Janet Maslin

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The New York Times
For 1,350 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 59% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 38% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 2.6 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Janet Maslin's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 63
Highest review score: 100 Blue Velvet
Lowest review score: 0 Eye for an Eye
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 684 out of 1350
  2. Mixed: 556 out of 1350
  3. Negative: 110 out of 1350
1350 movie reviews
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    • 44 Metascore
    • 60 Janet Maslin
    Chasers
    But Mr. Berenger, grousing steadily, and Mr. McNamara, in a boyish Ricky Nelson mode, are likably matched. Ms. Eleniak, who also made a playful and picturesque Elly May Clampett in "The Beverly Hillbillies," succeeds here in rising above the cheesecake level.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 30 Janet Maslin
    The Presidio
    It doesn't help that the mystery plot seems half-baked in the end, or that none of the actors appear entirely comfortable with their roles. Miss Ryan looks edgy and spends a lot of time tossing her hair. Mr. Harmon is easygoing and attractive, but his nice-guy manner belies his character's steely talk.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 30 Janet Maslin
    Troll
    Troll has a knowing tone that's more smart-alecky than clever. And it hovers uncomfortably between comedy and horror, without ever landing decisively in either camp. The film is as funny as it gets in a sequence that has Sonny Bono pretending to be a great ladies' man.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Janet Maslin
    Underground
    Feverish, whimsical allegory elevated by moments of brilliant clarity.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Janet Maslin
    Chungking Express
    While its slender, two-tiered plot links love affairs that happen largely by accident, the film's real interest seems to lie in raffish affectation. Mr. Wong has legitimate visual flair, but his characters spend an awful lot of time playing impish tricks.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 40 Janet Maslin
    Crimes of Passion
    FOR all their extravagance, Ken Russell's films have never lacked exuberance or humor, which makes the flat, joyless tone of Crimes of Passion a surprise. Much of this is attributable to a screenplay by Barry Sandler filled with smutty double-entendres and weighty ironies. Only intermittently does Mr. Russell break through with the kind of manic flamboyance that is so singularly and rudely his own.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 70 Janet Maslin
    Dave
    In spite of this sogginess, and despite a self-congratulatory, do-gooder streak that the film discovers within Dave, this comedy remains bright and buoyant much of the way through.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 70 Janet Maslin
    Being Human
    Set against lovely verdant scenery but structured as a series of rambling vignettes, the stories in Being Human don't entirely mesh.
    • 24 Metascore
    • 10 Janet Maslin
    The Adventures of Ford Fairlane
    Renny Harlin, who did a much better job directing ''Die Hard 2,'' displays no sense of humor and takes the film's nonsensical action scenes much too seriously, at one point even blowing up a beach house in the process.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Janet Maslin
    The Long Riders
    Mr. Hill weaves their gestures together with a portentous elegance that promises a great deal that it never delivers.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 Janet Maslin
    The Client
    The Client, with a fast, no-nonsense pace and three winning performances, is the movie that most clearly echoes the simple, vigorous Grisham style.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Janet Maslin
    Lord of the Flies
    As directed by Harry Hook, the new Lord of the Flies offers much spectacle for the eye and almost nothing to keep the mind from wandering.
    • The New York Times
    • 25 Metascore
    • 0 Janet Maslin
    Fever Pitch
    YOU could live a long time and never see anything as awful as Fever Pitch, Richard Brooks's shrill, hysterical peek at the world of compulsive gambling.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 50 Janet Maslin
    The Fly II
    The Fly II is competent but hardly clever. The only respect in which it matches Mr. Cronenberg's Fly is in its sheer repulsiveness, since this film degenerates into a series of slime-ridden, glop-oozing special effects in its final half hour.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 40 Janet Maslin
    The Cable Guy
    A grim, sour Jim Carrey comedy that erases the boundary between anarchic humor and sociopathic malice.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 30 Janet Maslin
    Roller Boogie
    103 minutes is an awfully long time to watch people whiz along the boardwalk. The novelty wears off in a hurry.
    • 24 Metascore
    • 20 Janet Maslin
    The Great Outdoors
    Though the film never becomes actively unfunny, neither does it do much more than tread water. The raccoons have a better time than the audience will.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 100 Janet Maslin
    The Decline of Western Civilization
    A shrewd and engrossing documentary even for audiences who have absolutely no patience for the music it includes.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 40 Janet Maslin
    Bagdad Cafe
    Bagdad Cafe is too slow-paced to work as a comedy, and its screenplay manages simultaneously to be both shapeless and pat.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 60 Janet Maslin
    Girl 6
    Mr. Lee isn't as successful at shaping a story around Girl 6, but enjoying her company is all his slender, sunny film really tries to do.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 70 Janet Maslin
    Firstborn
    It is to the credit of Mr. Apted, and to a cast including some very believable young actors, that Firstborn moves swiftly and smoothly enough to dispel much nitpicking about plot points, at least for a time.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 60 Janet Maslin
    Virtuosity
    If all of Virtuosity were as tightly controlled as that, it would exert a greater fascination than it finally does.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 70 Janet Maslin
    Bronco Billy
    The best and funniest Clint Eastwood movie in quite a while.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Janet Maslin
    The Pirates of Penzance
    The Pirates of Penzance has been made into a cheerful movie, but it isn't nearly as deft or distinctive here as it was on stage.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Janet Maslin
    Diner
    Diner isn't lavish or long, but it's the sort of small, honest, entertaining movie that should never go out of style, even in an age of sequels and extravaganzas.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 60 Janet Maslin
    Dudley Do-Right
    Works well as family entertainment.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 60 Janet Maslin
    Flashpoint
    Mr. Tannen's strength is his ability to grab his audience's interest quickly and to hold on to it, even by the most superficial means. Even when the movie doesn't entirely make sense, it manages to be effective.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Janet Maslin
    Swingers
    Suspicious and hilariously self-absorbed, Favreau's every bit as comfortable in California as Charles Grodin's "Heartbreak Kid" was in Miami.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 60 Janet Maslin
    Blast from the Past
    Fortunately, the Webber shelter is a jaunty monument to kitsch, and the Webbers themselves are an appealingly batty crew.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 40 Janet Maslin
    The Jewel of the Nile
    Derivative as it was, ''Romancing the Stone'' did have a certain spunk, thanks to its contrast between the workaday life of Joan Wilder, romance novelist (played so gamely by Kathleen Turner), and the far-flung adventures into which the screenplay propelled her. Sadly for the sequel, the novelty in that contrast was more than used up the first time around. This time, through no fault of his own, the director Lewis Teague (the first film was directed by Robert Zemeckis) has little more to do than construct a retread.
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