Charlotte Observer's Scores

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For 1,652 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 56% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 41% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.1 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 65
Highest review score: 100 Frost/Nixon
Lowest review score: 0 Waist Deep
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,085 out of 1652
  2. Mixed: 279 out of 1652
  3. Negative: 288 out of 1652
1652 movie reviews
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  1. Pete's Dragon
    If the cast were less likeable, the predictability of the story might become wearisome. (Of course, it’s not likely to be predictable if you’re 9.) But all the actors, especially young Fegley and Laurence, engage us.
  2. Stuck on You
    Someone in most Farrelly movies deserves the Good Sport Award; here it's split between Meryl Streep, who befriends Walt in a long cameo as herself, and Eva Mendes, who plays Walt's galpal in a way that mocks perceptions of her as a well-endowed ninny. Cher should get a share of this prize.
  3. The Fight Within
    Director Michael William Gordon and writer Jim Davis give us a hopeful feeling about Logan without insisting on solving all his problems – or insisting that God will solve them for him.
  4. Mystic River
    The grandest presence here is Eastwood. His directing, like his acting, is minimal: unhurried, spare, unforced, rather somber.
  5. Operation Chromite
    The filmmakers fall back on melodrama fairly often.... Yet there’s freshness in the storytelling.
  6. The Lake House
    Bullock and Reeves have an unusual kind of charisma, one that works best when they're apart. Though the filmmakers sometimes put them in the same frame for visual ease, they mostly occupy different times.
  7. Elvis & Nixon
    Elvis & Nixon offers an entertaining meditation on the how and the why leading up to this famously strange photo.
  8. The Weather Man
    The movie gives actors many chances to shine, and they do. But I went away most impressed with Verbinski.
  9. Chrystal
    One of those movies that sticks to your mind like a briar to wool slacks. It has no revelations, no high drama, no heartbreaking tragedy. What it does have is bone-deep honesty, and that's enough for once.
  10. Thr3e
    Could pass for any serial killer movie except for some pertinent philosophizing about the nature of evil and the operations of the soul.
  11. Quartet
    Hoffman and Harwood aren't afraid to show us old people who are rude, demanding, unreasonable and foolish, though the final overall mood remains blissful. Hoffman might have more to say as a director, if anyone in Hollywood cares to find out.
  12. Morning Glory
    The acting is so exact and the timing so crisp that it delivers precisely the satisfaction you'd anticipate.
  13. Intermission
    Intermission is like a creme brulee, invigoratingly grainy when you bite into it but sweet and soft underneath. Director John Crowley and writer Mark O'Rowe infuse this Irish crime drama with such adrenaline that you don't realize how lightweight it is until after it's over.
  14. Frailty
    You'll depart with memories of a well-crafted study in quiet horror, and with ideas whirling in your head about the nature of evil and what happens to children caught in its grip.
  15. High School Musical 3: Senior Year
    A sweet, innocent look at an impossibly idealized high school world.
  16. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
    Given a choice between this and the navel-gazing of the novel, I'll take the short ride on a fast machine.
  17. The Honeymooners
    It honors the tone of that wonderful comedy while setting it in present-day New York City.
  18. The Legend of 1900
    Foggy allegories and misty metaphors.
    • Charlotte Observer
  19. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
    [Jarmusch's] most accessible film after "Night on Earth," yet it's still elliptical and enigmatic.
  20. Pride
    It's about black athletes, and they swim. It's as reassuringly uplifting as its predecessors, but the African-American and aquatic elements set it pleasantly apart.
  21. Notorious
    The director is a cinematic equivalent of his subject, but a man who was able to reach middle age and examine that culture's good and bad points with a clear, detached mind.
  22. 2 Guns
    The director mixes the colors of his palette carefully. He uses (but never overuses) slow-motion, aerial shots, extreme close-ups and quick cuts, avoiding any self-consciously “stylish” display. He varies the pace of scenes and the angle of shots enough to keep the movie flowing, but we never feel we’re watching someone show us how clever he is.
  23. Spy Game
    Gripping, improbable plot marked by exciting sequences of action.
    • Charlotte Observer
  24. The Dead
    The Fords give us old-fashioned predators: Zombies shuffle slowly, silently, patiently forward, as implacably destructive as Time itself. Meanwhile, the Fords play off our memories from books, TV news and other movies.
