Rotten Tomatoes
Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes
Publications list

Mark Leeper's Reviews

Mark Leeper's Reviews is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer® when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Mark R. Leeper.

Prev Next
Rating Title | Year Author Quote
8/10
Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy (2022) Mark R. Leeper DESPERATE SOULS, DARK CITY AND THE LEGEND OF MIDNIGHT COWBOY is a history of the 1950s and 1960s by clips from films and other media. There is some discussion of the effect MIDNIGHT COWBOY had, but it primarily looks at how the film came to be at all.
Posted Dec 24, 2023  Edit critic review
6/10
Asteroid City (2023) Mark R. Leeper In ASTEROID CITY, Anderson creates a feel of the 1950s that is more convincing than accurate. This isn't up to his best films, but Anderson fans won't want to miss it.
Posted Dec 08, 2023  Edit critic review
6/10
It's a Wonderful Knife (2023) Mark R. Leeper It seems an odd tradition for the film industry to make films with violent murders for the Christmas season, but that's show business. IT'S A WONDERFUL KNIFE has a serial killer wandering the streets killing people on Christmas Eve.
Posted Nov 12, 2023  Edit critic review
6/10
The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster (2023) Mark R. Leeper THE ANGRY BLACK GIRL AND HER MONSTER starts out narrated by the "angry Black girl" of the title. The story follows the plot of FRANKENSTEIN, with director Story staying closer to the plot of the Shelley novel than either James Whale or Terence Fisher did.
Posted Jun 18, 2023  Edit critic review
6/10
Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story (2022) Mark R. Leeper A lot of people these days on the Internet and elsewhere seem to have an unquenchable thirst for celebrity biographies. In this regard, HOLLYWOOD DREAMS & NIGHTMARES is just feeding that appetite.
Posted Jun 13, 2023  Edit critic review
7/10
Blood Relatives (2022) Mark R. Leeper BLOOD RELATIVES is definitely a new take on the vampire mythos.
Posted Nov 19, 2022  Edit critic review
7/10
Jungle Cruise (2021) Mark R. Leeper JUNGLE CRUISE (the movie) was based on "Jungle Cruise", a Disneyland ride, so I wasn't expecting much, and was definitely pleasantly surprised. All in all, this is a fun movie.
Posted Sep 18, 2022  Edit critic review
9/10
Last Night in Soho (2021) Mark R. Leeper LAST NIGHT IN SOHO looks back at the 1960s through the dreams--often nightmares--of Ellie, a would-be fashion designer (played by Thomasin McKenzie), in the present-day. This is a surprising film with enough ideas for two films.
Posted Sep 18, 2022  Edit critic review
9/10
House of Gucci (2021) Mark R. Leeper This is more than a film about fashion; this film is an Italian family epic in much the same style as THE GODFATHER, but based on a true story.
Posted Sep 18, 2022  Edit critic review
9/10
Nightmare Alley (2021) Mark R. Leeper NIGHTMARE ALLEY is described by its makers as a new adaptation of the book by William Lindsay Gresham, not a remake of the 1947 classic film noir version, and everything about this new production is top-notch.
Posted Sep 18, 2022  Edit critic review
6/10
Acasa, My Home (2020) Mark R. Leeper ACASA, MY HOME is a documentary about a family which has been living in the Bucharest delta for twenty years with few modern conveniences. Then the government turns the delta into a nature preserve and the family must leave the delta and live in the city.
Posted Sep 18, 2022  Edit critic review
6/10
Swan Song (2021) Mark R. Leeper Cameron (Mahershala Ali) is dying, and to save his family from grief, he agrees to being cloned with all his memories except the ones that would tell him he is a duplicate. The plot has similar ideas to FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED, and also MOON.
Posted Sep 18, 2022  Edit critic review
6/10
Wolfgang (2021) Mark R. Leeper In the 1970s, being a chef was a blue-collar job. The owner of a restaurant might be known, but not the chef. Food in the United States was fairly terrible (think TV dinners). Puck changed that, and this documentary shows how.
Posted Sep 18, 2022  Edit critic review
6/10
Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time (2021) Mark R. Leeper KURT VONNEGUT: UNSTUCK IN TIME, a biography of Kurt Vonnegut, has most of his early life told with home movies. Later the narrative is from photos of his articles, books, first pages of manuscripts, and footage shot by director Robert B. Weide and others.
