Empire's Scores

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For 6,820 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 54% higher than the average critic
  • 3% same as the average critic
  • 43% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 0.7 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Movie review score: 66
Highest review score: 100 Oppenheimer
Lowest review score: 20 Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,008 out of 6820
  2. Mixed: 3,654 out of 6820
  3. Negative: 158 out of 6820
6820 movie reviews
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  1. PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie
    A TV show expansion that is much better than expected. Kids will be there on the double to lap it up, and adults will find it tolerable, which is about as much as you can hope for. But we won't rest for one second until we find out what's happened to Everest. Bring in Benoit Bark to solve the mystery next time around.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Tove
    A solid if slight look at the quicksilver, complex character behind one of children’s literature’s most beloved creations.
  3. Whitney: Can I Be Me
    An informative but incomplete look at Whitney Houston’s life and death, this will frustrate fans as much as it fascinates them.
  4. Swimming Upstream
    Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis, predictably impressive in the roles of abusive, alcoholic dad and troubled-but-tough mum.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Hostage
    Right from the intriguing opening sequence, which hints at the bleakness which envelops the movie, Willis’ Talley is an interesting character.
  6. The Miseducation of Cameron Post
    A coming-of-age story which thoughtfully and heartfully tackles the repellent practice of conversion therapy. Moretz is excellent, but this summer camp/institution drama cocktail could have done with a little more fizz.
  7. Killing Them Softly
    A good, efficient crime thriller, let down by clunky social commentary but lifted by excellent performances, including perhaps Brad Pitt's recent best.
  8. Last Breath
    The film is let down by an approach that goes for impact over insight, but Last Breath is a worthy entry to the ‘hostile environment’ documentary subgenre.
  9. Speed Racer
    It'll split the ranks like a pizza cutter: you might admire it as a Warholian blur of pop art, gawp and gasp at its Hot Wheels-for-real dynamism, or get a headache.
  10. Stillwater
    Stillwater mashes up quest-for-justice, father-daughter dramatics, fortysomething romance and mid-life introspection for a refreshingly adult drama. It doesn’t coalesce completely, but Damon and Cottin keep it engaging.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Echo Valley
    An intelligent, sapphic-tinged and superbly acted rural thriller with Moore, Sweeney, Gleeson and Shaw all on fine form, only slightly dampened by some blatant product placement.
  12. The Transformers: The Movie
    Has cult status now but the plot is fiendishly complicated.
  13. Mother's Day
    A nasty little chiller from the Saw director with the evergreen De Mornay on top form.
  14. Dante's Peak
    This is yet another one of those mindlessly enjoyable outings which eschews such unimportant details as plot or characterisation in favour of the biggest, flashiest special effects money can buy. Twister with lava, if you will.
  15. Red Dawn
    Red Dawn is at once a mainstream shoot ‘em up action picture and an ideologically demented exercise in American paranoia.
  16. The Nutcracker and the Four Realms
    As sweet as a sugar plum and only slightly more nutritious, this shows scars from a tumultuous road to the screen but still emerges as a whimsical, likeable fairy tale.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Great Beauty
    Sumptuous and self-indulgent, Sorrentino's latest is a Fellini-like feast for the eyes.
  18. Dial M for Murder
    Despite Hitchcock's own reservations this is definitely worth a look. Interesting to his aficionados and darkly funny and depressing in turns.
    • 28 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Highlander: The Final Dimension
    Lame, but in a good way.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Jumanji
    On a scene by scene basis, it is mostly great fun but suffers from a contrived script which repetitively drags characters back to the eponymous magical board game for another effect-producing throw of the dice.
  21. True Things
    It says little that is new and lacks heat, but Wilson and Burke inhabit a compelling mismatched couple, with Wootliff finding cinematic ways to get under their skin. A flawed but admirable attempt to take the temperature of a dark, modern relationship.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sommersby
    A romantic drama which has lost some of the intended edge thanks to the Hollywood treatment.
  23. Q & A
    More than an average thriller, but far from Lumet's finest hour.
  24. Dark River
    This is a wilder, bigger thing than just another farmyard sink drama. There may be little you haven’t seen elsewhere, but there’s no denying the skill here.
  25. Wendy and Lucy
    Slow, ponderous, meticulously rendered realism that will appeal to specific audiences of slow, ponderous, meticulously rendered realism, with a heart.
