Boston Globe's Scores

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For 7,964 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 54% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 44% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.9 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 64
Highest review score: 100 Autumn Tale
Lowest review score: 0 Argylle
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5,240 out of 7964
  2. Mixed: 1,556 out of 7964
  3. Negative: 1,168 out of 7964
7964 movie reviews
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    • 54 Metascore
    • 38 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Art School Confidential
    Zwigoff's overdue for a turkey, in other words. Art School Confidential is it.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 12 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    An American Haunting
    An American Haunting sets the bar at a new low: It makes ''The Blair Witch Project" look like a masterpiece of world cinema.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Hoot
    The movie balances cardboard comic bad-guys with believable teenagers, has the courage to avoid romance, and unlike most Hollywood films suggests parents can be helpful and loving as well as clueless.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Down in the Valley
    The performances are deep and rich -- Wood is coming to seem like a smarter Chloe Sevigny, Rory looks to be the Culkin with talent, and Norton's portrayal of Harlan aches with ambiguity.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 88 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Proposition
    A near-masterpiece of mood and menace, and one that deserves to be seen on the largest screen possible.
  6. One Last Thing...
    Dylan and Nikki are an awkward match at best, and their combined story is about as creative/convincing as a Hallmark card.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 88 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    United 93
    The movie is hard going, not least in the sense of powerlessness it leaves in an audience that knows exactly what will happen. And yet you come out feeling that the filmmakers have done the right thing by these people, and by this day.
  8. Stick It
    Peregrym is like a secondhand Hilary Swank. She has a looser presence and might be a better actor, but since we already have Swank, finding out is not a priority.
  9. Akeelah and the Bee
    All the gears, in fact, are shamelessly visible, yet they lock smoothly and resonantly into place. If Akeelah and the Bee is a generic, well-oiled commercial contraption, it is the first to credibly dramatize the plight of a truly gifted, poor black child.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 38 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    RV
    RV has teeth -- more teeth than the last few Steve Martin films, anyway -- but it's terrified to bite down, knowing that the paying audience would feel it more than anyone.
  11. The Lost City
    The Lost City is Andy Garcia's ballad to Havana during the Cuban revolution. You'll have to forgive the penthouse view, though -- it's the only one Garcia can seem to find.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Water
    Succeeds in its central goal: to turn a forgotten class of women into real, memorable human beings who deserve a different life.
  13. Lady Vengeance
    For most of Lady Vengeance, Park is playing with us. But the jokey atmosphere dissipates and the fun turns inside out in the movie's last act.
    • 99 Metascore
    • 100 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Army of Shadows
    The results bear witness to a time when sacrifice was bleached of everything but itself.
  15. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
    A watchful, winding-down tragedy of a movie that delivers what it promises. As commentary, it's grim. As filmmaking, it's a powerfully disturbing odyssey through the Bucharest health care system.
  16. Three Times
    Another triumph of modesty from a master who deserves real, paying audiences, not just the adoration of besotted film critics.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    American Dreamz
    American Dreamz pitches its softballs with style. Martin Tweed, the preeningly heartless British host of the title TV show, just may be the great comic role that has always eluded Hugh Grant.
  18. The Sentinel
    The Sentinel isn't an entire season of ''24" smushed into a bland two hours of movie? Does Kiefer Sutherland know?
  19. Silent Hill
    Tens of millions of dollars were spent to tell us what we should have known going in: that the makers of the movie you're slogging through will spare no expense to demonstrate how much they hate us. Do us a favor. Tell them the feeling is mutual.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Somersault
    The movie has more style than depth and it's sometimes in danger of confusing the two.
  21. Mongolian Ping Pong
    In Mongolian Ping Pong the point is to look under the majestic vistas and see value in ordinary things -- ping-pong balls included.
  22. Stolen
    The Poe-like atmosphere in Stolen is such a chilling success that when Mashberg says that Gardner would have cracked this case herself, it's impossible to imagine that she isn't out looking for those paintings right now.
  23. Scary Movie 4
    Part sketch-comedy cartoon, part Cracked magazine spoof, installment four is the most scornfully made yet.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 38 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Wild
    How's the movie? Technologically incredible, aesthetically pretty hideous, and narratively lumpy: Kids who aren't cynics (i.e., 9 and under) will roll with it.
  25. Kinky Boots
    Not since ''Mannequin on the Move" has a flamboyant black man brought so much fabulousness to stiff white heterosexuals.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Hard Candy
    Hard Candy is the rare movie that may be worthiest for the arguments you'll have after it's over.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Notorious Bettie Page
    It's a handsome, often funny piece of work with a nearly fatal inability to settle on a tone.
  28. Look Both Ways
    The debut live-action feature of Australian animator Sarah Watt has several other things to recommend it as well, including a black-humored screenplay, realistic performances, eye-catching artwork, and a few creative turns on some well-worn themes.
  29. Mountain Patrol
    Never has a movie so soberingly made the fight to save life and the struggle to hold on to it seem so futile.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    La Mujer de Mi Hermano
    An oddly unsexy melodrama in which every supposedly shocking revelation (rape, incest, homosexuality, pedophilia) is treated with the same blithe shrug of recognition. It's numbing, especially with the film's deadly serious mood.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Metal: A Headbanger's Journey
    As charming as Dunn's kid-in-a-candy-store exploration is at times, it's apparent that his ''anthropological" take on the scene isn't much more than the love letter he always dreamed of writing to his headbanging pals.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story
    Fueled by off-kilter characters, charming and funny -- if haltingly awkward -- dialogue, and a reasonable amount of thematic ingenuity, "Blackballed" succeeds as a modest tribute to the kind of aging boys club that idles for hours in somebody's parents' rumpus room, its members tossing around big-man talk but trapped in emotional adolescence.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Sisters in Law
    Despite the lack of an especially defined narrative arc, the people are what make the movie -- as they should in a tale like this.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Lucky Number Slevin
    The most original thing about Lucky Number Slevin is that it lets Lucy Liu play a screwball heroine.
    • 25 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Benchwarmers
    Not terrible, not terrible at all. Yes, the plot is terrible, some of the jokes are terrible, and Rob Schneider's bizarre from-the-neck-up oxblood tan is terrible, but the movie as a whole is a more-than-acceptable addition to the genre of shameless and hastily made American comedy.
  36. Phat Girlz
    This is a disarming and, in its own way, delightful vehicle for its star and executive producer, the comedian and actress Mo'Nique. Who could hate this movie?
  37. Take the Lead
    The movie partners all the cliches of the inner-city school drama with the cliches of the dance instructional, and the two keep stomping on each other's toes.
  38. Friends with Money
    Holofcener writes as well as Albert Brooks at his best, and her finesse with actors is as assured as James L. Brooks's on his TV and film projects from 20 and 30 years ago.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    On a Clear Day
    Pleasantly inspirational on its own terms, "Clear" is no one's idea of fresh goods.
  40. When Do We Eat?
    The film turns that stale old Seder into warmed-up dinner theater.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    4
    Immense, mystical, and deranged beyond immediate comprehension, Ilya Khrzhanovsky's 4 is an apocalyptic allegory of Mother Russia and its current state of squalid exhaustion.
  42. Free Zone
    A minor movie on a major subject, a drama with an almost unbearable lightness.
  43. Sir! No Sir!
    Zeiger's movie is a timely salute to the risky and brave men and women who had the temerity not only to think for themselves but to speak their minds.
  44. I Am a Sex Addict
    Zahedi's search for fulfillment is depleting, like throwing good sex after bad. The more we learn about the hole in his soul, the more vivid his misogamy becomes.
