ROTTEN TOMATOES: Steven D. Greydanus

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STEVEN D. GREYDANUS

Agrees with the Tomatometer 80% of the time.

Biography: Steven D. Greydanus is film critic for the National Catholic Register and host of DecentFilms.com. He also writes for Christianity Today Movies and Catholic Exchange. He appears weekly on the syndicated radio shows "Morning Air," hosted by Shaun Herriott, and "Heart, Mind, & Strength," hosted by Dr. Greg and Lisa Popcak. He is a regular guest on "Catholic Answers Live", and appears regularly on "Life on the Rock" on EWTN television. Steven has a BFA in Media Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York, and an MA in Religious Studies from St.*Charles Borromeo Seminary in Overbrook, PA. He lives in New Jersey with his wife Suzanne and their five children.

Favorites: Not my best-ever list, but a random list of films I love to watch again and again.... The Kid Brother, 1927 The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1927 Modern Times, 1936 The Wizard of Oz, 1939 Fantasia, 1940 The Philadelphia Story, 1940 Casablanca, 1942 The Big Sleep, 1946 Singin' in the Rain, 1954 A Man for All Seasons, 1966 Star Wars, 1977 Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1982 Silverado, 1985 Back to the Future, 1985 Midnight Run, 1988 Strictly Ballroom, 1992 The Fugitive, 1993 Babe, 1995 Jackie Chan's First Strike, 1996 The Fellowship of the Ring, 2001