  25. Doubt
    Blessedly, the kernel of the writing remains undisturbed, and its arguments are still powerful.
  26. After Life
    Like waves lapping quietly at a beach, After Life makes its subtle effect, as we wonder which memory we'd choose. [8 Oct 1999, p.7E]
    • Charlotte Observer
  27. Night Watch: Nochnoi Dozor
    The movie Night Watch is - oh hell, I don't know what it is. Imaginative. A mess. A small miracle, if really filmed for $5 million. (Although in rubles, that's probably a huge budget.) The first Russian horror movie I've seen. The first horror movie I've seen of any kind with subtitles.
  28. The Drop
    The story has overtones of “On the Waterfront.”
  29. Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India
    A wild, self-indulgent but completely captivating extravagance.
  30. The Hateful Eight
    Even if you don’t get the references, you can enjoy the ripely robust acting – especially Russell, Jackson and Leigh – and Tarantino’s storytelling skill. I could have done without the bad-boy excesses, which always seem like the mark of his immaturity, but the rest of the film comes from a mature and capable artist.
  31. Fly Away Home
    The movie takes countless liberties, including the addition of the 13-year-old girl. But authenticity doesn't matter much; we're watching a fairy tale about trust, maturity and beating the odds, and those plot threads are woven tightly together. [13 Sep 1996, p.6E]
    • Charlotte Observer
  32. Planet of the Apes
    Stuff yourself with popcorn, let the gray matter rest and enjoy what may be the best two hours of nonsense you'll see this year.
  33. Catch a Fire
    Fire shows what happens when a government systematically denies rights to one racial group for decades, but its message is more current.
  34. Kill Your Darlings
    At the center of the film lies a moral question, not a literary one: Should Ginsberg abandon the potentially visionary Carr when he turns out to be a liar, an exploiter and an emotional traitor? Should he, in fact, “kill his darling” when Carr commits a heinous act and asks Ginsberg to lie for him?
  35. Sleuth
    A pretty good movie. It just isn't a very good "Sleuth," exactly.
  36. The Little Vampire
    Watchable family films are so rare these days that we shouldn't put a stake through one with so much heart.
  37. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
    Both the good and bad remind us that the most special thing about "Skull" is the man wearing the fedora and the rakish grin. He has never worn out his welcome, and this valedictory – it can be nothing else – is a fitting one.
  38. Bon voyage
    A picture that gallops forward as soon as it breaks out of the gate. Anyone with an open mind and curiosity about history might enjoy it.
  39. Frida
    Alfred Molina makes an excellent foil as the easygoing, philandering Rivera, whose public murals were the exact opposite of Frida's private canvases.
  40. The Break-Up
    A movie that's smarter than its trailer - in fact, totally different in tone and content? That's news, and it's why The Break-Up is a pleasant surprise to the open-minded.
  41. O
    The filmmakers have a vision of the way Shakespeare can be made vibrant and vital to modern viewers, with or without the lofty original dialogue.
  42. All the Real Girls
    Wandering, atmospheric, episodic yet strangely appealing story of love.
  43. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
    Atmosphere is the main virtue with which this "Devil" can tempt us.
  44. A Mighty Wind
    It mocks folk musicians of the 1960s, who could sometimes be full of hot air. It also acknowledges that protests 40 years ago, often spearheaded by bards and balladeers, blew much-needed fresh air into post-Eisenhower society.
  45. Married Life
    This isn't a film noir, but it hovers in the shadows of that genre of discontent and disillusionment.
  46. The Ides of March
    Ides can't be said to enlighten any but the naive, and it's not likely to shock us into positive political action So what pleasure can we get from this movie? Quite a bit, as it happens.
  47. The Ladykillers
    The new version of The Ladykillers is like an able forger's copy of a masterpiece. The brushstrokes are broader, the colors are a little less subtle, and one or two portions of the canvas were finished in a hurry. But it's well worth a look if you're passing by.
  48. Eight Legged Freaks
    The cheesier it got, the more I liked it.
  49. Concussion
    Smith dominates the film. He captures the upright stance, slightly stiff movements and lilting accent of a highly educated African who realizes he doesn’t understand America, and America doesn’t understand him.
