
Outbreak (1995) Kathi Maio Outbreak isn't a terrible film, but it doesn't trust that relative realism has enough power to hook and hold a movie audience.
Posted Mar 07, 2020  Edit critic review
Melancholia (2011) Kathi Maio Lars Von Trier's elegantly arty Melancholia...despite the fact that Kirsten Dunst spends the first half of the movie in a wedding gown, there is no romantic love (new or old) to be found in this particular film.
Posted Mar 07, 2020  Edit critic review
Contagion (2011) Kathi Maio Although the filmmakers certainly make use of the life and death struggles of their story, they do so with a kind of naturalism that renders the spiraling crisis even more chilling.
Posted Mar 07, 2020  Edit critic review
Love in Space (2011) Kathi Maio Love in Space is a crosscultural diversion of the first order.
Posted Mar 07, 2020  Edit critic review
Miracle Mile (1988) Kathi Maio ...it is filled with energy, quirky humor, and a colorful cast of characters.
Posted Mar 06, 2020  Edit critic review
Last Night (1998) Kathi Maio A gem of a small Canadian film...
Posted Mar 06, 2020  Edit critic review
Armageddon (1998) Kathi Maio ...more macho and jingoistic action...
Posted Mar 06, 2020  Edit critic review
Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) Kathi Maio Casting is one of the shortcomings of Snow White and the Huntsman.
Posted Mar 06, 2020  Edit critic review
Mirror Mirror (2012) Kathi Maio ...not even a delightful Bollywood number that caps off the final wedding scene and ushers in the final credits can keep you from feeling confused and cheated after watching Mirror Mirror.
Posted Mar 06, 2020  Edit critic review
4:44 Last Day on Earth (2011) Kathi Maio I'm not quite sure when 4:44 moves from serious to silly, but for me it was early on.
Posted Mar 06, 2020  Edit critic review
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012) Kathi Maio Seeking a Friend for the End of the World sought but never found a cineplex audience. Even so, I would personally advise that you add it to your queue of movies to see before the asteroid hits.
Posted Mar 06, 2020  Edit critic review
Another Earth (2011) Kathi Maio Here we have a quiet and sometimes surprising drama, which is something you can rarely say about a modern sf movie...
Posted Mar 06, 2020  Edit critic review
Chronicle (2012) Kathi Maio Although the crashing climax left me cold, I was generally impressed by the youthful enthusiasm of the filmmaking in Chronicle.
Posted Mar 06, 2020  Edit critic review
The Island (2005) Kathi Maio The Island was not a particularly good movie. In fact, it is a perfect case study of everything that is overblown (as in, blown-up) and emotionally empty about so many Hollywood films.
Posted Mar 06, 2020  Edit critic review
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