Boston Globe's Scores

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For 7,947 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 1.1 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: 5,229 out of 7947
  2. Mixed: 1,553 out of 7947
  3. Negative: 1,165 out of 7947
7947 movie reviews
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  1. Delgo
    Delgo demonstrates how hard it is to create a memorable, credible-looking piece of animated entertainment.
  2. The Reader
    After a sensuous introductory act, The Reader descends into a series of dismaying contradictions regarding the moral toxins of the Holocaust - which still pollute postwar Germany.
  3. Seven Pounds
    I'd like to make a 911 call myself: Lord, please stop this increasingly fine actor (Smith) from climbing onto another cross.
  4. Yes Man
    The biggest problem with this movie - not that it's mediocre, dull, or barely written (though it's guilty on all counts). It's that Carrey himself is miscast.
  5. Bedtime Stories
    The appeal of Bedtime Stories belongs entirely to Sandler. As a comedian, he doesn't have to stoop to a kid's level. He's usually already there.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Defiance
    Depressingly predictable in its dialogue and dramatic beats, Defiance is most interesting as a study of unlikely leaders.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Hotel for Dogs
    Hotel for Dogs is agreeable Saturday afternoon multiplex piffle - friendly, formulaic, completely harmless.
  8. Donkey Punch
    A thriller whose title remains printable only because the right people probably don't know that it refers to a violent sex act.
  9. Inkheart
    Most of the time it looks like we're on the back lot for a Romanian production of "Lord of the Rings IV."
  10. Outlander
    By taking nonsense seriously Outlander never achieves camp. It's a comic book that's mistaken itself for scripture.
    • 29 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    New in Town
    You've seen New in Town before, and you've seen it done better. Still, it's a sweet-hearted bit of anemia, pleasant and obvious, and there are a few honest laughs to it.
  12. Angels & Demons
    Watching what Howard has done with the book - covering up the lewdness, blunting the snobbery, and spackling the amazing plot holes - is dismaying. This adaptation has the stink of superiority about it.
  13. The Last House on the Left
    Like the current hit "Taken," Last House 2009 packs a vicarious jolt that might feel cathartic to certain moviegoers.
  14. The Ugly Truth
    The movie has embarrassingly limited ideas about both the sexes and sex. Like Sandra Bullock’s career woman in “The Proposal,’’ Abby appears to have never heard of intercourse, much less experienced it.
  15. Madea Goes to Jail
    There is, however, Viola Davis, who might win an Oscar tomorrow for her one scene in "Doubt." Her part here - a minister combing the street for crack-whores to rescue - is about three times as large.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    12
    The new film's not only almost double the length of the original, it's four times as ambitious - a sprawling, surrealist, ultimately disturbing portrait of a society lurching uncertainly toward democracy. What's really on trial in this movie? Just the Russian soul.
  17. The Great Buck Howard
    This is an old man's movie, without an old man's experience. Despite McGinly's stated affection for Kreskin (the movie ends with a written appreciation of him), there's nothing personal about it. It's the movie equivalent of handing us a business card.
  18. Fast & Furious
    By 2009, the franchise has nothing new to offer. The culture, through video games and reality television, has caught up to the series and surpassed it.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Gigantic
    Gigantic plays like a Sundance movie with half the nouns removed; fetchingly cryptic for a while, it's ultimately just obscure.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Dragonball: Evolution
    Nearly all the actors seem to be having a good time, and the action moves so fast that you don't mind when something nuts happens.
  21. Hannah Montana: The Movie
    Miley may vacillate, but for now her indentured servitude to Disney continues. The image that comes to mind is Princess Leia chained to Jabba the Hutt, but that's probably just me.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    17 Again
    The movie itself is petrified meatloaf. It's a body-transference comedy in the vein of "Big," "Freaky Friday," and other candidates for Turner Classics.
  23. American Violet
    American Violet feels less like life and unreasonably more like the movies.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Is Anybody There?
    Writer Peter Harness has based his screenplay on his own childhood experiences, but personal doesn't necessarily translate to fresh.
  25. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
    "Wolverine" feels enslaved to its many masters - Marvel Comics, Hollywood, and the young men who devour their products - never sidestepping the déjà vu it inspires.
    • 34 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
    Ghosts is better-than-average McConaughey swill, but not by much - that's its pleasure and its curse.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Merry Gentleman
    An overly muted and cautious piece of work. Watching it is like seeing a man ease out onto the limb of a tree, constantly testing its strength.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Easy Virtue
    iIf you can ignore a ridiculously overbearing soundtrack - a big if - the film's a pleasant bauble. Still, those coming in cold may be forgiven for thinking they've wandered into "Atonement" remade as a farce.
  29. My Life in Ruins
    The problem with the new movie is the same as with the previous one. Vardalos has this idea that she's a marm. And while it's true that she personifies her movies, I don't quite buy her librarian mode.
  30. Imagine That
    Eddie Murphy in another mediocre family comedy? Imagine that.
  31. The End of the Line
    This movie wants to cover every base without thinking very deeply about them. So while a lot of ground is covered in 80 brisk minutes, the information presented is only abstractly useful.
