The defence The Popcorn Loyalist
“It owes the canon nothing.”
The movie pursues immediacy and audience pleasure without begging institutions to certify its worth.
Back to trending 
The Hippopotamus
Comedy · 2017
Disgraced poet Ted Wallace is summoned to his friend's country manor to investigate a series of unexplained miracles.
Movie details
The Hippopotamus
“A beast of a comedy.”
2017 Comedy 1h 26m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.4 / 10
Community rating
Disgraced poet Ted Wallace is summoned to his friend's country manor to investigate a series of unexplained miracles.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over The Hippopotamus?
For the defence
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Big-Idea Head
“You watch with your brain, not your gut.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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How High
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Jamal and Silas, two ordinary guys who smoke something magical, pass their college entrance exams with flying colors and end up at Harvard. Ivy League ways are strange but Silas and Jamal take it in a stride -- until their supply of supernatural smoke runs dry. That's when they have to start living by their wits and rely on their natural resources to make the grade.
The People We Hate at the Wedding
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A comedy that follows two high school students -- one overachiever struggling to write his valedictorian speech, the other a senior now going on his 15th year of school.
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When college friends reunite after 15 years over the Christmas holidays, they discover just how easy it is for long-forgotten rivalries and romances to be reignited.
Mr. Roosevelt
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A young woman returns home and must confront her ex-boyfriend when an unexpected tragedy occurs.
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To inherit his mother-in-law's colossal fortune, a hard living gambling addict must change his unhealthy ways before it gets the best of him.
Brighton Beach Memoirs
Comedy · 1986
Eugene, a young teenage Jewish boy, recalls his memoirs of his time as an adolescent youth. He lives with his parents, his aunt, two cousins, and his brother, Stanley, whom he looks up to and admires. He goes through the hardships of puberty, sexual fantasy, and living the life of a poor boy in a crowded house.
The Super
Comedy · 1991
Louie Kritski is a heartless landlord who has been so negligent in keeping up his ghetto apartment that he is threatened with jail time. The judge gives him another option -- he must live in his rat-infested hell hole until he brings it up to liveable standards.
Babes
Comedy · 2024
After getting pregnant from a one-night stand, a single woman leans on her married best friend and mother of two to guide her through gestation and beyond.
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
John Jencks
Written by
Blanche McIntyre · Tom Hodgson
Roger Allam
Ted Wallace
Matthew Modine
Michael Logan
Tim McInnerny
Oliver Mills
Emily Berrington
Jane Swann
Fiona Shaw
Anne Logan
Geraldine Somerville
Rebecca Logan
Tommy Knight
David Logan
Court is in session
Put The Hippopotamus on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Big-Idea Head
“Easy pleasure, short half-life.”
It moves efficiently through the moment but offers little reason to keep arguing once the credits end.