Janet Maslin

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The New York Times
For 1,351 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 1351
  2. Mixed: 557 out of 1351
  3. Negative: 110 out of 1351
1351 movie reviews
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    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Janet Maslin
    Bringing Out the Dead
    An intense, volatile film full of sorrow and wild, mordant humor.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Janet Maslin
    Six Degrees of Separation
    Mr. Schepisi's directorial vigor wins out over his film's skittishness. This version may horrify purists, but it winds up working entertainingly on its own broader, flashier terms.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Janet Maslin
    Evita
    But the film is still breathless and shrill, since Alan Parker's direction shows no signs of a moral or political compass and remains in exhausting overdrive all the time.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 50 Janet Maslin
    Footloose
    Christopher Penn very nearly steals the movie as Ren's hayseed friend, and the two share a musical scene (to Deniece Williams's ''Let's Hear It for the Boy'') that's almost as sensational as the opening credits.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 Janet Maslin
    Strictly Ballroom
    Baz Luhrmann's Australian film Strictly Ballroom is, in short, pure corn. But it's corn that has been overlaid with a buoyant veneer of spangles and marabou, and with a tireless sense of fun.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Janet Maslin
    Kiss of Death
    It's a sleek, muscular thriller played by a terrific ensemble cast, directed by Barbet Schroeder with the somber acuity he has brought to subjects as diverse as Claus von Bulow ("Reversal of Fortune") and Gen. Idi Amin Dada.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 90 Janet Maslin
    The Rainmaker
    Drawing a parade of colorful performances from a constantly surprising cast, the curiously titled ''John Grisham's 'The Rainmaker' '' is Mr. Coppola's best and sharpest film in years.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 90 Janet Maslin
    The Ice Storm
    Elegant and deeply disquieting drama.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Janet Maslin
    48 Hrs.
    Walter Hill, the director of such beautiful but stilted tough guy movies as ''The Warriors'' and ''The Long Riders,'' has attempted something very different in 48 Hours a male-buddy action film that's positively witty and warm-hearted compared with his other work.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Janet Maslin
    Real Genius
    What the film needs, instead of these familiar teen-movie trappings, is a cleverness and eccentricity to match that of its characters. For the most part, these are qualities that it lacks.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 90 Janet Maslin
    Waking Ned Devine
    Kirk Jones, who wrote and directed this blithe comedy, has been a prize-winning director of television commercials. And he has the knack of finding rubbery, expressive faces and letting each villager's quirks emerge on cue.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 50 Janet Maslin
    Bleak Moments
    The best that can be said for Bleak Moments is that it earns its name. The film, while it has been handsomely photographed, seems entirely given over to pained, wordless interludes. [23 Sep 1980, p.C6]
    • The New York Times
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Janet Maslin
    Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown
    Queen Victoria is played with splendid regal grace by Judi Dench.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Janet Maslin
    This Is Elvis
    This isn't a particularly well-made film, or even a truthful one - as a matter of fact, its fraudulence is its one uncompromising aspect. And yet it is mesmerizing, if not as a drama or documentary, then as an artifact.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Janet Maslin
    Chasing Amy
    Smith's knowing humor and unruffled style make a good antidote to gender chaos. Music by David Pirner contributes to the film's loose, inviting mood.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Janet Maslin
    Married to the Mob
    Married to the Mob works best as a wildly overdecorated screwball farce.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 40 Janet Maslin
    Beetlejuice
    Elaborate as this sounds, there really isn't much plot here, only a parade of arbitrary visual tricks to hold the film together.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Janet Maslin
    Red Dawn
    Red Dawn may be rabidly inflammatory, but it isn't dull. Mr. Milius does know how to keep a story moving. He might well have turned this into a genuinely stirring war film, if he had not also made it so incorrigibly gung-ho. But the effectiveness of its chilling premise, from a story by Kevin Reynolds, is dissipated by wildly excessive directorial fervor at every turn.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 70 Janet Maslin
    Aladdin
    The fundamentals here go beyond first-rate: animation both gorgeous and thoughtful, several wonderful songs and a wealth of funny minor figures on the sidelines, practicing foolproof Disney tricks. Only when it comes to the basics of the story line does Aladdin encounter any difficulties.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Janet Maslin
    Cookie's Fortune
    Captivating.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Janet Maslin
    The Big Lebowski
    Watching it amble along is enough of a treat, since the Coens populate this story with oddballs and bowling balls of such comic variety.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Janet Maslin
    Map of the Human Heart
    Far more memorable for the spectacular wildness of its Arctic and Dresden scenes (as photographed by Eduardo Serra) than for its uneven efforts to bind such images together.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Janet Maslin
    The Mask of Zorro
    This is hot-weather escapism so earnestly retrograde that it seems new.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Janet Maslin
    The Birdcage
    An American remake with plenty of new pizazz.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 90 Janet Maslin
    Good Will Hunting
    The script's bare bones are familiar, yet the film also has fine acting, steady momentum, a sharp eye and a very warm heart.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Janet Maslin
    October Sky
    Despite its "based on a true story" opening credit, this earnest, nostalgic film has a way of seeming too good to be true.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 100 Janet Maslin
    Eight Men Out
    For Mr. Sayles, whose idealism has never been more affecting or apparent than it is in this story of boyish enthusiasm gone bad in an all too grown-up world, Eight Men Out represents a home run.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Janet Maslin
    Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
    This film has showier stunts than its predecessors, and a better sense of humor. It also has Tina Turner, in chain-mail stockings.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Janet Maslin
    That Thing You Do!
    Mr. Hanks's debut feature, written and directed with delightful good cheer, is rock-and-roll nostalgia presented as pure fizz.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 Janet Maslin
    Without Limits
    Towne especially excels at the smaller touches that bring such connections to life, whether it's an ear for pop music or a clear familiarity with college girls, circa 1970, or the group of bonsai trees that presumably occupy Bowerman when he isn't measuring feet and molding rubber. His proudly unconventional Without Limits is filled with such souvenirs of the real world.
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