The Ooh Tray - Rotten Tomatoes

The Ooh Tray

The Ooh Tray is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Ed Whitfield
Rating
Title/Year
Author
1
Scream (2022)

Ed Whitfield

Signals we've moved into a new era where legacy sequels, in a bid to keep the wolf of audience weariness from the door of indifference, refer to their conception while sticking to the strategy point for point. This, as Scream '22 notes, is fooling no one.
Posted Jan 16, 2022
2
The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

Ed Whitfield

One of the most passive aggressive mainstream movies of recent years - a film that both mocks the expectations of its imagined audience and the crude franchise revival imperative of its financial backers.
Posted Dec 23, 2021
3
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Ed Whitfield

It's all part of a knowing scheme that repurposes what came before to create an Endgame sense of anticipation and payoff. It's wholly unearned, but you have to give producer Kevin Feige credit - recycling has never been this profitable.
Posted Dec 19, 2021
4
West Side Story (2021)

Ed Whitfield

West Side Story's the same old story and the same old tunes. It looks and sounds great - a stylistic upgrade - but it's still a movie struggling to make the case for its existence.
Posted Dec 11, 2021
5
House of Gucci (2021)

Ed Whitfield

A vulgar picture is painted. Its resemblance to its subjects is a matter of debate.
Posted Dec 6, 2021
6
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)

Ed Whitfield

Fans of the game will say it's an acceptable diversion. For the rest of us there is nothing.
Posted Dec 6, 2021
7
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Ed Whitfield

Jason Reitman, with the best intentions, has inherited the mantle but misunderstood the appeal of his Dad's film. He's turned Seinfeld into Family Ties.
Posted Nov 20, 2021
8
Eternals (2021)

Ed Whitfield

What might have been a fascinating interplay of psychologies and ideas, is rendered in broad, lifeless strokes.
Posted Nov 13, 2021
9
Halloween Kills (2021)

Ed Whitfield

Excess not success.
Posted Oct 23, 2021
10
Dune (2021)

Ed Whitfield

Put the word out - someone at Warners has a gambling problem.
Posted Oct 22, 2021
11
The Last Duel (2021)

Ed Whitfield

It's funny that The Last Duel should be a film about bravery...because on the issue the story explores, namely truth, it dare not trust its audience.
Posted Oct 17, 2021
12
No Time To Die (2021)

Ed Whitfield

A kind of pastiche of the series proper - with Craig's mirthless, fragile Bond, out of place as well as time.
Posted Sep 30, 2021
13
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

Ed Whitfield

Shang-Chi, from its flat composition and mechanical editing, to its low-key score, is a curiously muted offering.
Posted Sep 4, 2021
14
The Suicide Squad (2021)

Ed Whitfield

James Gunn has spiced the broth but it's still thin and no substitute for a decent meal.
Posted Jul 31, 2021
15
F9 (2021)

Ed Whitfield

The lack of human interest stalls the engine and flips the vehicle.
Posted Jul 13, 2021
16
Black Widow (2021)

Ed Whitfield

It's as if someone ripped out the movie's uterus.
Posted Jul 13, 2021
17
Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

Ed Whitfield

It's barely a movie.
Posted Apr 4, 2021
18
Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)

Ed Whitfield

The irresistible conclusion is that the film didn't need to be restored so much as remade; the first and most important stage in that reimagining being a new screenplay.
Posted Mar 22, 2021
19
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

Ed Whitfield

A breezy blockbuster, lacking any edge or character, is unlikely to convince millions to forsake the comfort of their living room and the known irritants in their household, for the unknowns of the multiplex.
Posted Dec 17, 2020
20
THE GODFATHER, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone (1990)

Ed Whitfield

Its sin, in keeping with the religiosity that permeates it, is that it pulls us in to a psychodrama centred on Michael's autumn years and the ties that bind, only to leave us exactly where Part II did, decades earlier. What then, was the point?
Posted Dec 11, 2020
21
Mank (2020)

Ed Whitfield

It took a bold impresario, naïve enough to be brave, to make Citizen Kane, but it required the kind of guy who vomits up an expensive dinner and placates his host with the line, "relax, the white wine came up with the fish", to write it.
Posted Dec 11, 2020
22
Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020)

Ed Whitfield

Turns out that whatever Rufus told them, or whatever we were led to believe, back when men could be heroes, the Wyld Stallyns' real contribution to history were two lucky acts of ejaculation.
Posted Sep 19, 2020
23
Cuties (Mignonnes) (2020)

Ed Whitfield

The audience may have some growing up to do.
Posted Sep 13, 2020
24
Unhinged (2020)

Ed Whitfield

An unshoed nag with two broken legs that improbably became the star attraction on derby day.
Posted Aug 29, 2020
25
Tenet (2020)

Ed Whitfield

If big entertainments want to be respected as intelligent entertainments, they must communicate with audiences clearly, not flit between the abstract and pretentious.
Posted Aug 29, 2020
26
Peter's Friends (1992)

