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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  1. Bollywood/Hollywood
    The average Bollywood routine is passionately cheesy. This movie seems cursed with a lactose intolerance.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    My Life Without Me
    It has a naive, heartfelt selfishness that may offend some viewers, and a resolve that others will find intensely soothing. ''Dying's not as easy as it looks,'' cautions Ann's doctor (Julian Richings), but here it's as easy as a movie can make it.
  3. Prey for Rock & Roll
    The casting alone should warn you about what kind of bottom this movie's going to hit.
  4. Duplex
    The result is a cheap and cloying contraption that doesn't know when to stop smirking.
  5. The Rundown
    Comes on like a runaway Humvee.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Under the Tuscan Sun
    You come away enchanted less by the character than by the woman playing her.
  7. Bubba Ho-tep
    The film's good humor is often betrayed by its low-budget roots, however, as though it couldn't afford to be more original or ambitious than its premise.
  8. Luther
    The film winds up stranding us in a desperate wilderness of collapse and betrothal.
  9. Yossi & Jagger
    What the movie lacks in ambition, originality, and grit, it makes up for in pure feeling.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Demonlover
    Expect Demonlover to become a midnight-movie staple in the coming years. And expect shards of it to roil your dreams for weeks.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion
    Less a documentary than a cry of outrage -- a series of exotic images that slowly turn horrifying.
    • 37 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Cold Creek Manor
    The film is a disquieting and often very funny examination of yuppie unease in the country. The problem is, it's disguised as a dopey suspense thriller.
  13. Mambo italiano
    No sophisticated dance, but it moves about with an open heart. And hey, it's at least as funny as that Greek thing.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 88 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    In This World
    A tremendous human drama, with each stage of its characters' journey a white-knuckle thriller in miniature.
  15. Anything Else
    This movie is wretched, condescending, and sad, like watching an elderly man spend more than 100 minutes tapping his arm for the youth vein -- which he never finds.
  16. Casa de los babys
    Sayles seems to be trying, single-handedly, to correct centuries of First World self-centeredness in Third World contexts.
  17. To Be and to Have
    Nothing momentous happens here, but Philibert has a magical sense of how to find the simple poetry lurking in the universal routine of being a kid. A lot of the film's lyricism is extracurricular.
  18. Secondhand Lions
    Slow and ultimately distressing.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Fighting Temptations
    You have an overstuffed story line, sloppy filmmaking, a general thinness of conception (if you've seen "Sister Act," you've pretty much seen The Fighting Temptations), and a lead performance that starts out obnoxious and becomes actively grating.
  20. Underworld
    As murky and derivative-looking as the film is, it moves with an authority that pummels you into submission.
  21. Millennium Actress
    The movie's narrative can be taxingly ornate, but there's something beautiful about its metaphorical conflation of politics and glamour, the real and the fictional.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Matchstick Men
    Rockwell is a hoot as Frankie, but during the stretches when he's not on screen, the air goes out of the film.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Cabin Fever
    Doesn't have the gonzo wit of ''Re-Animator'' or ''Evil Dead 2,'' nor is it flat-out terrifying like ''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'' or even a zombie-come-lately like this year's ''28 Days Later.''
    • 91 Metascore
    • 100 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Lost in Translation
    Longer on atmosphere and observation than on story, but you don't mind: Coppola maintains her quietly charged tone with a certainty that would be unbelievable in a second film if you didn't suspect genetics had a hand.
  25. Once Upon a Time in Mexico
    It's a grisly, chuckling cartoon made on shots of tequila, Red Bull, and Sergio Leone.
    • 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.
  27. Grisbi (re-release)
    Roughly translated, Touchez pas au Grisbi means ''don't touch the loot.'' But in literal terms, this film version of Albert Simonin's blockbuster really couldn't care less who ends up with the cash.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Carnage
    It's a treat, nevertheless, to watch the daughter of Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni in a rare leading role. Chiara Mastroianni has her mother's hair and face with her father's sorrowful eyes stuck smack in the middle, and she moves as if conscious of the weight of her genetic splendor.
  29. The Order
    A stupendous bore.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 25 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Party Monster
    "Prison isn't all that different from a nightclub,'' comments Alig toward the end. Funny; this movie isn't all that different from prison.
  31. Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star
    Manages to fascinate more than it entertains.
  32. Taking Sides
    Proves acutely subtle. But its question of what we forgive art in the face of atrocity and immorality is one for the ages.
  33. The Backyard
    The most disturbing thing about this grass-roots-inspired extreme-wrestling documentary by Paul Hough is how much worse you expect the violence to be.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Once Upon a Time in the Midlands
    Pure bangers-and-mash realism: a spotty yet ingratiating working-class farce that suggests a Mike Leigh movie with opera buffa tendencies.