    • 26 Metascore
    • 25 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Basic Instinct 2
    The accidental comedy sensation of the year to date.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    ATL
    Is ATL even a hip-hop movie? There's hip-hop in it, certainly, but unlike the recent vehicles for Eminem and 50 Cent -- respectively, ''8 Mile" and ''Get Rich or Die Tryin' " -- it does not have a rapper hero.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Ice Age: The Meltdown
    Ice Age: The Meltdown is pure sequel product that should make children and undemanding grown-ups happy even as it lacks anything resembling storytelling inspiration.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Slither
    The acting is playful aces all around: Fillion gives good exhausted incredulity, Banks gives good virginal idiocy, and Rooker gives great conflicted monster arrogance even before the aliens get him.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 88 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Brick
    Brick is Bogart goes to high school, in other words, but that thumbnail description doesn't begin to convey the lasting pleasures of Rian Johnson's directorial debut.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That!
    It's raucous and loud as hell; the hyperactive editing could trigger grand mal seizures.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Adam & Steve
    Not the knee-slapper it wants to be, but it's endearing nonetheless.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Devil and Daniel Johnston
    Jeff Feuerzeig's film is as good a portrait of the artist as a beloved basket case as you'll see, but it's kept from greatness by the questions it refuses to ask itself.
  53. Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School
    I wish I could say there is something pleasurable in watching John Goodman reminisce about the good old days while impaled on a steering wheel in the Volvo he's crashed on a California freeway, but I can't find what it is.
  54. Iron Island
    Like the great Iranian filmmakers, Rasoulof has no use for the artificiality of heightened drama.
  55. Drawing Restraint 9
    Slow but rarely tedious.
  56. Inside Man
    Washington hasn't been this relaxed in years. When he feels like it he can be the most charismatic star in the movies.
    • 24 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Stay Alive
    Always the way in horror flicks: These first scenes, when the characters are being tenderly established and the concept is still young, are the best.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Beauty Academy of Kabul
    It's that gulf between earnest idealism and beaten-down realism that's the unexpected drama of Beauty Academy.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Lonesome Jim
    Humor in 'Jim' is a little too dry.
  60. Mardi Gras: Made in China
    Redmon's film is a welcome reminder that everything comes from somewhere and responsible people should at least pause to examine the label. For one thing, that's how bigger and better documentaries get made.
  61. L'Enfant (The Child)
    The arrival of closing credits feels like a trap door. The film is over, and, suddenly, we have to leave these people. The directors make no guarantee for their futures, but the strength of their filmmaking inspires you to hope for the best.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 38 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Stoned
    All the pieces are in place for an incisive tale of Brit-pop ego and madness, but filmmaker Stephen Woolley -- a celebrated UK producer ("The Crying Game") making his directing debut -- lets the story get away from him.
    • 21 Metascore
    • 25 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector
    ''Health Inspector" hopes to do for Larry what ''Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" did for Jim Carrey, who in this context looks like Noel Coward.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    V for Vendetta
    The real villain is a cowed and lazy citizenry. Meaning all of us. Disappointingly, V for Vendetta makes this point early and moves on, at some point turning as shallow as what it protests against.
  65. Find Me Guilty
    The best I can say about his (Diesel)performance is that it's charmingly terrible.
  66. She's the Man
    A screwball comedy that made me wish I were 13 again, because this is precisely the kind of movie I would have gone nuts for in the ninth grade.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Thank You for Smoking
    Like its protagonist, the movie is smart, soulless, glib, and utterly charming -- just the thing to warm up a movie season that's been late to bloom.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Don't Come Knocking
    The finest scene in Don't Come Knocking is its quietest...The movie could have used a lot more of it.
  69. Failure to Launch
    The movie brings to mind the more polite parts of "Wedding Crashers." Failure to Launch, while totally exuberant and appealingly made, is not nearly as randy.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Hills Have Eyes
    Hills is a far cry from its cheesy and predictable predecessor. "Gruesome" doesn't begin to describe the horrors that are revealed on-screen here.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Shaggy Dog
    What The Shaggy Dog feels like, more than anything, is an old-fashioned Disney movie.
  72. Ask the Dust
    After an hour or so, Ask the Dust seems to have said everything, and the air starts to seep out of its hermetic atmosphere.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 100 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Duck Season
    It's one of the small, pitch-perfect treasures of the movie year.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 12 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things
    The Heart Is Deceitful wants to cauterize us into feeling something -- anything -- but it's far too heartless to know what.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Evil
    Extremely watchable, even if it never goes as deep as it should.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 88 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Game 6
    It's an inside-the-park home run -- a small, lovingly overwritten comic drama about fate, failure, and primal longing. To put it in words a Sox fan would understand, the movie hurts good.
  77. 16 Blocks
    It's unbelievably bland.
  78. Aquamarine
    Unique because it's the rare movie that fiercely respects the altruistic loyalty that bonds girls to one another.
  79. Dave Chappelle's Block Party
    The movie they've assembled is in the vein of 1973's "Wattstax," but it's much more than a concert documentary. It's a jubilant, civic-minded lollapalooza.
    • 18 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Ultraviolet
    Jovovich is bad, and not in a good way. She turns in an epically expressionless performance (maybe she thought it was one of her modeling gigs?) but she sure looks great.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Deep Sea
    Travels around the world via the oceans' floors to show us symbiosis at work in a variety of ecosystems.
  82. Merry Christmas
    It's a heart-warmer, a well-meaning movie that sets out to wring a modern message (and preferably some tears) from a famous but largely forgotten moment in history.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 88 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Our Brand Is Crisis
    It’s a galling and provocative experience to viewers of any political persuasion, and a reminder to the left of how easily idealism can run amok.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Tsotsi
    It's a solid, earnest drama of moral redemption that places old cliches in an unfamiliar setting.
    • 23 Metascore
    • 25 Critic Score
    Doogal
    Charm-free, incoherent, and heartlessly sentimental, this woodenly animated co-production by American, British, and French companies offers boredom and irritation for parents, needlessly scary images for tots, and, for the pubescent boys who apparently run mass culture, a flatulent blue moose. It's ugly to look at, too.
  86. Madea's Family Reunion
    Perry is a playwright, and his dialogue here is usually entertaining.
  87. Running Scared
    A depressing piece of gun-crazy Hollywood scuzz that, with its gassy style and runaway immorality, makes a Tony Scott movie look like a Robert Bresson picture.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Unknown White Male
    The Unknown White Male that Murray has made asks profound questions. They're just not necessarily the right ones.
  89. Black Orpheus
    This is a movie about the marriage between sound and image, and the sound is wearing the pants in the relationship.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Trudell
    A thought-provoking and graceful portrait of a tenacious peace warrior whose frankness is his greatest weapon.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Street Fight
    Properly told, political underdog stories are as compelling as pratfalls from banana peels are funny. Each is timeless and carries an integrity impervious to cynicism.
    • 11 Metascore
    • 38 Critic Score
    Date Movie
    Date Movie has enough laughs to make rambunctious dudes hoot and holler, but not nearly enough to ensure the happy ending it promises.
  93. Eight Below
    It's the most touching love story about tragically separated sexy beasts since "Cold Mountain."
  94. Freedomland
    An overblown urban crime drama that should be a lot better than it is.
  95. Battle in Heaven
    With relentless and ruminative deliberateness, Reygadas shows us a Mexico City that seems to be decaying from the inside out.
  96. Night Watch: Nochnoi Dozor
    It's also the first apocalypse-minded franchise that's earned its downbeat mood. The action, for starters, is post-Cold War, post-Chernobyl, post-perestroika. Darkness is so much a part of the Russian psyche it must be nice to see a local movie try to put its hand toward the Light.
  97. Sophie Scholl: The Final Days
    Rothemund gives us his sophisticated filmmaking only in the finale, which is devastating in its briskness and fury.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Winter Passing
    Winter Passing plays like two indie movies trapped in one film, and Zooey Deschanel is in the better of them. Will Ferrell is in the other one.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America
    As a coherent, well-judged alternative history, the movie's a mess. As a thought-provoking and frequently hilarious jeremiad, it scores again and again.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Curious George
    Genuine, artful simplicity may be an impossible quality in a modern children's movie, so Curious George opts instead for mayhem under a blanket of sweetness. The little ones understand.
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