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Critics / Sean Burns
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SEAN BURNS

Agrees with the Tomatometer 73% of the time.

Biography: Since 1999 Sean Burns has been Philadelphia Weekly's lead film critic, and also currently writes for The Improper Bostonian. His work has previously appeared in The Boston Metro, Matinee Magazine, The Nashville Scene, Time Out New York and The House Next Door. Burns was a recurring guest on the late David Brudnoy's WBZ 1030 AM Radio Show, and in 2002 received an award for Excellence in Criticism from the Society of Professional Journalists. His writing has been called "jocular but serious, more like a 1940s daily reporter pounding out columns on a manual typewriter than a typical 21st century navel-gazing film critic." Burns has also been told that he "smokes too much and drives like an old lady." He and his cat live in Stoneham, MA.

Publications: Philadelphia Weekly

Total Reviews: 712

LISTING OF ALL REVIEWS & ARTICLES

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# a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r (S) t u v w x y z
Results for All Genres > Letter S
Showing 1 - 50 of 77
Previous | Next
Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date (default)

Fresh

Fresh
87%

A Serious Man (2009)

" Grappling with massive cosmic mysteries on a deceptively mundane stage, it's a film about the silence of God, seething with profound existential panic... viewed through the hilariously cracked prism of everyday suburban minutiae."

Posted Oct 27, 2009

Rotten

Fresh
84%

Soul Power (2009)

" A footnote to a masterpiece."

Posted Jul 28, 2009

Rotten

Fresh
89%

Séraphine (2008)

" Here's one that feels like homework."

Posted Jul 25, 2009

Fresh

Fresh
94%

Star Trek (2009)

" More than any Trek project in decades, this one conjures the camaraderie, the easy humor and most important the swagger we associate with headstrong Jim Kirk and his logical, pointy-eared pal."

Posted May 5, 2009

Rotten

Rotten
55%

The Soloist (2009)

" A well-acted, finely crafted movie that has everything going for it... except a reason to exist."

Posted Apr 29, 2009

Fresh

Fresh
93%

Sugar (2009)

" Of course, calling a movie 'too humane' isn't really all that much of a complaint..."

Posted Apr 21, 2009

Rotten

Rotten
27%

Seven Pounds (2008)

" And then there's also much ado about an allegedly poisonous computer-generated jellyfish."

Posted Dec 17, 2008

Rotten

Fresh
67%

Synecdoche, New York (2008)

" One of those movies that's full of ideas and sparks lively discussions after the lights come up. Too bad that actually sitting through the thing feels like torture."

Posted Nov 6, 2008

Rotten

Rotten
40%

Savage Grace (2008)

" Kalin and Moore have done such a fine job creating this monster, you'll be inclined to forgive them for never quite figuring out what to do with her."

Posted Jul 6, 2008

Rotten

Rotten
44%

The Strangers (2008)

" ...a grab-bag of nifty widescreen compositions and sound design stingers, with nothing on its mind besides its own virtuosity."

Posted May 29, 2008

Rotten

Fresh
80%

Standard Operating Procedure (2008)

" Each successive Morris picture seems to grow glossier and more vague, pushing further into abstraction and incessant macro-lens close-ups of ham-fisted recurring symbols. There's also really annoying music."

Posted May 21, 2008

Rotten

Rotten
37%

Street Kings (2008)

" It will feel mighty familiar to anybody who saw Ayer and Ellroy's previous collaboration, Dark Blue, as this is --almost beat for beat-- the exact same story."

Posted Apr 9, 2008

Fresh

Fresh
86%

Shine a Light (2008)

" Smiling self-mockery plays a big part, and if the movie is actually about anything, it's about aging gracefully into a cuddly caricature of your former self."

Posted Apr 3, 2008

N/A

Fresh
67%

Snow Angels (2008)

" Seeing Green: An Interview With David Gordon Green"

Posted Mar 29, 2008

Fresh

Fresh
67%

Snow Angels (2008)

" This wonderfully distinctive filmmaker is suffering growing pains, trying to wrestle his meandering, oddball sensibilities into the requirements of conventional genre forms."

Posted Mar 29, 2008

Rotten

Fresh
64%

Stop-Loss (2008)

" Comprised of bitter, beautifully observed truths butting up uncomfortably against loads of hoary Hollywood hooey...the movie's real war is with itself."

Posted Mar 29, 2008

Fresh

Fresh
86%

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

" It's testament to both the gonzo power of the source material and the completeness of Burton's vision that the movie works in spite of one teensy catch: they can't sing."

Posted Dec 20, 2007

Fresh

Fresh
89%

The Savages (2007)

" Grimly funny and brazenly unsentimental, it has an ordinary, humdrum grit often missing even from indie movies."

Posted Dec 20, 2007

Rotten

Fresh
72%

Stephen King's The Mist (2007)

" King went so far as to issue a press release saying 'anybody who reveals the ending should be hung from the neck until dead.' Funny, I could say the same about whoever came up with it."

Posted Nov 26, 2007

Fresh

Fresh
67%

Shoot 'Em Up (2007)

" Completely retarded and totally awesome..."

Posted Sep 13, 2007

Fresh

Fresh
87%

Superbad (2007)

" 2007: The Year Judd Apatow And Seth Rogen Saved Movie Comedy."

Posted Aug 14, 2007

Rotten

Fresh
74%

Sunshine (2007)

" After a mesmerizing first hour, the film implodes so quickly our sputtering sun can barely keep pace."

Posted Jul 28, 2007

Rotten

Fresh
93%

Sicko (2007)

" In another lifetime, Michael Moore and George W. Bush probably would have been great friends."

