Empire's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
For 6,849 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 0.9 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:
6849 movie reviews
  1. An insanely effective no-brainer of a film, sparkling with a simple charm and energy rarely witnessed this side of illegal substances.
  2. Whilst this fly is not as tightly scripted or keenly directed as its parent, it does have pace, breathless tension and the sort of gross-out effects that rules out kebabs for some time after the credits have rolled.
    • 24 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    A dodgy script and weak direction means the decent performances fall flat.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    With remarkable performances, aggressive direction and a cracking pace, this is superb cinema, even if the historical accuracy leaves much to be desired.
  3. Given such a cloying and utterly predictable plot, it's surprising that Three Fugitives works as well as it does. Nolte, all big shoulders and bashfulness shows a pleasant self-deprecating talent and copes very well with the array of humiliations ranged against him.
  4. Unfairly neglected, perfectly creepy and disturbing suburban bizarro drama.
  5. Performances, plot and landings are nailed down, but there's not enough invention here for the film to achieve cult status.
  6. "Save your last breath...to scream" reads the tagline - we advise you save it for the inevitable sigh as the credits roll on this monstrous B-Movie farce.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A riveting portrait of a complex man who, like Stone himself, struggles with being a favourite of the institution(s) he attempts to rebel against.
  7. Sentimental, cliched and at times overdone but a true weepy if ever there was one.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Steve Martin does his schtik to perfection and Michael Caine unveils some adroit comic timing in this charming but mediocre comedy.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Unrelenting, unremitting, a brilliant broad-brush of a parody.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The humour, when it comes, is on a par with Reitman's Ghosbusters, but the film feels, rather than the solid comedy it is, like a massive missed opportunity.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Murray doing what he does best, if you like that sort of thing.
  8. The first film had its moment of charm, and the cast were good enough to overcome the downright stupidity of the storyline, but this is simply a dreary bore that takes advantage of a terrific cast by moving them about on the screen without giving them anything to do. One long yawn.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sharp animation and powerful visualisation of scale will enthrall a young audience but the clumsy cub-scout moralising feels, well, extinct.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Lacks the classic Disney charm that works for adults as well as kids.
  9. 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.
  10. An explosion of garish colour, wacky detail and surreal complications, Almodovar’s very funny, urban comedy overflows with the unexpected. See it!
    • 44 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    To say this is the best of the Ernest series is no great compliment, but there are enough knowing film jibes here, and ample seasonal tomfoolery, to keep a family in their seats.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Occasional misgivings about Streep's accent aside the powerful performances and sharp script augment this revealing human drama.
  11. It's nothing wildly original, but it is pacey and entertaining when it gets going.
  12. A bizarre, intriguing combination of political allegory and old-fashioned paranoid horror.
  13. MametÂ’s gem of a movie, with a great final twist, goads the Godfathers with just as much invention and wit as the much higher profile Married To The Mob.
  14. It's incredible that a film could be so closely patterned on Carpenter's still-thrilling original movie and yet be so stupid, unscary and plodding as Halloween 4 is.
  15. An embarrassing mish-mash of comedy and horror which fits neither criteria.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Foster is simply fantastic as the tough Sarah, unshakeable in her belief that justice has not been done and that she has a right to demand it. McGillis, from a slow start, builds beautifully and by the time the action has switched to the courtroom, she has shed her starchy persona for a true advocate's passion.
  16. Little atmosphere and no surprises.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A compelling mix of music and misery as Bird flushes himself down the can.
  17. Paul Schrader's intense drama pulls out all the stops.
  18. A small film, but fresh and immensely charming.
  19. Exposing the bleak reality of a supposedly more innocent time, this inspired blend of musical and melodrama succeeds in being both fond and forlorn, artistic and authentic.
  20. Despite Lumet's home-spun pincer movement on the espionage/conspiracy genres, cliché still sneaks up and nips the film into submission.
  21. For anyone who appreciates artistic integrity and is interested in genuinely independent films, the prolific and highly personal work of John Sayles is essential viewing.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Jonathan Demme's follow-up to "Swimming To Cambodia" is a typically entertaining diversion.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Surprisingly watchable for the third sequel and despite its general predictability it's entertainingly inventive.
  22. This was controversial at the time and that put alot of people off, believing that the film was probably all hype, but this is a respectful and complex work of fiction around the concepts of the biblical character and his life.
  23. Good idea to cast the brat pack in a Western but this was badly realised and altogether a bit flat.
    • 26 Metascore
    • 20 Critic Score
    A mercenary display of product placement and a bad advertisment for filmmaking.
    • 12 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Cruise oozes as much charm as in Top Gun and The Colour of Money, but the mix of bar-acrobatics and Caribbean love isn't anywhere near strong enough to get you drunk.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    Getting the best out of a middling novel, Romero finds new, less gruesome avenues for his skills.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Landis' latest keeps you laughing not with it's originality (of which there is little) but with it's confidence to out-joke it's predecessors on this much-trodden ground.
  24. Entertaining family movie for rainy nights and Christmas holidays.
  25. Ultimately lost in it's own contrivances, Big Business still manages a few laughs thanks to it's big name leading lady.
  26. Big
    As a crowd-pleasing comedy it works. But it really could have been so much more.
  27. Strays slightly from the formula and therefore loses some of its mindless fun credentials.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    None of the energy of Mick Dundee's first foray has crept into this sequel, despite it being so close on the heels of the original. A must for lovers of the weathered outback and the even-more weathered Paul Hogan only.
  28. Willow is not without its charms - the effects are more than special, the set-pieces suitably epic but it just doesn't fulfill the promise of certain other fantasy films.
