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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  1. Novocaine
    Quite apart from wringing the last molecule of vividness from his freewheeling roster of loose cannons, he brings to his direction of Martin a finesse shared by only a few of the directors who have worked with the comedian-actor.
    • Boston Globe
  2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
    A firm, ringing yes and no on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The best thing about it may be that it will lead many back to read -- or re-read -- the book.
    • Boston Globe
    • 18 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    The Wash
    This real-life alliance is part of what makes the slice-of-life comedy The Wash work as well as it does, despite a somewhat skimpy though often crassly amusing script written by the film's director, D.J. Pooh.
    • Boston Globe
  4. Heist
    Not only reminds us that there's a little larceny in all of us, it reminds us how much fun it can be to commune with our inner thieves.
    • Boston Globe
  5. Shallow Hal
    You can't help cheering on Shallow Hal. That and the fact that it's not at all politically correct. It's something better. It's big-hearted, and it's funny.
    • Boston Globe
    • 59 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Happenstance
    It has every mark of inspiration by imitation.
    • Boston Globe
  7. Tape
    Smart, unpredictable, and alive with the energies of actors who clearly are enjoying being stretched by their material.
    • Boston Globe
  8. Domestic Disturbance
    Doesn't make nearly the ripple it could have made.
    • Boston Globe
  9. Monsters, Inc.
    By any other standard, the creatures in Monsters, Inc. would be impressive. But by the high standard Pixar not only set itself, but invented, they're only ordinary.
    • Boston Globe
  10. Amélie
    Delightful and original, the film conjures up a corner of Paris distinct and specific, yet fairy-tale fanciful.
    • Boston Globe
  11. The One
    The problem in The One isn't the black holes in the universe, to which the characters refer at periodic intervals, but the black hole on the screen. The One is a zero.
    • Boston Globe
  12. The Man Who Wasn't There
    Lacks the requisite sense of dread.
    • Boston Globe
  13. On the Line
    In the end, it's much ado about not very much, certainly not enough to catapult Bass into a film career, but probably enough to satisfy 'N Sync fans.
    • Boston Globe
  14. K-PAX
    It would be gratifying to report that there's a lot more to K-Pax than Spacey at the top of his form, but there isn't.
    • Boston Globe
  15. Life as a House
    This one is nearly as bad as it gets, suggesting that all the wrong people were wielding the sledgehammers here.
    • Boston Globe
  16. Better Than Sex
    There are many things that Better Than Sex is better than, although sex is not among them. It is better than a root canal, an IRS audit, or a rained-out ballgame.
    • 30 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Thirteen Ghosts
    A formulaic script, a tired plot -- and uninspired dialogue all point up the real star. It's the house,
    • Boston Globe
  18. Donnie Darko
    The debut feature from 26-year-old director Richard Kelly shows plenty of promise, but it's somewhat self-involved and won't appeal to audiences who like a straightforward -- even if fantastical -- narrative.
    • Boston Globe
  19. Bones
    You'll laugh at Bones a lot more often than you'll be scared by it, assuming you'll be scared at all.
    • Boston Globe
  20. Trembling Before G-d
    Examines this dilemma with compassion and sensitivity.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Cool and Crazy
    Jensen's charming film, is perhaps one of the first in which the actors are credited not by the size of their salaries and egos, but by their vocal ranges.
    • Boston Globe
  22. 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
  23. Riding in Cars with Boys
    As a flawed but lovably lionhearted woman, Barrymore triumphantly comes of age as an actress.
    • Boston Globe
  24. Intimacy
    Sometimes gets bogged down in its own wordiness.
  25. The Last Castle
    The kind of movie you can enjoy easily enough, as long as you don't think about it much.
    • Boston Globe
  26. From Hell
    What the Hughes brothers have come up with is, to borrow another phrase from that bygone age, a penny dreadful.
    • Boston Globe
  27. Burnt Money
    Hopped up on standard action riffs, most of the film feels like hand-me-downs purchased from the John Woo outlet.
  28. Waking Life
    Intriguing, arresting, delightfully refusing to be pigeonholed.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Ha-Chaverim Shel Yana
    Juxtaposes slice-of-life tales with hints of worldly conflict to delightfully comic effect.
  30. My First Mister
    Risks seeming too earnestly therapeutic for its own good. But what makes My First Mister a successful feature directing debut for Lahti is the emotional veracity it summons.
    • Boston Globe
  31. Iron Monkey
    They're as special as special effects get.
    • Boston Globe
  32. Corky Romano
    The most dumbed-down mob comedy in years. It's the kind of movie you tie around the ankles of a stiff you're tossing into deep water and never want to see again.
    • Boston Globe
  33. Bandits
    Isn't awful, but neither is it the tangy entertainment it could have been.
    • Boston Globe
  34. Mulholland Dr.
    It's flawed, but it's also rich. And how many films make you feel that you and the filmmaker are following the course of a dream?