  32. The Stoning of Soraya M.
    Director Nowrasteh seems to think the only way to save lives is to sensationalize death. You could trek to the theater and have this movie whack you upside the head. You could also just mail a check for $10 to the human rights group of your choice.
  33. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
    It's mostly flat, despite being presented in 3-D, and the writing is so unimaginative that at one point a character yells out "yabba dabba doo!"
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Girl from Monaco
    Doesn't seem to know whether it wants to be a sprightly sex comedy or an enigmatic little thriller. Unfortunately, it's neither very funny nor very thrilling.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    I Love You, Beth Cooper
    Panettiere, I’m sad to report, is a dud as the title character, a supposed wild thang who never rises above the level of runty, obnoxious mall chick, down to the roll-on tan.
  36. Adam
    Is a man with Asperger’s boyfriend material? It’s difficult to determine how we wind up here, but it’s strange that a movie ostensibly about a man and his lack of social options left me depressed about a woman and hers.
  37. The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
    You put up the cash, the movie clunks.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    I Sell the Dead
    A sweet, splattery bit of in-jokery; if it’s not actually a good movie, on some level you have to admire the chutzpah of a film set in 1850s Ireland but shot on Staten Island.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Post Grad
    A disjointed patchwork of zany character sketches lacking in coherence and credibility.
  40. Fifty Dead Men Walking
    A richer movie might speculate on McGartland’s life now. How does a local hero survive in an anonymous void?
    • 43 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    X Games 3D: The Movie
    You’d think the 3-D effects would bring the action closer, but the kooky optics often have the opposite effect, turning the athletes into GI Joe and Boba Fett action figures zipping around a dollhouse set.
  42. Fame
    It’s not a good sign when the first few minutes of a movie about singing, dancing, rapping, video-camera-wielding teenagers reminds you of a certain grimy horror franchise.
  43. The Horse Boy
    Well-meaning but trying documentary.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Visual Acoustics
    Essential viewing for builders, graphic designers, visual artists, and other optically inclined folk, but it’s a bit of a slog for the uninitiated.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Stepfather
    As such things go, it’s not bad: slick and proficient, The Stepfather 2.0 gets the adrenaline pumping, but the original has the brains.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Creation
    There are good performances and fleeting moments of exquisite moviemaking, but the experience as a whole is an evolutionary dead end.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Frozen
    An effective, no-frills gruel-a-thon if that’s your cup of Swiss Miss, and it explores such burning questions as: What happens if you’re dumb enough to leave your bare hand on a metal safety bar overnight?
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Alice in Wonderland
    Where Burton and his screenwriter, Linda Woolverton, go astray is turning this new 3-D version - a sequel, really, about a grown Alice returning to the psychic dreamworld of her childhood - into a fantasy adventure that looks like every other CGI epic out there.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Brooklyn's Finest
    What’s missing is the assurance of tone that a Lumet would provide.
  50. She's Out of My League
    While Baruchel is fun to root for and watch flail about like a pipe-cleaner in the wind, this movie encourages a sick desire in me -- to see Michael Cera and all the runners-up in the Mr. Puniverse Contest knocked down a peg by a bully with a neck the size of a tree trunk.
  51. Repo Men
    There is a mild pleasure in the sight of Jude Law pirouetting with a hacksaw through gangs of extras, but the amusement is notional. I actually don’t find him terribly interesting as a kinetic object.
  52. IMAX: Hubble 3D
    Is it being a spoilsport to suggest that the Hubble’s original 2-D images are a lot more stupendous than all the IMAX 3-D hurly-burly?
    • 46 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Around the Bend
    The result is a curious hash: warmly funny in the comic scenes and shamelessly sentimental during the sad bits, of which there are many.
  54. Black Knight
    It's hard to find the movie unpleasant, but it's hard to imagine it causing any strong reaction at all.
    • Boston Globe
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Same River Twice
    Youth recedes, the body decays, life is a compromised thing: These are truths. But they're not fresh truths, and Moss's riverdogs are hardly the first to have discovered them.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Hard Word
    Wonderful characters, these three, and The Hard Word never figures out what to do with them.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Rare Birds
    For the record, Rare Birds doesn't even fly as a birder's special, since Tasseter's Sulfurious Duck is a fictional species. Now, if they'd seen a Eurasian Wigeon, then we'd be talking.
  58. Biker Boyz
    It's too long and self-consciously progressive to be entertaining, but it's too well-intentioned to be dismissed altogether.
  59. Fidel
    Unabashed Fidel worship.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Mystic Masseur
    Offers no tangible sense of Ganesh's genuine convictions (beyond a thirst for fame), nor of the essence of his character. By the time Ganesh's political downfall comes, in the same spiritless fashion in which his fortunes rose, it would take a mystic miracle to care.
  61. Company Man
    It's not that the film is devoid of honestly earned laughs here and there. The problem is that there are too few of them and that the film can't connect them.
    • Boston Globe
  62. DysFunktional Family
    More vulgar than funny.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    The Emperor's New Clothes
    Not without its charms. But it never rises to its clever what-if concept.
    • Boston Globe
  64. Eye of the Beholder
    Never brings its potentially intriguing plot strands into focus.