Publications: Christianity Today, Decent Films Guide

Critics' Group: Online Film Critics Society

Total Reviews: 764
Total QuickRatings: 1

Location: New Jersey, 20 minutes outside Manhattan

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

Rotten 2/4	Rotten 30%	The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)	" Uncritical celebration of that overwrought, obsessive passion that is the hallmark of immaturity, that subordinates all sense of one's own identity and readily leaps to suicidal impulses and fantasies." — Christianity Today Posted Nov 19, 2009
Rotten 2/4	Rotten 38%	2012 (2009)	" *If 2012* is an apotheosis of all disaster movies, that means it's also an apotheosis of all disaster-movie clichés.*" — Christianity Today* Posted Nov 13, 2009
Fresh B	Rotten 55%	Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009)	" The story is robust enough to survive the theme-park treatment, and for the most part it's a very good ride, with a welcome note of actual Christmas caroling spirit." — Decent Films Guide Posted Nov 6, 2009
Fresh A-	Fresh 70%	Where the Wild Things Are (2009)	" The book is about anger, while the film is as much about sadness. Here is a film broken-hearted over the messiness of the world. It is sad, and beautiful, and true." — Decent Films Guide Posted Nov 6, 2009
Fresh A-	Fresh 76%	The Informant! (2009)	" Confronts us with the inveterate human capacity for self-justification   we are all prone to casting ourselves as the hero of our own drama and the victim of our own tragedy." — Decent Films Guide Posted Nov 6, 2009
Fresh 3/4	Rotten 20%	Amelia (2009)	" A fine tribute to an American pioneer, but I feel sure that Earhart's story merits, and would reward, a more searching and thoughtful exploration." — Christianity Today Posted Oct 31, 2009
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 85%	Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (2009)	" *When in movie history has the girl ever revealed her true self and become more attractive to the hero by putting on spectacles and pulling back* her hair?*" — Decent Films Guide* Posted Sep 21, 2009
Rotten C	Rotten 56%	9 (2009)	" Acker does himself no favors with rote anti-dogmatism and vapid characterizations. Despite that, though, his little creations remain oddly compelling." — Decent Films Guide Posted Sep 12, 2009
Fresh A-	Fresh 90%	District 9 (2009)	" [The "popcorn" egg-burning scene] in a way represents the whole film: There's popcorn appeal for casual viewers, but something more vital and desperate at stake underneath." — Decent Films Guide Posted Aug 24, 2009
Fresh B+	Fresh 91%	Ponyo (2009)	" Sticks together disparate bits and pieces of fairy tale, mythopoeia, sci-fi and family film with the artless simplicity of a child mashing up Tinkertoys, Playdoh and Daddy's cuff links into a single sculpture." — Decent Films Guide Posted Aug 13, 2009
Rotten 2/4	Rotten 24%	G-Force (2009)	" *There's nothing wrong with G-Force* that John Lasseter couldn't fix.*" — Christianity Today* Posted Jul 24, 2009
Fresh B	Fresh 83%	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)	" Continues the trajectories of recent installments — it’s darker, more tragic and more romantic … loyalty to and trust in Dumbledore emerges as a defining moral trait for Harry." — Decent Films Guide Posted Jul 15, 2009
Rotten C	Fresh 67%	Public Enemies (2009)	" With its well-staged stickups and shootouts … it seems to be all surface — a glossy updating of 1930s Hollywood gangster melodrama without any substantial commentary or insight." — Decent Films Guide Posted Jul 11, 2009
Rotten C-	Rotten 45%	Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009)	" Marks Blue Sky Studios' descent into the kind of crude and suggestive humor they once left to DreamWorks." — Decent Films Guide Posted Jul 3, 2009
Rotten C+	Rotten 54%	The Stoning of Soraya M. (2009)	" *Like The Magdalene Sisters, Soraya M* offers its audience only those appalling truths they want to know about the evils of an alien culture they are already inclined to look down upon.*" — Decent Films Guide* Posted Jun 26, 2009
Rotten 2/4	Rotten 10%	My Life in Ruins (2009)	" A subtext of self-criticism runs through Vardalos's material. Over and over characters tell her, "You're not funny. Stop trying." Is it a sort of apology to the audience?" — Christianity Today Posted Jun 24, 2009
Fresh A-	Fresh 89%	Moon (2009)	" Sam's predicament touches on issues from the deconstruction of human nature and the commodification of human life to existential loneliness, alienation and the dehumanizing effects of corporate ruthlessness." — Christianity Today Posted Jun 19, 2009
Fresh A	Fresh 94%	Summer Hours (2009)	" Bound up in this haunting, moving meditation on a family in transition are implicit questions about globalization and the relationship of art, life and culture, the past and the future." — Decent Films Guide Posted Jun 19, 2009
Fresh A	Fresh 98%	Up (2009)	" What other animated film has contemplated the anxious stubbornness of the elderly to cling to whatever independence they can for as long as they can, to remain connected to familiar places and things?" — Decent Films Guide Posted May 29, 2009
Rotten C	Rotten 44%	Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009)	" The Lincoln Memorial statue is something of a travesty." — Christianity Today Posted May 23, 2009
N/A	Rotten 36%	Angels & Demons (2009)	" Rome and Geneva: Religion and Science in Angels & Demons" — Decent Films Guide ESSAY Posted May 15, 2009
Rotten D	Rotten 36%	Angels & Demons (2009)	" *Langdon may wind up saving the Church, but does Angels & Demons* offer any hint of a church worth saving? If not, why should we care?*" — Decent Films Guide* Posted May 14, 2009
N/A	Rotten 36%	Angels & Demons (2009)	" Lies, Damned Lies and Dan Brown: Fact-checking Angels & Demons" — Decent Films Guide ESSAY Posted May 8, 2009
Fresh A-	Fresh 95%	Star Trek (2009)	" *It's like what Alan Moore said about Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns: 'Everything is exactly the same, except for the fact that it's all completely different.'" — Decent Films Guide* Posted May 8, 2009
Rotten C+	Rotten 47%	Battle for Terra (2009)	" Has visual style to burn, but its politically correct tale of rapacious invaders and noble natives is less interesting than the world in which the story is set." — Decent Films Guide Posted May 1, 2009
Rotten C+	Rotten 36%	X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)	" You go in knowing it has certain beats to hit, and it hits most of them in ways you might expect … What it's most conspicuously lacking is any sense of surprise, of revelation, of creative boldness." — Decent Films Guide Posted May 1, 2009
Fresh A-	Fresh 86%	Earth (2009)	" In a sea of Hollywood formula, artifice and escapism, here is an invitation to wonder, awe and gratitude." — Decent Films Guide Posted Apr 24, 2009
Fresh B-	Rotten 55%	The Soloist (2009)	" The basic contours of the story do emerge from the ill-advised Hollywood stylings … Does Lopez help Ayers? Does Ayers help Lopez? It's messy." — Decent Films Guide Posted Apr 24, 2009
Rotten C	Fresh 72%	Monsters vs. Aliens (2009)	" Has one character that really matters - Ginormica - and no relationships to speak of … As a tale of female empowerment and male comeuppance, Monsters might have been provocative, like, 50 years ago." — Decent Films Guide Posted Mar 26, 2009
Fresh A+	Fresh 100%	Pinocchio (1940)	" *In spirit a classical European fairy tale, full of wonder and terror … a pinnacle of artistic achievement that, after Bambi, classic Disney would never even try to match again." — Decent Films Guide* Posted Mar 17, 2009
Rotten C+	Rotten 54%	Australia (2008)	" *Much like Scorsese's Gangs of New York, it's a film that has been long labored over, and the artist's love of the material is clear, but the inspiration has been lost along the way." — Decent Films Guide* Posted Mar 17, 2009
Rotten C-	Rotten 42%	Oliver and Company (1988)	" The last gasp of Disney Animation's post-Walt malaise before the 1990s Disney renaissance … retains Dickens's seamy milieu, but not his morality-play tableau." — Decent Films Guide Posted Mar 17, 2009
Fresh B-	Rotten 44%	Return From Witch Mountain (1978)	" Better structured and faster-moving than its predecessor … disappointingly, Tony spends almost the whole film separated from Tia in a trance-like state, so the siblings' relationship is lost." — Decent Films Guide Posted Mar 17, 2009
Rotten C+	Fresh 75%	Escape to Witch Mountain (1975)	" Pleasant enough, but underwhelming, and curiously lacking in wonder, even in the high-flying finale." — Decent Films Guide Posted Mar 17, 2009
Rotten C+	Rotten 43%	Race to Witch Mountain (2009)	" Slicker, darker and funnier than the original films, though wall-to-wall action makes it a bit of a one-trick pony, and prevents the characters from catching their breath and displaying more than one side." — Decent Films Guide Posted Mar 13, 2009
Rotten D	Fresh 64%	Watchmen (2009)	" A thoroughgoing deconstruction of humanity as well as heroism, one that takes its world apart without putting it back together again. There are things to admire here, but Watchmen doesn't make me care." — Decent Films Guide Posted Mar 6, 2009
Fresh B+	Fresh 88%	Coraline (2009)	" With its dark tale of changeling parents and imprisoned souls, Coraline comes closer to the bracing spirit of the traditional European fairy tale than perhaps any other film, animated or otherwise, in recent memory." — Decent Films Guide Posted Feb 6, 2009
Fresh 2.5/4	Rotten 57%	Taken (2009)	" Although well-crafted but improbable action set pieces cast Neeson as an essentially indomitable force, the film's emotional force rests on the comparatively persuasive setup." — Christianity Today Posted Jan 30, 2009
Rotten F	Rotten 15%	The Spirit (2008)	" The Frank Miller Universe at its most reductionist, self-parodying and content-free … There is nothing at stake … only a pointless, shapeless exercise in wildly veering moods and styles." — Christianity Today Posted Dec 25, 2008
Fresh B+	Rotten 55%	The Tale of Despereaux (2008)	" Not a Fractured Fairy Tale, not an ironic deconstruction … but a sincere morality tale in a folk storytelling mode, with dark themes to do the Grimm Brothers proud." — Decent Films Guide Posted Dec 19, 2008
Fresh A-	Fresh 94%	Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)	" *More thoughtful and restrained than most sci-fi of the period, The Day the Earth Stood Still* has aged better than almost all of its peers.*" — Decent Films Guide* Posted Dec 12, 2008
Rotten C+	Rotten 21%	The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)	" A credible effort to honor the original while contributing something new. Derrickson effectively builds and sustains a sense of thoughtful tension - until the screenplay lets him down." — Decent Films Guide Posted Dec 12, 2008
Rotten C	Rotten 49%	Twilight (2008)	" Is there something darker: an unhealthy fascination with unwholesome relationships and bad boys, perhaps mixed with a Nightingale/Stockholm-syndrome desire to "save" them?" — Decent Films Guide Posted Nov 28, 2008
Fresh 3/4	Fresh 64%	Quantum of Solace (2008)	" *Three years ago, before Casino Royale, Quantum* would have been a pretty good Bond flick. Two pair isn't a bad hand. It's just anticlimactic after a royal flush.*" — Christianity Today* Posted Nov 13, 2008
Rotten C-	Fresh 64%	Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008)	" *A hodgepodge, combining elements of The Lion King, Joe vs. the Volcano, Happy Feet* and some romantic comedy that I'm sure must exist but which I haven't yet identified.*" — Decent Films Guide* Posted Nov 7, 2008
N/A	Fresh 91%	School of Rock (2003)	Click here to read article — Decent Films Guide ESSAY Posted Oct 29, 2008
Fresh B+	Fresh 65%	Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie (2002)	Click here to read article — Decent Films Guide Posted Oct 29, 2008
Fresh A	Fresh 100%	A Man Escaped (1956)	Click here to read article — Decent Films Guide Posted Oct 29, 2008
Fresh B+	Rotten 39%	The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)	Click here to read article — Decent Films Guide Posted Oct 29, 2008
N/A	N/A	2003 Year-in-Review (2003)	Click here to read article — Decent Films Guide MISCELLANEOUS Posted Oct 29, 2008