  26. Lone Survivor
    A severe portrait of fortitude under extreme pressure, somewhat marred by blinkered politics.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Time Traveler's Wife
    Competent and well-cast, but it crams too much into the runtime and loses the elegance of the novel.
  28. Carriers
    A moody, engaging end-of-the-world horror-drama, if a bit too apocalypse-lite.
  29. The Water Diviner
    It’s an odd mix of "Saving Private Ryan" odyssey and romantic melodrama. It has sincerity, sensitivity and is often ravishing to look at but is let down by a chocolate box love story. Still, Crowe still might have a "Braveheart"/"Dances With Wolves" in him yet.
  30. Wedding Crashers
    Wedding Crashers doesn't quite live up to its promise, but through no fault of its off-the-wall cast.
  31. The Real Charlie Chaplin
    In its search for the personality behind the creator of one of cinema’s most famous comic characters, The Real Charlie Chaplin too often lapses into dreary convention, despite flashes of brilliance in its use of archive footage.
  32. Hysteria
    Lightly humorous, well performed and not nearly as smutty as you might imagine. The earth may not move, but there are tingles of pleasure along the way.
  33. The Party's Just Beginning
    A strikingly odd and original debut that is admirable for taking the triple-threat of suicide, depression and addiction in its nonchalant stride, although the confusing presentation of separate timelines mutes the overall impact.
  34. Battlestar Galactica
    Although evidently a rip-off — there were hints of Lucas even taking the matter to the courts — this spacebound wagon train, whose limits are readily apparent, is great fun.
  35. The Matrix Revolutions
    The Year Of The Matrix will be remembered as an indulgence for fans, while the original movie will be affectionately held as a separate entity by a bigger crowd, much as the original "Star Wars" trilogy hasn't really been tainted by divisions over Episodes I and II.
  36. Last Chance Harvey
    Undemanding, observant and beautifully performed, this is Richard Curtis-lite with added reassurance: no challenging questions here.
  37. The Armstrong Lie
    A documentary of two halves, Gibney's character study of Armstrong is tough and forensic. But whether through a lingering admiration or the film's origins as a straightforward celebration of the cyclist's talents, there are moments when its powder remains a little dryer than perhaps it should.
  38. Out of Africa
    Just as the film captures a world (Imperialism, hunting, colonialism) that has faded away, so this film feels like one of the last of it's kind.
  39. Kingpin
    As a barrel of easy, unsophisticated laughs, Kingpin delivers in spades.
  40. Frantic
    Frantic is Polanski's most satisfying film since Chinatown, and one of the best traditional thrillers to come down the pike in quite some time.
  41. Pina
    It's a surprise to see Wim Wenders embracing 3D in its full, feature-length glory but the medium works well to capture the graceful swirl of the German choreographer's work.
  42. Paddington In Peru
    While all of the signature elements are present and correct, right down to the soul-shrivelling hard stare, some of the warmth and wit and dashes of brilliant eccentricity we’ve become used to are absent.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Rescue Dawn
    Herzog’s planted rather too firmly in his discomfort zone, but Bale once again confirms himself as one of our most intense, committed and watchable actors.
  44. The YouTube Effect
    An ambitious documentary on one of the most intriguing, frightening phenomena of our time. The attempt to cover every aspect of a broad topic results in an intriguing if slightly disjointed watch.
  45. Mortal Kombat
    Not quite a flawless victory, but a solid win all the same. Any future follow-ups would do well to give us an actual Mortal Kombat tournament to enjoy.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Irina Palm
    There's a heartwarming quality that softens the hardcore setting but this does lack an assured, er, hand.
  47. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
    This is unlikely to win Kathryn Lansky's antipodean owl fantasy any new fans, but even the bemused (and confused) can luxuriate in some grand-scale visual storytelling.
  48. The Pearl Button
    Despite the striking photography, this fascinating denunciation of 150 years of persecution and oppression lacks Guzmán's customary trenchancy and restraint.
  49. Out of the Furnace
    A quality production, with awards-bid performances from Bale and Affleck to prove it... but, as signalled by the curiously unmemorable title, it flounders while trying to come up with a story to embody the things it wants to say about the sorry state of modern America. Worth seeing, but a near-miss.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Code 46
    Cinematography, production design and music are all top-notch, but the film largely succeeds because of the leads -- two fine actors at the top of their game.
