Dallas Observer's Scores

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For 1,518 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 48% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 49% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 5.9 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 59
Highest review score: 100 Final Destination 3
Lowest review score: 0 How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 678 out of 1518
  2. Mixed: 604 out of 1518
  3. Negative: 236 out of 1518
1518 movie reviews
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  1. Meet the Fockers
    It's left to Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman as Greg's parents to warm up the picture, and they light it on fire. Indeed, they're having such a swell time as Roz and Bernie Focker that they seem to be in an entirely different movie--a funnier one, a sexier one and a smarter one.
  2. The Recruit
    But by the end the audience, along with Clayton, has been jerked around so many times that it's almost too exhausting...By then, it's almost impossible to care.
  3. The Singing Detective
    Try to forget about Michael Gambon in Potter's original BBC miniseries; Keith Gordon's film is its own thing, full of Brechtian artifice and oddball humor -- Mel Gibson's old man act in particular.
  4. 9 Songs
    This movie is, essentially, porn, and whether it's a turn-on is likely to be subjective to each viewer. Those who find traditional porn too artificial should be pleased.
  5. 101 Dalmatians
    The entire remake has been dumb-dumbed by John Hughes, who wrote the script and produced.
  6. The Yards
    For Caan's shtick alone, The Yards is worthwhile, but we may also be witnessing the emergence, in Gray, of a young filmmaker who's just starting to find the range.
  7. Cape of Good Hope
    It's facile, predictable, and contrived, but there's still something winning about this multicultural drama from South Africa.
  8. Shopgirl
    One of the most schizoid films in recent memory. It opens with crystalline originality, a shimmering comedy with meticulous timing and sharply drawn characters. Then it careens carelessly into syrup. How could he (Martin) not have noticed?
  9. SubUrbia
    What's weird about subUrbia is that Linklater's zoned-out technique is wedded to Bogosian's in-your-face power-rant oratory. The result is like local anesthesia--you can see the incisions, but you can't feel them.
  10. Daddy Day Care
    Murphy inhabited Jif like a sweet, innocent child, almost as though he were delighted to shed the cynicism and get down to the sweet, chewy center. Or day-care center, in this case.
  11. Stuck on You
    That sweet streak has grown, like a cancer, and gradually killed off any of the edge their (Farrellys) humor may have once had.
  12. The Butterfly Effect
    As a thriller, The Butterfly Effect is iffy and uneven, but as a portrait of a people, it's effective and intriguing.
  13. Hollywood Homicide
    When the movie works, it gleefully skewers the clichés of the buddy cop genre... When it doesn't work, it's exactly what it purports to be lampooning--a lame, boring cop buddy movie.
  14. S.W.A.T.
    A thoroughly unremarkable police action movie starring the magnetic Samuel L. Jackson.
  15. Open Water
    It's moderately compelling drama, but also fairly static stuff, image-wise.
  16. Manic
    Don Cheadle is wonderful, as always, as the former drug-addict-turned-psychiatrist who worries it's all hopeless but refuses to stop trying. Sounds clichéd, perhaps, but for the most part it works, thanks to piercingly authentic performances.
  17. The Kid
    This is quintessential "family entertainment."
  18. House of 1000 Corpses
    If your expectations aren't too high, there's lots of cool shit on-screen.
  19. Ask the Dust
    Farrell's performance possesses a touch too many mannerisms on loan from Tyrone Power and Clark Gable; you can almost hear the gears turning in his brain each time he cocks his head or raises an eyebrow in homage.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Smoke Signals
    The film is bound together around the oral tradition and the act of storytelling, and this is where the filmmakers shine.
  21. Titanic Town
    It's hard to know just how much to trust Titanic Town.
  22. Boogeyman
    Director Stephen T. Kay (The Last Time I Committed Suicide) busts off some cool shots, and Eric Kripke's story is pretty sound until the finale. Worth a look for horror fans, but nothing classic.
  23. Bon voyage
    The stately pacing and meandering plot often reduce this potential classic to generous eye candy.
  24. Kundun
    I wanted to be transported by this movie; I wasn't quite. But I respect it.
  25. De-Lovely
    Ultimately, it's the songs that energize this highlight, and lowlight, reel; you may forget the movie when you walk out of the theater, but you will do so while humming the soundtrack.
  26. Quills
    Quills is bound to titillate some, but for most it's likely to summon little more than a few Oscars and appreciative yawns.
  27. Dear Frankie
    Happily, the director and writer Andrea Gibb treat little Frankie with as much dramatic respect as the grown-up characters, and he saves the movie from killing sweetness.
  28. Ice Princess
    Silly, yes, but sweet and fun too.
  29. Titan A.E.
    Is it worth the goofy characters and weak story for the effects and action sequences? Absolutely.
  30. Sleepy Hollow
    Hasty pacing makes for a rich and exciting movie, but not an especially spooky or spellbinding one.
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