Empire's Scores

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For 6,822 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:
  1. Positive: 3,008 out of 6822
  2. Mixed: 3,656 out of 6822
  3. Negative: 158 out of 6822
6822 movie reviews
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  1. Futureworld
    Fonda and Danner — who looked then exactly like her daughter, Gwyneth Paltrow, does now — are likable leads in ’70s futurist leisurewear (why didn’t those tailored jumpsuits catch on?), and some creepy corporate robot action helps (Danner’s gunfight with her robot duplicate), but it’s a lot less exciting than the original and replaces satire with TV-style plotting.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    The Governess
    It's worth watching, though, for Minnie Driver, whose luminous performance as the governess in question struggles to save writer/director Goldbacher's film from the doldrums.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Pump Up the Volume
    Surprising success with what could be a formulaic disgruntled teen movie. Fast paced with a satisfyingly unhappy ending.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Fat Man and Little Boy
    Certainly worth seeing for its care, authenticity and the central performances, but the suggestions of collective guilt and responsibility, and the pushing of humanity towards the brink are just too coy to ever be really effective.
  5. A Haunting in Venice
    It may be too tame for horror fans, but the gothic twist works remarkably well — even if everything else is business as usual for the Belgian detective.
  6. The Cowboys
    After several successful films where he plays the tough-as-nails cowboy, Wayne wasn't about to break the pattern now. Playing the only character he knows, he gives several inspiring speeches to an unlikely group of kids who turn from boys to men.
  7. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
    We're marking time before the final battle between Good and Evil, with the promised darkness sitting somewhat clumsily with teen romance and humour.
  8. Sweet Charity
    This has a lot of good ingredients but just doesn't quite manage to pull it off. It's looks dated and Shirley Maclaine doesn't quite capture the sympathies of all audiences.
  9. John Dies at the End
    Gonzo freakiness in such doses that cult status is practically ensured.
  10. Addams Family Values
    It is a rare feat to make a sequel better than its predecessor but here Sonnenfeld manages to do just that. With such a strong adult cast, it comes as a surprise when the children steal the show. With such dry and morbid humour, it feels that at times he was filming more for the parental viewers than the childrens.
  11. Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
    Bardo sees director Alejandro González Iñárritu looking at the man in the (hall of) mirrors; the result is visually sensational but sometimes lethally patience-testing.
  12. Apollo 18
    Blair Witch with moon rock. Paranormal Activity in space. Contrived, but if you can take one more variant on the formula, it's got its moments.
  13. The Craft
    With suitable suspension of disbelief this makes for agreeable enough nonsense.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    One Chance
    A fluffy but fun telling of a rags to riches story.
  15. The Power
    Smart special effects, atmospheric visuals and an impressive physical performance from Williams enhance this timely ghost story but the horror doesn’t hit as hard as the rages against misogyny.
  16. The Sessions
    Formulaic but uplifting, positive and accessible. Fairly graphic sex is handled as tastefully as one is ever likely to see in a crowdpleaser.
  17. The Take
    It rarely makes sense – the script vastly overestimates the power of the hashtag as a weapon of mass destruction – but you’re never bored.
  18. My Afternoons with Margueritte
    Charming slice of small-town France.
  19. Mortal Kombat
    The filmmakers try to solve the problem of turning an experience which merely consists of a series of fights into a story by... ignoring it, presenting a film which merely consists of a series of fights.
    • 31 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Friend Request
    Friend Request keeps up the pace and throws in a few neat twists to keep the plot from stagnating.
  21. Jane Eyre
    There's no question it's stunningly mounted, and Wasikowska makes a much stronger Jane than Alice, but the romance is overripe and the climax underdone.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Dog Eat Dog
    Hackneyed and somewhat dated Tarantino-isms abound. But for the committed fan of such things, there is more than enough to enjoy here: not least an entertainingly unhinged performance from Willem Defoe.
  23. Lucky You
    A 'realistic' Vegas movie that will set no-one's soul on fire, but is further proof that Hanson can lend his talents to any style of movie.
  24. Brewster's Millions
    A satisfying come-down by the director, who stays safely within, rather than pushes against comedy conventions.
  25. Spun
    Yes, it’s offensive, stupid and loud, but its cartoonish, macabre wit should be evident to anyone with a brain in the first ten minutes. Whether it’s funny or not, though, is another matter entirely. Approach with extreme caution -- and/or rubber gloves.
  26. Patience (After Sebald)
    With so many films adapted from novels, it's nice to see cinema paying homage to unheralded greats of literature like Sebald. While this one often struggles to do justice to his sense of grandeur and poetry, it'll be manna for fans of the German's work.
  27. Minions
    Farty, burpy, fall-y over fun tied to a pretty inconsequential plot. Your kids will explode with joy.
  28. Unfrosted
    If Pop-Tarts are barely a breakfast, Unfrosted is barely a movie — but it’s sprinkled with solid gags, stuffed with super-silly guest appearances, and lovingly glazed in sweet ’60s trappings.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sting
    Though it takes too long to get into the swing of things, Sting delivers faint echoes of the B-movie classic it wants to be, offering a memorable foe in a giant, bloodthirsty spider.
  30. Luce
    While it’s a shame that Luce loses sight of the very topics that it brings up in service of cheap thrills, it’s a fascinating, entertaining puzzle all the same.
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