ROTTEN TOMATOES: Andrew L. Urban

ANDREW L. URBAN

Agrees with the Tomatometer 69% of the time.

Biography: Andrew L. Urban is Publisher & Editor of Urban Cinefile, Australia’s award winning online weekly movie magazine (est. 1997). Specialising in film journalism, Andrew was Australian bureau chief for London based film trade publications from 1985 to 1994. He was Channel Host for the World Movies subscription movie channel (2002-6), and with his publishing partner and wife Louise Keller, he co-produced and hosted Movies This Week, a short movie review program, broadcast on World Movies and the Ovation arts & entertainment channel (2004-5). Since July 2005, Andrew has presented Movies Now, a contemporary movie appreciation course at Sydney University’s Centre for Continuing Education. In January 2007, Andrew was commissioned by the Australian Film Television and Radio School’s Centre for Screen Business to produce an extensive series of in depth on camera interviews with film and TV industry practitioners, for the CSB website; the series continues into 2008. Andrew is a regular guest on ABC Radio 702 Drive’s Critics Forum with Richard Glover.

Publications: Urban Cinefile

Total Reviews: 386

Location: Sydney, Australia

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Showing 51 - 100 of 386

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Rating	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date (default)

Fresh	Rotten 49%	Taking Woodstock (2009)	" Much of the credit must go to Lee's cinematic choices; his use of multi-split screens, the montages that create a clear sense of the vibrantly positive mood infecting everyone and a beautiful acid trip visualisation" Posted Aug 20, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 73%	The Young Victoria (2009)	" Pomp and circumstance are plentiful though not overdone as we worm our way into Victoria's court (and world) at the start of her reign. There is perhaps less clarity in the writing than desirable, but the production is spectacular" Posted Aug 20, 2009
Fresh	Rotten 41%	Fighting (2009)	" Entertaining and engaging, Fighting has action, romance and a buddy element in a tight, professional package" Posted Aug 20, 2009
Fresh	N/A	Bad Bush (2009)	" Based on a true story, Sam Genocchio's thriller has all the hallmarks of a natural filmmaking talent, aware of the various tools and tricks of filmmaking to generate psychological tension in the viewer." Posted Aug 19, 2009
Rotten	N/A	The Age of Stupid (2009)	" The Age of Stupid does little more than enumerate the ills and evils of today's world in a cry of panic and accusation, regurgitating those images and messages that serve its cause" Posted Aug 17, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 84%	The September Issue (2009)	" More a snapshot then a full blown insight into either Vogue, its September 2007 issue or its famous editor, Anna Wintour, the film has many positives and a few irritants. But it does take us at leat half way into the world of fashion bible" Posted Aug 17, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 65%	Adam (2009)	" Max Mayer has written a remarkably engaging screenplay about a relationship that isn't meant to be yet somehow is but not quite as we might expect, from this charming yet down to earth romantic comedy" Posted Aug 17, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 88%	Inglourious Basterds (2009)	" Be prepared for unsettling shifts in pace and tone, be prepared to be shocked and amused, to laugh and guffaw and to be always surprised in this comic fantasy which is cheeky enough to reinvent history and has audiences clapping as it does so" Posted Aug 17, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 90%	District 9 (2009)	" Technically superb, District 9 is a feast of seamless digital work fused to live action, as it is also a smart fusion of documentary format with narrative fiction." Posted Aug 10, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 80%	Bandslam (2009)	" With its combination of high energy music, a terrific young cast (with the relatively youthful Lisa Kudrow as a mum) and its well structured screenplay, Bandslam is an above average coming of age dramatic comedy" Posted Aug 8, 2009
Rotten	Rotten 55%	Orphan (2009)	" There's something wrong with Esther says the marketing tagline to this film, which sums up my response to the film itself." Posted Aug 8, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 95%	The Cove (2009)	" Horror film, spy thriller, disaster movie, corruption expose and more, The Cove is a gripping and devastating indictment of Japan's barbaric and secretive dolphin harvesting program" Posted Aug 8, 2009