  50. Phone Booth
    A perverse kind of payback for every terrorizing cabbie, bullying streetwalker, insulting bike messenger and screaming corner grocer in Manhattan.
  51. The Legend of Tarzan
    Director David Yates, who did the last four “Harry Potter” films, delivers both big thrills at the climax and small, spooky ones when Tarzan and the others move through a world of beauty, terror and mystery.
  52. Korengal
    As in “Restrepo,” we never have the sense that Junger makes judgments. Near the end, soldiers in their 20s say their bonds with other servicemen run immeasurably deep, and they never expect to have relationships this meaningful with anyone else again.
  53. Red Eye
    A terrific thriller...until it turns into yet another Wes Craven movie.
  54. The Overnight
    Brice stops his story just before it becomes redundant – most filmmakers these days can’t say that – and although I didn’t believe the outrageous next-to-last scene, he caps it with a laugh-out-loud joke.
  55. Bounce
    For the first time since "Chasing Amy," I realized why people like Ben Affleck.
  56. Mrs Henderson Presents
    Unlike its subject, "Henderson" breaks no new ground. But like its reliable star, it's a welcome exponent of a valued tradition.
  57. Tears of the Sun
    Fuqua and his writers, Alex Lasker and Patrick Cirillo, have delivered not only the most satisfying and plausible action movie in months but one that's accidentally timely.
  58. Burn After Reading
    It's as pitiless and brutal as any of their pictures and funnier than any except "Raising Arizona."
  59. 16 Blocks
    16 Blocks is a burger movie, served by an old pro: 76-year-old director Richard Donner, who hasn't done work this interesting since the other Bush was president but who knows his way around a thriller.
  60. Blades of Glory
    Call it "Talladega Ice," and you can be nearly certain whether or not you want to see it.
  61. Love & Basketball
    Any critic likes to predict the rise of a star, so let me introduce you to Gina Prince-Bythewood.
  62. Dear Frankie
    The movie has been shot with love and wisdom, and its implausible premise doesn't get in the way of a sweetness and honesty too rarely seen.
  63. Bowling for Columbine
    At its best, the movie powerfully indicts our violent history. A montage of bloody U.S. interventions in foreign affairs over the last half-century, most overthrowing elected governments we didn't like, left me shaken.
  64. Grandma
    The temptation to soften Grandma, to sentimentalize her character or sweeten her encounters with people she has cast aside over a long life, must have been almost irresistible. Luckily, writer-director Paul Weitz resisted it.
  65. The Eagle
    An honest, basic story set forth with brevity, skill, care and intelligence.
  66. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
    The best thing about the picture is Harry's new maturity: For the first time, he dominates a picture named for him.
  67. Invincible
    Another surefire sports biography from Disney.
  68. The Monuments Men
    If you’re worried that the re-teaming of Clooney and Cate Blanchett in a World War II movie signals something like “The Good German,” fear not: She’s better here, playing a French art historian who worries the Americans will “rescue” the art in order to steal it for their own country.
  69. Miles Ahead
    Don Cheadle dominates Miles Ahead.
  70. The Aviator
    Martin Scorsese understands one character better than any other American director: the man who rises in the world to wealth or prominence without attaining what he wants most. That's why Howard Hughes is an ideal subject for this director.
  71. The Nice Guys
    Laughter trumps logic here, and the laughs flow freely.
  72. One Day
    The two actors are at their best when Emma and Dexter get emotionally naked. It's mildly enjoyable to listen to the self-deprecating banter people use to conceal anxieties, but we connect to them most deeply when they bare their souls.
  73. Another Earth
    The deliberate editing and quirky cinematography (both done by Cahill) sometimes seem at odds with each other but never get in the way of the story's honesty.
  74. The Meddler
    Scafaria doesn’t solve everyone’s problems or end with a miraculous change of mind or heart. She writes credible situations...and characters in whom we can believe.
  75. The Longshots
    An unforced, sweet-natured story about people who find small ways to touch others and rediscover the good in themselves.
  76. Inside Man
    Go with the flow, and it remains a taut and well-engineered thriller. Poke at plot incongruities, as I was doing literally on the way to the parking lot, and it starts to unravel.
  77. Deja Vu
    This seemingly simple thriller has two subtexts, one more overt than the other, that should give pause to people who claim Hollywood is always too left-wing.
