CNN's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
For 607 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 42% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 54% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 3.9 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 61
Highest review score: 100 Come from Away
Lowest review score: 20 Dolittle
Score distribution:
  1. Negative: 44 out of 607
607 movie reviews
  1. Because profiling and modern criminology were greatly influenced by this period, there is an intellectually stimulating side to all this that No Man of God mines.
  2. Oxygen won't quite leave you breathless, but it should leave you thinking -- and surprised. For this sort of movie, that's perhaps the most precious fuel of all.
  3. Although it's nice to see the show's creative team afforded one final swing, it's too bad they don't knock it out of the park.
  4. Blackpink: Light Up the Sky manages to offer a welcome reminder that even for K-pop's reigning queens, all that glitters isn't always gold.
  5. Missing doesn’t try to reinvent the concept so much as recycle it, and the more the audience is willing to just roll with that, the more they’ll enjoy it. Yet even making that allowance, it should be taken as a cautionary note to any plans for future sequels (or reboots) that this sleuthing-by-computer thriller is already beginning to run in low-power mode.
  6. There's one clear reason to watch The Life Ahead, but for those who appreciate cinematic history, it's a good one: Sophia Loren, still striking at 86, starring in this Italian-language film directed by her son, Edoardo Ponti.
  7. The result is a humanizing look at a woman often reduced to cartoon caricature, while occasionally feeling too conspicuously like a licensed product.
  8. Mulan is big, sumptuous entertainment. It's good, but not great, transforming the story associated with the 1998 animated musical into a song-free, live-action movie that's more adequate than transcendent -- a perfectly reasonable family-viewing investment that's worth seeing, but not necessarily a must-buy.
  9. Strange and more than a little sad, You Cannot Kill David Arquette -- a documentary about the actor's adventures in wrestling -- derives most of its strength from the discomfort associated with watching it. As the son of a showbiz family, the fact that Arquette is reduced to this cry for attention more than anything reflects the enticing lure of the spotlight.
  10. Thanks to the cast (which also includes Ben Mendelsohn, near-unrecognizable as the villainous De Guiche), Cyrano is worth seeing, either now or later. But it's a relatively modest addition to the title's storied history, one where the music subtracts at least as much as it adds to the story's inherent poetry.
  11. Judy is well worth seeing, if not necessarily rushing to a theater to experience, thanks to Zellweger's uncanny ability to replicate Garland's quirks and still locate the humanity and fragility within her.
  12. Wonka only sporadically conjures cinematic magic, and most of those moments owe an oversized debt to tying directly into the earlier movie based on Roald Dahl’s story, as opposed to carving its own path for a new generation.
  13. Pretty easy to tune out.
  14. Dumb Money might lose a little nuance and complexity in corralling all its facets into movie form, but boiled down to what will please an audience (in theaters, or more likely later at home), the smart money says most people won’t care.
  15. This latest addition surpasses expectations, honoring the source while building a muscular and even thoughtful adventure around a very ape-centric concept.
  16. The inherent contradiction in Becoming, Netflix's documentary about Michelle Obama, is repeatedly articulated by the former First Lady herself: How can someone reclaim a semblance of a normal life when you are one of the world's most recognizable figures? The latest project under the Obamas' Netflix production deal doesn't fully answer that riddle, but it's an interesting contemplation of the question.
  17. Do Revenge isn’t about stretching conventions but rather simply finding another wrinkle on what has become an established formula. It does that, but for a movie where the characters speak often about their Ivy League aspirations, creatively speaking it lands more in the safety-school category.
  18. A sweet if slight love story.
  19. Overall Last Night in Soho's way-back machine delivers a thrilling trip, one that niftily brings a bit more Taylor-Joy to the world.
  20. Funny, sentimental, and anchored as always by Tony Shalhoub’s “defective detective,” it’s a worthy follow-up that goes beyond just being a nostalgic exercise.
  21. Another adventure in nostalgia that nobody really needed and yet, if not excellent, manages to be good-hearted and reasonably fun.
  22. Making the most of its extensive access to Giancarlo Granda, the figure at the center of it all, Hulu’s “God Forbid: The Sex Scandal that Brought Down a Dynasty” pulls back the curtain on a salacious tale of sex, lies, hypocrisy, and political intrigue – for streaming purposes, a divine cocktail if there ever was one.
  23. The film thus operates on multiple levels, playing like an old-fashioned caper as well as a window into history. And like its inspiration, if there are hiccups here and there, when the smoke clears it's hard to consider this delicious "Operation" anything but a rousing success.
  24. Anyone with a taste for Cold War dramas will find an intriguing addition to their cinematic library with The Courier, a fact-based story featuring Benedict Cumberbatch as a Hitchcockian everyman who becomes the unlikely conduit to a Soviet leaker of secrets in 1960. It's the kind of historical tale that, after the closing crawl, will likely send more than a few viewers running to Google to read more.
  25. Still, the madcap nature of the exercise -- and narrative road map that the earlier movie provides -- can't help but make this incarnation feel less inspired, for all its colorful irreverence, before rallying a bit at the finish.
  26. Taylor Swift details the process that lead her to speak out politically in Miss Americana, an uneven documentary that provides behind-the-scenes insight into the singer's upbringing and awakening, while occasionally feeling like the kind of celebrity reality series you might find on E! or Bravo.
  27. A vehicle with roughly the weight of a stiff breeze.
  28. What sets Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn apart is the personal connection for director Ivy Meeropol, the granddaughter of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
  29. Because the first movie generated such a bracing gust of enthusiasm, Frozen 2 will inevitably be nitpicked and judged against those lofty standards. Still, there's plenty to enjoy for those willing to chill out, and yes, let the past go.
  30. West mixes some wit in with the gore here, even if the payoff, alas, doesn’t rise to the level of the buildup. By then, though, “MaXXXine” has delivered enough nostalgia regarding its genre to merit a walk down its alleys, and not incidentally, the showcase and sendoff that Goth’s character deserves.

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