Ed Whitfield

What felt sincere and reassuring in 1992, seems indulgent and stilted today.
Posted Mar 29, 2020
27
The Invisible Man (2020)

Ed Whitfield

A well-plotted thriller with horror trappings that deserves praise for finding a new and unsettling spin on an old premise.
Posted Feb 29, 2020
28
Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)

Ed Whitfield

Content to be nihilistic and mean-spirited as an end in itself... it gives the audience not one character it can engage with emotionally or psychologically, leaving them adrift in a world of sensory overload and fetishized violence. In short, it's trash.
Posted Feb 9, 2020
29
Parasite (Gisaengchung) (2019)

Ed Whitfield

One's left to wonder who's parasitically living off whom? The Kims off the Parks, or the Americans off their anti-communist allies?
Posted Feb 9, 2020
30
The Lighthouse (2019)

Ed Whitfield

A gloriously bonkers two-hander.
Posted Feb 9, 2020
31
Bad Boys for Life (2020)

Ed Whitfield

I preferred the Boys when they were young and care free, and the characters understood it was better to burn out than fade away. Filmmakers used to understand that too. It's that understanding I'm nostalgic for.
Posted Feb 9, 2020
32
Bombshell (2019)

Ed Whitfield

Bombshell does a reasonable job of telling the tale like a Fox story - establish the villain, castigate those involved for moral cowardice and political pragmatism, signal righteousness - but that extends to the synthetic ire.
Posted Jan 6, 2020
33
1917 (2020)

Ed Whitfield

Will have broad appeal and a long afterlife on Sunday afternoon TV, subject to the odd trim for language.
Posted Jan 6, 2020
34
Jojo Rabbit (2019)

Ed Whitfield

Waititi opts to forego the affected solemnity usually associated with period, substituting it with something closer to the truth; a false consciousness and heightened acceptance of the absurd.
Posted Jan 6, 2020
35
Cats (2019)

Ed Whitfield

You'll never forget it - though you will try.
Posted Dec 22, 2019
36
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Ed Whitfield

Who'd have thought the filmmakers had so little confidence in their audience? Who'd have imagined the finished film would mirror the creative lethargy underpinning it so perfectly? It's slapped together, half-hearted, cynical and tired.
Posted Dec 19, 2019
37
Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)

Ed Whitfield

Next level breezy.
Posted Dec 17, 2019
38
Motherless Brooklyn (2019)

Ed Whitfield

A neo-noir with brains and social commentary to boot.
Posted Dec 9, 2019
39
Knives Out (2019)

Ed Whitfield

[It] wears its influences without the tedium of pastiche or the tension-sapping laziness of parody.
Posted Nov 30, 2019
40
Charlie's Angels (2019)

Ed Whitfield

Charlie's Angels insults and patronises the built-in audience for this mediocre IP, i.e. men, without having any idea what a woman would want to see instead, assuming she'd be interested at all.
Posted Nov 30, 2019
41
The Irishman (2019)

Ed Whitfield

A human life in deep focus.
Posted Nov 28, 2019
42
21 Bridges (2019)

Ed Whitfield

The movie has enough propulsive action and tension built into its chase scenario to elevate it from schedule filler to compelling entertainment.
Posted Nov 23, 2019
43
Frozen II (2019)

Ed Whitfield

The film has all the heteronormative family values parents rely upon to do their parenting for them, in a handsome package that also reminds kids to look after their siblings and pets.
Posted Nov 23, 2019
44
Ford v Ferrari (2019)

Ed Whitfield

In this movie released under the Fox banner after its acquisition by Disney, the theme is that of the team of industry pros, working under experienced leadership, fighting off the imbecilic & misguided directives of the parent company.
Posted Nov 16, 2019
45
The Good Liar (2019)

Ed Whitfield

Good liar, good movie.
Posted Nov 16, 2019
46
Doctor Sleep (2019)

Ed Whitfield

The irony being that a dead filmmaker has managed to linger and control the living from the grave. On the other hand, King's next novel just wrote itself.
Posted Nov 4, 2019
47
Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

Ed Whitfield

A Terminator movie produced by machine learning.
Posted Oct 26, 2019
48
Joker (2019)

Ed Whitfield

Joker knows that its status as a property trumps secondary considerations like art and originality, but it purports to offer both under the safe and reassuring DC umbrella.
Posted Oct 12, 2019
49
Ad Astra (2019)

Ed Whitfield

Like all great space movies, Ad Astra knows that progress without enlightenment is simply technological refinement. Humanity means more than that, and what a great time to be reminded.
Posted Sep 21, 2019
50
Rambo: Last Blood (2019)

Ed Whitfield

As though it were playing in John Rambo's mind, it's quick, populated by fleeting images of death and destruction, senseless, dehumanising, nihilistic, humourless, cruel, and psychologically taxing.
Posted Sep 21, 2019