    • Empire
  29. A no-holds-barred assault on hollywood cop sensibilities that could have benefited from more comic diversions.
  30. All pout and pose, with no spine to speak of; a beast with no back.
  31. An otherworldly tale of childhood and a definitive work of imagination.
  32. An insipid '80s nostalgia piece really, held together by Fox's performance and several neat turns from his support.
  33. The combination of Neil Simon and Mike Nichols has the pair of them back to somewhere near their best.
  34. Pretty terrible sequel in every respect.
  35. Vice Versa knows its place and, rather than attempting anything oddball, sticks close to the body swap formula in order to gain a decent smattering of laughs. No classic, but a watchable comedy that will find an audience.
  36. Impeccably mounted and played, this is gastro-cinema at its most sensual and intoxicating.
  37. Thoroughly charming, and thoroughly deserving of its cult status.
  38. 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.
  39. Appealing, emotional and with a strong enough performance by Rice-Edwards as the boy in his own little war-free world.
  40. Good performances, but If you're looking for an uplifting tale of hope against despair, look elsewhere.
  41. Louis Malle, possibly at his best here. The drama is subtle but affecting.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Entertaining and ambitious horror hokum, slightly tarnished by a disappointingly obvious "shock" ending.
  42. It’s arguably every bit as good as Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita.
  43. In another variation on a theme, this plodding drama may have its heart in the right place but, along side a gaggle of angst-ridden Hughes dramas of the period, fails to stand out amongst the crowd.
  44. Average example of MadMaxploitation.
  45. Road movies should be pleasurable and free-spirited, but Candy Mountain drags too much weight around.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    One of Levinson's best films, and one of Hollywood's best films on the whole Vietnam subject.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The small screen doesn't quite do justice to the rich visuals but with an incredible story and fine performances, it is still a compulsive and moving epic.
  46. You end up with this perky but pointless rehash of the cute alien format that became embedded in the late ‘80s.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    In a film tracing the endless battles between style and substance, Brooks delivers both in abundance.
  47. A classic screwball comedy that draws its inspiration from the 1930's genre. The jokes are quick and amusing enough to carry it through it's hour-and-three-quarters. Russell and Hawn have fun with the characters which comes through and makes it all the funnier.
  48. As with Platoon, Stone captures the horrific essence of an environment and transfers it to us without the need for prior knowledge. Dazzling filmmaking.
  49. Always a spoof rather than a homage, this comedy soon realises there's only so many laughs you can plunder from the heavy premise and the repetitive carriages.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Spielberg's technical ability is very clear, with much to appreciate on close examination.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Another aching heartbreaker of a film by Berri that absorbs and rewards the audience for sticking with Manon on her sun-beaten quest.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    A warm, mature offering from Hughes, with Martin's restraint a perfect counterpoint to Candy's enormous (and enormously amusing) fooling around. You'll find sympathy here, but just as many calamitous antics as you'd expect in any Hughes vehicle.
  50. Charming and watchable. The three leads show their comedy potential.
  51. Driven by cliches and almost completely ignoring the psychological growth of the children coping with the loss of their parents, it doesn't take long for this to descent into meaningless schlock.
  52. Never managing to look more hi-tech or further on from 1987 than, well, Hi-tech trainers, this Arnie vehicle still runs it's bloody course without dropping many gears. A brainless, breathless thrill.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Only stony hearts won't be moved by Attenborough's vivid, if occasionally sentimental, evocation of a great well of human potential cruelly snubbed out.
  53. Not as closely controlled as My Beautiful Laundrette, but still a purposeful cross-cultural comedy that raises a few questions alongside the few laughs.
  54. Convincingly sozzled performances but, like Bukowski's poetry, there is little meaningful here to take away.
  55. There are no gothic extravagances in Kathryn Bigelow's bone-dry, style-rich, noir-steeped vampire western. Instead it comprises a fascinatingly modern take on blood sucking mythology, shedding tradition to examine the creatures as human counterparts.
  56. A patchwork of a movie that ultimately knows where it's going, but doesn't really know how to get there.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Rich in atmosphere, its leisurely pace dwells on repressed passions in Edwardian society.
  57. Two absolutely riveting performances and a smart reversal of the usual male-female stalker scenario leave behind a nasty taste and an unforgettable cinema experience.
  58. A slicky edited, white knuckle ride to the depths of depravity.
  59. A fun night in with the tellybox, but then it never claimed to be anything more.
  60. As a direct tribute to the dignity of the solider facing attacks on both their bodies and their souls it puts things in a salutary context.
  61. Chris Cooper's superb performance and numerous authentic details makes this a little gem.
  62. A simple, elemental tale that makes breaking the heart seem like the easiest and most natural thing a filmmaker can do to his audience. Which, of course, it isn't.
  63. Good performances from a strong cast and paranoid plotting enough to keep even the staunchest of remake nay-sayers quiet. Hitchockian production with a modern twist.
    • 36 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Nice performances, a useful script and a dignified ending all boost this film's appeal, but it is the workable simplicity of the premise that really does it.
  64. Sharper than a stake in it's genre references, The Monster Squad appeals to cinephile as well as teen sensibilities.
  65. The first film to be based on a line of toys, this might not be the last, but it'd take something awful to replace it as the worst.
  66. A comic take on Rear Window, Badham's latest has the acting talent to carry it over the sizeable gulfs in plot to an end product that brings laughs aplenty.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The Lost Boys remains a supremely watchable example of something the '80s did right.
  67. After the fizzle of the later Roger Moore Bonds, The Living Daylights brings in a new 007 in Timothy Dalton, who manages the Connery trick of seeming suave and tough at the same time, and tried to get away from the weak comedy in favour of proper international intrigue.
  68. Predictably awful fourth installment.
  69. A dedicatory, sometimes sombre recreation of the career of 50s teen-throb Richie Valens, which feels like a personal project by director Luis Valdez.

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