Christian Science Monitor's Scores

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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:
  1. Positive: 2,780 out of 4492
  2. Mixed: 1,361 out of 4492
  3. Negative: 351 out of 4492
4492 movie reviews
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    • 76 Metascore
    • 83 Critic Score
    Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer
    Although the documentary is something of a patchwork affair and lacks the late singer's ineffable smoothness and rhythmic brilliance, it emphatically makes the case that here was one of the four or five all-time great female jazz voices – or "song stylists," as she called herself.
  2. Henry Poole Is Here
    Some touching moments, but too blandly inspirational.
  3. Tropic Thunder
    Biting as it tries to be, Tropic Thunder is mostly toothless. Its targets – Hollywood vanity, Hollywood tantrums – are easy hits.
  4. Elegy
    While this may seem like an apologia for randy older men, it doesn't come off that way, and Cruz gives her best performance to date.
  5. Red
    Any movie that opens with the killing of a pet dog is definitely going to capture your attention. But where do you go from there?
  6. Pineapple Express
    Goony, so-so comedy.
  7. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
    The only genuine moments of emotion come not from the lead actresses but from that great trouper Blythe Danner.
  8. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
    There is one bit of good news. For all you abominable snowman fans out there, "The Mummy" is filled with yetis. And, boy, are they ever angry.
  9. Swing Vote
    Dusted off and brought up to date, it's still the same old Capracorn – minus the populist pizzazz he might have provided.
  10. Frozen River
    Melissa Leo is startlingly good...You feel like you're watching a life, not a performance.
  11. The X Files: I Want to Believe
    Billy Connolly, as a scurvy priest who may or may not be a visionary, steals the acting honors.
  12. Step Brothers
    Reilly is a good foil for Ferrell, but too many of their scenes together have the effect of improv night at the comedy club.
  13. American Teen
    Like much reality TV, sections of American Teen seem patently staged, or coached, for the camera.
  14. Brideshead Revisited
    It's a great piece of work in a movie that, whatever its failings, deserves to be seen even if you swear undying allegiance to the BBC mini-series.
  15. Man on Wire
    Petit, by the way, is still very much alive and spry. I saw him at a screening of the film at the Sundance Film Festival where he spoke to the audience afterwards. On his way up to the podium, he tripped.
  16. The Dark Knight
    This comic-book movie is more disturbing, and has more freakish power, than anything else I've seen all year.
  17. Mamma Mia!
    Poor Pierce Brosnan. Sport that he is, he does his level best to be a song-and-dance man but it's just not in him. He's touchingly awful. The same could probably be said for the entire movie.
  18. Space Chimps
    Why would you take your kids to see Space Chimps, an uninspired animated feature about chimp astronauts, when you could take them instead to see "Wall-E"? And if they've already seen "Wall-E," you're really lowering the bar by venturing into this one.
  19. Hellboy II: The Golden Army
    Hellboy II comes across as an original. But being original is not always the same thing as being wonderful.
  20. Journey to the Center of the Earth
    It has its modicum of suspense, and Brendon Fraser, who stars as intrepid professor Trevor Anderson – who does indeed journey to the center of the Earth – is his usual heroically affable self.
  21. Meet Dave
    Eddie Murphy is one of the most alarmingly gifted comic actors America has ever produced but he persists in making comedies that are beneath him.
  22. Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
    As an anatomy not only of Polanski's psyche but also of the legal system he confronted, it's as baroquely compelling as "The Dark Knight."
  23. Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
    We are treated to all manner of worshipy recollections from a stable of Thompson's admirers, including, believe it or not, Patrick Buchanan and James Baker. Who said gonzo politics doesn't make for strange bedfellows?
  24. The Wackness
    Kingsley is amusing to watch, however, even though he overdoses on strangeness. He's like a superannuated hippie crossed with the swami he just played in "The Love Guru."
    • Christian Science Monitor
  25. Hancock
    What begins as a pretty good comedy devolves rapidly into a high-flown example of Hollywood messagemongering.
  26. Tell No One
    Canet has a good feeling for lowlife atmosphere and he works up a few fine Hitchcockian twirls. Kristin Scott Thomas and Nathalie Baye round out the sleek cast.
  27. WALL-E
    The story line for WALL-E is probably too convoluted for small kids, and sometimes it suffers from techie overload, but it's more heartfelt than anything on the screens these days featuring humans.
  28. Wanted
    Violence in the movies, no matter how many CGI effects are utilized, can't help but be far more luridly realistic. And, in the case of Wanted, to what end?
  29. The Last Mistress
    Decorous to a fault, in the manner of middling Eric Rohmer talkfests, it's a film that could use some shaking up.
  30. Trumbo
    Family home movies and photos and archival clips round out the film, which holds its hero-worshiping to fairly tolerable levels.
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