Boston Globe's Scores

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For 7,945 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: 5,227 out of 7945
  2. Mixed: 1,553 out of 7945
  3. Negative: 1,165 out of 7945
7945 movie reviews
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    • 73 Metascore
    • 88 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Super Size Me
    I don't usually make recommendations of this kind, but if you or your kids have gone to a burger joint in the last few weeks, you really do need to see this movie.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 38 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Van Helsing
    We haven't had a good Frankenstein, Dracula, or Wolf Man movie in a long time, so here's one where the whole gang shows up. One catch: It's not good.
  3. New York Minute
    The movie's no good: It's written, directed, performed, photographed, edited, and marketed on a fifth-grade reading level; despite that and its twin stars' saucer eyes and ropy limbs, it's no Muppet movie either.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 100 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Clay Bird
    Unfolds with the serenity of a fable but underneath it draws intelligent, deeply troubled connections between the personal, political, and spiritual.
  5. Laws of Attraction
    There's not much of a script. The direction is the pits, and stars Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore, playing dueling divorce lawyers who fall in love, are lousy, too.
  6. Since Otar Left
    What an amazing presence Gorintin has. Never mind her hunched back and white hair, she's no crone. She makes Eka needy for happiness but susceptible to heartbreak. It's a great performance, full of both joy and the quiet, disappointing parts of being alive that come with knowing change is part of life.
  7. Godsend
    Godsend makes swill of religion, science, family, and morality. It has the sensitivity of a cactus, the ingenuity of a square wheel, and the integrity of a CEO.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 12 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Envy
    A weirdly airless disaster, a turkey so insistently DOA that the dialogue serves as its own epitaph.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius
    This is an old-fashioned sports hagiography of the sort that Gary Cooper used to star in while Teresa Wright sat smiling and worried on the sidelines, and, amazingly, it engages your attention and even respect while trotting out every clubhouse cliche in the book.
  10. The Saddest Music in the World
    Maddin's movies are easy, too. Point your eyes at the screen; the magic follows.
  11. Mean Girls
    The movie is always entertaining and frequently smart about the new ground one girl will break to humiliate another.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Agronomist
    Smartly filmed (aside from a few distracting editing fripperies), but it's so dazzled by its subject and saddened by his martyrdom that it never moves past the heroic politics of dissent.
  13. MC5*: A True Testimonial
    MC5 is everything a rockumentary should be and usually isn't. Then again, MC5 was everything a rock band should be and usually isn't.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Faster
    In the end, promotion, as good as it may be, doesn't make for a real documentary. Faster is a kind of bone-crushing fun, but there's little drama and certainly no insight.
  15. Man on Fire
    Man on Fire is ponderous and bloated, dragging the Bible and Giannini into its swirling cesspool. Scott can't give the movie any real emotional weight. And Washington gives his first lifeless performance.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Twilight Samurai
    The anti-"Kill Bill." This is an old man's movie in all the good ways: gentle, humanistic, rich with observation, quietly aware of all that can't be solved by the sword.
  17. 13 Going on 30
    It's looking for comedy and romance in the obvious places.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Morlang
    Morlang is a repressed creep whose worst crime, as far as the audience is concerned, is dullness.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 88 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    This So-Called Disaster: Sam Shepard Directs the Late Henry Moss
    Turns out to be one of the finer peeks into the creative process of staging a play. Granted, that's a tiny genre, and the film's core audience -- theater majors and the people who love them -- is narrow. The lessons, however, are big.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Kill Bill: Vol. 2
    The result is insanely good, and the best time I've had at the movies in ages.
  21. The Punisher
    The movie is as grim and grave as the comic book. But it lacks atmosphere. It's often illogical and drubs you numb with its single dimension: noisy retribution.
  22. Connie and Carla
    The movie's queer delight is contagious. You'll exit lip-synching.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Young Adam
    Unfolds with an absolute minimum of dramatic highs and lows, and it's so disaffected that it prompts laughter at the wrong moments.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 38 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Twentynine Palms
    A textbook example of how a director can strip away plot, motivation, character, and meaning and still leave arrant pretension standing tall.