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A	WALL-EOffsite
A+	The Dark KnightOffsite
A-	RatatouilleOffsite
3.5/4	The ExpressOffsite
B+	The Assassination of Jesse James by...Offsite
3/4	CaramelOffsite
B	Harry Potter and the Order of the...Offsite
2.5/4	The Brave OneOffsite
B-	SunshineOffsite
C+	Rush Hour 3Offsite
2/4	My Life in RuinsOffsite
C	The Dark CrystalOffsite
C-	Gods and GeneralsOffsite
D+	Mean GirlsOffsite
D	3:10 to YumaOffsite
D-	8 MileOffsite
F	Elizabeth: The Golden AgeOffsite

A	Summer HoursOffsite
A	UpOffsite
A+	PinocchioOffsite
A	A Man EscapedOffsite
A+	Star WarsOffsite
A	Dead Man WalkingOffsite
A	Life Is BeautifulOffsite
A+	BambiOffsite
A	Wild StrawberriesOffsite
A	The Burmese HarpOffsite

F	The SpiritOffsite
F	Elizabeth: The Golden AgeOffsite
F	The Da Vinci CodeOffsite
F	V For VendettaOffsite
F	Brokeback MountainOffsite
F	Million Dollar BabyOffsite
F	KinseyOffsite
F	FrancescoOffsite
F	Man on FireOffsite
F	The HoursOffsite

STEVEN D. GREYDANUS

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