Charlotte Observer's Scores
- Movies
For 1,652 reviews, this publication has graded:
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56% higher than the average critic
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3% same as the average critic
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41% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0 points lower than other critics.
(0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 65
| Highest review score: | Frost/Nixon | |
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| Lowest review score: | Waist Deep |
Score distribution:
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Positive: 1,085 out of 1652
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Mixed: 279 out of 1652
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Negative: 288 out of 1652
1652
movie
reviews
- By Date
- By Critic Score
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman
MacDowell gives an uneven performance, as she often does, but Strathairn is ideally cast as the conflicted husband.- Charlotte Observer
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman
Stallone doesn't pander to audiences with unearned sentiment. He believes in his story, in the inspirational element that has sent thousands of folks running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art over 30 years.- Charlotte Observer
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman
It pays homage to the genre's most glorious days.- Charlotte Observer
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Lawrence Toppman
All his facets come through: the satirist, the prankster, the self-described political conservative with libertarian leanings, the anti-authoritarian who urged people to vote, the man tolerant of anything except intolerance.- Charlotte Observer
- Posted Aug 10, 2016
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Lawrence Toppman
That dragon represents the best and worst things about the film. He’s terrifying yet slightly droll.- Charlotte Observer
- Posted Dec 12, 2013
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Lawrence Toppman
If you don’t confuse this with history – or with the French film “Marguerite,” a fictional piece loosely based on FFJ – you’ll come away touched. That’s mostly because of Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant.- Charlotte Observer
- Posted Aug 10, 2016
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Lawrence Toppman
I was a little disappointed by the cop-out ending, in which debut director Gil Kenan gives up the film's frightening elements and comforts the audience with comedy and superficial emotion.- Charlotte Observer
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Lawrence Toppman
This installment substitutes psychological action for physical thrills.- Charlotte Observer
- Posted Nov 20, 2015
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Lawrence Toppman
The balance between human interaction and mechanical mayhem works well until the end, when flying suits and exploding bodies fill the screen.- Charlotte Observer
- Posted May 2, 2013
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Lawrence Toppman
The movie remains quiet and deliberate, a synonym for “boring” in some minds (though not mine). In the end, it becomes an allegory for the times in which we live.- Charlotte Observer
- Posted Jun 22, 2016
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Lawrence Toppman
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.- Charlotte Observer
- Posted Aug 10, 2016
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Lawrence Toppman
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.- Charlotte Observer
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Lawrence Toppman
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.- Charlotte Observer
- Posted Aug 10, 2016
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Lawrence Toppman
The grandest presence here is Eastwood. His directing, like his acting, is minimal: unhurried, spare, unforced, rather somber.- Charlotte Observer
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Lawrence Toppman
The filmmakers fall back on melodrama fairly often.... Yet there’s freshness in the storytelling.- Charlotte Observer
- Posted Aug 10, 2016
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Lawrence Toppman
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.- Charlotte Observer
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Lawrence Toppman
Elvis & Nixon offers an entertaining meditation on the how and the why leading up to this famously strange photo.- Charlotte Observer
- Posted Apr 21, 2016
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Lawrence Toppman
The movie gives actors many chances to shine, and they do. But I went away most impressed with Verbinski.- Charlotte Observer
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Lawrence Toppman
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.- Charlotte Observer
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Lawrence Toppman
Could pass for any serial killer movie except for some pertinent philosophizing about the nature of evil and the operations of the soul.- Charlotte Observer
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Lawrence Toppman
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.- Charlotte Observer
- Posted Jan 24, 2013
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Lawrence Toppman
The acting is so exact and the timing so crisp that it delivers precisely the satisfaction you'd anticipate.- Charlotte Observer
- Posted Nov 10, 2010
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Lawrence Toppman
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.- Charlotte Observer
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Lawrence Toppman
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.- Charlotte Observer
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Lawrence Toppman
A sweet, innocent look at an impossibly idealized high school world.- Charlotte Observer
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Lawrence Toppman
Given a choice between this and the navel-gazing of the novel, I'll take the short ride on a fast machine.- Charlotte Observer
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Lawrence Toppman
It honors the tone of that wonderful comedy while setting it in present-day New York City.- Charlotte Observer
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- Charlotte Observer
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Reviewed by
Lawrence Toppman
[Jarmusch's] most accessible film after "Night on Earth," yet it's still elliptical and enigmatic.- Charlotte Observer
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Lawrence Toppman
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.- Charlotte Observer
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