  25. The Girl Next Door
    Comes up short when things get serious, resorting to cliches and a whole lot of hooey about "moral fiber."
  26. The Whole Ten Yards
    Not as desperate, unfunny, and nonsensical as its title. It's worse. Worse than you can imagine. Unless, of course, you've imagined 90-something minutes of bloopers and outtakes that congeal into a story -- much the way a scab is formed.
  27. I'm Not Scared
    Watching it is like being lost in somebody's richly moody campfire story -- it's so good, in fact, that only once it's over do you realize you've been holding your marshmallows too close to the flame.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Alamo
    The real struggle in The Alamo is between historic revisionism and Hollywood notions of sacrifice, and it's not much of a contest: Hollywood wins, as it did in John Wayne's sprawling, factually spurious 1960 film.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 38 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Ella Enchanted
    The producers of Ella Enchanted probably assume, correctly, that many more kids haven't read the book than have, and they're out to give that audience a slick, shallow good time.
  30. Johnson Family Vacation
    Boring, mediocre movie.
  31. Walking Tall
    Walking Tall, which is credited to four different writers, is wanting for a reason to be.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 88 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
    The film is as spare and unvarnished as a wooden temple floating on a lake, but its reflections run deep, and it can ripple your thoughts for months.
  33. The Prince and Me
    This is a smart piece of revisionist fluff that dares to question what happens after the royal honeymoon is over.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Hellboy
    So forget about taking anyone under 12. But if you want to see what a benign demon looks like when he's eating nachos and unwinding to Al Green, this is the movie for you.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Home on the Range
    Even older kids will understand that Pixar does it so much better, not because of their computers but because of an intelligent attention to script and character and craft. If the people running Disney don't understand that much anymore, maybe they should turn out the lights and go home.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in Space
    So spectacularly bent that it exudes a contact cough-syrup high all its own.
  37. Mayor of the Sunset Strip
    Ultimately, Bingenheimer seems underwhelmed with himself. The people who know him say, in the movie, that he's a relic. Mayor of the Sunset Strip makes heartbreakingly clear what a glorious relic Bingenheimer is.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Never Die Alone
    Invites us to both hate King David and admire his style, and there will probably be some hand-wringing about that.
  39. Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
    The 6-year-old I went with had the villain pegged in the first 15 minutes. Needless to say, she completely ruined the movie for me. Meddling kid.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Ladykillers
    The loosest, silliest, broadest thing the Coens have yet committed to celluloid, and that includes "Raising Arizona," one of this critic's favorites.
  41. Jersey Girl
    Eloquent and unapologetically cute.
  42. Ned Kelly
    Ultimately, Jordan's vision is so murky that Ned Kelly remains as foreign to us as wombat stew.
  43. Dogville
    Despite its ultimate nuttiness, has a quiet, consuming power that sneaks up on you and doesn't go away. This is something new and ambitious for Von Trier: a work of compassion.
  44. The Gatekeeper
    Isn't the most seductive film ever made about border life or undocumented immigrants, but in a way it's unfair to compare it to such artistic triumphs as ''Touch of Evil,'' ''El Norte,'' ''Lone Star,'' and ''Traffic.''
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Bon voyage
    This is a film lover's film, and as if to underscore the point, Bon Voyage opens and closes in a movie theater.
  46. Taking Lives
    Because the characters in the movie have only stock obsessions and vague personal histories, there's no reason to be interested in them.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Intermission
    Could fairly be described as a Robert Altman ensemble movie without the flab, or "Magnolia" with a mean streak and bigger laughs.