  35. The Other Side of the Bed
    Sexual doublespeak is everywhere.
  36. Jeepers Creepers II
    It plays better as exasperating comedy than genuine horror -- although there is something terrifying about being stuck in a movie whose idea of a bogeyman is a scarecrow with an eating disorder.
  37. My Boss's Daughter
    Having also starred in "Dude, Where's My Car" and "Just Married," Kutcher is becoming a stoopid-comedy specialist.
  38. The Medallion
    Moves from cheekiness to ineptitude, often in a single take.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Babí léto
    This wistfully charming slice-of-life comedy celebrates an elderly man defiantly thumbing his nose at old age.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator
    A tale of narrow talent destroyed by pop hubris, raging insecurity, substance abuse, and murder.
  41. Rana's Wedding
    An invitation to see something a little less pretty, and potentially more enduring.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Battle of Shaker Heights
    In a better movie -- a much better movie -- LaBeouf might make the same sort of impact Dustin Hoffman did in ''The Graduate.'' But the kid's young. There are movies to come.
  43. Marci X
    Clueless and sad.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Thirteen
    Would it be rude to suggest that your time might be better spent with your own children?
    • 33 Metascore
    • 38 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Uptown Girls
    The feel-bad movie of the summer.
  46. Passionada
    A cheery version of a darker, grislier movie, one in which people like Daniel beat up people like Charlie, girls like Vicky end up in far more compromising positions, and women like Celia turn to Scotch and prescription drugs to cope with their pain.
  47. Freddy vs. Jason
    Attempts none of the witty, provocative visual and metaphysical set pieces from any of the ''Nightmare'' movies. And it offers none of the real fright of the early ''Friday the 13th'' films. In fact, the movie is deeply, proudly unimaginative.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 100 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    American Splendor
    The movie is pricelessly comic -- the Harvey/Joyce scenes catalog the couple's neuroses with glee -- but it just as often reaches for something richer.
  49. Shaolin Soccer
    As goofy action comedies go, Shaolin Soccer is one of the best.
  50. Open Range
    A patient, suspenseful exercise in genre craftsmanship
  51. Grind
    What Grind lacks in cinematic skill, it makes up for in heart, which is what most dudes-in-arms flicks are missing. Given the option of spending eternity with these gentlemen or the boys of ''American Pie,'' I'd choose the lads of Grind.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    OT: Our Town
    Director Scott Hamilton Kennedy finally gives us a reason to feel warm and fuzzy about Compton, Calif. It's not an easy feat.
  53. Le divorce
    This present-day Paris of Le Divorce is smartly shot and costumed, and the whole affair is breezy and uncharacteristically insouciant, given the reserved nature of the folks responsible for it.
  54. The Princess Blade
    This is a movie about excess. It's excessively long (at least it feels that way), the slo-mo is used in excess (so are the swords), and our heroine, Yuki (Yumiko Shaku), when she does emote, is excessively weepy for a coldblooded assassin.
  55. Step Into Liquid
    Serves up enough action and passion to stay afloat, but at the end of the day it's just not the perfect ride those earlier films were.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    S.W.A.T.
    Those who love police overkill, guns, jingoistic race-baiting, guns, macho smugness, and guns will be well served.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Freaky Friday
    Freaky Friday version 2003 is a shinier, snappier animal, partly because young girls now dress like Avril Lavigne, and partly because Jamie Lee Curtis has her best role in years and knows it.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Zero Day
    Without even trying, Coccio may have stumbled over the truest metaphor for Columbine yet.
  59. And Now... Ladies and Gentlemen...
    Like a Bond picture with no spies or villains or car chases or gadgets or explosions.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 88 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Secret Lives of Dentists
    May not be the best movie ever made about the perils of family life, but it is among the most ruthlessly comic.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 100 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Magdalene Sisters
    Blistering and brilliant work.
  62. American Wedding
    Its commendable, if juvenile, sense of erogenous adventure is sullied by bland technique, canned suburban punk music, and the fact that all the exploration does amount to maturer characters.
    • 18 Metascore
    • 0 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Gigli
    An overlong, joyless, and inconsequential affair, full of dead air, and possessing only a few moments of jaw-dropping bad taste. It's a dull disaster.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Bugs!
    Beautiful, but story doesn't fly.
  65. Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life
    Cradle of lifelessness.
  66. Mondays in the Sun
    Loach makes a working metaphor of the old ant-and-grasshopper story, but the film's images are what echo the loudest.
  67. Buffalo Soldiers
    For all the controversy surrounding Buffalo Soldiers, you'd think the film would at least be interesting.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Seabiscuit
    In the end, Seabiscuit gets right the things that matter.
  69. Lucía, Lucía
    Nicely shot and edited, but the movie is a narrative mess, which wouldn't be so bad if all it were up to was depicting Lucia's ups and downs. But the film takes too many illogical detours to be of much use.
  70. Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
    In a summer in which every blockbuster is zealous to be a video game, Rodriguez, with a wink, has produced his own.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 88 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Camp
    A comedy, and for all its cliches and clumsiness, close to a great one.
    • 32 Metascore
    • 25 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Masked and Anonymous
    The exact cinematic equivalent of a classic Bob Dylan song. It's also proof that what is towering genius in one medium can go insanely wrong in another.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 100 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Cuban Rafters
    A heart-rending account of people trying to dodge the hurdles that politics puts in front of them. By the end of this humanist epic, some are ennobled by their struggle. Most are exhausted.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Johnny English
    Adding to the general air of ''What the hell?'' is Australian pop singer Natalie Imbruglia as Lorna, the beautiful superspy who falls for our hero. With Lorna's help, Johnny discovers that Sauvage is plotting to take over the British throne -- the Battle of Hastings wasn't good enough, it seems.
  75. How to Deal
    This movie is the worst episode of ''Gilmore Girls'' ever.
  76. The Sea Is Watching
    As rich and literary a work as you might expect.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Dirty Pretty Things
    This is the meatiest role Tautou has had post-''Amelie'' and she drops the zombie-pixie act for once, giving us a character who's caught in a daily dance between propriety and abandon, and who can only dance faster as desperation sets in.
  78. Bad Boys II
    Bay's movie is also a confident mega-production that feels it doesn't need to lean on its visual frills if it has Smith and Lawrence -- it's a natural-born buddy flick.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    September 11
    Taken as a whole, the film says, "We grieve too, but like this, and this, and this."
    • 50 Metascore
    • 25 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Garage Days
    The overall tone is one of mild Sex Pistols excess combined with Monkees-era high jinks.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    A Housekeeper
    There isn't much to The Housekeeper, really, but it plumbs depths of male unease that louder and less wise movies strain to reach.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Km. 0 - Kilometer Zero
    Lightweight yet alluring.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Northfork
    This is very much the bargain that Northfork offers an audience: Buy into the brothers' elegiac meditation on angels, Eden, and the death of American innocence or sit back and scoff at it as so much David Lynch lite.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Cuckoo
    The Cuckoo is smart enough to steer away from allegory and into the specific every chance it gets, though -- so much so that when the film finally does slip the mortal coil, you still hang with it.
  85. I Capture the Castle
    If there's true magic to be found in the proceedings, it's in Garai's dexterous performance.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Holy Land
    For all the film's flaws, it has a caustic, nondenominational view of apocalypses to come.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 38 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
    Has the distinction of being much dumber and pulpier than the comic book on which it's based -- the ink practically comes off on your fingers as you watch it.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
    Pirates offers something for everyone: Bloom and Depp for the ladies, big action and Knightley for the men, self-aware gags for the postmodern crowd, Depp and Rush for fans of top-rank scenery chewing.
  89. Tattoo
    Maybe Tattoo is creepy and stylized enough to pull you along anyway, but if you like your thrillers to dig below the familiar epidermis, look elsewhere.
  90. Swimming Pool
    Very much a genre picture, relying on notions of suspense, surprise, and comeuppance. Indeed, at the center of this movie is a question of whether what we're seeing is really to be believed.
  91. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
    This third installment is the loudest, dopiest, and least inventive of the three. But what the movie...lacks in intelligence it makes up for in sheer doom.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas
    Brad Pitt and Michelle Pfeiffer? Great to look at. Astonishingly dull to listen to.
  93. Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde
    Witherspoon is a professional, demanding we give ourselves over to her carbonated pluck.
  94. Friday Night
    Has a sultry and complex psychological intent all its own, yet it's reminiscent of some earlier Denis works, including ''Nenette and Boni.''
  95. On_Line
    Weintrob's stylish visuals mimic Web technologies, which succeed in making his characters seem all the more removed from reality. Now if someone would find a way to equip theater seats with a ''delete'' key, we could be rid of them completely.
  96. Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
    The movie's glee is contagious.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    28 Days Later...
    A damn-near great end-of-the-world zombie movie, terrifying on the basic heebie-jeebie level, respectful toward its B-movie forebears, and all the more unnerving for coming out in this fretful era of SARS and germ warfare.
    • 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.
  99. Alex & Emma
    The lack of sexual tension is astounding.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Hulk
    To answer your first question: like a cross between Shrek, the Frankenstein monster, and a Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robot.
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