    • Boston Globe
  35. Fat Girl
    Uncompromising and unforgiving, but ultimately more self-destructive than any of its characters.
  36. Grateful Dawg
    The pure joy of music-making is what this gem of a film is all about.
    • Boston Globe
  37. Joy Ride
    It's a snazzy, smartly made, and even hip little scarefest. As a jump-start to Halloween, it's all you could hope for.
    • Boston Globe
  38. Serendipity
    Serendipity returns us, if only for a couple of hours, to the Manhattan of our dreams.
    • Boston Globe
  39. Training Day
    Even when it falls back excessively on coincidence and contrived set pieces, even when it gushes irretrievably over the top in its final act, Washington makes Training Day sizzle.
  40. La Ciénaga
    The triumph of La Cienaga lies in Martel's way of fashioning the kind of ensemble performance that draws us in by convincing us we're watching behavior, not acting.
  41. Va Savoir (Who Knows?)
    Souffle-light and airily playful.
    • Boston Globe
  42. Hearts in Atlantis
    A powerful and surehandedly crafted depth charge of a movie.
    • Boston Globe
  43. Zoolander
    Isn't always on the money, but when it is, it really is.
    • Boston Globe
  44. Don't Say a Word
    Don't Say a Word can be thought of as a case of Dial B for Boring.
    • Boston Globe
  45. Diamond Men
    Riding a mood that's tilted to the jazzy blues that Eddie prefers to Bobby's blasting rock on the car radio, Diamond Men is a sparkly film that's easy to love.
    • Boston Globe
  46. Liam
    Frears makes every note count for a lot in this beautifully gauged microcosm of big emotions expressed in small gestures.
    • Boston Globe
  47. Vampire Hunter D
    Confusing storytelling and bad dialogue.
  48. The Endurance
    Butler's approach is subtle: His documentary allows the story to unfold elegantly, without embellishment, and it is more powerful for that restraint.
  49. Glitter
    It touches on universal themes of love, friendship, and family. Suffice to say it falls dreadfully short.
  50. Haiku Tunnel
    They're a far cry from the Coen brothers, or even the Polish brothers, but Josh and Jacob Kornbluth emerge intact from their first filmmaking venture and score more hits than misses in this comedy.
    • Boston Globe
  51. Hard Ball
    Ultimately, the kids carry this manipulative tear-jerker. They're warm, lively charmers.
    • Boston Globe
    • 35 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Two Can Play That Game
    In addition to the film's two extremely likable stars, the strong supporting cast features a who's who of rising African-American actors.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    A Matter of Taste
    A Matter of Taste, French director Bernard Rapp's polished second film, swims in lies, ones that sate at first, but soon intoxicate, seduce, and drown.
    • Boston Globe
  54. The Musketeer
    The images are pretty, and Gene Quintano's screenplay gets everybody from point A to point B, though with no discernible knack for wit or subtlety.
    • Boston Globe
  55. L.I.E.
    Superior and original filmmaking. You won't be able to take your eyes off it.
    • Boston Globe
  56. Our Lady of the Assassins
    Plays like a dislocated version of ''Death in Venice,'' but in a dryer, higher climate that features exponentially more firepower.
    • Boston Globe
  57. Rock Star
    As generic as its title, but two things enable it to land: the basic likability of Mark Wahlberg as the wannabe protagonist, and the contagious energies in the rock concert sequences.
    • Boston Globe
  58. The Iron Ladies
    The same underdog formulas and sunny disposition that turned it into an unexpected Thai box-office hit should win it friends here, too.
    • Boston Globe
  59. Vengo
    Presents a darkly realistic yet seductive world, with music as the tie that binds.
    • Boston Globe
    • 51 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    The American Astronaut
    Doesn't really have a climax that works, making you wonder whether all the nutso plot machinations were worth following. Maybe, maybe not. But there were a number of skewed bits that popped out and put a chuckle into this journey.
  61. O
    The film collapses under the weight of the effort to shoehorn Shakespeare's story into a context that ultimately doesn't accommodate it.
    • Boston Globe
  62. Jeepers Creepers
    The limp script actually has the characters spout ''Let's get outta here!'' more than once. Or maybe that's just a wise member of the audience talking.
  63. Tortilla Soup
    Its attributes and achievements are modest, but its arias, duets, and ensembles are engaging all the same.
  64. Summer Catch
    The screenplay, with its relentlessly schematic characters saying relentlessly schematic things, is so moronic that it makes you long for a documentary on the real Cape League.
  65. Together
    The best thing about Together, apart from the way some of its characters grow on you even as others put you off, is the way it snatches idealism back from the brink of life-smothering orthodoxy.
  66. Ghosts of Mars
    Slides instantly into the realm of the forgettable.
