Wrongest Leonard Maltin movie ratings

Taxi Driver (1976): **

Airport (1970): ***1/2

haha I have some Disney box sets that (unfortunately) include introductions from him, he is the worst

He's one of those people who I find nearly impossible to imagine having any kind of actual life with, like, non-filmic interests and loved ones and pet peeves. Can you imagine Leonard Maltin brushing his teeth? I sure can't.

Isn't It Romantic? is notable for receiving the shortest review ever given to a motion picture, according to Guinness World Records, well-known critic Leonard Maltin simply replied "No" as a response to the film's title.

I wonder what his Downbeat reviews were like

I'm okay with 2* Taxi Driver.

I wonder what his Downbeat reviews were like

"ERic DOLphy plays like SOMEone is STANDing on his FOOT!"

(said unblinkingly wide-eyed, smilingly wide-mouthed)

My parents regularly, like every two or three years, bought his movie guides. I wouldn't be surprised if they're still buying them.

blade runner (1982): *1/2

The Shining gets two stars also, which I can sort of comprehend though it's still wrong

Martin Short's Maltin impression (only one line, but still) is pretty hilarious, at 3:55:
https://youtu.be/iQuga2Atb3o

feel like there's a bit of Leonard in Forrest McNeil

he and Peter Billingsley freaked me out when I was a kid: those round faces and terrifying grins and Lynch-ian fake cheer.

I bought his movie guides through the late '90s, mostly for reference.

i read his history of animation years ago, not a bad read iirc

Albert Brooks twofer:

Real Life (1979): **1/2
Modern Romance (1981): **1/2

xpost Yeah, that book's good. He should've just been an animation scholar or something. He seems way more engaged with that stuff.

https://johnrieber.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/leonard_maltin.jpg

I'd like to see what Maltin looks like when he's furious.

Well that proves that somebody's been brushing those pearly whites

1,436 New Answers

Would be more interested in "surprising Maltin ratings," like:

Taste of Cherry, A (1997): ***1/2

**1/2 for The Double Life Of Veronique still rankles twenty years on for some reason.

http://www.listology.com/chris102385/list/leonard-maltins-35-and-4-star-movies-21st-century-2000-2012

United 93 2006
World Trade Center 2006

You had to be there.

The Tree of Life, Certified Copy and Holy Motors all missed the mark, but Win Win is a win in Maltin's book. My sense of order is restored.

check out the Malt!

Yi Yi (A One and a Two) 2000
Gleaners and I, The 2001
Muhlholland Dr. 2001

4 stars

3.5, surely? The scant 4-star ratings on that list are at the top and include such all-time classics as Benjamin Button and Skyfall.

(NB. I just saw Skyfall the other night, and it was very good for a movie that I would never ever in a million years give my highest possible rating.)

Oh god, **** for Little Children, Frost/Nixon and The King's Speech.

He surely deserves some credit for his cameo in Gremlins 2 (a cartoonier movie than its predecessor, so maybe more grist for the mill of the animation historian thesis).

I always felt he was a not-bad guide to the territory of pre-sixties Hollywood cinema (and his guide was the most comprehensive for a lot of stuff that wasn't on home video for a long time — a lot of it probably still isn't). It made sense to me that he introduced all those Warner Night at the Movies DVD features, since I discovered a lot of those movies through his book.

The fallacy here is that there could be some kind of objective and universal ratings system against which Maltin's purely personal and subjective system could be compared and proved to be wrong. I imagine Leonard reading this thread and thinking 'Damn! I was spot on about Benjamin Button and Skyfall, wasn't I? And I pity the fools who think Blade Runner is better than Yi Yi'.

Maltin would be correct on that last point.

Aimless, you're Leonard Malton, aren't you

Maltin

ai yi yi

I would never wear that shirt.

laserblast

Deserves credit for this, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hp4mPczQog

Little Miss Sunshine 3.5 stars? Oy.

Maltin doesn't write all of the reviews in his guide, does he? I would hope his contributors get to assign their own star rating.

And yes, for many years - and maybe even now, to a much lesser extent - his guide was the only source of info about certain obscurities (for UK readers it was especially good on 70s American cinema)

I always felt he was a not-bad guide to the territory of pre-sixties Hollywood cinema (and his guide was the most comprehensive for a lot of stuff that wasn't on home video for a long time — a lot of it probably still isn't). It made sense to me that he introduced all those Warner Night at the Movies DVD features, since I discovered a lot of those movies through his book.

I used to have an issue of Esquire from 1970 or thereabouts that had this big viewing guide article for late night movies on tv written my Maltin when he was about 20--even came with an author photo, the only time I've ever seen the dude without a beard.

Also:

Marge: "Did you know there are over 600 critics on TV and Leonard Maltin is the best looking of them all?"

I've still got a couple of '80s or '90s editions downstairs, and I might even have one from his long-forgotten competitor, Steven H. Scheuer (more eclectic, if I remember right: he'd give the occasional 4-star review to a Warhol film and such).

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51uYXM-0e2L._UY250_.jpg

I always felt he was a not-bad guide to the territory of pre-sixties Hollywood cinema (and his guide was the most comprehensive for a lot of stuff that wasn't on home video for a long time — a lot of it probably still isn't)

otm. Though they've outlived any usefulness, I loved looking through Maltin's and other movie guides as a kid.

And yes, for many years - and maybe even now, to a much lesser extent - his guide was the only source of info about certain obscurities (for UK readers it was especially good on 70s American cinema)

At least he provided a great service discouraging people from watching Taxi Driver

LOL the UK equivalent of Maltin was a guy called Leslie Halliwell - some of his greatest hits here:

http://www.lesliehalliwell.com/modern_times/index.html

This Is Spinal Tap earns three stars. I wonder what those guys could have done to turn that movie into a comedy classic? Or even into something as good as Airport?

(btw, that thing you do!: ***)

I have the 2004 edition of Halliwell's book somewhere, the one that stuck with me was him dismissing Fassbinder's Fear Eats the Soul as pointless because relationships between 60-something German widows and young Moroccan Gastarbeiter must be fairly uncommon irl

"Caine adds some light moments as an aging hippie who's managed to survive in his own hideaway compound." Pull my finger.

"Highly original story also involves adultery, lust, and lesbianism, somehow manages to avoid meanspiritedness while taking dead aim at its subjects." [name that review]

first complaint, although I wonder how much affection this movie has on this site anyway:

"Good dialogue and a fun cast make up for the overblown special effects and cluttered array of characters. 2 1/2 stars." That's some pretty generic crit there.

[name that review] Bound

Blue Velvet (1986): **

"Highly original story also involves adultery, lust, and lesbianism, somehow manages to avoid meanspiritedness while taking dead aim at its subjects." [

JFK

Halliwell was one cranky fucker

he gave 2 1/2 for Spice World, just for some perspective

Surely he was long gone by then and that review was written by his successor

Would that be his daughter Geri?

he kicked The Thing to death and gave Peter's Friends 3 and a half out of 4.

he was always way too fair on just about every kind of British flick.

also someone on ILX once mentioned this which still makes me laugh; Haliwell's capsule review for The Vikings: "Low-grade hokum for the easily pleased..."

he gave 2 1/2 for Spice World, just for some perspective

― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Thursday, September 3, 2015 12:43 AM (17 hours ago)

appallingly low

http://i.imgur.com/jFvMM5y.gif