  48. Dawn of the Dead
    The movie is weak on attempts at survivalist philosophy (anyone bit by a zombie is likely to become one). Even the religious overtones feel tinny and unpronounced.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
    This is the art-film Carrey: repressed, lovesick, unshaven. Essentially he's doing the same intellectual sad sack played by John Cusack in "Malkovich" and Nicolas Cage in "Adaptation"
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Noi the Albino
    The film's comic observations are rich, droll, and more than a little sad: Everyone in this isolated community seems beaten down by life.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Spartan
    When Spartan is good, it's surprisingly gripping and fresh, and when it's bad, it's just another overcooked Hollywood paranoid thriller.
  52. Knafayim Shvurot
    This intimate, warmly made family portrait always feels true. The performances are particularly good.
  53. Secret Window
    A jokey, junky potboiler.
  54. Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London
    Muniz has better secret-agent toys to play with, funnier lines and sidekicks helping him out, and a bit more discerning director in Kevin Allen ("The Big Tease").
  55. NASCAR: The IMAX Experience
    It is at least an "experience" that has to be labeled exhilarating.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself
    Wants to be as shocking as its title, but it doesn't have the nerve.
  57. Games People Play: New York
    Whitney's body of work doesn't suggest a filmmaker so much as an opportunist with a video camera. He makes a very specific sort of reality movie. It's called porn.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 38 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Ghost River
    Truly, there is nothing the woman (Isabelle Huppert) can't do - except save "Promise'' from the valley of the shadow of bad French movie pretensions.
  59. Hidalgo
    Like most movies about men and horses, Hidalgo spares no expense in matters of corniness. Set in the 1890s, it's sort of a throwback movie, executed with the boyish kick of dusty old cowboy matinees.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Starsky & Hutch
    Stealing the movie, however, is rapper Snoop Dogg as Huggy Bear, the pimp/informant originally portrayed by Antonio Fargas on the TV show.
  61. The Reckoning
    The movie has none of the embarrassing absurdity and cheap effects that made last year's trip back to the 14th century, "Timeline,'' such a joke. We should be so lucky. Instead, we get a listless avenger drama.
  62. Red Trousers: The Life of the Hong Kong Stuntmen
    Fills you with a healthy respect for the men and women gladly risking their lives for your entertainment. The film itself works best with its into-the-camera reminiscences and on-the-set mishaps.
  63. James' Journey to Jerusalem
    There is a lot to recommend about James' Journey to Jerusalem. Its people are not among them. This searing little parable contains some of the more deplorable folks you're likely to see in a movie about faith.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 38 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Club Dread
    A bumptious splatter farce that manages to improve from awful to moderately engaging as its cast is winnowed down to the five guys themselves.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 38 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Greendale
    Beware of stoner rock stars talking politics. No matter where you stand on the spectrum, the ecological/anticorporate idealism of Greendale is so vague as to be insulting to anyone past the backpack-and-Birkenstocks stage of life.
    • 26 Metascore
    • 25 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Twisted
    Eerily similar in its story line to "In the Cut," the much pasted Meg Ryan sex-and-death thriller that came out last year. Only it's worse.
  67. Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights
    Bland though it is, "Havana Nights" could be the start of a globe-bettering franchise -- and across history, too: "Dirty Dancing: Monticello Mornings"; "Dirty Dancing: Gaza Strip Afternoons."
    • 68 Metascore
    • 88 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Goodbye Lenin!
    One of the most enjoyable movies I've seen lately, but it has a biting knowledge of that which history gives and history takes away.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Passion of the Christ
    Seems to be exactly the movie Mel Gibson wanted to make as an abiding profession of his traditionalist Catholic faith. On that score it is a success.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 38 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Teknolust
    Has a welcome humor but only in theory, and theory, chilly and self-involved, is where this filmmaker seems most at home. Like its bio-digital sirens, the movie never quite comes alive.
  71. Big Animal
    Gathers a sort of darkness as it comes to its oblique conclusion.
  72. Against the Ropes
    The movie is only sporadically interesting.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Clifford's Really Big Movie
    Big, noisy, harmless, and a little clumsy -- yep, that's Clifford, the Big Red Dog. And it's Clifford's Really Big Movie, too.