  67. The Curse of the Jade Scorpion
    There's nothing major here, certainly nothing on the order of my favorite among Allen's retro workouts of the past decade, ''Bullets Over Broadway.'' But it's entertaining all the same.
    • Boston Globe
  68. Happy Accidents
    D'Onofrio's affably wide-eyed weirdness generates not only pleasure, but a genuinely authentic conundrum, bouncing forward and backward toward the truth.
    • Boston Globe
  69. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
    Sequels and fun don't often coincide, but this time they do.
    • Boston Globe
  70. Bubble Boy
    There's always been room for rudeness in humor. In fact, it can be invigorating. But Bubble Boy goes through the motions of being outrageous when all it's really got is a rage to conform to formula.
  71. Fighter
    In the end, Fighter, despite its newsreel footage, is less a document of wartime experience than of the mentality one needs to maintain in order to be a fighter.
    • Boston Globe
  72. Lisa Picard Is Famous
    Intermittently engaging but inescapably overextended.
    • Boston Globe
  73. Innocence
    Films that achieve the dimension of seraphic embrace achieved by 'Innocence, as it explores a return to first love, are the rarest of the rare.
    • Boston Globe
  74. American Outlaws
    At least hits a certain adrenaline level, and the stunts have panache. If you crave the ''Young Guns'' approach to the Old West, here it is again.
  75. Captain Corelli's Mandolin
    Doesn't so much strike a lot of sour notes as fail to strike the right ones.
    • Boston Globe
  76. Rat Race
    A strong ending might have obscured the mediocrity in the writing, or at least diverted us, but the ending is sentimental where it needed to be hard-edged and comically merciless. For a film about people hurtling forward, Rat Race is pretty pedestrian.
    • Boston Globe
  77. Aberdeen
    It is an uncompromising family tale, one that's dark but lyrical and moving in its rendering of the ties that bind even the most dysfunctional families, despite valiant efforts to destroy them.
    • Boston Globe
  78. An American Rhapsody
    Although there's a certain connect-the-dots quality to the storytelling, there's no denying the care and craftsmanship that Gardos has brought to her debut film.
    • Boston Globe
  79. The Turandot Project
    Miraculously, the opera comes off, simultaneously ridiculous and thrilling, in a blaze of pageantry.
    • Boston Globe
  80. All Over the Guy
    Little more than a screenful of boy meets boy, boy meets baggage, boy loses baggage.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    American Pie 2
    Is this movie over the top? Definitely. Better than the original? Definitely not.
  82. Session 9
    You couldn't ask for a better setting for a horror movie. What you could ask for is a better script.
    • Boston Globe
  83. The Others
    Has everything you want in a supernatural thriller except thrills.
    • Boston Globe
  84. Osmosis Jones
    In a dismal summer for movies, Osmosis Jones is a fresh breath of foul air.
  85. The Deep End
    A perfect example of a small, well-made, and (in its central role) rivetingly acted film.
    • Boston Globe
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Audition
    A long crawl from inception to climax.
    • Boston Globe
  87. 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
  88. The Princess Diaries
    Unfortunately, the filmmakers seem to have forgotten that comedy is a requisite feature in a comedy.
    • Boston Globe
  89. Rush Hour 2
    It hasn't got a brain in its body, but it's fun to watch.
  90. Apocalypse Now Redux
    The best film of 2001 was made in 1979. [10 Aug 2001, p.D1]
    • 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.
  92. The Monkey's Mask
    Less elliptical and more down-and-dirty than Lang's interesting debut film, ''The Well,'' this one tumbles through Sydney's academic and alternative poetry circles and is built around a lesbian private eye.
    • Boston Globe
  93. Planet of the Apes
    It's too psychically flat and dramatically inert. Instead of reinvigorating a Hollywood classic, Burton only takes it to camp.
    • Boston Globe
  94. Bread and Tulips
    Manages the right balance of fairy tale and joyous self-discovery. And the Venice locations don't hurt.
    • Boston Globe
  95. Wet Hot American Summer
    The film keeps being yanked back from nothingness by this or that clever sendup, delivered by a small army of invigorated performers who seem to push off from one another's energy levels.
  96. Jackpot
    Bummer theater.
  97. America's Sweethearts
    You keep waiting for it to go into orbit, to be really fizzy and outrageous, like the screwball farce it wants to be. Instead, the film settles for the merely serviceable.
  98. Brother
    Cool killers - Kitano's stock in trade - do not necessarily make for cool movies.
  99. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
    If you thought ''Moulin Rouge,'' or, for that matter, ''Tommy,'' was trippy, Hedwig, with its glorious convergence of material and performer, will show you what you've been missing.
    • Boston Globe
  100. Ghost World
    Whatever portion of the alienated teen angst championship Thora Birch left unclaimed after ''American Beauty,'' she nails down brilliantly in Ghost World.
    • Boston Globe
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