  51. Family Romance, LLC
    A compelling curio from Werner Herzog, who investigates a strange real-life phenomenon through a fictional lens. It's worth watching, especially if you enjoy Herzog's lateral take on life, but it's hard not to wish he'd just made it as a straight documentary.
  52. The Rainmaker
    It's just so unremarkable. Which, considering its director's monumental output (both good and bad) is, frankly, a bit depressing.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
    A sometimes whimsical and magical take on the life of one of Britain’s most artistically charged rock stars. Serkis shines in his role as the troubled singer.
  54. Gifted
    Warm and heartfelt performances from the two principals are undercut by a formula that too readily reveals the outcome. Interesting workings fail to fully add up. Must do better next term.
  55. Bad Influence
    As Lowe systematically dismantles Spader's antiseptic existence, Hanson and writer David Koepp handle the thriller plot well, with Lowe effective as the plastically beautiful but deeply dangerous bad influence of the title.
  56. Super Troopers 2
    A sequel nobody needed, and very few demanded, but one that is nice to have anyway. Very daft and very childish and mostly very funny.
    • 51 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Man in My Basement
    Though The Man In My Basement juggles a few too many ideas, Nadia Latif has crafted an unnerving thriller with dynamite performances from leads Willem Dafoe and Corey Hawkins. 
  58. The Secret of My Succe$s
    Typically paper thin, the plot and the morality are blown away by the charms of the leading man and a soundtrack that has been hand-picked to get an audience on side. Unadulterated silliness, but harmless fun.
  59. Ellie Parker
    A splendid performance by Naomi Watts holds together this smart and astutely restrained lampoon of life in the Hollywood basement.
  60. The Biggest Little Farm
    The gentle rhythm of this timely, environmentally conscious documentary will temporarily draw you away from the world of tiny screens into a partially ambiguous yet fulfilling tale of endurance.
  61. The Doors
    Val Kilmer is extraordinary as Morrison, holding the centre with a demonic charisma, while Stone recreates the late '60s milieu with vibrant versimilitude.
  62. Risen
    It has its moments, but it blows the interesting premise — the resurrection of Jesus told as a mystery — too early for an overlong, overly religious finale.
  63. Girl Picture
    A small but effective portrait of adolescence in Scandinavia, unpretentious enough to avoid heavy-handed lessons, but not bold enough to become an all-timer.
  64. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
    A gentle trance-out and the strangest Palme d'Or winner in a while.
  65. The Seventh Fire
    A gruelling watch and a searing indictment of America's disregard for its indigenous peoples.
  66. High Spirits
    It's safe, it's mainstream and it's silly, but Guttenberg and Hannah strike up enough chemistry to give this big budget apparition at least a little depth.
  67. Ne Zha 2
    At once awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping, eye-rolling and head-scratching, this is animated cinema on a scale rarely seen. It doesn’t always hang together, but on its box-office achievements alone, Ne Zha 2 has earned a place with the immortals.
  68. Cars 3
    By driving back to the core homespun wisdom of Cars, the third film is a course correct from the second. But this is still not vintage Pixar.
  69. Hammer of the Gods
    A bloody-knuckled fightfest, back-dropped by the beautiful Welsh countryside, this defies its budget to bring a little epic to Viking Britain.
  70. C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America
    This is a clever premise stretched perhaps a little too far.
  71. Little Fish
    Strong performances and meticulous direction make this consistently disconcerting, but the subplot distracts from the moving human drama.
  72. The Ordeal
    A black comedy with flashes of genius, but let down by a sharp slide into chaos.
  73. Henry & June
    An old-fashioned literary biopic with all cliches intact and some pseudo-steamy grapplings to keep interest, if you must, up.
  74. Attack of the Lederhosen Zombies
    Rising to the challenge of doing something new(ish) with an overworked sub-genre, this may not be particularly scary or funny. But it belies its modest budget to splatter to knowing effect.
  75. Red White & Royal Blue
    It is entirely predictable from moment to moment and frequently laughable in its portrayal of international relations and politics, but it’s also funnier than it needed to be, and, thanks chiefly to Zakhar Perez, often charming.