Posted Sep 18, 2022  Edit critic review
6/10
Needle in a Timestack (2021) Mark R. Leeper NEEDLE IN A TIMESTACK is based on a story by popular SF author Robert Silverberg. Though he has been a prolific author for the last 70 years, little of his work has been filmed (the major exception is THE BICENTENNIAL MAN, based on "The Positronic Man").
Posted Sep 18, 2022  Edit critic review
8/10
Playing With Sharks (2021) Mark R. Leeper PLAYING WITH SHARKS--THE VALERIE TAYLOR STORY, from National Geographic, tells the story of Valerie Taylor, who has worked to educate the world about sharks, and to promote conservation efforts for them.
Posted Sep 18, 2022  Edit critic review
7/10
Wife of a Spy (2020) Mark R. Leeper We have seen a lot of spy thrillers set in Europe, usually with American or British spies, but WIFE OF A SPY is a bit different. This, the latest film from Kiyoshi Kurosawa, is set in 1940 in Japan, and has as its spy a Japanese businessman.
Posted Sep 18, 2022  Edit critic review
9/10
Worth (2020) Mark R. Leeper WORTH, a film about the September 11 Victim's Compensation Fund and the work of Ken Feinberg in assigning compensation amounts to the victims' families, uses two very good actors (Michael Keaton and Stanley Tucci) in a strong and even riveting conflict.
Posted Sep 18, 2022  Edit critic review
8/10
Midway (2019) Mark R. Leeper The Battle of Midway is one of the most amazing stories in military history and I was very pleased to see a new film featuring that story. MIDWAY (2019) is the rare war film that gets more points for historic accuracy than for entertainment.
Posted Sep 16, 2022  Edit critic review
4/10
Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (2021) Mark R. Leeper This seems to be the year for documentaries about celebrity chefs, with ROADRUNNER released at the same time as WOLFGANG. However, Bourdain has a natural feeling for the obnoxious and while we can compare the two, Bourdain's manner defeats his style.
Posted Sep 16, 2022  Edit critic review
6/10
Becoming Cousteau (2021) Mark R. Leeper BECOMING COUSTEAU is a biography of Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Caveat: The subtitles for French-speakers are very badly done, with white-on-white making them hard to read.
Posted Sep 16, 2022  Edit critic review
8/10
Being the Ricardos (2021) Mark R. Leeper One suspects that BEING THE RICARDOS will have more appeal for those who remember the original "I Love Lucy" show, but there is also reasonable coverage of the technical aspects of rehearsing and filming an episode at that time.
Posted Sep 16, 2022  Edit critic review
9/10
The Thing (1982) Mark R. Leeper THE THING (1982) was not exactly John Carpenter's breakthrough film, but it may well be his best film.
Posted Sep 14, 2022  Edit critic review
7/10
Cyrano (2021) Mark R. Leeper Kudos for the very detailed sets and production design of CYRANO, a good production even if still not up to the 1990 version of the story with Gerard Depardieu.
Posted Sep 14, 2022  Edit critic review
7/10
Fiddler's Journey to the Big Screen (2022) Mark R. Leeper FIDDLER'S JOURNEY TO THE BIG SCREEN is more than a "making-of" documentary; the people involved with making the film talk not just about making the film, but their own backgrounds and emotions, and how they affected their work.
Posted Sep 14, 2022  Edit critic review
6/10
Destination Moon (1950) Mark R. Leeper DESTINATION MOON (1950), the film that probably should have led off the Fifties science fiction cycle, actually is still an enjoyable adventure film even if parts are a little dated.
Posted Sep 14, 2022  Edit critic review
5/10
World Without End (1956) Mark R. Leeper WORLD WITHOUT END could tell us a good deal about the early science fiction transitioning to more recognizable modern science fiction films, but that still does not make it a particularly notable film.
Posted Sep 14, 2022  Edit critic review
6/10
The Black Scorpion (1957) Mark R. Leeper THE BLACK SCORPION is actually a better monster movie than I had remembered. True, there are a few embarrassing touches, but there are also some subtle touches in the script, and it boasts the effects work of Willis O'Brien, creator of KING KONG.
Posted Sep 14, 2022  Edit critic review
6/10
Monkey Business (1952) Mark R. Leeper A somewhat half-hearted film at that, neither good science fiction nor good comedy.
Posted Sep 11, 2022  Edit critic review
10/10
Forbidden Planet (1956) Mark R. Leeper One of the great and iconic science fiction films of all time.
