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 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. Timeline
    Director Richard Donner finds a few startling images for bloody battle scenes, but awful dialogue prevents the actors from giving performances of any depth.
  2. Driven
    Whenever the tires stop screeching and the fenders slamming, the story lands in a brutal pile-up of cliches.
  3. How High
    The Observer won't let me get stoned before a review, so I'll never know what How High would be like after a big fat blunt. Without one, it's sloppy, broadly funny in spots and chaotic.
  4. Boys and Girls
    Designed to appeal to people who thought "She's All That" was too mentally demanding.
  5. The Quiet
    Babbit clumsily underlines emotional moods.
  6. Fool's Gold
    Of COURSE it's bad. It was always going to be. But it's worse than necessary.
  7. Snow Dogs
    Cuba Gooding Jr. lands on his behind more often than a one-legged figure skater, and the preschooler next to me giggled every time.
  8. I Am Sam
    The cancer of dishonesty begins to grow half an hour into the film, and it riddles the picture by the end.
  9. Stigmata
    Repeated lapses in continuity and common sense.
  10. Ghost Ship
    Ghost Ship, which can best be described by altering one consonant in the second word, sustains the stylishness of its opening for exactly three minutes.
  11. London Has Fallen
    No characterization. A plot you could write on a single sheet of toilet paper. Sadistic violence we’re meant to cheer. A surprise that wouldn’t fool anyone who left the theater after the opening credits and came back for the last 10 minutes.
  12. Pixels
    The script by Tim Herlihy and Timothy Dowling gets relaxed, throwaway laughs, even if it doesn’t always hold together.
  13. The Perfect Man
    There's one thing to be said for The Perfect Man: It confirms my belief that I'll never need to see another Hilary Duff movie until (1) she turns 30 or (2) she plays a crackhead in "Requiem for a Dream II."
  14. Garfield
    The filmmakers find "laughs" in sadistic violence.
  15. Nina
    [Zoe Saldana] acts with the right fire and sings beautifully and evocatively.
  16. Crossroads
    Adults will wish the movie were less simplistic, obvious, clumsily plotted and shallowly characterized. But what are adults doing in the theater at all?
  17. The Majestic
    Darabont and Sloane stumble consistently and fall into the abyss.
  18. Catwoman
    Pitof can be blamed for the 89-cent digitized sets, the jerky or rubbery special effects, some clunky performances and more continuity errors than I could count.
  19. Coyote Ugly
    Should appeal to anyone who likes films as mushy and unsurprising as baby food.
  20. View from the Top
    I think this camp classic is an accident along the lines of "Showgirls": howlingly funny, filled with gratingly earnest performances, riddled with dialogue that will be quoted at parties.
  21. Twisted
    No one associated with the film tries very hard, from cinematographer Peter Deming -- San Francisco has never looked so drab -- to composer Mark Isham, whose watery jazz score is meant to summon melancholy but merely relieves insomnia.
  22. Because I Said So
    As close to perfectly unwatchable as it can be.
  23. Time Changer
    Technically, the film can stand with most releases. The cast includes veterans Hal Linden, Paul Rodriguez and Jennifer O'Neill, all of whom do good work.
  24. Basic Instinct 2
    This script by the husband-and-wife team of Leora Barish and Henry Bean is hopelessly contrived and takes forever to get to the point. (I warn you: The film does not absolutely identify the killer.)
  25. Georgia Rule
    Hector Elizondo, who has appeared in all 15 of Marshall's features, turns up as a Basque rancher and adds a bit of sparkle. I just wish Marshall's good luck charm was not a 70-year-old actor but a fresh, honest screenplay.
  26. License to Wed
    Director Ken Kwapis uses those monster infants perfectly, down to a funny final outtake.
  27. American Outlaws
    The best work comes from Timothy Dalton as the grizzled, Scots-accented head of the Pinkertons.
  28. The Next Best Thing
    Characters behave arbitrarily and incredibly, and a clumsy resolution brings the film to a thudding halt.
  29. Dragonfly
    Eventually, though, the movie turns into a "Touched By An Angel" knockoff that dares us not to reach for a hankie while we succumb to its comforting message.
  30. Eye for an Eye
    We can all share frustration with a process that frees the Doobs of the world, but this heavy-handed movie won't provide catharsis. The filmmakers treat subtlety as a sin - unless Schlesinger thinks he's being subtle by showing us O.J. prosecutor Marcia Clark for only a couple of seconds on a TV screen. [12 Jan 1996, p.4E]
    • Charlotte Observer
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