Posted Jun 26, 2007

Rotten

Fresh
62%

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

" Raimi makes just about every wrong move in the sequel playbook, substituting scope and scale for the warmth and wit that made those two previous pictures so memorable. In this case, more is less."

Posted May 2, 2007

Rotten

Rotten
47%

Shooter (2007)

" The character's laughable name be damned, Wahlberg's a smart enough actor not to swagger through the role."

Posted Mar 27, 2007

Rotten

Rotten
27%

Smokin' Aces (2007)

" The worst movie of 1998."

Posted Jan 30, 2007

Rotten

Fresh
72%

Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

" Finally, a Charlie Kaufman movie for people who are too stupid to understand Charlie Kaufman movies."

Posted Nov 14, 2006

N/A

Fresh
65%

Shortbus (2006)

" We're All On The Bus: An Interview With John Cameron Mitchell"

Posted Oct 11, 2006

Fresh

Fresh
65%

Shortbus (2006)

" ...the largest and most impressive organ on display in Shortbus is the movie's heart."

Posted Oct 11, 2006

Fresh

Fresh
69%

The Science of Sleep (2006)

" This is a sometimes brilliant, occasionally infuriating, visually astonishing extravaganza of embarrassing self-pity."

Posted Sep 26, 2006

Fresh

Fresh
68%

Snakes on a Plane (2006)

" Briskly paced and crassly entertaining, it's a happy, crappy B-Movie that delivers exactly what it promises. (Yes, that means snakes -- plenty of them. On a plane, no less.)"

Posted Aug 22, 2006

Fresh

Fresh
76%

Superman Returns (2006)

" ...a surprisingly tender and gentle film - one that feels like it came from somewhere very personal and deeply felt. It's good to have him back."

Posted Jun 27, 2006

Rotten

Fresh
81%

Sketches of Frank Gehry (2006)

" The movie turned out about as well as you might expect from something that dares to open with a frank declaration of the director's incompetence and lack of insight."

Posted Jun 7, 2006

Fresh

Fresh
72%

Syriana (2005)

" There's a brilliant piece of pulp buried somewhere beneath the speechifying... but still, Syriana's anger is invigorating."

Posted Dec 8, 2005

Fresh

Fresh
64%

Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic (2005)

" An HBO special dragged kicking and screaming to (barely) feature length, it's a riot... but probably shouldn't be in theaters. "

Posted Dec 8, 2005

Rotten

Fresh
61%

Shopgirl (2005)

" Watching Shopgirl is like seeing a hushed, two-character chamber piece, but then this other jerk keeps popping up and making fart noises with his armpit. Bad form."

Posted Nov 3, 2005

Rotten

Fresh
71%

Separate Lies (2005)

" If movies have taught us anything, it's that adultery is never more dreary than when the British are doing it. Especially when they're rich."

Posted Oct 13, 2005

Fresh

Fresh
81%

Serenity (2005)

" Although watching the movie feels like tuning into a TV program just in time for the series finale --which, um, it sort of is-- this Serenity is decent stuff. "

Posted Sep 29, 2005

Rotten

Rotten
7%

A Sound of Thunder (2005)

" Lobotomized from a Ray Bradbury short story, A Sound of Thunder stars Edward Burns as a scientist (insert raucous laughter here)..."

Posted Sep 29, 2005

Fresh

Fresh
93%

Saraband (2005)

" Worth watching, even if it feels a bit musty and mothballed. Consider Saraband a footnote to Bergman's brilliant career."

Posted Aug 4, 2005

Fresh

Fresh
80%

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)

" Growing up Star Wars is like growing up Catholic- no matter how bitter you might become, ya can't shake it. Last week I bought CHEEZ-ITs because R2-D2 was on the box."

Posted May 20, 2005

Fresh

Fresh
77%

Sin City (2005)

" Probably the cheapest, most juvenile and awesomest movie ever, it's a young, dumb and full-of-come fantasy/noir, fanboy nirvana extravaganza. "

Posted Mar 31, 2005

Rotten

Rotten
58%

Steamboy (2005)

" The good news: Unlike Akira, I could actually tell what was going on most of the time. The bad news: After a while I just didn't care. "

Posted Mar 15, 2005

Rotten

Fresh
83%

The Sea Inside (2004)

" The only sad thing in this alleged tearjerker is watching singular talents like Bardem and Amenábar sucking up to the middlebrow Motorcycle Diaries crowd."

Posted Dec 14, 2004

Fresh

Fresh
97%

Sideways (2004)

" Payne is the only young filmmaker tackling the gloom of modern mediocrity, and his Sideways is the richest and most rewarding American comedy since Wonder Boys."

Posted Nov 8, 2004

Rotten

Rotten
7%

Surviving Christmas (2004)

" Affleck gives one of the clammiest, most panicked performances I've ever seen. The movie is drenched in his flop-sweat."

Posted Nov 8, 2004

Rotten

Fresh
65%

Stage Beauty (2004)

" Kudos for at least working Claire Danes' glaringly limited abilities into the storyline. Now if they could only do something about the sophomoric script and nasty mysogyny..."

Posted Nov 8, 2004

Rotten

Rotten
48%

Shall We Dance? (2004)

" A sweet, well-meaning pass at a story that just doesn't translate --you're gonna get stuck watching it with your mom or your girlfriend every time it shows up on TNT. "

Posted Nov 8, 2004

Fresh

Fresh
91%

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

" ...a film in which all the sad compromises of adulthood are symbolized by a pressing need to lop off your undead neighbor's rotting head with a cricket bat. Nicely done."

Posted Sep 22, 2004

Fresh

Fresh
72%

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)

" The must-see summer blockbuster of 1939, it's the new Far From Heaven -- only this time for nerds instead of gay guys."

Posted Sep 15, 2004
Results for All Genres > Letter S
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