Fresh	N/A	The Choir (2007)	" With astonishing levels of access and filmed over four years, Michael Davie documents prison life through the eyes of teenage robber, Jabulani, who shows us his many scars, tells us his savage life story and gradually reinvents himself" Posted Aug 6, 2009
Fresh	N/A	Columbus Day (2008)	" Strange but compelling, with Val Kilmer in top form, this oblique and slightly garbled story holds our interest with a combination of its elements." Posted Aug 5, 2009
Fresh	N/A	Special Delivery (2008)	" The screenplay has a sense of fun, which director Michael Scott translates well onto the screen, so the action and tension is spiced with hip humour." Posted Aug 5, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 100%	My Year Without Sex (2009)	" We get to care for the characters, but would like to have understood them better." Posted Aug 5, 2009
Rotten	N/A	Prey (2009)	" Supernatural thriller meets splatter movie meets clunky horror (with chainsaw), meets zombie movie ... Prey is a hybrid that doesn't have enough juice in any of the genres in which plays to be effective, despite some promise in its conception." Posted Aug 5, 2009
Fresh	Rotten 36%	G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)	" Youngsters (anyone up to about 24) will whisper 'cool' with jaws dropped every 85 seconds or so, as the gizmos, gadgets, weapons and other toys of the future flash before their eyes" Posted Aug 4, 2009
Fresh	Rotten 28%	Trade (2007)	" A brutal, shattering story of child trafficking that is intended to deliver a sobering punch about the global human trafficking trade, Marco Kreutzpaintner's powerful drama is in fact based on investigative reports in the New York Times." Posted Jul 29, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 88%	Coraline (2009)	" The visual invention is staggering, ranging from fabulous fantasy to eerie scary" Posted Jul 29, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 78%	Bronson (2009)	" Gripping and visceral, ugly and beautiful, terrible and haunting, Bronson is quite brilliant." Posted Jul 29, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 94%	Beautiful Kate (2009)	" Rachel Ward doesn't put a foot wrong in her debut as writer/director, transposing the American novel with consummate ease into an Australian story - it is not rooted in the culture of a country, but in the heart of the characters" Posted Jul 27, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 73%	Rudo and Cursi (2009)	" Bright, fresh, well observed human drama dressed up as comedy as two brothers rise from rags to riches through their soccer talents" Posted Jul 23, 2009
Rotten	Fresh 67%	Public Enemies (2009)	" At times incoherent, at times self conscious and thanks to Dante Spinotti being allowed to go hand held, almost always irritating to watch." Posted Jul 23, 2009
Fresh	N/A	Crush ()	" This occasionally erotic supernatural thriller has one big thing going for it: it knows its audience, the young male market, and goes after it." Posted Jul 23, 2009
Fresh	N/A	The Chifleys of Busby Street (2009)	" It's a terrific story but it's also an important insight into the Australian psyche of a past generation -- the generation that gave way to modern Australia after the war." Posted Jul 22, 2009
Fresh	Rotten 40%	The Limits of Control (2009)	" You could say it's a movie version of a su-do-ku puzzle, which contains a series of small puzzles that make up one larger puzzle" Posted Jul 16, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 86%	Red Cliff (2009)	" John Woo returns to China to make a film he has been burning to make, an adaptation from the much read book, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, written in about the 14th century; many years after the events depicted, but then these events are as important in" Posted Jul 16, 2009
Rotten	Fresh 65%	The Escapist (2009)	" The filmmakers succumb to the temptation of trying to have their escape movie cake and eat the psychological drama, too" Posted Jul 10, 2009
Rotten	Rotten 10%	My Life in Ruins (2009)	" We almost get to care about Georgia's fate, if it weren't for the fact that none of the film rings true and real" Posted Jul 10, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 63%	Mes Amis, Mes Amours ()	" Flawed and sometimes a bit contrived (like kiddies mouthing wise observations between themselves in precocious but cute mode) the film is nevertheless entertaining" Posted Jul 10, 2009