Posted Sep 11, 2022  Edit critic review
9/10
The Fly (1958) Mark R. Leeper THE FLY (1958) is a film that surprised even its producers. I would contend that the reason this film had the impact that it did is that it really is very much an archetypal story, an "Oedipus Rex" for the scientific age.
Posted Aug 16, 2022  Edit critic review
6/10
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Mark R. Leeper The Day the Earth Stood Still is a sentimental favorite among Fifties science fiction films. It is certainly good but not nearly as good as its reputation would make it.
Posted Feb 14, 2021  Edit critic review
1/10
From Hell It Came (1957) Mark R. Leeper The idea of a tribal folklore monster coming to life would not be a bad one, but that is about the only thing that is good about this often genuinely incompetent film.
Posted Feb 14, 2021  Edit critic review
8/10
Them! (1954) Mark R. Leeper THEM! was one of the better Fifties science fiction films and one of only a handful that are still fairly effective forty years after it was made due in large part to some very intelligent script choices.
Posted Feb 14, 2021  Edit critic review
6/10
The Lodge (2019) Mark R. Leeper Compared with old Hammer horror films, there is more atmosphere, but the same or less character development. While not quite up to Hammer's LET ME IN or THE WOMAN IN BLACK, it has its moments.
Posted Feb 12, 2021  Edit critic review
6/10
M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity (2018) Mark R. Leeper The film covers Escher's entire career, from early "realistic" works through his branching out into more mathematical and surreal art, always in woodcuts, lithographs, or drawings rather than paintings.
Posted Feb 12, 2021  Edit critic review
7/10
Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954) Mark R. Leeper This is certainly one of the most fondly remembered of the science fiction films of the 1950s.
Posted Sep 18, 2020  Edit critic review
7/10
All Hail the Popcorn King (2019) Mark R. Leeper A study of the surrealist writer Joe R. Lansdale; his coterie of twisted but loyal fans makes for a fun film.
Posted Aug 21, 2020  Edit critic review
6/10
Color Out of Space (2019) Mark R. Leeper The latest film adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft's horror story of a meteor strike in the Massachusetts back woods...
Posted Jan 31, 2020  Edit critic review
7/10
The Mortal Storm (1940) Mark R. Leeper THE MORTAL STORM (1940) is a jaw-dropper about when Fascism comes to a village in Germany.
Posted Dec 08, 2019  Edit critic review
9/10
The Aeronauts (2019) Mark R. Leeper With a little flare borrowed from Jules Verne, we get a story of two mid-19th century explorers who attempt to travel by balloon higher above the Earth than any humans had ever been to that point.
Posted Dec 06, 2019  Edit critic review
8/10
Woman in the Moon (1929) Mark R. Leeper This was the first science fiction film to try to be serious and accurate in depicting celestial travel. While it is not too hard to find, few science fans and science fiction fans have actually seen it.
Posted Dec 02, 2019  Edit critic review
5/10
The Dead Don't Die (2019) Mark R. Leeper The Dead are yet once again back from themselves when the Earth pitches a little off its axis and in zombie movie scientific logic this causes the Dead to return to life in a rural central US town. This was probably more fun to make than it to was watch.
Posted Oct 27, 2019  Edit critic review
8/10
The Riot Act (2018) Mark R. Leeper While the writing could have used more work, the production designer makes a small budget work double time; the look and feel of 1901 and 1903 Arkansas feels authentic to me...
Posted Oct 08, 2019  Edit critic review
8/10
The Day Shall Come (2019) Mark R. Leeper Watching the film one is never sure what group will be skewered next by Chris Morris' bitter, toxic wit.
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
4/10
The Bestowal (2018) Mark R. Leeper "Steven and Death have a long (and often tedious) metaphysical discussion about questions that intrinsically have no answer."
Posted Sep 30, 2019  Edit critic review
7/10
Auggie (2019) Mark R. Leeper The self-same story could have been told without any science fiction.
Posted Sep 15, 2019  Edit critic review
7/10
The Magnetic Monster (1953) Mark R. Leeper gives no evidence anyone knew [science]
Posted Sep 09, 2019  Edit critic review
7/10
Driven (2018) Mark R. Leeper a fast-paced joyride of a film based on the DeLorean legal case that took the attention of the country.
Posted Aug 13, 2019  Edit critic review
7/10
Ode to Joy (2019) Mark R. Leeper This is a subject matter that creates some unique writing problems for the writer, Max Werner.
Posted Aug 06, 2019  Edit critic review
Prev Next