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Paul Byrnes

Tomatometer-approved critic

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
Chocolat (2000) 64% EDIT “There is nothing really objectionable about this movie, except its sense of self-satisfaction. It's made to be so irresistible, like chocolate itself, that you may find yourself resisting its forced charm. ” – Sydney Morning Herald Feb 17, 2026 Full Review Pretty in Pink (1986) 75% EDIT “The movie is a charming, funny update of a very old story, and Ringwald gives a fine performance, but somehow the picture never quite reaches the heights. ” – Sydney Morning Herald Feb 14, 2026 Full Review Erin Brockovich (2000) 87% EDIT “The film has a plain look to suit the plain locations, but it's never dull because Erin fills the frame. She's outsized in everything except her clothes; an explosive temper, a mouth like a sailor, a big heart and a ton of guts.” – Sydney Morning Herald Feb 6, 2026 Full Review Stand by Me (1986) 88% EDIT “The striking thing about Stand By Me is its mixture of innocence, melancholy, and realism.” – Sydney Morning Herald Jan 14, 2026 Full Review The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) 91% EDIT “What makes the film special is that Jackson and his team have finally given Tolkien's imagination the kind of film it deserves. ” – Sydney Morning Herald Jan 13, 2026 Full Review The Sure Thing (1985) 84% EDIT “Sure Thing is less confidently handled, but it has some wonderful moments of good natures humor and more restraint than Hollywood usually allows itself. ” – Sydney Morning Herald Jan 8, 2026 Full Review Adventures in Babysitting (1987) 73% EDIT “It's a high-spirited, fast-flowing comedy, neatly directed by 28-year-old Chris Columbus.” – Sydney Morning Herald Jan 7, 2026 Full Review The Princess Bride (1987) 93% EDIT “The real comic honours, however, belong to Mandy Patinkin, who is unforgettable as a Spanish swordsman on a 20-year mission of revenge. His duel with Westley is a pure delight.” – Sydney Morning Herald Jan 7, 2026 Full Review True Lies (1994) 77% EDIT “The fights in True Lies are about reconciliation, the return to earth of a man living a fantasy life. ” – Sydney Morning Herald Dec 10, 2025 Full Review The Running Man (1987) 59% EDIT “It's pretty stupid, as most action movies are, and visually extreme, but it does have a sense of its own place.” – Sydney Morning Herald Nov 6, 2025 Full Review Desert Hearts (1985) 77% EDIT “Obviously, the film is about more than Sapphic love, and its dramatic possibilities are rich. the problem for me was that it goes nowhere. ” – Sydney Morning Herald Oct 13, 2025 Full Review My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) 95% EDIT “What is so striking is the emotional directness of the relationships, not just the one at the core, but all of them. ” – Sydney Morning Herald Oct 10, 2025 Full Review Toy Story (1995) 100% EDIT “The film contains a series of superb comic set-pieces and a finale which tries to equal the train chase at the end of The Wrong Trousers.” – Sydney Morning Herald Sep 10, 2025 Full Review Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) 78% EDIT “There are only a handful of genuinely funny gags in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, but it doesn't really matter. It is enough just to watch him, because he's such a strange, self-aware creation, a walking, talking museum of 20th-century American comedy.” – Sydney Morning Herald Jul 30, 2025 Full Review Explorers (1985) 48% EDIT “Dante's point is never made ultimately clear. He constructs his movies like collages, with cross-crossing layers of image and meaning, but the technique sacrifices clarity.” – Sydney Morning Herald Jul 10, 2025 Full Review Jurassic Park III (2001) 49% EDIT “The third film is neither as scary nor as serious as the first two. It borrows heavily from its predecessors and the Alien series, and runs out of energy. ” – Sydney Morning Herald Jun 25, 2025 Full Review Apollo 13 (1995) 94% EDIT “Like the moon shots themselves, the film is a triumph of craft and technology, rather than art. ” – Sydney Morning Herald Jun 24, 2025 Full Review Return to Oz (1985) 59% EDIT “If you forget about the old version, Return to Oz is a pleasing enough concoction, with a few good laughs and an amiable nature.” – Sydney Morning Herald Jun 17, 2025 Full Review Starman (1984) 83% EDIT “It is to John Carpenter's credit that Starman is quite entertaining, though he must take some responsibility for its imitative look.” – Sydney Morning Herald May 13, 2025 Full Review Mission: Impossible II (2000) 58% EDIT “It's all Bondage, from one 007 film or another, but Tom Cruise is not Sean Connery. ” – Sydney Morning Herald May 8, 2025 Full Review Back to School (1986) 81% EDIT “It's just as well that [Rodney Dangerfield] has so much charm and guile, because everything but his performance is pretty ghastly.” – Sydney Morning Herald Feb 27, 2025 Full Review Children of a Lesser God (1986) 81% EDIT “More than most, the movie depends on high-pitched, sustained performances by its central characters. I think both are superb. ” – Sydney Morning Herald Jan 22, 2025 Full Review Something Wild (1986) 92% EDIT “Something Wild is based more on first principles than anything new, but it applies them with such vigour that the movie has a sense of limitless freedom. It tastes like free-range chicken, rather than battery-produced.” – Sydney Morning Herald Jan 22, 2025 Full Review Blue Velvet (1986) 91% EDIT “It's perversely original, because Lynch has no use for good taste. He's a sophisticated bull in the china shop of film, using the horror genre here to show us something awfully real. ” – Sydney Morning Herald Jan 22, 2025 Full Review Mulan (1998) 91% EDIT “In terms of the genre, Mulan is competent, rather than distinguished, constantly well animated, rather than brilliantly so. It's a war story, but one without dead bodies.” – Sydney Morning Herald Dec 19, 2024 Full Review
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