Rotten	Fresh 67%	Bruno (2009)	" Where Borat was an innocent abroad, Brüno is just broad; Sacha Baron Cohen makes Brüno the self centred and self obsessed centre of the film, which is not so much a story as a series of sketches designed to shock, disgust and outrage" Posted Jul 6, 2009
Rotten	Rotten 43%	Fragments (2009)	" An unconventional film in which traditional story resolutions (plural because several would be needed) are not forthcoming" Posted Jul 4, 2009
Rotten	N/A	I Really Hate My Job (2007)	" Unfortunately a lack of genuine observation continues to dog the film throughout and despite excellent performances, it's all 'pretend'." Posted Jun 27, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 91%	Every Little Step (2009)	" An irresistible mix of high drama and intimate stories" Posted Jun 27, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 67%	Greetings from the Shore (2008)	" There's a sweet tone throughout Greetings that endears us to the story and especially to Kim Shaw as the pretty Jenny, who has a promise to" Posted Jun 19, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 83%	Q & A (1990)	" A New York at odds with Woody Allen's, albeit also filled with angst; where Allen dissects the middle class in the throes of its own insecurities, Lumet cruises the underbelly" Posted Jun 19, 2009
Fresh	N/A	Pure S (1975)	" It's the anything in denim 70s, and anything goes; preferably into the lungs or veins... The absurdist tone lingers throughout." Posted Jun 18, 2009
Fresh	Rotten 15%	Year One (2009)	" Targeting with surgical precision the teenage market with a keenly juvenile sense of humour, Year One brings together every manner of silliness that can be crammed into the concept." Posted Jun 15, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 100%	Saturday Night & Sunday Morning (1960)	" It's in black and white, or rather a grimy English factory grey, but Albert Finney is superbly colourful as Arthur, a defiant and raging young bull of a man, suffocating in a remorseless, working class purgatory" Posted Jun 12, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 83%	Disgrace (2009)	" The film is a rich, textured and emotionally engaging experience that challenges our ethical and moral views about South Africa" Posted Jun 12, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 91%	The Decameron (1970)	" Those with gentle sensibilities and who regard nuns as sacred should avoid this film." Posted Jun 5, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 81%	Barfly (1987)	" Charles Bukowski's semi-autobiographical short story-cum-screenplay is rich fodder for filmmaker Schroeder, who squeezes all the available juice out of it in a sensitively directed film" Posted Jun 5, 2009
Fresh	Rotten 25%	Land of the Lost (2009)	" There are a few funny-ish moments, but the filmmakers rely too much on self parody" Posted Jun 5, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 71%	William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (2004)	" A richly cinematic and robust rendition of Shakespeare's pre-political correctness play about the place of Jews in anti-Semitic 16th century Venice, Michael Radford's film takes delight in dramatics thus pulling us into the story." Posted Jun 5, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 72%	Sunshine Cleaning (2009)	" The irony of the Sunshine named small enterprise specialising in cleaning up post-death mess suggests the filmmakers may be aiming for a tone of dark comic entertainment, but the film does not play out that way." Posted Jun 5, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 76%	Shall We Kiss? (2008)	" The addiction of French cinema to stories of love, lust, betrayal and romance continues unabated in the hands of Emmanuel Mouret, playing unassuming characters on screen in his own films, like this one" Posted Jun 5, 2009
Rotten	N/A	La Personne aux Deux Personnes (2008)	" Not as humorous as I'd like, mind you, and you have to totally surrender to the silliness to make this work." Posted Jun 3, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 100%	Samson and Delilah (2009)	" Non-actors Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson don't so much perform their roles as live out the lives of those who have been around them. Their ability to involve us and to make their characters real is astonishing." Posted Jun 3, 2009
Fresh	Fresh 100%	The Alps (2007)	" A giant screen to tell an intimate yet soaring story" Posted Jun 1, 2009

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ANDREW L. URBAN

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