  78. Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet
    How you feel about Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, one of the most visually stimulating films of this or any year, depends on 1) how much you love animation and 2) what you think of Kahlil Gibran.
  79. The Diary of a Teenage Girl
    You don’t often hear the adjective “uncomfortable” used as a compliment. But you’re seldom going to come across a movie that makes you as uncomfortable as The Diary of a Teenage Girl yet seems as true to life.
  80. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
    I won't be able to talk anybody into or out of the Pirates of the Caribbean experience now, so I'll simply offer sage advice: Hit the bathroom just before it starts. To miss any five-minute chunk of this densely plotted trilogy-capper will leave you confused.
  81. Black Swan
    Like all his (Aronofsky) films, it's lurid, visually stimulating, thoughtful, absurd in spots, well-cast and unrelentingly intense.
  82. The Magnificent Seven
    In our post-Tarantino world, Fuqua shows remarkable restraint. The long, efficiently filmed battle doesn’t douse us in blood; for once, PG-13 is the proper rating for a violent film.
  83. Daybreakers
    Daybreakers is more serious, from its A-list cast to its political commentary, with blood as a metaphor for oil. Like the best genre films, it has something on its mind.
  84. The Way, Way Back
    Sometimes you have to praise a movie backwards. In a season of clamorous action pictures, dopey comedies and grisly horrors, The Way Way Back is notable for what it doesn’t do. It doesn’t yank on your heartstrings, though you’ll be touched gently at last.
  85. The Bucket List
    The leads, who were born six weeks apart in 1937, have remarkable hare-and-tortoise chemistry.
  86. How She Move
    Choreographer Hi Hat and director Ian Iqbal Rashid kick the film into high gear every so often with dance sequences, climaxing with a dance-off in Detroit that seems too short.
  87. Michael Jordan to the Max
    It's hardly a balanced biography: There's no mention of Jordan's gambling problems or connections with Nike, whose factories overseas were criticized for underpaying workers and treating them badly.
  88. Charlotte's Web
    Everything from the book is inserted with wisdom and care, and everything added to pander to kids with short attention spans or adults who need an overtly religious message is unnecessary.
  89. Iron Man
    A brain-free ride on a cinematic bullet train.
  90. EuroTrip
    A good critic likes nothing better than to go in with low expectations and be proven wrong. EuroTrip makes me a good critic. I'd have sworn I'd never laugh again at somebody assaulting a mime, but this goofy comedy makes even that ancient concept fresh.
  91. Girl, Interrupted
    They have turned a brief, appealing, honest autobiography by Susanna Kaysen into a long, appealing, rather dishonest film.
  92. The Manchurian Candidate
    If you ride the paranoiac tide, letting Jonathan Demme's assured direction carry you along, the sardonic humor and anxiety-inducing message work on you.
  93. Chico & Rita
    Every decade or so, someone proves animation can tell a serious adult story.
  94. Sex and Lucia
    Anyone familiar with the movies of Julio Medem knows where "Sex and Lucia" is going. Or, rather, knows that it's impossible to know.
  95. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
    A film that dares to be smart, reasonably complicated and scary while swashing its buckles.
  96. Role Models
    Though its grosses may not soar into the realm occupied by "Superbad" and "American Pie," it has more sympathy for its characters.
  97. The King Is Alive
    Forget the bug-eating, cow-spearing and one-upsmanship of TV's "Survivor." The real results of isolation and deprivation unfold in The King is Alive: madness, suicide and murder.
    • Charlotte Observer
  98. Lovely & Amazing
    Watching Lovely and Amazing is like coming into a long-running, well-written television series where you've missed the first half-dozen episodes and probably won't see the next six.
  99. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
    A loving interpretation of C.S. Lewis's beloved parable for children, and it's almost perfect in every detail. Yet there's the one difficulty: It's almost perfect in every detail, fully realized in too few.
  100. Extreme Measures
    John Bailey's cinematography goes beyond the norm: Darkened rooms full of conspirators are as unsettling as Luthan's descent into an unlit subway tunnel. Danny Elfman, a mainstream film composer now that his alternative rock career is over, adds an apt score; he's angling for the late Bernard Herrmann's spot on Hollywood's scare scale. [27 Sept 1996, p.6E]
    • Charlotte Observer
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