  65. Empire
    Rossellini doesn't do much more than show up and be a hundred kinds of ravishing. Yet there's a movie in her ageless face and that untamed bouffant.
  66. Hit and Runway
    A mildly diverting gay-straight odd couple comedy that has just enough bright one-liners to carry it past its plot structuring.
    • Boston Globe
  67. Blow Dry
    The characters, in short, are never given enough dimension, enough chance to develop the individual tics and eccentricities on which this kind of comedy thrives.
    • Boston Globe
  68. Exit Wounds
    Its pile-driving succession of set pieces comes at you with numbingly relentless efficiency, presumably in the hope that you won't notice or care how dumb it all is.
    • Boston Globe
  69. God's Army
    In its zeal to counter the negativity usually found in depictions of Mormons, God's Army eventually succumbs to overearnestness, sentimentality, and cliche.
    • Boston Globe
    • 46 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Greenfingers
    Plants the seeds of comedy that grow into a mild feel-good flick, but it won't reap much viewer satisfaction.
  71. Agnes Browne
    There's nothing really wrong with Agnes Browne, except a tendency to take a few easy, convenient outs.
  72. Me Myself I
    A comic vehicle for that valuable Australian export, Rachel Griffiths.
  73. Brown Sugar
    Brown Sugar fails to produce an image of hip-hoppery as fascinating and complex as the moment when Halle Berry set her tongue wagging during a ghetto-fabulous grind with Warren Beatty in ''Bulworth.''
  74. The Story of Us
    Conspicuously short on the kind of texture that makes us feel we're watching real people living real lives.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Four Feathers
    Still as moth-eaten as a Bengal tiger rug on the floor of a London men's club.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Personal Velocity: Three Portraits
    This isn't a movie -- it's an author in love with the sound of her own voice.
  77. The Caveman's Valentine
    Dramatically speaking, The Caveman's Valentine is a dead end.
    • Boston Globe
  78. Focus
    Seems embalmed in its own time, an earnest and handsomely crafted museum piece, not an urgent transposition of Miller's moral outrage to the new century.
    • Boston Globe
  79. The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas
    If you walk in with your expectations at a suitably low setting, you won't walk away disappointed.
    • Boston Globe
  80. Lucky Break
    The movie moves predictably to its formulaic finale, which -- unwittingly perhaps -- reprises Plummer's own sugary classic, ''The Sound of Music.''
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    CQ
    Triumphs over its own trendiness only by being vapid and superficial.
  82. Undisputed
    There are moments when Hill and Giler dare to turn Undisputed into an episode of ''Oz'' - albeit an insipid, belligerence-, and sex-free episode.
  83. Mad Love
    Like an ''Afterschool Special'' with costumes by Gianni Versace, Mad Love looks better than it feels.
  84. Gossip
    Owes less to any film genre than to TV soap operas offered with far fewer pretensions on any given afternoon.
    • Boston Globe
  85. Boys Life 3
    A mixed bag. With such a brief running time, there are not enough high points to recommend the five shorts that make up the film.
    • Boston Globe
  86. The Crew
    Dogged allegiance to blandness.
    • Boston Globe
  87. Lucie Aubrac
    Seems so preoccupied with genuflection that it never achieves its subject's heart-pounding immediacy.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Sea
    You may have to be from Iceland to take dialogue like ''You can't freeze love like a gutted fish'' with a straight face.
  89. Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Harmony
    Watching the uncertain and disappointing new apartheid documentary Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony'' is like going to the lecture of an impassioned but really disorganized professor.
  90. Till Human Voices Wake Us
    Despite being well acted and sweetly moving when it strips down to the tender poem at its heart, Till Human Voices Wake Us spends too much time playing to an otherworldly suspense that simply isn't there.
  91. The Mothman Prophecies
    The movie goes after our dreams by dragging them through our Sept. 11 nightmares with an apocalyptic finale so ludicrous, overedited, and from out of nowhere that it's hard to follow, let alone to believe it's happening.
  92. Knockaround Guys
    Likable performances are critically wounded by implausible scenarios and derivative-minded direction referencing everything from ''Reservoir Dogs'' to ''Fargo.''
  93. Original Sin
    Despite the heavy-handedness, isn't awful enough to be a hilarious howler. But neither is it good enough to become the tropical noir it could have been.
    • Boston Globe
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    City of Ghosts
    It's an actor's film, all right -- peppered with rich supporting performances but unconvincing in the telling.
  95. All Over the Guy
    Little more than a screenful of boy meets boy, boy meets baggage, boy loses baggage.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Francis Ford Coppola Presents: The Legend of Suriyothai
    The movie is both stunning on the level of visual pageantry and curiously inert as cinema.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Sex with Strangers
    Explicit yet consistently unerotic. It's also intensely sad, capturing everything about these people except the high they ceaselessly chase.
  98. The Fantasticks
    Although dated, it's not a bad musical.
    • Boston Globe
  99. Highlander: Endgame
    Offers some entertaining moments now and then in its relatively short running time.
    • Boston Globe
  100. The Contender
    Wonderfully cast and slickly directed, but so crudely written.
    • Boston Globe
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