Boston Globe's Scores

Select another publication »
For 7,949 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: 5,230 out of 7949
  2. Mixed: 1,554 out of 7949
  3. Negative: 1,165 out of 7949
7949 movie reviews
view
per page
  1. Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train
    The ideas are generous and inclusive rather than divisive: Zinn wants history to be seen and to be experienced from every possible perspective.
  2. Closer
    From Marber's fiercely polished writing, Nichols wrings every drop of acid, yet it's a show of the director's goodness that a movie fundamentally preoccupied with interpersonal ugliness is allowed to end on a convincing note of beauty.
  3. In the Valley of Elah
    Paul Haggis switches from the problem of racism to the problem of Iraq. The war is a better fit. None of the exasperating guilt on display in "Crash" has made it into In the Valley of Elah, a solidly made genre movie: the Army mystery.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Debt
    The film's a potboiler but a gripping one, and it leaves you chewing on both its nuances and implausibilities.
  5. My Best Friend
    Leconte's writing is tight and nimble, and while the tests of the duo's friendship are facile, under the circumstances, they make sense. The bond between Francois and Bruno approximates the real thing; Leconte seems to be arguing that you can grow a flower from fake soil.
  6. The Client
    The Client is slick, but not much more than the sum of its surfaces. [20 July 1994, p.23]
    • Boston Globe
  7. Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie
    Mystery Science Theater 3000 restores your faith in an ordered universe, compelling you to reflect that those campy movies from the '50s and '60s did, after all, have a purpose, although it wasn't easy to discern at the time. [19 Apr 1996, p.54]
    • Boston Globe
  8. Gay Sex in the 70s
    Yet despite the retrospective sensationalism, Lovett's 70-minute documentary is a sobering anti-erotic cautionary tale.
  9. The Visitor
    The Visitor arrived at the height of a sci-fi and horror film revival, when “serious” directors... embraced genre conventions and made them their own. Paradise stole from them all. But unlike these directors, his ambition was coupled with delusional ineptitude.
  10. The Great Debaters
    For a film about the power of speech, it's the quiet moments of rapture that say everything.
  11. The Bay
    Lacks the creepy immediacy of even the most misbegotten of the found-footage genre.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    The Other Side of the Street
    Don't see the movie if you can't handle two rather sexy senior citizens threatening to meet in body and mind.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Puss in Boots
    The movie has a devilish wit that works for parent and child alike, and it moves like a bobsled. It's funny and fun, and if it's not up to Pixar level, it still represents the best of what the competition has to offer.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3D
    In occasional vignettes voiced over home movies and old photos, Chesney talks with humble conviction of reaching people in the cheap seats.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Bill & Ted Face the Music
    [A] sweet, dumb, unnecessary, and absurdly charming movie.
  16. Scarface
    It plays like a crude "Godfather" parody, the sort that might amuse as a 10-minute sketch on "Saturday Night Live," but curdles and collapses as a 143-minute film. [09 Dec 1983]
    • Boston Globe
  17. The Seagull's Laughter
    Lively and beautiful filmmaking. It may leave you scratching your head, but it shouldn't leave you cold.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Being Julia
    You can feel her (Bening) drag Being Julia uphill for an hour and a half until the final 15 minutes, when the ground finally levels out and the picture becomes fine, vengeful fun.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    American Made
    American Made really does deserve to be on a double-bill with “Top Gun,” and I’m betting Cruise knows it. The first film embodies the glorious shallowness of the Reagan Era. The second wallows in that shallowness while hinting at everything it cost.
  20. The Boy and the Beast
    For answers, prepare to sit through two hours of complications, though you will probably figure it out before the spectacular ending.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 50 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Not Fade Away
    It's both achingly affectionate and a terrible mess.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Hearts Beat Loud
    Hearts Beat Loud is gentle, funny, humane, and predictable, kept from becoming tiresome by a cast of pros that includes not only Offerman but Toni Collette as Frank’s landlady and possible love interest and a frisky Ted Danson as a philosophic stoner who owns the neighborhood watering hole.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
    Worth seeing as further proof that Annette Bening can do anything and for a touchingly flummoxed performance by Jamie Bell, once the kid of “Billy Elliot” and now a strapping romantic lead. But if it sends audiences back to explore the filmography of Gloria Grahame, the movie will have truly provided a public service.
  24. The End of the Affair
    The immaculately crafted film that just sits there and refuses to come to life.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Jindabyne
    Where it works best is in the domestic dance of death between a husband and a wife. Linney flutters with increasingly panicky intelligence throughout the film, while Byrne sinks further into his own bulk.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Last Flag Flying
    A touching but fairly clumsy effort that only acquires the depths of sadness and resilience it needs if you have the memory of the earlier film shoring it up. It proves that second-hand grace is, after all, still grace.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 63 Critic Score
    Throw Down Your Heart
    Through it all, Fleck seems at a loss for words, stumbling through small talk and staring feebly as a Ugandan musician weeps during a song about his dead father.
  28. Noises Off...
    Onstage, Noises Off was a riot. On film, it's in the salvage business, snatching a few vagrant laughs from a reworking that otherwise sinks like a failed souffle, reminding us yet again that farce onstage and farce on film are two fundamentally different constructs. [20 March 1992, p.30]
    • Boston Globe
    • 65 Metascore
    • 63 Reviewed by
      Ty Burr
    Viva Riva!
    Writer-director Djo Tunda Wa Munga deplores the corruption, gunplay, and oversexed misogyny plaguing his country - and he's going to show you as much of it as possible before the end credits roll.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Vengeance
    In “Vengeance,” Novak proves his chops both as an adept filmmaker and skillful satirist of contemporary mores.
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »