Christian Science Monitor's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
For 4,492 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 55% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 43% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.1 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 67
Highest review score: 100 'Round Midnight
Lowest review score: 0 Couples Retreat
Score distribution:
4492 movie reviews
  1. As clumsy as its title.
  2. Great cast, great atmosphere, little sense or first-rate suspense.
  3. Only part of it is in 3-D, but youngsters should enjoy pulling their special specs on and off at appropriate moments.
  4. The only surprise to me about this movie is that there no jokes about kilts – a serious omission in an otherwise entirely predictable farce.
  5. A director of Frankenheimer's stature deserves less sensationalistic material, and so does his audience.
  6. Perhaps Nair believes that heroism in our tabloid era has become degraded. If so, she overcorrected. Amelia is so pure in heart that it slides right off the screen.
  7. Was Paper Man worth making? Captain Excellent and I would probably differ on that one.
  8. Daft, excessive, boring.
  9. This isn't a Ferrara classic like "King of New York," but even his less- memorable pictures carry an eccentric kick no other director could duplicate.
  10. Any resemblance (except qualitatively) to "An Officer and A Gentleman" is strictly unaccidental.
  11. What little plot there is involves drug-running and is just about as disposable as everything in this paltry excuse for a movie.
  12. One thought that occurred to me while pacing myself through Flypaper: With the economy being what it is, will there be a rash of bank robbery movies?
  13. Coil up with a tub of popcorn, get a stranglehold on your soda - this is a creepy, action-packed boat ride down a jungle river with lots of huge snakes dropping by for man-sized snacks.
  14. The overlong comedy has few laughs and flirts far too much with racist, homophobic humor. A waste of a fine cast.
  15. To see Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie in The Tourist is like watching a chemistry experiment gone horribly wrong.
  16. Filmmakers run out of ideas long before the final.
  17. Given the decibel level of this movie, it's a miracle that these guys were able to give creditable performances. To give you an idea of the magnitude of the achievement: Imagine delivering a stirring rendition of the Gettysburg Address while standing under Niagara Falls.
  18. Most of the movie is standard action fare, but the political commentary is interesting when it's allowed to surface.
  19. Hammer plays the Lone Ranger as a clueless, stolid square, and the resulting contrast with Depp’s cartoonishness isn’t odd-couple funny, just blah.
  20. The film is a so-so slog through a torrent of tired jokes.
  21. It's a lot more cornball – i.e., enjoyable – than "The Tree of Life," which tried for some of the same things. Utopia, with its big blue skies and peachy-keen people, may not rank right up there with Shangri-La, but it's close enough.
  22. Clocking in at 160 minutes, this interminable movie comes across like a rough cut. Perhaps Lee believed its length would give it gravitas. The opposite is true.
  23. It's fun to watch for a while. But the movie runs much too long, and a few funny bits aside, most of the comedy writing is lame.
  24. Comedy that seems designed to be as bad as it can be.
  25. The screenplay aims high in terms of humanity and complexity, but director Hoge drains it of energy with listless meanderings that provide more yawns than insights.
  26. As the corrupt, populist Louisiana governor Willie Stark, Crawford was such a swaggering behemoth that it would take Godzilla to upstage him. Sean Penn isn't quite that.
  27. It's a bewildering mix of very smart and very dumb, but the cast, which also features a hilarious Joan Cusack, Ben Kingsley, Marisa Tomei, Dan Aykroyd as the Cheney-esque ex-vice president, and Hilary Duff as a Turaqistan airhead pop star, is tiptop.
  28. Let's look at the bright side. If this movie bombs as it deserves to, we won't have to sit through "Analyze Those" a few years from now!
  29. Danny Boyle's dark comedy has stylishly filmed moments, but overall it's a queasy blend of amusing, pointless, and sometimes quite nasty material.

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