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
    • 81 Metascore
    • 60 Critic Score
    Well acted genre outing.
  1. The lamest of the three versions but the performances are bearable.
  2. With Haskell Wexler's splendid photography and Leonard Rosenman's fine score, the film provides a poetic yet authentic view of Depression-era America with the symbolic figure of Guthrie (an impressive David Carradine) at its very centre.
  3. This is really Sly's movie as he slugs his way through a heartfelt performance and delivers some cracking punches, both literally and emotionally.
  4. It’s hard to remember that this extremely unexceptional film was a major hit back in the 70s.
  5. De Niro's little known masterclass makes this essential viewing.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 100 Critic Score
    The reason Carrie is still held in such high regard as a horror classic is very simple: it's all in the sheer directorial bravado. De Palma at the top of his game.
  6. Network is typical of the cool intelligence of '70s American cinema.
  7. The only movie to truly deliver the visceral power of a dental drill, John Schlesinger’s taut, well written if far-fetched and baffling thriller, is the film that gives you a tooth ache in a good way.
  8. The songs and set pieces are still fresh and infectious and most of the child cast are mesmerisingly good. I defy anyone not to be caught up in the charm and nostalgia.
  9. There were a few sci-fi movies in the 70s that managed to transcend the genre and become fairly well known in the mainstream. This weren't one of 'em and for good reason.
  10. The Duke's last hurrah is one of the very best of a cycle of 70s movies that served as obituaries for the Western itself.
  11. 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.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    The only obsession on display here is De Palma's - with Hitchcock. It's an unhealthy one too which results in an out of focus rip-off.
    • 50 Metascore
    • 40 Critic Score
    Never magical, this hotchpotch of colourful, unrelated snippets is certainly a mystery.
  12. A truly great Western from Clint that is bleakly atmospheric and charming in turns.
  13. The performance of Harvey Stephens as the young Damien has invested the film with the chill of genuine credibility.
  14. A disturbing and poignant anthology of Roman Polanski's favourite, oppressive themes.
  15. A sci-fi which balances big themes and claustrophobic action with apparent ease.
  16. This Neil Simon-scripted pastiche of an array of much-loved detective characters is surprisingly charming.
  17. Undoubtedly the finest of Argento's thrilling horrors, this one takes the radical step, for the director at least, to concentrate on a plot that equals the shocking visuals of his other works. David Hemmings is well cast and is given a great script which genuinely frights.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Slightly lacking in tension but with a striking performance from Marlon Brando.
  18. One of modern American film’s most intelligent and provocative accounts of a nation’s political failings, and a near-perfect depiction of journalism at its purist and most inspired. To be more succinct, it is quite brilliant.
  19. Sedate and contemplative character piece but low on thrills.
  20. With a heavily improvised script Cassavetes gets the most from his actors, each giving emotive performances.
  21. The blend of Schrader's script, Scorsese's direction and De Niro's performance is both riveting and unnerving. A film that will stay with you forever.
  22. Pacino simmers in this daring and brilliantly constructed treatise on the many facets of a crime.
  23. Peckinpah is never quite as comfortable with the high-rise terrain (including sloppy kung fu) as he is with the dusty rawhide of the West, but it still shows up the slick trigger-edits of new action cinema for the gutless vacuum it has become.
  24. Kubrick's superb version of William Thackery's first novel is meticulous and philosophically stimulating but it can leave some audiences unmoved on an emotional level.
  25. Huston revels in he opportunity for old-fashioned splendour, granting the film the sunset glow of Lawrence Of Arabia and the swashbuckling cadence worthy of the Errol Flynn days. It’s the artful mix of Kipling’s own writing, flights of fantasy with a political core.

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