  76. The Driver
    A fair-to-middling auto-noir with a hole in the middle roughly the size of its leading man’s head.
  77. Totally Killer
    It’s not a classic, but this colourful combination of Halloween and Back To The Future is undeniably a scream.
  78. Beast
    An old-fashioned, B-movie creature-feature with some CG gloss. Beast is as predictable as anything but it’s a fun, silly, well-made film about a man punching a big cat.
  79. Department Q: The Keeper of Lost Causes
    Odd-couple chemistry and a dark underbelly keep this Danish noir adaptation compelling.
  80. Liam Gallagher: As It Was
    Liam Gallagher: As It Was lacks the narrative shape and drama of previous Oasis doc Supersonic, but provides an interesting snapshot of an artist in transition, both professionally and personally.
  81. The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
    While strong on establishment prejudice, the coverage of clashing egos and agendas isn’t always incisive.
  82. Lightyear
    Despite its messy plot and underwhelming villain, the strong voice performances and stunning visuals — and, of course, Sox the cat — make Lightyear a solid space adventure.
  83. 47 Ronin
    Perhaps a folly and – Kikuchi aside - too deadpan to be a romp, this is still a decent, colourful samurai spectacle with a classical look (lots of symmetrical compositions) and a story which stands up under multiple retellings.
  84. Blonde
    There’s a fine line between depicting the way Marilyn Monroe was underestimated, and joining in with that assessment. Blonde doesn’t always wind up the right side of that line, but has spectacular visual fireworks to spare.
  85. Nicholas and Alexandra
    A lengthy, visually impressive period piece with little in the way of new material or fresh spins on history to distinguish it.
  86. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
    This doesn’t reinvent the wheel, and keeps you waiting too long for the final showdown — but when the creatures collide, it still delivers satisfying thrills.
  87. Memoirs of a Geisha
    A beautiful, exotic and well-acted cultural hybrid, but it’s never as moving as it ought to be.
  88. Lee Cronin's The Mummy
    Domestic chills, body horror, paranormal scares and gore-drenched action combine in a very distinct but rather uneven — and at times contentious — take on a classic monster icon.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Tango & Cash
    Stallone and Russell play well off each other, and with Palance lurking in the background, this buddy-breakout never loses its way.
  90. Steel Magnolias
    It may be unfair to compare a film with its stage source, but the fact remains that the film, while retaining a great deal of both humour and pathos, is a less persuasive work and more obviously a vehicle for a starry ensemble.
  91. Fighting with My Family
    Packed with plenty of heart and relatability — and a powerhouse performance from Jack Lowden — it never fully resolves the tension between the grit and glamour of the wrestling worlds the Knight family inhabit.
  92. Along Came Polly
    It’s not bad, but given all the talent involved, it would have been nice for Hamburg to push the envelope a bit further and deliver something with real bite. As it is, this is more of a pleasant, but forgettable, time-filler.
  93. The Boy Downstairs
    Zosia Mamet is the major selling point here. In a film that’s lovely but unlikely to prove memorable, she shows she can carry a film with immense charm.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    H Is for Hawk
    A birdie biopic that’s too keen to avoid ruffling feathers, Lowthorpe’s film still boasts two brilliant lead performances — a magnificent Foy and an even more majestic Mabel.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Whistle
    It may come dressed in borrowed robes, but this is a no-holds-barred horror with real bite — and surely the start of a new franchise.
  96. Kandahar
    Gerard Butler proves he has more in the tank than just thoughtless action with this Middle East-set thriller, which is unexpectedly interested in the people and politics behind the usual explosions.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Orlando
    Continually clearing its throat to utter something profound about sexuality, this never quite delivers the speech, though its failure to fully engage the mind is made up for by its captivation of the eye.
  98. Jumper
    It’s Liman’s least charismatic action movie and the least developed, but it still packs some cracking action into its brief running time and lays foundations on which a great franchise could be built.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Friend
    Naomi Watts’ exceptional performance is the crucial element of this moving if flawed tale. The film to see if you’ve ever wondered how to tackle grief with a ginormous dog in the Big Apple.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Under the Skin
    Odd and sexy, troubling and touching, frustrating and mesmerising, dull and haunting. A film by Jonathan Glazer.
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