  74. EuroTrip
    In light of our recent crackdown on runaway nudity, the steady stream of exposed breasts in the gnarly Eurotrip give it a nostalgic feel.
  75. Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen
    Every ounce of the film feels artificially upbeat.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Kitchen Stories
    If you've ever staggered out of IKEA oppressed by the clean, inhuman lines of a thousand affordable dinette sets, you may get a kick out of Bent Hamer's comedy Kitchen Stories.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 38 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Welcome to Mooseport
    It's a disappointingly limp small-town farce played several shades too broadly by a cast that has done better work elsewhere.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 88 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    After the Life
    A straight-up drama and thus the only film in "The Trilogy" not forced into a genre straitjacket -- suspense thriller ("On the Run") or farce ("An Amazing Couple") -- "Life" is also the finest of the three. This isn't a coincidence.
  79. The Seagull's Laughter
    Lively and beautiful filmmaking. It may leave you scratching your head, but it shouldn't leave you cold.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    50 First Dates
    The plot -- it's inspired and ridiculous at the same time -- is best described as "Groundhog Day" meets "Memento."
  81. Robot Stories
    In Robot Stories, technology hasn't colonized human life, it's finding ways to make living (and loving) better.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    An Amazing Couple
    Turns what sounds suspiciously like a gimmick into a concept that holds water. Or, in this case, the sparkling wine of comedy.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 88 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Osama
    Osama works simply as the story of one unlucky young girl.
  84. The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra
    A terrifyingly cheap-looking B-movie comedy mocking terrifyingly cheap-looking science-fiction B-movies. As such things go, this one has its moments.
  85. Miracle
    You might cheer. You might cry. For a minute, you might even wish it were you on that medal stand.
  86. Barbershop 2: Back in Business
    Takes a dedicated and true snapshot of African-American life. But so little of its presentation is memorable. This is a haircut movie that redefines ''fade.''
    • 33 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Catch That Kid
    Flatters its audience by dividing the grown-up world into mean idiots and nice idiots, which might be interestingly subversive if the movie had anything on its mind. Instead, it's just a Hollywood crash course: Heist Films 101.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 88 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Return
    Filmed with a cold, poetic beauty, The Return slowly strips away motivation until it arrives at a place of myth both private and oddly universal.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Dreamers
    The Dreamers isn't that bad -- actually, it's funny, affecting, interestingly twisted, and seriously erotic before it heads south in the final stretch.
  90. Hiding and Seeking: Faith and Tolerance After the Holocaust
    What's unique about this documentary is that it grips history with both hands, shakes it, examines it, and exits with the entire wrinkled contents bravely in tow.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Blind Shaft
    Less striking for its storyline than for the world it presents -- a rural moonscape of coal-dust, casual environmental disaster, and atavistic behavior.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    On the Run
    This payback-revenge storyline, told mostly at night with minimal dialogue, is tense but familiar, and Bruno's quick-draw costume changes are fun to watch.
  93. The Perfect Score
    Comes tantalizingly close to being interesting.
  94. Latter Days
    Such a well-meaning but unambitious work that it's tempting to take it seriously even as you dismiss it.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 25 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Big Bounce
    No one on the screen bothers to commit to a character.
  96. You Got Served
    Part soap opera and part thriller, and it has the unique characteristic of being both undeveloped and overwritten.
  97. Eat This New York
    So, how's the food? The camera never even goes up close. That's the kind of restaurant documentary this is.
  98. Piccadilly [re-release]
    As casually insensitive and careless as you might expect from a film of this era, but it's also surprisingly crafty about finding ways to incite discussion
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!
    A pleasant puff-pastry throwback to Sandra Dee movies, ''Bye Bye Birdie,'' and other pre-Beatles effluvia.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 88 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Touching the Void
    As sagas of endurance in the face of ridiculous odds go, this story is up there with Shackleton and ''Into Thin Air.''
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