Empire's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
For 6,818 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:
6818 movie reviews
  1. A biting exploration of family dysfunction and artistic catharsis.
  2. Pointless re-make. One of (the once great) Carpenter's worst.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Bullock is a delight, disarmingly kooky, pleasing to look at, and - as she has previously proved - a gifted comedic actress.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Without rising star DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg this would have been considerably more turgid and unappealing. But their charm allows sympathy and involvement with the characters, despite their efforts towards self-destruction.
  3. This is a bold, enormously enjoyable effort, by turns both hilarious and disturbing.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Well made, but not entirely successful ensemble thriller.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Depp plays on both his looks and quirky charm to make the title character a joy to watch, while Brando thoroughly enjoys himself as the suddenly amorous physician. Utterly charming.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Braveheart in a new kilt. Not exactly original, then, but worth a look.
  4. We've seen it all a million times before, but there are abundant (foul-mouthed) funnies, and debut director Michael Bay shows his commercials expertise propelling the noisy nonsense into a frantically slick and thoroughly enjoyable extravaganza.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Harmless enough day in the sun for Goofy; pity there's an overwhelming feeling throughout that he deserves better.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Sadly, beyond the wigs, costumes and exquisite set design, its a vacant enterprise.
  5. Against the odds of a feeble script and uninspired direction the duo do, in fact, grow on you, and there are a smattering of silly laughs, most notably a sequence involving a large road kill stashed in the back seat.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Sadly, despite its various attributes and overall funky MTV sensibilities, this never gets quite brutal or blockbusterish enough and the result is a movie both likely to offend the family and infuriate the aficionados in roughly equal amounts.
  6. Despite superb performances by Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh, a limp, almost TV movie trite, climax never comes near delivering the shocks it should. A shame, as what could have been superb, is merely average.
  7. Exotica reaches for the mysterious, subtle and provocative with sparing but tangible success, and is flashy in the same way earlier Egoyan films were buttoned down.
    • 41 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Nowhere near as creepy as the original, nor as effective a scarer.
  8. Despite its glaring obviousness, this is charming enough to captivate the viewer, producing unexpectedly strong female characters and faultless attention to detail.
  9. Petersen pulls off the thrills at a stomach lurching pace, and with its requisite Hollywood ham - husband and wife reuniting over piles of haemorrhaging bodies - loud performances, crashing stunts and a fearsome, hypochondria-inducing conceit, there's barely room to catch your breath, let alone cry foul.
  10. Lame and clunky in many places which doesn't manage to save this bizarre premise from dull absurdity.
  11. This is enormous fun, one of the best TV adaptations to date, and guaranteed to provoke a nostalgic misty eye and mischevious grin in anybody who's ever owned a crimplene tank top.
  12. Breaking the golden rule of thrillers - don't let the audience guess the ending from 15 minutes in - this just becomes largely pointless.
  13. Okay, a couple of sniggers sneak out, but on the whole the effect is stone cold.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    This ankle-deep story has a cheekful of tongue, providing opportunities galore for hammy, quick-draw melodrama and the perfect vehicle for Ms. Stone.
  14. This, the debut feature from acclaimed TV director Danny Boyle, is the best British thriller for years, a chilling and claustrophobic heart-stopper centring on a moral dilemma destined to fuel many a dinner party conversation.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    There are no real surprises, and it's arguable whether three such disparate souls as these would, in reality, bond so well. But the acting is flawless, the principals fleshing out their characters far beyond their hastily sketched stereotypes.
  15. Fans can console themselves with some disorientating creepiness as half-glimpsed monsters swarm and the fine melodramatic performances. But as the film descends into a babbling wreck you start to wonder whatever became of the directing talent that gave us Dark Star, Assault On Precinct 13, Halloween and The Thing.
  16. The overall effect is too intelligent to be soppy and too damn good to be ignored.
    • 28 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Lame, but in a good way.
  17. In all, Legends Of The Fall is a grand bore, more laughable than stirring. So big everything becomes blurry and distant, so beautiful it could be ad for male hair products.
  18. Mesmerising, magical portrait of smalltown America, dominated by a performance from Paul Newman so outstanding it must surely make him front-runner to hoist the Best Actor statuette come Oscar night.

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